Then the door whooshed open on a good-sized, attractively furnished lounge area: a good few notches above the usual naval base interiors. Peering about, he saw that he also had separate sleeping and sanitary rooms. The rating was more concerned that he know how to operate the internal comunit, where emergency lifesupport equipment was stored, and which numbers to dial for which services. He had no sooner finished this briefing than the comunit blinked a message light.
`I’ll leave you to it, sir,’ the rating said and, with another smart salute, left.
voice – much kinder to the ear than the usual `service’ computer voice – informed him that Commandant Enarit del Falco would like to see him as soon as he was settled. A directional node dropped out of the message slot.
Rojer checked the digital on the wall and decided, as he reset his wrist unit to the local time, that as soon as he was settled’ included attending to the rumbling in his guts. It was mid-morning here and he was far too hungry to wait till lunchtime.
The dispenser unit was standard navy; the menu that scrolled past Rojer’s incredulous eyes was anything but. Delighted, Rojer watched long enough to discover many favorite and esoteric dishes before he ordered the most unusual item he saw – a high protein described as `genuine beefalo steak’, which tasted succulent enough to be genuine.
Then he contacted the Commandant’s office that he was now settled in.
Donning the button which had been forwarded by pneumatic slot to him, he let it guide him through the maze of corridors and lifts. He knew that the Phobos Moon Base was as many levels deep in solid lunar rock as above it and equally as wide. He figured by the upward progress on which the rating had led him that he was housed in `executive territory’ but he made another upwardly mobile short journey to an even more prestigious level, encountering more and more officers of high rank as he progressed – inward now, he thought.
Though he was an obvious civilian, he was more often accorded a salute than a smile. Then, as he turned to a set of wide double doors, the node informed him that he had arrived.
The Commandant’s suite of offices were imposing on a par with his grandfather’s level of the Blundell Building. He sensed many minds not far away and wondered if stopping to eat a meal had made him late for an important meeting. The handprint pad was conspicuous enough to suggest that everyone put his hand there so he did. One leaf of the door swung inward to a huge but empty foyer, walls and ceilings impressively decorated by naval ships, sea and space, down the ages.
Damn, Rojer thought, he should have made some attempt to find out this Commandant’s status in the table of Alliance organization.
He’s not quite as important as Grandfather, said a very welcome voice, but he thinks he is.
Where are you, Thian? Rojer looked at the many doors leading off this foyer.
Come now, brother, surely that’s elementary!