Easier said than done. How could I leave a puzzle like this be? But I nodded and followed her back to the lobby. We passed the ballroom, a largeunder constructionposter taped to the elegant double doors. This was where the Masquerade Ball would be held. I couldn’t resist a quick touch and smiled as the same vibrant and welcoming feeling flooded my system.
Though I already knew where the IT team was located, I let Layla lead me along corridor after corridor until we reached a door labeledTech Hub. But before she knocked, shesaid, “I have to warn you that Rick is absolutely overjoyed to have a Niren on his staff. His interest is strictly work-related, but he might try to hug you.”
Rick. He/him. I stored his pronouns with his name. “Does he scream?”
“You don’t like noise much, do you?”
I took a breath. “Not when it’s loud. No.” And humans were so loud.
“I’d suggest earplugs. But I assume you’re ahead of me on this one.”
“My noise filter adapts. So, yes.”
“Good. Here we go.”
I braced myself when she opened the door, but all that greeted me were the soothing sounds of tech, old and new, working in harmony—no mess, no disruptions here.
A tall, solid human dressed in a tight-fitting shirt and worker’s jeans rose as we walked in. That had to be Rick. His graying hair pointed in all directions, making him look wild as he grinned and spread his arms. Before I could protest, he lowered them and held out a hand instead. “Welcome to the team. I’m Rick. He/him.”
He shook my hand with surprising gentleness.
“Adri. Also he/him.”
“Good to meet you, Adri. I can see Layla warned you, but don’t worry. My wife’s been teaching me what to look for before going full hug since the day we met. You don’t look like a hugger.”
Did he expect a reply? Perhaps he thought Niren didn’t hug at all? We did. Not as often as humans, since we communicated primarily through our energetic bond, but friends and family did hug. Strangers? Not so much.
But Rick turned and swept his arm wide. “This is our hub.”
“And on that note, I’ll leave you to it.” Layla glanced at her watch. “I promised Sheena I’d be on time for dinner.”
I blinked at the door as it closed, then studied the room. The IT nerve center. Their hub. Clean, bright, and humming with precious energy. Twelve desks formed a tidy cluster in the center, each outfitted with high-end terminals. Two large screens hung on one of the walls, brimming with information.
“Schematics on the right, project overview on the left,” Rick continued. “Right now, we have two teams. One team handles help requests from guests, while Riley and I run the renovation side of things. We have a crew of part-time hires helping with that, and we liaise with the local construction company—Fred and Ted Renovations. All the info, personnel, schedules, to-do lists, and reported issues are linked in the project overview.”
I studied both. The schematics showed some of the issues I’d come across, but not all. “Do you have somewhere I can connect to the system?”
Rick blinked and pointed at the last desk to my left. “That’s your desk for the time being. Password on the sticky note. Username IT in capitals. Capital A lowercase dri001.”
“Thank you.” I sat and logged in, storing the login info in my vault. They ran the newest update, which saved me a lot of time getting the server to allow me to link to it. I could have used the backdoor, but I preferred to use those in emergencies. This wasn’t one. Less than a minute later, I added my findings as an overlay to the schematics.
“Jeez. I planned a quick tour and scan for tonight. Looks like we won’t need that. Good work.”
“Should I have waited?” I checked his face, but he was still smiling as I joined him.
“Nope. It’s all good. Not a great look, these faults and bottlenecks.” He pointed at the screen. “We’ve tried to fix the fault on the first floor a few times, but the connectionkeeps breaking up. And the bottleneck you found on the third floor wasn’t there when Riley was up there last.”
“I can run a deeper scan on that first one, if you want?”
“Might be a good idea. I’d love to join you, but we’ll have to wait for Jim. He’s running the help desk tonight and should be in soon. Riley’s in the ballroom for the next hour, and someone needs to man the hub at all times.”
So, Jim was a he, too. I filed it away. “What are Riley’s pronouns?” I had to work with these humans; I didn’t want to make a mistake.
“She/her. She’s young still, but very talented.” There was pride in his voice. “If she decides to stay on, I can happily retire in a few years. Have you seen the ballroom yet?”
I shook my head. “Layla caught me staring at the old elevator.”
“Ah. Yes. I saw the red marks. Mysterious thing, right? Gives me the shivers. Some previous owner connected it to its own power source, so it’s not ours to worry about.”
