The lift stopped at her level, opening its door with a soft "ding" sound. Jera walked inside and waved her hand in front of the sensor. The chip in her bracelet was recognised and she pressed a button to take her to the hangars.

On the way down she made sure everything about her appearance was perfect. She wore black jeans and a white tanktop with the Wisp logo printed on the front. Her right hand was heavy with all manner of bracelets and trinkets, most of them she had brought with her from Crete. She smiled at her reflection. There were quite a few people with Corsair heritage working for Cryer, but few actually came from Crete. And in the case of even fewer was it so strikingly visible as in hers.

Her times off were rare, so she tried to rest as much during the week when her ship was being repaired. Today though, she had a special guest. Someone who she would be waiting in the hangars for. The lift door opened and she moved to the bay 3A. She looked at her PAD display, but the docking request she had been looking for had not come yet. She leaned against the wall of the hangar and waited.

The hangar was small enough to fit a few smaller shuttles inside. Jera actually rarely visited them, as the fighter bays for Wisp personnel were almost on the other end of the station. These were too small to house the fighters, used mostly for shuttles that gunboats and transports moored outside sent in to Atka.

As the airlock door opened, she looked up from her game of Solitaire. Noticing the doctor, Jera put her PAD away into her pocket and extended her hand.

"Hello and welcome to Atka, Dr Thorn," she smiled as well. "Nick is busy in the labs so he asked me to give you a tour around. You're going need your access card first. Then I'll point you to the labs, all right?"

Jera chuckled. "Oh, if you think a shuttle can scratch those carboncrete walls, you're overvaluing your ship a great deal. But, right. Let's go."

They both directed their steps towards one of the corridors. The first couple of doors opened automatically as they approached. Soon, they encountered one with the Wisp logo painted over them. Jera waved her bracelet in front of another reader. Behind those doors, the corridors looked very differently. Sterile, silver walls gave place to cozier, purplish plascrete and the uniforms of the people walking past them changed from white with a snake staff symbol to violet with the Wisp Innovations logo.

"I'm going to introduce you to our sysop. He's... a bit weird, but aren't we all in a way. Be prepared for a riddle." Jera smiled.

They took a few turns and after a moment, they both stood in front of a door with a simple plaque on it that said "Administration". Jera opened the door and walked inside, waving at Thallia to follow her.

The inside was almost dark, with a man sitting in front of a console with six screens - not the new Ageira holoscreens that were all the rage now, but regular, old, 2D monitors. The top three had a lot of numbers and messages running across, the ones on the bottom were static, with a Neural Net news site open and feed from a few cameras. Jera cleared her throat.

"Dr Thorn, this is Thaddeus Edwin Douglas Bagbiter, our system operator. Ted, this is Dr Thallia Thorn, a scientist." she made the introductions. "She needs an access card."

The sysop turned around, revealing his bearded face. "A scientist, hm?" He eyed Thallia impolitely. Before Jera had the chance to respond he rapidly asked "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"