The Syndicate's Journey

by Nicholas Bogucki

  Lieutenant General Armitage knew that General Deschner did not understand what the Drakdels were made from, but these were modified for some reason. He also knew that he had to not make General Deschner look clueless in front of the other generals.

  “Titanium and Colerite.” Lieutenant General Armitage finished the sentence.

  “Exactly that.” He smiled. “I’m glad you know what the Drakdels are made out of Lieutenant; after all, it is your division.”

  Lieutenant General Armitage nodded. Saved him from embarrassing himself.

  “Are these modified in any way for space travel, I meant.” Lieutenant General Armitage asked.

  “Well, they are, yes.” General Deschner began to speak. “Each one of the Drakdels is fully equipped with vials of Antimatter in the engine compartment. You’ll see what I mean when you are inside of the Drakdel.”

  “Antimatter, General?” asked Lieutenant General dee Veyra. “Aren’t we still experimenting with that?”

  “Well... Lieutenant General Armitage and I talked it over last night, and with a phone call, we were able to modify these two Drakdels here to use Antimatter for their fuel instead of what we would normally use.” He proudly spoke as he moved his hands behind his back.

  “Oh?” Lieutenant General dee Veyra glanced at Lieutenant General Armitage as she continued speaking. “I see...”

  “Oh, no worries, it is perfectly safe!” he smiled. “Plus, we have just enough fuel for the Major Generals to travel across the planets and come back here.”

  “What if we run out?” asked Major General Solbrig.

  “Why would you?” asked General Deschner defensively.

  “Well, just taking precautions is all, General.”

  “No need to! A little bit of Antimatter can go a long way. Right, Lieutenant General dee Veyra?”

  Lieutenant General dee Veyra looked at Lieutenant General Armitage, and he nodded to her, and she spoke.

  “Of course. Antimatter fuel, even the smallest amount can last a long time. If what you are saying is factual, that inside the Drakdels are many vials. Then, of course, they have enough fuel. More than enough, actually.”

  “Exactly.” General Deschner smiled and nodded.

  General Deschner waved his hand in the air and opened his INH. His eyes looked at the time, and he waved his INH away.

  “It is almost 06:00. You all better get going!” General Deschner commanded. “Through this doorway is the Drakdel for Snakardekus.” He held out his right hand. “And this one is for Varenok.” He held out his left hand. Then the Major Generals walked to their respective doors. Major Generals Reingle and Solbrig to Snakardekus and Major Generals Lokhorst and Brentari to Varenok.

  “Oh, before I forget! Remember that time will be different on those planets than here. The days may be shorter or longer, and that is something you will have to figure out on your own. Your Nuwurth Standard Time will be shown on your INH, so you will need to record a full days’ worth of time to measure between whichever planet you are on and Nuwurth’s time to figure out the time difference.” General Deschner stated. “This will make recording and documentation a lot easier. The Drakdels have a constant connection to the USV Valkanaut, which will keep track of the time for you.”

  The Major Generals nodded that they understood.

  “I think that is all...” General Deschner trailed off in his speech. “…Oh, right! Lieutenant General Armitage mentioned to me that he allowed each one of you the ability to scan objects. We believe that it will be beneficial for your mission.” General Deschner smiled, then looked at Lieutenant General Armitage and winked at him.

  Wait, how does General Deschner know about that? I didn’t tell him…did one of the Major Generals?

  General Deschner walked forward a few steps and shook the Major General's hands from his left was Major Generals Brentari, Lokhorst, Solbrig, and then Reingle.

  “Good luck to you all. Remember one month then travel to the other planet. The four of you need to work together on this.” He smiled. “Good luck again, and see you in two months.”

  Lieutenant Generals Armitage and dee Veyra waved good-bye to the four Major Generals.

  “Be careful and safe travels!” Lieutenant General dee Veyra shouted.

  Lieutenant General Armitage nodded. “Contact us if you need anything.”

  Major Generals Reingle and Solbrig were standing in front of the hallway that led to Snakardekus, and Major Generals Brentari and Lokhorst were standing in front of the hallway leading to the Drakdel for Varenok. Before walking inside the Major Generals, all turned to one another and looked at one another.

  “Goodbye, you two!” Major General Reingle yelled.

  “See you soon!” Major General Brentari replied. “Bye!”

  “Be safe.” Major General Solbrig waved.

  “You too.” Major General Lokhorst said. “Goodbye.”

  One by one, each Major General walked inside of the Drakdels, and the doors closed behind them. Inside each of the Drakdels was a bunk bed for two people to the left. Directly in front of them was a half-circular desk that faced the front of the Drakdel and two chairs for each Major General. The desk and chairs overlooked a window that covered a quarter of the Drakdels exterior.

  Inside of the Drakdel, on the right side is a small kitchen and a door leading to the engine room. Inside of the engine room were many vials of Antimatter that were vacuum-sealed shut and was stuck to the wall. The vials were no more than eight inches in length and three inches in diameter. To the right side was the OBA’s which were black all over. The front of it looked like the Antimatter was placed in on its side with two “arms” that locked in place around the user’s head. They were neatly placed on the wall. In a matter of moments, each Major General sat down in the chairs in front of the computers and swiped open their I.N.H as they did this, a new button appeared that read:

  TRAVEL TO UNKNOWN PLANET

  The Major Generals knew where they were headed, but it was not in the data files just yet. The information that they had about Snakardekus and Varenok, was very minimal, but at least the Drakdels had coordinates on how to get there. The Major Generals in each Drakdel pressed the button that was emitted from their INH to travel.

  In a matter of seconds, the Drakdels flew away from the USV Valkanaut and headed towards their destination. The Drakdels were equipped with warp-drive, and when the Drakdels were operating at a rate of one light-speed, they could activate the Faster Than Light function or the FTL, which took the Drakdels four seconds to do so. The Drakdels could fly at a light-speed of fifteen. To operate at such incredible speeds, MOD was able to perfect not only warp-drive but also developed traveling through negative matter.

  The Drakdels are the only vehicle that can do this in the Syndicate. The Drakdels can compress the space in front of it and expand the space behind them to achieve speed faster than light. Theoretically, they could travel anywhere they wanted to faster than a blink of an eye.

  By flying at these faster-than-light speeds, in a flash, the Major Generals parted ways. One Drakdel flew towards Snakardekus and the other towards Varenok.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Drakdel had entered Snakardekus’ atmosphere. Major Generals Reingle and Solbrig controlled the deceleration of the Drakdel on their INH’s upon arrival on the planet. As the Drakdel decreased altitude, they could see that Snakardekus was a desolate planet. The atmosphere looked hazy, and all around them as far as their eyes could see through the glass was sand. There were many rock formations scattered throughout Snakardekus. The main focus right now was for the Major Generals to find a safe landing area. They saw in the distance a boulder that looked suitable to be their temporary landing dock.

  The Drakdel hovered above the boulder and then extended its three legs from its lower body and firmly secured in place on the boulder. The rock below them was a light brown with a grey tint. Major General Solbrig waved, and his INH opened, then he pressed the “Record” button.

&
nbsp; “Nuwurth’s local time is 06:05. We that is Major General Reingle and me, Major General Solbrig, just landed on Snakardekus.”

  “We are the first transhumans to land on Snakardekus. How does that make you feel?” asked Major General Solbrig.

  Major General Reingle rattled off how he feLieutenant “Anxious. Nervous. Scared. Excited.”

  Major General Solbrig tapped on the “Record” button to end the recording. “You know that is going down in history, right? We’ll be fine, I mean if anything happens, we can just come back to the Drakdel and fly back to the USV Valkanaut.”

  “I’m sure we’re fine, though.” Major General Reingle sounded worried as he spoke. “I just cannot stop thinking about those files.”

  “Well, let’s add new files then. Who knows what we will encounter? I’m sure Snakardekus has changed.”

  “Sure, but first...”

  Major General Reingle swiped his hand over the computer and turned it on. He tapped on the clock and waved his hand up. There were a few buttons. “Record Time,” “Alarm,” “Set Time,” “Timer,” “Nuwurth Time,” “StopWatch,” and “Add New Time.” He tapped the button that read “Record Time,” and that was all he had to do, the Drakdel did the rest of the work. He swiped his hand and opened his INH and tapped on his clock, and saw that the time was being recorded on his INH as well. He then tapped on the button that read “Alarm.”

  “Twenty-four-hour alarm, right?”

  “Well, not necessarily.” Major General Solbrig stated.

  “Oh?” asked Major General Reingle. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we need to figure out how often Snakardekus completes a rotation on its axis like Nuwurth does. That is how we will figure out how long a day is. The Drakdel will figure that out for us.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry, I guess this mission got the best of me,” Major General Reingle explained.

  He shook his head. “Don’t worry, that’s fine. Set your alarm for twenty-four hours, and we will coordinate with what the Drakdel finds tomorrow.”

  “Okay, good. I am going to go find some external suits for us, maybe they might be in the closet or near the bathroom? Major General Reingle stood up from his chair and walked over to the closed door by the control room and opened it. The doors slid to both sides, and he looked inside.

  It’s just a restroom.

  Major General Reingle yelled loud enough that Major General Solbrig could hear him from the restroom. “You know, I’m a little concerned, we weren’t offered suits or anything that could protect us from the weather here...”

  “Oh? You know, I didn’t think about that.” Major General Solbrig replied. “Is there a closet inside the bathroom?”

  “Let me look.” Major General Reingle turned around and walked inside of the bathroom and saw a small cabinet. He opened the door and looked inside. Bottles of pills, pain medications, band-aides, and syringes. He looked to his left and noticed a closed cabinet. He opened it, and two peripherals were hanging inside of the cabinet.

  What is this?

  He grabbed them and walked out of the area and back to where Major General Solbrig was sitting and using his INH. “I didn’t find a suit, but I found this. Should we send out a message asking what to do about a suit?”

  “What is that?” Major General Solbrig asked. “I’m sure General Deschner didn’t forget to put suits in the Drakdel.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know what it is; I was hoping you knew.” Major General Reingle walked over to the computer and sat down in the chair. He then waved his hand over the computer desk and opened his INH on the computer screen.

  “Hmm...I wonder if I can find this thing somehow.”

  Major General Solbrig watched as the computer screen was projecting Major General Reingle’s INH

  “Maybe. Try to find it.” Major General Solbrig replied.

  “Okay.”

  He tapped on “Files,” and the folder opened, and all his files were shown on screen.

  “What are you going to look for?” Major General Solbrig asked.

  “Hmmm…Let me see... he tapped on the search bar and typed in the keywords: “DRAKDEL and SUITS and tapped on the keyboard button that read ENTER. On his INH showed the search results.

  DRAKDEL……………………………..2 SEARCHES FOUND O.B.A…………………………..….……1 SEARCH FOUND

  SUITS…………………………...………0 SEARCHES FOUND

  DRAKDEL OBA SUITS………......……0 SEARCHES FOUND

  OBA SUITS……………….……...…..…0 SEARCHES FOUND

  “OBA? What is that?” Major General Solbrig asked.

  “I have no idea. One way to find out. Let’s see what the OBA has in store for us then.”

  He tapped on OBA, and one folder appeared. He tapped the folder, and it opened, and a text document appeared that read:

  PLEASE READ BEFORE OPERATING THE ORGANIC BREATHING APPARATUS (OBA)

  1)INSERT A VIAL OF ANTIMATTER INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE OBA AND PUSH INTO IT UNTIL IT SNAPS.

  2)WHEN USING THE OBA SECURELY PLACE THE MOUTHPIECE FIRMLY IN YOUR MOUTH AND HAVE THE ARMS WRAPPED AROUND YOUR HEAD.

  3)THE ARMS SNAP INTO PLACE AND CAN BE EXTENDED WIDER.

  4)WHEN USING THE OBA YOU WILL BE ABLE TO BREATHE IN ANOTHER ATMOSPHERE’S JUST LIKE YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO ON NUWURTH. YOU WILL NOT NEED AN EXTERNAL SUIT.

  5)THE OBA WILL TRANSMIT A SIGNAL TO YOUR INH IN CASE THERE IS HARMFUL WEATHER.

  6)THE OBA WILL NOTIFY YOU WHEN THE ANTIMATTER IS GETTING LOW. WHEN CHANGING THE OBA, IT WILL HOLD OXYGEN IN THE OBA FOR FIFTEEN (15) MINUTES UNTIL IT NO LONGER CAN SUPPORT ITSELF WITHOUT ANTIMATTER.

  7) THE OBA WILL LAST APPROX. SIXTY (60) NUWURTH DAYS.

  Major General Reingle turned to look at Major General Solbrig.

  “Well, that was quite helpful. More information than I thought would be there, to be honest.” He turned to look at Major General Solbrig. “So... this is an OBA, huh? Do we just put the vials in here?”

  “Do you have a vial?” Major General Solbrig asked.

  “Well, no. I did see the vials in the back room over there.”

  “You didn’t think about grabbing one?”

  “Well, no…” Major General Reingle admitted.

  “What are you waiting for? Go on, go get one!”

  “Oh, uh…” Major General Reingle placed the OBA on the desk, and he hurried to the closet and grabbed an Antimatter vial, and came back. “Alright here.”

  Major General Reingle pushed the vial horizontally towards the hole that seemed like the proper place for it and then pushed it all the way in the OBA. Then he lifted it up and showed Major General Solbrig.

  “That looks about right...” Major General Solbrig asked. “What about clipping it into the other side?”

  “Oh, right yeah, that’s probably how it goes.”

  Major General Reingle clipped the Antimatter vial into the other side of the OBA, and it was completely horizontal.

  “Should we take extra vials with us?” Major General Reingle asked.

  “Hmm... it depends. How long do the vials last?”

  Major General Reingle placed the OBA on the computer desk. “Let’s see... that text said that one vial should last around sixty days…but until we know how long that equates to for Snakardekus, we should probably take more...”

  “Agreed. So... 1,440 hours.”

  “Right. What if we set a timer on our INH reminding us when half of it is empty and when it is down to say around ten percent left?”

  “That could work,” Major General Solbrig agreed. “Although we do not know how to properly dispose of them, nor do we know if the atmosphere of Snakardekus is compatible or has a reactive nature towards the Antimatter.”

  “Yeah... you’re right, but what can we do? Bring the vials back?”

  “I mean... it seems like the best possible solution now,” Major General Solbrig stated as he grabbed a vial and looked at it. He held the vial with his thum
b and forefinger up to the light and saw the fuchsia-colored liquid inside of the vial moving around. “How could something that lasts so long be in such a small vial?” Major General Solbrig pondered.

  “Not a clue.” Major General Reingle replied. “I am glad we have access to Antimatter, though. Did General Deschner ever say how he got ahold of so much Antimatter?”

  “Now that you mention it, I don’t remember him saying anything about that. Maybe?” He shook his head. “I’m really unsure now.”