3 INTERLUDE; Dario

Dario woke up to the sound of auto-cars passing by his window, his hovering bed moved automatically next to his closet, he stretched a bit, got up and went through his daily morning routine, he felt groggy from the meeting he attended last night, while politics were fun, when it came to details it could become extremely tiring. He took a moment to consider his attire options, today was an important meeting with the zeta ambassadors, they cared little for the dress code, but his terrestrial companions would find it uncomfortable if he attended the meeting with jogging suit. His gray suit was the obvious choice. He picked it up and threw it at his hover-bed.

He looked outside his small oval window, the sky was clear today, not that it mattered, the chance to admire it would be greatly diminished on such a day. He looked down from his 55th floor apartment, as many auto cars were stopped around two posts set 2 meters from each other, there was much cluster around, even though rush hour had no meaning anymore after the creation of the hover-car, still an interesting incident usually drew a lot of attention, so a cluster of cars blocking some of the main gravity power lines was unavoidable.

It seemed like an illegal auto car was caught on the Graviter- that was the name that Dario gave to his invention. The police cars were in time before the criminals left their hover- car behind and fled through the gravity elevators. Of course his invention left no such chance, since it locked all the mechanical parts of the car completely, but still their inevitable demise did not stop them from trying to get out in a desperate attempt to flee.

Dario's thoughts went back to his earlier days as he was watching the police force slowly take custody of the helpless crew of criminals. Dario was considered successful on the business world and on the science world, but that meant little to him. After years of studying and many experiments, he managed to create a device that made him rich, but that was hardly his purpose when he begun this journey, he wanted to make a change in the world, a big change, in the end he only managed that much, so he gave up on his career on physics and went on to pursue politics. Now on his 35th year he started having doubts on his decision making, whilst his dream was hitting a brick wall, called political scene.

His connections bought him a seat on the government on sector 3 as a vice-president of bisector 3-1. But that was not his ambition being a vice president on a bisector could not get him as far as he would like, he knew there were circles within circles and he wished to be part of it. He did not know though how he can progress further, no one trusted each other, and everyone followed their own selfish desires.

Dario wasted no more time as he picked up his business briefcase, and moved to the exit of his apartment. He pulled out his keycard; the machine took a second to recognize the handprint on it and the barcode, he stepped through before the sliding door even opened fully. In the end of the corridor his guards were waiting to escort him to the vehicle, even a lowly position like his had its own risks, like irritating the wrong sort of people.

His vehicle, a small but quick auto-car was parked just outside his building, waiting to take off. Its passenger seat was already taken, ''well, well, who would expect it, attending two meetings within 12 hours, that doesn't sound like you at all Dario''.

''well you have to keep up, the world keeps spinning and changes, no time for sleep'', Kesen looked appreciatively at him.

''you look tired'',

''And I absolutely am, yesterday's meeting almost got me to blow my brains out''.

''Must feel good'' Kessen said suddenly.

''What are you talking about? '' Dario said feeling a bit worried.

''About the machine, I watched it do its thing once again while I was waiting for you''

''Ah yes, of course'' Dario answered back relieved.

The car started moving and Dario settled in, even with their speed they won't reach the summit building for an hour at least. His co-passenger Kessen was pleasant company, but when going to a meeting you wish to talk about it and that was the constriction with having Kessen in the same car as you, as he was a Public Communicator, they reported back to the public everything that might have been missed in a secluded area among politicians. Also he was there to block any communication between various political parties, before the public meetings that took place network wide, so nothing was to be missed.

Every politician had one in his transportation when heading to work. Yes secrecy was no longer part of the political scene, it was near impossible to cheat your way to the top, you had to rely on your wit. Kessen took his mug from his bag and pour some black tea into it, the steam escaped in the small space, ''would you like some?''. Dario was not one to turn some more caffeine down, and he extended his own mug beneath the small kettle.

''Always practical, or did you finally turn it into your office?''.

Kessen smiled ''what are you talking about? This car is much bigger than my office''.

Dario even though he appreciated Kessen he knew any friendship or trust that would develop with him, would only be a front; he was convinced that every co-worker had the same relationship with their assigned public communicator. They were nearing the public hearing building, a huge building made of 120 floors decorated with sigils of various planetary organizations, all belonging to the federation of light or to the council of twelve. The sigil of the 'greys' as people called them, stood out to Dario since they were the group they were meeting today, the crystal skull sigil.

The auto-car was slowly getting out of traffic, blue and red cars raced by as they were leaving the gravity road behind them. The hover wheels almost touched gravity platform of the building as it was landing upon it. The platform turned and spun for a moment, allowing access to the 20th floor. His driver was there within a moment's notice to open the door for Dario and Kessen, who walked brazenly to the entrance and within the well-lighted elevator.

Few moments later Dario was walking on towards the main hall on floor 97, where many groups of people that was deep in conversations all around. Elegance was the word of the day, even the Serius group was on top the dress code. Dario felt that his choice was correct after all. The room was decorated with the latest, mirrors from Pleidians, spreading colors all around with their unique science behind it; Dario never understood how it was possible.

He noticed Leren before anyone else did, as he moved to the center of the hall, dipped his hand in his suit pocket and took out a small device, which he dropped to the ground like a seed, the room exploded with light as a person's outline started forming on top of it. The small device called project 250 was created for the sole purpose of having a 3d sighting of a whole room, and so not an ounce of a movement would be missed. it can project a single person or an entire room and in this case it connected President Seren of sector 3 with the entire hall. The conversations ceased as they waited for the president to begin his speech. The shape of President slowly formed. Seren looked around and tightened his tie.

''Gentlemen I welcome you for this special event celebrating 100 years on our venture into space and establishing communication with all the planetary systems, and engaging in diplomatic and cultural connection. We now stand among with all the new and ancient Nations of the cosmos. The earth has finally ascended, they have awaited and we answered with our presence. Fool yourselves not, this is not the end of the evolution of the human kind, just the beginning.'' He did a slight nod before cutting of the communication with the room, even though his speech was short, Dario felt inspired to it, the president believed in the human race.

He on the other hand did not felt so, and ideology might have changed but what about humans themselves. Someone would say this was but the first step, like the moon landing was. He didn't waste any more time and headed to the conference room along with the rest of the hall.

Dario's steps echoed through the hall, he was walking behind his co-workers, his mind wandered on the meeting, his arguments today will affect his career he was certain of that. The meetings were broadcasted worldwide and even on Mars were his family was currently stationed, the meeting's agenda was about the greys but no one expected him to be up to date, they would not bother with a vice president of a bi-sector. But he understood the greys very well so, the beings that haunted humanity for the last centuries, today they would converse as equals, something that their predecessors couldn't claim it was possible. The president was only half right in his speech, they were not standing among them yet, but they will earn it. He would earn it.