The Star Agency (The Star Agency Chronicles)

by R. E. Weber

  ‘Correct,’ said First Mentor.

  ‘Rubes, can you see it?’ said Theo excitedly. ‘Look where we came in – where the doorway was.’

  ‘Yes I can see it, I can see it,’ said Ruby.

  ‘It’s just incredible,’ said Theo.

  ‘I did inform you that your companion would be invaluable,’ said First Mentor.

  ‘Yeh,’ said Theo. ‘But I had no idea it’d be like this.’

  ‘I’m glad you are happy with your companions. This now concludes the overview. I will explain some of the more advanced features in the coming days, although I have no doubt that you will both learn some of them for yourselves.’

  ‘I can’t wait to see what else they can do,’ said Theo, grinning.

  ‘Indeed. Now, if there are no further questions, this concludes your Mentor led session for today. For the remainder of the day, you should work through the lessons in the accelerated language program. From tomorrow, we will begin using Affinity Common in our sessions.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to that,’ said Ruby excitedly.

  ‘Good. Now, if there is nothing further, you are free to return to your quarters. I will contact you tomorrow when I am ready to commence with your next session.’

  ‘Thank you First Mentor, it’s been really interesting,’ said Ruby.

  ‘Yeh, excellent,’ said Theo.

  ‘I am pleased that you both feel this way,’ said First Mentor.

  Theo turned to see that the glowing outline of the doorway had already changed into an exit.

  ‘Bye then, First Mentor,’ said Theo.

  ‘Goodbye, Theo. Goodbye, Ruby.’

  Theo headed through the doorway, closely followed by Ruby. When the doorway had closed behind them, he turned to face Ruby.

  ‘That was amazing,’ said Theo.

  ‘Yeh, I had no idea about the doorways and screens,’ said Ruby.

  ‘Shame about the homework though,’ said Theo. ‘I’m useless at languages.’

  ‘Oh come on,’ said Ruby, ‘I bet you’ve never had homework quite like this before?’

  Theo didn’t answer, but just smiled. He knew Ruby was right. His classes in school on Earth seemed dull beyond belief in comparison. Indeed, for the first time in his life he was actually looking forward to his homework. Even if he was no good at languages.

  Chapter 12 – Fallen Angel

  Two weeks after Theo’s return to Polisium Prime, all the recruits from Earth had been summoned to the Sensorium to discuss what First Mentor had cryptically described as a very important matter. But that morning, as he made his way towards Weng’s quarters, nothing seemed more important to Theo than getting a good night’s sleep. With the exception of Ruby, they’d all found it difficult to adapt to the longer thirty-hour days of Polisium Prime, and Theo in particular just seemed to be tired constantly. Ruby had somehow seemed to adapt almost straight away, and was always bright, bubbly and wide-awake. Theo had no idea quite how she managed it.

  Another recruit from Earth, Lara, had arrived to join them the week before. She was a solidly built, fourteen-year-old, Icelandic girl, who was clearly very intelligent, but also somewhat cold towards the rest of the group. She also seemed to have, at least as far as Theo was concerned, some strange habits like insisting on going to bed and getting up at exactly the same time, to the minute, every day. Theo had tried to make friends with her when she’d first arrived, but after several somewhat stilted attempts at conversation, he’d finally given up. But his friendship with Weng was a different matter. From the word go, they had become firm friends and, along with Ruby, had spent nearly all their free time together. Ruby had tried her best to draw Lara into their conversations, and had often made a point of inviting her over to join them socially after their orientation classes. But more often than not, she just wouldn’t turn up, and on the one occasion she had, she’d just sat in the corner, saying nothing, with her eyes flicking from side to side, seemingly far more interested in her companion than with joining in with them. Theo and Weng had thought it hilarious to nickname her the Ice Maiden, but Ruby had always disapproved and tried to discourage them. ‘Poor Girl,’ she’d once said. ‘She’s got no chance of getting a word in edgeways with you two.’

  As Theo swung round the corner to Weng’s quarters, still rubbing his eyes, Ruby and Weng were already in the corridor, chatting.

  ‘Morning,’ said Ruby as Theo arrived.

  ‘Yeh, it is,’ said Theo yawning and barely catching her eye.

  ‘You’re really struggling, aren’t you buddy?’ said Weng. ‘Why don’t you have a word with First Mentor? I’m sure there’s something she could do for you. Some medication or something.’

  ‘Whose stupid idea was it to have thirty hour days anyway?’ said Theo.

  ‘Don’t look at me,’ said Weng. ‘I hate it just as much as you.’

  ‘I hope you two are going to try and be a bit friendlier to Lara, today. That poor girl.’

  ‘Oh yeh, the Ice…’

  ‘Weng, stop it!’ said Ruby abruptly.

  ‘Yeh, I will if she will. She’s not exactly easy you know.’

  ‘Yeh, don’t blame us,’ said Theo. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not really talking with anybody, including you, Rubes.’

  ‘Yeh well, we’ve all got to make more of an effort. Perhaps she doesn’t have many friends back home. Some people don’t find it easy you know.’

  ‘I wonder why?’ said Theo sarcastically.

  ‘Anyway, come on you two, let’s go. It’s nearly time,’ said Ruby.

  *

  Minutes later, they were all sat together in the Sensorium. Lara had arrived before them and was sat down rather stiffly with her arms folded, staring silently at the column in the centre of the room, which was not yet glowing to indicate First Mentor’s presence.

  ‘Erm, how are you this morning, Lara?’ said Theo, forcing a smile.

  ‘I am well today,’ said Lara rather sternly, not wanting to catch his eye. Then a few seconds later, she added ‘Thank you for asking.’

  Theo sat in silence, desperately trying to think of something to say, indeed anything that might engage her in some sort of conversation. Finally, he managed to blurt out ‘Do you erm, know what this is about, Lara?’

  ‘I don’t,’ she replied, again pausing for a few seconds, before looking back at Theo. ‘Do you know?’

  ‘None of us do,’ said Theo, ‘but it seemed serious from the message we all got, didn’t it?’

  But Lara didn’t reply. Instead, she seemed to be busy with her companion again.

  ‘Perhaps we’re all being sent home,’ said Weng yawning, ‘so we can get some sleep.’

  ‘I wonder if there’s been another attack?’ said Theo.

  ‘I hope not,’ said Ruby. ‘That was awful what happened on Ch’Dath.’

  ‘I don’t really get that attack though,’ said Theo. ‘I mean, why go to all the trouble of diverting an asteroid. Surely there’s an easier way to attack a planet. I mean, if they could hack into the control systems of a Star Shield Platform to stop it destroying the asteroid, then why couldn’t they just have reprogrammed it to attack the planet instead. Surely that would’ve been the easier. Asteroids are big and hard to move.’

  ‘Perhaps they couldn’t,’ said Lara sternly.

  Theo, Ruby and Weng all looked around, surprised. It was the first time Lara had made an effort to join in.

  ‘What do you mean, Lara?’ said Theo, leaping on the chance to engage her in conversation.

  ‘Well I was thinking. You know how there are different levels of security on all Affinity systems. Perhaps whoever did it was only able to break into the lower level systems. They might not have had the permissions to instruct it to attack. So maybe they just did something simpler instead.’

  ‘Like overloading it with lots of smaller tasks,’ said Theo, even more surprised that he seemed to be on the same wavelength as Lara.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Weng.
>
  ‘Well, you know, like when you’re busy and you get distracted. You forget to do important things,’ said Theo.

  ‘You’re telling me the Star Shield Platform forgot to defend the planet? That’s ridiculous,’ said Ruby.

  ‘No it isn’t, Ruby,’ said Lara, frowning. ‘If you overload a computer with too many background tasks, it slows down and struggles to perform its primary tasks normally.’

  Theo looked over at Lara and thought that, just for a moment, he had caught a trace of a smile. But the expression vanished quickly.

  ‘Well-reasoned,’ interrupted First Mentor. ‘But I will go into the specifics of that another time. The reason you have been brought here this morning is because I have some further information regarding the attack on Ch’Dath. I would like to share this with you before it becomes public knowledge.’

  ‘You know who did it, don’t you?’ said Theo. ‘The attack I mean.’

  ‘We have followed a trail of circumstantial evidence which has, in all probability, led us to determine the culprits of the attack on Ch’Dath.’

  ‘So who was it, First Mentor?’ said Ruby.

  ‘Before I answer that question,’ said First Mentor, ‘can I return to your previous point. We believe that the reason an asteroid was used in the attack was because, despite what you might think, it is actually relatively easy to divert an asteroid. It doesn’t require any advanced technology, just time, careful planning and ingenuity. The shift in the asteroids orbit was tiny, but over months a tiny shift, if precise enough, would have been enough to aim it at Ch’Dath.’

  ‘Oh right,’ said Weng. ‘So anyway, who was it?’

  ‘We believe that the attack was perpetrated by a faction known as the Metah Dah.’

  ‘The Metah who?’ said Theo.

  ‘Metah Dah,’ said Lara, again surprising everybody. ‘Otherwise known as The Dispossessed.’

  Quickly, Theo activated his companion and began talking to Ruby privately.

  ‘She is full of surprises, isn’t she?’

  ‘Don’t be rude,’ replied Ruby. ‘Talk to everybody in the room.’

  ‘Who are the Dispossessed?’ said Weng.

  ‘Lara,’ said First Mentor, ‘since you have clearly done some further study into this matter, would you be so kind as to tell the group what you know.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Lara. ‘They’re from an ancient race of Polisians. They were extinct, but then Polisian scientists re-sequenced their genetic code and recreated them. I don’t know much else because there was very little public information available about them.’

  Theo, Ruby and Weng just stared at Lara, open-mouthed.

  ‘Correct,’ said First Mentor.

  ‘OK, so why all the secrecy then? I mean, why isn’t there much information available on them?’ said Theo.

  ‘The Polisians are a proud race,’ replied First Mentor. ‘Proud of their accomplishments and proud of their moral code. But in the case of the Metah Dah they feel a degree of shame. Every Polisian knows the story, but little is publicly documented on the matter.’

  ‘But you know more, don’t you, First Mentor,’ said Ruby. ‘Can you tell us about them? I mean, how were they recreated? And why are they attacking us now?’

  ‘Ah,’ said First Mentor. ‘I believe this will require a rather lengthy explanation. If you would permit me some time, I will attempt to explain. Around three hundred years ago, a deep space research vessel, exploring the outer reaches of our own solar system, discovered what appeared to be an ancient settlement on a small icy asteroid. The settlement was believed to have been abandoned several million years earlier, but due to the airless environment and the relative stability of the asteroid, it was well preserved. Much of the construction was of a type never before encountered, and when the outpost was fully excavated, the team discovered a network of tunnels cut deep into the body of the asteroid. At the end of one of the longest and deepest tunnels they discovered a huge chamber, and within it the remains of what was assumed to be a research facility. Inside the facility, they found a sealed vault, constructed of an unknown and virtually indestructible material, and it took the research team several weeks to safely open it. But once it had been opened, they found thousands of carefully sealed containers, containing preserved tissue samples from hundreds of species of organisms. In many of the samples, the genetic blueprints remained intact.’

  ‘You mean their DNA?’ said Lara.

  ‘Essentially, yes,’ said First Mentor. ‘All living creatures on all worlds contain some form of genetic blueprint, which guides their growth and development. DNA is the blueprint specific to your world. But blueprints from different worlds, although similar in structure, are unique to the world upon which they arise.’

  ‘So you mean you can tell what planet any species comes from by looking at their genetic blueprint?’ said Ruby.

  ‘Correct,’ said First Mentor. ‘The research team discovered that several of the samples belonged to a species which had arisen on Polisium. Further analysis showed that its blueprint was a ninety-seven per cent match for their own species.’

  ‘So they were closely related then?’ said Theo. ‘Like humans and chimps I mean.’

  ‘Correct,’ said First Mentor. ‘The genetic blueprint belonged to an ancient sentient race of Polisians. Further research concluded that they were the builders of the facility.’

  ‘But surely you knew about them before that? I mean, there would have been remains and stuff on Polisium, wouldn’t there?’

  ‘They were already known to us through their fossilised remains, and from this we had concluded that they were an intelligent and dominant species on Polisium. But the remains of their buildings and technology had all but vanished, and it wasn’t until we developed space travel that we were able to find better-preserved examples of their technology and, as it happened, themselves. Their species is known as the He’tal. They were the first sentient race to arise on Polisium.’

  ‘Wow,’ said Ruby.

  ‘Both the modern and ancient Polisians had a common ancestor, but their evolutionary lines split from each other about 15 million years ago. As they continued to evolve, the He’tal developed an advantage over the line that was to become the modern Polisians.’

  ‘Which was?’ said Weng.

  ‘They lost the power of flight,’ said First Mentor.

  ‘They used to be able to fly?’ said Theo, surprised.

  ‘Correct,’ said First Mentor. ‘Indeed, they shared several common traits with birds on Earth.’

  ‘But how’s that an advantage?’ said Theo. ‘Surely being able to fly would have been better because it would have allowed them to escape from any predators?’

  ‘Losing the power of flight became an advantage because the limbs that had previously formed their wings could develop other uses. An upright bipedal form is a common and successful design in evolution because it allows the species to use their remaining free limbs to make and use tools. This ability gives a species a better chance of survival because they are able to alter their environment to suit their own needs. Such a species would inevitably flourish and become dominant.’

  ‘Survival of the fittest,’ said Theo.

  ‘Precisely,’ said First Mentor. ‘If you look at the arms on a modern Polisian, you can see the remnants of a wing. Their arms are split at the elbow into two forearms. Those forearms once formed the supports for a wing membrane. They have not entirely evolved away their wings, just the skin membranes between them. They have also grown considerably in size since they too lost the power of flight.’

  ‘They must have looked like bats once,’ said Lara.

  ‘Very similar,’ said First Mentor. ‘However, bats evolved in the opposite direction. Their limbs evolved into wings. The evolutionary line that became modern Polisians didn’t lose the ability to fly until about three million years after the line that became the He’tal. But those three million years gave the He’tal an advantage. From that point forward, their evolution
was rapid, in a similar manner to the way human ancestors advanced once they had learned to walk upright and make tools. Indeed, it is believed that the He’tal even used to hunt and kill the ancestors of the modern Polisians for food.’

  ‘What did these He’tal look like?’ said Theo.

  ‘Look to your right,’ said First Mentor.

  They all turned to look as a two-meter high image shimmered into existence beside them. Theo’s first impression was that they looked a lot like the modern Polisians. Their legs and arms were thicker with only a single forearm, and their heads were more rounded with a much smaller crest at the back. They also had forward facing eyes instead of the sideways facing eyes of modern Polisians. But their overall body shape and stance was strikingly similar: legs bent backwards at the knee, three forward facing toes and one backward facing one, narrow bodies and long necks, with a distinctly birdlike stance.

  ‘How advanced were they?’ said Theo.

  ‘Their civilisation developed, technologically speaking, further than that of modern Polisians. Do you recall the Quantum Portal that transported you to the Polisian solar system?’

  ‘That thing on the moon?’ said Ruby.

  ‘Yes,’ said First Mentor. ‘These were originally constructed by the He’tal. They built a large network of Quantum Portals across many star systems.’

  ‘I always assumed you built them, the Affinity I mean,’ said Theo.

  ‘No,’ said First Mentor. ‘We were able to repair and reactivate them, but our attempts to build a complete working portal have so far failed. The Quantum wormholes generated were found to be too unstable for matter transport.’

  ‘So you just stole their technology?’ said Weng.

  ‘Inherited would be more accurate,’ said First Mentor. ‘The He’tal, for whatever reason, abandoned them.’

  ‘So what happened to them?’ said Weng. ‘Where did they go?’

  ‘Our research has determined that about ten million years ago they just seemed to vanish.’