by Ivan Kal
His transport finally arrived at its destination, and smoothly lowered itself down on the pad. The airplanes of old have all been mostly replaced, at least in Concordis and League, the American continents still had airplane travel, but any travel between there and the League or Concordis was by Eagle class transports. The technology was mostly there even before the war, hover ability, vertical liftoff and landing, and faster speeds, not to mention their greater reliability. Olympus was the first to start producing them and couple of League companies saw the opportunity and grabbed on as well. They looked reminiscent of the old Japanese Kawasaki C-1 military transports a bit blockier in appearance, without the back tail were instead the engines were situated, with two big turbines bellow the wings that were turned towards the ground, and with two exhausts on the wings top. There were of course many variants, based on their purpose, commercial, cargo, military and those designed specifically for Olympus use. The Eagle transports were all mostly larger than the old commercial airplanes, again, different variants had different dimensions, but most fell into ninety to hundred and twenty meters range, with the advances in technology, the space inside the transports was again increased, so the new transports could carry at least twice as much as the old airplanes of the same length.
“Tomas, we’ve arrived.” Elias Bakas, his second and head of security said from the seat beside him.
Tomas nodded, and stood up. The platform at the back of the transport slowly lowered and revealed the surface platform of Sedna city. There were two people waiting for them, Nathan Jansen the mayor of Sedna was one of them. Nathan was also a high level Olympus employee, all the cities built by Olympus were run by their employees, all were highly capable and most importantly loyal to Olympus first and Concordis second. Even though the cities are considered Concordis property by anyone outside of Concordis government, even the citizens of Concordis believed that. In truth, the cities were leased to Concordis, the deal that Tomas made with the government was very clear, the cities were going to be populated by people from Concordis, but the running of the cities would be entirely up to Olympus personnel, there would be no politics involved there. Tomas has worked hard to make Olympus what it was today, the company was not like other companies, it was completely run and owned by Tomas, with a few of his closest friends which helped him start it owning some small part. It was more of monarchy than a company, and he ruled it all, Olympus had achieved monopoly in many different areas, it had many subsidiaries in all parts of the world. The Concordis market was mostly run by them, with very few companies being able to keep up with them, and only because the government aided them as much as it could, early on when Olympus was just created, and under his leadership started to swallow the broken market and repair it under his guidance, the government realized that Tomas was set on dominating the world economy and feared that very fragile world peace could be broken. But Tomas wasn’t a man motivated by money or power, he understood that they were just tools with which he could accomplish his goals. What motivated Tomas was hunger for knowledge, the need for advancement, not just of himself but of the entire human race, he wanted to unite the world, and he knew that as long as greedy governments existed, it was never going to happen. The creation of the League and Concordis gave him a tiny bit of hope that the humanity could someday become what he envisioned it to be, but it was still not enough. Olympus was his solution to the problem, a way to control and guide the world without having to play with politics, or not as much, he learned over his seventy one years of life that one can never entirely escape it.
He strode purposely down the ramp, his steps confident and his posture flawless. Tomas Klein was seventy one years old, but looked as if he was in his late twenties. Olympus had made many strides in prolonging the human lifespan. The world was still over populated, resources in the League and Concordis might have reached the point where population control was no longer necessary, but their level was still not enough to feed the entire world population, many still died of hunger and thirst in Russia, and the American continents, as well in the countries that refused to join with the now largest powers in the world. He released a treatment that effectively erased aging period prior to death. People were now expected to live at least a hundred and fifty years, though only in the League and Concordis, the body no longer aged slowly after the point of were growth ends, instead people were expected to age rapidly in their last few years, with as little suffering as possible prior to death. People still died of disease or unnatural causes, but even that has been reduced greatly, at least in Concordis. The war changed many things, people realized how close to the death of our entire race we really got, the leaders knew that as long as their countries put themselves first and world second, there would always be wars, and one of them will end them all. The creation of Concordis and the League went a long way towards making sure that never happened. People who lived there were happier, and their leaders worked towards making sure that every single citizen had a full life, to a point that there was no poverty. The two countries worked closely together, they both used the same currency, the credit, had the same economic structure, and both shared the technology that could be used to enhance the lives of their people. Olympus had presence all over the world, though mostly in the Concordis and the League, the countries that chose to retain their own identities worked to minimize the level of presence Olympus could have there.
Tomas reached the welcoming party with his security detail following close behind
“Nathan, it’s been too long.” Tomas said as he shook Nathans hand.
“Seven years, it’s funny, but it doesn’t seem that long, and you of course look the same.”
“As do you, and what are seven years compared to more than a hundred.”
“A drop in the ocean,” Nathan smiled slightly, and then nodded towards Elias “Mr. Bakas”
“Mayor.” Elias nodded back.
“Tomas, I believe that you are acquainted with Professor Hyeon Seo-yun, who is a consultant on our little project.” Nathan gestured to the woman standing beside him, Tomas of course already knew her. She like most every other person in Concordis looked like she was in her twenties, she was an attractive woman, of Korean heritage, with straight brown hair tied in a tail and brown eyes, though the pictures from her file failed to convey the full depth of intelligence that shone from her eyes. She had degrees in many areas, she was a professor of astrophysics and astronomy, with her other degrees including such as thermodynamics and robotics. Based on her file she was close to eighty years old, ten years older than Tomas, and one of the brightest minds in the world. Tomas has been trying to bring her into the Olympus family for the past twenty years, she refused all his offers, saying that working for Olympus had no interest or challenge for her, and Tomas had offered her more than he had offered anyone else. He had made it a sort of a quest for himself, to bring her into the company, Tomas could wait a long time to reach his goals, and he had all the time in the world.
“Professor Hyeon, I must say that it gives me immense pleasure seeing you in Olympus uniform.” Tomas smiled slightly.
“Humph, yes, I imagine it would for someone like you.” She said in return with a tight smile on her face that somehow managed to convey utmost contempt for him.
“Oh, someone like me?”
“Yes, a person with a pathological need to control everything he lays his eyes on, person with delusions of grandeur, in other words a megalomaniac.” Her words were followed by absolute silence and wide eyed looks of the rest of the party turned towards her, Tomas could appreciate honesty, he rarely got it from his subordinates, he found it refreshing.
“Why, thank you Professor that was exactly what I was going for.” He smiled widely, and then turned back to Nathan, but not before seeing the shocked look on the Professor’s face.
“Lead the way Nathan, I’m eager to proceed.”
“Of course Tomas, this way please.”
They entered the elevator in silence, and afte
r Nathan provided the terminal with right codes started moving down, towards the city, a few times they could feel the elevator slowing and moving sideways, meaning that they changed shafts, the project facility was at the bottom of the ocean, a few kilometers outside of the cities limit, it was listed as a storage facility which explained the less frequent traffic to and from the facility.
After a few minutes Nathan finally broke the awkward silence “As per your instructions, no one has entered the ship, since the doors opened, and security has been placed on red alert we-”
“Wait, since the door opened? You mean to tell me that the door opened on its own?” Tomas asked sharply, that wasn’t included in the report, and now that he thought about it the actual opening of the door was described rather vaguely, all Tomas was interested was that the door was opened, and didn’t really focus much on the means of how, stupid of him really, but he was very much excited about a prospect of exploring the spaceship that it slipped his mind, he mentally issued commands to his implant, recording this entire incident and making sure that another such oversight doesn’t happen again.
“Well we aren’t really su-” Nathan started nervously but was interrupted by Professor Hyeon
“The events surrounding the opening of the door are somewhat unclear, and we can’t say with a hundred percent certainty what happened until we enter the ship, but what we do know is that a technician was working on trying to open what we believed to be an access hatch, the technician was frustrated and in a fit of helplessness yelled at the ship to “open the door”, though he didn’t use that exact wording nor proper language, after which the door lowered.”
“You are telling me that we have an unknown ship under power inside our facility, a ship that seemingly opened a door on its own? And you didn’t see it prudent to inform me about it!?” Tomas said raising his voice slightly, and letting a touch of steel to slide inside his tone, tone which he used when he was very displeased.
“I have presented the mayor with my recommendation, which was for a science and security team to enter the ship, and the facility to be evacuated immediately. I assumed that you had denied my request director.” Professor Hyeon said in a voice that made her previous remark clear to Tomas, she believed that he had knowingly endangered his people just so that he could have a chance to enter the ship first.
“Nathan.” Tomas turned to the mayor of Sedna.
Nathan’s face had turned white and he nervously looked around to the other faces in the elevator with them, the Professor had her superior mask on while Elias had his usual uninterested face on, seeing how he wouldn’t get any help from them Nathan turned back to Tomas “Ah, we – when I informed you about the situation, y-you ordered that no one goes inside u-until you got here, I-I just followed your orders sir- ah director.” Nathan said dropping the familiar tone he used earlier. By the end of his speech Nathans eyes were fixed on the floor, while he nervously rubbed his palms against his uniform.
“Yes, I gave you orders, orders I made without all the information I was supposed to have, if you had told me the circumstances I would have reacted much differently. A part of the blame lies with me, for not asking for an elaboration, but a much greater part lies with you for withholding it from me. I have placed you in the position of leadership, because I trusted your judgment and capability, trust that you have now lost. I don’t need sheep who are too cowardly to tell me to my face when I’m in the wrong. You are dismissed from your position effective immediately; your second will replace you until such a time when I can choose a suitable replacement.”
”B-but sir, please I was ju-” Elias’s hand on his shoulder silenced his attempt at an argument and coaxed out a soft “Yes sir.”
Chapter Three
The rest of the ride was spent in silence that was even more awkward than the one before. There was one thing that Tomas hated more than anything else, and that was incompetence from competent people. He could understand when the people who didn’t have the drive to do their best, to rise above all others, who didn’t have the means nor abilities to succeed acted incompetent, but when someone who had decades to rise and better themselves, made the same mistake, that was another matter entirely. He could forgive someone even if they made such an mistake, even he made mistakes from time to time, but when one tried to place the blame on others or to justify his mistake when that mistake put people in their charge in danger then it was much harder to forgive. Tomas was running an empire and he needed competent trustworthy people who would tell him things he needed to hear, not things they thought he wanted to hear, because at the end of the day he made his decisions based on information provided to him by those who worked for him.
Finally the elevator stopped and the door opened. There were two security officers standing in front of it along with two other members of the project. They stepped forward to great them but before they got the chance Tomas turned to Nathan.
“Take the elevator up to your former office and inform your second of the change in the position, afterward remain in the city until you are informed of your next position.”
Nathans eyes widened a bit at his words, most likely he believed that he would be fired. Tomas had other things in plan for him, even though he would not have as high position as he had until now, Nathan will have a chance to prove his worth again, even though he made a mistake, he was still a very capable employee and Tomas didn’t want to lose someone who might still prove useful. Hopefully he would learn from this mistake.
“Yes sir, thank you sir.” Nathan nodded his in thanks, gratitude clear in his demeanor. Good, that meant that he at least realized his mistake.
Tomas nodded back and then turned to the people waiting for them. They were obviously interested in what had just happened, but not enough to ask anything about it. Professor Hyeon left the elevator alongside Tomas closely followed by Elias.
“Director Klein, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, my name is Marcus Bearn I’m in charge of the team that will be working on deciphering the objects technology, this is my second Maria Nunez.”
Tomas shook their hands and tipped his head towards the security officers who tipped theirs back. Olympus security was a vast enterprise by itself, in fact it was a private military, though Tomas had gone to great lengths to ensure that stayed a secret only known to him and his few trusted fellows. As far as the rest of the world was concerned it was a security subdivision of Olympus, providing security to their clients and Olympus assets. Tomas wasn’t set on a rigid command relationship between himself and his subordinates, he did expect that they follow orders but also that they think for themselves and voice their concerns to him when it was appropriate, though judging from the incident a few minutes ago he didn’t completely succeed. The security division was completely loyal to him; the problems arose with his “nonmilitary” departments. Frankly they were too scared to tell him anything they perceived would make him angry. A big part of that came from their image of him, image he worked hard to create, he had to in order to accomplish what he did, but that was only his mask towards the outside world, his security understood that but then they had the advantage of always being near him, Elias or someone from his team were always beside him, watching, protecting from the shadows. Elias also acted as his second and no doubt passed all his impressions about him down to his subordinates. The practice of second was implemented by Tomas more than thirty years ago, as a way to maximize productivity of his enterprise. The seconds were regarded as assistants by the general public, but what they didn’t realize was that seconds were in fact advisors, confidants, partners who in fact had the same power as their “firsts”.