Flip.

Silence. Lots of silence.

Flip.

More silence, broken by a faint crunching noise from the kitchen...Chak satisfying a late night case of the munchies.

Flip.

Claws scrabbling across polished floor, then climbing their way up one leg, then the arm. Finally, a very satiated ferret perched on Thomas' shoulder.

Flip.

/Boss. What's the verdict?/

Finally, the scientist stirred at his desk and murmured, "Well. It looks fair enough. I just thought there was something hiding under the surface..."

/So you're going to accept the job?/

Thoughts wandered back to the very peculiar events of that evening. The man with the sensing instruments. Wasn't too hard to figure out who he worked for, and Thomas was no slouch. Despite the leg, he could probably overpower or at least rough up this guy a little if necessary to break his little toy.

Then the eyes flickered. Just a little touch. If you blinked wrong, you would have missed it.

Almost had a heart attack right there. You are the *biggest* idiot. You stood up to a HITMark. You're lucky it was happy hour, or he might have just ripped claws and made cole slaw out of you right there, and saved the bullets for Sue and Sophie. They're probably processing his video feed and wondering why you suddenly deci...

...enough of that. Paranoia after midnight always gives me gas.

So why the hell did I decide to go interview for a damned job instead of leaving right then? Stillman, you *are* losing your mind.

But then...this *was* a nice offer. Really nice.

"Yes, I'm going to accept it. Ill mail the papers back to her tomorrow."

/Are we going to the pet store then?/

Sigh..."Yes Chak. We can go down to Boston and find you a cutie."

/Woohoo!/

Thomas idly wondered where Chak had picked that phrase up, before setting the signed contract aside and staring again at the piece of drawing paper he had been scribbling his last idea on. He paused for a moment and erased one bubble and redrew it.

"Never going to find that much Primium anyway...."

Chak paused to stare at the paper, recognizing only a few items, /I thought you said the gate generator didn't work/.

"It doesn't. Yet. Besides, I cracked a field inhibitor. I have to fix that before I power it up again. I dont need to accidentally rip a hole straight past the Horizon, do I?"

/Do you really need to hear my answer to that?/

"Its called a rhetorical question, Purina Breath. Anyway, I have to build the rest of the anchor before I can use the gate generator anyway, so..."

/Anchors usually mean you are holding something down. I don't like the conclusion this is coming to./

"If it works, noone is ever going to be lost in the Tellurian again. Even the damned Void Engineers can't boast this kind of technology. It will make travel safer. Closer to letting everyone see the world beyond their faces. Imagine if everyone had SEEN the Umbra and accepted it as fact? We'd have stopped the Technocracy dead in its tracks!"

/Looks like you have a lot of work left.../

"Well, noone said this would be overnight. Besides, Sophie and Kim both offered to help..Hmmm"

/Oh there you go, getting that glazed look in your eyes./

Thomas shook his head to clear it, "Hush. I was just thinking is all."

/Uh huh./