Actus was a naked eye, a simple entity of vision floating in a dark and smothered cosmos, comfortable in its closeness. He could see little in the gloom, but felt somehow glad of it; like a child hiding under their blanket, he was master in this hidden realm and the beyond could not harm him. However, slowly but relentlessly, the veil of this place was being stripped away. The first rays of a terrible sunrise were beginning to shine on the blanket and invade, rendering it no longer secure but rather transparent and pathetic. Through this now transparent veil, Actus could begin to make out the shadows of shapes moving on the other side. These shapes moved like a monstrous pantomine, nauseating in their outlines and in motions suggesting some horrific, cyclopean dance. A terrible fear set in as Actus realized that the illusion of his private cosmos was lost forever, and that he would never be able to hide from the knowledge of those monstrous shapes that danced above him.

Then, moist heat. Slight nausea. A ferrous taste in his dry mouth. He had fallen asleep in his cot-seat inside the small unmarked transport bearing him on the last leg of his journey. He felt relieved that his nightmare was not a reality, but not as relieved as he would have liked. It had been a recurring feature of his sleep recently, and whilst he was not taken to the primitive belief that dreams somehow held cosmic significance, the regularity of this one was beginning to upset some superstitious animal part of his mind.

This fear was perhaps was being exasperated by the already highly unusual nature of the last few weeks. Actus had lived a regimented and very routine life for decades, and he was still reeling from such a dramatic break to that routine. Suddenly, he was thrown into this dark and clandestine world that smelled strongly of incense. He still did not truly know what he was being recruited for, or how his fledgling algorithm would be put to use. He knew the Ordo Malleus was real - a mere myth would not be so heavily censored across so many Imperial records - and that they were somehow involved with monitoring classified and dangerous warp phenomena, but beyond that he had very little idea about what their actual function was. All of this created a strange aire of fantasy and mystery that made everything that happened to him seem ominous.

That was not to say he was not excited or honoured by this opportunity. This was undoubtedly the greatest career opportunity he had ever been presented, and it would mean taking on a range of new data processing tasks under the supervision of new directors with exciting new operating protocols. He would be eager to begin this work, and get this disturbing interim period over with... if it weren't for the terrible suspicion that this strange lifestyle was only a taste of what was to come.

The intercom seamlessly announced in servitor-tones that arrival was imminent.