The Star Agency (The Star Agency Chronicles)

by R. E. Weber

  Then he thought about Ruby and it hit him like a thunderbolt, and he felt like an idiot for not realising. Ruby didn’t know! He’d never had the chance to tell her. She must have thought he was out of his mind, starting a fight with a creature with ten times his strength – calling it names and then spitting at it. It must have seemed suicidal. That was why she’d been so upset and angry. She’d been terrified for him. Frightened for his life. Frightened that she might lose him.

  Theo sat upright on his bed. He’d been really stupid for not realising in the first place why she’d had been so upset. He had to call her now and explain. Then he remembered something else. The Protah had murmured something to him as he’d been pinned up against the wall. He doubted whether Ruby had heard anything, but he had. Focussing hard, Theo tried to recall what the creature had said, but with the noise of Ruby yelling and him choking, it had mostly been lost. Then he smiled to himself. Just before the creature had grabbed him, he’d somehow had the presence of mind to turn on his Companion’s Record function – figuring that if he were going to get into a fight, then at least he would have had the evidence to prove that he hadn’t started it. Quickly, he located the recording, isolated the exact segment from when the creature had spoken to him, and enabled Translate and Enhance. Moments later, the translation appeared:

  You will all bow down before the Redeemer.

  Theo stared at the phrase. What was a Redeemer? He had a vague idea that it was something religious, but beyond that he wasn’t sure. Focussing on the word, he selected Define. A list of possible answers appeared. He scanned the list quickly, but most were irrelevant or didn’t make much sense, a little like Internet searches on Earth. Eventually though, one did seem to catch his eye:

  Human Religious Phrase: Person or deity who might deliver a soul from Sin and Damnation.

  Theo stared at the phrase for several moments. Surely that couldn’t have been what the Protah had been talking about, could it? After all, he was on Polisium, not Earth. No, there had to be a different explanation.

  He continued to scan through the results, and eventually, another one caught his eye:

  Polisian legend: An Enchanted stone which, when cast into the burning heart of the sky, made both the meek and the powerful equal.

  Further Detail

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  Polisian Legend. Now that seemed more likely. But what did the new result mean? Enchanted stone, Burning heart of the sky? It sounded like some bad fantasy movie. It could have meant anything.

  He was just about to select Further Detail, when he noticed a tiny, faint, pulsing red dot at the end of the result. It was barely noticeable from a full stop and indeed he could so easily have missed it. But there it was, pulsing faintly. What did it mean? It was the only result that had one. And it was the first time he had ever seen one.

  Quickly, he marked the search results screen with an Instant Recall Marker so that he could easily find his way back later. He focussed on the dot, which then changed into a sort of swirling, sideways figure of eight symbol. Then he selected it. But what happened next, made him wish he hadn’t.

  His whole companion screen suddenly began to scramble and break apart, with letters and symbols appearing and disappearing everywhere. Within a few seconds, the flashing symbols had wiped out most of the menu options making them unreadable, and if he tried to focus on any that were remaining, the companion refused to select them. As he watched the symbols, he began to feel dizzy, so he tried to focus on a point on the ceiling behind the screen to stop his head spinning. But after several seconds staring straight up, it hadn’t made any difference. Instead, all he could do was lie as still as possible on his bed while his companion screen disintegrated in front of his eyes.

  After about a minute, the companion screen went completely blank. Then the familiar menu screen re-appeared. Theo let out an audible sigh of relief. Whatever had happened, hadn’t been permanent.

  Then a message appeared in the centre of the screen:

  Security Enhancement Granted.

  Level Two - Sensitive status applied.

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  But the message didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t been told about a change of security status, so what had happened? He remembered from one of his early orientation lessons about how the different levels of security within the Affinity worked. There was Level One – Guest, which was the minimum or default level granted to all Affinity member species, including the recruits from Earth – this was by far the most common security level in use within the Affinity. Then there was Level Two – Sensitive, which was for Affinity Government workers and low-level military personnel. Beyond level two, there were three other levels granted only to mentors, high-ranking officials, military commanders and planetary leaders. So why had he jumped up a level? It made no sense. He hadn’t even completed his orientation, to say nothing of being appointed to work for the Affinity government. He stared at the message for a few seconds. Then he closed it down.

  Now he had to think logically. He had to reason this out.

  OK, first things first, a sanity check. Was the message actually correct? Had his security status really changed?

  Theo cycled through his companion menus and then checked his status again:

  Security status: Guest – Level 1

  That made even less sense. According to his companion, his security status hadn’t even changed.

  So what had triggered the change in the first place? The search result. So he needed to open the search result again and check for anything unusual.

  Quickly, he opened the Install Recall marker and the result re-appeared. But even though the result was the same, the red dot had disappeared, to be replaced by a steady green arrow.

  So an arrow has replaced the dot. What do arrows do? Arrows point you in the right direction. Arrows lead you to whatever comes next.

  Theo smiled to himself as the explanation popped into his head.

  The level two status was only limited to the search result.

  Pleased with himself, he selected the arrow. Then another screen appeared:

  Level 2 result:

  Overview:

  Polisian Scientists have postulated that the legend of the Redeemer might have a basis in fact. The meek and the powerful could be interpreted as primitive and advanced civilisations, while the act of redemption itself might indicate some sort of cataclysmic cosmic event, which would render both civilisations powerless and thus equal. The ‘enchanted stone’ and ‘burning heart of the sky’ might be taken to represent objects such as stars, singularities or even galaxies. And those objects, when in collision, could generate levels of exotic subatomic particles capable of destroying or disabling the technology of any civilisation within the stellar neighbourhood. Indeed, such an event, they suggested, might have already occurred in the distant past.

  To date, no supporting evidence has been found to confirm this theory. However, when seen in the context of the Wider Truth, it becomes clear that this hypothesis warrants further investigation. This, along with several other related studies, prompted the initiation of the Omega Project, the preliminary conclusions of which have been deemed unsuitable for release to the general populous.

  Related Information

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  Theo read the text several times carefully. He wasn’t completely sure he understood everything fully, but he thought he had grasped the basic idea. Two objects – perhaps stars, galaxies or black holes – might have collided, generating a pulse of radiation big enough to disable or destroy the fragile technologies of any civilisations in nearby star systems. He guessed that it would have been similar to what might happen on Earth if there were ever to be a nuclear war. Even if enough people survived the nuclear blasts to keep humanity alive, the electromagnetic pulses from the explosions would fry any electrical equipment within range. If all electrical equipment were to become useless, then the world would becom
e a place without technology. And if that happened, then any people remaining alive would revert to using handmade tools and weapons to survive, effectively living a Stone Age existence. And each of the nations that had waged war upon each other would become equal or, more accurately, equally powerless. Perhaps this theory was talking about the same sort of thing but on a cosmic scale.

  Once he had taken a snapshot of the text, he selected Related Information, hoping to discover more about what he had read. But instead of listing multiple references to other information, as he might have expected, he received a simple, abrupt response:

  No results returned

  Frustrated, he closed the screen down and then began to search for other references from the text such as ‘Wider Truth’ and ‘Omega Project’. But several minutes later, he gave up. There appeared to be nothing that made sense or bore any relation to what he had read.

  With his head spinning, Theo lay back down, closed his eyes and tried to sleep. But more he thought about everything that had happened that night, the less it made sense. And the more he tried to shut it out of his mind, the more it wouldn’t go away.

  *

  An hour or so later, still wide-awake, Theo got up and sat on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. The thoughts in his head were still swirling around, driving him crazy. And the worst of it was that the one person who could help him sort through the chaos in his mind and understand what had happened, wasn’t speaking to him. He needed to make his peace with Ruby and have his best friend back. He didn’t care what time of night it was and he didn’t care how angry she might be. He had to speak to her now.

  Quickly, he opened a conversation with Ruby and then waited for her response. But after a minute or so of silence, he closed the conversation down. She still wasn’t speaking to him and that left only one thing to do. He wasn’t going to go to sleep on this argument. He had to go and see Ruby, now.

  *

  Theo had been outside Ruby’s quarters for several minutes, requesting access, before finally giving up. Ruby clearly didn’t want to know right now, even though he had made the effort to come and see her in person. But then it seemed strange. If she was really that angry with him, then surely she would at least have wanted to rant and rave and let him have a piece of her mind. But she hadn’t. Instead, there had been just silence. There had to be something else wrong. There had to be another reason.

  Theo was just about to turn and walk back to his quarters when he looked back at the doorway in front of him. Then he laughed out loud with exasperation. Sometimes, he could be really stupid. He opened his companion:

  Locate, Individual, Rubina Chaudhry.

  A few seconds later, the response came back:

  Level 1, Observation Deck, Pod 15.

  In his determination to speak to her, it hadn’t even occurred to him that she wasn’t even there. Angrily, he slapped himself hard on the forehead with the palm of his hand. Idiot!

  *

  Several minutes later, after having been guided by his companion to the observation deck, Theo found himself standing outside Pod 15, staring at a closed doorway. He knew Ruby was inside the pod and he knew that in a few moments, after he entered, he would find out exactly what she thought of him. And although he needed to face whatever was in store, he was also nervous – perhaps more nervous than he had ever been in his entire life. But she was his best friend, or at least she had been. And if he ever hoped to save their friendship, he knew he would have to enter. So he straightened himself up and took a deep breath. Then, with his heart thumping hard, he stepped through the doorway.

  The observation pod was a flattened circular room, about ten meters across by about three meters high. Save for a metallic framework around the outside and a three-meter square patch of floor next to the doorway, most of the pod, including the floor, was completely transparent, without even a hint of a reflection – almost as if it wasn’t even there. Guessing that his fear of heights would kick in if he took another step forward, Theo decided to remain near the doorway. But there ahead of him, on the far side of the pod, stood Ruby, staring out into space. There was nobody else in the pod.

  ‘Finally found me, have you?’ said Ruby, without turning to look at him.

  ‘Erm, yeh, I couldn’t sleep,’ said Theo.

  ‘Why, guilty conscience?’

  ‘No, not at all,’ said Theo nervously. ‘I just wanted to talk.’

  ‘Well, go on then, talk,’ said Ruby, still staring out into space.

  ‘I’m erm, sorry,’ said Theo.

  ‘Oh really, you’re sorry, are you?’ said Ruby. ‘Managed to get here without starting any fights then?’

  ‘Ruby, come on, look at me. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Yeh, you said.’

  ‘No really, I am. I’m sorry. How many times do I have to say it?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s the way you say it. Perhaps you have to say it like you mean it.’

  Theo sighed. He had known that it wasn’t going to be easy, but he had at least hoped that she would give him half a chance. What did she want him to do, beg? How could he possibly say sorry any other way? He stared at Ruby, who still hadn’t turned to face him. Then something occurred to him. He rolled his eyes around in their sockets for a moment and then lifted the index finger of his right hand into the air and stared at it. After a few seconds, the tip of the finger began to glow. Then he began to draw in the air: first a single vertical line, then a squiggle and then some more lines. After about a minute, he finished and lowered his finger.

  ‘Ruby,’ he said firmly.

  ‘WHAT?’

  ‘Ruby, at least look at me when I’m grovelling to you.’

  Ruby span round angrily, ready to yell at him. Then she just stopped and stared, with her mouth hanging open in shock. There, hovering in the air between them, were two shimmering words written in Theo’s scrawly handwriting:

  I’M SORRY.

  Ruby lifted a hand to her mouth and a small tear rolled down one cheek.

  ‘Theo,’ she said, her voice shaking, ‘how?’

  ‘Well a boy’s gotta have some secrets,’ said Theo, finally smiling.

  ‘I’m sorry, Theo,’ said Ruby. ‘I just... I mean, I am sorry. I’ve been horrible to you tonight.’

  ‘So what happened to never falling out again, Rubes? Where did that go?’

  ‘Oh you know me, I’m…’

  ‘Mule headed,’ said Theo finishing the sentence. ‘Yeh I know.’

  ‘I was just scared for you, with that horrible creature,’ said Ruby. ‘I didn’t want to lose you.’

  ‘You’re not getting rid of me that easily.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Ruby, staring down at her feet. ‘I feel really stupid.’

  ‘No, I was the stupid one. I put us both in danger. You were just looking out for me, I know that now. I’m just glad I’ve got somebody like you looking out for me.’

  ‘The truth is Theo, I wasn’t angry with you, not really. I was angry with myself. I was angry that I wasn’t able to help you. And I was ashamed after I’d hit you. I know I should have come to see you before, but I couldn’t face you. It was much easier to make out that I was angry. That way, I didn’t have to hear what you really thought of me.’

  ‘But you were right to be a bit angry with me, Rubes. I mean, it isn’t normal to shout and spit at strange alien creatures when they’ve got their tongues round your neck and they look strong enough to use you as a cricket bat.’

  Ruby looked down at the floor and sighed. Then she looked back at him.

  ‘Yeh, I know that now. I’ve been reading up about them. They’re rather nasty, aren’t they? When your body went limp, for a second I thought you were… well, you know.’

  ‘Oh, that was just a minor shock to the nervous system that paralysed me from the neck down. It could have been much worse.’

  ‘That was quick thinking with the spitting. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do the same.’

  ‘It’s funny h
ow you can surprise yourself sometimes.’

  ‘Yeh, well anyway, I know why you did what you did now.’

  ‘I’m glad you understand.’

  ‘And I’m sorry I lost it. It’s just me and my temper. It gets the better of me sometimes. I just see red. But I’ll never doubt you again. You were really brave, Theo. If you’d got it wrong, I don’t think we’d be standing here, now.’

  ‘You were pretty brave too, Rubes.’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Oh I think you were, taking on a Protah like that.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  ‘Well anyway,’ said Theo, deliberately changing the subject, ‘I’m glad we’ve talked. I feel better now.’

  ‘Yeh, me too.’

  For several longs moments, they stared deep into each other’s eyes, without speaking.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Theo, breaking the silence, ‘I suppose I should go now. Are you coming?’

  ‘But aren’t you going to come over here and look at the view,’ interrupted Ruby. ‘It’s amazing.’

  ‘Erm no, I think I’ll give it a miss,’ said Theo edging back towards the doorway.

  Ruby stepped forward and held out her hand towards him. ‘Come on. I won’t let go. Let me show you.’

  Theo looked down at the transparent floor beneath her feet and then back at her outstretched hand. Then gingerly, he reached out and took it, closed his eyes, and allowed himself to be led forward.