He kept his strides sure and sailed through the corridors of the Solarium proper, avoiding eye contact with the denizens who stared after him with curious glances. Most of them kept their distance and even gave him full usage of an elevator by himself. The glass enclosure carried him seventy stories upward before gently curving to the right, set upon ferrying him the mile and a half eastward to his father’s conference room.

“Stop here. Open, please.” Denim drummed his fingers anxiously against the sealed doors frowning at the sudden burst of angst and the grime caked beneath his nails. He was in desperate need of a bath and to calm himself.

An automated voice responded, her tone soothing. “Have you changed your destination?”

“No, I’d just prefer to walk the rest of the way. Open, please.” He stepped closer to the door.

The door remained closed while a glow of light scanned his body. Denim stifled a curse. “The walk from this stop will require fifteen minutes, twenty for you in your current state of fatigue. Allowing shuttle services will require three minutes of your time. Shall I proceed to your destination?”

“No. I will go on foot,” And take the twenty minutes to get my head prepared for whatever my father has for me.

            “To go on foot is not your wisest option, Denim Rays. It is wisest—”

Flicking caked dirt on the tiles at his feet Denim responded with an irritated huff. “I don’t require the advice of a machine. I will walk. Open. Now.” The edge of his boot nudged the door.

“Congressman Rays will not be pleased with your tardiness once he is informed that you took to foot.”

“Then don’t inform him.” Denim pressed the door harder this time the toe of his boat made a squeaking sound against the glass.

“As you wish,” The air pressure released and the door slid upward.

“Thank you,” Denim slipped off the platform, waited for the elevator to move back down below before he began his trek. He took his time getting to the sudden meeting with his father and the governors. He strolled the long stretch of hallway, scanning the landscape that showed its self and all of its glory through the thick panes in the hall, anything to get his mind off of what lay ahead.