Damon Casale, damoo@jps.net
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-------------- Enclosure number 1 ----------------
BGC/WHO:  Slipt, part 14.

	Genom Tower was beginning to darken.  By twos and threes, the 
multitude of glass walls and windows were winking out, their inner light 
extinguished.
	The sun was slowly sinking below the horizon.  Finally dipping past 
the murky layer of smog covering Megatokyo, the last, powerful rays pierced 
the windows of the twenty-third floor.  Being mostly office cubicles and 
storage, little notice was taken of the spectacular sunset.
	"Ugghh..." Linna moaned, as the bright sunlight hammered painfully 
at her eyelids.  She screwed her eyes tightly closed and clutched at her 
pounding head.
	Several minutes passed, as she fought her way towards 
consciousness.  The light lessened, then faded as the sun disappeared below 
the plasticrete forest horizon.
	What the hell happened? she thought to herself sluggishly, willing 
herself into a sitting position and cracking her eyelids open.
	On either side of her, rows of wireframe shelving had fallen over, 
away from where she lay.  Paper, printer cartridges, computerised handpads, 
disks, and multitudes of other, mostly unidentifiable office supplies, were 
scattered across the floor.  Some bore unmistakable burn marks.
	Linna looked down.  The floor beneath her was scarred black.
	She vaguely remembered crouching into the time capsule that the 
Doctor had repaired.  Then...then, there was water pouring in through the 
door, and some sort of explosion, and...
	And nothing.  Her memory was a blank after that.
	They had been attempting to go back in time and stop Largo.  He had 
wanted to change history, and destroy the Knight Sabers somehow.  But, 
where was she?  Had they made it?
	Linna climbed to her feet shakily, gripping one of the toppled 
shelves for support.  This was definitely not the same room, she thought 
wearily to herself.  A long look down, through the lone window, confirmed 
it.  She wasn't even in the same building.  The research center where the 
time capsule had been was across the street from her.
	Correction:  _had_ been across the street.  There was a line of 
warehouses there now.
	I'm in Genom Tower! she realized with a shock.
	But...where were the others?  Why hadn't they all arrived together?
	Maybe they were in another room, or in one of the warehouses, she 
decided finally.  She didn't want to think about the alternative.
	In the meantime, what was she to do?  Genom Tower was _crawling_ 
with people!  She'd never get out without being seen.
	Think!  She had to think.  What was Largo going to do?
	He had said that he was going to destroy the Knight Sabers, but not 
by killing them.  What, then?  If this really was 2022, it would be easy to 
kill all four of them, young as they were, now.
	She had to do something, but first she had to get away from the 
room she was in, without being discovered.
	Linna looked unhappily around the storage room.  There wasn't much 
left, really.  The shelves were mostly undamaged, but nearly everything 
else was destroyed.  Office supplies wouldn't do her very much good, 
unless...
	Of course! she thought triumphantly.  If there were uniforms, or 
some kind of secretarial clothing, then that would be something!
	Quickly, she began to dig through the ruined supplies.  Paper clips 
-- wow, they still used these! -- staples, stationery, envelopes...no, no, 
no.  She nearly slipped when she stepped on a broken printer cartridge, 
buried in the debris.  A rivulet of toner began to leak out, covering her 
feet with black ink.
	Linna crawled back out of the mass of ruined supplies, taking a wad 
of paper to try to dab the toner away.  She sighed heavily.  Nothing.
	Maybe one of the rooms nearby, though.  She switched on her visor's 
infrared mode.  Her suit's surveillance gear was just adequate for most 
purposes, but it wasn't equipped with Nene's advanced scanning and imaging 
system.  Infrared might help to locate a laundry room with sonic washers 
and dryers, but that was about the extent of its effectiveness.
	The wall to her left separated her from a cubicle farm, and there 
were a few people still occupying it.  No good.  The other wall led to an 
unoccupied room, however.
	It wasn't difficult to pound a hole in the wall, big enough to walk 
through.  The trouble was doing it quietly.
	About ten minutes later, Linna had scraped away enough of the 
drywall and underlying concrete to squeeze her way through.  She pulled one 
of the shelves upright, and hauled it up to the wall as she clambered 
through the hole.  If she was lucky, no one would realize that the hole was 
there, until long after she had made her escape.
	The room she had entered had no windows.  Still in infrared mode, 
she scanned the room, hoping to find clothing of some sort.
	She could make out the faint outlines of more shelving, but they 
were intact.  Very faint heat signatures blipped across her visor from the 
shelves.
	She smiled slightly.  They were power tools, and this was a 
maintenance storage area.  If there were technician's uniforms in here, 
then one of those would serve just as well.
	Then, her visor picked out the outlines of a metallic, sliding 
door, with a small space beyond.  It took her a moment to realize she was 
looking at an elevator door.
	Her smile widened.  Even if there were no uniforms here, the 
elevator would certainly take her to the right place.
	Linna scanned the wall and found the light switch, but decided 
against using it.  It might alert the security system to her presence, she 
thought.  After a cursory search, she found the uniforms she was looking 
for, neatly folded and stacked at the bottom end of the second shelf.
	Now, what would she do with her hardsuit?
	Her eyes wandered despondently over the meager furnishings, 
searching in vain for some hiding place, finally lighting on the hole in 
the wall that she had passed through.
	Perfect! she thought.  There was a set of shelving immediately to 
one side of the hole.  If she moved the shelving to cover it on this side, 
and covered the hardsuit with uniforms on both sides, to disguise it 
through the wire mesh...yes, that would work.
	Within another few minutes, Linna was on her way.

	The interior of the elevator was softly lit, and the walls were of 
a dark brown wood grain, burnished smooth.  All of the buttons were 
labeled, although most of the destinations were maintenance related.  
Still, there was a button for the ninth floor, labeled "linens".  Better, 
and better! thought Linna gladly, and pushed it.  The uniform she was 
wearing was just a bit too big for her.
	The elevator deposited her in the middle of a narrow hallway, deep 
inside the bowels of Genom Tower.  Taking a deep, trembling breath, she 
walked purposefully down the corridor, glancing at the closed doors as she 
passed them.  They seemed innocuous enough -- several doors labeled 
"electrical services" and "mechanical services", a few more labeled "office 
supplies", and one labeled "administrative supplies".  She wondered about 
the last momentarily, before dismissing it.  There were other, more 
pressing concerns to worry about.
	Linna finally found the promised room -- a set of double doors 
labeled "LINENS".  Stepping inside, she was immediately struck by its sheer 
size.  The ceiling was easily a hundred feet high, barely within reach of 
the poor illumination.  Vaguely humanoid boomers wheeled and darted to and 
fro across the vast floor, to the music of the mechanical orchestra all 
around her.  SWISH-THUD, muttered a machine immediately to her right.  
GRUMP-GRUMP-GRUMP, said another.  SSSSHHH-EE-SSSSHHH-EE, hissed a third.
	Erupting from the bowels of a huge, cauldron-like container, 
steaming hot uniforms rode a series of trolleys, to empty themselves into 
several of the GRUMP-GRUMP machines.  These were shaped like tops, and they 
spun dizzily in their sockets, rattling and GRUMPing as they spun.
	A huge eye wheeled up to her.  "May I be of service?" it queried,
bouncing up and down slightly on its central stalk.  The stalk rested on a 
set of four treads, which hummed softly as the eye waited for her reply.
	"Err...yes," she stammered, blinking in wonderment at the strange 
creature.  "My uniform was torn, so I recycled it and borrowed this one.  I 
need a new secretary uniform, um...in blue if you have it?"
	"One moment," the eye said, peering more closely at her.  Two 
spindly arms sprouted from the central stalk.  One arm inserted itself into 
a socket near the front of the stalk, and retrieved a spindle of plastic 
material.  "Please raise your arms."
	She did so, nervously.
	The boomer's arms wrapped themselves around her waist, bosom, and 
neck in rapid succession, drawing the plastic material around her.  When it 
was finished, it beeped twice, and withdrew its arms.  "Short skirt or 
long?" it prompted.
	"Medium length would be fine," said Linna.
	"Short skirt or long?" the boomer repeated.
	"Short," she grumbled.  Not very flexible, she thought, with a 
tinge of annoyance.
	"Short sleeves or long?" it continued.
	"Short."
	"One moment," it said, and hurried away.
	Linna sighed, letting her arms fall to her sides again.  At least 
this part hadn't been too difficult.
	Momentarily, the boomer returned, carrying a neatly folded package.  
"Please present your security card," it droned.
	Uh oh! she thought.  "Umm...I think I left it in my uniform when I 
recycled it."  Not good enough, she thought immediately.  Not good enough!
	The machine hummed unhappily to itself for several moments before 
replying.  "A new security card will be issued.  What is your name?"
	"Yamazaki," she murmured, hoping desperately that she wasn't about 
to make a terrible mistake.
	"Yamazaki," repeated the machine.  "Height, 176 centimeters.  
Weight, 265 kilograms.  Security number, 136-9791-05.  Security clearance, 
two."  A thin sliver of plastic issued out of an invisible slot in its 
stalk.  The boomer retrieved it and offered it to her.  "Please do not lose 
your card."
	With trembling hands, she took the offered card.  Her face, tiny 
sweat bead on her forehead and all, was etched into one corner.  Opposite 
her face, a holographic emblem displayed a miniature Genom Tower, 
superimposed over a strip of green forest.  Gold characters on the bottom 
of the card said, "Employee -- Genom Industries".
	"Thank you," she managed softly.
	"Your security card has been coded with the measurements of your 
uniform.  You may request extra uniforms at the employee orientation kiosk, 
located in lobby 41, fifth floor.  Please do not lose your card."
	The machine quickly turned and sped away.
	Linna hurriedly left the room through the double doors, and headed 
for a nearby bathroom.  She emerged shortly afterwards, looking very much 
the part of a Genom secretary.
	At least this one fits, she thought to herself.  And at least I got 
away with it!  But, now what?
	She stopped, in the middle of the hallway, looking around 
unhappily.  Where should I go first?  Should I leave, and wait for everyone 
somewhere else?  Where the hell _is_ everyone here, anyway?
	The hallway was a bit more deserted than she had expected.  She 
hadn't seen a soul since her arrival.  Maybe they were all busily working, 
or maybe she had just been lucky.
	Regardless, she had to make a decision.
	She thought for a moment.  Lobby forty-one, fifth floor, employee 
orientation kiosk?  That sounded promising.  Maybe she could find Dr. 
Stingray -- at least then, she'd be able to stay appraised of young Sylia's 
whereabouts.
	Finding the kiosk was easy.  Lobby forty-one was a huge area that 
stretched for nearly two hundred feet, on the southern wall of the fifth 
floor.  The employee orientation kiosk itself was a gigantic affair.  
Twelve secretaries, all human, were seated at various points in the lobby, 
and most were busily interviewing new hires, apparently.
	Linna approached one of the secretaries, who looked up and smiled 
briefly.  "Can I help you?"  She was a short, petite woman in her 
mid-twenties, wearing a nametag labeled "Rachel".
	Linna nodded quickly.  "I'd been assigned to the Research and 
Development department, but nobody told me where to go."
	"Oh, you must be under Katsuhito's group," Rachel replied.  "Yes, 
we just got another assistant in that department, and they'll be needing 
your help."  She pulled out a series of floor plans, shuffled through them 
briskly, and dropped one onto the table in front of her.  "Okay, on the 
fourteenth floor, you'll need to head right from the elevators, and take 
the second hallway to your left.  You can't miss it from there.  Got that?"  
The secretary smiled helpfully.
	Linna smiled back.  "Thanks!"
	"Oh, just a moment," Rachel said, looking behind her at a 
diminutive figure approaching from across the room.  "Here's the new 
assistant now."
	Linna turned around, and nearly fainted from shock.
	"Largo, why don't you show our new secretary to the R&D lab?"