Chapter Four

Day Four, The Team

As Ray was getting out of the shower he said to Dona "How are you enjoying this and I mean really"

"At the moment it is all rather exiting and new" replied Dona "we had a relatively quiet life until the two weeks of our last holiday and it was far too quiet over the last month, so I am willing to give all of this a go. Ho and yes, I am enjoying it at all the moment."

"Good, I thought that would be your answer. I feel exactly the same, at the moment anyway but if we decide that it it not what we want, ether of us, we just walk away and we take any flack that comes with that." said Ray.

"I am with you all the way there" agreed Dona "lets just see what they want us to do first and make any decisions then"

Ray agreed with dona and they decided to just relax and see what happened next.

The phone rang and Dona answered, it was Oscar, he informed them that they would be moving on to a new place in about an hour and asked if that was ok. Done said that they would be and put the phone down.

"That was different" she said "Oscar actually asked if we would be ready to move on in an hour and it was the way he asked."

"Maybe we have proved a point and we are more important that we used to be" said Ray.

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They arrived at the big house early afternoon and there were already a few people there getting things sorted out. Oscar asked them in and showed them to a room upstairs, well more of a suite actually. Oscar said that this would be their living space for as long as they needed it and that he would be back to see them soon.

After he had gone, Ray and Dona had a good mooch around and decided that this suite was bigger than their house. The work going on downstairs was rather intense but it gradually died down as the afternoon wore on. Ray turned on the TV, checked it out, discovered they had all of the channels and he started to watch England play Slovenia at football from Wembley.

By the time they were hungry and the football was over (England had won easily in the end), just about everyone had gone. Ray looking out of the front window noticed that most of the cars had been driven off. Oscar reappeared and asked them downstairs to eat, he had some people to introduce and something to tell them but not to worry about it. It would all make sense later, once he was done with all the explanations with their food and maybe even a drink.

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Downstairs Oscar introduced them to the rest of the staff, and got everyone seated at the large dining table. The new people were,

James Gardiner, a bit of a communications and languages expert and a very excellent cook, although they could cook for themselves or order in, if they wanted

next was,

Ann Wilson, a computer and video expert, she was also a very friendly person

and finally

Terry Barker, an expert on world affairs and just about anything else connected, he also liked beer and was usually just about as thirsty as Ray.

After Oscar had finished the welcome to the team speech, James brought in the food. As they ate, Oscar started to explain what they were going to do. This was the first time that all of them would know what they were here for. As Oscar explained it all, James, Ann and Terry where starting to think this was all a big joke. Oscar had to stop them laughing and handed the Artifact (that he had kept by the side of his chair) over to Ray and Dona, together with the phone number of the house. Oscar told Ray and Dona to go home and come back in five mins. Ray set is phone then he and Dona took hold of the Artifact and pulled, then there was a noise like the catch on a briefcase engaging and then, a moment later, a bright soundless flash, and they were gone.

James, Ann and Terry were looking on, not knowing if this was a trick or not. Oscar led them outside, stood them on the door step and told them to just look in front of them. About a minuet later Ray and Dona appeared just in front of them holding onto the Artifact. Ray even had three large bottles of Leffe beer in a backpack he was now wearing, "I though you might like these" he said.

Ray and Dona wandered back inside, while the others started to bombard Oscar with questions. Soon the others came back in and rejoined Ray and Dona at the table, asking loads of of what seemed like practically unanswerable questions. Oscar quietened things down, telling every one that tonight he would tell them all they needed to know but for now, how about the Leffe.

Over that night, Oscar explained that he was now in charge of a new department, suitably named, Artifact and they were all now part of it. Artifact was as good a name as any for the new but very secret department and Ray and Dona were the main part of the department. He pressed a button and part of the far wall opened to reveal what looked to ray to be the control room of the Star Ship Enterprise. Only it wasn't, it was nothing like the Enterprise at all, any of them but that is what Ray thought and he was going to call it, The Enterprise, no the whole house was going to be The Enterprise.

They all wandered over to The Jump Room, that is what Ray had decided to call it (you may have noticed that Ray is a Si Fi nut), The Jump Room and Oscar pointed out all the equipment. All new and collected over the last month to use with the Artifact, although it was not known until a few day ago that it would include Ray and Dona. In fact the whole house had been set up in the lest few days, this also included putting Oscar in charge of the running of the program. Bit of a promotion there but those in higher places knew that this was the only way to go.

They had split up by now, James was checking out all of the communications gear and was really checking it all out. He was poking through draws full of different types of  communication add ons and twiddling knobs on display equipment.  He was gone, immersed in everything he had use of.

Ann was sorting through all of the displays that were available to her, Oscar actually knew her, as she had worked with him before, sorting the equipment in the monitoring office that he came from. She was rather amazed by what the computers could actually do, this was more than she had seen before but she was not phased at all.

Terry also had a set of computer screens and was quite pleased with what he could see and as the other two did, he was messing with it all. He was also amazed at just what he could find, how new the info was and just how quickly it all came up.

Oscar, Ray and Dona left them to it and wandered back over for a drink of  the Leffe, it didn't last too long as Terry wandered over to join them.  Oscar shouted to the other two, to leave it for tonight and come and have a drink, he wanted to make a toast.

"We are all new to this job but I hope that it lasts for quite a while, I have known some of you previously but again I hope that we can work well together" said Oscar "this is all new to all of us and that includes you two, Ray and Dona. So can you please pick up your glasses. I want to wish us all the best in our new positions and may it last for a long time, good luck everyone. We start work tomorrow so lets enjoy tonight".

The night want on, sat on the couches at one end of the large ground floor room, Oscar had closed the wall hiding the equipment for now. Terry had wandered off to find more beers and a bottle of red wine and was very pleased at what he found as was Ray. It was getting late when they eventually gave up and all went to bed for the night.