Untold Stories of a Galaxy - Kysaek: The Beginning

“We need more information by tomorrow,” Roku Adanex said to a Talin assistant as the two of them walked out of the guarded main entrance to the company headquarters, which was located high up in an office tower, unaware that he had long been watched from his limousine. "Otherwise I’ll have to accept the high sales offer and I’d hate to do that."

“It will be done,” the assistant replied, stopping halfway down the corridor. “Have a nice evening, Mr Adanex.”

The Eporanian said nothing in reply and allowed his chauffeur to open the door to his large limousine. The vehicle had opaque, dark windows and enormous dimensions in width and height, almost like a chic bus and fitting for the bulky man. “Are you new?” he asked the well-dressed, Palanian driver.

Tavis politely pushed his cap back a little, resting on his bony bulges. “Not quite so new, but today is the first time I’ve had the honour of driving you, Mr Adanex.”

“I see,” the Eporanian raised his hand, but not for the driver. The wave was directed at his two well-armoured and armed Davoc guards, who were a little way behind him. “We’re leaving.” The guards nodded silently to him before he climbed into his car. Adanex protectors were large, particularly burly Davoc, but they were not Dorvan format and took the hover wheel parked behind the limousine. At the same time, Tavis closed the passenger door of Adanex’s private vehicle and made his way to the driver’s seat to take off. Inside the limousine, the Eporanian’s seat was right in the middle, between the side doors, like an extravagant throne, and in front of him the benches upholstered in the finest leather stretched left and right to the driver’s raised partition. “I want an eporan golden pitch.”

At the end of the benches, making her look like a child, sat Kysaek, disguised as a posh service lady by a layer of bioface. “Coming right up,” she said with a smile, preparing the manager’s drink. Even the bottle was of Eporanian dimensions and not so easy for Kysaek to hold while she tipped the clear, light brown alcohol into a metal cup, which she then fitted with a beak top and brought to the man. “Here you are, Mr Adanex.”

“Thank you,” the businessman murmured and swivelled the cup, which he could certainly crush with his enormous hands if he had wanted to. He briefly inserted the beak attachment into the mouth slit of his protective suit. “Mhh, long matured.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Kysaek replied over-friendly. She took a seat on the bench below the driver’s partition and crossed her legs. “Are you completely satisfied right now? Or do you need anything else?”

“No, everything fits. Business after business, I need a good drink to calm my senses.”

“If you’re calm, all the better,” Kysaek nodded slowly. She waited a few more blocks of the Aero Zone before pulling a plasma pistol from the inside of her waistcoat and resting it on her crossed knee. “Good, because we really need to talk.”

Adanex had just taken another sip when he caught sight of the gun, his cup raised and his drink gently set down. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Not what you’re probably thinking,” Kysaek replied calmly as she took a remote detonator out of her waistcoat with her other hand. “So don’t do anything stupid. There’s an explosive device placed under your seat that I’ll arm as soon as I see a hint of prismatics or if you want to signal your bodyguards - yes, I know. We’ve been watching you for a long time.”

“Who´s we?” Adanex asked, and although he was threatened, he kept a surprisingly cool head. Was that the result of the tricky deals he had to make here and there? “Who are you?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard of me: Elaine Kysaek is my name.”

“You used to make a few headlines here: Kysaek, the PGI terrorist. I’m not PGI, though.”

“Not that, but you do business with Mr Peeks and I’d like to be involved, so to speak.”

“I can hardly imagine that Mr Peeks would be interested, nor am I,” Adanex remarked, taking a drink from his cup. “So whatever it is, save it.”

Kysaek indicated the detonator and ran her thumb over the interfold. “Sorry, there’s too much at stake for that.”

“Do you think this is my first confrontation of this kind? Neither your explosive device nor your weapon will crack my protective suit so quickly and the driver will have long since called the guards.”

“How could I have missed that ... did you, Tavis?” Kysaek asked rhetorically, tilting her head slightly backwards without taking her eyes off Adanex.

The partition wall of the driver’s cab came halfway down and the Palanian replied hardened. “I’m sorry, Mr Adanex. I’m not the best chauffeur, but my tricks are insane and those tricks are reserved for Kysaek.”

The Eporanian was annoyed. “A lackey won’t get you anywhere.”

“Close confidant, at least,” Tavis improved on the businessman and raised the partition again. “But now I have to concentrate on the traffic.”

“He’s one of many,” Kysaek said, placing her pistol on the bench seat. Now she added a scoop and leaned forwards menacingly. “And it’s not your life that’s in danger, but the lives of tens of thousands, including your family.”

The threat caught Adanex’s attention, and he gave the metal cup a little squeeze but still spoke calmly. “I’m listening.”

“Reasonable, and so am I,” Kysaek smiled slyly. “You have an important appointment at PGI in five days, right?”

“Yes, extremely important. Through me, my company has excellent relations with a large clan in the Artis Domain,” Adanex answered the question in detail and proudly. “And this clan has the coordinates of some promising trade routes that could significantly reduce PGI’s financial and time costs between some systems.”

Although no details were asked of her, Kysaek found this little extra nugget worth hearing. “A profitable business, then, but that’s not what interests me. Only your access to the 150th floor of the PGI main tower is what I want.”

“For what purpose?”

“Take a guess.”

“A new attack? You’re persistent, I’ll give you that. However, your way of doing things is destructive and not lucrative. Have you ever tried to beat PGI by legal means?”

“How is that supposed to work?” Kysaek raised an amused eyebrow. “Open a rival company and drive Mr Peeks into bankruptcy?”

“I’d rather buy him out, but yes,” Adanex nodded with praise. The manager couldn’t help but look at the whole thing through the eyes of a businessman. “You see other opportunities. Use them instead of following radical ideals. With that kind of energy, I’m sure you’d be a successful trader.”

“If I had five thousand years like you, I would reconsider. But since my time is limited and threatened and I have been forced to give up my dreams of fame and fortune, I prefer to stick to my methods.”

“What good does that do you? Where does your aversion to PGI come from?”

“My motives are meaningless to you and I’m not here to convince you of them. Instead, I must compel your co-operation, and here’s how I do that,” Kysaek said bitterly. “Somewhere in the city, I have planted a nuclear bomb and I swear to you, on everything I have, that I will detonate that bomb if you don’t take me to the 150th floor.”

“A nuclear bomb?” Adanex questioned with a slight sneer. “Is nothing sacred to you that you have to resort to such primitive weapons?”

“Primitive, but effective enough. Whether I use the bomb, however, is entirely up to you.”

Adanex moved his massive upper body as if he wanted to stand up, but he simply bent forwards. “You want me to avert one destruction so you can carry out another? Where is my choice? I can’t save anyone.”

“You’d save a lot more,” Kysaek emphasised, briefly dropping the evil-terror attitude to appeal to the Eporanian with honest words. “If you say no, there will be tens of thousands of casualties. Say yes, my people and I will fight PGI and there will be some casualties and believe me, I’d love to kill as many of Peek’s minions as possible, but that’s not the point of the attack. We want to get in, get something and get out as quickly as possible. If you co-operate unconditionally, you’ll not only save the city from the nuke, but a few more lives at PGI. A businessman like you will certainly recognise what the best possible deal is.”

You didn’t have to be a highly educated graduate to recognise the lesser of two evils, but Adanex didn’t just jump to it. “You’ve done a lot of bad things - what’s your word worth?”

“Brief interruption,” Tavis announced over the vehicle speakers. “We’ll be at Adanex in just under eight minutes.”

“We will?” replied Kysaek. “That’ll do, but thanks for the information.”

“Always at your service.”

The flight window had been tight from the start, but Kysaek had to play the -you did this and you did that- game. “I take it you haven’t heard from the good deeds yet?”

“Who hasn’t heard of the Consulate, but I don’t think much of it,” Adanex admitted, looking at his cup as if he could read something in it. “Rila Adanu betrayed everything the Artis Domain stands for, and it’s fitting that she used you.”

“Do you know her?”

The Eporanian raised his eyes and looked dully straight for some time, as far as one could guess from the mask of the protective suit. Had it not been for the appropriate tone, even his mask would have revealed his disdain. “No, but like me, Rila is from Exus Adan and that is truly shameful. Instead of earning her freedom, she simply took it. There are few greater outrages for my species.”

“This is a cultural problem, your problem and not mine, and I don’t care what you think of whom: Rila, me or Magna personally.”

“But you should care,” Adanex remarked and laid his cards on the table. “As you said, I’m a businessman and I always hedge my bets - what guarantee do I have that you’ll keep your word?”

“By looking at all my misdeeds,” Kysaek said in her final attempt to convey the terror I propagated by the media while gripping her pistol. “Everything I’ve done has always hurt PGI. So why would I detonate a nuclear bomb in a city full of people who aren’t PGI? PGI is my target, my obsession, my enemy, and I won’t rest until I win.”

“Do I get time to think about it?”

“Until the end of this flight and don’t even think about saying yes now and then trying to escape or get your family to safety,” Kysaek warned, tapping the back of her pistol against her head. “Your son is at the university at this hour, right? I’ve been told that you and your wife have been working towards your firstborn for two hundred years.”

This was going too far for Adanex and he pointed at his counterpart. “Don’t get too personal. I have taken note of your warning.”

“Then a word of advice for your information. We will do everything we can to get you out of there safely and if we do it well, your involvement will not become known. Nevertheless, you should be on your guard afterwards, for Skarg Peeks is vindictive and merciless, and he will be the same as if you had honourable motives.”

The aforementioned fact seemed to leave Adanex cold. Of course, it was impossible to interpret his facial expressions due to the full body armour, but his voice was clear and he sat there unimpressed. “Let me return your supposed care - when this is over, I hope for your sake it was worth it. If you threaten one member of an Eporan clan, you threaten the whole clan.”

“Don’t worry,” groaned Kysaek, but she took it with dry humour. “Only the greatest are allowed on my list of enemies anyway.”

Adanex didn’t say anything back at first. No mockery, no laughter, nothing. He merely finished his cup and the limousine noticeably sat up. “What exactly do I have to do?”

“You’ll be sent the details,” Kysaek smiled. It was rather unconscious, though, which is why she pursed her lips. She almost said - have a nice day - but she didn’t want to provoke the manager unnecessarily. “You’re doing the right thing.”

“Yes? Not you,” the Eporan shook his head lazily and left the car.

The surveillance of Adanex was not a bluff. In the days that followed, Kysaek ordered Stemford’s best scouts to report anything suspicious, while Dorvan and a few technicians monitored all digital activity. The Eporanian did nothing rash, however, and had the required security equipment delivered, which was typically worn by his company’s guards.

With this camouflage, Kysaek and Thais formed the spearhead when the day, or rather night, finally arrived. The women flew after Adanex Limousine in the dark, away from the outskirts of Auranis, where the industrial district stretched out, at the end of which the illuminated walls of the enormous PGI compound, studded with automatic turrets, and all that lay within, were already waiting: The interwoven factory halls that made up a significant part of the rear area. In front was the main gate, with its turrets on the walls and its own goods yard further to the left. PGI had not even had the holes that bore witness to the former facilities A and B removed, instead illuminating them like a memorial. In contrast, the three towers of unequal height, roughly in the centre of the site and of jagged triangular architecture, were a warning, a symbol of the company’s power and the unmistakable PGI logo halfway up the main tower was the crowning glory.

“I lived in Auranis for a few years,” Thais said, her eyes roaming the grounds far below her and lingering on the large holes. “But this is the first time I’ve seen the PGI site in the flesh. I’m sure it’s even more enormous and impressive in daylight.”

“During the night shift, a good half of the facilities are dark from the outside,” nodded Kysaek. She flew after the limousine at a short distance and relaxed a little. “You’re not developing any sympathy for PGI this close to the target now, are you?”

“No. I’m just enjoying the aesthetics before we leave our mark.”

“Do you like art?”

“Being born and growing up on Seymala means art,” Thais replied. Her rather brute nature covered that part of her well so far. “Many Talin there believe they are the epitome of beauty and expression and that no one can create or recognise it in any other form like them. And do you remember? Philosophically, the wisdom of thousands of years.”

Kysaek smirked under her helmet. “I seem to remember you calling it arrogance.”

“And you spoke freely of smart arse.”

“How things have changed since the Disciples, haven’t they?”

“For the better, I think,” Thais said with a hint of regret. Along with Kysaek, Dios, Kuren and Re’Lis, she’d been on this journey the longest and was probably speaking out about things she felt were overdue. “It’s not easy, it never has been and it certainly never will be, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The disciples’ betrayal hit me hard, but at least it came at the right time. Otherwise, Dios, Kuren, Re’Lis and I would probably not have survived it and we would not now be part of something that could potentially have drastic changes for many. I haven’t felt this good since the war and the beginning of the rebuilding afterwards.”

“You felt good during the war?” Kysaek asked, slightly shocked. She didn’t see one positive aspect about the war or how it could make you feel good. “Apparently you spend too much time with Vorrn. Fighting, fighting, fighting. Too much fighting.”

“It wasn’t so much the fighting itself. I was fulfilled and had a purpose beyond my little world and you experienced it yourself,” Thais said when the hover wheel was almost at the towers. Behind it, a land ship emerged leisurely from the shadows and the lights on its underside travelled slowly across the night ground. “What was it like when you saw the happy faces of Anuket? Or made a life out of the survival of the villagers of Sector Seven?”

“Words can hardly measure it,” Kysaek said intently. She fixed her thoughts on the here and now, but the memories of these deeds made her chest swell with pride and warmed her heart. Another real motivational boost for her. “So let’s do it again now - let’s make a difference.”

“I’m in.”

A well-dressed Palanian woman was already waiting expectantly on the elevated and illuminated landing platform, which rose up over a small bridge like an extra arm on the free side of the main tower and where only three other luxurious hover wheel models were parked. Her gaze followed only Adanex’s limousine and how he was let out by his human driver, who was not allied with Kysaek. “Mr Adanex, my name is Lina Vanos. I am one of Mr Peeks’ personal assistants and I would like to welcome you to PGI.”

A draughty wind whistled on the platform, but the area was secured by a railing and the little bit of wind was nothing to Adanex anyway. “The pleasure is all mine,” he replied gallantly. “Especially when I’m about to meet such a lovely lady.”

“I’ve already heard of your charm and yet I’m almost embarrassed,” Lina said, glancing at the guards behind the Eporanian as she disembarked. “Now if you would follow me. I’ll take you to the conference room.”

“Is there a good drop ready there?” Adanex asked casually as he walked alongside the Palan woman with Kysaek and Thais at his snail’s pace. “It makes negotiations much more pleasant.”

“More than fine. A six-hundred-year-old whisky,” Lina praised the drink. The high-tech PGI bots at the platform door didn’t budge as the assistant and her guests entered the building. Under the feet of the small group, a stylish carpet spread out inside and, in keeping with the time of day, the pathway was lit only by dimmed lights, but you could see more than enough and the whistling wind could no longer be heard. “Mr Peeks is really glad that you agreed to an appointment at this time of day. He usually prefers to discuss such delicate matters in small groups or alone, in person.”

“That’s part of the job. Night meetings are part of it and the night is also quiet. The best conditions for a conversation.”

“Mr Peeks said something similar, although I’m sorry to say that you won’t actually be speaking to him in person in this case.”

Was that the end of destination B? Kysaek and Thais turned their heads fleetingly towards each other while Adanex spoke in disappointment. “That would be unfortunate. When I have an appointment and important things to discuss, I expect to meet with each other. Otherwise, I might as well do it over a kit, which would be shabby and easy to compromise.”

“Mr Peeks understands that, as do I,” Lina nodded, embarrassed, but not backing down. “However, twenty hours ago there was an unexpected development in a highly sensitive project. That’s why Mr Peeks has to manage everything from his office and will be connected to the conference room from upstairs via holoscreen. You see, he’s here, just not down here.”

“That’s little consolation, but I’m sure he’ll explain it to me himself.”

“I think so too. It’s the least I can do for this necessary rudeness.”

Kysaek was quite surprised at how routinely Adanex played his role. Was it perhaps too rehearsed or did the almost non-existent presence of guards, bots and automatic defences make her unnecessarily nervous? Yes, she admitted to herself, which is why she recalled Phonor’s information in her head and at the same time thought of her own experiences.

Most of the PGI security were on-call units and here in the three towers the guards, PGIE rank, were spread out at strategic points. By Phonor’s estimate, gained from conversations with other security chiefs, there had to be around eighty to a hundred and twenty soldiers now after the previous terror attacks and the bots were at least as many, if not twice as many, plus fixed, partly hidden firing installations.

With control of the main security, however, everything electronic would be on Kysaek’s side and the irony was delicious to her, even a satisfying fantasy for her thirst for revenge. It might not be a virus today, but once again PGI’s machinery would be turned against the corporation itself.

“We’re almost there,” Lina said, pointing to a lift at the end of the corridor. “We’re going up a few more floors.”

If the plan was anything to go by, the lift certainly wasn’t, which is why Kysaek looked at the time inconspicuously - it would be any minute now.