by Greg Remy
“Darious.”
“Yes Captain?” He came and stood by her side.
“Starting now.”
The buzzing below them began once more. This time, Zoe had spaced the power dumps at half intervals to better compensate energy repercussions of the pulsating antenna outputs. She had also tweaked several lines of the algorithm. Her craft once more started the low rhythm, deep from within its mechanical core. Zoe now knew much more what to expect and she kept focused with cool logic. As readouts began to flow back, she continuously shifted settings of the Z-Pulsers while altering coding bits. She was quickly learning how to adapt the fluctuations arising from both the experiment and her unestablished fixes of the broken program. On the whole, this run was going much more smoothly.
“There it is!” she said.
The first traces of the shadowy glow appeared, as if there was some unknown ether in front of the ship. It remained reticent as before, contained to a small quadrant directly at their center bow. Its luminosity barely registered, but from Zoe’s keen eyes and the keener sensors of the ship, the ball of light was absolutely observed. If it wasn’t for the blackness of space, human perception alone might not have been able to perceive anything.
The experiment soon matched the energy levels of their last attempt and was now reaching new, untested depths of the Doctor’s program. The humming of the ship increased, as well as the intensity of the object. Zoe was mystified by it—an anomaly created by an electronic algorithm and the essence of space.
The object shone like a beacon in the night sea. Zoe and Darious were pegged to their spots, mesmerized. What is it? Zoe once more thought. The light seemed as if it was thickening. Zoe looked over her ship’s sensors readings. They were now of little use, constantly communicating that both infinity and nothingness were present in front of them, so she diminished the readouts to get a better view. It looked as though singular rays of gold were being extruded from the spheroid. Still confined to the programmed volume in front of the ship, the beams continuously grew and diminished. Soon they appeared to be solidifying, like forged rods of light. These rods condensed and stretched out at intervals, warping into conical shapes. Zoe typed into her console and commenced an approximating routine, sampling the spaces in-between the experiment. As she adjusted its parameters, she could now read that, indeed, on a micro-scale, events were occurring incongruent with normal, physical reality.
“What is it?” asked Darious, the wonder in his voice matching Zoe’s thoughts.
“I don’t know.” She was reading through the summaries while trying to direct the data to make more sense. The ship’s sensors were receiving terabytes of information every second. “Energy levels are rising too high. I’m going to have to shut it off here in a second.” Zoe stared out at the glowing orb, filled with transfiguring ingots, and then flipped a switch, powering down the entire experiment. The rods and cones immediately vanished, though the diffuse glow lingered for several moments before disappearing altogether. The hums from the ship lowered and faded away. All returned to normal, though the air about Zoe and Darious remained electric.
After a few seconds of silent bewilderment, Zoe exclaimed, “What was that!?” Her voice was pitched with excitement.
“Zoe! That was amazing! Ha! I have no idea!” Darious laughed and Zoe joined him.
“Ha ha! How crazy was that?!”
Darious nodded, his smile still growing. Zoe herself was feeling astronomical. Though she had no idea what they had done, she knew deep inside, from some imperceptible part of her, that they had just accomplished something incredible. Zoe was hoping with all her being that their imminent visit to the homeworld of Pantheon Industries would yield the answers to this enigma. Pantheon Industries, thought Zoe. She was ready.
Chapter 25
Kratos Snubbed
Assumed to have once been a planet of natural origin, orbiting around its central star, though now the region’s true center of force, the longstanding headquarters of Pantheon Industries completely obscured the globe of Kratos. Not a single spot of indigenous terrain could be observed; the entirety of the planet was inhabited, built up, and populated with overreaching towers, terminating at the upper limits of the atmosphere.
When strangers neared the confounding object from space, it bore semblance to a needle spire as seen through a kaleidoscope. Upon closer approach, the oncoming spires seemed to take on the appearance of an armory of lances, daggers, and scythes, externalizing the weapons of pens, contracts, and economics incorporated within. Down, down the gapers plunged; the arsenal ascending higher and higher. As the ground below came into view, reverent warmth and the purity of pellucid sunlight became obscured behind the broadsword. Here, artificial light was necessary to illuminate the way. The many buildings, walkways, and landing pads all shared complimentary leaden grey tinctures. Having finally landed and looking out, the sky was seen in xanthic tones, though not a single cloud existed. The ascendancy over nature was complete; the ascendancy over man was well underway. One may gulp and nervously ease his collar; indeed, this was no place for such a man.
A woman, slim, short-sleeved and short-panted, strolled through the auto-reticulating doors and was greeted by an automated voice from above. “Welcome to Pantheon Industries.” Directly ahead of her, at the far end of the ostentatious entrance, was a considerable receptionist desk, marbled and accented in shining gold, matching the large backlit Pantheon logo on the wall behind it. The woman casually walked up to it and greeted the secretary.
“Hello there.”
The receptionist made eye contact and upon seeing Zoe an eye twitched, though the smile remained plastic and intact. “Welcome to Pantheon Industries. What may I do for you?”
Zoe feigned a smile back. “I’m here for a meeting with Mr. Alfred Achan, though I suspect I’m a bit early.”
The secretary’s eye seized again, and she took to typing on her computer console. Her agreeable countenance faded. “Ahem. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. It seems Mr. Achan is out for the week. Are you sure you have the time and coordinates of the meeting correct?”
It was Zoe’s turn to act snippy, though she quite knew that Mr. Achan, and his associates were thousands of floating-parsecs away at a diplomatic function. “Oh yes, I’m quite sure.” At this, the receptionist seemed to growl under her skin, prompting Zoe to try another approach. “Oh dear. Oh dear,” she said, looking truly, truly upset.
The effect was null, but nevertheless, the secretary began checking through the digital agenda of the company with rapid fingers and squinted eyes. It was obvious this ‘diligent’ check was as authentic as her demeanor, but Zoe stood patiently.
“I’m sorr—”
Zoe cut her off. “Ma’am, Alfred was to give me documentation of a contract I am currently helping to legislate. I’m sure he left it in his office. I talked with him not two days ago when he told me the papers were prepared and I could pick them up from here.”
The receptionist paused in thought. “I’m sorry, I cannot enter his office while his personal assistant or he is away.”
“Oh. I understand.” Zoe gave an affable smile and placed an arm on the counter. “Would you mind if I took a quick peek to see if perhaps the documents are there?”
“I am sorry. I cannot allow that.”
“His office is just down this hallway, right?” asked Zoe retracting her arm and dissolving all niceties. She made her way to the left of the secretary’s desk, towards the administrative wing.
“Miss! I cannot allo—”
Zoe immediately interrupted her. “It’s quite alright, we are very close, you see—Alfy and I—he won’t mind one single bitsy iota.”
The secretary stood up in protest and moved to block Zoe’s path, but Zoe brushed past her, flinging her arms back to ward off her off.
“Miss!”
Zoe paid her no mind and began running down the hallway. The receptionist did not pursue her, instead loudly phoning security from her desk.
Zoe quickly read the labels above the doors and byways as she sprinted through the highfalutin hall. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Ah, bingo!” She came to an abrupt halt and reached for the handle only to find it was locked. “Damn.” She pushed against it. To her surprise, it felt like genuine wood. It would easily give way with a decent amount of force. She looked up and down the corridor; she was alone for now. Zoe stepped back and leaned in with a heavy kick, aimed just next to the door’s handle. The wood gave way and the door swung open with splinters scattering inwards. The locking mechanism dangled from the remaining fibers. She would have to thank Darious later for showing her that little maneuver.
Zoe entered into a small empty receptionist’s office with yet another door across it. She ran to it and tried the handle. Yes! Not locked. Inside, she zipped her gaze around the prodigious office. The ceiling first caught Zoe’s attention. Three floors high, it rounded off into a painted scene of a blue sky with Cumulonimbus clouds and rays of sunshine beaming around their perimeters. Gold laced curtains came down from this great height, like a waterfall from the firmament and curled on the floor as volutes. The carpet was patterned with intersecting fleur-de-lis of crimson and blue. She looked over at the single imposing, intricately carved desk at the far end. Upon it rested a black phone, audaciously gilded like the rest of the executive office, and a computer console.
“Bingo.”
Zoe set herself down in the padded seat and two armrests greeted her just as she was powering on the computer. She stretched in the chair. It seemed to be fluffing around all of her sore areas just perfectly. She’d have to get one of these. So far, the plan wasn’t going half bad. Zoe checked her lightcard; she could see Darious had finished readying the ship in case of a quick exit. He was getting good. Well, time to get to business. Zoe smiled; no better place to access the information than from the head of the titan itself.
She set the lightcard on the table and opened its wireless ports. It began autonomously resolving the security protocols of the computer. Thirty seconds later, Zoe was in. She found it wasn’t too difficult to find the sectors of information relating to Dr. Earl Saknussemm, as the closer she got, the bolder the red warnings barring entry became. Breaking into the boldest, reddest division, she found a set of subfolders directly relating to the late Doctor.
As the lightcard began assimilating information from Pantheon Industries, Zoe picked out a couple files which caught her eye and expanded them one by one. The first was marked ‘Project R.E.A.P.E.R.’ Flipping through several of its pages, it became evident it was for some sort of automated work droid. Interesting, but far off. she thought. She closed it and moved to the next, titled ‘Origin Gravesite.’ It was marked all over with ‘Unlawful to Open’ and ‘Classified’ which only served to increase Zoe’s interest. To her dismay, it only contained a set of spatial coordinates. Nevertheless, she noted them and moved to the next document in the same subfolder, ‘Kapteyn Material Provider.’ Zoe recognized the word ‘Kapteyn.’ Kapteyn was the base hull material for galactic ships which allowed for their superlumious space flight due to its unique properties in the hostile faster-than-light environment of space. It was the statement ‘Provider’ that had caught her attention. She had never thought about where that magical substance had originated. The file contained a recent board review of the market.
“Hmmm,” Zoe reflected. She expanded the document. “Oh wow. Seems you guys are the sole supplier.” Certainly there were many companies selling it, but it was now evident they were actually subsidiaries of Pantheon. Even the freighters around the galaxy distributing Kapteyn, and not just the large ones such as IQS, were all under control of the corporation. Expanding the document further revealed comprehensive lists for every Kapteyn-manufactured vessel. You completely own the market.
It was then she noticed a bracelet at the far end of the desk. Picking it up and examining it against the backdrop of the curtained window, she could see it was forged of Kapteyn. The chain glinted in the light, showing an interwoven pattern of ghostly chromatic hues, as if reflecting the colors of the office through penumbral gems. Though Zoe had been familiar with this substance for years, she now peered at it with renewed interest. She slipped the thaumaturgy on her wrist. It was cool against her skin, as she expected due to its exceptional qualities.
A tone from her lightcard signaled the transfer was complete and it was time to go. There would be no more snooping for now. She shut down the computer and looked once more around the grand room before exiting. Upon reentry into the corridor, Zoe noticed something, or, as she corrected herself, the lack of something. All was very still. She could not hear any noises from the secretary’s end of the hallway and the other end was completely silent. Zoe’s skin crawled. This placidness was a farce and she knew it.
Zoe began running towards the reception area and came to a screeching halt, her sneakers skidding on the floor. With trailing cloak and one hand on his hat, the cosmic cowboy stepped out from the hallway’s end, blocking her path. Zoe spasmed as her heart skipped and her mind replayed, in graphic detail, the death of Dr. Saknussemm. In that same spasmodic motion, she flung her arms around her, attempting to gain traction from the air, and whipped around seeking another exit. There came a yell from the man, but it only served to further shock Zoe’s system, sending her into a mad rush down the hall.
It seemed within mere moments she reached the hallway’s end and turned with it left, fleeing far down further grand corridors until she found herself in an open area of cubicles, filled with arched automatons typing into their consoles. They sat, without the semblance of ever having legs, while their mechanical digits clicked on keypads of further digits. Zoe had heard of such places, where market aggrandizements were evaluated to decimal places beyond human comprehension and far into the mundane. It was somebody’s gained quadrillionth of a slice from somewhere.
At first Zoe froze for fear they would pounce on her, but none took heed of her. None even slowed their labor. She resumed her run, past the rows and rows of workers encapsulated within white cubicles. The compilation of their clicking emulated Zoe’s fervor. She did not pause to take further observations of this place, instead remained focused on putting distance between the cowboy and herself.
Darious and she had prepared a plan B and Darious was no doubt tracking her movements within the building via the ship synced to her lightcard. They had parked as normal inhabitants of this world, with falsified credentials. Darious would be moving the ship to intercept her on the roof. Her lifeblood was a yarn being stretched by the galaxy’s loom and he was the weaver. Just as Zoe reached the final doors exiting the enormous room, there was another yell behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the mercenary standing at the opposite end, gripping a large cannon of sorts with one muscular hand. Zoe’s mind did a complete summersault. He shouldered it, with an eye upon its scope, and raised his free arm vertically, unfolding his balled fist into a ‘V’ with his index and pointer finger.
Zoe burst through the double-doors and into a pivoting stairwell. As she made the first step onto the upward-bound flight, a mortar shot resounded from behind her. She vaulted herself upwards, knowing that impact was imminent. The rocket exploded at the stairwell’s entryway and Zoe was flung into the wall. Smoke and debris filled the air. She had luckily made it high enough to avoid the direct blast. She got up coughing, her senses on fire. Looking over the warped railing, she saw the huge hole generated by the blast, as well as the obliteration of the first part of the staircase. With a face full of soot and trifling cuts around her body, Zoe continued her sprint up the stairs.
“That was. Way too. Close,” she muttered between quick drawn breaths.
Grasping the handrail and using it to further propel herself forward like a triped, Zoe soon passed upwards of ten floors. Smoldering ash from below had diminished at this distance, and Zoe didn’t hear any more shouts or explosions. Each new inhalation drew in another gust of vitality as she went up and up. From what
she could remember, the building was some eighty stories tall. She had entered in at the thirtieth floor. Not far now, Zoe thought, though even her thoughts did not waste energy on sarcastic mirth.
After what seemed an endless tirade of flat and perpendicular cliff faces, Zoe paused and peered through the security window of a door. Into it she saw a similarly large cubicle area. Her eyes darted around, looking for some signifying mark so she could surmise her vertical whereabouts. She did not spot any floor level markings, though her eyes paused at the Eastern windowed wall. On a structural beam, in-between the view of neighboring buildings, there was a wooden clock with both hour and minute hands. Both dials pointed directly up. Zoe nodded and after a quick glance down the stairwell and seeing she continued to be its only occupant, she once more took lunging steps upward.
Zoe huffed between greased gradations, “Oh Darious. It’s. Time to go.” No sooner than eons had passed, she made it to the final floor.
With a similar explosive force to the canon that had nearly ended her, Zoe burst through the rooftop door and stumbled onto its surface. She was alone; her ship was not waiting for her with an outstretched gangway as she had hoped. However, between hard earned breathes, she could hear the familiar whir of her ship. It was crawling up the skyscraper to her and would take her away; her knight in shining armor come to save the day. She dared a glance behind her; all was quiet on the southern front. Where did he go? Although Zoe’s mind speculated, her body was well done with this place and ran near the building’s ledge, eagerly awaiting her ship.
Its silvery top first appeared, and next the cockpit window. Darious waved from within and Zoe looked once more behind her. All safe, for now. The ship swayed a bit as it swung overhead and clumsily eased onto the roof. Zoe motioned for Darious to open the hatch. She then heard the welcome clacks of internal locks being released and sprung toward the entryway as it opened. The ship had not yet evenly landed, and it needed not, as Zoe had already leapt onboard and was yelling to Darious.