by Shea Oliver
A screeching scream ripped Kadamba’s and everyone else’s eardrums. “JUNDANA! JUNDANA! JUNDANA!” Her voice was in a panic. It was Sorenha Woohurra, still outfitted like she was going on stage at a big music concert.
“MAN! That chick has got some serious pipes!” Stelky exclaimed while poking his finger into his ear.
She came running up to Jundana and Kadamba, mouthing something that neither could understand. After a deep breath, she looked at Jundana and hastily explained, “Something’s happening to Alorus. You gotta get over there.” Her finger pointed to the playground where many people seemed to be watching something on the ground.
Jundana broke into a full sprint before Kadamba and Stelky even made a move in the playground’s direction. When they ran up, Jundana was on the ground, kneeling over a child’s body. A woman nearby, trying to calm her, was telling her that medics were on the way.
“Alorus! Alorus! Stay with me!” Jundana was pleading with the child, as tears were falling from her face. “Alorus! Alorus! You have to breathe! Listen to me, NOW! Look at me! Alorus, breathe!”
The child was beginning to shake violently, as if he was having a major seizure. Foam was beginning to pour out of his mouth, as his eyes rolled back in his head. The foam began to appear to have a red tint to it, as a medic came running up, carrying a large bag. Two more medics appeared almost immediately with a medical transportation board floating between them.
“Does the boy suffer from jakjaksonia episodes?” the paramedic quickly asked Jundana, as he quickly knelt beside the boy, opening his bag.
“No. He’s totally healthy! What’s wrong with him?” Jundana frantically demanded.
Stelky was bumped aside as a justice enforcement officer pushed his way through the growing crowd. When Stelky looked down at the kid, his eyes grew big, and he blurted out, “Ka, ain’t that the kid you just hooked up with some …” His words trailed off as he realized that everyone was looking at him, and then everyone looked at Kadamba.
The paramedic spoke quickly and directly, “Son, what did you give this boy?”
“I didn’t give him anything,” Kadamba replied, as the knot in his stomach began to rapidly expand and twist.
The justice enforcement officer drew his gun from his holster at an astonishing speed. He pointed the weapon directly at Kadamba’s chest.
“Ka, please!” Jundana’s panic-stricken voice broke the tension-filled silence. “What happened?”
“I . . . I . . . I sold him three packs of rath about thirty minutes ago.”
Tears burst from Jundana’s eyes, as they glazed over with a layer of hatred. Kadamba wanted more than anything to have the world end right there. He’d never fallen from a state of such euphoria to absolute regret and panic.
He heard the electric-sounding buzz as the bolt of energy burst from the tip of the justice enforcement officer’s gun. For a split second the entire world froze. He could see Jundana with her face in her hands. He could see the boy, lying on the ground. He could see the faces in the crowd either looking down sympathetically at the child, or looking at him with a terrible malice in their eyes. Then he felt the energy bolt hit him, and the world went black.
Chapter 4
Vegetables
“Sesame chicken and happy family!” cried out the short, plump, elderly Asian woman in the stained, white apron. Her hair was in bun, as it always was. She placed the brown paper bag on the counter, and looked softly at Dylan as he walked up to the counter. “You a good boy to come and get good Chinese takeout for your family,” she told him in her thick Chinese accent while Dylan fumbled in his pocket for the money.
She smiled at him, as she always had. The wrinkles on her face made her seem kinder, and perhaps even wiser, than she really was. Dylan had been coming here for a while to get dinner for himself and his little brother. It was one of the many local take-out joints that he favored whenever his mother had to work late, which was more often than not. Both brothers could eat the sesame chicken until they were stuffed, but Dylan knew that he needed to order something like happy family. It had vegetables.
Putting his change on the counter, she told him to “have a nice evening and we see you soon!” She smiled again with that customer service smile designed to make the restaurant’s customers feel as if they were truly loved by the family who owned The Wonderful Dragon.
Dylan knew better. He had always known better, but he looked into her eyes and in a polite voice told her, “Thank you, Ms. Faung. I’ll see you again soon.” She widened her smile and scurried back to work.
Dylan walked out the door and into the brisk autumn air. At 15, he couldn’t drive, but it didn’t matter. The walk was only two blocks. His home sat in the middle of what he thought of as a dull, average city block in Denver. It was a couple of blocks from a main street, and only a few blocks from each of the schools he and his brother attended. The streetlights were beginning to come on as he stepped onto the porch and opened the front door to his home.
“I’m gonna destroy every one of you motherfuckers!” yelled a young boy, as Dylan stepped into the living room. The young voice continued its bravado, “Leveling up after this round, you bunch of dumbasses can’t keep up!”
Dylan stared at the boy, sitting on the floor, wearing headphones with a microphone that was tethered to a game console in the television stand. The boy was almost exactly four years younger than Dylan, but the difference in their size and stature seemed more than four years. Dylan had always been an above-average sized kid, and puberty had treated him right. The wisps of dark hair on his face had begun to thicken. His voice occasionally cracked but was deepening and sounding more and more masculine every day. He knew he was attractive. The girls at school knew it too, and he was very aware of how they felt about him.
Dylan’s little brother was much smaller. He was one of the smaller kids in his class. His moppish, unkempt blond hair seemed to do little to hide his rounded face, which refused to stop looking like a little boy’s face. No matter what he did, he just couldn’t be as mature-looking as his older brother. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. He once heard that eating too much chocolate would give you acne, and in the little boy’s mind, acne made you look older. He managed to sneak to the corner store and buy three big bags of Hersey’s Kisses and two king-sized dark chocolate candy bars. Every single bit of chocolate was consumed by the time he walked the four blocks home. As his stomach began to tie into knots, he just knew the discomfort would be worth it. The next day was an utter disappointment. Not only did his stomach still ache, but his face looked exactly the same. Not a single zit graced his cherub-like face.
The challenge to be like his older brother went beyond just looks. He was never interested in the toys that his friends played with. He wanted the same amusements as his brother. When Dylan stopped playing with action figures, so did he. When Dylan finally got the latest gaming system, he insisted on equal time, pushing himself to try to keep up with the records and achievements in each game that Dylan played.
“Seriously, Bjorn?” chided Dylan in a loud, nearly parental-sounding voice. “Do you have to cuss like an ill-tempered sailor every time you play that game?”
“Oh shit! My brother’s home! I mean, whoops, sorry—oh dang! I gotta go!” Bjorn barked as he pulled the headphones away and turned to his older brother.
Despite sounding angry and stern, Dylan was far from it. From the day Bjorn was born, Dylan knew his little brother worshiped and looked up to him like no other. It was hard to be angry at the little guy who wanted more than anything to be respected, and be just like his cool, big brother.
“Let’s have some dinner, little dude.”
Bjorn, popping up from the floor, replied, “Cool! I’m starving man. Whadda we having?”
Dylan narrowed his eyes, and in his best, evil, bad-guy Chinese accent hissed, “I have visited the dragon lady and now bring us treasures of amazing flavor, deep from the Orient!”
Bjorn tilted his head and nod
ded in appreciation. Attempting to mimic his brother’s Chinese accent, the boy stated emphatically, “You have done well. But have you reached a level of enlightenment that brings with it the wisdom to serve two orders of sesame chicken?”
Maintaining character, Dylan snapped his head towards his little brother, declaring, “Young student, you need your vegetables!”
Bjorn gave a huge sigh. He knew his brother was right, but he’d rather have more sesame chicken than snow peas and celery. The boys went into the kitchen, and Dylan removed the food from the paper bag, as Bjorn opened the cabinet and got out some plates.
Chapter 5
Lead, Follow, or Die
Tomar Donovackia burst into the corporate boardroom a few minutes after lunch had been served. About a dozen well-dressed individuals sat around the long, elegant table. Half of the board members had food in their mouths, as Tomar began to speak. He had timed this quite purposefully. The board’s approval was technically required for major undertakings, and he intended for them to rubber stamp whatever plans he had. He wanted them enjoying a meal and focused on listening, and not asking too many questions.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the board, thank you for gathering together today for this meeting. I appreciate that it was on short notice and also appreciate that you all are in attendance today. Please continue to enjoy lunch. I have a number of items to cover today, and I will be conscientious of your time.”
Tomar moved to the head of the table. He waved his hand across the table, and a small podium materialized in front of him. The other board members remained seated, with most continuing to eat, while Tomar stood over them and began his presentation. He tapped a few distinct places on the podium, and a three-dimensional representation of the galaxy rose up from the table’s center.
“My esteemed board members, we are fortunate to be part of one of the Eleven Corporations that hold interplanetary licenses to conduct space travel, exploration, and economic development. We all, of course, agree that this system is wise, and none of us would want to revert to the days of the Exorthium Colonial Wars.”
All of the board members nodded in agreement. They all knew their history. Shortly after space travel and the ability to build portals were discovered, Koranth and Zoranth became connected by a few such portals. The expense was astronomical. Portals were built in a matched set on one planet. One of the portals would then be sent by spaceship to its destination on the other planet. The pair of portals would enable a person or objects to go into one portal and be immediately transported through to its other corresponding portal.
Initially, it was a social and economic boom for countries on both planets, and a few corporations profited handsomely for the massive investment required to build and operate the portals. However, a discovery of a third life-sustaining planet, Exorthium, within their solar system changed had everything. Exorthium had limited life forms, as its conditions were extremely unfriendly. While humans could survive on the planet, the toxic environment would eventually kill anyone who stayed too long, but Exorthium had an abundance of mineral resources.
Even though a portal opening was only circular and four feet in diameter, it required enormous amounts of energy to operate, and corporations from both Koranth and Zoranth staked out claims on Exorthium. Massive resources were poured into transporting portals, power stations, and mining equipment to the new planet. As is human nature, conflicts eventually arose, and wars began. This period of colonization had been devastating to both Koranth and Zoranth.
After nearly a hundred years, Exorthium was divided, and a peace treaty was signed. As part of the treaty, the Ministry of Interplanetary Corporate Relations, known by most as “The Ministry,” was formed to create a framework for space exploration and development. The solution ultimately resulted in Eleven Corporations that held exclusive rights to “develop” any planet that they discovered, without interference from any other corporations or governments. Fifty-two planets, beyond the solar system of Koranth and Zoranth, were identified as containing life, and, amazingly, each of the planets contained humans at some stage of evolution and development.
Over the next few centuries, technology continued to progress, and the twin planets reveled in the ongoing affirmation that they were the most advanced civilizations in the galaxy. Each of the Eleven Corporations managed to get one portal in place on another planet.
In those early days, many lessons were learned and had now become standard practice. Space travel remained astronomically expensive. While Exorthium had been exploited with power stations and equipment shipped by spaceship, it was practically impossible to transport a portal, all of its equipment, and sufficient power stations outside the solar system of Koranth and Zoranth. While perhaps that model might have eventually generated a profit, there were far, far more profitable models.
By far, the best way to harvest the grandest profits from a planet was to wait for the indigenous populations to advance to a point of having a significant global infrastructure in place on their own. If a planet were allowed to develop its own global trade, then everything—power, logistics, transportation, mining, agriculture, and qualified, low-cost labor—would be in place for planetary “development” to begin. The more advanced a planet, the quicker the profits would begin to flow. All that was needed was to wait for the right timing to install a portal on the planet and connect it to a reliable power source.
Once a portal was in place and operational, the first wave to pass through would be Corporate military. These military organizations were magnificently efficient at moving troops and gear though the small openings. Offensive and defensive weapons systems had been especially designed to be moved through the small portal openings. Within a day of a portal’s activation, the military could establish a sizable contingent on the targeted planet, with a nearly absolute capability of defending the portal from any military or weapons that had been developed on that foreign planet by its own people. Within two weeks, a force would be assembled planet-side that would be ready to invade and dominate any location on the planet that it so desired.
After an initial show of force, it was always amazing how quickly entire planets would simply begin shipping whatever the Corporation wanted to the portal. Moving product through quickly and the occasional show of force were often all that was required to reap enormous profits.
One of the biggest challenges was getting the timing right. If a Corporation invaded too early, then a planet’s power generating facilities, global logistics infrastructure, and its manufacturing, mining, and agricultural capabilities might be too limited to support the demands of the Corporation. Reasonable profits might be impossible, or at best, highly difficult to generate. If a Corporation invaded too late, an indigenous population might have developed their own advanced technologies, including weaponry and monitoring systems. This was thought to be very probable if the scientists on a foriegn planet had discovered the scientific principles underlying the abilities of any Transprophetic. Given the changes that had occurred on Koranth and Zoranth when the science behind the Transprophetics was understood, no Corporation was willing to risk a planet discovering what was scientifically possible, until the Corporation was firmly in control of the planet and its resources. As populations were watched, this hypothesis had become accepted fact: Transprophetics would transform a planet, giving it the capability to resist development by a Corporation. Over the centuries, the standard operating procedure for planetary development had become to monitor a planet’s infrastructure and trade development, while at the same time, watching for Transprophetics.
However, one of the massive challenges was simply watching a planet. Space travel to a planet consumed massive resources. The space travel took well over a year, or more, and was generally a one-way affair. While the explorers of Koranth and Zoranth had figured out how to move physically across the galaxy faster than the speed of light, a method of communicating beyond the speed of light had remained impossible.
All things cons
idered, a corporation would launch an exploratory mission to a planet about once every 20 to 40 years, sending crews with more frequency as a planet neared its optimum point of profitability. The spaceships that carried those crews to the distant planets also contained a much smaller, faster unmanned return vessel that would send back artifacts, media, products, and crew reports. The most important item contained within these reports was the assessment of whether or not a planet was primed for invasion and development.
Tomar paused for a moment, looking around the room, as the board members nodded in agreement. A few shoved more food into their mouths or sipped their drinks as he continued his presentation.
“As would be expected of someone of my status and capabilities, I did not just take over this corporation to milk the existing profits of our two open portals. I am here to lead this Corporation to a bigger and brighter future, with an absolute dedication to the creation of ever bigger and brighter profits.”
A few of the board members immediately raised their glasses to chorus a healthy, “Here! Here! To Tomar!” A smile crept across Tomar’s face, as he gestured appreciatively to those members who had first raised their glasses.
He continued, “We face a serious challenge right now, as the four remaining planets to which we hold a license are not ready for portalization and development. One of these planets has a population barely capable of using metals. One seems to be suffering from a nearly global viral plague. And the final two remain mired in their own industrial revolutions. We must begin to seek out other options if we are to significantly improve the profits of this corporation.
“Since the formation of the Ministry of Interplanetary Corporate Relations, many assumptions have appeared to become fact in the minds of the people of Koranth and Zoranth. However, we are now mired with a system that is completely antiquated and does not serve the purposes of those leaders who would seek to maximize the opportunities that our advanced civilization should be reaping.”