House of the Morningstar: Chapter 15
Created | Updated Feb 26, 2023
House of the Morningstar: Chapter 15
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Since we heard about the terrible accident yesterday, the atmosphere here at our little container village has changed considerably. Everyone is sad and worried. Rumors have confirmed, that the two people who died were Bob and Dave, Bill's workers. Security is making their rounds, asking people if they saw or heard anything that could help to understand how it all happened. One of them came to us in the morning asking his questions. It turned out that the accident had happened in the underground access at our building.
We met Bill at his usual table in the canteen, when we had lunch together. He told us how difficult it was to cope with the loss of another two great employees, he even called them his friends. And how hard it was for their families. He would send them some money as he felt that was what he had to do, even if it would not end their grief. Bill also showed us a video dated two days ago, which showed Bob and Dave putting on their gear in the green corridor at the lifts in our building. Then, they descended. He told us that they had gone down there against his orders and he told them it was too dangerous.
Later, when we were back at the office I asked Gene about the painting drones. He confirmed that they had finished painting the corridor at the lifts yellow four days ago.
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Research Notes
Deep down under Henry Morgenstern's glass house, Harry had taken a few more hovering lights out of his bag and positioned them around the circular room so they would illuminate everything evenly. He looked at the bookshelves which went all around the walls. One item caught his eye, it was some sort of cup or glass, it seemed, with an iridescent colour that caught the light in a peculiar way. Next to it there was a rather unremarkable reddish-brown rock. He picked it up and below it found an old piece of paper which turned out to be a menu.
'Restaurant Delphi', he read out loud ,'a place in... Katastropolis? Oh, look at the prices! That thing must be old! Why ever anyone would keep it.... oh, there's something else… a similarly old map of the First Settlement Museum at Katastropolis.'
He went on, over to the desk, which stood between the shelves. Above the desk hung a map. It looked like an old advertising folder and showed the streets of a city, with important buildings drawn as pictures. On top of it bright, friendly letters proposed 'Eldorado, find your golden future here'. Some places were numbered and had descriptions on one side of the map. At one place somebody had stuck a pin with a small red paper flag, obviously marking a spot. It was a seemingly random street corner with an underground connection, opposite a strange silver blob. The blob was marked '11', which Harry found out was the 'Museum of Modern Art'.
'Eldorado,' Harry said,' does this tell you anything?'
Elanor shook her head,' never heard about it.'
She pulled a large old book out of the shelf, opened it and flipped through it. Then she put it back and did the same with several others.
'Research notes about nectar,' she said, 'all written by hand. Very peculiar. Also lots of lists about the amount of nectar produced at different times. They range back to... about 100 years ago? Maybe more.'
She switched to the first page of the book she was holding.
'This one was obviously written by André Morgenstern, founder of Star Med and inventor of nectar... or should I say the first keeper of artificial bees and breeder of flowers in the family?'
She took another, similar book from the next shelf and opened the first page.
'Kathrin Morgenstern,' she read,' that was the daughter of André and Cecilia, right? She inherited the family business, so of course it's her putting down the numbers in the book. I would guess even their employees never found out where the nectar came from?'
She went to the next shelf which, as expected had books written by Henry Morgenstern and the very last volume was signed by his daughter Angela, to whom still nobody had any contact.
Harry looked around in the room,'but why would anyone write it all down by hand? Why go through that trouble if you could have it all neatly and searchable in a database? There is not even a computer here!'
He sat down heavily on a box with a sigh. Then he realized what he had done, got up and took a look at what he had been sitting on. It was a medium-sized box with a handle on each side. Its surface was a bit dented and scratched in some places, but on one side you could just make out that somebody had written the letters B and S a long time ago.
Harry bent down and opened the box.
'Oh,' he said, which led Elanor to come over and have a look.
Inside of the box, neatly positioned on dark blue velvet cloth, there were a number of strange items. Harry picked one up and looked at it. The object he held in his hand was almost black, but then again the light seemed to shine on it like a faint rainbow. It had an irregular shape and was about as big as his hand. He traced the intricate lines which were carved in its surface and suddenly there was a light and clear sound. He did it again with a different line, which gave him a different sound.
'Now, that's interesting,' he said, 'reminds me of a Fluxicord, although it's much smaller. But what is it? And what about this?' he pointed at a different object, 'doesn't it vaguely remind you of a Flux pistol?'
Elanor frowned as she looked around. The floating lights gently bobbed up and down.
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