40. A Light Trim

        Mel pulled the bead curtain open, revealing the glorious salon obscured beyond the shimmering veil. "Come this way, you came at a good time" she coaxed, unnecessarily. "I just had a cancellation."

         As Nolan followed Mel through the jewel-curtained doorway into the heart of Dion's Salon, he was once again amazed by the classy society of Atlan, Culloom hadn't prepared him for this at all. The salon was luxurious beyond imagination, a row of ornately gilded red leather upholstered chairs stood in a row before glossy black mirrored walls, seductively illuminated by elaborate, oversized crystal chandeliers that gave the salon a relaxed, magical and elegant atmosphere. Aromatic wafts of Vanilla fragranced the air, the soft beat of exotic drum sounds hypnotic, Nolan understood now why Dion's Salon had the stellar reputation it did. 

         "Here, take a seat" Mel touched his arm gently and gestured toward the empty chair. "Can I interest you in a glass of MoonWine?"

         "MoonWine?" Nolan was caught off guard by the offer, it was the wrong time of day... They drank MoonWine at the salon? "Yes... Yes Ma'am… That would be good..."

         "Call me Mel..." she smiled.
         Nolan couldn't help but feel nervous as he sat in front of the mirrored wall in his gilded chair, feeling pampered already. The salon experience was nothing like what he expected, had he known he would have stopped by sooner.

         Mel returned with a glass of MoonWine and wrapped a warm, aromatic towel around his shoulders. She pulled his hair out and examined his locks, combing them gently, inspecting the ends.

         Nolan studied her movements in the mirror, aware now of how painfully nervous he was to have his hair cut; was it unreasonable perhaps? Her touch was gentle, delicate, caring... She appeared to know what she was doing.

         Mel made some notes on a tablet, picked up a pair of tweezers and parted his scalp at the spiral. "You'll feel a quick pinch" she warned, and before he could react, she plucked a few strands from his scalp.

         "Ouch!" Nolan jumped, caught off guard, trepidation vindicated.

         "I'm sorry" Mel placed the strands inside a red folder, "we need to take a follicle sample from all of our clients the first time they come" she smiled, reassuringly in the mirror. "This is how we know which products are most suitable for your hair. You'll recover!"She smiled again. "Think of it as an Initiation Rite."

         "An Initiation Rite. Right!" Nolan chuckled, shrugging it off.

         Mel loved clients like Nolan... She combed a lock out and ran it through her fingers in admiration of it's fine quality. Nolan had top of the line DNA but she hadn't seen him in the Clubs.

         "So what's it going to be?" She queried. "Just a light trim?" The last thing she wanted to do was cut it all off.
         "Sure!" Nolan felt better already. "Just a light trim would be perfect!"

        Mel arranged her tools, spritzed his hair with aromatic waters and began to comb it out in calculated sections. "How are you enjoying Merchant U?"

        "How do you know I'm attending Merchant U?" He was delighted by her intelligent charm. He had heard lots of gossip about Mel, Mel wasn't just Fina Famous, she was famous all over the empire. Rumor was, she was Atalon's main squeeze.

         "The coupon."

         "Oh..." Nolan realized he was still fondling it, the edges were all dog eared now. He slid it in his pocket, slightly embarrassed.

         "Let me guess..." she pried kindly, noticing his nerves. "Science major?"

         Nolan couldn't hide a smile as he watched her in the mirror, handling his hair with such amazing skill. "Sort of..." he replied. "Energy Science. I'm hoping to land a job on the Vimana Project." He loved to talk about his dreams, it was as if talking about them would somehow bring about their reality. 

         "I know I can solve the power problem, it has to be possible, it was done once before! I'm going to be the one that figures it out!"

         As the gods arrived for their Budget meeting that week, they were to choose one of the Crystal Skulls for themselves, in order of their rank.

         "They're not the same!" Hedena pointed out the obvious.

         "We won't know which ones work best unless we can use them all" Torus contested, forced to pick the last.

         "It doesn't matter" Atalon argued. "They're only cosmetic differences. All that matters is the material and form!"

         Orius wondered where he was getting this all from, he wasn't buying it and wondered now about fallout from their trip to Lemuria; This was perhaps coming from the Book of Life...

         "We are still in the R&D stages of the program, so expect extra drill assignments and opportunities to participate. Bakkon has offered to give you Crystal Divination classes, he will show you how to access the crystal energy in the same way that the Panthers do."
         "So why don't the Panthers have them?" Hedena snapped.

         "Because the Panthers have limited abilities. We know they work because Malodon has managed to prove the Light Serpents actually exist."

         Malodon shifted in his chair, the collective eyes focusing on him from around the table would believe it to be true, and he knew it was true, but he still had to prove it, and that made him feel uncomfortable now, now that his theories were mushrooming out of control.

         "What use will the Oracles be if we know more than they do?"

         "They are still a valuable resource" Malodon argued. "I'm making them all available for your disposal because this technology basically nullifies their purpose, they will eventually be phased out."

         Phase out the Panthers? Dell glanced across the table at Malodon, hesitant to verbalize his concerns, it was always risky to question Atalon's intentions.

         "What about the TLS Program?" Torus wasn't happy with the way things were happening so fast. "All this extra Crystal crap we're doing is making the missing aribu problem worse, you know."
         "Alright then, if there are no more questions..." Atalon banged the table.

         Avoiding questions was self preservation, but staying silent was suicidal, too. "I'd just like to caution against total exodus..." Dell could feel Atalon's laser beams singe as he dared to air concern. Atalon hated a challenge to his beliefs, especially in front of an audience and for that reason, sometimes it was the only way to raise them. "With all due respect, I have to speak out because I care" Dell could smooth out tension like butter. "Torus is correct. I've noticed the pattern too, it's the most conditioned Goldens that are disappearing from the program and they share the same Nummo bloodline as the Panthers. If I'm right and there is a connection, we might trigger another disaster with this Crystal R&D, and we don't want to do that."

         "Is that true?" Atalon glanced at Malodon and Medena, respectively.
         Malodon had been sniffing out a similar theory. "There may be some connection."
         "An electrical connection! Deleting all the Panthers is a gamble too great at this stage" Dell argued. "You even said yourself, we're only in the R&D stages of this Crystal Program."
         Atalon's dark mood was generating smog.

         "I'm just saying..." Dell tried once again to smooth his argument over.
         "What are you just saying?"

         "All I'm saying is we should keep a very close eye on the aribu while we do this R&D. The first sign of a malfunctioning aribu gens is that they...."

         "They start to ask difficult questions." Atalon snapped. "Yes, you told us!"

         Dell had seen the experiments. "I have documented evidence to prove that the crystal programming may in fact, multiply the rate of malfunction in healthy Gens."

         "Thank you, Dell." Atalon banged his telescope on the table once again, ending the discussion. "That will be all!"