Untold Stories of a Galaxy - Kysaek: The Beginning

Another period of silence and uncertainty had dawned, more days than in their previous confinement together, and now that Kysaek was alone, everything was even more overwhelming. The distractions provided, in the form of electronic entertainment, hardly helped and then this bombshell that Douglas had dropped just before the end of the meeting. Wolfgang was supposed to have revealed the position of the Jupiter to PGI? Why? That makes no sense to me! In no way, even considering that it could be true, could Kysaek sympathise with the idea. Is he a planted spy? No, that on Trayden was real! ... or did he want revenge because I’m to blame for the deaths of the survivors on the container ship? Yes, she had barely had a chance to process it fully, but Kysaek knew she had failed. Trayden had not been a victory, despite PGI’s defeat. If only she had stopped the missile - things would probably have turned out differently and that weighed on her, so she clutched her stinging heart. I swear I’m going to take PGI down. They want war, so they’ll get it!

“Prisoner,” Galaen said over the intercom. “I’m entering your cell now. Step back from the energy wall.” What else could the prisoner do but obey her? She stepped up to her bed and the Palanian deactivated the shield.

“Have you ever been in a solitary cell before?”

“For a psychological test, I actually was once,” Galaen explained, but she didn’t take more than one step over the threshold and took a stance. “It was about resilience.”

“Nice if you know how shitty it is here,” Kysaek said discontentedly. “Why have you locked me in here? Just because I got up briefly because of Douglas?”

“I didn’t want my investigation to be corrupted. I wanted to know what your crew was saying without you being given the opportunity to influence their statements. Especially after your confrontation with Commander Phonor,” Galaen explained. “Of course, there’s a risk that there’s already an agreed, shared version of your story, but I saw an opportunity and thought this was the best way forward.”

“Fine, then we can swap now and you can stay in here for a few days. How about that?”

“No, because we have other things to do now. You’ll come with me.”

“I see,” Kysaek murmured, wanting to know one thing. “... and what about the others?”

“One by one, I sent them all to solitary confinement,” Galaen replied. She took her prisoners out herself, but the Palanian had a small unit of soldiers with her as a convoy. “It was a real relief for her friend Dorvan, though, it seemed to me. He felt very safe, he said.”

“And Wolfgang?” Kysaek snapped. “I want to talk to him right away!”

“I’d advise you to concentrate on what’s coming - it will have a major impact on your future on Anuket.”

“And why will it?”

“I have no authorisation to talk about it. But you may freshen up beforehand and you’d better make use of the rest afterwards.”

Kysaek was upset, but she smiled nonetheless. “You’re putting it rather politely that I should shut up.”

“Thank you.”

Kyysaek kept the anti-P bangle on after her soothing refresher, but she was even given decent civilian clothes for her excursion that didn’t directly scream prison, because it was out of the complex. They took her away from there in a bolt dropper and she flew over a long distance and beautiful countryside.

There were traces of civilisation everywhere, in the form of tarmac roads, rich fields, modern farms or small communities. The sun shone warmly, despite the seemingly endless mountain ridge that stretched across the land, the upper layers of which were covered in snow, as were parts of the plains below.

“Is it light winter here right now?” Kysaek asked.

“Anuket has a predominantly and consistently mild climate,” Galaen mentioned. “The very warm season doesn’t last long, but there are hardly any harsh winters either. Fresh snow falls more often, but it doesn’t usually last long in the valleys.”

“Sounds pleasant,” said Kysaek, and her opinion didn’t diminish when she reached the planet’s capital - Vinovae. It was a big city, no doubt, but it didn’t seem as cramped and cluttered as Auranis had been or the endless wasteland of Sector Seven.

North or east, south or west, the outskirts of the metropolis were suburbs, home to family houses, flats or small residential complexes, with lots of space and little height. Only when we went deeper into the city did the picture change and the areas became much narrower and the buildings taller and higher. Everything was organised and uniform. It was a sign that the planners and architects had gone to great lengths without creating an obsessive impression of perfectionism.

In terms of style, the tall office towers were modelled on humanity, extremely slender buildings that incorporated all shapes and lots of glass. Often three to five such towers formed their own district, connected by bridges and platforms in the air and at the very top, on some of the roofs, was an additional building. These were multi-layered pyramids, only they were not made of stone but of high-tech building materials and additional glass. They used the office towers as support beams and you could clearly see the lush, green interior. Gardens and small forests, no doubt for growing food, as well as for aesthetics and the environment. Those pyramids even stood over the edges of the actual buildings - this had more of Hishek architecture than human. However, none of the normal buildings went beyond the five hundred metre mark, pyramid or not, which further contributed to a good overview. You could almost think you could see through all the streets to the other end of the city, despite the busy hover wheel traffic. But all these features were nothing compared to the most impressive and largest - in the truest sense of the word.

A snow-white tower, with a combination of a round outer facade and protruding corners that resembled a symmetrical tree leaf, formed the centre of the city and was almost twice as high as the tallest buildings and took up as much space as one of the three towers in the district. That snow tower was the target and the Bolt Dropper climbed very high and was not far from the top.

“What is this place?” Kysaek asked after she got out and walked through the quiet, nicely furnished corridors. “Is this the Anuket government building or what?”

“I have no authority to tell you that,” Galaen said.

Such a banal question, after answering which Kysaek rolled her eyes. “Oh, right. How could I have forgotten...”

The Palan followed her orders and stopped in front of a guarded, widened, green door with the symbol of the consulate on it. “From here on, you go on alone,” she explained, instructing her prisoner. “Behave yourself beyond the gate.”

“I’ll try,” Kysaek nodded honestly, and after the door, what she could only describe as a huge hall awaited her.

Judging by the rows of windows, the imposing room stretched from one side of the tower to the other. No one was in the naturally lit hall, not even a single guard, bot or other security measure, and rows of tables and chairs, arranged in circles, were meticulously lined up. There were five such rows in total and each circle became smaller and smaller towards the centre until there was only one round table with thirteen chairs in the middle.

“Hello?” Kysaek called out, chuckling in amusement as her voice echoed like a gorge. “Pretty ostentatious, the whole thing.”

“There’s pomp and splendour everywhere,” said a female voice, in a tinny tone that hadn’t been heard for a long time. “The only question that often remains is what is true and what is disguised.”

Kysaek convinced herself immediately and truly - not far from her was suddenly an Eporanian woman “Were you there just now?” she asked, as the hall had definitely been empty a moment ago and no Eporanian could move so quickly, let alone so quietly, and stand there for no reason.

“No, I’ve just arrived. I apologise for being late.”

“Late? Do we have a meeting?”

“Indeed,” confirmed the Eporan woman. “But where are my manners? My name is Rila Adanu. I am one of the thirteen elders of the consulate and I would like to welcome you, Elaine Kysaek.” Rila, like all members of her species, wore a full-body suit of armour, but hers was almost entirely devoid of Eldar steel and made primarily of nanofilaments and synthetic material. A royal blue and gold colour defined her appearance, flattered by hearty red edges. This majestic appearance alone declared her to be an important personality.

Visually, however, Kysaek would have trouble recognising the Eporanian woman as a woman because she looked too much like a man: the considerable height, the U-shaped shoulders, the lack of a neck, the very broad build, the clumsy feet and the clumsy movement, but her voice made it clearer, even though it was a little heavy and deep. “Rila, please tell me - why am I here? What is going on here?”

“Don’t worry, my child,” Rila reassured her. “I wanted to officially welcome you and tell you that you are free.”

It was short and sweet, but was that what Kysaek wanted to hear? “I’m free? Free as in free from prison? Free to go? Free to do whatever I want ... So do nothing bad?”

“That’s right. Your detention ends, like that of your companions. No charges will be laid.”

The news was so sweet and relieving. At the same time, Kysaek got wobbly legs and sat down as if she had finally reached the finish line after a long marathon. “I don’t understand ... why, that, why?” she doubted. Had she got so used to the circumstances of the escape that she would miss them now? “I mean, finally made it or are you about to shoot me in the back?”

“No, you’re safe,” Rila replied, unconcerned by the rather uncomfortable question. “And sorry about this, but when someone of your name is in a place like this and the circumstances are so delicate, I have to deal with it personally.”

“My name?”

“Yes, your name. You may not believe it, but its weight is growing by the day, and Troop Supervisor Akaro already mentioned during the conversation with Commander Phonor that we wanted to avoid any unnecessary fuss. We don’t need any more problems from bounty hunters or interference from PGI or the Luna Alliance right now. Besides, that would only have made the investigation process much more difficult.”

“So far, no one has believed us ... well, not that we’ve tried to explain ourselves or could,” Kysaek admitted. Maybe she should have? - Nonsense! “We simply couldn’t trust anyone, and when you hear how much you’re portrayed as criminals in public, such a plan would have been ludicrous.”

“Yes, the masses are the heart of every society and they are sensitive,” Rila said with experience and walked with her eporanian, creeping grind towards a row of windows. “In my 4378 years, I’ve seen a few times how even the smallest problems can bring disaster to a great power. We didn’t want to make our population any more insecure than they already are by your presence.”

“4378 years? Yes, you must´ve experienced a lot,” Kysaek estimated in amazement. She only had to move a few feet forwards to catch up with Rila. “But unsettling - you’re talking about the attacks by Neo Solaris?” Kysaek surmised. This slow-motion gait was unfamiliar to her, but she matched the Eporanian’s pace until she reached the window.

“My people have been terrorised for months. Look at that,” Rila sighed, holding out her huge hand as if to clear away the black smoke coming from various neighbourhoods in the city.

“I didn’t even notice that on the approach,” Kysaek said, stunned. Only one source of smoke was pitch black, though, indicating a very recent attack. The rest was almost white or not too strong. “Is it as bad as it looks?”

“Unfortunately, much more. It’s like back in the colony of Euphoris, with the E-virus,” Rila mentioned. She spoke of a long-ago but extremely harsh attack by Neo Solaris, in which a deadly virus called the Extermina virus was released in a major colony, killing only aliens. “The Consulate is a covenant of unity and is supposed to be open to any species, but mistrust is slowly starting to grow. Another month or two and it will get extremely bad.”

Was this supposed to lead somewhere? No, Kysaek had to be wrong. She was sorry and spoke out of sympathy and politeness, but immediately images of Trayden came into her head and she wanted nothing to do with the matter. “I hope you can prevent that soon,” she said, turning the subject to her Anti-P Reif. “Do you have access to this?”

“One of the benefits of serving your people,” Rila replied warmly. Her left hand was so enormous that Kysaek’s forearm disappeared completely as she unlocked and removed the prisoner’s hoop. “Now you really are free.”

“Thank you,” Kysaek smiled. She rubbed her free forearm and it was a really great feeling. “May I ask what exactly made you believe us?”

“I trust the judgements of Troop Supervisor Akaro and those of my chief general, and I also consider myself a good critical thinker. The more you follow everything that happens around you, Kysaek, the less likely the allegations that incriminate you seem. The questioning of your companions was also revealing, especially that of Doctor Schaefer and the poor, frightened Davoc.”

“Wolfgang is supposed to have betrayed us,” grumbled Kysaek, leaning against the window pane with one hand. That smoke in the quarters, made Trayden’s fresh wounds rise all the more, but she couldn’t stop looking. “How could a traitor be the rash?”

“Troop Supervisor Akaro confronted him with the allegations, my child,” Rila told her, placing her large, left hand reassuringly on the freed woman’s shoulder blades. “The doctor confirmed Commander Phonor’s statement, but he wasn’t acting out of betrayal or malice. He acted to protect.”

Kysaek immediately deduced. “So that’s why he wanted to come with us, not to avoid PGI one. He was interested in the survivors.”

“Exactly. He was so worried that PGI would follow the trail back to Inkanthatana Four that he gave the group another target instead. He didn’t know if your group would make it, but he was willing to risk it and die.”

“And didn’t say a word. We had already put our lives at risk and he put them at risk again without asking what we wanted,” Kysaek said. For her, the action was a cowardly act, as much as she could understand the scientist. The protective hand of Rila, however, gave her more peace.

“He was afraid that you would all refuse.”

“We certainly wouldn’t have.”

“That wasn’t enough for him, but he emphasised how grateful he was for your help on Trayden. He realises that the few survivors would never have made it without your support. His reputation marks him out as a frequently difficult person, but he has never been known as a dodgy renegade and is therefore a credible source of your innocence for us. He is also a respected and sought-after weapons developer who suddenly disappeared from his residence on Edens Garden a year and eight months ago. A similar fate befell the Overlords on Inkanthatana, whom we contacted on a secure frequency and Dorva-”

“You don’t need to explain any further,” Kysaek interrupted kindly, gently removing herself from the Eporanian woman’s hand. “I think I just wanted to hear that someone believes us. I don’t really care why you’re doing this.”

“Your bitterness is understandable,” Rila realised. “And what are you and your group going to do now?”

“I suppose we’ll rest here and sort ourselves out if we’re allowed to stay. After that, we’ll go against PGI.”

“The consulate is open to you. I can arrange suitable, perhaps safer accommodation for you in the diplomatic district.”

“So you haven’t asked them yet,” an ageing male voice rumbled from the right. It came from an extremely high-ranking Palanian officer who had just come through one of the doors. “Or am I mistaken?”

“I’ve considered it and I don’t think it’s my place to ask you,” Rila replied. “It’s too much.”

“Is it?” asked the stranger, whose bony ridges made a wide arc from his head and ran along his chin as if a clawed hand with three fingers were trying to tear out his jaws. “What do you say to that?”

“I say what for what?” replied Kysaek. The Palanian`s scales were no longer an intense colour, as they were more of a white-grey. However, the ridges and edges of the eyes were covered by red markings that had recently become familiar to her. “Who are you anyway?”

“How rude not to introduce you,” Rila apologised. “Elaine Kysaek, this is the supreme leader of the Consular Army, General Quin Akaro. General Akaro, this is Elaine Kysaek.”

Akaro, this couldn’t be a coincidence and the Palanian didn’t waste a second. “I’m normal for etiquette, but pleasantries only cost more time and more time costs more lives,” the general said tightly. He was tall, in good shape and at the two metre mark. “We need your help.”

“Help?” asked Kysaek, running his hand through his hair in disillusionment. “Nothing is free. It was clear that our freedom has a price.”

“Freedom always comes at a price, paid by brave men and women.”

“Should I join your army now? Because that’s what it sounds like.”

“Temporarily, if you like,” Akaro clarified. “We need you, because you can-”

“I have my own problems, in case you haven’t noticed, and I want to heed the advice of some of my people and not get involved in I don’t know what this time,” Kysaek denied. The thought of being needed and failing again was not something she wanted to feel again any time soon. “Trayden showed me where that leads. I have to fight my battle because I might be able to win it. I can’t beat other people’s fights.”

“You don’t have to fight,” Akaro said calculatedly. Either he was serious or it was a tactic to stimulate the fighting spirit.” We just need your name and the names of your crew as a lure. Die without a fight later, if you prefer.”

Kysaek sought Rila’s advice and remained matter-of-fact. “Was that just a threat?” she asked, “or does it amount to coercion?”

“No, my word on it,” the Eporanian promised. “The general just takes his duties very seriously and is extremely worried.”

“Rila is wise and kind,” Akaro said approvingly. “She is a good ruler and I would never disregard her word. The judgement of your freedom is independent of your present decision,” Akaro added respectfully. He appeared dignified and always had one arm resting on his back. “However, if you refuse, our efforts of the last few days will have been in vain and we will have to devise another plan to stop Neo Solaris, and so far everything else has failed.”

“I knew it,” said Kysaek, blocking. “Not a chance General. I want my peace and quiet and to prepare for PGI, not go straight into the next fray.”

Now a third voice intervened, a woman’s voice. “I had you pegged differently,” said Galaen, who also joined the group. She saluted the general directly by clenching her fingers into a fist and bending her right arm so that her fist was pointing upwards. “General!”

“Troop Supervisor,” Akaro saluted identically after the fact. “Stand at ease.”

“Thank you.”

Because the Palanian stood with her back to her, Kysaek now saw that the bulges sticking back from her also had red markings, just like on her face. “So that’s how it is,” Kysaek realised. “Your father is the big boss and you just happen to be assigned the questioning.”

“Don’t insult me,” General Akaro warned. “You’re right in parts, but there’s no favouritism.”

“I earn what I have,” Galaen emphasised proudly. As she stood so snappily beside the general, her kinship was abundantly clear from her posture and the same yellow eyes. “By doing my duty, and precisely because I am the general’s daughter, only I could fulfil that duty.”

A chair was just the thing for Kysaek now and she took a seat at one of the outer tables. “How small is your army, if that’s the case?”

“It’s not the size that’s the problem, it’s the trust,” General Akaro revealed. Rila stayed out of the conversation for a long time and walked around on the sidelines, looking at the restless city while the general reported. “We have been fighting Neo Solaris extremely inefficiently for months now. Whether it’s their hideouts in the city or this invisible ship ... every tactic, every attempt - Neo Solaris acts as if they know everything in advance. Someone must be leaking information to them and that means we have at least one traitor in our ranks.”

“Or Neo Solaris is that good. I mean - they have an invisible ship.”

“That escaped every one of our traps. Deliberately undersized patrols were ignored and civilian transports with secret locator beacons in their cargo were avoided or only ever destroyed, while other, unprepared ships were plundered.”

“And because of the sensitivity of some of the data, we fear the traitor in our highest circles...” Galaen remarked.

That was pretty bad, Kysaek didn’t disagree. “You have real problems,” she said. “But I can’t help you with them. My opponent is called PGI. If it was about them, I’d be involved in everything you’re planning.”

“Pure egoism and self-interest, then,” General Akaro murmured in disgust. “Where is your honour, your sense of duty, your courage and your willingness to help?”

“I left all that with the Luna Alliance,” Kysaek rebutted. “I’ve meddled in many things on my journey, but here with you? I don’t want that on my conscience if things go wrong.”

“So it’s fear?”

“Call it what you like.”

“Is it because of Trayden?” asked Galaen. She was more tactful, but still determined. “Your companions reported a renewed fervour on the Ocean World. Unfortunately, I don’t see any of that right now.”

“I still have it,” Kysaek replied, flaring up briefly and standing directly in front of the two Palanians. “But it applies to PGI, that’s my goal.”

“And how exactly do you intend to achieve this goal if you are unlikely to get off this planet?” General Akaro questioned again, calculating. “Neo Solari’s ship isn’t going to disappear any time soon and so far our chances of catching it any time soon are slim.”

“But somehow you’re keeping everything going,” countered Kysaek. The invisible ship was a problem, but it couldn’t possibly cut off an authority like the Consulate from everything. “So I’m sure you have safe routes to travel.”

“Only if we provide adequate protection from our military fleet, and we only do that for large convoys that are organised every few weeks and depart from Anuket.”

“Our ticket out of here or do you want to exclude us?”

“That would be my right, wouldn’t it?” asked General Akaro. He seemed less like a grim commander and more like a worried soldier who was afraid for his people and wanted to protect them at all costs. “But that’s not who we are ... Just do us a favour and don’t come back when you’re gone. People like you are not welcome here.”

“What the general actually wants to say,” Galaen paraphrased, placing her hand on her guest’s shoulder. Perhaps this was meant to inspire confidence, just as it had done with Rila before, but the Palanian woman came across as tense and unnatural in this way. “At the consulate, we believe that all species can live together in peace. That’s what our flag stands for, our symbol - all thirteen species of this galaxy live here and are welcome, and everyone contributes to peace in their own way.”

“We were this far along before you arrived,” Kysaek mentioned, but she wasn’t dismissive and listened. “The consulate expects something in return from my people and me.”

“No, we hope and implore you for a favour. That’s completely different from an expectation.”

“I find it hard to see the difference.”

“You want to see? Then see this: We will allow you to stay here, under our protection, regardless of your choice. We will allow you to travel away on our ships, under our protection as it were, and I can tell you that our problems will not diminish after we have set you free, some people will not like that, inside and outside the consulate.”

“Don’t try to have a guilty conscience, Galaen,” sighed Kysaek, even though everything she was told was true. “I think what Neo Solaris is doing is disgusting, but what you’re doing right now is just another form of coercion.”

“You don’t feel guilty for no reason, but that wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to show you what we take on without demanding or expecting anything,” Galaen said, pulling her hand back and showing her guest the smoking cityscape again. “Instead, we have hoped for your help over the past few days and are now turning that hope into a request. You are the one who would be doing us a favour and could have counter-expectations and not the other way around. We would be in your debt and have only done what was fair so far. Your freedom is without doubt, so it belongs to you and is not a gift from us.”

Whether general or troop supervisor, both were stubborn in their own way and had a point, which is why Kysaek wanted to at least give them a chance to explain. “... how big a part do we play in your plan?”

“Your part is crucial, but everything is our responsibility. Your job is to track down Neo Solari’s main base and ours is to take it.”

“Just tracking down the base? Do you tend to joke? Isn’t that one thing it all depends on, full stop?”

“As I mentioned earlier,” General Akaro interjected openly as he looked over the face of the skyline. “Your name is important and it will lead the way, but it’s not without risk. You could die.”

“I can die by a lot right now,” Kysaek replied dryly. “What would you have in store for me?”

“Another imprisonment.”

“More solitary confinement?”

“Not quite. Our plan is based on Neo Solaris taking the bounty from you and your crew and capturing them all alive. If we succeed, we’ll not only find the base and thus the ship, but also our traitor.”

At the mercy of Genra’s nest. Kysaek doubted that her people would be enthusiastic about the idea. “You do realise that dead is much more lucrative than alive? I think that could die is more than just a game of chance.”

“Let’s counteract that with a little more time,” said General Akaro. An old hand like him had certainly experienced more than enough moments like this when his own life was in the hands of others, and he proved that in a less snappy tone. “I want to assure you that we do nothing lightly. A commander must view his soldiers as pieces in a game, that’s the reality, but that doesn’t mean their lives have no value to him.”

“No matter how much value you place on your pieces, they remain pieces and you can’t prevent someone from dying.”

“No, but if someone dies under me, it’s for a greater cause and things worth fighting and dying for.”

That brought back memories from her recruit and military days in Kysaek and she paced thoughtfully. Greater and worthwhile things, that was what she had once been lured into the service of the Luna Alliance, combined with the heroism of mankind’s greatest soldier - Magna. “The dead have nothing of such noble goals, whatever they may be,” she said wistfully, as she had never experienced the aforementioned aspects and didn’t really believe in them.

“That’s why you need trust,” General Akaro said, his chest swelling with pride. “Everything starts with trust. I believe in you and trust you. Do the same, please, believe in me. Trust that I will let you fight for a greater cause that you may not yet or never see. Because that is worthwhile - trust. If we defeat Neo Solaris, trust will return to the people and with it a better world that we soldiers could never create. We are only the pioneers, not the builders.”

In a galaxy that had not exactly been characterised by friendship since its worst war, the general spoke of trust and a better world. It was a courage Kysaek had too rarely experienced. “You know, during our journey, my crew and I have seen and heard a lot of things that I didn’t like,” she confessed. “But what you’ve just said doesn’t count, and somehow, I’m sure the others will see it that way too...”

“Excellent, then we shouldn’t waste any time! Troop supervisor, describe the details.”

“Yes, sir!” Galaen saluted and began the explanation. “You see, Kysaek, the whole thing is to proceed as follows ...”