by Unknown
“If you do not find something to eat, you won’t stop being hungry?”
“Yes, so I ventured away from the place trying to pick some wild berries…but that was only better than nothing, and gave me runs to tell you the truth.”
“Didn’t they give you any of the tools?”
“I found a small rusted knife, half berried among the tree needles in the vicinity where I work up, but that was that. So eventually I sharpened some wood sticks, caught me some fish, and ate them raw…everything was so wet with the rain drizzling down for a whole day, so I could not start a fire, but I tell you that was one of the tastiest fish I ever ate. Even to this date, 120 years later, I like to catch fish fresh from the stream, and just have a raw slice of that.”
“Did you think it was all start of the selection?”
“No, for the first few days, I did not. I really even forgot about even applying to the program…But then, I ran into some kids…They all shared the same experience, and I knew that the experience must be connected. After talking to them for a while, I figured it all out. All of them during the last year or two had applied for the program but were actually turned down for one reason or another. You have to understand, it was not an easy thing to think off actually…they would create these selections only every few years, and each time they were organized completely different…most of the time you were being tested without even knowing you were tested.
“They do not do those kind of selection processes anymore…too many kids died, many parents extremely angry, so nobody would want their children to send there.”
“Really, died?”
“Yes, like died, never coming back dead…MY mentor, who was there when the program started said that at the first selection, out of more than 2000 kids that were invited, about 500 of them died. Over 1000 of them quitted. I think out of remaining, only 20 or so were selected to start the program.
“Hundred years later, when I was doing my selection, it was not that bad. Out of 50 they placed in that forest, only 5 lost their lives.”
“Were you the only one that made it?”
“Out of the forest? No, but that was only the start of the selection. It lasted throughout 4 years of studying. By the end, only two of them finished it completely.
“You didn’t?”
“No, I never finished the program, I dropped out about six months before the graduation.”
“Why, why would you do that when you had so little time still left?”
“I had my reasons… But my mentor took me in, brought me back in the program afterwards…He convinced the commission that I would be a great EI, so I had my chance…”
“That is incredible, can you one day tell me the whole story, of what happened in that forest, of everything that made you quit?”
“Maybe, but right now we have some other stuff to do.”
“I wish I could have been in one of those selection…”
“Don’t be stupid…You know being a junior EI is like being in a selection. In a way, you are always in a selection…” Val closed his eyes, but didn’t do so to access any files, or put himself to sleep. He went back to that forest, to the smell of the freshness of the coming winter as the rain drops started to turn into a light snow, and he knew that he either had to find a good shelter or build one.
“Just one question, Val?”
“Yes, Timor.”
“What was the name of your mentor?”
“It was Derran.”
“The first ECI?”
“Yes. And that was already the second question.”
It took Timor more than an hour to process it all before he decided to talk again.
“Anyway, I was just wondering about those travelers, weren’t there some very important people among them?” He finally interrupted the long silence.
“Here is the list, and you can connect to my pod to check all the names of the travelers. Use my clearance code if you need to. Let me know what you find. Find out who they all are and what were they doing on the trip to the planet.” That certainly should keep him quiet and occupied, thought Val
But before Timor could make any serious inroads with his research they were already docking at the Zilarius Space Station. Timor was actually surprised how small it was. He counted only 5 docking stations, with 3 of them being unoccupied.
“I guess I expected the same thing as the capital with hundreds of ships arriving every few hours.
“I bet here, we are the only arrival for the entire day.”
Even thought the station was small, the view of the plant underneath took the air out of Timor’s lungs. Over 90 percent of the space they could see was covered by the ocean and a deep blue color its water illuminated was almost hypnotic to his eyes.
“Very pretty isn’t it?” Val asked Timor noting a complete amazement on his face.
“Yes it is…never seen so much water in one place, never seen anything as beautiful as that, so blue, so...So amazing. It's so great that there are no clouds today...I have never seen such a turquoise water of the sea, so much of it, and the islands look so green.”
“We better hurry to the elevator…it takes twenty minutes to go down, and I am afraid, if we do not catch the ride down, then we will end up waiting for a good hour here.” As soon as he said it, Val felt bad looking at Timor’s face which didn’t hide disappointment that they could not stare through observation deck for a while.
Just like a little kid, thought Val, but that fact alone made him feel somewhat warm inside.
“You know, you would be surprised but not all of Zalirus is like that,” he said as they stepped on the elevator which they shared with another fifty, sixty people.
They set in oversized blue cushioned seats right next to the window and fasted their seats. To Timor’s surprise, it was roomier than the space ship, and certainly felt more comfortable. Soon the elevator was sealed, and their descent started.
“That there, below us, is a pretty side of the planet…” Val continued, “…the one next to the space elevator, the one build for tourists, traders, diplomats, and the planetary upper class.”
“There is another side?”
“Yes. There is another side. I’ve been to it many years ago. It’s on the opposite side of the planet. You might have seen it from space as we approached the station, a dark mass of human construction and pollution with not much else there… mostly run-down cities, a lot of desert and even more of poverty. Some estimate that over 200 million people live there like that. Nobody truly knows.”
“I thought those were just archeological ruins.”
“Yeah, it is very sad, the contrast.”
“But what do they do there? What do they live off? How do they survive?”
“Well, there are some local industries, mostly things that are used by the planet itself, like old type of manufacturing. They are actually the only place in the entire empire that still produces ground vehicles, sedans I think they call them. I guess many live off that kind of manufacturing. But it is very inefficient sector, ridden with crime. But then, the Zalirus Space City is quite normal, can be even pleasant, but very deceptive indeed.”
“Doesn’t the Old City on the Capital have some buildings that look like that? The images I saw looked rather similar…I mean, you know, huge, black monsters going up to the sky thousands of floors up…Who would want to live there?”
“People that do not make that much, and those that do not want to live underground. Yes, it is somewhat similar…But many of those buildings on the Capital planet has long been restored, the highest ones demolished…
“You may not know, but a long time ago, in another epoch, people actually considered it very prestigious to live in tall buildings. The higher the floor, the costlier it was.”
“you are kidding me?”
“No… they considered space as something wonderful, something to explore and buildings were constructed to reach high up, as high as they could go…The dream of billions were to l
ive in space actually. And the very first space planet that was ever build, Nexonia, was mostly occupied by the richest, you know?”
“No, I never knew that…history books don’t teach us that…Never even heard that name before. Where is that planet?”
“I do not know what became of it…But, anyway, that was a long time ago, and those were different years…and actually, humans were not constructing those tall buildings to begin with. They would just design them. It was in the time of robotics, when machines could do any labor that seemed dangerous and undesirable for humans to do.”
“How things change, huh?”
“Yes..And now, anyone with any decent money wishes to have a firm ground under their feet. Even flying fortresses in Sima…”
“Oh, I heard about those…If we ever have a chance, I would love to see them.”
“Yeah, you would love those…but a word of caution before we land here…” Val’s voice suddenly became whisper-strong. “Zalirus is a planet of dire contrasts…You will see the riches matching that of the Capital itself, and the millions of poor, who suffer and struggle for their next meal. It can be one very dangerous place.“
“Why doesn’t a local government do something about it?”
“Well, probably because interests of the few, the few people that run the show. They probably do not see it in their short term interests to improve things.”
“I guess the Saris Revolution didn’t change things here that much, had a little affect-
“Nope, it seems things are very slow to change there. They have some kind of religion that prevents them from using modern medicine or mandatory birth control. So I think 90 percent of them are not even registered. The emperor will soon have to do something about that.”
Regardless of how the rest of the planet looked like, Timor was just enjoying the view of the part he could see. As they rode down the elevator to the planet, they could see flying flocks of birds with a wings span of 20 feet.
“Zalirus’ Falcons, nothing like them in any other part of the empire. Luckily for humans, they only feed on fish.”
As soon as they stepped out of the space elevator, a police officer rushed to meet them.
“We hope you had a pleasant trip, Chief Emperor’s Inspector.”
“Yes, extremely,” said Val. “Now, can you be kind enough to take us to the person in charge. Actually no, we want to go straight to the place where you are keeping all the wreckage. I understand that you broke the protocol and had brought down all the debris of the ship?”
“Well, you, we just didn’t have enough space in the station to house all of it,” the officer tried to explain, “We even had to use vacuums to suck all the smaller parts to our transports.”
“Take us to the place you are keeping it. And have the man in charge to meet us there.”
“Right away?” Ask the officer, quite uncertain of what to do next. “Don’t you want to-
“No, no, no. No delays. We are going there right away. And I mean right away NOW!”
As they entered parked police sedan, the officer tried to offer more appeasing explanation. It was not every day that you would face Chief Emperor’s Investigators, after all.
“We really found a lot of debris, and it was scattered across whole 1 light sector. We had no choice but to place it all in the Silver Star Done, the only place that has such a capacity here.”
Val didn’t, but Timor found it extremely boring to be riding on a ground in a police sedan. City traffic, uncountable stop lights, it all seemed to waste a lot of time and energy.
All of that Timor could barely stomach. Not even his planet, which was considered one of the poorest of all 31 had this problem. And as they went inside a tunnel which had hardly enough light to see anything, he had enough.
“Why didn’t you guys send out a police jetter? We could fly over there in no time.” Timor protested nervously.
“I apologize, the captain’s orders, he thought you may like to see the city. But we are here already,” the officer said all embarrassed as he pulled up inside a huge hanger.
The dome stretched further than Val could see and seemed completely covered with pieces which once made up the ship.
When Val finally saw the scale of it, he completely understood why they needed such a big place.
“I am Capitan XIXo.” A tall man with sunken eyes and a very announced forehead met them at the entrance.
“Sorry I was not at the station myself to greet you but, as you can see, we are working on here…And not just here. Actually, we are still gathering pieces in space, but most of it, we believe, is here. I thought it would have been the best if you examine it in detail once we have it all, so if you want to go and refresh yourself-“
“Doubt you will ever be able to get all of it,” Val’s thought came out loud.
Scattered over such a large part must mean that it was not a sudden crash, no sudden momentum stopping. No missile, no collision that would have stopped it in its drive right away. A lot of debris, so whatever stopped it was extremely powerful. Yet not so powerful as not to vaporize it all? And there were explosions, they certainly occurred gradually and initially not close to propulsion system…Val thought at the first sight of it, then considered his thoughts significant and filed it right away in a draft report material.
But then something else came to his mind, something else that was extremely upsetting to him.
“Tell me exactly why you have only…less than a handful of people working here? This is the top priority case in the whole of empire right now, and you have only but a few people here working here?!”
“Well, we…We…” Suddenly the Capitan has lost the capacity to talk, “We send our teams in space to look for everything that is still there, trying to find everything.”
“Really?” Val cut him off, “Are you to tell me that you have a whole police force flying through space?”
Val was not a great engineer, but even to his unprofessional insight, it was obvious that investigation team here did little to organize pieces with anything resembling any order. They all seemed to be scattered around randomly.
He exchanged the look with Timor and by his expression he knew they shared the same opinion.
“You have done a very poor job organizing all this,” Timor decided to jump in noting how upset Val was, “You could have organize them the way they were part of the ship, the way you found them in the space, either way would help us to speed things up.”
“Instead, it seems you just dumped them all here without any thought at all!” Val continued furiously, his voice echoing through the dome.
In the distance, a few investigators going over parts of debris, turned their heads around.
“Each piece has to be scanned now! Actually, they should have been scanned as you retrieved them from space so we know where they were found. But it seems like you are not following any protocol at all!”
Now scanning each piece of debris process will take a long time, the time that Val didn’t have.
“I am so sorry”, the Captain XIXo tried to apologize, “But. you see, this is the first time in over 40 years that something like this has happened, and we-”
“Even more reason to follow the protocol.” Val interrupted him.
“There is just too much of little pieces here,“ Timor started to talk, “And I would not be surprised if some of it was not of the older origin….” Timor walked through the closest pieces of metal that lay around. He pointed his finger to the burned plank which bore marks of neuron gun on it, “That is a part of a fighter which had to be destroyed a long time ago. Neuron guns have not been used for the last 200 years.”
“So it seems you’ve been picking up all the garbage you find in space.” Val answered after reexamine the piece carefully. It was definitely a piece of a fighter plane, but how Timor could catch it at the first glance was very surprising. Even his knowledge of neuron guns, out of use a long time before he was even born, was surprising.
&n
bsp; “This is just unacceptable,” Val said in the end, shaking his head, “What exactly is going on here? Where are you engineers?”
Val decided to walk to one of the bigger parts of the wreckage. It was 50 by 25 feet, and big enough that they could walk inside it. It seemed to have been part of one of the storage tanks.
“I’d like all of these pieces scanned in the next 24 hours, Capitan, and expect files to be transmitting to me as soon as they are being generated. I do not want to wait any more.”
“I…I do not know how if we can-“
“Of course you can. Put 10 teams here to do it if you have to.”
“But there are over 100,000 parts here…”
“I don’t think you fully understand what is going on here. Most of the time I do not have to mention this, but considering that you are so far away from the Capital and that you seem not to know any procedures at all, I guess I have to.. I am ECI, Emperor’s Chief Investigator, and with that, I carry the Emperors’ Badge of Power meaning if I choose so I can send you to spend the rest of your life in Pluk, or I can just chose to terminate your existence right now. And trust me, if I see you continuing to run this investigation in this unprofessional manner, one of those two things is exactly what I will choose to do.”
The captain’s face got red.
“Now, don’t argue with me, don’t even say a word! Just get your extra teams here. Right now!”
“Yes, yes sir, of course!”
“And also, Captain, we need to have all ships communications with your station here. That seems to be missing from the file that was forwarded to me,” Val finished looking rather upset, not ready to hide his displeasure of the job they were doing.
“Of course, of course, and, and…Chief Inspector will be pleased to know that we put you up in the Energa Suites Hotel, one of the most luxurious one in our city. At your disposal are our top Crykon sedan produced completely here on Zalirus as well as a top line police jetter. Also, Mavi Sil, the police officer who greeted you and drove you here should have told you that…We, we also booked you a permanent table at the exclusive Kalitas restaurant renown throughout the empire. So, if you want to go there right now before our other teams come over, he can take you there. They some best tasting food you could ever have…of course everything is on us, and may I suggest our famous Zalirus lobster.”