2330 hours, Atrium.


Hands in the pockets of his jacket, Virgil Carstairs stood at the very edge of the great atrium watching events unfold in the centre. He had been a part of the party who had flown the meteorite from the Scottish loch down to London - suspended in a woven net of reinforced chains and lifted by a cavalry of Unspeakables on broomsticks. It had been what Yavin called a devilish problem.

They couldn't directly use levitation or cloaking charms or any kind of magic on the meteorite. They couldn't transport it muggle style because it would manifest the fears of anyone within fifteen feet - tricky to maintain that distance in a metropolis. A cloaking spell had to be constructed and constantly maintained around it for the entire duration of its flight.

And then there had been the effort of getting it down here, which involved Mysteries building an elevator above ground that would descend into the Ministry of Magic without negating the magic of such a contraption.

The chains clattered noisily to the polished floor of the atrium as several Unspeakables freed the meteorite. It was, in fact, no longer a meteorite. They had chipped away at its surface to reveal the object underneath: a great, silvery Sphere twenty foot in diameter. It reflected and warped its surroundings with an unnatural metallic sheen. Indeed, the metal was alien.

Virgil watched, taking an unconscious step back. The Unspeakables handling the Sphere were wearing special helmets[1] to protect their minds from its ability to manifest fears. He didn't like the helmets, which excluded him from this particular activity.

They'd given him the task of keeping any Ministry wanderers away from the effecting radius instead. The Sphere began to be rolled forwards, towards the other end of the atrium, eerily silent. There was a focused, tense mood amongst his colleagues - they were keen to get it settled on nine.

 He took another step back, eyes not leaving the Sphere, and nearly bumped into someone just stepping out of the fireplace behind him.

"Careful!" Virgil held out his arm instinctively, voice high and on edge. "Mysteries work going on."

1.	As seen in All is Soft Inside (22nd Feb 2012)

Due to their previous experiences working with the sphere, Sasha was well aware of how very dangerous that alien piece of metal could be and how very important it was to take the task at hand seriously.  He hitched a shoulder, shifting the clunky helmet while his hands remained firmly in place.  After several weeks of learning what they could about the object in the field, they were finally moving it down to Level 9. 

But, seriousness aside, what he wouldn't give to be able to take a quick selfie right now.  With just a little touch of paint on the helmet, this would be an epic bit of Magneto cosplay that would make all other attempts look like child's play.  As a very new trainee to Level 9, he was very much fulfilling a supportive role so there was a little room for fantasizing about comic con costumes. 

"Careful with the feet," Sasha offered to the Unspeakable next to him as he carefully levitated the now-stationary chain out of the way and off to the side.  The process was repeated several more times until all the lengths of chain had been carefully moved from under the Unspeakable's feet and well out of tripping range. 

Of the Unspeakables, at least.  The handful of non-Level 9 ministry workers who were unlucky enough to be arriving or departing at that hour were so distracted by the sphere that they managed to find the stray chains.  No matter where Sasha moved them to. 

"Is it too early to say the hard part's over?" Sasha asked Virgil, finally deciding that piling the chains in the spaces between floo fireplaces was the safest option.  He, himself, had come to a rest halfway between the outer circle of adult Unspeakables and Virgil - far enough to be out of the way, but close enough to respond quickly, should an adult give him directions.

"Oi, you ought to know better than that now, Schlagenweit." 

The Unspeakable who had been passing nearby was unrecognizable in her oblong fuchsia helmet, but her teasing tone was easy enough to pick out.  Kaia paused next to the two trainees, crossing her arms as she looked back in the direction of the strange silver sphere.

It had been a long night already.  The flight down from Scotland has been exhilarating, though there had only been a peek of the stars through the clouds to guide them.  Getting the sphere down to the Ministry's atrium had been a feat of magical ingenuity.  But this last part -- the journey across the atrium and on to Level Nine -- was dripping with tediousness.  The large size of their team, which had been necessary for their travels by air, was far less helpful now that they were inside.  It was starting to feel like they were simply getting in the way of each other, especially as the task had transitioned into one of intense concentration, but it was also clear that none of their number wanted to leave before this feat was done. 

Kaia winked at Sasha, passing a slightly cool look over Virgil.  Word had gotten around that Morgenthau's pet trainee had refused to wear a helmet, and it had set off another round of resentful murmurings amongst the younger Unspeakables.  She wasn't outwardly annoyed with young Carstairs like some of the others were, but it was a little aggravating that he couldn't suck one up for the team.

"Don't jinx us, mate," she chided Sasha lightly, though the levity in her voice made it clear that it was mostly in jest.  "We've still got a bit to go yet.  After all, the easiest place to get into a prang is right at the end of your drive, eh?"

In spite of the tension around their task, Virgil was in a good mood. Worrying made things worse and he had peeled back the layers of concern that had grown on the flight over - so that by the time Sasha joined him, he was pondering lighter subjects. His mind oft wondered back to Cepheus when he had an idle moment; to the two or three times they had properly seen one another since their Valentine's date.

            "Is it too early to say the hard part's over?"
Virgil woke from his reverie, though not quick enough. Arahanga joined them in time to retort. "... know better than that now, Schlagenweit."

She had a point. The fully trained Unspeakables always had a point, though. They seemed more braced to accept the unpredictable and the illogical than their younger counterparts. He clocked her cool look but refrained from reacting.

"It's not trouble on our end that we should be expecting, though, is it?" Virgil remarked in his airy, nonchalant way, having put aside all thoughts of flowers and cedarwood cologne. "I dread someone off Two coming too close and having to deal with their bloody fears. Or, oh, I don't know. Six?"

He bit his bottom lip, speculative, though his eyes remained very much on the large sphere rolling its way towards the elevators. "I have a sneaking suspicion that Transport are the ones with the worst fears. Always the ones you least suspect."

"Oi, you ought to know better than that now, Schlagenweit."

Sasha winced and grinned, sheepishly, without taking his eye off the sphere.  "No repeat of the magnetism mishap, I promise," he offered, with an even broader grin that sought to be placating.  Lab manuals had been misread.  Metal had gone flying.  A teacup had broken into pieces.  A teacup had promptly been repaired in one of the underground magical research labs scattered across Cambridge. 

"Is that ... are you talking golf?" Sasha added, momentarily distracted by the reference to long drives.  He couldn't remember the witch talking about golf before. 

Sasha chanced a sideways glance at Virgil before turning his attention back towards the sphere.  He didn't like the thing.  The helmet blocked the current effects of the sphere but it did little about the memories of those effects. 

"I suppose, this would be one way to reveal just how ludicrous those patents get on level 7." 

"It would have been a pain, but they probably should have just blocked off the Ministry for this.  The less chance of unpredictability, the better it seems."  The cluster of Department of Mystery cohorts was gradually guiding the sphere towards the safety beyond the doors of Level 9 but that felt like miles away. 

Over the shoulders of one of the Unspeakables on the far side, Sasha could see the lift rattle into view and a young, tired looking wizard dressed in maintenance crew robes start to open the gate before hesitating. 

"Do Void Ships actually exist?"[1] he voiced aloud. 

1.	Doctor Who reference for the win

"Golf?" Kaia echoed, trading a befuddled look with Schlagenweit. But the confusion was fleeting; puzzling out whatever connection the young trainee had made between vehicular accidents and golf seemed less important than keeping an eye on the slow progress being made across the room.

Maybe they should have closed the atrium off.  But that was Morgenthau's call, and Kaia was half in agreement with the Department of Mysteries Head that there was only so much they could do to minimize accidents. When the situation was too controlled and there seemed to be too little a chance of something going wrong, it was easy to make careless mistakes. Knowing that there was a chance of someone brushing too close to the sphere kept all of them on their toes. Hopefully, it would be enough to see it down to Level Nine safely.

She kept a careful eye as one of the Ministry lifts rattled into place, revealing a Magical Maintenance worker. But one of the other younger Unspeakables was already moving to intercept him, probably to warn him to stay clear until the sphere had passed safely through.

Now Schlagenweit was talking about Void Ships. Kaia eyed him sidelong; there was a place for the fantastical imagination of science fiction, but she preferred to draw a hard line between that and their own mix of magic and science.

"Better not to make assumptions, eh?" she asked lightly, raising an eyebrow at him. "We'll know more once we can take a closer look at it." The sphere obviously had interstellar origins, but it was still impossible to say if it had been sent or summoned here. The Unspeakables weren't ruling anything out until they could decode its mysteries.