Planet Telex

Feathers of Scarlet barely looked up from her desk as an Avian was escorted in.
"Thank you." she said, waving away the other. "Sit down. What's your name?"
"Eyes of Gold, ma'am." The junior Agent put her coat up on the rack and picked the chair closest to the door to sit in. She winced as her tail feathers crumpled up against the closed back of the chair, forcing her to sit on the very edge. Feathers of Scarlet kept inconvenient furniture, and she was sure it was on purpose. "What did you need me for, Agent Scarlet?"
The Senior Agent kept her eyes down on the report she was writing and let the other wait awkwardly for a few moments before finally speaking. "You've an interesting name, Agent." she replied, ignoring the question.
Gold went a little pale as it was paid attention to. "I, uh... thank you." She shifted around in the seat trying to find a more comfortable arrangement of her tail feathers, but failed to do so.
Scarlet kept her attention on the report as the minutes ticked by, outright ignoring Gold until she finished it. With her signature at the bottom, she put it aside. "Which Academy did you go to?" she asked, eyes darting up to make direct contact with Gold's.
"I, uh. Plume of Tan Memorial, in Sector 7." Gold replied, caught off guard. "Finished last month, with... with honours, ma'am."
"That's pretty impressive with your marks, you know." Scarlet located the folder containing the junior's file and opened it up. "Had to pull a few strings, did you?"
Gold tried not to stare at the folder, but did wonder what it contained. There was a mess of different types of paper inside, and she had to imagine that it was an original. "I... I wouldn't know which ones to pull, ma'am."
"Mmm. I see." Scarlet's eyes scanned over the front page of the other's folder. "Seems like royal blood goes far, anyway."
Gold squirmed uncomfortably on the chair. "I-I wouldn't know." she said, rather embarassed. She didn't try to hide the significance of her name, but the Agent grilling her had confirmation that, yes, she was related...
"Right." Scarlet picked up and closed the folder with a snap. "I'm going to tell you right now that things don't work like that in the Ministry. Understand?"
"I wouldn't... wouldn't think it would, Agent Scarlet." replied Gold, wilting a little as the Agent's gaze moved from the folder to laser focus on her. "I'm here to do my job like everyone else."
Scarlet stepped up from her desk and walked towards the uniforms closet set into the side wall. "Good. Then you wouldn't mind coming with me for an errand, would you?"
"No, of course not, Agent Scarlet." Gold sighed in relief, thinking Scarlet was satisfied with her answers. "I'll do anything you need me to do."
"Good." Scarlet replied as she pulled an Assistant dress out of the shelves of folded uniforms. "You'll need to wear this."

Feathers of Scarlet stepped back into her office without knocking. Gold, who was folding up her normal uniform on one of the chairs, recoiled in surprise. "Hey, I..."
"Good. You change quickly." Scarlet said as she walked over, thick folder of papers in hand. "Carry this. The Secundus will want it."
"O-okay, I'm just..." Gold checked over herself one last time. The Assistant dress fit snugly, the grey fabric almost elastic against her body, stretching effortlessly when and where it needed to. She was sure she could hide the uniform's existence under her greatcoat, though, which was a relief. "Wait, who?"
Scarlet shook her head and pushed the folder against Gold's chest, forcing her to take it. "The Ministry Representative, Secundus Feathers of Violet. Thought you'd know them, being a royal."
Gold went to snap back, but decided against it. Things would only get worse for her. "Could you, uh, pass me my coat, please?"
Feathers of Scarlet chuckled and took her own greatcoat off the hook, leaving Gold's where it was. "No, you'll have to pick one up from the ground floor. I'd recommend it, considering the cold. We've a decent walk."
Gold's eyes widened as she realised what was picked up on the ground floor -- the grey Assistant coats. Not particularly thick, and even if it hid the uniform, there wasn't much point. "Wait, wait... why can't I just take mine?"
"That'd be breaking the disguise, Agent. The moment we go through my office door, you're an Assistant, and you'll have to stick to it." Scarlet smiled as Gold realised what she'd agreed to. "You won't need your ID card, leave it with your things."
Gold put the papers under one arm as she felt for the Assistant dress's singular pocket, frown visible on her face as she found the silver card and removed it. Without an free Avian's ID card, she was effectively nobody -- which she gathered is precisely why she was told to leave it. "I didn't agree to go out walking in... this, Agent!"
Scarlet raised an eyeridge. "That's not quite doing your job like everyone else, is it, Agent Gold?"
Eyes of Gold winced as her own words were turned back against her. "No, it isn't... Fine."
"Good. It'd be a disgrace to the Primus's bloodline to not put yourself in the line of duty, after all." Scarlet's face turned to a grin. "Best to do as you're told."
Eyes of Gold grumbled to herself and adjusted the dress, embarrassed at the short hem. "How would you even know I'm one of those Golds?"
Scarlet's grin stayed stuck on her face as she stopped to open the door. "I'm an Agent. I know plenty of things. Now, come on... Nightingale."
Gold, silently fuming because of her newly given 'identifier', followed.

Thanks to the swipe of a Senior Agent card, the lift went express from the 193rd floor to the first. Gold had never been on an express that far, and had to take a moment to make sure she didn't leave her breakfast at the origin. If the motion nausea wasn't enough, though, she felt another pang of sickness as Scarlet opened her beak again.
"If you want a coat, you'd best go get it now."
Gold looked over at the reception desk where Scarlet was gesturing, and then through the floors-tall glass front of the lobby. It was still snowing, from this morning. "Can... can you just get it for me?"
Scarlet snorted in amusement. "Assistants don't have things done for them. You'll also want this."
An ID card was pushed into Gold's hand. She brought it up to look at it, and sighed at what she saw. Although silver like all the rest, the Assistant cards were screen-printed with their identifier and barcode, even though the optical scanners that had read it hadn't been used for decades. She also couldn't help but recognise the first few characters... '00CB', one of the code groups that was used when the chipping was done extra-judicially by Ministry staff. Not only was she dressed as an Assistant, but one that other Agents could only assume had been detained for crimes against the state. "Are you sure I actually want this?"
"You can go cold, I don't care..." Scarlet said with a small smile. "Just remember we don't want to keep the Secundus waiting."
Gold sighed and walked forward towards the front desk, card tightly held in her hand. Unfortunately for her, it was not an Assistant sitting at the front, but once of the staff officers, beak in a book. "Hi, uhm... can I get a coat, please?"
The staff officer looked up with one eyeridge raised. The military-style uniform was intimidating, even if they were only slightly more senior than the Assistants that they were responsible for managing. "Sorry, can't leave the desk until my staff get here."
Gold winced at the reply, knowing they weren't in fact sorry at all. "I... well..." she muttered, watching the Avian return to their book and ignore her.
"We'll watch everything for you." Scarlet said, walking up to the desk behind Gold. "Nightingale and I have a long walk ahead."
The staff officer put their book down with visible discontent, but knew not to question the Senior Agent that had just approached. "Fine, ID please."
Gold passed over the ID card, noticing the minor scratches on the surface of it, as if it had been used plenty in the past. "Thank you."
The other Avian didn't reply, instead just scanning the card and then disappearing through the doors in the frosted glass wall that separated the lobby from the administration offices.
"They seemed nice..." Gold muttered to herself. "Half a mind to issue a complaint..."
"And, what, tell people you were wandering the Ministry in a grey uniform?" Scarlet replied, lowering her tone as the Staff Officer replied with a folded coat, Gold's ID card on top. "Ah, here we are."
Gold stuffed the ID card into the dress's singular pocket and slipped into the coat. "Thanks.", she said, but the Avian behind the desk had already returned to their book.

"It was like I was nothing to them." grumbled Gold, arms crossed around the folders she had to hold. The coat was woefully insufficient for the weather, but better than nothing. "Not even Agents treat Assistants like that."
"You'd be surprised..." Scarlet replied. "On the other hand, there's ones like our Director."
"What do you mean?" Gold tilted her head towards the other Avian in confusion. She'd not met the Director, yet, although also gathered it was unlikely for her to do so this early in her career.
Feathers of Scarlet chuckled, and kicked a pebble off the concrete street path. "Nothing. Just rumours..."
Gold returned her vision forward, down the avenue they were walking. The inner city was redesigned after the abolition of personal private transport a century prior, and had become somewhat of a pedestrian paradise. There was no need for large traffic flows, anymore, so many of the former roads had become nature strips and parks to break up the grey monoliths that made up the Capital. This, of course, meant that Scarlet's assurance that it was 'only walking a couple of blocks' was again something that Gold wished she hadn't agreed to. "This place is a lot bigger than Sector 7 was..."
Scarlet chuckled and nodded. "Of course, the newer districts are a lot more friendlier on the feet. But, we don't have the luxury of density here. On the plus side, the Agents working this district get extra priority for good walking shoes..."
Eyes of Gold winced. Yes, good walking shoes, like the ones Scarlet was wearing, and not the Assistant-issue hardened rubber socks that she was told were the shoes she had to wear. "Can you tell me what we're doing with the Secundus, now?"
"Oh, it'll make sense, later." Feathers of Scarlet said, keeping her eyes forward as the Primus's skyscraper came into view. "Just keep a low profile, and you'll be fine."
Gold remained as confused about what her task was as before, but nodded, hoping it would become clearer as things progressed.

The lobby of the Primus's tower was as impressive as it was intimidating. A notably older style than the other Ministry offices that had come after, as if deliberately frozen in time from the early days of the Primus's reign. The marble floors and hardwood would have seen tacky anywhere else, but they radiated a long-standing grandeur of old. Not that it was without the more modern parts of the Accord -- heavily armed guards patrolled the lobby and watched the elevators, bereft of body armour but surely with scarier backup on call at any time. They weren't like Gold had seen before -- not the domestic police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that could be seen wandering public spaces, and they weren't bearing the emblem of the Ministry of Defence. They were, as far as she could tell, directly in the employ of the Primus.
"Walk straight, don't give them any opportunity." Scarlet said, under her breath. "Especially since your card doesn't match your DNA profile."
Gold felt the blood drain from her face. "It... it what?" she hissed, trying to stay in lock step with the Agent. "They'll shoot me where I stand if they check it!"
"Don't give them a reason to. That means upstairs, as well."
The pair approached the reception desk, a long and wavy steel sculpture that looked both attractive and impractical. The Assistant sitting behind it didn't seem to mind though, as she had no papers nor computer terminal to worry about. All of that was in the rows of desks behind her, administration Assistants scribbling away at forms and monitoring information panels. "Welcome!" the Assistant said, chirpier than Gold had ever heard an Assistant working in Internal Affairs. "Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes, we're here to see Secundus Violet." Scarlet said, handing over her ID card, prompting Gold to do the same. "Official business."
"Ah, yes, of course. Please wait a moment, I will fetch your passes."
As the Assistant disappeared to one of the desks beyond, two more approached. "Would you like us to take care of your coats, ma'am?" one asked Scarlet.
"Yes, thank you." she replied, shuffling it off and handing it over. "Nightingale?"
Gold perked up after a second, remembering the identifier she was told to go by. "Uh, right, yes." She put the files down very carefully on the reception 'desk', and slipped out of her own coat. "Thank you."
The one that had taken their cards returned as the other two left, returning the silver cards with colour-rimmed plastic ones on top. "These are your security passes for today!" they said, retaining the almost-irritatingly friendly demeanour from earlier. "You will need to present them at security checkpoints on all restricted floors."
"Why can't we just use our regular ID cards?" Gold asked, confused. She looked at the one she was given, rimmed in a deep blue, in contrast to the red on the Senior Agent's card.
"Ah, well!" chirped the Assistant. "Unlike you and me, the guards don't have a chip! They prefer to read with their eyes, instead of the Mesh uplink we have."
Gold nodded, ignoring the urge to correct the Assistant. "Right. Yes, of course." she replied, a little concerned at the implication. She knew the Accord was good at tracking its citizens, but the card responding to Mesh signals was worryingly precise.
"Elevator number nine will take you to the correct floor." beamed the Assistant. "Have a good day!"
Gold nervously looked at the guards standing at attention between each set of elevators, but they paid her no attention as the pair walked towards them. Number nine was open, and she couldn't help but notice the lack of any sort of controls inside.
"There was a bit of a security incident recently." Scarlet said, as if to pre-empt the question. "Makes sense things have been stepped up a bit."
"Right." Eyes of Gold replied, a little concerned. She wasn't used to a lack of control in her life, and today was pushing her well out of her comfort zone. Between being dressed like an Assistant, and being in an uncontrollable lift in a building teeming with guards that probably saw the ones dressed in grey as 'expendable'... there was little of the current situation that was hers to change.

Secundus Violet had one of the upper floors to herself, as all the Secundii did. The security was markedly more relaxed than downstairs, the guards flanking the door out of the floor's elevator lobby barely saying a word as they checked the coloured ID cards.
The inner area of Violet's floor was similar to the ground floor -- hardwood and clear glass were the primary materials, although a dark purple carpet was used instead of marble. The room they had entered into was the largest, and was a quietly-busy collection of cubicles containing Assistants and unknowable amounts of paper, with filing cabinets seemingly positioned randomly. Gold was sure that an Assistant could find what they were looking for, but from the lack of free Avians around, it seemed like nobody else could.
"Ah, Agent Scarlet." said the Assistant at the closest desk, separated away from the others by stacks of mail trays. "Miss Violet asked me to keep an eye out for you. She's had a cancellation, so is ready in her office for you now."
"Well, let's not keep her waiting." said Scarlet, smiling, and heading towards the Secundus's office, through the grid of desks. "Nightingale, the folders, please?"
Gold passed over the stack of folders, and tilted her head. "Nothing, except the styling, seems out of the ordinary..." she said, quietly. "I think you just wanted to drag me out in this humiliating outfit."
"Not at all, m'dear..." Scarlet said with a grin. "I'd have paraded you about in front of your coworkers, then..."
Gold grumbled, but recomposed herself as they approached the door of Violet's personal office. "I still don't get what you want me to do..."
Scarlet knocked twice on the door, and it was opened for her from the inside by an Assistant, who took the folders and transferred them over to Violet's desk.
Violet, herself, was seated behind the grand hardwood desk, smiling. "Ah, Agent. How nice to see you again." The Secundus stood with a note of pain on her face, took her cane, and walked out to meet the pair. "Ah, a pot of tea, if you could?" she said to the Assistant as she walked past. "Strong, please."
"Yes, Miss Violet." replied the Assistant, who disappeared past Scarlet and Gold.
"Very good." Violet said, before turning her attention to the two visitors. "Ah, is this Starling?"
Feathers of Scarlet chuckled and shook her head. "No, no. She's at home, and I can just requisition what help I need while I'm at the office. This is Nightingale, one of the Ministry Assistants."
"Ah, yes." Violet looked over Gold and nodded in satisfaction. "Well, I have a rather sensitive matter to discuss, so..."
Gold wasn't sure what to think of Violet's attention. The look on the Avian's face was one of interest, something that no other free Avian had expressed since she put on the costume. "Oh, um." Gold nodded, quietly thankful that she wouldn't have to act the disguise in front of one of the Accord's highest ranks. "I'll wait outside, ma'am."
"73H at the front desk will be able to point you to the breakroom." Violet said, with a smile.
"Thank you." Gold said, quickly leaving, before Scarlet could change anything.
As she left, she couldn't think but notice something strange about the Secundus. The Avian didn't look old, but she was softer spoken and very deliberate with her words, something that only the elders of the species tended towards. That, or Assistants.

"I think that the Primus was right in categorising her as a threat." Violet said, holding her teacup up to blow away some of the heat. "She's young, and now she's worked her way into the establishment..."
"You don't actually think the public would rally behind someone like her, do you, though?" Scarlet asked, cradling her own cup of tea. "I checked our files, and all of the potential instigators are neutralised."
"I'm afraid that the Primus isn't in a state to consider threats realistic or not, just that they're potential." Violet took a swig of the tea once she was happy with how hot it was, and then placed it down. "With the replacement of the Directors, she is most certainly safe for now, but the secret cannot hold forever."
Feathers of Scarlet nodded. The Primus's metallic form wasn't so much of a secret, but those that knew it first hand, dared not spread it. Disparaging the Primus with rumours was treason, and a treasonous offence that would likely lead to execution at her own hand. "And, what, she's afraid the Council will..."
"Yes, that they'd move to depose her. Not that they have such a remit."
Scarlet furrowed her brow. "I can see why this one would be an attractive one to try and push into power, then. Royal blood, to appease the loyalists. Young, rather attractive, well spoken..." She tapped on her teacup a few times, thinking. "I've no room or reason to doubt the Primus's judgement, in any case."
"Yes, even if she may be a promising Agent in her own right, the danger is too great." Violet slipped her glasses on to her beak and searched her desk for a form. "Ah. Here we go."
"Archival exemption?" Scarlet asked, taking a look over it. "She really wants her gone."
"Not gone, just..." Violet waved her hand a little, trying to come up with a more acceptable phrase. "Just not able to be found."
"Right." Scarlet said, folding the form up and placing it in the inner pocket of her blazer. "And what does that mean?"
"The body's yours, once the records are gone." Violet retrieved her teacup, and looked over it at the Agent. "She recognises it would be a waste to end such a promising life, if such a thing could be avoided."
"Mmmm." Scarlet said, with a nod. "That's merciful of her."
"More so than some others." Violet said with a smile.
Scarlet nodded again. Violet was responsible for coordinating the Primus's recent purge (not that either Primus or Secundus liked it described that way), and neither her nor Claws of Gold dealt in half measures.
"Besides, it appears you had the same idea as I, with that uniform."
"Oh, well, I was just passing it off as hazing, so she'd not get suspicious..."
"I'm sure that's all it was." Violet finished off her tea and chuckled. "Now, I should also mention..."
Scarlet raised an eyeridge as the Secundus went silent, as if she was putting her words in order.
"You have been loyal to the Primus, there is no doubt about that, but there's slight concern about... when things return to the normal chain of command, once this is all over."
"There's nothing to worry about there, Secundus." Scarlet replied, with a small smile. She was one of the few Senior Agents that had decided not to take part in the attempted coup, and as such, one of the few who still had their lives. "My opinions on the new Director aside, I can assure you of my loyalty to her authority."
"Good, good. The Primus has recognised your... reliability, but she is also thinking of the future." Violet held out a folder, which Scarlet raised an eyeridge at. "In the interests of that..."
"What's this for?" Scarlet asked as she took it. Opening it up, and flipping through the densely arranged forms, she quickly gathered what it was. "An apartment class change authorisation?"
"Well, I thought you might want something with a little shorter commute." Violet smiled. "It would be amiss to not recognise your service..."

"This all seemed a bit pointless, taking me along." said Gold. She'd spent the walk back shivering, and without anything to show for her 'mission'.
"Not at all." Scarlet replied, folder under her arm. "It actually had a very specific point."
Gold narrowed her eyes at the other, recognising the non-specificness. "Well?"
"Well, the Secundus spoke very highly of you." Scarlet walked up the Ministry's steps, clacking her boots against the concrete as if it were a dance. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"
Eyes of Gold went paler than she already was from the cold. "What do you mean... spoke highly of me? What did you tell her?!"
"Nothing. She figured it out herself." Scarlet replied, opening the large glass doors to the lobby. "You don't think a Secundus is smart enough for that?"
"But... but how does she know who I am?" hissed Gold, following through the doors, hoping nobody was paying enough attention to listen in to the conversation. "I'm just an Agent!"
"You're a bit more than that, you know." Scarlet said, not bothering to keep her voice low in the empty lobby. "You are one of those Golds, and that makes you a rather interesting character..."
"What does that have to do with anything? It's not like I can be a successor -- and if the Primus has survived this long, something's happened so that she doesn't need one." Gold shrugged, and pulled off her Assistant coat, putting it on the reception desk to the surprise of the Assistant behind it.
"Uh, I need your ID card f... for..." stammered the Assistant, as the two who entered walked away. Neither seemed to pay them much attention.
"Oh, I can assure you, it's not about succession if she passes on the throne..." Scarlet said as she entered the lift and swiped her card. She tapped on one of the lower buttons, feigning selecting the office levels after.
"Then why does the Secundus care about me, then?" asked Gold, visibly frustrated that she'd been made to stand in front of someone so important in what she was wearing. "And why bring me, if I wasn't going to be in there anyway?"
"Because." Scarlet said, as the lift sunk downwards a few storeys. "You're a threat."
The doors opened with a ding, opening up to the darkness of the Ministry's lower floors. Gold looked between the view outside the doors, and then to Feathers of Scarlet. "Why... why are we here?" she asked, frustration turning to a deep concern. She'd never seen the lower levels, only heard about them. "This isn't funny, Agent Scarlet."
Scarlet stepped out of the lift, and turned around as if waiting for Gold. "Agents don't make jokes, Eyes of Gold. I thought you would have learned that in the Academy."
Gold fumbled for the card in her dress pocket in a panic. "You can't... you can't do, whatever it is you're going to do..." she said, finding the card. She pressed it up against the reader without success, only a harsh beep. Frantically, she pressed every button she could, but the lift doors would not even close while she was in there.
"The Primus has decided that your life is worth sparing, as long as you're no longer a threat." Scarlet pulled back her coat and unbuttoned the holster for her stun pistol. "That's not something you should pass up, Nightingale."
"I-I... no, you're not... you're not actually going to put a chip in me, are you?" replied Gold as she tried to hit the card reader with a balled up fist, only hurting herself in the process. "There's no reason for that! Please, I'll just... I'll just keep my head down, and... I wouldn't even think of..."
Scarlet calmly took her stun pistol from its holster and audibly clicked off the safety. "If you come quietly, you can avoid the worst of it. Class C, here in the Ministry." She didn't raise the pistol, but it was clearly in range in case Gold attempted to make an escape, or put up any sort of fight. "I call for support, and there's little point in keeping you as anything but a Class A destined for the Frontier."
"Like there's any difference." spat Gold, still wishing that the buttons would respond to her inputs. "You're going to take away everything, anyway, leave me without a name, memories... I know how it goes."
"Maybe you're right." replied Scarlet, raising her weapon. "But, you give me no choice."
Gold went to protest, but Scarlet had already made her decision. The click of the trigger was followed by the release of an electric ampoule and its impact moments later, the metal spines releasing enough electricity into the leg of the Avian to make her howl in pain and collapse down onto her knees.
"That's enough." Scarlet said as she approached the to-be Assistant and grabbed her by the scruff of her dress to pull her up. "You're too smart to end up on some asteroid."
Gold, still stunned by the jolt, only stuttered out her protests inbetween sobs of pain as she was pulled forward, staggering, onto her feet. "Scarlet, Scarlet, please..."
Scarlet sighed and shook her head. It was difficult not to take pity on the Avian, but pity was not enough to prevent her from doing her job, just like everyone else.

00CB-G9E-DFF64D5E "Nightingale"
Assistant Class: C [note: Class A-grade memory wipe]
Assignment: Secretary to the Director, Ministry of Internal Affairs