Qharlie Pam

21301501 Location: Mount Matterhorn

Dr. Rosi Aire takes a light morning stroll by her nested cabin in the Alps. She sees a little mountain daisy ripe enough for picking for her herbal tea. It’s 8:15 am, She has a few minutes before the morning meeting with the international ASLA board. The recent findings, updates, and announcements are discussed and lasts generally before lunch time. Although it is quite common for researchers and the like to have lunch mid-meeting. The meeting does not have a cutoff time, but it is also a regular occurrence for presenters to keep a timely map and send their information in other forms. 

This morning meeting’s topic was one Dr. Rosi had expected. It was rare for Officer Kharbe to not have suggest anything following the annual summit; however, seeing how he missed it completely, she expected the meeting attendee to inquire about his whereabouts. The board have been anticipating the results of the second run of the Aiden X2. The results came as a surprise to the analysts of the Aiden X that still haven’t satisfied their understanding of the incident that took place. Not only did the Aiden X2 returned, but the preliminary results have also been discussed in great detail. The reboot stats, ground imaging, thermosensor data, elements recovered, etc. Astronauts’ cross references and arguments were solidified or rebutted at the annual summit. As a key contributor to the Aiden X and Aiden X2, Officer Kharbe’s interpretation of the data and literature was one Dr. Rosi dreadfully anticipated due to his recent behavioral state. 

“Offline for 14 days” says his profile icon.

“As expected,” she taps her toes, sipping on her turquoise, Le ASLA tea mug.

”I suppose I’ll try again.”

“Ring, Ring, Ring…”

“Incoming call from Dr. Rosi Aire…”

“Incoming call from Dr. Rosi Aire…”

Officer Kharbe lifts his heavy head from piles of antique manuscripts of the first sightings of a comet in 501 B.C summer solstice, the papers are water-laminated, leaving Officer Kharbe in bliss as he continues his research without the fear of tearing the important artifact. Water-lamination creates a thin, organic film that preserve the existing media in its existing medium. Created by Dr. Lance Khomabach, from years of carbon dating and a repository of stabilized organic reactions. The invention made it possible for any artifact to be shared and essentially cultured the art world with ease and the anxiety of damage to the artifacts became nonexistent.

As Officer Kharbe reflect in his thoughts as he is half drooling over this century old document, he finally wakes from the noise of the telecom.

“SiriPal, pick up. Dr. Rosi, how may I help you?”

“Officer Kharbe! You’re alive! Haha how are you this fine morning”, says Dr. Rosi cheerfully, hoping to heighten his spirits. 

“I have had better days and worst days, not one to complain, you know me.”

“Ahh, I see, the case of the astro blues? Thinking of the unknown of the big outer blue beyond these blue skies have gotten many of us blue. I calling because you got me a tad worried the last time we spoke, do you remember when that was? (Pause)

I see you haven’t been online for quite some time even before. I know you missed the annual summit as well. You know the board been overly excited and anticipating your write-up. You know I understand the complexity of our work and it is stressful, and we spend time talking beyond ends and turns. I understand if you want to take a break from such activities and focus on direct research or some time off. However, I am concerned. The last time we spoke you didn’t even inquire about the summit’s findings or gave me any indication of your thoughts on the matter.”

“Dr. Rosi, I don’t mean to be rude. I apologize for my apparent absence. The last time we connected, I shared with you, my most recent observation. I am not sure if I am ready to share this information with the board. I have been reading up on the last time a similar body was spotted. I ran the same image through our magnification program and been studying and searching the database for days now. I assure you I am in good health”, says Officer Kharbe as his eyes shift to the heart monitor recordings to see if it was in frame of the video. Dr. Rosi, I have to go, my uhh, water is boiling, thank you for checking up on me. I will give you an update soon. Please tell the board ‘Hello’ for me and tell them I’m out of town on a mission trip with the church and I can’t use my normal array of devices with ease. Obviously, they and you can reach me but just in case you don’t reach me, they should expect an update some time let’s say in two weeks’ time after the last general meeting at the end of summer.”

Officer Kharbe speculated as he thinks of a reasonable timeframe for him to generate some sustainable feedback for the summit’s concluding findings and a lead to this strange sighting that have caused great adrenaline and have drained him of sleep and the ability to focus on anything else.”

“Officer Kharbe, you know you have my upmost respect and trust. I need to go to the morning meeting now, I’m presenting today. Talk soon and take care.”

Telecom beeps.

 “Would you like to save the recording.”

“No, erase.” 

“Okay. Conversation erased.”

“SiriPal, start forwarding message.”

“Hello, you have reached Officer Kharbe Kaleri’s residence. I am away from my telecommunications at this time.” 

“Re-record SiriPal.”

“Hello, you have reached Officer Kharbe Kaleri’s residence, I am away from my telecommunications at this time. If you need my assistance, please leave a message and I will see to it as soon as possible.”

“SiriPal, send base-ID callers to support line automatically. Accept all private messages. There we go.” 

Officer Kharbe sat in silence and thought if he was missing anything else before he packed his things for the mission research trip. Let me notify the church. The church was established and termed so not for religious reasons interestingly but come about for corporate attendees to excuse themselves for participation in the ASLA events i.e. manuscript marathon, meeting. It became a spiritual event anyway due to the high volume of believers and faith-based individuals that naturally gravitated to the ASLA hence the charitable nature of the group. Writing one selves to exhaustion is not for the nonbeliever especially writing about something many like we’ve mentioned, let’s say controversial.

Officer Kharbe lunge from his chair with the last bit of energy to get him to the shower. 

“Initiate, restoration mode.”

“Type?”

“IV fluid-1000.”

“Mode?”

“Instant.”

He stayed in the shower vessel for 20 cycle- 45 min long cycle. 

“Heat rate stabilizing, skin moisture restored. Liver function checked. Fluids replenished. Sensory organ checked. Cool off period initiating.”

Officer Kharbe jumps out of the vessel before the cool off period as always. He says it was mostly for the machine to cool off and you could essentially cool off on the couch and it would serve the same purpose. 

Ahh… it’s like I was born again…best thing that came out of the shower world since the waterfall.