Antimatter Story

Part 1 – Arrival

Johnny stood on the steps of the building, watching the cab as it threaded its smooth, servo-moderated way back into the stream of traffic headed in the direction of the city centre. As it became indistinct, he turned, paused for the door to open for him, and walked into the building.

He followed the lights under the floor as they blinked in sequence, highlighting his path. At the elevator, he walked through the opening doors and stood as the car ascended to the seventh floor.

The car came to a halt, and Johnny again followed the marching lights for a few paces until he rounded a corner. There he saw the folks sat in twos and threes, chatting, and occasionally looking at one of the numerous displays.

“Hey, Johnny!”

“Hi. Anna, is it?” Johnny was not so good at remembering names. And he’d not wanted to walk in with his face recognition app running. He’d felt that would have looked a bit… gauche.

“Yup. You remember Celia and Steve?” Anna indicated the other two people sitting with her.
“Oh. Not Steve. He wasn’t here last time you came, was he?” She corrected herself.

“Hi.” smiled both Celia and Steve in his direction.

“Hi there” replied Johnny.

Anna motioned to a free space on one of the sofas. “We’re just playing about with the authentication bot. Want to sit in?”

“Sure.” Johnny put his bag down beside the sofa, out of everyone’s way, and sat down where he could best see one of the displays.

“Rachel – she’s from IndArc – will be in later. We’d like to have something for her to show to her folks, by the time she arrives.”

Celia tapped something into her keyboard. The displays changed and all four of them turned to one or other of them see the new image.

“Ok. Here’s where Cindy can ask for access.” They began discussing how the thing worked, and what was left for them to do before Rachel turned up.

Part 2

<Later…>