"Excuse me, but would it be possible to get someone to escort me on a brief errand? I need to go to the Terran Zone - or near it, actually. It won't take long."
The younger guard looked to the older one, who said, "Hmmph. Go on, then, Ronal. I doubt there will be anyone free today because of the weddin'. I can watch the gate."
Ronal grinned and bowed to Melissa. "Par servu, vai damisela," he said.
Melissa smiled and thanked them, leading the way through the streets towards the Terran Zone.
Along the way, it was hard not to stop at several of the shop windows - it had been a long time since she had been out wandering the shops and market stalls. But she had promised the guards less than a half candlemark...
Coming to the outskirts of the Terran Zone, she glanced around carefully - what she sought was around here somewhere -they always were...
After wandering around a few side streets, she spied the familiar blue and white sign on the corner of an austere concrete Terran building of some sort.
"Ah-ha!" she exclaimed to herself. She went over to the building, where a small cabinet had been installed - just large enough for one person to stand in. The walls were made of some sort of clear material, and on the wall inside was a box with buttons and a crescent-shaped object connected to it by a long cord.
She smiled at the guard, who was looking at the set-up with great curiosity.
"I'll just be a moment" She said, suppressing a chuckle.
She stepped inside the booth, and opening her small purse, she poured a handful of bright coins into her palm. She knew there was a good reason to hold onto her Terran change! She found the right coins and popped them into the box, picking up the attached object, and holding it to her ear and mouth. She pushed a couple of buttons, and was greeted by a bored voice at the other end of the line.
"Federation Communications Directory, how may I help you?" droned a young man who clearly wasn't feeling very helpful.
"Ah, Hello, I -" Melissa found that she was nervous using the telephone - imagine! She and Morgana had one in their rooms when they had been in college - funny how such a thing could fade from memory so quickly.
"Erm, I'm trying to contact a Miss Kay MacDonald, I'm not sure which department she works in."
A long sigh was the only reply she heard, then after some tapping, the voice came back. "We have fifteen Kay MacDonalds listed."
Melissa's heart sank. Fifteen! how would she ever sort them out?
"Can you give me any more detail? Do you have a full first name, by any chance?" He made it sound as if he doubted whether or not she knew her own name!
Melissa blinked in surprise. Of course! Initial K...
"Oh, yes, her first name _is_ Kay. K...a...y..." She spelled it out for him.
Suddenly the line went dead for amoment, and Melissa was about to hang up the phone in dismay, when she heard a ring at the other end of the line. He had transferred her!
Back in Kay's quarters, the ringing sound startled Mairead, who was busy exploring Mama's desk. Trying to see where this odd, sudden sound had come from, the little kitten overbalanced and fell onto the keyboard. One of her paws hit the 'auto answer' button, making her yowl with surprised hurt.
The terminal's speaker dutifully began recording the call for future reference (and eventual deletion). It then relayed this expression of feline dismay to the caller, along with a pre-recorded message that said "Hi, you've reached Kay MacDonald of the Records Department ... I'm not available right now, so please leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can".
Hearing Mama's voice confused Mairead so badly that she scrambled backwards, looking frantically around for any sign of Kay. She didn't understand how Mama's voice could be here without the rest of her. One of her paws slipped and hit the 'call answer' button, and once again she yowled as she stubbed her toe. This wasn't fun anymore, Mairead decided.
Assuming the cat's commentary to be voice traffic, the terminal relayed THAT as well.
Melissa sighed, partially with relief that she had reached the right Kay, and partially out of disappointment that she missed her.
About to leave a message, she heard the line click, and a small noise on the end of the line.
"Hello? Kay? IS that you? It's Melissa..." She waited for a moment.
When Melissa's voice came out of the speaker, it caught Amadaine's attention (making her forget temprarily about the flower that she'd been busily eating). She hopped over to join the cat, and began to make soft, inquiring hoots.
These were also relayed. The comm program didn't care how many voices were on each side of the connection -- it just forwarded whatever its speakers picked up.
*Know ... Not-stranger ... Mama's flock ...", Amadaine asserted boldly, certain that she'd recognized the she-human. But WHERE was the Mama-kin she-human ? In the hawk's experience, it was only the BAD things that tried to sneak up on you. But THIS she-human was obviously NOT bad -- otherwise, she wouldn't be part of Mama's flock anymore.
Mairead paused, then made a chuckle of feline amusement. Silly bird-sister ! Mama had told them to stay here and to be quiet. But what about these strange noises ? Wasn't THIS a good reason to call Mama to come back? Strange-things you couldn't see, were by definition potentially dangerous things that could sneak up on you -- like that bossy bigger cat who'd been mean to her when she'd gone to the really big human-home building to deliver that messsage from Mama. She recognized the voice, but that only added to the confusion. How could the nice lady's voice be here without her ? It just didn't make any sense.
Not too far away, a sudden wave of dizzy nausea swept over Kay. *What now, O Lady ... more ??*, she sighed. Hadn't yesterday been unsettling (and mind-expanding) enough already ??. She blinked, then swallowed hard, trying to calm her stomache. Puking was unpleasant enough on a FULL stomach. But it tended to be even WORSE (and more prolonged)on an empty stomach.
The minimized call-screening display window on Kay's screen blinked, catching her eye. She stared uncomprehendingly at it for a monent, having forgotten that she'd personalized her comm settings that way. Out of curiousity, she clicked the teltale, and watched in puzzlement as text began to scroll down the screen. Now THAT was weird, she thought to herself. Who could have answered her phone ? Cats and birds did NOT make phone calls on their own. And she'd left her quarters otherwise empty.
There was no caller's name listed; only the address of a public comm booth. That was odd. Who could possibly be calling her ? Her first thought was that perhaps it was Mestru Merrick wanting an explanation for why she'd left while he slept. Kay blushed, feeling slightly guilty. But at least she'd explained as best she could to Oberon.
Out of curiousity, Kay accessed the message log in her quarters. The log was currently recording. So either someone was trespassing in her apartment, or someone was having a phone conversation with her menagerie. THAT idea was so bizzare that she simply HAD to giggle.
For a moment, she was tempted to query the mischoevous pair. But then she decided against it. Her headache still hadn't gone away completely. And anyways, there hadn't been any overtones of emergency; just surprise and confusion and excitement. Perhaps the kitten and the hawklet were just playing some mostly-harmless game to pass the time.
Instead, Kay decided to tap into her terminals's speaker and listen to the message as it recorded itself. She listened with interest, wondering whether or not she should interrupt and talk to Melissa herself.
After a minute, Melissa heard some more slight scuffling, and what sounded like sniffing. Confused, she continued. "Um, I was just trying to see if you are OK, and if you're home yet - or still at Mestru Merrick's. I have to go to a wedding today, and I'll be unavailable for most of the afternoon. But please, if you can, send word to the Haldar Suites at Comyn Castle for me, so I know you are OK. Um, I guess I'll see you later, at some point...Um, OK. I - oh, never mind...Um, bye!"
Melissa hung up the receiver, and shook her head. That hadn't gone as planned, but at least she got a message through... She smiled at her escort and shrugged.
"That's all I needed to do. We can head back now!" she said brightly, enjoying the still-puzzled look on the guard's face as he studied the odd contraption she stepped out of.
Melissa cast him a surprised look, wondering what he was talking about, before she realized that he probably had no real idea what the thing was, or how it worked. She suppressed a chuckle. "Yes, it worked just fine. Have you never seen one being used? It's a telephone - a way that the Terrans can communicate with each other over long distances, instantly. It uses, um, long wires and stuff, to connect each unit to a main central unit. There are people using the main one just in the same way that I was, to help connect people to each other at the far ends. Like a cart wheel." She tried to simplify the whole thing as much as possible, not being prepared to explain things like radio frequencies to the guard.
"You can have a conversation with someone wihtout being in the same place as they are. Only this time, the person I was trying to talk to wasn't there." She wondered if Kay's absence meant that she was back at work, still at Leaves, or in a gutter somewhere, overwhelmed by a savage bout of threshold sickness...
Pushing the idea aside, she forced herself to think reasonably. If the kitten had been there (and it had sounded most suspiciously kitten-like) then that meant that Kay had made it back to her room with all of her critters. She hoped.
The young guard thought for a moment, his face screwing up with the effort of trying to visualize some type of communication tool shaped like a wagon-wheel. He couldn't. "It sounds complicated. Messengers are easier. I regret that you couldn't reach who you were trying to reach."
Meanwhile, back at the Base, Kay was looking really quite puzzled as she replayed the message from Melissa. She was tempted to scold Mairead for using the keyboard. But then it occurred to her that such an action was likely to be pointless. At such a small size, Mairead was unlikely to stay away from ANYTHING; unless playing with it had already gotten her hurt.
Sighing softly yo herself, Kay pulled out a sheet of paper and write a quick note of reassurance (in Standard): "I've been better, and I've been worse. But I guess I'm adjusting OK enough. So enjoy the wedding and please don't worry too much over me. It's sweet that you care, but don't let your worries spoil your fun. Hopefully I'll see you soon. -- K". Then she sealed it wiith wax, addressed it and sent it off with one of the courier lads.