Isius 2775 AD

Isius 2775 AD

Tondra raced down the halls. "Get out of my way!" he snapped at a yeoman who hadn't moved fast enough. The guard in front of the Regent's door looked like he was about to challenge Tondra. "Don't be stupid!" Tondra barked at him as he moved to the hand-printed lock. The door opened and he dashed though. The door immediately closed.

His old friend Ryan had succeeded the previous Regent three cycles before. Until this moment, Tondra had thought the Regent’s mantle rested comfortably on his shoulders. But today the eyes that looked up at him seemed utterly defeated.

"Ryan, what are you doing? You commanded me here using the war protocol. You cannot use that unless we’re at war. Unless the Union Council has had some secret meeting that I’m unaware of, it is impossible for us to be at war.” He leaned onto Ryan’s desk with both hands. “Therefore, it’s illegal for you to use that code. What’s wrong with you?”

The Regent seemed to be struggling for words and found none. He stared at a lone memcorder sitting on the large, clean desk. Tondra’s eyes narrowed. What could be so secret that he would want it to stay off the Suzerainty network?

Ryan slid his memcorder across the desk towards Tondra. “Read this.”

Tondra stared at the small rectangular form, an inexplicable dread building inside himself. He shook himself with disgust. He ruthlessly centered himself and reached for the memcorder and projected the highlighted file.

It contained some field dispatches from C1-4. Tondra selected one and then moved back a bit so his eyes could focus. He needed to get to Body Maintenance to sort out his eyes. Again.

Priority Red

Security Class 9

Created by: Sub-Commander Marsen LIJU:9831777:1m3:SUX:S1

Tondra's eyes narrowed. Class 9: The highest security level the existed for field personnel. He searched his memory. Marsen was in charge of the Suzerain team ensuring there were no Merefant traces on C1-4. "Wasn't C1-4 that planet where they found that huge guidance crystal deposit?"

The Regent nodded. "There were so many we thought it justified to immediately send in a civilian team to begin examination in the areas we had already checked." He took a deep breath. "Read on," he commanded.

Live Merefant have been sighted. Repeat, live Merefant have been sighted. Evacuating immediately. Recentering all explorers with the knowledge that the planet was uninhabitable. Leaving a contingent of volunteer Suzerain on the planet. All volunteers must go through a level 12 centering reinforcement. They are to send Oratio KLKP:665428:4m1:Suz:C2 one way only daily reports. We will not contact them again. Their mission programming will be to continue planet scouting until they are incapacitated.

Tondra had no idea how long he had stood there, paralyzed in shock. He raised his eyes to the unmoving Regent. "Live Merefant?" Tondra licked his lips before asking, "How long ago?"

The Regent answered in monotone without moving. "Thirty-six hours. Hundreds of Suzerain have been killed already."

Tondra's mind reeled. He forced himself to concentrate. Planet C1-4. That would be one of the planets revealed in the last Boundary expansion, just over ten cycles ago. It was in what was now commonly called the Dark Zone. That meant that the Merefant had been present undiscovered inside the Union for over ten cycles! This could have only happened because of the Dark Zone policy that the previous Regent had implemented sixteen cycles before! Tondra let his head fall into his hands. "Oh, Duthail save us."

“You have no idea. Read the next one."

Tondra nervously fiddled with the memcorder until the appropriate file appeared.

Priority Red

Security Class 9 (unscrambled on Isius)

Log reports of Captain Ballard REOP:934876:1m1:Suz:c2

4765-204,211

Two Union unidentified citizens have been seen accompanying the Merefant. While they will obviously be anarcous we will see if contact can be made.

The Merefant control some sort of beast that is extremely intelligent and are effective at countering our assaults. They killed my entire squad, save three men. Picture of beast follows.

Merefant observed using guidance crystals to speak to each other. Two Merefant observed directing the beasts.

One Suzerian managed to capture a Merefant. He went anarcous and had to be killed. His mission chip logged that the Merefant call the planet "Urielle". The beasts are called "Werosk".

Marsen brought down an elite squad. They killed a Werosk today. Lost only three men.

A woman seemed to appear out of thin air. Killed everyone except myself. I only escaped because I was hidden when she attacked. She apparently found a way to utilize the guidance crystals as a weapon.

Tondra licked his lips. Taking a deep breath he went through some powerful re-centering exercises to stave off the emotion that threatened to overwhelm him. Finally, he turned the memcorder off and stared at the Regent. His friend for over 35 cycles looked ill. His voice stuck in his throat. He cleared it and tried again. "What are we going to do?"

"You realize this is our fault. If we hadn't created the so-called Dark Zone we would not have missed this."

Tondra shook his head. "That's ridiculous, Ryan. The Boundary Guard should have picked them up before we expanded. But even so, we can pull back until we can determine what to do."

The Regent waved his hand. "You have no idea how much I want to. But I can’t.” The Regent actually started laughing, though it ended with a sniff and a wipe of his noise. “No. You see, we need the guidance crystals. Do you realize how few crystals there could be in the next Boundary expansions? We need this planet. It’s simply too dangerous not to take it."

Tondra’s entire world was twisting underneath him. Previously inviolable truths were abandoning him. Ryan even hinting that they might run out of crystals … the Union would lose their ability for space travel. It would destroy the entire Union. The Boundary would collapse. The anarcous cultures would invade with impunity. And on top of it all, live Merefant!

Tondra stopped himself. Fear was blinding him. The problem seemed to be the crystals. Did they really need this planet so badly? In every one of the hundreds of Boundary expansions they had found more crystals. They could simply quarantine C1-4. There was no need to try to tackle the Merefant head on, not until they were better prepared. Ryan was not military trained. The thought of the Merefant probably panicked him. “Ryan, we need time. We can quarantine the planet. We have found crystals with every expansion. This planet may not be that important.”

The Regent regarded Tondra for a moment before sitting straight in the chair. He brought the Suzerainty network onto the main screens. He brought up the area around C1-4 and then zoomed out until Isius was on the edge of the map. Then, a bunch of dots overlaid the map. Though the distribution was chaotic, Tondra could clearly see that the density rapidly increased as it neared C1-4.

“What is this?” Tondra asked.

“It’s the crystal finds of all the Boundary expansions this side of Isius. C1-4 seems to be the center of an unusually dense deposit. All the initial surveys beyond C1-4 to the Boundary show much lower densities.”

“I don’t understand why this is so important.”

“The problem is, Ryan, that we have calculating our crystal usage based on the assumption that all space has the same density of crystals, more or less. Since the last expansion, it has become evident that the crystal distribution is centered around this one planet. There is a strong possibility that we will find fewer crystals deposits in subsequent expansions. And, with each expansion … each time the Union gets bigger … we will need more crystals to travel the greater distances. And yet we have to expand to find more crystals. Do you see the dilemma?”

“Can’t we simply slow space travel and use fewer crystals?”

Ryan grimaced. “If we have enough time. It’ll take many cycles to do it properly. If we do it too quickly, the Union will be severely weakened. You see, the rate of supply is crucial to the strength of our economy. The faster we can get energy to where it’s needed …”

Tondra held up his hand. “Sorry I asked. Economics simply isn’t interesting to me. Just tell me what I have to do, and I’ll do it.

Ryan nodded. "Hand me the memcorder."

He efficiently found a projection of a largely green planet. "C1-4," he proclaimed. "Urielle. It had enormous reserves of guidance crystals, Tondra. Enough to allow for another complete Boundary expansion."

"On one planet?" Tondra found that hard to believe.

"According to all the reports," the Regent said as he located another hologram. Another image appeared.

It was horrific. A beast was caught in the act of smashing the head of a Suzerain. It stood on its hind toes, rearing at least half a meter above his victim. Its green-grey fur seemed spiked in rage, though the beast was moving so fast that the image was slightly blurred. Though leaner and more dexterous, it resembled a demonic bear. Its fangs, bared in rage, looked capable of quickly killing any known land animal. "A werosk. According to one report, they can sniff out Suzerain from other Union citizens. They are reported to be extremely intelligent."

Tondra tried to imagine what it must be like for the Suzerain on C1-4. "The Suzerainty is simply not designed to deal like this."

The Regent nodded. "None of us are. But we’re trapped by this. Even if there were no crystals, we can’t leave live Merefant inside the Union. Duthail save us! Even the memory of their presence is deadly to us. Now, here they are, ten cycles inside the Boundary. They have already reached our soft underbelly before we even knew they were there."

"We need to talk to the Central Council," Tondra insisted.

The Regent nodded. "I have already set up a meeting, but there is something we can do before we have to commit ourselves to any action."

"What?"

"We need to land an operative to get intelligence."

"How?" Tondra demanded. "Merefant can sniff out a Suzerain before they even land on the planet, for Duthail's sake."

"I have an idea."

Tondra studied his old friend. Why did his sad face make him so nervous? "You have already worked all this out. Why are you asking me?"

"Well, indirectly, it involves you. Do you remember VRIP:025689:9m9:Suz:SP? Well, now he's --:Arb:NV."

“I don’t commend people’s numbers to memory.”

There was a pause. Then an inhalation. “Darach. The one who served in the Caramm mission.”

Tondra couldn’t stop his voice from going cold. "What about him? He served us above and beyond the call of duty. He's the only man I know who has ever asked for a life recentering."

"If I remember the reports from his recentering, wasn't there a problem totally erasing his old personality?"

Tondra's eyes narrowed. "Leave him alone, Ryan."

"Damn it, we need him, Tondra. We're talking about the Merefant! Live ones, not artifacts, not writings, not even archeological digs like on Caramm IV. Living, breathing Merefant. They are here, now, inside the Boundary!"

Tondra took a deep breath. "What are you planning to do?"

"I want to see if we can activate his skills without letting his new personality know. If we can, I want to send him to Urielle."

"Ryan, that's a death sentence! Even if he makes it out alive, you know what an anarcous force the Merefant are. We'd have to kill him ourselves!”

"What choice do I have, Tondra? If you know it, tell me of another way."

Tondra forced his brain to work. The more he thought about it the more he could see the Regent's point. They had to find out what was going on. Darach, with his Suzerainty skills buried deep in the subconscious, was the best chance they had. Even though it was a death sentence. Tondra felt old. "I can't see another choice."

"Will you program him yourself, Tondra?"

There was silence for a long time. "No," he said quietly. "There is someone better."

"When is Darach due back to Isius?"

Tondra looked down. Of course the Regent had known the Tondra had been quietly watching over Darach since his resignation. "A week from now." Tondra tapped his arm with a finger for a while. "It’ll probably give us enough time to work out the programming."

The Regent sighed heavily. "Good. I need you to create a way for Darach or his partner to acquire a garret navigation system as soon as they land. Then we finish the programming details."

Tondra nodded. "You want him to be able to penetrate the Dark Zone."

The Regent’s troubled eyes locked onto Tondra, "In more ways than one, my friend."