Halfway across the air bridge Kyle skidded to a halt in front of the Director, who was walking the other direction carrying a sack lunch. The Director raised an eyebrow in his direction, and when that provoked no immediate response from the faintly panic-stricken Kyle, he added "What are you doing? I thought you were addressing our recent development..."

"Yes, sir, absolutely!"

"Well?"

Kyle blinked at him rapidly and then stammered, "ah...Post...ah...PIA has been...er...has been notified, sir."

"And...?"

"And?" asked Kyle with the panic creeping more fully into the pitch of his voice, but on seeing the stony set of the Director's visage he hastened to expand on this point. "And! And, why, sir, they're ON it. I was just going now to check in on their progress and begin follow-up operations, in fact!"

The Director squinted at him uncertainly. "Kyle, I have to go eat my goddamned lunch."

"Oh, yes sir!" Kyle enthused vaguely.

The Director said nothing for a moment, then smoothly removed his attention from Kyle and strode purposefully past him without a further comment.

Kyle sagged against the wall with a strained expression, then righted himself and resumed his pace. As he jogged uncertainly down the corridors, two things dawned on him. One, the aroma of the Director's lunch had reminded his body that he had not yet broken his fast, and was running all over creation on a quite empty stomach, and two, he had absolutely no idea what he was going to do when he reached his destination. Mixed with the general distress of the day thus far, the consequent uncertainty and hunger were nearly disabling.

It was therefore with a combination of agitated impatience and wild-eyed confusion that Kyle burst through the blue door marked "OBSERVATORY" into an overwhelming chasm of whirling machinery. There were beams and balls and blocks whirling in every direction, displays providing the only real light, but sufficiently plentiful to illuminate the chaos brightly. Air and metal and lubricant rasped against one another everywhere in the giant room, leaving a steady background of industrial percussion, and a steady foreground of bitingly metallic smells.

Kyle stood blinking dumbly in the doorway for a few moments and was startled back to alertness by the banana and spanner being thrust at him. "Hold these." said Björn, "You can eat the banana, but don't eat the wrench -- we'll need that shortly."

Kyle stared down at his newly occupied hands uncertainly and considered the task of peeling a banana one-handed.