The next two weeks dragged on forever.
One morning, after I finished my first shift, I immediately shuffled back to my room for some deserved R&R. I slept for 3 hours and 55 minutes, and then I woke up with just enough time to get to my computer station and stick my earpiece in my ear. I found Kat sitting at her station already when I arrived. During this shift, she was quieter, solely focused on her work.
I was about to open my mouth and ask her why she was so quiet when I heard static in my ear. "Pedagia, this is Sullivan, Chief Network Specialist. Did you run an anti-virus scan as instructed? My reports showed you were scheduled to run it this morning." I hadn't met Sullivan in person, but I knew he was my go-to supervisor. His voice sounded rough in my ears as he barked instructions.
I'm in trouble, I thought immediately, scrambling to pull up the logs. "Yes, sir. I have my logs here showing that-"
"Run them again, and scan disks F and J, sections 2 and 3. We found something suspicious down here. If you find anything, I want you to send a tracer to the connecting email address that I assume is associated with it. Once you have it, contact Agent Coulson."
"Yes, sir," I replied, mind-boggled. How could anything have gotten past the massive firewalls that guard this entire system?
I discovered that there was some suspicious activity in the hard drives, and I immediately set up a tracer like I was instructed. Unfortunately didn't get a response from the tracer by the time my four hours were up. The person who arrives after me, an ex-Army veteran, didn't receive an results either.
By my third shift, I opened the tracing program standard on the computers, and sighed with relief when I saw that it made more progress. I tapped my earpiece, clearing my throat. "Sullivan, sir?"
"It is done?" he demanded, sounding irritated. "It's been eight hours!"
"I'm sorry sir, the tracer is responding slowly," I said apologetic, tapping my fingers nervously on the mouse, wishing it would hurry up. The blue progress bar was nearly 3/4 of the way done. "It will be done by 3 a.m., I promise you."
"Fine," he said through his teeth. "It had better."
I exhaled shakily and sank into my chair, glaring at the computer screen. "What is taking this so long? It'll be on my head if it doesn't show up."
"What's the problem?" Kat asked me quietly. I sighed with disgust at the screen and looked at her.
"Tracer's taking forever to come back. Are you okay?" I inquired, noticing how she was barely keeping her eyes open. "You look...exhausted."
"I'm still trying to get used to this schedule...thing," she said dismissively, waving her hand. "It's hard."
"How long have you been here?"
"Six months."
I fiddled with my holster, looking down. "Yeah, it...it takes a while." I raised my eyes to the screen and sighed with relief; it was at 95 percent.
Kat was facing the screen again, executing commands in a programming application. "How's your family doing?"
"Oh, they're doing fine! I visit them once a week when I get the chance," she responded eagerly, her face coming to life.
"That's good," I responded stoically. "Real good." A quiet ding came from my computer and I sat up, relieved to see that the tracer was finished. The email address was alberik at anonymouse dot org.
The program explained more detail about the person behind the account, named Alberik Gesilv, located in Stockholm, Sweden. I exhaled with relief and attempted to contact Coulson, but he didn't respond.
"Sullivan?" I asked meekly.
"It is done?"
"Yes, sir. Coulson isn't responding to my attempts to contact him."
"Give me details, and once he's available, I'll tell him."
"His name is Alberik Gesilv, located in Stockholm, Sweden."
"Excellent. We'll get the bastard. Good work, Pedagia." I physically slumped with relief in my chair and found Kat smiling at me.
"Great job, Miss Elle."
"Thanks, Kat."
The ex-Army veteran stumbled into his chair when I finished my work. I yawned tiredly, feeling a little sorry for the fact that he had to work through the sunrise. Kat left an hour earlier than I did. I nodded at Sullivan, who had come up from the basement to oversee operations, and he glanced at me and inclined his head slightly, his face devoid of emotion.
"Wait, Pedagia," Sullivan's voice barked from behind, and I froze in my steps. "I need you to take this touchscreen down to Dr. Selvig."
To the lab? I accepted the touchscreen he gave me, staring at it with astonishment for a few minutes before straightening myself and walking to the stairs. Composing myself, I walked down the stairs at a normal pace. Once I disappeared, I set into a slight jog, keeping my hands tight on the touchscreen. When I reached the last stair I composed myself and strolled towards the entrance. I climbed up a small set of stairs and peered around the corner.
Dr. Selvig's lab was bigger than I had thought. Perhaps I'd somehow missed the fact that Dr. Selvig's lap was a huge room, with a stretch that stretched to the sky, shaped like a cone. The room stretched on for ages. Scientists wearing white lab coats stood by, their hands clasped behind them, offering assistance when needed. Other guards stood nearby, their eyes following the scientists as they rushed around, their hands clasped firmly on their large machine guns.
Resting atop a small stage was the Tesseract.
The blue cube was surrounded by three rings of steel, set in place by what looked like a glowing red ring. The rings of steel were held in place by thick, metal rods attached an even larger silver ring that must have been made of impenetrable metal. Finally, surrounding that was a thick gold ring that held the entire contraption together.
Amazed, I walked into the lab, staring curiously at the cube. It was glowing, that much was sure, but it looked like there were strands, or wisps of blue light floating inside. Pure energy. Enough to destroy the Earth but enough to power it for years.
My eyes picked out Dr. Selvig from the rest of the scientists; he was dressed casually, in dark gray pants, blue-gray tie, a blue and green plaid shirt, and black shoes. I approached him timidly, listening to him babble in physics to his assistants. I stopped in front of the Tesseract, now realizing that the red ring was just red light. The steel contraption holding the Tesseract extended further back into the holding contraption.
Dr. Selvig was bent over, examining the Tesseract, and then he saw me. He stood upright, picking some sort of long rod off of a metal plate. "Can I help you?" he said over the voices of his assistants and the sound of whirring in the background.
"I was instructed to give this to you by Sullivan," I responded, holding up the touchscreen. He glanced at me and reluctantly put the instrument down. Selvig ascended down the small set of stairs, reaching for the touchscreen. He was certainly an older man, at least in his fifties, with thinning blonde hair and gray eyes that gave nothing away. As he read the information in the computer, it was hard to tell if he was pleased or upset. His face seemed to be set into a permanent grimace.
I bounced on the balls of my feet, waiting. I looked around past Selvig to see a small black platform on the other side of the room, connected, somehow to the stage holding the Tesseract. Above the portal was a hole that revealed the night sky. It occurred to me then that I hadn't seen the sky in days.
"You're a computer technician," he muttered under his breath, sliding his fingertips across the screen. "Go back to your computer station and give me some readings on the cube."
"I...is something wrong?" I stammered.
"We're reading something funny on the Tesseract and I want to be sure it's everywhere, not just here. If there's something wrong with the equipment, we can just make adjustments." He snapped the touchscreen closed and handed it back to me. "Give that to Sullivan, check the readings, and come back to me."