Aurora sat at her desk surfing the latest designs on the Saks Fifth Avenue website, deciding which outfits she should purchase, when a buzz came across her intercom.
"Ms. Lawson, there's a man here to see you, he says it's urgent." Aurora replied "Grace, I have no appointments scheduled today, who is he?" "Ma'am he says his name is Phil Coulson and that his matter is urgent."
Aurora got quiet and responded, "Grace, I know him, go ahead and buzz him in." "Right away, Ms. Lawson"
Aurora closed her browser window and looked up as Agent Coulson walked through her office doors.
"Phil, how have you been? To what do I owe this visit?" Coulson says, "Director Fury sent me. Ms. Lawson, S.H.E.I.L.D. needs your expertise in computer programming. There have been some events that have occurred in the last year, extraordinary events that have happened in the Southwest. The Committee is recommending to us that we start work on a project designed to protect Earth from…let's just say forces not of our origin." She smirked, "You're talking about extra-terrestrials? You have got to be kidding me, that sounds like paranoia and old myths and superstitions. You can't seriously expect me to believe this?"
"Yes ma'am, but I'm not asking you to believe at all. I have another appointment, but all of the information about Phase 2 will be in this folder and CD. You are expected at S.H.E.I.L.D. Command Center in less than 48 hours at 0800. You will be paid handsomely. Good Day."
"Wait! Phil, why not have Stark in on this, this seems like this is his arena, not mine." Coulson turns, "The committee and Director Fury feel that Mr. Stark is on a need-to-know basis, and right now, he doesn't know. Besides, we did most of the heavy lifting, all you need to do is create the program and come to the Command Center in 48 hrs. Good Day." and he turns and walks out the office.
"Alright, this is strange" she thought, "It must be something big, especially if S.H.E.I.L.D. doesn't want Tony in on this." She takes out the folder and the CD and starts to look at the file folder while the CD loads. "What is this? Tessaract, HYDRA, weapons, New Mexico….this is crazy." The further she goes through the files and she sees that S.H.E.I.L.D. is wanting to make weapons against outerworld threats. She scrolls through the files and sees that they will operational in a few months, but it is a computer program designed for direction and navigation that S.H.E.I.L.D. wants to make the weapons functional in the future.
Aurora pushes a button on her intercom, "Grace, clear my schedule for the week, I have to be somewhere in less than 48 hours, I have a conference I have to attend, it's short notice." "Ms. Lawson, what about the other meetings we have this week? You have investors coming from around the world to a meeting on Thursday to invest in the new cell phone technology. You also have other appointments in between." "Grace, what is the protocol for when I out of the office on business?"
"Donald is in charge, as usual." She replies. "Yes, Grace that is correct. I own the largest computer software and programming holdings firm in New York City alone and I employ over 650 people with high level education, the best of the best, including yourself and more all over the country. Why should I be worried about what happens when I am gone for a few days? Just because this is unscheduled conference, does not mean that I plan on abandoning my duties, just because I am not in the office physically, does not mean I can't monitor what happens in my company. If Donald has any problems, I am available by phone. Understand?" Grace meekly replies, "Yes ma'am."
Aurora ejects the disk and puts the disk and files in her briefcase. She types furiously on the keyboard and the computer shuts off. She walks over to the bar in her office and picks up a glass and pours some scotch in a glass, she takes a sip and starts to relax as the liquor warms her insides. She looks around her office and sees the dark wooden furnishings and green curtains overlooking Times Sqaure. She walks over to the window and looks out and sees the newly built Stark Tower glaring back at her. "Eh, that is the ugliest building I've ever seen, a standing monument to Tony's Stark's ego." She finishes the drink and puts it down on the bar, and grabs her briefcase and walks toward the door, and punches some numbers on a keypad. She closes the doors, and walks by Grace's desk and heads to the elevator to go down to the parking garage.
Aurora goes to her BMW and gets in the car and backs out and heads out of her private parking garage. She turns onto the streets to head to her condo on 5th Avenue. She turns on her radio and heads home. When she arrives the doorman greets her. She retrieves her mail and heads in her private elevator and goes upstairs to her penthouse condo. She gets off of the elevator, and looks around. She punches some numbers into a keypad and says, "Computer, security scan please." There is a beeping sound and voice replies that it is clear. She walks over to her desk by the window and sets her briefcase by it. She changes clothes and pulls her strawberry blonde hair into a loose ponytail. She sits down and picks up her phone and orders some Thai takeout to be delivered. She puts the CD in and she pulls out the files and starts to look at all of the information on it. Over the intercom, the doorman announces that the food is here. "Send him up." The little man arrives she pays him with a hundred dollar bill and says keep the change. She walks back to her desk and sits down and says, "Geesh, this is just crazy. S.H.E.I.L.D. wants to harness an energy source and put this into weapons? Dr. Zola's schematics are old, but show how he and a man named Schmidt actually harnessed this energy into weapons. I still can't believe that this Tesseract is what all the fuss is about. Still, this computer tracking and navigation system program should be easy to do, I'll just review the research notes and go from there." As she ate her food and typed away. Aurora continued long through the night and into the next day, she was used to being up late, so this was nothing. After running a beta test and numerous simulations on the program, the program was ready. She took out a thumb drive and a disk and burned the program into the storage devices. She took the devices and the contents to her safe and put them inside. "Now, for a shower and to bed, I have an early flight tomorrow."
When Aurora arrived at JFK airport, a Boeing jet was waiting for her with the S.H.E.I.L.D. emblem on the side. As she gets out of her limo, she sees a familiar figure. Her driver gets her bags out of the trunk. She strides over, with briefcase in hand. "Hello Phil, looks like we meet again." She says and shakes his hand. "Ms. Lawson, we have arranged for you to take a private plane, I will be accompanying you on this flight. It will be a 4 hour flight from here to the Central Command Center. Please go on in and make yourself comfortable." Aurora ascends the stairs, walks down the aisle and sits down in her seat. She puts her briefcase beside her, as Agent Coulson comes inside, carrying her luggage. He turns and tells the pilot to do the safety checks and as soon as he's done and seated, he needs to take off. Aurora asks, "Do you have any alcohol on here, I need a drink." "No, Ms. Lawson, we just have water." "I guess that will do. Are we ready?" she asks. She hears the pilot call over the speaker that they are taking off. She leans her seat back and drinks her water as she looks out of the window to see the buildings of the JFK airport, passing by and then the plane was in the air. "Phil, I think I'm going to take me a nap, wake me when we get there." She closes her eyes and drifts off.
"Ms. Lawson, we are here. Wake up." Aurora sits up, startled. "Boy that wasn't very long. What about my luggage?"
"Don't worry, we will have one of our agents bring it to your temporary quarters here at the Center. In the meantime you are expected in Nick's office, momentarily."
Aurora ascends down the stairs from the plane and walks out onto the landing pad. She looks around to see an impressive sized Command Center with large windows, several stories high. The S.H.E.I.L.D. sign above the entry doors, she looks to her left and sees a large hangar with several kinds of military vehicles, weapons, and missiles. The windows of the building are large and tinted, as you would see in any secret government organization. She finds is strange that a facility of this magnitude could be out in middle of nowhere. She strides toward the large entrance doors, followed close by Coulson. She stops as he stops, punches in a code and leans down in front of a small device for a retina scan. The eye scans his and the doors open. She walks inside, following Coulson. He stops at the reception desk.
"Nicole, please tell Director Fury that I am here with Ms. Lawson." Nicole picks up the phone, makes a call and then hangs up and says, "He is expecting you in his office."
Aurora and Coulson head down the long hallway and head up in an elevator several flights to the top floor. The doors open and she walks out with Phil and she sees Director Fury sitting at his desk in his office, through the glass. Nick Fury is a tall, older, dark skinned man, with a patch over one eye and is always clad in black from head to toe, boots, coat and all. He might look intimidating, but not to her. He looks up from his desk and heads to open his door.
"Ms. Lawson, nice to see you again." He says as he shakes her hand. "Thank for having me Nick, so what is going on?" she says. "Ms. Lawson, please sit. I am assuming that you read over the entire dossier. Last year, we encountered a force from another world that nearly took out a small town in New Mexico. Upon realizing this, we have indeed started working on weapons. At S.H.E.I.L.D., It is our job to protect the Earth from threats; terrestrial and extraterrestrial. True, we don't understand this energy source, but that is why we have one the best astrophysicists in the country, Dr. Selvig on this project. If the energy can be harnessed and stabilized, we would have a defense so powerful that, we would have no problem protecting this planet and all who inhabit it, including yourself." he says. "The thing I do not believe is the mythology and the WWII battles and Hydra. An energy source I can understand. I am familiar with the scientific data and research into sources like nuclear energy and gamma rays. I just don't believe in extraterrestrials and people from other world, I am a woman of science, not fiction." She says. "Well, Ms. Lawson, if you do not believe in this. I would be more than happy to show you what exactly the Tesseract is and what it is capable of. If you will follow me downstairs, I will introduce you to Dr. Selvig and the Tesseract." "You can show me to the Tesseract, but I know Selvig. He and I worked on some computer programming for the space shuttles at NASA." She says as she follows Nick and Coulson down the stairs to the large, laboratory. She glances towards a sign on the wall and it says Project Pegasus.