The hallway was dark, being in power-save mode, but that was certainly about to change. I turned back to my door, tapping on the small lock button on the control panel next to the door at the precise moment that I'd realized my data pad was inside. I swore under my breath, which just came out as a quiet grunt as I started pocking the panel again. Open, passcode, verify, enter. I gave these buttons a bit more of a jab, because it's the machines falt I fucked up, right? The doors slid open and I stepped back inside, making my way over to the table and grabbing the data pad on top of the short stack. I decided to give myself a quick pat down this time to make sure I'm not forgetting anything else and end up grabbing my smaller communicator as well. Why not, right? It's not like I don't have enough pockets.
With the handheld communicator in my pocket and the data pad in my left hand I was back int he hallway locking the door again. All the ceiling lights were off and only every third of the wall lights on each side were powered on, reflecting their faintly blue light off the cold and dark steel. There was one small light on above each door that was perfectly in between each of the glowing chair rails that lined the hallway. This pattern repeated for as far as I could see down the dark hallway to my left, the right however ended fairly shortly in two larger double doors imbued with the backward C within a bigger C that was the Caldari State logo. Though I'd noticed it failed to mention anywhere that it was an elevator unless you got close enough to see the up and down arrows on the panel next to it.
When I headed for the unmarked elevator the lights in the corridor started silently snapping to life but only in the direction I was headed. My boots where making that distinct noise that happens when you move about on a catwalk, which was no doubt because I walking on the grated floors that showed off various pipes and systems beneath my feet. Some might think that the hallway outside the moderately expensive estate rooms would have some decorations or at least a solid floor Shariykah's mother certainly did when she first visited Jita. But what you have to realize is that, being the industrialists that they are, the Caldari not only don't see a problem with the exposed machinery but even often times come to enjoy it. Being that I was my own mechanic for a number of years as an amateur ship racer I can very much see where they are coming from though and I don't really see the necessity of hiding away the things that keep us alive in this decollate wasteland of space. At worst it's just a reminder to pay your repairmen a fair wage.
It only took a few seconds for the lift to arrive and once aboard I turn to scroll through the list on the panel inside until I found the button labeled "L" and managed to look up in time to see the lights in the corridor shutting off as the doors closed. I turned to face the back of the elevator and propped myself up against the railing as he looked out the polynanite glass at the astounding view. Astounding to me, anyway since I've always had a great interest in spaceships since I was a kid and, like most boys, the bigger the better. Through this thick pane was visible one of the massive sections in the even large hanger that saw some of the most traffic in the cluster. In a testament to its size it my perspective didn't noticeably change even as the lift raced downward to the lobby. At the moment I could see several of the huge Caldari and Minmatar freighters docked and one Amarr freighter heading through to the outer hanger. While their demotions varied based on the hulls they were all a couple kilometers long, I know the Amarr freighter hull Providence is almost two and a half and can hold at least seven hundred and thirty five thousand cubic meters of cargo. Oh and of course, they cost over one billion ISK.
I'd gotten a bit distracted but thankful the helpful chime as the lift came to a stop brought be back to reality. It's an important thing, you see, because unlike the standard lifts in most regions of the cluster which give you nearly five seconds of delay before they start closing their doors (baring any people or objects in the way, of course) the Caldari lifts tend to only give you three seconds. It's the little things, right?
The lobby was as dark as the corridor had been but the lights quickly spring to life as I stepped out into it. I made my way to one of the three holopanels near the door to the main terminal to check and see if the food court nearest this block was open because they tend to have one of the four closed at all times for cleaning. "Welcome valued customer." Stated a woman's voice as I approached the center panel. "You are... here" the voice paused to allow the screen to zoom in to Terminal 7 Block C, where it placed a small read dot. I picked food from the short list to the right and watched the screen and it zoomed out a litte further and some flashing yellow squared showed up over the blue outline of the map. Seems the nearest foot court was closed though in all honesty that was alright with me, while I'd enjoy the crowd the combination of every type of dish from each of the four big factions in the cluster, most of wich included many types of fish, was never something that got my stomach ready for eating.
I poked one of the pulsing yellow boxes highlighting a cafe that was nearby and the ad imminently popped up displaying silver 3D writing shimmering over the purple background. "Quafe Ultra Premium Cafe" it read, which caused me to quietly sigh. It's not exactly what I had in mind as far as cheap food went but it was a lot better than nothing, and being perfectly honest it was better than half the food in the food court anyway. The terminal shut itself down after I took a couple steps away and headed for the door, and as they slid open with a muffled hiss I stepped out into the slightly cooler air of Terminal 7, Jita 4-4.
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