Ship's Holog: June 2078, fragment #16

For security reasons, the following segment and all other italicized passages in the transcript of this holog were excised for security reasons by the crew of the Veritas from their original holocoms in 2078. They were restored some 25 years later when the voyages of the Veritas no longer needed to be kept secret due to the significant changes that took place in world government in 2102.

As I entered the Coop, I spotted a clerk, neatly dressed in the white starched uniform of the Coop Society. He looked kind of bored and sleepy, as though this might be the end of his shift. He was just the sort I was looking for, someone who’d be unlikely to take note of the large size of our order and start asking nosy questions.

I took in a nervous breath and then managed to sound normal, or so I thought, as I stated my reason for being there. “Hi, I’m here to pick up the order we holocommed in last week. The name’s Noah Adams.”

My ostensibly sleepy young man replied a little too alertly for my taste, “Yes sir, I’ll go see if it’s ready out back.”

As he left, my fears begin to play with me, my stomach sort of leapt up into my throat and the hair on my arm stood up on end. My thoughts were full of disastrous scenarios. Was it possible we’d be stopped before we even got out of New Vermont? I tried to calm myself by looking around the Coop at all the wares available, as I rehearsed to myself the story I was supposed to tell if questioned,

If you're viewing a holocom, take a look yourself. Is there anything you might want in the way of food that they don’t have here? I doubt it, except of course contraband like beef or processed foods, which I understand they still sell legally in some places in the world. Not in New Vermont, though, not according to the authorities, anyway.

The clerk returned. And damn it if he didn't looked all kinda’ nervous himself. I wondered what was going on.

My worst fears began to emerge, as the clerk stammered, “Uhm, Sir, could you… uhm… come back to the offices? There’s a couple of uhm… questions about your order, apparently.”