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›?THE PEOPLES OF ALGOL?‹ BOOK I: DUAL INITIATION

PROLOGUE

Three of them stood together. One in purpose. In the same position but worlds apart. They could sense one another in a way that, for that moment, either knew the other in and out without ever having met. They somehow knew each other without knowing of the other's existence. Somehow. _ They looked at one another, each recognising that they were together with the other for a greater purpose. A quest that forces beyond their control - beings beyond their understanding - had chosen them for. Foreseen their need in._ _ There was a cold presence with them. Something dark. Uneasy. Feeling them as they felt each other, but threatened, as if they would somehow overpower it together. But only together. The darkness they felt wanted them alone. Helpless without the others? No. Something darker. Aid in its agenda._ _ There was silence. Like the breath before the plunge. Or the eye of a storm. Then they saw it. The plan. Or a glimpse of it. But then the Third vanished. Only two remained. The Third was gone. Elusive. Veiled. And then only one remained. Either of them, helpless alone. Confused. Without purpose._ _ Perhaps the vision was reversed._ _ But it was just a dream..._

CHAPTER ONE

Ambient silence took hold of his hearing and his eyes flew open. Where am I? David slowly cranked himself into a sitting position in his unnaturally comfortable bed. A clean white light faded into the room as the surroundings detected his slowly waking mind. Right. Of course. _ In a moment of remembrance, he smiled lazily. The room was small, but cosy. It had no windows but two doors - one to a small private bathroom and one to the corridor outside. Clothes were folded neatly on a hovering platform at the foot of the bed. _Time, he thought, still too fresh from sleep to speak. Transparent digits appeared in the space before him, hovering inches from his eyes. 06:12 IET. International Earth Time. Excitement rising up from his being, David got up.

2237 AD, July the 24th. Novusvita, second planet from the barycentre of the trinary Algol solar system, had now been colonised for almost eight years. Oddly enough, Algol, also known as the Demon Star, was once considered the most unfortunate star in astrology. Modern man would beg to differ; For a few months more, at least. Twenty years ago a space probe, Galileo IV, discovered life on the planet's surface. Complex life. And it has sentient natives. Humans call this race the Zen'j_i. Of course, this phonetic phrase is a rather simplified version of the actual term, as no human can pronounce their true name correctly, nor can the written human language truly spell it. The Zen'ji speak with six voices, after all. Twelve years after the discovery, the colony establishment ship _Darwin V landed on the planet in the south-east of the continent of Cyro'bar, in a region known by the natives as Toss. It carried 300 colonists and a vast supply of equipment. By Christmas, 2229, Darwin was a thriving colony. Over the next few years, five more colonies were founded. Takashi and Sklodowska were established within the next two years. Aristotle and Penrose came roughly a further year after and finally, in 2234, Eddington was founded on an island in the New Bengal Sea.

David Wells was an aspiring astrobiologist aboard the UEF Algol II. Novusvita is Latin for "new life", a rather appropriate term when David's reasons for boarding the Algol II are taken into consideration. The Algol II was one of three major space liners that took colonists to and from the Algol solar system. It was a gigantic, five-hundred metre-long cylindrical object, to which three large space shuttles were attached, parallel to one another around the body of the vessel. These shuttles each held around one hundred colonists-to-be and were destined for different human colonies on Novusvita. The "ship" itself was unoccupied, its only purpose being to transport the shuttles from Sol - Earth's solar system - to Algol through hyper-dimensional space. David found himself in the shuttle bound for Darwin, the largest of the six human colonies on Novusvita. It was his very first deep-space flight, a highlight in any human life. Before the flight, he had spent hours on a simulated Novusvita in virtual reality, preparing for the world both with simulations prescribed by the Terran Colonial Authority and ones his own creativity invented. Despite this, David still felt as though the next three weeks before his shift ended would surprise him in ways he could barely conceive. It still seemed, though, that his excitement would wane, briefly replaced by the dark emotions of three months passed. He found himself wondering how it would have been with her there with him. The main hall of the shuttle was packed. Due to the development of the Fractal Drive, based on the Takashi-Sheppard Chaos Formula of Fractal Wave Space, a variant of Hyperspace, and it's implication for faster-than-light space travel, there was no longer a need for cryogenic stasis during deep space travel, as flight times were exponentially reduced from years to hours. David had just emerged into the space after a quick shower in order to receive sustenance and to rejoin the company of the few friends he had left. The hall acted as the boarding station, cafeteria and pretty much the main centre of community aboard the shuttle, and was comfortably fitted to suit that purpose. Everywhere were colonists-to-be and crew members alike getting ready for the arrival. David felt odd considering himself one of them and, over the past few hours, often found himself staring at the far wall of the huge room, which was almost entirely covered by a gigantic screen showing dynamically changing world news, notifications and other information that might be of interest, such as "did-you-know?"s about Darwin and Novusvita. Every now and then, a three-dimensional, rotating white image of the United Earth Federation emblem - adapted from the twentieth century United Nations logo - would appear on a light blue background, reminding those present of their home-world. David soon found what he was looking for in the form of a charming old man sitting in one of the many white chairs surrounding the many white tables in the hall, reading The UE Paper. "Good morning, Professor Rogers," he said, mocking his title. Though he was technically David's superior, they've been good friends for many years, starting with a seminar on extraterrestrial life hosted by the professor nine years prior, before he left Earth as one of Novusvita's first human colonists. Attending that talk was still one of David's fondest memories. He was just seventeen at the time. "David!" the man replied, smiling, lowering the Paper onto the surface of the table. The display disappeared off the foldable, micro-thin screen at the release of his touch. "What makes you say it's morning?" "It's seven AM," he said, taking a seat next to the man. David felt the soft, yet strong material automatically mould to his body as he sat. "We've been in Hyperspace for sixteen hours now." "Ah, but it's only morning on certain parts of certain planets. We aren't currently on one." His fairly old wrinkled face curled into a grin. His salt and pepper beard and balding grey-scale hair, coupled with the road-maps to nowhere on his skin created by bulging blood vessels, made him appear quite old for his age. David never understood why the man never trusted medical nanites. It was very uncommon these days to find someone that didn't have them in their bodies - they automatically repaired damaged cells, made the immune system nigh-invulnerable, allowed skin-shade, hair colour, eye colour and even hair length to be changed by one's thoughts alone and allowed the human brain to remotely link with electric devices. Everyone else at his tender age of ninety five still appeared to be in their biological fifties, even forties or thirties. David chuckled and smiled at his colleague and friend's attempt at humour. "But we're close to one, Donathan. We should be landing in about half an hour." "Morning Dave," a teenage girl's voice approached them. David turned to see the fifteen year old, olive-skinned, green-haired girl approaching us. She playfully side-hugged David before taking an open seat at the table. Just like David, it was her first time on a long voyage space flight. Kate was about the only child on the flight. Donathan must've pulled some strings in order to get her on-board, as she was technically only a tourist. Being head of astrobiology in Darwin must've had its perks. "Morning Kate," David said, returning the girl's smile. Kate was Donathan's great-granddaughter. David was never even aware Donathan had children until a few years before as he had never met his wife or family (who perished in a freak mid-air traffic-accident when Kate's mother was still in her teens) and he tended not to speak of family matters. David soon got up to one of the nearby food vendors for breakfast; Well, his first meal since sleeping. David was definitely experiencing the time-impairing side-effect of space travel. A large digital clock set to the Earth-time of the shuttle's point of departure displayed on the main hall's massive screen certainly helped one keep one's temporal bearings. Modern food vendors generally had a display allowing one to craft and customise a meal of choice to the finest detail via the user's mental input. The machine then crafted a physical replica of the dish's design using a vast assortment of chemical substances it held inside. By this technology a synthetically spawned chicken omelette prepared to David's exact mental specifications emerged from the vendor atop a hover-tray, which David took along with the knife and fork released by the vendor and turned around, intending to return to their table with his breakfast, unable to register the oncoming traffic in time to react. He felt himself knocked back lightly as a stack of objects scattered to the floor and the hover-tray and omelette slid harmlessly through the air out of his arms. "I'm so sorry!" David said, instinctively bending down to help the man he'd collided with retrieve his dropped goods, which David found appeared to be a stack of text books. The man chuckled. "Don't worry about it, these things happen. Thanks for helping." David looked up and made eye contact with the man. He was a kind-looking Asian, about David's age. His long, black hair was unkempt and a few fangs of it hang over his right eye, over his glasses, the lenses of which were small rectangles. David was surprised to see actual spectacles still in use, let alone actual ink-and-paper text books, the last of which David handed the man was entitled Humans and the Zen'ji: A Comparison. David and the man both got up simultaneously after all five books were off the ground and David had picked the now stationary hover-tray and omelette off the floor nearby. "What are you studying?" David asked, assuming that's what the man was doing. "I'll be a new member of Darwin's human/Zen'ji embassy," he said, still smiling. "I need to know the natives inside out as a basic requirement. Oh, and if you're wondering about the books, I've always found them easier to handle, somehow. Weird, I know." "No, it's cool," David said. He then put forward his free hand. "My name's David, by the way. David Wells. Darwin exobiology division starting... as soon as we land, I guess." Kenji took hold of the books under his one arm and shook David's hand. "Kenji Hahn. A pleasure to meet you, David." It didn't take much for David to convince Kenji to sit at their table for the remainder of the trip. Kenji didn't know anyone else on-board and there was just something about the man David found incredibly likeable. "Are you seriously telling me the Zen'ji fist-pound to congratulate?" Kate asked, enthusiastically caught up in a conversation with Kenji regarding Zen'ji gestures, much to Donathan's pleasure. "Well, it has to be a mutual congratulations," Kenji happily clarified, "like after a victorious battle, for example." "That is so cool." An artificial voice suddenly filled the hall and probably the rest of the ship after a bing that announced the announcement. Crew members and colonists looked up from their meals, lowered their Papers or paused their conversations. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to exit Fractal Wave-pace. The shuttles will detach soon after. We are expected to enter Novusvita's atmosphere in approximately fifteen minutes. Please take this opportunity to enjoy the view of space through the main hall wall-screen." David smiled excitedly as the gigantic screen suddenly faded to black, changing to the view of space as seen from the outside of the ship. "Kate, look at the screen!" he said enthusiastically. The four of them all turned to the screen, but Donathan soon returned to his UE Paper, having of course seen this many times before. As the ship made the transition back to normal space, faint horizontal streaks of light started appearing in the void. The lines spontaneously contracted into thousands of tiny dots. Stars. "Wow," Kate said softly. "What's that?" She asked after a few seconds, pointing at a large, marble sized star that seemed much, much closer than the others. "One of Algol's stars," Donathan said, briefly looking up from his Paper. A label on the screen quickly appeared beside the celestial body: Beta Persei C. "That's the third and tiniest of the three stars in the system." "Where are the other two? A and B?" Kate asked. "I suppose you can only see them from the other side of the ship at this point." "You know," Kenji said, "some Zen'ji astronomers class Beta Persei C as the last planet of the system." The view rotated, presumably showing space from different cameras on the ship's exterior. Every now and again one of the planets, also labelled, could be glimpsed: Pluresluna, the many-mooned green gas giant; Magnus, Algol's violet Jupiter; and finally Novusvita. The planet was a mixture of greens and blues. White and green streaks ran across it: clouds, of both water vapour and of floating super-colonies of algae-like organisms. For a moment, David almost felt homesick, seeing the Earth-like marble before him, but the emotion was swallowed up by excitement. He had no more life on Earth. For the next three quarters of a month, at least, this was his new home. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Donathan remarked. "Are you kidding?" Kate said. "It's amazing. Looks just like on the net." The planet disappeared from sight as the view continued slowly moving. A blinding light suddenly filled the hall as Beta Persei A and B came into view. The blue and red stars shone next to one another like two glowing eyes in a backdrop of black. A bright tendril of flaming gas came from the larger, red star and curled around the slightly smaller blue sun, as the one was slowly being sucked into the other by gravity. Eventually, give or take a few million years, the two suns would merge into a single body. The shuttle then rocked slightly, accompanied by the sound of a low, faint click. It had detached from the Algol II. A few moments later, the faint buzzing noise of the shuttle's engines came to life. After another few minutes the shuttle started shaking slightly as the shuttled entered the atmosphere. David smiled.

The shuttle touched down on the large circular landing pad with a gentle thud. Finally. The automated announcement voice sounded one last time. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have made a successful landing at Darwin, Novusvita. Artificial gravity is being deactivated. Do not be alarmed by a sudden floating sensation as a result of lessened weight. The United Earth Federation Space Administration wishes you all a wonderful stay away from Earth." Immediately afterwards the large gates on the far side of the hall slid open, quickly resulting in a steady stream of people leaving the shuttle. David soon joined the traffic flow, almost grinning with anticipation, with his companions beside him. "Excited?" Donathan asked. "Is it that obvious?" David chuckled in response. The stream led out of the ship via an enclosed ramp - the walkway of which featured a floor-belt, a conveyor-belt like section of floor, to avoid the apparent inconvenience of walking - extending from the bottom of the ship to an area beneath the surface of the space-port. Through the transparent walls that enclosed the ramp, motorised vehicles and robots could be seen scurrying about on the smooth, grey surface of the spaceport, many of which were carrying cargo. David noticed golden sky from beyond the bottom of the ship before the floor-belt transported them beneath the surface of the space-port. Moments later the corridor was again filled with natural light as the right wall was replaced by a large continuous window. Here and there were transparent advertisements, notices and other informative text-strings, pictures and animations moving about in the glass. Donathan suddenly stepped off the floor-belt towards the window. "Come on," he said, gesturing for the rest of them to follow, which David immediately did, followed by Kate and Kenji. "This is beyond surreal," Kenji said, coming right up to the glass. David simply stared. Perhaps his jaw even dropped. The first thing his eyes could register was the water and the first thing that struck him about the sea was its stillness. It was barely possible to make out any waves at all. The twin suns shone brightly onto the glassy grey surface. Unlike in the dark void of space, they were not red and blue, but rather gold and white. The fiery tendril connecting them was barely visible. The sky said celestial bodies found themselves in was not the soft blue of Earth, but rather a pale golden yellow, matted with thick patches of white with streaks of green mixed in between. Being near the equator, the sky above Darwin found itself permanently clouded. Novusvita was currently reaching a state of planetary Winter, due to it's orbital location in relation with the three suns, creating gaps in the cloud banks as a result. David then turned his attention to the land. Beyond the golden-white beaches of the coast were vast green hills of jungle, through which cut a large river, running down from a mountain range to the north. Of course, David had studied the life of Novusvita beforehand. Despite this, he still found it exhilarating, even staggering to see what he had learnt about thriving before him, and not just in virtual reality but in true, undeniable life. Deep green was dominant, but dashes of countless more colours were mingled in. The plants were beautifully strange. The dominant trees were a mass of huge branches twisted and intertwined with one another along with a multitude of other plant life. The jungle itself was massive, with a height difference from ground to canopy alone of up to tens of metres, with numerous layers of foliage and gigantic curved branches on the way there. Here and there, gigantic tress, tall and wide, broke through the canopy like skyscrapers in a city. And the jungle was undeniably alive, with flocks of strange creatures taking to the air above the canopy and the canopy itself showing motion as animals made their way through the tree-line. David almost dropped to his knees in awe as something large flew past the window only a few metres away. The trance starting to ware off, he quickly noticed that he was not alone. Nearly half of the people in the hallway were absorbed in the show this extraterrestrial ecology was providing. After a few minutes, they continued on along the hallway. Soon the corridor began sloping down, and both walls as well as the ceiling was replaced by window, presumably as the corridor had now fully emerged from the ground. The glass was dotted with displays labelling the sights outside. Every now and then, for example, something would fly past and the displays would label it and give a detailed explanation of its physiology and such. David then noticed where the corridor was taking them. Ahead was a collection of large, silvery domes and other notably artificial structures protruding from the canopy, all connected to one another with enclosed tube-like corridors like the one they were in now. This was Darwin. The colony was built on a small curved peninsula and around the resulting bay, wherein the river he noticed earlier debouched as a delta into the Sea of Toss, or the Darwin Sea, as it's also come to be known. The largest of the colony's domes, a huge orb right in the centre with a tall spire (probably a radio mast of some sort) protruding from its top, appeared to be where the corridor was leading to. David looked back briefly and could see the space-port, with the shuttle of the Algol II slowly rising above the 300-metre wide circular platform, on its way to another colony to pick up the colonists who had now completed their two-week shifts and were returning to Earth. A few seconds later they emerged within the heart of the colony. "Welcome to Darwin," a voice said from seemingly nowhere to each of them individually. "You currently find yourselves in the Dome, the centre of the colony complex. Please make your way to your room. Your life as colonists will start for you tomorrow morning." From the corridor, the floor-belt met two more that circulated, one clockwise and the other anti-clockwise, around the edge of the room's vast circular floor. David found himself stepping off the floor-belt onto the stationary white floor of the huge glass dome in order to take in his surroundings. The space was roughly a hundred and fifty metres or more across. The dome itself rested on a two-storey high ring-structure, wherein were built twelve archways in the first floor, placed at intervals, some shut with solid metal gates, excluding that of the corridor leading to the space-port, from whence they emerged. Between these archways were a number of smaller doorways to rooms in the circular structure, as well as multiple elevators to the above level. The second floor was occupied by a walkway that encircled the area, along which were a collection of stores, restaurants, booths and cafés, similar to any modern public gathering space on Earth. A plain cylindrical pillar was placed from floor to ceiling above each of the eleven gateways at the very edge of the walkway. The dome itself was made of a thick plastic glass, wherein were displayed large notices, news channels, colony information and some entertainment services. The space was designed in such a way that the sounds connecting to these images that one would hear would correspond to where on the display one was looking at alone, whether by mental link or very complicated spacial-auditory engineering. In the very centre of the space was a huge, slowly rotating hologram of the planet and its two moons. David noticed that looking at the hologram resulted in the displays in the glass - at least to the individual viewer - changing to a view of space showing the real-time locations of the other planets and the three stars, completing the dynamic picture. The huge hologram was hovering above a bright circular light on a three foot wide, one foot high circular altar in the centre of the room and below a same sized light at the very top of the room, shining down, creating the image. At the very top of the dome, which was probably seven or eight storeys high, the radio mast-like spire seen from the space port rose up for at least another three or four storeys. This was where signals from Earth - such as internet and television broadcasts (which were all 16 hours old, due to the distance between Earth and Novusvita, which required 16 hours in Fractal Wave-space) - were received from, along with any communications with the other colonies and colonists on the planet and the orbital human satellites. People were everywhere. Many were sitting at the many round, white tables in the space and on the walkway, some eating, many were browsing around the mall-like set-up and many more were off to some or other destination, exiting and entering the space at the multiple gates. Somehow the noise one expects of such a crowd was dimmed greatly by the design of the dome. A hand on his shoulder awoke David from his observations. "You can sight-see later. Let's get to our rooms," Donathan said. "Yeah. Right," David said, chuckling. "I think I'll enjoy my stay here." "I concur with that notion," Kenji said, smiling. The four of them soon moved through the second gateway anti-clockwise from the one where-from they came, again finding themselves on a floor-belt which quickly whisked them down another glass corridor. As with most other windows, they carried digital, transparent displays. These images followed each of them individually as they went. One of the more persistent ones seemed to be showing them to their rooms. Through the glass of the tubular hallway David could spot other buildings of the complex through the gaps in the layers of the jungle. Many of these buildings were domes, like the colony centre, but much smaller - perhaps a fifth of the size. Here and there, surface of the jungle between the structures of the colony was intersected by what appeared to be vehicle tracks. The corridor soon took them to a dome, though this dome was only about fifty metres across. The wall supporting the glass of the dome was lined with benches, windows, airlocks to the outside and more arched gateways to which more tubular hallways were connected. The space of this dome was park-like, much of its surface covered with grassed-over soil and gardens of Earth-plants, such as trees and shrubs of various biomes. There were park-like benches and tables and chairs on the grass, as well as recycling bins and even holographic game boards. More moving sections of floor winded between the gardens and lawns to a circle of stationary floor in the centre of about five metres in diameter. There were multiple vents in the dome's glass ceiling, likely feeding carbon dioxide from the outside in for the plants. A fine mist of water vapour was also being sprayed from the ceiling, also for the plants. David assumed that these domes were part of what provided the colony with oxygenated air. They soon left the dome through the other side and within second emerged upon a lobby, of sorts. The room was rectangular and extended up for about four storeys before ending in a glass ceiling. On the floor was a warm wine-red carpet. Earth plants, such as small palm trees, were planted into the floor on either side of each door- and gateway in the room. All in all, the room created a relaxing atmosphere. "Here we go," Donathan said, smiling. "Is this like an appartment block?" Kate asked. "Something like that," Donathan said. To the left, the glass wall extended onwards and was overlooking the bay. Docks and presumably warehouses were built on the other side of the bay, on the small peninsula, also connected to one another by the glass corridors. On the top three storeys of the lobby were five outward curving glass windows placed at intervals of about five metres. On its first floor, however, there were five doorways set at the same interval, also made of glass and following the same curve. The glass was reflective, having the appearance of a curved mirror. Donathan headed towards the rightmost doorway at the edge of the wall. As he approached, the door opened, revealing what was presumably an elevator. There was a circular space of about four metres in diameter inside, following the door's curve. Another door, still following the curve, was placed on the opposite side of the elevator. The four of them stepped inside and soon emerged upon a hallway extending onwards for quite a while before apparently ending in yet another elevator or perhaps a doorway. The entirety of the right wall was made up of display windows. From their current vantage point, David could see much of the complex, all the way to the space-port. The Dome was indeed the largest and tallest structure in the complex. The docks were filled with sea vessels, presumably for marine research. The opposite wall held a number of almost hotel-like doorways placed at intervals of about five metres each. There were no conveyor belts on the floor here. Instead there was a deep blue carpet. As they walked along the corridor, the gradually broke up, with Donathan and Kate entering their shared apartment, Kenji his and finally David finding himself alone at the door of what was assigned as his room, which was the second-last door in the corridor, 19 out of 20. The tiny lens next to the door immediately shone a pale light onto his face and into his eyes. Facial and retinal recognition, as well as photo-genetic registration was a fairly standard means of security identification, as it was not easily fooled. After a few seconds of scanning him, the door opened and David stepped into his apartment. As he entered, the blank white surfaces inside the room began changing to his taste, as sensors in the room picked up his preferences. The dominant colours were suddenly blue, black and white. He smiled. The next thing to greet him was a mirror set into the wall close to the door. David absent-mindedly examined his figure for a few moments. He was 25, then. He didn't have a very masculine face and his jet-black hair was worn short. His eyes appeared an electric blue, his favourite colour, though it's biologically true colour was hazel. His body was of fairly average build - around 5 foot ten inches - but lacked much of a tan or muscle, which could be ascribed to spending over the average amount of time at a desk. Atop his new queen-sized bed lay three black suitcases. He began unpacking immediately. Opening the cupboards and closet set into the wall at the far side of the bedroom, he found it already had a few items in it, including three silvery-grey overall-like garments in one of the shelves. He carefully unfolded one. It consisted of a pair of trousers, a jacket-like section, a pair of black gloves, a pair of boots and a breathing mask, all connected by thick, rubbery black rings. Upon further inspection he found it had multiple pockets, a type of rucksack on the back of it and quite a sophisticated breathing system, as well as a fully functional heads-up display in the transparent front of the mask. It was apparent that this was some sort of hazard suit, meant to protect colonists from the harsh alien environment of the planet. David hoped he'd get to use it. A label on the back of the abdominal section read Atmospheric and Environmental Survival Wear, which David immediately linked to AES suits, worn by colonists to be exposed the Novusvita's atmosphere and other hazards. After fully unpacking his luggage, David continued the exploration of his room. Close to the main door was a small "kitchen", which basically consisted of a counter with a built-in food vendor and some cupboards with hover plates and basic cutlery. The bathroom's floor and walls were covered with white tiles. It was fairly spacious and perfectly sufficient - there was even a bath tub. He soon proceeded to slipping out of his clothes and making use of this luxury, after which he returned to the bed. Laying down, it immediately began moulding to the most ergonomically sound shape for his body. Sensing his thoughts, the bare section of wall ahead of him suddenly lit up into a display similar to what one from the twenty first century would recognise as a 3D television or computer. His mind in control, the display switched off, the wall turning back to the colour of his taste. The emptiness of that bit of wall bothered him somewhat, so he thought for a moment before making up his mind. The image of a sunset scene on a beach reserve back on Earth quickly appeared on the wall. There was a happy couple in the picture. One of the two was a beautiful young woman. The other was David himself. The memory he had chosen to display on the wall suddenly pained him. The image quickly faded away. David tried ignoring the droplet that soon escaped his right eyelid. He shook his head and stepped off the bed, decided to forget about the empty piece of wall, but made a mental note to come up with something later. Though it was only now sunset, David felt most exhausted. He wasn't even going to enter virtual reality or go online (though the latter would be quite limited here anyway, being light years from Earth) while his body recharged. He just... needed to sleep. Lights off, he thought after sliding into the bed and the room went black.

David suddenly reeled back to consciousness as the room suddenly exploded into light. As his eyes adjusted, it occurred to him that he was sitting upright. A moment later he felt himself shiver. His naked body was exposed, all the covers of s bed somehow having slid off the mattress. Something felt off. The room must've registered that he was awake. He was sitting upright, after all. How he got into that position, however... For some reason he felt anxious. After pulling the covers back over himself, David relaxed somewhat and let his back drop back lazily into his luxuriously comfortable bed. He activated the wall-screen and told it to show the outside. It was still dark. The sun - or suns - had yet to creep over the horizon. David estimated it to be still an hour or so before that time. After a prolonged attempt at regaining a state of sleep, but with no success, he finally rose. After getting dressed, he quietly left his room. The air in the hallway was warm. Looking around, David found no-one else visible. He was alone. He proceeded to purposelessly stroll down the corridor at a leisurely pace whilst looking at and out the window. The outside plant life appeared to be even more beautiful in the dark than during the day. Most of the jungle seemed to have at least some part of it glow in with varies degrees of intensity in almost every colour imaginable, like the neon lights in lower-city street back on Earth. David also glanced at the many notices, images and other digital imagery displayed in the window itself, but found nothing of interest. Eventually be paused, passing a paper-port built into the wall. He blankly pressed his index finger on the small black square at its top. A buzzing sound began as the thin, transparent sheet slid out of the horizontal, eight-inch slit just below, as electronic display ink was printed into its surface. He absent-mindedly continued walking, holding the UE Paper before him. The microlights within the sheet lit up its display, filling the surface with the latest (16-hour old) global news of politics and economy in a format similar to that of a traditional newspaper. He tapped one of the subheadings on the screen: Selective News. A new window popped up asking him to select the region, area, topic and so on of the news he was looking for, not that he was looking for anything in particular. David suddenly noticed, at the sound of a faint huff, that he had reached the end of the corridor, with the elevator doors having just opened before him. Not really wanting to go anywhere, he turned around and started walking towards the other end of the hallway. Looking back at the Paper, he selected his home: Vancouver, Canada. He flicked the sheet upwards with my thumb, scrolling down the virtual page, scanning for anything of interest, progressively heading to older news. Then a headline caught his eyes. Man Accused of Murder Flees Solar System. He stopped walking. He simply stared at the words, thoughts accumulating in the back of his head. "David?" The sudden voice broke David from his trance and, with a short gasp, he hastily tapped the red X in the top right-hand corner of the screen. The display disappeared. He turned to face the voice, folding and stuffing the Paper into a trouser pocket. "Kenji," he said, surprise evident in his voice. "Morning." The man chuckled. "Sorry, did I startle you? You seemed to be reading that Paper quite deeply." David attempted a laugh in response, though the sound just made him feel awkward. "I guess. Where'd you just appear from?" "Well, I'm somewhat of an early riser. Went for a jog - which was quite something in this gravity - but eventually found myself relaxing in one of the gardens for a while. I even managed to glimpse a few constellations I read about, in the gaps in the clouds through the dome's glass." The man smiled. "Are you an early riser too or were you finding it hard to sleep?" "The latter," David said. He recalled the odd circumstances he'd awoken to and, after a moment, realized his features were sagging into a frown. "Bad dreams, I guess." "Deep space flight has been known to cause that... Well, I'll be getting back to my room, then. See you at the conference centre." "Conference centre?" "Yeah, for introduction to the colony." "Right." David smiled blankly. "Well, see you there, I guess." After Kenji had gone, David made his way back towards his own room, but instead of entering, chose to stay in the corridor for a while longer, simply staring out the window. The first dim light in the form of Algol C had already crept over the horizon to the east. At other times of the year, the third star may even provide dim day-light to the night when on roughly the opposite side of Novusvita than the barycentre of the system. By the faint purple glow that was coming into existence on the horizon, David assumed that dawn was about to break. He looked down at the foliage below him, once more mesmerized by the jungle's beauty. Then something caught his eye. At first he thought the light and darkness was playing tricks on his eyes, but the longer he stared the clearer the image became. A silhouette. Someone was looking up at him. But it wasn't human. He was too disturbed to move, or even think. All he could do was stare back. In a moment he blinked, and the figure was gone. Had he imagined it? A cold shiver running down his spine, David turned and hurried back to his room.

The conference centre was a large dome, just about half the size of the colony centre, quite close to the colony apartments. David had, by now, decided to discount what or whoever he had seen earlier that morning. The inside of the dome was quite similar in design to an amphitheatre. In the centre was a large platform, surrounded by concentric rings of seats all the way to a wide walkway that went along the inside of the structure's edge. David was among the last to arrive after having breakfast with Donathan and Kate. Kenji, apparently, was among the first. About fifty other colonists arrived, filling about a sixth of the available seating, with most choosing to sit in the rings of seats closest to the stage in the centre of the space. Most present were familiar to David, as he had met them before on the UEF Algol II. As soon as all had arrived, one of the men chatting with some of the colonists made his way onto the stage. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with a fully bald scalp. He was semi-casually dressed, with a black sleeveless shirt tucked into military trousers. His face bore the signs of a newly-growing moustache and stubble, as well as a nasty white scar going about an inch down his right cheek, just below the eye. David was surprised by this - most people would have had something like that removed long ago. A tag on his shirt bore his face along with the name "Marcus Taylor", with the subscript "Head of Colony Affairs". The man spoke, coming forth with a deep, educated voice. "Welcome to Novusvita," he said in a tone that was assuring, yet carried no enthusiasm. "My name is Marcus Taylor. I am the current Colony Head of Darwin, and here now to introduce the new colonists to life on this planet and in this colony and to remind returning colonists of that life and explain what has changed. For many of you, this is your first time outside our species' solar-system. For most of you, this will undoubtedly be a great adventure, but there is most definitely more to it than that. This world is not ours. Much of it is uncharted territory. Almost all of it we have to share. We live on borrowed land. Your first task is to understand that. Your second is to find how you can excel progress in understanding this world and utilising what it has to offer. Welcome to Novusvita. Welcome to your new lives." Over the next two hours he and astounding holographic video lay down a few ground rules of the colony (such as "Never go outside without authorisation") as well as numerous safety and health suggestions (such as "Work out frequently as to not have the lower-than-Earth gravity weaken your body"). Then was explained what to expect from the planet and the progress that has already been made. To David, it almost felt like the first day at a new school. The orientation session included meeting one's "classmates" as well as learning the basic ropes of each department. The colonists also received an explanation of the time system of Novusvita. It was explained that, to adapt to the shorter-than-Earth days of the planet (while not confusing the inhabitants with horrific decimal values), there are only fifty seconds in a minute and only fifty minutes in an hour and only twenty hours in a day. The Novusvitan "seconds" - called "ticks" - passed slightly slower than standard seconds as well. This all meaning that a single Novusvitan day was around 0.625 Earth days long. David assumed correctly that it would take a while to adjust. After the session, each colonist received a PDA - personal digital assistant - of sorts, that attached to the wrist. Each small computer was specifically calibrated to a single user and would be returned to the colony and wiped after each colonist's shift. When they had finished, time was given until just after lunch to do pretty much anything. David soon found himself seated beside a coffee-shop in the Dome, examining his PDA. It fitted quite well and was actually quite comfortable, likely automatically moulding to the shape of his wrist. He tapped the black screen and it lit up. The light blue flag of the United Earth Federation appeared on the display, before fading away to white. It then spoke with an automated, gender-ambiguous voice. "David Wells, Age 25, of Vancouver, state British Columbia, citizen of the United Earth Federation." Then the voice stopped. David looked around, slightly embarrassed. He hesitated, then spoke. "Yes?" "I am your personal digital assistant, or PDA, courtesy of the United Earth Federation Extrasolar Space Administration and the Terran Colonial Authority. I am your personal computer, communications device and information log for your stay in Darwin, Novusvita. It is recommended that you not lose your PDA, as I also store your personal information and will relay notifications to you that may be of your concern. In case you experience difficulties in handling your PDA, I contain a use-friendly manual that can be brought up at your tactile, vocal or mental command. We hope your shift on Novusvita is a pleasant one and that you make it back to your true home in the Sol solar system safely." David glanced around awkwardly, then noticed the flashing yellow envelope in the top right corner of the screen. He tapped it and was once more met by the voice. "David Wells, you have one new notification." The animated face of Donathan suddenly appeared. "Greetings, Doctor Wells." He winked. "I'd bring you this message in person, but I'm a little caught up at the moment. You'll be working in the labs, as you've likely guessed, and as head of the exobiology department I've been tasked with giving you and other new would-be scientists a tour. Not that you're would-be but... you know what I mean." He chuckled. "Anyway, head up to the main entrance of the labs just after lunch. See you there, fellow Novusvitan."

›----?----‹

Kenji had chosen to take lunch on-the-go on his way to the embassy. Located in the east entrance of Darwin, the embassy comprised the northern half of the gate dome and was made up of what would appear to be a two-storey collection of offices. In the rest of the gate dome, there were various vehicles for travel outside the colony, parked on the structure's concrete floor. As Kenji approached, a tall woman with bright red hair, deep-green eyes and a heavily freckled face approached him. "Intern Ambassador Hahn," she said with a grin and put out her hand. Kenji shook it enthusiastically. "Doctor Stallings, I presume?" "Indeed, though please call me Stephanie." "Then you can call me Kenji." Stephanie smiled. "Please, follow me into the embassy." The embassy had a clinical, yet friendly appearance, with transparent walls and doors and multiple potted plants. The large glass doors of the embassy slid open silently, opening into the lobby, which was a fair-sized cylindrical room and atrium extending into the second storey . It had a bright blue carpet and a small palm tree growing from a circular white nutrition-base in the middle of the floor. Two more doors on either side of the room led to the rest of the embassy while an elevator to the floor above was on the far side of the room. Through the glass, Kenji could see numerous other colonists in the embassy, many of them at desks. "This also acts as a hub for Zen'ji research, am I correct?" Kenji asked, following Stephanie into the elevator. "Correct. That's why I'm here, after all." "Yes, I've read about you. Your field is xenolinguistics, if I'm not mistaken." "In part, at least. I'm also head of the embassy in Darwin and I would probably earn a doctorate in Zen'ji culture, if such a thing existed. But no, you're not mistaken. In fact, a colleague of mine - Gordon Savage, who you're about to meet - is actually working on Zen'ji/human translation software as we speak." The elevator doors opened and they stepped through. "Rose Watson, the current head ambassador, is attempting to solve a dilemma in the Valieren-owned Vishka Mine north of the colony at the moment." The office was a large room with four desks opposite from one another. Only one was currently occupied, and said contained a bulky man with a kind face, long curly brow hair and a thick beard to match. "So this is the new meat?" Stephanie chuckled. "Coming from you, Gordon, that really isn't appropriate." The man came to Kenji in his hover-chair and stood up, seemingly with some effort. "Morning. Name's Gordon." Kenji shook his hand. "Kenji. And isn't afternoon by now?" Stephanie shook her head. "Don't get technical with him. 'Morning' is just his what of saying hi, regardless of the suns' position in the sky." "So, Intern Ambassador," Gordon said. "You think you're ready to face the natives?" "Believe me, I've studied all legitimate sources on the subject, both simulations and writings. I know the Zen'ji -" "Do you?" Gordon interrupted. "Name the High Chief of the Toss region." "Luce'ray Kanachi," Kenji said without hesitation. Gordon lifted his brow. "Wow, you really went in-depth. Normally new recruits to this end of the colony only know as far as the Zen'ji's current diplomatic atmosphere. Names of people of interest normally come much later. Well done." Stephanie chuckled. "You're not ready yet. Knowing who's who and what's what is one thing. Knowing how to interact with an extraterrestrial is another thing entirely." Kenji grinned. "I actually read your paper on the subject, Doctor Stallings." Stephanie chuckled. "It's Stephanie." She turned to Gordon. "I think I'm starting to like this kid."

›----?----‹

Truth be told, David had a notorious sense of direction. After several wrong turns and nearly ending up at the warehouses, he finally came upon the laboratory complex (but not before his PDA enquired if he was lost and then provided directions to his destination after he confirmed its suspicions). Donathan was waiting patiently at the entrance of the lab-complex, with a number of other colonists - some fairly less patient - waiting before him. David appeared to be the last arrival. "Ah, David," Donathan said with a smile. "Got lost?" David attempted a chuckle in response. "Well then, now that everyone is here," Donathan continued, now addressing all present, "let's get started. My name is Professor Donathan Rogers, head of exobiology in Darwin and formerly head of extraterrestrial studies on Novusvita for the TCA. Many of you may also know me as the author of many writings regarding both the prospect of life beyond Earth and the Novusvitan biosphere. Some of these works I trust were consulted by you during your pre-colonial studies. Now, as intern exobiologists, each of you will be assigned to a research party regarding a particular subject of study, depending on your specialities. Some of you, assigned to Xenobotany, will find themselves stationed in the Greenhouse. The rest of you will be working almost exclusively in the lower sections of the laboratory complex. Right then, please follow me into the labs." Donathan subsequently commenced a tour of the complex. The laboratory complex basically consisted of three large rectangular warehouse-like single-storey units constructed parallel against one another. The first and southernmost appeared to be reserved at least partly for the dissection of the native lifeforms and the study of their anatomy. The second involved biochemistry and xenogenetics, to a large extent, while the third was reserved for chemical studies for Darwin's Native Resource department. Each of the structures were filled with numerous isles of white metal desks, chairs, cabinets and counters, along with a large amount of laboratory equipment, including quite a few robotic assistants. David found himself assigned to the study of a rather intriguing matter centred mainly around a single group of Novusvitan animals, the /Duososida/ class, in which were classified much of the native fauna, including the Zen'ji themselves. This taxon possessed the following defining features: calcified bones like the mammalian skeleton, two pairs of complex eyes, two mouths - for which they were named - found on either side of their thorax, often at the ends of their forelimbs, a pair of mammal-like lungs and a pair or more of antennae on their heads. These were not your average feelers and were also known as REM - or radio-and-electromagnetic - receptors. These antennae varied in species from smooth and bulbous to segmented and exoskeletal and added an extraordinary trait to their senses. The antennae were able to sense electric, magnetic or even radio waves, fields and pulses through receptor-cells similar to the Ampullae of Lorenzini (which were basically microscopic gel-filled pimples) in shark-species on Earth. The antennae had this ability because they were ringed with microscopic gel-filled canals, opening to the surface by pores in the skin and ending blindly in a cluster of small pockets full of special receptor-cells high in magnetite. In species with exoskeletal antennae, these structures were found ringing the spaces between the conical segments. In species with smooth antennae, these structures could be seen with the naked eye as very tiny black dots, arranged in rings around the antennae. The REM-receptors were the subject of David's team's work, or more specifically, the subject was to determine how the length at which these organs could be used for a sort of extrasensory communication in Duos species, as it was recently observed that many were able to reverse the polarity of the receptor-cells in their antennae in order to "broadcast" electromagnetic or radio "signals", which could then, in theory, be "received" by other Duos individuals in the area. David was assigned to a team of five other exobiologists, headed by a tall, skinny man with balding head, Professor Arthur Penrose, who had first proposed the theory that Duososida were able to communicate remotely and non-verbally via their REM-organs. His research assistant was a short, seemingly emotionless woman, Lucy Desai. The remaining three members of the research group were Jonathan Levine, Astrid Thomson and Jean Hardy, a zoosemiologist, xenoneurologist and both ethologist and field exobiologist, respectively. The remainder of the day was spent familiarizing themselves with the research topic and acquainting themselves with their co-workers. As they suns started setting again - accompanied by an evening rain - David received another message from Donathan, stating that he was taking Kate out for dinner in one of the Dome's restaurants and would like David to join them, to which David promptly agreed

›----?----‹

"So the Valieren Jia'khell wants independence, then?" Kenji enquired, seated at his desk, filling in the few blanks he had about the Zen'ji from the colonial research database on his desktop computer. "Generally, yes," Stephanie said, seated at her own desk. "But it's less racism and more cultural pride." "I must say, when the four north-western provinces are compared with the rest of the Valiero'ji, I'd say independence isn't such a bad idea." "Well, keep in mind that the Jia'khell provinces hold the majority of Valieren mining activity, not to mention being the home of one of the richest families in the kingdom." "You mean the Dûzkol family, right?" "Indeed I do." "Speaking of the Greyskin/Goldskin relations of our northern neighbours," Gordon suddenly spoke, "what's taking Rose? Didn't she leave like half an hour ago?" Stephanie sighed. "She said she was on her way three minutes ago, Gordon, not thirty. She should be here any second now." Kenji chuckled. "Guys, a chopper is coming through the ceiling outside." "That would be Rose," Stephanie said blankly. Moments later, the office doors opened and in walked a young-looking woman of about Kenji's age, or at least augmented to appear so. She had a slim body - and wore clothes to show it - and had straight black hair with blue highlights and matching eye colour. "Wow," said, dropping a large black suitcase on the floor. "That was tiring." "Good morning!" Gorgon exclaimed with excessive enthusiasm. "Welcome back," Stephanie said. "We have a present for you." "Right, the intern," Rose said. Kenji had gotten up and approached her, smiling. "Kenji Hahn. Glad to make your acquaintance." Rose chuckled, grabbing and shaking his hand. "Don't be so sure, hun. You don't know me." Kenji wasn't sure to take that as a threat or a joke, so chose just to keep smiling and returned to his desk. "Name's Watson, by the way. Rose Watson." She picked the bag back up and dropped it on an open space on the fourth desk. "So, how was Vishka?" Stephanie asked, still working on her desktop. Rose plopped down onto her hover-chair. "I hate mines. I hate mine-workers. I hate racist mine-worker convicts who can't even speak their own language properly." "That good, huh?" "Things are getting worse up there," Rose said with some dismay. "The latest few convicts brought to the mine are generally all Jia'khell from the Greyskin provinces. They caused quite a stir in a recent northern riot." "And the contract?" "Yeah, we can still purchase minerals from the mine. That wasn't difficult to maintain." "But?" Rose sighed. "The real problem is actually that most of the convict miners detest us. Heck, the way things look now, our next supply truck will be wrecked and plundered by a hoard of angry dimwitted mine-workers. Hey, maybe they'll even drop their racial segregation to massacre their imagined common enemy!" The chuckled sarcastically. "Anyway, I'll have to pay them another visit tomorrow, or the day after, at least." "Aren't you forgetting something?" Stephanie said, eyeing her oddly. "You have to take Ken here to go meet the natives." Kenji's brow lifted. First day, and he already had a nickname, it seemed. "Steph, can't that wait a little while?" "I don't know, can it?" she replied sarcastically. "Fine, I'll take him, but I guess he'll just have to accompany me to the mine afterwards." She glanced at Kenji and he noticed a smirk on her face. "We have company," Gordon said, leaning back in his chair, looking out the window showing the rest of the dome. "Ah, that would be Don," Stephanie said with a smile. "Don?" Kenji asked. The doors suddenly opened and Professor Donathan Rogers stepped into the room. "Good evening, all," he said friendlily. "Professor Rogers?" Kenji asked, surprised by the sudden visit. "Hey," Rose said, unenthusiastically. "Good morning!" Gordon released. Kenji shook his head. "Does one ever get used to that?" Then, to his surprise, Stephanie stood up from her desk for the first time in hours and embraced the old man. "Hi," she said. Then, to his even greater surprise, the two kissed. Rose chuckled. "Hey Ken, by the elevation of your eyebrows I gather that you were not expecting that." "Hey, well at least I'm not a cougar!" Stephanie chuckled. Don joined in, then addressed Kenji. "Kenji Hahn, am I correct? David's friend from the flight to Algol?" Kenji shrugged. "Yes, I suppose. I would like to think so." "Stephanie and I are taking David and Kate out for dinner in La Dolce Vita. Do you know it? It's a casual restaurant in the Dome. It just occurred to me, seeing as you and David seem to get along so well, you might like to join us." Kenji was surprised by the proposal. "Well, I'd love to, but I barely know any of you and I still need to finish a number of readings." "Oh, come on. You can do that in the morning," Stephanie suggested. "Besides, you have yet to experience a true night in this colony and, honestly, you don't seem like the type that gets out much. Come on, join us." Kenji stood up awkwardly, but smiled. "Erm, well, okay then."

›----?----‹

The party soon met up in the Dome. David was pleasantly surprised to find Kenji joining them. The five of them then proceeded to the restaurant, which had a very cosy interior and was, indeed, as casual as Donathan had suggested, with a long bar and multiple shallow tables with heavily cushioned seats of various colours. They choose to seat themselves at the far side of the restaurant, at a table next to curved window of the structure. Typically, David soon found himself gazing at the picturesque sight of the night-time jungle. It was nearing full moon for the largest of the planet's two satellites, but the dense rain-cloud cover obscured most of its light. "So, David," Stephanie said, suddenly addressing him. "How has Novusvita been treating you so far?" "Well, it's a beautiful environment. At least the part of it I've seen in real life so far," he said. "As for the colony, life in Darwin is definitely different from what I'm used to. Not worse - not at all - just... different. The colonists seem to have their own culture, even. So far, it's like the perfect work place met the perfect home." "That's good," Stephanie said, smiling. "Tomorrow most new colonists will be sent on some or other field expedition. Any idea what you'll be doing?" "Professor Penrose has organised our research team clearance to visit one of the bat caves - nests of Sieran Vampires in the caverns of the mountains - in order to read the electromagnetic and radio activity potentially released by their REM-organs, in an enclosed space." "Ah, you'll quest for evidence to support Arthur's theory," Donathan said. "I myself am a supported of the idea that the native lifeforms may be communicating with one another such an almost psychic manner, so I do hope you find what you're looking for." David chuckled. "Honestly, Don, I'm not even sure what that is yet." "What's that?" Kate asked. She was staring out of the window. "Over there." She pointed to a spot near the jungle floor and we all looked in the direction. "What we looking for?" David asked, moments before spotting it himself. A chill ran down his spine. There, barely visible in the shadows cast by the light of the luminous foliage, was the silhouette of a crested humanoid figure. A raindrop slid down the window and distorted his view of the figure. When it had passed, the figure had disappeared. David shivered, feeling a sudden chill in the warm room. Had it just happened again? "I don't see anything," Stephanie said. "What is it?" David looked around and met eyes with Kenji. The two exchanged nervous glances. Then it couldn't have been David's imagination." "Ne- never mind," Kate said, looking away from the window. "It was probably nothing." "So," Donathan said, changing the subject. "Are we ready to order?"

›----?----‹

Submerged in the shadows, the Zen'ji female realised her target had moved. She swore under her breath in her native tongue. The Jawheads' settlement was uncomfortably close, the light of the huge crystal bubble peering through the foliage. She concentrated, her antennae twitching, and felt her target moving away. She quickly continued through the upper levels of the jungle in the direction of his signal. There were more, but she could not feel them at the time. The rain made it harder. She swerved atop the branches and through the leaves. The man was observing something. He must've then felt her presence and fled. She quickly glanced through the foliage in the direction of human settlement in an attempt to spot what her target had looked at. She stopped in her tracks, her eyes widened. One of the humans she could see through a nearby window. Could it really be a Sion? Now? She quickly realised that her target was gaining distance from her and recommenced her pursuit.

CHAPTER TWO

Valdin, capitol of the Valiero'ji. Priantos Hi'lien Escar was awoken by the whirring of a Priska's jet. He opened his eyes to the darkness of night. He lay on the mattress on the floor of his room for a few moment more, trying to confirm that the sound was indeed coming his way. The sound stopped only feet away and he know he had to get up. The middle-aged Zen'ji man pushed himself upright as if his body were its own entity, still trying to regain the sleep he so dearly needed. He stood up from the mattress and approached the window, not caring to put on his gown to hide his naked, green-skinned body. Few would be out in the courtyards at this late an hour. As the sound had suggested, a Priska was waiting for him at the windowsill. The creature was a foot-long rod with four gas-filled sacks protruding from its sides like bloated, motionless wings, and had its blind, beaked head at one end and the opening of its powerful biological jet at the other. The creature clung to the windowsill with one of the two thin tentacles that hung from its neck, stopping itself from drifting away with the midnight breeze. A small wooden tube was tied to its body, closed on either end by tiny lids. Priantos opened the small container and extracted the letter held within. In the light of the full moon of Biarr, he inspected the words it contained for a few moments before tapping the Priska, after which the small messenger whirred off back into the night air of Valdin. Priantos got dressed immediately. The message was urgent. Report to the Headquarters at once. He quickly headed to the bottom floor of his home and left out the back into the large courtyard of the city block his home was located in. He left wearing light grey leg-wear, a plain, soft white vest, and a long, hooded robe. The robe was a subtle grey-blue and the hood was long - meant for a male - in order to cover the head-crest that came with his sex. On his hands he wore black, fingerless gloves of a cotton-like material. Leaving home or being among others without something to cover one's palms was considered shameful and highly inappropriate in Valieren society, given the orifices on the ends of Zen'ji hands. The large city courtyards, around which were built the homes and establishments of the city, served as the gardens and parks of Valdin and also held the city's many stables, where residents housed their Altari, the horse-like creatures that served as the basic mode of transport in Valieren society. Priantos quickly mounted his own and made his way out of the courtyard into the beautiful streets of the Inner City of Valdin. The bulk of the city was built inside a two-kilometre wide shallow crater on the northern shore of the Sea of El'jok on the southern coast of the Cyro'bar continent. The almost perfectly circular rim of the crater was broken at its south-western end, allowing the sea to enter, resulting in a small bay in the south-western section of the city. Valdin itself stretched on for kilometres outside the crater, along the wide River Ryan to the west of the crater into the Ryan Valley, along the small River Shin to its east and just up the slopes of the Valdin Peaks just north of the crater. Aside from the mountains and the ocean, the city was surrounded by the dense, unforgiving equatorial jungles of the region, the Managar Forests. Within Valdin's crater was built the Inner City in concentric circles of adorned streets, cut into conical section by streets radiating out from its centre. A large wall was built along the rim of the crater, cutting the beautiful and grandiose Inner City from the common and even slum-like conditions of what became known as the Outer City. Two large gates breached the wall at the north-easterly and western sides of the wall, through which large main streets lead directly to the centre. Two canals also entered the Inner City, having been carved into the crater rim from both the Ryan and Shin rivers, coming together at the centre of the city. At this centre was the White Tower, the centre of Valieren government and the home of the royal family. Rising four-hundred metres above street level, the almost glowing white stone structure towered over the rest of the city. The three main streets of the city - two from the gates and one heading south-east to a bridge connecting the city to the Isle of Leon just off-shore - came together as a ring around the base of the structure, where the bulk of the tower was held up over this ring-road by a series of gargantuan pillars, and the two canals joined and curved around the northern end of this ring, forming somewhat of a moat. The structure was trisymmetrically constructed as what was effectively a stack of domes and towers, held in place by magnificent flying buttresses and crowned with the Hall of Kings - a final dome at the very top with an encircling balcony overlooking the city, sea and the surrounding landscape. The White Tower was fabled outside Valieren society and was arguably the pinnacle of the architectural aptitude of the Valiero'ji. Even at night the White Tower seemed to glow, reflecting the light of the larger of the two moons. Priantos observed the mega-structure from blocks away as he quickly rode through the streets to the headquarters of the Order of Acanthos, hidden beneath the Enforcers' Block. Priantos rode into the block's stone-lain courtyard and fastened his Altari in the stables. He quickly proceeded into the building and down a staircase into the structure's basement. He made a final turn through a large doorway, arriving in a wide open room that served as the main hall of the Order's headquarters. The Order of Acanthos was essentially the Valieren secret police, tasked with investigating and even resolving matters of national security or the protection of the monarchy. It was named after Acanthos Fiara Valier, the first true king of the Valiero'ji. Priantos was first asked to join the Order after seven years as detective in the ranks of the Enforcers, who were tasked with keeping the law in Valieren society. Priantos had now been a member of the Order for almost a decade, slowly rising through the ranks and now at the brink of becoming a senior member. There were at least twelve other members of the Order present, with some yet to arrive. This was normally the case, even though Priantos was the one who lived furthest away from the headquarters. Of all present, Priantos was the only one lacking a skin-tone of golden-yellow. Within a minute or so a younger man, similarly but more lavishly dressed than Priantos - save for wearing an identical cloak - joined the congregation and approached Priantos. His name was Tiard Löra Va'rill, a man fairly new to the Order and a few years younger than Priantos, who had been assigned as Priantos' partner and had become a dear friend to him. He too was a Goldskin. "What's the occasion?" Tiard asked. "Eol knows," Priantos shrugged. "Jer'ij will only call the meeting to order once we have all arrived." "Am I not the last?" "This time, is seems, you're somehow not the latest arrival," Priantos said and added sarcastically, "Well done". A man about a decade older than Priantos and clothed in a black cloak suddenly spoke up. "It seems as though all are present." It was Jer'ij Lados Tevara, head of the Order of the Acanthos. At that time, there were sixteen members of the Order present, Priantos included, with the rest either incapable of attending or engaged in matters outside Valdin. "You should be wondering why I have called you all here at as late - or should I say early? - an hour as this. Roughly an hour ago I received a message via Priska from the king's vessel. As you know, the monarch left a number of days ago to attend a secret meeting with the Aari'ji ministry regarding the potential threat of an Iga'ji invasion on the Arah'ji. The message was sent shortly after the king's arrival and bears disturbing news. An attempt has been made on King Dalash's life." Priantos heard the other members break out into shocked whispers. Dalash Helia Ahron was the Valieren king. Priantos himself gave little response, though was certainly not expecting /this/. How was it even possible? "The assailant," Jer'ij continued, "used a firearm at range while the king made his way off the royal vessel on arrival in Arreine, but thankfully missed by mere inches. It wasn't possible to identify the would-be assassin, however, and they fled the scene directly afterwards and could not be located. The use of a firearm suggests Iga'ji involvement, but we cannot be sure and must not jump to conclusions." "When will the king return?" one of the members asked. "King Dalash has chosen not to cut short or cancel his stay in the Aari'ji capitol and the meeting is taking place as planned," Jer'ij said. "But surely the king should return, knowing he's not safe there?" "The king's choice is his own, but we must still act upon this matter. The king has voiced his concerns in the letter, and I certainly share them. His visit to the Aari'ji was kept a strict secret only between our parliament and the Aari'ji ministry in Arreine. As you know, all the public has been made aware of is that the king has left the capitol, leaving his eldest daughter Aleen as stand-in monarch. Thus the chances of the would-be assassin learning of the king's journey on their own are very unlikely and the odds of the attack being by chance are astronomical. Therefore, we must assume the unthinkable." "There are spies in Valdin," Priantos finished. The room was quite for a few moments. "So what's our plan?" a member finally asked. "We must find the spy," Jer'ij said. "Too much to bear thinking about could be at risk if we should fail." Priantos folded his arms. "Then we had better not fail."

›----?----‹

Nomad, this person is called. Novusvita's enigmatic human wonderer. Self-proclaimed exile; wanted by the TRA on various accounts of stolen knowledge, unregulated contact with sentient extraterrestrials, conspiracy and even murder. The final account almost made them laugh, if it wasn't such a tragic injustice. They lay down flat on the edge of the icy cliff, body covered in layers of pale wraps of fabric over a mildly tattered AES suit, goggles over a shattered mask frosting at the edges. A piercing breeze of airborne frost cut through the air. The Pass of Ugush lay before them. A hundred feet below them, a large convoy was crossing the hazardous pass between the rocks faces, treading forgotten lanes in the blanket of snow at the bottom of the gorge. They had done so more over the past month than in centuries before. The convoy was composed of multiple Zen'ji men, wrapped tightly in garments of warmth, and large, bulky black-skinned and heavily horned creatures - Dak'sôl, Iga's large rhinoceros-like beasts of labour - that were dragging large wheeled crates through the snow. This was a most curious sight. The Pass of Ungush was a treacherous short-cut through the eastern peaks of the unforgiving Great Cyro Highlands, following various chasms, cliffs and narrow valleys, connecting the Omag region of the Iga'ji empire to the Valieren north-west. It was the kind of route one would use attempting to avoid detection. The two nations had always had tension between them, twice erupting into war in decades past. The convoy was carrying goods - and large amounts thereof - in a north-easterly direction, directly into Valieren Greyskin territory. The convoys would always return the same way they came, crates empty. "Look closer," a man's voice said through the comm-link in their ear. Nomad was silent, mentally adjusting the image through their goggled, attempting to grasp a better view through the frost-bitten wind and down to the chasm below. The lenses focussed on one of the large crates. Nomad squinted. They whistled softly and two hand-sized spider drones popped out of the wraps on their back and scurried down next to their head. Nomad mentally paired the drones to their goggles and focussed once more on the crate, now seeing through high-detail echolocation. Through the wood of the crates they could detect stacks of metal objects. "Weapons," they said blankly. "For what purpose?" "I will have to pay their destination a visit soon. Nomad out." They ended the transmission and pushed themself up. The spider drones scurries up their legs and perched themselves on their shoulders, then carefully climbed the slope away from the gorge to a large hover-bike left were the slope evened out into a plateau. The suns suddenly shone sharply through the cloud cover. Nomad started the bike and silently glided over the snow-covered plateau.

›----?----‹

The White Tower bared an almost cream colour in the morning light. The skies were half-clear, allowing the golden light to flood the land and sea, which glistened shades of copper in response. Priantos and Tiard were making their way down the centre main street of Valdin, quickly approaching the structure via their Altari. The wide cobbled street was split in two left-hand traffic lanes via a series of gardened traffic isles in the centre, on which were the large two-storey stone pillars upholding one of the city's three central aqueducts. Large copper pipes sprouted from the stone aqueduct at a shallow angle, flowing into the roofs of the two-storey city blocks on either side of the wide street, supplying a continual flow of running water. The aqueducts were found over each street of the Inner City and, at intersections, flowed in a ring around the many guard towers that dotted the city. These towers rose about four storeys and gave the city guard possisioned there a clear view of the area around the intersections and were also where guards were dispatched from when needed. At the gate-end of the street, the aqueduct entered the wall of the Inner City above the large gate, branching from a larger aqueduct hidden in the wall, fed by mountain water from the Valdin Peaks. At the other end of the street was a large bridge crossing the central moat-like section of Valdin's canal, before ramping up at a shallow angle into the ring-road around the base of the White Tower. All the way, the structures of the Inner City were uniformly constructed from the same white stone as the White Tower and topped with roofs of deep blue tile. A large number of city guards, positioned in such a way that they were never out of view of at least two others, dotted the ring-road and watched the palace gates. Each carried a phalanx, the bladed tip of which rose about two feet above their heads and wore a full-body metal and white hide armour uniform, with only their crests and antennae protruding from tight-fitting holes in the helms. The national emblem was engraved in the centre of their breast plates with two thin slits in the metal on either side for breathing. Helms included a rigid metal mask with small holes for sight and speech. White capes hung from their shoulders with the national emblem woven in gold on the back. Soft white hide connected the various armour plates at the joints. This was the official armour worn by all Valieren guards and soldiers and, despite its heavy appearance, allowed for great mobility. The White Tower had three main entrances, aligned with each of the three main streets. The gigantic gates were open and led into short wide corridors, with enclosed stables in their sides. The two agents tied their Altari in the stables and Priantos gave the stable-watcher eight Shill for the trouble. The gate corridors led to the White Tower's enormous inner atrium, filling the lower half of the structure's core with an open, balcony-lined cone. Large triangular window-like openings in the side of the atrium, creating gaps in the levels ringing the space, flooded the area in light, illuminating its lavishly decorated floor, walls and pillars. In alignment with the three large gates were three equally large staircases, ramping up at a shallow angle from the floor to open doorways in the slanted wall of the atrium. Aside from men and women on foot, riders upon Altari were also both ascending ad descending these staircases. The White Tower's interior was ringed with large corridors wide enough for Altari to ride through and most of its wider staircases were shallow enough for that same purpose. The structure was truly gigantic and travel by Altari was often the best way to get anywhere within its interior in a reasonable amount of time. Stable posts were positioned at the entrances to most sections of the structure's massive interior. Back in the central atrium, twelve smaller doorways were positioned around the base of the wall, one one either side of the staircases. Priantos and Tiard quickly headed through one, which led to a staircase leading down to the lower levels of the structure. Despite being underground, the passages were still lavishly decorated and well lit, both by nightlights and windows in the wall of the city canal on this side of the palace underground. Their destination was the servants' quarters in the lower levels of the structure, just beneath the atrium. The day before, everyone in Valdin in direct service of parliament, the royal family or anyone else who may have learnt of and leaked information of the king's whereabouts were instructed to come forward with any information that may aid the investigation, such as the suspicious behaviour of peers. Earlier that day, at a number of palace servants reported the suspicious activities of a fellow palace servant, Olgrid Llen Torig, who had reportedly been listening in on high level meetings, snooping around the king's quarters and been acting mysterious and abnormally introverted since first arriving in Valdin a number of years prior. Priantos had his suspicions about the validity of the accusations, as Torig was one of a minority Greyskins working in the palace. A palace guard patrolling the passage approached them. "What is your business here?" he asked. Tiard and Priantos both opened the sides of their cloaks, revealing the Order emblem - a dagger, scroll and spyglass within two crescent moons - sewn in the inside. "We're here to question a palace servant," Priantos said, closing his cloak. "Olgrid Llen Torig." "The servants' quarters are straight ahead," the guard said. The servants' quarters were largely empty, with a few servants cleaning the area. One such servant - a young woman - was startled to be approached by two men of the Order. "We're looking for a fellow servant of yours, Olgrid Llen Torig," Priantos said. "The Greyskin," Tiard specified. "Yes, Olgrid," the girl said, taking a breath. "I wondered when you people would show up about him. I always had a feeling about him." "Do you know where we can find him?" Priantos asked. "I'm afraid I'm not sure." "May we see your duty roster, then?" The girl showed them to a large writing board at the main entrance of the servants' quarters, showing the duties of each palace servant for that week, before returning to her own. "Interesting," Priantos noted upon finding Torig' name. "What is it?" Tiard asked. "I would expect a spy among the palace servant to be a cup attendant or tray lad at meetings, or perhaps the personal attendant of one high up the ranks," Priantos said. "All he seems to do is contribute to a cleaning." "Perhaps he has help?" Tiard suggested. "Or maybe he's not our spy. Regardless, we should question him anyway. At the moment he finds himself sweeping the corridors of the ninth level." Tiard sighed. "Wouldn't it have been easier to merely have the guards bring him to us?" "No. The guards could loose him or, if Torig isn't the spy, alert the true spy to the search. In any event, a number of things may happen that the guards aren't prepared for. But why am I telling you this? Let's go." Priantos and Tiard soon retrieved their Altari and made their way up the tower's staircases to the nineteenth level. After tying their mounts to stable posts on the level, they soon found Olgrid Llen Torig sweeping out a large meeting chamber with two other servants. Of the three, Torig was the only Greyskin. He was a relatively short man, middle aged, and had a thin build. Like all the other palace servants, he was dressed in fine, though average, clothing. The room was large, with a large oval stone table in the centre, with about twenty or more seats around it. There was a balcony on the far side of the room with a bird's-eye view of the central atrium, and two other entrances to the room on either side. A guard was standing silently near the entrance they came through and the two agents showed him their emblems. Torig was working at the other end of the room from the other two and paused as Priantos and Tiard approached, looking up cautiously as he did so. "Olgrid, is it?" Priantos asked, nearing the man. The man slowly lowered the broom he clutched to the floor, then got back up, frowning. "I be him," he said in a thick Jia'khell accent. Priantos noticed the other two servants staring. "I suggest the two of you leave the room for a few moments," he said loudly. "We just have a few questions for Olgrid here. We may have a few more for you, if need be. Now go." The two aptly obeyed and went out the nearest exit, leaving their brooms were they swept. "What is this about?" Olgrid asked, now holding his hands behind his back. "I doubt you're aware, but some of your co-workers reported rather suspicious behaviour from you, Olgrid," Priantos said. "Care to tell us what they were talking about?" The man hesitated. "Who are you again?" Priantos briefly opened his cloak and revealed the Order's emblem. "Anything more than that is for us to know." The man stiffened and his breathing accelled. "Look, I know what this is about! But the rest of them - those racist Goldskins - will do anything to see a Greyskin in trouble. You know what they can be like! You're a blood-bastard after all." "What did you just call him?" Tiard said, threat in his voice. Priantos touched Tiard's arm. "Leave it," he said softly, then turned back to the man. "Regardless of their intentions, we have multiple eye-witness accounts of you wandering around King's chambers or listening in on meetings between the monarch and his advisers. Is this true?" "Of course not!" the man said. "Even if I were a spy, I wouldn't just snoop around! In case you haven't noticed, there are guards everywhere." "So who's helping you?" Tiard asked. "No one!" "So you're working alone?" The man dropped his arms. "Enough," Priantos said softly, touching Tiard's arm again. "Olgrid, if you weren't spying, what were you doing around the king's quarters?" The man lifted his arms. "Cleaning! What else would a palace servant be doing around the Crown's chambers?" "So you were around the king's quarters, then!" Tiard said. "We saw your duty roster," Priantos said. "You don't work in the royal family's levels." "Okay!" the man said desperately. "I was curious, that's all! I've been working in the White Tower, home of the kind, for four years and have never even seen where the King really lives. I just had a look, that's all. I swear!" "You're lying," Tiard said, then turned to Priantos. "We should apprehend him right here." Olgrid's face went rigid. "But it's not me!" "Relax," Priantos said softly. "Just to be sure, we're going to put you under guards' watch," he told the man. "You'd better watch what you do." "Thank you!" the man said. "Let's go," Priantos told Tiard, turning around. "But we're not done here!" Tiard said, surprised. "Tiard, please." As they left, Priatos gave a final word to the guard. "Watch him." Once outside, Tiard spoke up. "He's the spy, I know it. Can't you feel it too?" "I felt the man's apprehension," Priantos said, "but he just... I don't know how to put it. I just don't think he fits the profile. In any event, he's being put under guards' watch, so he'll be brought in at the slightest sign of treason." Upon reaching their Altari, another man, lavishly dressed in clothing of the highest class, was tying his own down. He seemed in a panicked hurry. "Excuse me," he said, pushing past Tiard down the hallway. "Was that Senator Reino?" Tiard asked, mounting his Altari. "Indeed it was," Priantos said, sharing Tiard's confused look as he mounted his own. Ignoring the encounter, the two began riding back towards the central atrium. Soon the two were riding back into the central atrium towards the palace gates. Outside it had become dark and cloudy. It was about to rain. "Suppose Jer'ij will accept a suspect under watch as much as an actual arrest," Tiard asked as they descended the staircase to the atrium floor. Before Priantos could answer, there was the swift downward flutter of dark robes, followed by a grotesque organic thud. The space froze for a moment before a woman screamed. On the Atrium floor lay the broken figure of a Goldskin man in high-class clothing, a pool of green blood forming beneath him. "That's Senator Reino!" Tiard said. Priantos looked up and spotted a Greyskin man staring down from a balcony near the Atrium's ceiling. The noticed Priantos' gaze and disappeared from view. "Stay with him!" Priantos shouted to Tiard and turned his Altari, wasting no time getting back up to the ninth floor. In the passages were confused figures emerging from rooms and corridors and many hurrying down to the scene unfolding in the central atrium. Priantos came to a brief halt at the top of the stairway of the ninth floor. He heard a commotion down the corridor. Guards in pursuit. He rode in the direction of the sound and was suddenly confronted by none other than Olgrid Llen Torig. The man stopped dead in his tracks, almost stumbling backwards, then found his window and swept down a nearby corridor. Priantos leapt off his Altari, taking pursuit. He soon heard a number of guards follow behind him. Priantos briefly lost sight of Torig as he turned a corner. As he reached the bend, the man jumped him, thrusting a metal skewer at his chest. Priantos sidestepped the move, grabbing the man's outstretched arm under his own, before throwing him against the nearest wall, pressing his one hand between it and the man's chest, and twisting the hand with the weapon to disarm him. To Priantos' surprise, no weapon dropped and the man twisted around, breaking free and attempting a second thrust with the skewer. Priantos sidestepped yet again, with his foot beside the man's own, causing him to topple. Priantos brought his knee down on the falling man, grabbing the hand with the weapon as he did so, then noticed the man's twitching eyes. He watched as Torig's entire body broke into convulsions before going still. The man's free hand was on his chest, beneath his shirt. Priantos tore open the fabric, finding the man's hand on a round metal device strapped to his chest between his breathing plates. Priantos felt the man's pulse. He was dead. The guards arrived just as Priantos stood up. "What happened?" he asked, still staring at the body. The man's hand - the one carrying the skewer - caught his eyes. Torig wasn't holding the object in his hand. The metal spike was protruding, seven inches, from his palm, tearing straight through his white finger-covering glove. "Senator Reino entered the room," a guard said. Priantos assumed it was the guard from the room Torin was working in. "It was the strangest thing. He seemed to have come in a hurry and was out of breath. He looked confused and I thought he was going to leave, but as he turned around Torig approached him. I should have acted, but I didn't know what was happening. Torig grabbed the senator and hurled him off the balcony. Then he ran." "Of course he ran," Priantos said, turning from the body. "And now our best lead is dead." "But wasn't he the spy?" a guard asked. "He was a spy." Priantos glanced back to the body. Green foam had accumulated at the man's visible orifices. "Bring the corpse to the Enforcer's Block."

›----?----‹

Nomad lay silently on their stomach, rifle in hand. Their prey was herded two hundred metres before them. Renne, bison-sides bipedal animals. The creatures had long, horizontal bodies, thick legs and two stubby forelimbs, ending in sharp hooks for feeding on their own prey. Their skin was a bright white, coated with silver stripes, and two large, bulbous antenna-like organs protruded from their hips into the air. These were generally grey, but could glow brightly in any number of colours as a means of visual communication between the animals. Renne were commonly found in the Arctic regions of Novusvita, the Great Cyro Highlands being the furthest south they were found. They also happen to be one of a number of animal species on the planet humans could consume with minimal treatment. The rifle in their hands had its origin among the Arah'ji, the first nation on Novusvita to exploit what the Zen'ji called blazerock to power firearms. The substance, of a silvery coal-like appearance, was a culmination of minerals that could react with heat or pressure in such a way as to create combustion in the carbon-dioxide atmosphere of the planet. Deposits of the substance was mainly found in the mountains of the Zaghira continent, the reason that it was so accessible to the Arah'ji and Iga'ji both. Nomad was at the edge of a glacial valley roughly six-hundred miles from the Pass of Ungush. A particular Renne, unfortunately far from the rest of the herd down below, caught their eye. Nomad pulled the trigger. A muffled burst followed. A moment later, the animal dropped to its side, the tiny metal pellet having pierced its heart. A minute later, a few other individuals had gathered around their fallen herd-mate, the bulbous organs protruding from their backs flashing in shades of blue. Nomad waited for the herd to leave, anxious to refill their stock. They returned and made themselves open to transmissions (from a very select and hidden range) in an effort to kill time. As expected, a transmission came within moments. "What's up?" the voice came, streaming into the communications device in the ear of their mask. "There's been a development," Nomad said, returning the Arah'ji rifle to its slot on their bike. "Since our last chat I paid the Sanctuary a visit." "Why? What for?" "Earlier I felt something and needed to confirm it the Guardians. One the three have arrived on the planet." "One of the Sion? You're sure?" "There's no question. I've felt it for about a day now and the Guardians tell me I'm right." "And they're human too?" "I suspect so. Either that they're newly born, which I doubt considerably." Nomad looked back to the valley and noticed the Renne herd begin to move on. "But that's not all. I have a new task to fulfil." "What about Jin?" "I'm on my way there now. Just stopped to hunt." Nomad mounted their hover-bike. "No, this new task is for after that. I can also investigate the destination of the Iga'ji weapon convoys along the way after Jin. They want me to observe the other Sion. The Valieren." "I thought an agent was already on that. And isn't a second on their way anyway?" "My task is different. And you know I'm more than an agent." "The Guardians haven't confirmed that yet." "Do not doubt me, Steven." "I don't." "Then we need not discuss this further." Nomad powered up the bike. "Nomad out." Ending the transmission, Nomad rode down the side of the valley to their prise, stopping next to it and proceeding with the task of dissecting it with on of the many blades they carried, removing what was edible and storing it in a sealed, self-sterilising container on their bike. They would treat and cook it later. Nomad, the enigmatic human exile. If only they knew.

›----?----‹

An Order meeting was called at sunset, following the completion of a post-mortem on Torig's body. Jer'ij and many other agents were present, including Priantos and Tiard. "Senator Reino Dess Varein is dead," Jer'ij opened. He as the only one standing and was positioned at the head of the meeting table. "The cause of death was blunt trauma on his head and torso as a result of a fifty metre drop. The city and the nation is in shock and our only lead to those responsible committed suicide before one of our most gifted agents." He looked up. "Priantos, you have the word." He sat down. Priantos stood and recounted the events of earlier that day to the finest detail that could be of any importance. When he sat down again, talk ensued. "From what we can tell," Jer'ij said, "the senator was on his way somewhere in quite a hurry. Witnesses report that a Priska stopped by him as he entered the White Tower. Though it seemed his reason for being there at that time was urgent, he stopped for the creature and received a letter, then continued on his way to the ninth floor. We retrieved what we presume to be this letter from the senator's body." Jer'ij then produced from a pocket in his cloak a rolled up slip of paper, the bottom of which was stained green. He rolled open the page and read: "Senator Reino, there has been a development. You must not, under any circumstances, report our findings to Princess Areen. I have made a most disturbing discovery: the Ahron family is involved in this plot. Meet me in the ninth floor meeting chamber. Hurry. No name or signature is given." Jer'ij put down the paper. "Any idea what the sender was accusing the royal family of?" an agent asked. "Or the plot the senator and this mysterious correspondent of his had apparently uncovered?" "It was a trap," Priantos said. "The senator must have collaborated with someone, yes, but I doubt that letter actually came from them. Instead, I propose the letter was sent by someone aware of whatever the senator and his correspondent uncovered and was attempting to stop him from alerting the governing party. My guess is that Senator Reino's initial destination was the Hall of Kings - likely even Princess Areen herself - and that the royal family isn't actually involved in this. As for this 'plot', I believe it's safe to assume that it ties in with the attempted assassination of King Dalash." "And what of Torig's part in this?" an agent asked. "Player or pawn?" "It would seem that Torig is not the instigator of any of this," Jer'ij said. "Given his position as palace servant and how he got himself cornered, I doubt he would be immediately capable of any plot on the scale this seems to be. There's also no evidence that he had easy access to a Priska during the time the letter to Senator Reino must have been sent - nor do any witnesses of Torig recall him handling a Priska within the last day - so we must assume he wasn't the sender of the letter either." "Then there must be more spies in the city," Tiard suggested. "Exactly." Jer'ij then turned to another agent present. "Hylla, why don't you tell us what we've discovered about the ill-fated spy." Hylla stood up. She was a well-featured woman of about Priantos' age. Though she was strictly a Goldskin, her colour showed slight traces of green. "Well, this was indeed an interesting examination. Now, on the surface, Torig was a middle-aged Greyskin man. He was fit and generally quite healthy - aside from the neurotoxin he shot into his heart and bloodstream." She put on the table the round object Priantos had found on the man's chest. It was a circular object that looked not unlike a flat cylinder with another, smaller in diameter but slightly longer in length, protruding from the top. On either side of the object's bottom edges were white strips of cloth that Priantos remembered were strapped around the torso. "We've concluded that the man used this device to end his life," the agent said. "It's something of a suicide devise." She then twisted the smaller cylinder and pressed it in. A large metal needle suddenly shot out of the object, over where the wearer's heart would be when worn. The needle was stained with the green residue of Zen'ji blood. "We found it on the man in this position." "It's a fail-safe," Priantos deduced, "to ensure that he not be taken alive." "We're still working on isolating the toxin, but it seems to be fast working and highly potent, targeting the victim's nervous system directly, shutting it down. We also found this." Hylla then placed a linen-wrapped object on the table. She proceeded to unwrap it, revealing a severed Zen'ji hand. A sharply tipped metal skewer was protruding out of the orifice in the palm to just beyond the length of the fingers. "Indeed it would appear that I was not lying," Priantos said. "This is also why I was incapable of disarming him." The rest present were quiet for a while. Priantos noticed Tiard wince. Anatomically, this was very bizarre. It would have been possible for a female Zen'ji to keep such an object in her wrist with little difficulty, as there was space. The only problem would be keeping it in place when attacking with it. For a man, however, it would take quite a sacrifice. "This is only the man's left hand," the agent said. "The man's left is unmodified." "He..." Tiard said with a sickly expression. "He replaced his... with a...?" "Yes. The man's left penile shaft has been cut out and replaced with the metal skewer. The skewer's base is porous and filled with tissue that connects it to the tendon and muscle tether the penis was cut off from. We suspect he - or whoever performed the operation - used embryonic sap, filling the pores in the skewer with it and smearing it on the would left from the penile removal before inserting the skewer in the penile sheath inside the man's forearm. The embryonic sap would've formed the tissue connecting the skewer to man's body when it came into contact with the wound. We also found no traces of scar tissue on the man's forearm, suggesting he would've had to be erect - with the majority of the penis protruding from his palm, in other words - during the removal. The tissue was also well formed, suggesting the operation would've taken place in his teenage years." "Embryonic sap..." an agent muttered bitterly. "A newly lain egg - a child - was sacrificed for this." "Aside from its disturbing nature, this method of weapon concealment is ingenious. The skewer can be produced at will with the same muscles that make the male penis retractable." "And we've seen this before," Jer'ij added. "Not in any of our lifetimes, of course, but in a group the Order had to deal with historically. The Brotherhood of Shjerr'dûll performed the same bodily modifications and used the same suicide method." "The suicide device even has their symbol engraved on it." The woman held up the object, showing the image of a burning Zen'ji skull on its top end. "But we ended the Brotherhood two centuries ago," Priantos said. "This doesn't make any sense. Why go through so much effort to copy a dead organisation?" "Perhaps we're looking for a cult?" an agent suggested. "Well, given the nature of his... modifications," Priantos said, "we can rule out that he was hired. Whoever would do something like that to themselves must be either forced or very devoted. However, perhaps someone recruited him." "But who?" "The north-western Greyskins, I'm sure," Hylla said. "Torig was a Greyskin, after all, and born in the north-west on top of that." "I doubt the north-west Greys are capable of this," another said. "Don't the Iga'ji follow the same teachings the Brotherhood of Shjerr'dûll lived by? Surely there would be mimics among the Redskins." "Perhaps we should stop pointing fingers and focus on the evidence," Priantos said, eager to end what was clearly becoming a race-based debate. The door of the meeting room suddenly opened and a small individual appeared in the doorway. It was a young woman, Leira Yen'ess Vëroll, green-skinned like Priantos, who acted as the Order's secretary. "I apologise for my interruption, but I just received a Priska bearing letter that may be of consequence to the investigation." "Continue," Jer'ij said. Leira took out the letter and scanned it, before relaying its content. "The letter was sent by a private investigator in the city, Atlia Fae Ezior, and is in relation to the investigation into Senator Reino's death. She says she must much to reveal to the Order, but cannot risk meeting at the Enforcers' Block for various reasons she will soon explain. She's named a night-open café at which to meet immediately." "Fli'arr," Jer'ij said, addressing a senior member present. "I bid you to attend this meeting. Leave immediately." "Actually," Leira said as the man stood up, "the investigator named someone specifically she'd prefer a meeting with. Priantos Hi'lien Escar."

The suns had set when Priantos arrived at the café. It was a quaint, out-of-the-way establishment hidden in the northern sector of the Inner City. "Welcome to the Waking Zavann," a girl asked, approaching Priantos as he entered the premises. "Would you like a seat?" "Actually, I'm looking for someone," Priantos said. "Is Atlia Fae Ezior here, by any chance?" The girl thought for a moment, looking around. "I'm not aware of anyone by that name being here at the moment, but you may feel free to have a look around or perhaps wait for her, if you had an appointment." Priantos was confused. The investigator named the establishment specifically and said she's wait. Priantos was sure that, if she was here and truly knew him, she'd be there to meet him. "I think I'll wait," Priantos said. "You may show me to a seat." About half an hour passed with no event. Priantos merely stared into the quite street, waiting for the woman to arrive. Eventually he even ordered a beverage. A sudden scream caused Priantos to jump to his feet. The girl from earlier burst through a door at the back of the café, horror evident in her expression. Priantos ran to the girl. "What happened?" he asked. "Dead!" she shouted and Priantos noticed the green staining her clothes, like one who had slipped and fell in a pool of it. "She's dead!" Priantos ran past the girl and through the door she's come through. He found himself in a large storeroom housing various ingredients and edibles. He looked around quickly, then spotted the green trail on the floor. He followed it to an obscure corner of the room and somehow knew he had found her. She was lying against the racks, lifeless, a large stab-wound in her neck. Atlia Fae Ezior. A second casualty. Another dead lead.

›----?----‹

A mile to the west, a commonly dressed, red-skinned woman rode up the final hill before the metropolis came in sight, then stopped as it came into view through the thick jungle around the wide, elevated stone highway. Just a little while more until her thousand-mile journey was complete. Her fine violet clothing was soaked, as was the white satchel slung over her shoulder and the outer layers of the luggage tied to the saddle of her Altari. She didn't mind the Valieren rain. It made her feel refreshed; soothed her much more than the poisonous rain of her homeland ever could. The city was spread out before her as a network of white lights - that of nightlights, creating a huge change to the nightly landscape, otherwise lit by the colours of the jungle - curving around the large bay and stretching into the nearby valleys, with the concentric circles of the Inner City right in the middle. Valdin, capitol of the Valiero'ji and home of the man she loved. Before riding on, she glimpsed a highway guard gazing her way from a nearby road-side tower. The man quickly looked away before eye contact could be made. She guessed it was her skin colour. She was soon galloping down the hill into the city's outer suburbs, anticipation building up inside her. After all these years Priantos would not be happy to see her.

© 2012 Charl-André Fourie Aka TemporalV01D | Valdin | SPACE_LEMON