by Shay Zana
"How should I know? They don’t give me classified intel like that." Although Rockland is telling the truth, his voice is almost mechanical, as if he had been rehearsing that line for several hours. He silently curses himself for sounding so indoctrinated.
Mazayus is not convinced, but he pulls his eyes away from the UEU commander, examining each of his crew more closely. Their name tags read: Zee, Rivera, Colton, Dimitri, and Kann.
Zee’s blue eyes are the first thing he notices, sharp against his dark skintone, which is only a shade lighter than his own. He looks young and reckless, also a bit drained from the hit he took to the head. Mazayus remembers that Zee was the pilot at the helm, and he seemed to be very skilled.
Rivera he does not recognise, but he can tell she is a medical officer, as she is wearing the standard medical uniform of the UEU, a black, form fitting jumpsuit that is very similar to the white medical uniforms in Serenity. Something about her features seem synthetic, more so than usual in the UEU.
Colton he can see is also a medical officer, but perhaps higher rank than Rivera, maybe even the chief medical officer as her uniform sports a gold stripe around the turtle-neck collar.
Dimitri looks to be a man in his late twenties, well kempt with auburn hair and dark eyes, though he looks sleep deprived.
And Kann is an older, hard looking man, with stern grey eyes, shortly shaven hair, a thin and tightly pressed lip, and a prominent jaw.
With his enhanced reaction time, Mazayus had skimmed them all and gathered opinions within mere seconds. He focuses back to Rockland. "Look, Serenity is not responsible for these events, nor are the Zodiacs or any independent organisation that may be affiliated with Serenity or the Zodiacs. Our mission was to stop Scattered Planet's stars from dying, and we have only just recently discovered that our mission is related to these events occurring throughout the galaxy."
Rockland shuffles uneasily on the spot, not sure whether or not he should trust this Paragon, who appears to be their leader. "We call them distortions," he replies, somewhat avoiding the issue between them.
Kitera steps forward, the hood of her cloak now gathered around her face to shield herself from these UEU people. She knows just her presence alone will evoke wariness in them, whether they suspect she is a Cipher or not. "Yes. The distortions have been occurring for several months now, correct?"
He nods, once again swept off his boots by this mysterious woman. "Many worlds have been destroyed, natural disasters are occurring at random, and other strange things have been happening. We've been declaring system-wide evacuations over the last few weeks, but many never even made it off their homeworlds before they were sucked up by super tornadoes, washed away by continent eating tsunamis, or crushed under fallen meteors. Your Ciphers don't know about this? Aren't they supposed to know everything?"
Kitera lowers her head, her hood slipping to obscure her face in shadow. "The Zodiacs have been unable to communicate as effectively. They sent us to stop it, but they did not inform us of all matters."
Rockland frowns and folds his arms across his chest. "Why not?"
"They have been weakened by the events."
"So these Paragons are going to commit suicide in their mythical rituals and then this is all going to be fixed?" His voice is mocking.
"Their Sacrifices will disrupt the distortions in the stars. A star within a star will create a chain reaction."
Right, Rockland thinks, not sure whether to laugh or not. It is obvious she is hiding something, but her words seem truthful at the same time. A thought occurs. The Zodiacs sent four Paragons to save the galaxy, and one civilian woman? Who the heck is she? "So who are you?” he blurts. “You said you were royalty? Why were you sent with these Paragons?"
She does not answer, faltering, unsure whether she should explain everything to these UEU people, and this commander who is showering questions at her. How will they react if she tells them she is a Cipher? Will they immediately attempt to take her life? Will they refuse to listen to her and yell the typical insults at her? Siren. Witch. Gypsy. Sorcerer. Mythical whore. Dark angel. Demon.
Mazayus interjects, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder. "You should tell them the truth, maybe if they listen to you, they can stop this war before it goes any further than Kronos."
Reluctantly, she nods, and now looks back to the suspicious eyes of the commander. She takes a breath before pushing her hood back. "I am a Cipher," she announces bluntly.
The UEU crew all stand in disbelief. Ciphers never leave isolation. No one has ever seen a Cipher before their eyes.
The rotating panorama of the stars is the only movement between them, the stargrid dazzling at them impatiently as it displays the active battle over Kronos.
“Pinch me,” comes the quiet whimper of Jason.
Rockland focuses hard on the apparent Cipher standing patiently before him, feeling just as shocked as Jason. "You're the guide for these Paragons?" he asks her warily, gesturing to the four large men behind her, who look like they can kill everybody in this room before he can even blink once.
She nods, though her eyes stay on him. Her strange, vampiric eyes.
"And your gods, the Zodiacs, sent you to Scattered Planet to stop the distortions?"
Again, she nods, but this time, one of the Paragons behind her shifts his weight impatiently, the one with the mohawk, cornrows and the tattoo on his scalp and neck.
Rockland watches him uneasily. "You're not here on some classified Serenity operation to infiltrate UEU intelligence?"
"No," Kitera speaks. "We are not here to bring further war to this galaxy. We are here to stop it. By the stars, you have my word as a Cipher."
He exhales and his shoulders drop with slight ease, but his eyes still rave over the intimidating Paragons, who all stare at him cautiously, like hunters observing their prey, watching for any sudden movement. "I suppose since we're all still alive, and since we're all being held prisoners by your space whale, I'm gonna have to take your word for it."
Stances relax, muscles lose their taut clench, jaws cease grinding, and eyes grow dimmer with content, until Rockland says almost innocently, "now can I please have my ship back?"
ALLIANCE
We are sapient beings wrapped in a war of those that have long transcended from our physical bonds. Is the world around us also physical, or is it just here to contain our primitive minds? A mind matrix of unfathomable depths. Will humanity, the only known sapient species, ever reach transcendence? Will other species of life evolve to be as advanced as we are? Will they also transcend? Even on our celestial body of origin, humans were the only species, out of many others, to evolve to this current status of intelligence. Why? Why are there no others? Is it a gift from the gods, a miracle? Or a curse from the gods, a flaw? Are we to be the next transcendent race? The next gods to be guardians of this dimension?
For so long my mind has weaved through these questions, drowned in these everlasting wonders, drifted aimlessly until my symbiosis with physicality and the transcendental begged for the eternal drift, the tranquil lull.
But now, it all seems devoid. Were we an accident, or a secret?
And so the UEU commander and his crew listen to what the Cipher has to say. They are caught in a web of wonder, fear, and utter awe. They know that gods exist. They know that the Zodiacs are not just simply a myth, but are real beings living in another plane of existence. They know this because humanity has witnessed their influence throughout many ages, and even without the abilities of a Cipher, one can occasionally feel the presence of the Zodiacs, through subtle signs or feelings within the mind. It is instinctive to know of their existence.
The Ciphers have existed since the beginning of humanity, lying dormant in the shadows of history, acting subtly through their agents who are now known as their Paragons. But they have only just revealed themselves recently over the last few thousand years, at the time when humanity needed their guidance the most, before it could destroy itself. They rose fr
om their shadows and took lead of the human race. Some call it guidance, others call it control. But all know that without the Ciphers and the Zodiacs, humanity may have never reached beyond Earth, may have never set out toward the stars, never to sail through the vast ocean of infinity.
The UEU knows this, but they refuse to be governed by these transcendent beings who have humanity calling them gods. They are the only intelligent species in the entire universe, according to the Zodiacs, so therefore, it belongs to them, they have the right to make their own choices and shape their own path, that right does not fall to beings who do not even have physical forms. The gods did not create humanity, nature created humanity, and although the gods created nature, they did not intend for nature to evolve into intelligent life on the scale that could destroy it.
So now, a phalanx of gods wants to destroy intelligent life before it does anymore damage, they want to correct nature, the very nature they created. They want to destroy nature and rewrite it, start from the beginning, in order to stop intelligent life forms from destroying it. They want to do it right, do it their way. They want to correct themselves. It never ceases to be true. The created will always rebel against their creators. And these creators are fucking insane.
Now, as this handful of UEU personnel listen to the Cipher, they cannot help but think again about their ways. Maybe they are playing with fire. Maybe they are completely out of their depth in what tiny speck of stars they have conquered in the universe. These Demons that the Cipher so inexplicably speaks about are truly worthy of fear, and of power. Humanity is simply a clan of ants against these beings. Humanity has power of the brain and with it comes technology, but this is just a shield, an enhancement to lengthen their sword through the stars, but the gods have power just by being. They are power, the very essence of it. They are immortal. What can such a young species do against an ancient blood feud that has survived all ages of time? What can mere matter and flesh do against such limitlessness?
"The distortions are getting worse," Rockland states after Kitera finishes, his eyes as dreadful as the dead landscapes of Olympus. "Time rate, distance, mass, temperature, the light spectrum, everything broken down on an atomic level is distorted. It's like nothing is real anymore. It’s like we live in this damned virtual world and it’s glitching up. The cybergrid is more realistic at this point."
The Serenity and UEU crews are now gathered around the stargrid on the Marauding Exile, almost completely at ease with each other, their minds now solely working on the problem at hand with Kronos and the distortions.
Mazayus has one arm over his chest, the other to his chin, his fingers drumming on his bottom lip in thought. "The time and distance distortions explain how we arrived at Olympus in just three months. We were eighty-seven million light years away from the outer rim."
Rockland raises his eyebrows, not understanding. That distance is nothing for a space whale. "Aboard your ikamanu? That’s a slow rate.”
"No," Mazayus corrects. "Altair was attacked and we were forced to abandon ship. We set a course at SSII in our pods and entered cryo-stasis, that's when we awoke three months later and arrived on Olympus. At that speed, it should have taken us forty million years to reach the galaxy."
That fills in some gaps, Rockland thinks. “Why set a course for Olympus? You said it was the nearest military planet. What, you can't hire vessels at any of your colony worlds?"
Mazayus ignores the commander's insulting tone. "We cannot perform the Sacrifice without an ikamanu. Only military centres contain summoning stations. They are vessels and creatures to aid us for important intergalactic travel, not slaves that can be called upon whenever someone wants a ride," he waves his hand dismissively at Rockland, cutting back his insult.
Rockland hums thoughtfully. "We use them whenever someone has the means to afford one. But they are widely used for military exploration."
Mazayus thinks that is despicable, but he refrains from voicing his thoughts.
"Why do you need an ikamanu to perform these Sacrifices, anyway?" Rockland continues, almost at a drilling pace.
"No other vessel can take a Paragon to a star’s core and survive long enough for the Sacrifice to be performed.”
Again, Rockland hums, wondering why the UEU does not know more about Serenity and the details of these Sacrifices. He knew that Paragons are regarded as holy warriors, fighting for the Ciphers directly, technically not part of the Serenity military. Free agents, basically. But aside from that, all he really knew about their operations was that they recruit genetically superior infants into their program, enhance them through cybernetic augmentation and entities, screw with UEU operations if it even has the slightest bad effect on nature, and worship stars by saving them, at the cost of their own lives, which probably has something to do with the Zodiacs and their godly voodoo. Hell, if these Paragons want to give up their lives for a few stars and hope it fixes the distortions, he will crack a beer and watch the show.
“Hold up. The four of you are set to kill yourselves, but with just one ikamanu? How can you pull that off simultaneously?”
The Paragons shuffle their weight under the question, and the Cipher’s gaze falls subtly. “We do not know. Our mission details are vague. The Zodiacs implied that only one ikamanu would be needed, so we trust in that,” she supplies.
"Ok, so in order to evacuate the entire Serenity population of the galaxy as efficiently as possible, you need to locate your King, right?" Rockland now speeds it up, wishing to get down to business and sort this out before it gets any worse.
Mazayus nods.
"Yeah," Boone answers, jumping at the chance to speak. "So could you please call off your guard dogs so that we can get down there?"
Rockland crosses his arms over his chest again, looking Boone square in the eye. "And what makes you think the Admirals will listen to me?"
"Your mission was to extract data from Olympus and find out if Serenity had anything to do with the distortions, right? Just give them the data, that'll prove that Serenity isn't responsible and then we can all go home."
Mazayus interjects. "Boone, that data will have sensitive intelligence, it could stop the attack on Kronos but could start up an entirely new war elsewhere."
"Then just take out the important bits. Fixed."
"That won't work," Rockland says. "It'll be obvious that someone tampered with it. Do you think the UEU is run by apes?"
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
He squints his eyes at the mohawk Paragon, hating him the most, even more than the one who smacked him with his own gun and made his nose pour with blood. He sees that Paragon now, pinching at the bridge of his nose as if to stifle a sudden headache. He gets the feeling that these two do not get along.
"Altair has extracted the data from your ship's systems," Mazayus continues, wanting to keep everyone from growing more agitated with unnecessary bickering. "So you will no longer be delivering sensitive Serenity intelligence to the UEU. We will give you back control of your ship so that you can report to your superiors and inform them of recent events, and get your forces out of this galaxy. There is no sense in staying here while your people continue to be killed by these events. Serenity or UEU, we are all human. My team will handle this situation."
Rockland does not like what he is hearing. He had the data, well some of it, it was secure in the Marauding Exile’s systems. But now he has lost it. How did this happen? Four Paragons and this Cipher managed to fight through his entire crew, get aboard his ship, and suddenly he is being held hostage and the data has been whisked from his grasp. Like taking candy from a baby.
Mazayus sees the disdain in Rockland's features. "Your mission was to find the cause of the distortions. You found it. You have completed your mission. Our mission is to stop the distortions or save as many people as we can in the event that we fail. We need to co-operate, put a stop to this meaningless war. It starts with Kronos."
With a conclusive sigh, Rockland eventually u
ncrosses his arms, looks to his crew surrounding him, and now nods to the dark-skinned Paragon who emits a wise air. "Agreed. But I still don't know how you expect me to stop this war. The admirals were counting on the Marauding Exile to provide the necessary intel that would decide the outcome of this conflict. If we discovered that Serenity was in fact responsible for these events, the attack would commence, but if we found no evidence that Serenity was responsible, further investigation would be necessary."
"I don't understand, you have not found evidence, so why did they attack Kronos?"
Rockland runs a hand back through his greying hair, conveying bemusement. "Like I said, I have no idea. I gave a report on our situation, updating them about the virus we encountered and my concerns about you lot, but I assured them that we had the situation under control. Nothing in my report would have provoked an attack on this scale."
"Something else must have provoked them..." Deo says thoughtfully, leaning on the railings around the stargrid and narrowing his vision on the holographic battlefield, as if he is engaged in a game of hide and seek, searching for a sign hovering in space that will give him all the answers.
"Could Serenity have struck first, perhaps?" Natheus adds.
Kitera shakes her head. "No, it was something far worse...” Her sentence trails off and her face falls distant. Everyone on the command deck can feel a faint drop in temperature, as if the breaths of the gods are whispering through them and hazing them with chilled rain. “The UEU's home system is Sol Nova, and your main homeworld is Eden, located at these co-ordinates, correct?" Kitera suddenly comes back to life, dragging everyone else back to reality with her as she selects Eden’s location on the stargrid.
Rockland looks stunned. "Wh- how did you know that?" But now as his eyes meet hers, and she speaks to him with their eye contact alone, he feels like facepalming himself. How did she know that? Because she is a Cipher. Damn it, Jaron, get your brain working. "Never mind," he sighs.
