by Unknown
“But, I mean, if you are to be the main investigator, why send us out of the Capital? Probably all the answers are here to begin with, and the case will be solved before we even get there!”
“You’re worried that you will not get a chance to solve your first big case? Are you really worried they may solve it before we get to see the wreckage?” Val had to smile.
“You will, without a doubt, learn soon enough as you travel throughout the empire, there is a very little that can be done from the comfort of your office. They may have a lot of information at your disposal there, but not the answers, certainly not all of the answers. So, we really do need to go out in space and check things out first hand.
“No need to get stressed over it…” Val could not interpret a sudden silence coming from Timor. “So what is it, you do not want to leave the Capital since you only came here a few days ago, or is it that you are scared of traveling the space?”
“Well, maybe a little of both, I guess. Okay, that makes sense what you say, but you have to admit it, this is all so impressive…I mean that we were called here to the Emperor’s Estate…Just tell me, please, who was that you met behind the close doors, was it the emperor himself?”
“No,” Val answered briefly and firmly, not ready to elaborate anything anymore.
He pulled Timor by his sleeve and pointed to a small cafeteria.
“They have one of the best coffee’s in the empire…it’s not to be missed…” Val tried to explain, and in a minute later, as he held a steaming dark brownish liquid in the small white cup with the emperor’s seal on it, he thought that the coffee itself would offer sufficient explanation.
“So, where do we start?” But Timor would not be silenced and was far more interested in the job than any coffee, be it emperor’s or not.
“Well, the very first thing we need to find out is what exactly happened to that transporter, if it was an accident of some kind or something else.”
“Something else?”
“Yes, something else... It could be an act of sabotage, terrorists, conspiracies…Really, impossible to know right now.” Val glanced at his young apprentice noticing the level of excitement reaching new highs.
“But that is what we do here. We are not a regular police. I thought you understood that when you accepted this job. Here, you will be involved with cases which regular police cannot handle, cases that are important for the empire as a whole, very important cases. The job does come with perks, and the pay is so much better than anything any police officer can ever hope to make-”
“Yes, yes, I know all of that. But, when you said a ‘terrorist act’, did you maybe mean New Republicans? Could they still be active?”
“It's really too early to know what we are dealing with here. But I doubt it's New Republicans. They usually target the emperor and his family. They may even target me as I am one of his top representatives, but to strike on a transporter? Plus, they have been inactive for over ten years now. But you were right about the pressure, we have no time to lose. That's why we have to go to the Zalirus right now.”
“Right now?”
“Yes, our transporter is scheduled to leave in about three hours. Don’t worry, we can make it. We are taking a different route than the one we came on. So we do not need to go back to the Capital.
“We are taking a special elevator that’s outside…You haven’t seen outside yet…you will like it…There is a tube that can take us directly to the Space Elevator. It's a tube intended to be primary used by planetary diplomats, but I got a clearance to use it now, so…You can enjoy the comfort while you can because, unfortunately, I am afraid that the department does not have a habit of spending money on upgrading our traveling accommodations.”
“That's okay, I do not mind sleeping in the economy class. I am used to it. I actually have never been to anything other than the economy class, so I just do not know any better, you know…”
“I guess your youth does have a lot of advantages.”
“That is why I am so surprised that I got selected for this, you know what I mean.”
“You are wrong…you were not selected… you were chosen. I was the one that actually chose you.”
“Why?”
“That's kind of hard for me to explain to you..Let's just say I like the way you look at things.”
They finally made it to the main gate, passing through a scanner which took its time as it started to spin Timor’s scanned image around and around.
“This is his first visit here…He is with me.” Val said to the guard as he was not ready to wait any longer to be allowed to leave.
“Wow…” Timor said in awe as they stepped out of the main building. Hundreds of white stone steps suddenly lay in front of them, and the view of the whole Emperor’s estate which stretched as far as they could see.
“Yes, wow, that is why the elevator is outside, so that those that are privileged to come here can see it and be impressed.”
Not many people knew but the Emperor's Estate, although breathtaking in its luxury, was engineered rather simply, especially when observed from the high up.
The whole estate, consisted of more than five hundred thousand acres, was covered mostly by forest. In the middle of it, was a ten mile long lake, and right next to it, carved inside the Three Mountains itself was the 10-story Palace complex whose steps Val and Timor were slowly descending on.
The palace, in all its glory, was intended to serve as both the Emperor’s seat of power and the home to his family and top advisors. On a few occasions, Val himself stayed inside one of its many suites. But that was a long time ago.
Although the palace itself was the jewel of the estate as a white marble which covered the outside walls was sculptured to be as imposing as almost nothing else in the whole empire, like Timor had a chance to admit it repeatedly on his first glance, the forest that stretched as far as they could see was the emperor's actual and outmost pride and joy.
The forest was enriched with over hundred thousand different types of trees and plants from all corners of the empire, many of which the emperor has planted himself. He did it not only because he loved working with his hands, but also because he loved taking long walks and picking ripe fruit straight from tree branches, or nuts that fell to the ground. It took him decades of work to get to that point, and he felt the forest was almost nearly complete and perfect.
‘You can walk through this forest for five years, and on each day, you can pick a different fruit or a nut…’The emperor’s deep voice still ringed inside Val’s ear even though a long time has passed since the last time they walked the forest together.
The forest, especially on its northern border, also served as a hunting ground for more than hundred of different types of games including Gmilian antelopes, and Wiskies wild boars and foxes. Even pheasants from Vartia were introduced in the forest.
His famous seasonal hunting gatherings included hundreds of his closest friends, advisors and allies helping him to bolster to everyone how great the empire was becoming. So, to become important enough to get invited to one of those gatherings was a dream of billions average citizens, and an honor that could be earned by emperor’s invitation only. Thousands of waiters and cooks made sure that 7 day feast was memorable as anyone dreamed. Video feeds of the event were broadcasted live through entire empire.
Val, being one of the top Chief Emperor’s Investigators, was invited there on a few occasions. But as he stopped coming, the invitations stopped arrive.
Most people were not really aware that most of the structure of the Emperor's complex was actually underground, hidden from birds eyes and the space above. The elevator Val and Timor took on the end of the stairs let them there. It was actually one of the lesser known ways to exit the Estate.
As they exited the elevator, four guards, all dressed in a fancy blue and golden uniforms, checked their scans again before they were allowed to enter the tube system.
Val knew that the underground comp
ound stretched almost over the entire complex and in some places went as far as hundred of stories underground.
All that space was necessary to house the central nerve of empire’s communication system . All conversations that seemed threatening to the establishment were forwarded there for further processing.
It was also a place where cameras from all over the empire were sending their live feeds to be recorded and viewed at the emperor's own pleasure. Val was often obligated to go there looking for the info when solving his cases,
This nerve center employed over a million of people of which 99.9 percent never got to raise up and walk in the beautiful forest above. Almost everyone had a clearance to go to just one area, the one that pertained to their jobs, so very few really knew how complex the whole system was, and were not aware of the labyrinths of corridors, elevators and tubes which connected it all.
Even Val himself didn’t have a clearance to go to all of the places. There certainly were no published maps to go on. Almost nobody knew that the emperor himself was the only one who had a complete map of the entire underground city.
But what everybody knew, even newborns as young as five, is that for anyone who wanted to live to be over 100 years of age had to pay a visit to the underground complex. For the underground complex, at least the entrance part of it, the part that bordered with the Capital City itself, was the only place in the entire empire authorized to conduct full rejuvenation and mind transplant operations.
It was said that any person could undergo the operation, anytime he or she wanted to, as long as they had enough credits for it.
So, if citizen’s old body started to tire her out, or if she just wanted the new one for the kicks of it, she would visit the Emperor’s Hospital, the only legal place where they could transfer her being to the new body. For that privilege, citizens worked their whole lives for, and sometimes much more than that.
It was a way that the emperor controlled economy, inflation, and dominance on far away planets, and the entire system as a matter of fact. He practically had a monopoly on life, the result of the war he won, starting when all five powerful houses fought against each other, when he was the one to win it all in the end.
The whole hospital complex had a capacity to perform over a million of transplants a day, the capacity of which was never really used as the emperor knew very well the mechanics of supply and demand and the way that played on the price.
Val used that facility himself on a number of occasions before.
He took a good look again at Timor seeing his excitement, the usual excitement seen on the faces of the Capital’s newest visitors. On Timor’s face it was wearing off so very slowly.
“Enjoy the luxury while you can because who knows what lambada waits for us ahead…” Val said as he passed him a glass filled with the mix of the freshly squeezed fruit juices. It seems they severed those instead of a water on Ambassadors; Express Tube.
Timor shook his hand like he knew exactly what Silva meant even though he had not the slightest of a clue. If anything, everything was so strange to him, and he caught himself being made a fool by not knowing the Capital's ways yet.
He remembered just yesterday, in the station, one of the young agents passed him a thick brownish marker with a large hole on one end.
Hey, Timor, check out a new gene tester. We just got it today. You just put that end in your mouth and blow. But a new gene tester it was not as a blue color busted out of the pen, right over his desk and face.
Everyone around laughed, laughed rather hard until they saw Val coming through the door.
Timor, stop playing with a stealth detector, and go and clean up yourself... Your friend who gave you that idea can clean your desk for you . Silva told him then obviously not in a mood for any kind of jokes. He actually seemed rather upset at the other agent, something that ashamed Timor felt grateful for.
As they rode the tube next to its entrance, Val looked at Timor whose face was still full of amazement.
“If you do everything right, you will be back here. If you do everything right, who knows, maybe you’ll live forever.”
“Yeah…” Answered Timor realizing for the first time where they were passing next to, before he set down and continued in a rather very sober voice, “Who knows…Forever is a very long time.”
Chapter 3 - Planet of Zalirus
Ten days and thirty seven clicks later, Timor woke up just a few hours short of arriving at the Zalirus Space Station. Normal nausea that clicks would cause was nowhere to be felt. Right next to him, Val was already wide awake looking at his communication pod and going over arrived files. Seats in front of them were empty of passengers, and only but a few behind were occupied. Panic of a destroyed transporter seemed to be scaring people away from traveling.
The first meal after the long trip was immediately served to him. Some kind of yellowish mash didn’t look very appealing. Timor took out wires connected to his head and hands.
“So, did they find out what happened?”
“You mean with the transporter?”
“Yes.”
“You are very optimistic fellow…No, no they have not…What they found out was that it was completely obliterated.”
“Any survivors?”
“None found yet”.
“Do they know what caused it?”
“No, not yet. Actually, the files they send us seem very incomplete at best. It seemed that the cruiser was destroyed between the 35rd and the 36th click. It is not known how that happened. As soon as the transporter didn’t come, they know found out that it didn’t make the 34th click, so they send ships to investigate it. It took them 7 days to start locating wreckage.”
“So they’ve been able to locate the cruiser? Wouldn’t that be like finding a needle in a haystack, would take them years to do it going under sub-click propulsion?”
“They had the ship’s tracking code. So that helped pinpoint it. But it seems it was all torn to pieces. Sadly, without any survivors so far, they have no clue yet what happened. So, you should be happy, there is going to be a case for you to solve after all.”
“How they cannot not know what happened? “ Timor was not falling for the teasing. “There must be something that can tell what caused the accident.”
“Well, we are not sure if it really was an accident. You know, I told you earlier, we have to consider any possibility. So, that is our priority number one. We have to go over the wreckage and try to make some sense of what happened. We have to put it back together and examine what caused the ship to be torn to over 10,000 pieces, as it says in the initial report.”
“Aren’t there recordings, video feeds, communications with space stations?”
“That is another strange part…Not much is there. Video feeds of the ship stopped being transmitted right after 34rd click. At the same time, all communications have stopped as well. And everything seemed just fine until then. We have no scans of any of the debris yet, nor is local police making any reports yet.”
“Really? No theories yet? Isn’t that strange?”
“Very…But we’ll get it as soon as we come.”
“It seems a lot of things about this case is very unusual, or is it just me? Or you know something I do not?”
“Can you just give me a minute…” Val felt overwhelmed by the questions.
Timor is smart, very smart, maybe too smart. Val felt as he closed his eyes and again access the file of his young apprentice.
Timor Saridix 2345kdj398SA, born in the Sector 25 on the Aluxi on the 34th day of the year 2001 of the Emperor Saris…
Parents – the 3rd generation Aluxians, both working for the agricultural ministry of Aluxia.
Achievements - the highest planetary score on 10th birthday Early Evaluation…a scholarship to Emperor’s Aluxi Academy…
No known political associations…
Sample of work…
Sample of speeches…
Ideas concerning the empire…
Known associates and friends…
Distant relatives…
Val found it all approving just as he did before. If at times he could just keep his mouth shut a bit longer and stop being so annoying, he could really grow to like him.
“…Val? What do you think about that?”
“Sorry, I was just checking things out.”
“Oh, I forgot, you have a neural transmitter. How soon until I can get mine?”
“Soon enough.”
“I guess it took a long time to earn all of that. How was your selection process, did you become an ECI right away or was it a long process?”
“Well, it all happened kind of strangely. I didn’t even know I was being selected.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, my selection process started when one day I woke up in the forest of KJeilk , without even knowing how I got there. The last thing I remember was falling asleep in my home, and boom, I wake up in the forest, thick tall sequoia trees all around, and I am all alone.
“Did you volunteer for the program?”
“Of course I did. But that was like six months before this happened. And the way I understood was that I was turned down.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“On what account?” Timor could hardly believe it.
“ON the account I was too old…I have already lived over 600 years, you know. The program is intended only for the young…a long time ago, there was so much corruption. So anyone living for such a long time would be considered too big of a risk.”
“So when you woke up all alone in the forest, did you get scared?”
“Of course I did, not just because of waking up in a strange and dark place, but because I could not remember nothing! I thought I was losing my mind. I never liked any drugs, never liked taking any sensory enhancements, so I as hell did not know what was going on. I tried so hard to remember, meditated, tried taking a cold swim in the nearby stream…I was sure I was sleeping, dreaming, I mean, none of it made any sense. How could it be? But then I got hungry, and then I had to accept the reality.”