by Luigi Robles
“Yeah, I think so,” Mikey said. “Although it was my first time using it. I usually get kicked out of a meeting room before the ambassadors start talking to the visitors. Was there something I should have pressed?”
“No,” Pycca said. “It should automatically record all conversation. You have to program it not to record.”
“Then yeah, it should be recorded.” Mikey nodded.
“Mikey, I need you to send me the recorded file as soon as you can,” Fain said. “And what do you mean they kicked you out?”
“Yeah.” Mikey’s face saddened with the question. “Let’s just say I don’t have the best of friends up here. And also, you didn’t tell me about my rank.”
“I’ll fix that tonight,” Fain said. “I’ll make the necessary calls. And about your rank, it was unofficial; you weren’t supposed to know unless there was a good enough reason you should outrank others in the station. Ktwo and Kya would be the ones that would determine that.”
“I see,” Mikey said. “Well, that makes me feel a bit better. Oh, and Fain, please don’t do anything. I know you can, and it would be very easy for you, but just let me figure this one out for myself. I think I can handle it.”
“What about Commander Felix?” Fain asked. “Where is he now?”
“He said he would hang around the station for a few hours before he left.”
“He’s probably going to stay behind and do some damage control,” Fain said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he sends a few people home.” Fain let out a sigh. “Well, thanks for being the one to get this information to us first. I will talk to you sometime soon, once we figure out what we are going to do about this.”
“Alright, talk with you soon,” Mikey said. “And Pycca, I’m sorry for interrupting your date.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Pycca said. “We’d rather know about this now than later.”
“OK, alright, see you, then.” Mikey waved goodbye.
After the call ended, Fain slid the ESAF phone back into his leather jacket’s pocket and leaned back onto the bench. He knew that he was about to embark on what could possibly be the fight of his life. But he also did not want to let that get in the way of having a few last moments with Pycca where he could feel normal again. He hushed the fire that was already raging inside him for a few moments longer. He just hoped that Pycca did the same. He placed both his arms above the bench rail, and part of his left arm landed on Pycca’s back. Pycca didn’t move away; instead, she moved closer to Fain.
They were quiet for a moment, watching the people walk by, going about their everyday lives. There were kids playing, secure bots chasing after a few of them, large groups of tourists, couples and single people strolling from one end to the other. The sky pier was alive.
“What now, Captain?” Pycca asked.
“Ever since humanity ventured into space, a door of infinite possibilities opened in front of us. This is just part of it. The leader of the Golden Armada, Noble Saavan, told me that I would be hearing from him soon. Could it be that they knew this was coming? Is that why he decided to withdraw? The Acram are biological beings also, and you heard Mikey. What’s coming this time around intends to end all biological life. By default, that would put us on the same side as the Acram, despite everything that has happened. Have you noticed things glitching lately?”
“Just today, before I came here. I took apart a digital streamer because the screen kept blanking out.”
“Were you able to fix it?”
“That’s the thing. When I opened it, there was nothing wrong with it. All its components were in perfect shape. I didn’t have the time to put it back together and check it again, or else I would have been late. But since I didn’t fix anything, I think once I put it back, it’s going to be the same thing. You think that has something to do with this?”
“When we came back from the battle with the Golden Armada, Kya told me that something was trying to communicate with her. At the time she seemed scared and frightened.”
“What was it?”
“A machine.”
“Have there been more attempts?”
“No, at least not that I know of.”
“Fain, this is bad.”
“I know.”
Fain began observing the people passing by and all the tech they carried with them. Strollers that self-navigated through the crowds, following the parents; the arcades that charged the gamer automatically; four out of five people on their phones. What worried him the most was the reliance that people had on AI.
“Whatever the Immortals are, they have another think coming if they think we are just going to sit and wait for them to show up.”
“I’m starting to like the sound of that.”
“I’m going to cut my leave short; I’ll try to meet with Green and Truman as soon as possible. You take a few more days to spend with your parents. Please send my regards.” Fain turned to face Pycca.
Pycca turned to face Fain and nodded once.
“But I need you to do something,” Fain said, turning back to the crowd. “I need you to figure out a way we can trace the source of the glitches.”
“I think I can do that,” Pycca said as she gazed back at the sea of people.
The date ended shortly after, with Fain promising Pycca a second and much better date once all was over.
“I’ll hold you to that promise, Fain Jegga,” Pycca said as she accepted.
Early the next morning, Fain walked into the garage side of the ESAF facility on Soden Island, feeling rather amazed at just how much had changed in just three short weeks. And it wasn’t with the help of the Ochilenes this time; it was all human sweat and hard work. Before he had left the island right where he was standing, there was nothing, and now there was an entire three-to-four-story building. But Fain knew that it was only what he was able to see. ESAF had a thing for hiding things underground; the building he was staring at could easily have ten floors. Fain was standing in the garage portion of the building. He had entered through the back doors, as the entrance was still under construction.
Fain took in his surroundings, and he observed that although it was humans building the place, they were using tools he had never seen before. But the tools didn’t look outright alien in nature; they looked as if they were human tools, just more advanced. Workers moved large concrete slabs with ease, machines were putting up walls, and there were printers, many, many 3D solid printers.
“Like what we are doing with the place?” Green said as he pulled up on a hover caddie.
“Seaside entrance. Fancy. I’m impressed. There was nothing here before I left.”
“Come on, hop on,” Green said as he waved Fain to join him. “The entrance pier will be finished in a few days’ time. We figured ESAF main headquarters and the R&D facility deserved a little more than just a few buildings all smooshed together.”
Green navigated the caddie across the large garage and parked it just outside an elevator. They got off, and Green extended his badge and swiped it across the slot on the side of the keypad.
“How old is this technology?” Fain asked as they stepped into the elevator.
“We are trying to keep things simple around here,” Green said as he pressed the button on the elevator panel to the lowest level. According to the buttons on the elevator, the building had ten floors. Fain had been right after all. “No modern AI, no over-the-top, complicated tech; there’s enough of that in the R&D side. Truman and I opted for a more practical approach.”
“You mean retro.”
“It just reminds us of a simpler time.”
“So, how are things?” Fain asked.
“If it wasn’t for the news we received yesterday,” Green sighed, “I’d say things would be really good about now. But as soon as word gets out about what’s happening, ESAF will return to being under the microscope, and that is something I’m not looking forward to.”
“You think it will leak soon?”
Green rolled his
eyes and chuckled.
“Oh, right. The ambassadors,” Fain said.
“Kya has already stopped five official attempts,” Green said. “Per our policy, we will not interfere with any private form of communication. If it leaks, then we’ll deal with it.”
“I’m sure you and Truman will be just fine.”
“Don’t be so sure. As soon as the politicians and people in power start feeling threatened, they are going to come after the one thing they think they can control. Should control, better said. We try to operate as independently as possible, with no influence from the current government structures. Luckily, some of the world leaders understand this. But in the end, we are still humans and we still live on Earth, the very place these people think they own. We would be fine if we had a planet of our own.”
Recently, NATO and most of the rest of the world had filed a lawsuit against the US for ownership of Soden Island. They proclaimed that Sodenia and anything that had to do with it belonged to the world and not to a single government entity. They used Sodenia’s origin to the maximum extent, arguing that it had come to Earth, not to a part of Earth. Of course, that was a bogus argument, as Sodenia protected the entire planet and not just part of it. Still, the argument held up in court.
In the wake of the ISCO, ESAF was forced to allow ambassadors and staff from other countries to join the communications initiative.
“Do you think we’ll lose the lawsuit?” Fain asked.
“Who knows,” Green said. “ESAF is doing everything it can to remain independent under US law. Hopefully, it stays that way.”
“If not, we’ll just have to move to another planet,” Fain said as they walked out of the elevator.
“You know what? That’s starting to sound like not such a bad idea after all.”
Green and Fain took a few more steps along the well-lit hallway and then turned to face an inconspicuous door. Green knocked on the door a few times.
“Come in.” Truman’s voice sounded muffled through the door, but Fain was still able to distinguish it.
Without hesitation, Green opened the door and walked into the room, and Fain followed.
Truman was behind a large wooden desk with a hefty ESAF seal on the front of it. The seal was circular, with the words “Earth Space Armed Federation” around it, and a globe in the center with a dot making its way around the globe. The desk had a few things on top of it; to the left was a small American flag, to the right an ancient mechanical typewriter and next to the typewriter an old lamp. At the center of the desk there was a large leather writing pad with plenty of papers on it, and innocuously placed next to the large writing pad was a computer console.
The wall behind Truman was covered in floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, and in front of the desk were two comfortable-looking chairs.
“General Truman,” Fain said and saluted as he came in.
“Gentleman, Green,” Truman said. “At ease. Please take a seat.”
“Very funny,” Green said with a sarcastic tone as they sat down.
“Fain, we’ve read the reports from the ISCO,” Truman said as he scratched his beard and sighed. “When it’s not one thing, it’s another. The only little bit of good news that I was able to extrapolate is that this time we aren’t the only target.”
Fain nodded slowly.
“This puts us at a numbers advantage,” Truman continued. “At least when it comes to finding out their next move. This is where the ISCO will come into full play. If the enemy does appear, we’ll know about it. Green and I’ll craft a message and send it out to the known civilizations in contact with Earth. We also need to be ready to render aid if need be.”
“Understood,” Fain said. “According to Kya, a good part of the fleet can travel within Sodenia’s drive bubble.”
“That might be necessary,” Truman said. “We still don’t know exactly how a mass movement of our fleet will work with the Ochilenes jump gates.”
Before the Ochilenes left for their home planet a little over three months ago, they constructed two massive five-ring gates capable of jumping anywhere in the galaxy, as long as the distance didn’t exceed the jumping capacity of each ring. Each ring could cover a jumping distance of eight thousand lightyears at a time. If the target destination exceeded that amount, then a second ring would need to be deployed. Kya suggested building such gates due to the low number of jumper core power cells the Ochilenes had left.
“So, what is this?” Fain asked. “Why announce themselves?”
“Who knows?” Truman said. “A scare tactic, a ritual?”
“A challenge,” Green said.
Fain and Truman turned towards Green.
“When a hunter is after his prey,” Green said, “he goes to great lengths not to make a sound. But sometimes, the old and bored hunter wants a challenge. He wants to scare his prey, to make it run, make it fear for its life so that when he finally puts an arrow through his prey’s heart, he knows he is the apex.”
They were quiet for a few moments.
“Yeah, could be,” Truman said. “But for all we know, none of this will happen, or this could be some type of Acram plan to distract us.”
“No, that can’t be it,” Fain said. “The Golden Armada could have destroyed us if they wanted to. Noble Saavan pulled his armada back because we had unintentionally united the galaxy against a single cause. This might be that cause.”
“Hopefully we can keep it that way,” Truman said. “I’m thinking of replacing a few of the ambassadors in the ISCO just to make a point and remind them why they are up there.”
“That would be good,” Green said.
“Let’s bump up our visit to the Ochilenes’ homeworld,” Truman said. “We are keeping our promise, but we are doing so early. Make all necessary arrangements.”
Minutes after the meeting, Fain was on his way to the space elevator on the other side of Soden Island. A two-way five-mile-long bridge connected the island to the space elevator. Soden Island and the bridge looked insignificant compared to the mammoth structure of the elevator. Its shape was of an inverted parabolic cone with a cannon-like structure on top. The seven-mile-high structure seemingly disappeared into the sky.
It was previously thought that for the space elevator to work, two things needed to happen. One, it needed to be placed along Earth’s equator, where the centrifugal forces caused by the rotation of the Earth were greatest. And two, the space elevator needed to be lightweight and yet strong enough that it wouldn’t crumble under its own weight. Earth’s first space elevator, dubbed Ouranos by Truman, was neither. Rather, it was two sperate structures, one on Earth and the other in space, rotating in synchronicity. Instead of having a 60,000-mile cable connecting Earth and space, Ouranos launched pods into space using pulse energy that would accelerate the capsule halfway towards the space part of the elevator. Once halfway to space, the space dock would begin pulling on the capsule. It took three hours to get to the space dock and around thirty minutes to come back to Earth in a controlled descent.
“Officer on deck,” an ESAF officer said as Fain entered the Ouranos lobby.
“At ease,” Fain said as he walked towards the main desk.
There were two ESAF officers behind the desk, one of them waiting for Fain to approach while the other typed away at a computer.
“How can I help you today, Captain?” Smith, as his nametag showed, asked.
“Heading up,” Fain said. “I’ll just need a small capsule.”
Ouranos had an assortment of capsules, from two-passenger capsules to capsules that could fit up to thirty-five-passengers at one time. There were also capsules for the sole purpose of moving freight to and from space.
“Sure, no problem,” Smith said. “I’ll just be needing clearance.”
Fain let out a cough; he was caught off-guard. Since he had become captain of Sodenia, clearance to visit his own ship was not something he had ever needed before.
“What?” Fain coughed once more.
“Clearance is needed for everyone going to the space dock,” Smith said. “Those are orders from the top down.”
The other officer behind the desk stopped typing and turned to see what was happening. Recognition was painted across his face. He quickly got up and pushed Smith aside to get behind the main desk computer. He promptly started opening display windows.
“I’m so sorry, Captain Jegga,” Yanks, as his nametag showed, said. “Forgive ESAF Apprentice Smith here. He must not have recognized who you are. He’s just doing his job. I’ll get your capsule sorted out for you right away.”
Fain nodded. He found it both amusing and refreshing that they actually didn’t know or understand who he was. Fain didn’t mind whatsoever, but he was in a hurry.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Smith said in a low voice. “We were told that everyone needs clearance, no matter what.”
“I don’t think that applies to him,” Yanks hissed. “That’s Fain Jegga, not a Fain Jegga, the Fain Jegga, Captain of Sodenia. Do you really want Kya coming down here to give him clearance, or Truman? If that happens, we are all gone.”
“OK, but what if he’s an impostor or something?” Smith hissed back. “We need to check his papers. What if that’s not him and he goes up to the ship?”
“Are you for real right now?” Yanks turned to Smith, voice still quiet. “Who in their right mind would go up there with Kya if they had no business going up there in the first place? You do know who Kya is, right?”
“Yes…” It looked as if Smith was finally grasping the concept.
“Alright then,” Yanks hissed and turned back to the computer.
Fain enjoyed the back and forth between the two officers, and it looked like Kya had gained quite the reputation among ESAF.
“Captain Jegga,” Yanks said, looking up from the computer screen. “Your capsule is now ready in bay one. We currently have clear skies, so you should be on the space dock within three hours. Is there anything else I can help you with, Captain?”
“Nope, that’s all.”
