Motoi was surprised at how smoothly it went.
He had packed only the bare essentials: food, water, medical supplies, a laser pistol and an MP3 player he had filled with his favourite tracks. He waited until
the early hours of the morning, when activity was quiet and the night shift was almost over, so the guards were sleepy. From his soundsystem, he hacked the
spaceship bay doors so they would open for him, then he turned the volume up slightly to hide the sound of his footsteps, so that it would be easier to stealth.
Then he left the room and sneaked to the bay.
There were two guards at the door. He hoped he would not have to confront anyone but he kept one hand on his laser pistol anyway. Fortunately, one guard wandered
off to refill the coffee machine and the other was half asleep. Not realising that he wasn't authorised, the guard waved him through and the doors opened for him.
There was one scout ship left in the bay. The others had been taken out to investigate the President's death. He pushed a button on the ship door and it opened.
It was a small ship with only one floor, a bridge, living quarters for two people and some telecommunications equipment. At his command, the bridge door opened
and he flew the ship out of the bay. It made a sudden lurching movement that caused him to fall off his chair and suddenly realise that he wasn't actually sure
how to pilot a spaceship beyond a quick read of the manual and a few flight simulations he played. He shrugged and plugged his MP3 player into the ship's
computer. In the stories, playing 'Tria Concerto' always helped the heroes perform better in tight spots, be it forging a sword, making a magic potion or,
presumably, flying a spaceship. Inspired by the famous classical piece, he managed to leave the Chronicle's artificial orbit and was thrust into the cold darkness
of space.
He activated the automap. Midgard 3 was only just big enough to be listed on the map at all. It was close to Central Hub, which was a pulsing white beacon on the
map. He programmed the computer to aim for it. Apart from the asteroid field around the Chronicle, he could mostly let the autopilot steer the ship for him.
He passed the time by listening to music. This particular MP3 player wasn't affected by the bug or virus or whatever it was. It was probably so old that it as
incompatible. Its hard disk space was measured in gigabytes, for Tria's sake! He had no idea how long it had been in his possession. He imagined his father had
given it to him, and he in turn had been given it by his own parents, and so on. An MP3 player... what a weird family heirloom. The sound quality was still fairly
good...
Until two hours into the flight, when it spontaneously started playing 'Powerbroker' and then stopped, making a noise like magnetic tape rewinding and then
snapping. He reached to pull it out. As his hand closed around it, an alarm flashed red and all the ship's sound systems failed at once. He was instantaneously
plunged into darkness. Cold, dark, drifting in oblivion... he felt his sanity about to snap like the magnetic tape. Then words appeared in front of him on the
main screen. They were upside down. He couldn't tell if this was the screen's fault or his for not being the right way up. The words flashed red. His breath froze
red on the screen as he bent over to read them.
C Y R I L...
"So, what exactly were you doing in an old church?" asked Chisato.
"That's not just any church!" explained Vesper, "Its the oldest Church of Tria in the galaxy! Tria tells me to burn things!"
"Vesper, what did I tell you? No fire!" warned Decus. Commander Revorse's instructions had been very clear. If one fire broke out on the ship, even a small fire,
even it couldn't be directly linked to Vesper, they would all be locked in the brig, including Chisato. As it turned out, Chisato didn't give any of them time to
start fires. She did nothing but talk and type, assaulting the Wise Men with an endless barrage of questions, never seeming to pause for breath. A hyperactive
Chisato was a force of nature. Commander Revorse had locked herself in the bridge with a nice relaxing song - 'An Ideal' - to get some peace and quiet and
concentrate on flying the ship. Shigeo sat in the corner of the room, fine-tuning his cybernetics with a tiny screwdriver, spanner and welding torch.
"No, let him continue, this is fascinating! The Ten Wise Men are religious?"
"Only Vesper." said Decus, "He's been passionately devout in his worship of Tria ever since he received a vision as a boy. He insisted on coming to the old
temple to pray for Jibril's soul."
"Do we even have souls?" asked Shigeo, yawning, "If I've got a soul, so does a toaster."
"You're not all machine yet, Shigeo!" Decus laughed.
"Can you describe your vision to me?" asked Chisato, "I need to know everything I possibly can about your situation. If our history books are wrong, its
imperative that I'm accurate in updating them a second time."
"Well, you see, I was just playing with matches like I always do, when Tria told me about these heretics next door, and how I have to burn them, you see..."
Chisato typed frantically, nodding at the wild-eyed man to continue.
"He's awake!" yelled Shigeo.
"Pardon, who's awake?" asked Chisato.
"I have to leave." he replied, before pressing a button on his wrist and disappearing from the room. Chisato yelled and ran out into the corridor. There was no
sign of him on the map - although he barely registered as a life sign anyway. Then an unauthorised teleport alarm sounded and Commander Revorse swore over the
intercom.
"Its no use." said Decus, "He's obsessed with teleportation. His teleportation equipment is the most advanced in the galaxy."
"Then what are we going to do?"
"We wait." said Decus, "He probably just has something to do. He always comes back.
--