"Excuse me, hold up, I'm going to need to see your identification." The officer held his hand up as I approached, going so far as to place it on my chest to stop me when I ignored his order and continued walking.
"See my ident- You fucking know who I am, Jeremy. We've been on the station together for two years, and in that time I promise that my credentials haven't changed. Now can you let me through? I need to talk to R&D." He still had his hand on my chest, which irked me. I would've done something about it if he wasn't armed and much larger than myself and also had the authority to lock me up.
"You know what the procedure is, Vee." Jeremy pushed me back with a gentle shove, just enough to get some space between us. Bully. "I need to scan your ID to see if you have the proper clearance to proceed which, by the way, I know you don't."
"Oh, you know that I don't?" I crossed my arms, not willing to walk away from this just yet. "Me? The head of an entire department? I can't walk freely around the station to do my job?"
"Look, there's a very short list of people I'm allowed to let through this checkpoint." Jeremy sighed and nodded at the little podium and scanner that Security had set up at the entrance to the R&D pod. "Even if I wanted to wave you through, the Captain will definitely find out, and I'll definitely get reprimanded. Probably fired. So..."
"God, I can't believe this. You know, they give you all just a taste of authority and you take this 'playing cop' thing way too seriously." I had begun pacing back and forth in the hallway. "The station's safety could be compromised because of what they're doing in there! This is more than 'following orders' or 'job security', Jeremy. We're talking about lives."
That at least got Jeremy to pause and consider, or at least I think it did. He looked back at the checkpoint, then to me, and opened his mouth as if to say something. He didn't get much out. There was a vibration through the paneled floor, strong enough for me to feel and strong enough to cause some rattling and groaning in the bulkhead. The lighting fixtures in the hallway flickered, and for a moment the red emergency lighting kicked on before everything went back to normal. Jeremy looked mortified, and I'm sure that I did as well.
"Jeremy..." I started, taking a slow step towards the checkpoint. "The station can't handle this kind of stress. Whatever they're doing in there needs to stop, because the next time something like that happens we could have a serious problem on our hands."
"You... Vee, you don't want to go in there." He sounded genuinely scared. What the hell could be going on behind those doors that would scare an intimidating security officer?
"I have to go in there. No one from HabEn has been in there for weeks. We've had to run remote diagnostics on this entire pod because of it, and we haven't been able to run routine maintenance, let alone check to see if the systems in there can handle the amount of power they're drawing." I didn't actually have to check the systems. I knew that they couldn't handle the amount of power they were drawing.
"No, seriously Vee, they..." Jeremy's voice got low, like he was worried that someone might overhear us. "They've been doing some weird stuff in there. Those new scientists from Earth, they aren't with our company. I think they might be from the Federation and..."
"Feds don't have jurisdiction out here," I said plainly, as if that would help explain the situation.
"...but some of the noises we've been hearing through the doors they..." He seemed at a loss for words, grasping for the right descriptors. "The doctors in the infirmary say that we're just stressed because we've been pulling extra shifts, Vee, but-"
The vibrations came back, a steady metallic thup-thup-thup-thup that was resonating louder and louder. It ended quickly, but I wasn't about to wait around for the next one.
"Jeremy. Let me in. Now."
He nodded once, then a few more times, as if convincing himself that it was the right thing to do. Jeremy left the checkpoint, walking up to the large metallic door that read "RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT" in large block letters. I followed close behind, my heart in my throat. I hadn't really worked out what I was going to say once I got in there, but I would figure it out along the way. If they wouldn't listen to me, well... I'd make them listen. Jeremy held his badge up to the scanner, and it gave a little chime, blinked green, and the locks on the door clicked. I exhaled; I didn't even realize that I had been holding my breath. The door opened, sliding into the bulkhead.
Here I go.
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