[b]KTCI Headquarters, Gateway[/b]
Crumpled newspapers covered the room's floor, blobs of once-melted plastic having long since cooled and hardened into their asymmetric shapes making their home's on those crumpled newspapers. 3D printers from all years since their invention were set haphazardly on top of old desks, with only the most recent ones being placed in any reasonable way. Outdated computer parts sat in a huge pile, with no apparent purpose. There was an actual working computer in the room as well, but it was obviously patched together from hardware connected in ways that made it clear that the parts had been specially designed. Its monitor displayed a default screensaver from the 2010's, despite the hardware being recently constructed. Aside from the transparent box that displayed the actual computing part of the computer, it was extremely generic. A utilitarian mechanical keyboard and a ten dollar wireless mouse were all the computer had for interaction.

In contrast to the chaos of the room, there were many objects that had obviously been taken care of. Framed papers on the wall, newspaper articles, pictures, a college degree, even a few random printed quarterly reports. Supporting the monitor on the computer desk were two books, one of them was simply titled "Science", and the other was an extremely torn up book titled "Flight". Flipping to the last page of the latter, one would find a paragraph answering the question "Is it possible for a human to go into space?" from the perspective of someone who just witnessed the start of the space race. A meteorite fragment sat to the left of the keyboard, next to a coffee mug holding a ridiculous number of pens. The click-clack of a newton's cradle could be heard, its motion being periodically restarted by a hammer connected to a simple hydraulic system. As one might expect in such a room, there was a roll of duct tape sitting on the desk as well. Judging by the fact that there was a headset which had a cord covered in the stuff, it was used quite often.

Fergus McClain walked into the room, flicking the light switch upwards, illuminating the room with a dull glow. Beside him was Emily Natālija, whom was somewhat confused with just why the room looked as if it had been bombarded.

"I thought that-" She began, but she was cut off quickly by Fergus.

"It [i]is[/i] the control room." He said.

"Fergus, you own an international mega-corporation." Said Emily "Surely you could actually hire a manager who isn't you. And considering the fact that you have a dozen facilities for it, I'm pretty sure you have the money."

"This will never work. It just creates jobs." He responded.

"Okay then. So why are you personally overseeing the whole thing?"

There was a long silence between the two, and then Fergus finally responded.

"Because I'm bound to get a response sometime." He said, sitting down at the computer and waving the mouse wildly, displaying a series of highly technical graphs that he didn't actually understand.

"Fergus, I'm telling you, nobody's going to respond. Nobody's there [i]to[/i] respond."

"Oh, someone's there. There might not be that many, but I've got math on my side here. Something's out there, it's simple logic. The only question is whether or not they respond."

Emily decided not to keep pushing, Fergus was odd, but she had kept pushing before and she didn't want to see him like that again.

"Whatever, I guess I can wish you good luck."

"Who needs good luck when you've got probability on your side? Save the good luck for the day I leave Earth's sphere of influence. Ah! That reminds me, I should call Mr. Wilson!"

Emily giggled at the comment.

"All the interactions between you and a dictator I ever imagined involved a weapon and a dead dictator, and now you're planning to ask one for fusion bombs."

"I never thought that there would be a benevolent dictator, I guess war brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. I mean, he brought socialism to the USA! And people accepted it! The guy's a wizard!"