Untold Stories of a Galaxy - Kysaek: The Beginning

It hadn’t been too clear on the reconnaissance images, partly because of the energy shield and the wall, but the complex had been largely spared damage. This place was called Test Site Nine, as Timmy had said. He had been the voice from the wall, a human of advanced age, perhaps in his late forties and a former labour slave at the facility. “Yes, the doctor is in charge here,” he nodded. "We wouldn’t have managed the uprising without him. He’s a good man.”

“We deal with too many bad people,” Kysaek replied. “Good ones are therefore most welcome.” She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the troops of the First, however, as she walked past a whole crowd of Runners standing idly in the large forecourt, following the foreign guests with faint head movements. Rampage patrolled the grounds in their hunched gait posture, like the one that just crossed Kysaek’s path, propping itself up on its knuckles and puffing up.

The thing was at least another head taller than Dorvan and it made everyone nervous, but they had had to surrender their weapons. “Get back! Move!” Timmy ordered. The Rampage opened its drooling mouth full of wide, sharp teeth and lifted the lid of its huge, red eye that lay in its chest, but it obeyed the man and stepped aside.

“How can you stay so calm?” Tavis asked uneasily. He kept his eyes on Rampage for a long time. “Aren’t you afraid that the ... get out of control?”

“I can only speak for myself, but I’ve been here over a year and others even longer and you get used to it, somehow, and I’m more afraid of PGI than of them.”

One point was missing for Thais. “And you have weapons to defend yourself against those things...”

“And if I’ve seen correctly, you still have considerable prismatic powers,” Timmy pointedly remarked. You couldn’t take this weapon away from anyone. “Unlike Vorrn. I was really surprised by his willingness to co-operate.”

“Not just you,” Kysaek admitted, with a bit of a bellyache. She had expected displeasure, at least a hint, at the surrender of weapons.

“Keep your magical miracle powers. You need them, I don’t,” the Hishek said confidently. His species lacked the necessary facilities to utilise prismatic powers, but Vorrn was not the only one. “And I don’t need firearms either - I am a weapon.”

“As long as you don’t go after the wrong people, I can live with that,” Timmy replied as they walked into a large factory floor where everything was at a standstill. Much of the production had only just started or was only half finished. Most of the components looked complicated, parts of machines or technical hardware that unmistakably contained the technology of the First Ones. Even inactive, the red and green energies and lines shimmered, but there was also normal military equipment in the decommissioned production:

The so-called Blockade Breaker Void Bodies or BB’s. These were not work aids, as in the Sector Seven company, but heavily armoured yet agile war machines whose main portable weapon alone had the fullness of a normal human.

“Where are the rest of your people?” enquired Kysaek. She hadn’t seen many forced labourers and Timmy had previously mentioned the uprising in which thousands were involved.

“We have the energy shield, but not all of them are fighters and are in the underground bunkers,” Timmy reported gloomily. “And we’ve had casualties over time. There are still about 700 of us.”

“That few? The facility and the residence are large. Did many die in the uprising?”

“Not during, more afterwards. Many thought they had the favour of the hour and wanted to flee. They wouldn’t listen to the Doctor’s warnings and took container ships, bolt droppers, almost anything that could fly and drive, or went on foot - PGI’s fleet and the remaining ground units attacked them as soon as they left the complex and destroyed the unprotected suburb with an orbital bombardment to boot. The subsequent fighting did the rest.”

“And you’ve been holding the fort for more than two months now, hoping for help?”

“Yes, but why don’t you talk to the doctor? He’s organising everything here and may be able to help you with your evidence. We’ll be there soon and I have to get back to my post.”

“Everything looks pretty much the same here,” Tavis remarked. “Where are we right there?”

“Can’t you hear it?”

“Hear it? What?”

Kysaek wondered the same thing: what was there to hear? The factory floor was as quiet as it could be and she had been more engrossed in the conversation, but she made the effort and pricked up her ears and was not alone. Each of her companions listened and it grew even quieter around her, but there was nothing for Kysaeks to hear, not anytime soon. Rather, there was a sound so quiet that she had to ask herself if it was really there. The sound must have been in an isolated room and it wasn’t even necessarily the distance, but the nature of the sounds of string and wind instruments, which suddenly plunged from a measured phase into a frantic, rousing section.

“I think I’ve heard that before,” Thais recalled. “It’s an opera of the humans.”

Yes, now that Talin said it, Kysaek recognised the style of music. “Not my cup of tea,” she said. Even in the age of space travel, this kind of music was very popular. “How do you know that?”

“If you live a long time, you can discover a lot,” replied the 341-year-old Thai. “I just can’t think of the name of the piece.” She could discover a lot, but it was another matter to memorise all that knowledge.

Timmy was sure. “You can find your own way from here,” he smiled sincerely. “I hope we can help each other.”

It shouldn’t fail because of Kysaek. If it was feasible for them and if the doctor was a good man, as Timmy had said, she saw no reason why they couldn’t help each other. But talking to him, a person like Kysaek, was difficult right now.

The doctor was working on a kind of box in a shielded room with thick glass windows, welding away at it with protective goggles while the classical music continued to echo through the glass. However, the door to it was not locked and offered the opportunity to enter, which in turn was accompanied by a deafening increase in the aria, which was belted out by the dynamic voice of a man and in which one word was uttered very frequently - Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-roooo.

“Shall we wait until it’s finished?” asked Tavis, but the music drowned out the Palanian´s voice.

“What?!” replied Kysaek.

Tavis joked, even though he couldn’t quite be understood. “I said I secretly work for PGI!”

“I can barely understand a word you’re saying!”

“That’s all right, this can’t go on forever!”

“What?!” Kysaek repeated. Talking didn’t help at all, so Tavis made it clear to her with his hands - all right! Nevertheless, she had the same thought and it was too loud, far too loud, for her to wait for the end and just as the instruments and the singer were getting louder and louder, Kysaek caught sight of the kit on which the music was being played and stopped the piece without further ado.

The doctor paused abruptly in his work. “I don’t know who it was, but you just messed up the Barber of Seville at its climax,” he grumbled, pulling off his goggles as he turned round. “Who could be so stupid?”

“It was too loud for us and you didn’t notice us,” Kysaek said as she looked at the man, who was about six feet tall. “I’m sorry if we spoilt your fun.”

“Yes, asking is a rare gift in this galaxy. A lot of people just do,” the doctor shook his head and ran his fingers through his dark hair in annoyance. It wasn’t a good start with the man, whose face revealed fair skin with an olive-coloured cast and a well-groomed beard to match. “But at least you asked outside the wall if you could come in instead of shooting your way in. Not that I think you would have made it in, but it gives me hope. Say something intelligent for once.”

“Something intelligent?” Kysaek blinked in irritation.

After this repetition, the man’s forehead creased into a frown. “Yes, thank you ... How about a polite introduction?”

“You ... are the doctor?”

“No, I wear this lab coat because it flatters my figure in a pleasant way,” the doctor replied sarcastically. His white coat was of a scientific nature, a jacket without a long hem which, despite its fabric texture, appeared firm and hardened, like a light protective suit, and it had a stiff, high collar. “Schaefer, if it’s all right. Doctor Wolfgang Alexander Schaefer.”

“You’re a doctor?”

“Much better. I’m one of those who have learnt many things to perfection and therefore have a doctorate in all of them,” Wolgang mentioned. He didn’t let go of the sarcasm. “That’s one of the reasons why I can be here in the happiest place in the galaxy and work for Company Number One ... Correction: Was allowed and you’re here for information, Dorothy?”

If this was a good man, Kysaek was ruler of the galaxy. “My name is Elaine Kysaek, not Dorothy,” she introduced herself indignantly.

“I know. I watch and listen to the news and I heard what you said outside the wall.”

“If you know, why should we introduce ourselves? And why Dorothy?”

“Courtesy, remember? And I think Dorothy’s quite good. You’re looking for a way home and you’ve brought your three friends with you,” Wolfgang said, moving from Vorrn, to Tavis, to Thais. “He’s looking for a brain, he’s looking for courage and she’s looking for a heart.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” grumbled Kysaek. “Leave that alone, please.”

“He’s begging for a thrashing,” Vorrn surmised provocatively and Thais and Tavis were with the Hishek, albeit not with words.

“Keep your claws retracted,” Wolfgang finally replied more reasonably. However, he still had an excess of self-confidence that could hardly be distinguished from arrogance. “Because unlike the great Oz, my magic isn’t just fake and I can grant you your wishes, just like I can kick your arse.”

“I think Timmy didn’t mention something,” Tavis sighed, muttering.

Kysaek, however, didn’t get bogged down in an unnecessary argument. “So you can really help us?” she asked emphatically. “How?”

“Counter question: what exactly are you looking for?”

“Anything, anything that can help us prove our innocence and PGI’s guilt,” said Kysaek. In a way, she was glad to be facing this man and to be here, because here people knew everything first hand. “None of us had anything to do with what happened on Cipi or whatever else has happened now, and if we can prove it, it will be the end of PGI.”

“Let’s take a walk,” Wolfgang nodded suddenly in agreement and grabbed a clean cloth from one of the lab tables to wipe his face as he left the room with the group. “So you want to bring down one of the most powerful corporations in the galaxy? Why not the Spectrum intead?”

“We didn’t choose it,” Kysaek said, although that wasn’t entirely true. Tavis and Vorrn had a choice. “Well, not all of us.”

“Nobody who’s in this facility chose it. Apart from the sons of bitches on guard duty, the chief wardens and a handful of researchers.”

“Are you one of those researchers?” Vorrn asked directly.

“I would rather have become a useless professor of business administration than volunteer for PGI,” Wolfgang denied with a sneer. “Instead, I sat on my veranda in the morning, during one of God’s most beautiful sunrises, and made myself a crispy piece of toast with strawberry jam. Unfortunately, I never found out how it tasted or what happened to the toast because I suddenly woke up here.”

Vorrn only jumped at one word, and it was subtly malicious. “... God’s ...”

“Yes, God’s,” Wolfgang repeated matter-of-factly, but he didn’t get into a discussion, which made sense considering humanity’s history with God and the Enlightenment, through the Hishek. “And you’re all so close to your goal, the Holy Grail, that it’s practically right under your nose, but you won’t get it.”

Kysaek had zero knowledge of the ancient faith, but she understood the symbolism. “What’s stopping us from getting there?”

“PGI’s deviousness. When we were about to take control of the facility, there was an emergency shutdown. All relevant data in the complex was deleted and simultaneously uploaded as a copy to separate servers. You won’t be able to access it easily.”

“You bet,” Kysaek replied with conviction. “We have a very, very good hacker.”

“Good for you, but the lines to the servers have been cut and there’s no wireless connection to them. On top of that, they’re in a vault in the basement, secured by external defences and surrounded by layers of earth and metres of thick steel. I’ve had usable programmers and engineers down there for weeks and they’re only halfway through and we, and you, don’t have time for more of these shenanigans.”

“PGI?” Thais interjected.

“Peeks Galactic Industries, yes. We’ve been holding out against the attacks for almost two months and have made it very difficult for them, but now the fun’s over. Skarg has massively increased its forces and for a few days now they’ve been coming up to just short of the shield, and only with small shock units, as you’ve seen for yourself. The final attack will come soon.”

“I’m rather surprised that everything is still standing here. On Cipi, everything was immediately wiped out with a neutron explosion,” said Thais. “And the shields ... If PGI used missiles with energy converters, they would be useless.”

“That’s our trump card. The corporation has made it abundantly clear that it wants the plant back at all costs and in return has given us the most absurd promises of forgiveness, mercy, freedom, you know - like politicians, before every election.”

“When I look at the whole thing here, it’s clear why they want it back,” Kysaek replied. The complex was far larger than the facilities on Cipi and there was so much more forbidden technology here, an enormous value, and Trayden was remote enough not to have to disguise everything. “Why do we even need the servers? There’s enough evidence here.”

Wolfgang rolled his eyes. “Do you see a PGI logo stamped anywhere here or a Made by PGI?” he asked. “Not even the façade bears the company logo, in case you missed that, but the data - those are solid results. There are names, there are video recordings and, and, and. Good research, backed up by accurate documentation.”

“And you said we couldn’t get to it ...”

“Yes, and I was pretty generous,” said Wolfgang. He had told us a lot. “But now it’s my turn. You want something and I ask, what do we get for it?”

Kysaek did as the doctor had done before. “Counter question: what exactly do you want?”

“To know what this toast tastes like,” Wolfang replied wistfully. “Apart from that, I told you that we’re fighting for survival. We’ve rebelled and want to get out of here alive. In conclusion, it would be up to you to risk your arse for us. Quid pro quo, or for simple minds, help for help.”

She had expected this, but Kysaek saw no way to comply with the proposal. “You want us to help you defeat this small army?” she asked. “There are only four of us here and another four on our ship. If you haven’t managed to win so far, we’re not going to make a difference, much as I’d like to say otherwise.”

“I thought you weren’t alone,” said Wolfganghellhörig. “What kind of ship do you have?”

“Luna Allianz, scout frigate, recently acquired. She’s fast, but nowhere near big enough to carry 700 people.”

“Mhpf and even then it wouldn’t do any good,” sighed Wolfgang. He didn’t care that the group was in possession of a military frigate. “Because of the jamming ring, you can’t reach your people.”

Kysaek didn’t know whether to marvel or grin at such foresight, but she could nod at Tavis. “Actually, we can reach our people,” the Palanian said. “If you have a usable, non-weaponised laser lying around somewhere, we can send them a message via Morse code.”

“Wow!” Wolfgang murmured appreciatively and yet he couldn’t quite stop belittling his guests. “And I thought you were going about it in a completely haphazard way, but unfortunately that doesn’t help us at all.”

“Why?”

“No idea? Maybe because I was clever enough to try it that way myself? In the beginning, the emergency shutdown got in the way. As well as deleting and uploading data, this also involved switching off the defence and communication systems,” Wolfgang mentioned grumpily. He didn’t seem to be a man who liked to admit his failures. “By the time we had bypassed the defence and communications and reactivated them, it was already too late and the jamming signal was there, but I had the idea of using light signals shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, we’re on a world full of lousy bastards, and whether it’s reachable positions on land or objects in space, no one responded or relayed the message.”

Tavis raised his arms questioningly. “What’s that got to do with our people outside?”

“Because it won’t do any good if you notify your gang and they might get it out of here and get help,” Wolfgang shook his head and kicked over a small metal box standing around. “I bet my beard that PGI would get wind of an approaching cavalry and level everything here.”

“I think he’s right about that, unfortunately. That’s why your calls for help wouldn’t have helped, even if they had gone out into the galaxy later,” said Kysaek gloomily. “As badly as PGI wants this facility back, they’d rather destroy it than be found out. Any help would be too late.”

“Thank you for that wise insight,” groaned Wolfgang. “As you’ve heard, I realise that. But the people here needed hope and the only thing that matters to me is that everyone escapes alive from this mendacious paradise.”

“But you must have more than just sticking to the plan!”

“Listen, Dorothy - I’m afraid I’m not a doctor of warfare. If I was, we’d all have been out of here for weeks and PGI’s heads would be in jail or impaled on stakes as an ornament, like in the good old days. However, I am a respected weapons designer, one of the most sought-after, and I only build the guns. I don’t operate them or develop tactics with them. Unfortunately, I’m not sneaky enough for war and there are no other soldiers here.”

There must have been a lot of pride in this man. He skilfully paraphrased his helplessness “And now you expect us to sort this out?” Kysaek asked calmly.

“Quid pro quo, and that’s what I meant.”

“I’m sure there’s a way, I’m sure of it. There always is,” said Kysaek. But the offer seemed unfair to her. “I just don’t see a way to win this fight by crushing PGI’s forces, and you said yourself that you want to get people out of here. If we do that, though, we give up the evidence.”

Wolfgang was about to launch into another rant, but Tavis cut him off. “No, Kysaek, we’re not doing that.”

“We don’t?”

“I think seven hundred witnesses is a lot of evidence. I don’t remember that many ever turning against PGI at once.”

“That...would certainly be telling,” Kysaek admitted. Although she wanted to help people, she had become too focussed on the material evidence.

“Dorothy’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, is she?” said Wolfgang.

Tavis countered. “She’s actually quite bright, but you’re not exactly making it easy for her. Even for my taste, you’re very demanding.”

“Maybe she just needed some encouragement, a little sugar candy to motivate her to work harder and I’ll give it to her, no, to all of you now,” Wolfgang began, before hesitating again. He played with his tongue against his lips, indecisively weighing up whether he should share the secret, but he did. “Not only would you have seven hundred grateful witnesses, but twenty high-ranking PGI employees who we caught during the riot and sent to their own cells.”

“High-ranking?!” asked Thais, her eyes widening. “Like Skarg’s assistants?”

“Lickspittles, arse-kissers, biggest fans, you name it. It’s a couple of head overseers, a dozen scientists and two Seekers who have been scrambling for information and technology from the First Ones. They’re all in deep.”

This had to be the opportunity! “In what?” asked Kysaek explicitly. “Do they know what exactly PGI is up to?”

“I was forced to stay here for a year and a half and was monitored almost around the clock, but because of my skills, I had a high position. I know what purpose this place serves,” Wolfgang emphasised with a raised finger, but he blocked himself. “However, you ask a lot of questions about important things without me receiving any compensation. Can I count on your support now?”

That was a good question that Kysaek, despite her willingness, could not answer from the hip. Was she afraid of the truth or what else was holding her back? “Will you give us a little time?” she asked diplomatically. “I’m not sure we’re up to it ... Well, actually we are, but to be honest I thought we were going in and out at high pressure and instead we’re supposed to be fighting a war now. That’s not what this is and we’re not an army.”

“In my opinion, you’re quite simple-minded Dorothy, but apparently honest ... At least I hope so. Go, talk, whatever,” Wolfgang nodded and made his way back to his workshop. “Mind you, the way I see it, you’re stuck here with us - so why not do something good, even if it wasn’t honestly meant?”

Tavis waited until the doctor was out of earshot. “Yes, the man is one of the good guys, but it must take a great deal of self-control to talk to him for any length of time. It’s hard to imagine how PGI coped for a year and a half. I almost feel sorry for the company.”

“If Wolfgang really is a sought-after weapons designer and has contributed a lot to their endeavours, they probably put up with it,” Thais said flippantly. “That probably paid off in the end, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”

“The only question that remains is whether we should stop here or take one more step.”

“We don’t have the answer to that,” said Talin, looking to the side.

It was up to Kysaek to make one of the most difficult decisions yet, but she didn’t. Not here and not right away. She wanted to see what she was getting herself into, even though she basically already had.