CHAPTER NINE:
THE FIRST ENTRY
Saturday, F141, Nembroe'uuh calendar 668.3 (About 9 Earth years ago)
Morale is low these days, though not so low that there is no hope for the Federation. As you know, the Kaizaxx have risen to power again, their most recent attempts at overthrowing the UGF (United Galactic Federation) have proven all but successful in the wake of that horrible war. I am, of course, speaking of the one which claimed tens of thousands of lives, Federation troop and civilian alike. That was nearly twenty cylerons ago, although the memory of it is still a fresh wound upon the hearts of many.
I, too, share in their pain, albeit very reluctantly, and only because I have had the misfortune of coming into contact with those monsters who call themselves the Kaizaxx myself. In fact, I have only very recently returned, thankfully in one piece, from what I hope to be my last rendezvous with their leaders. Actually, it has been nearly three weeks since my return, but it wasn't until today that I was able to steady my hand enough to write about it. And I probably shouldn't. Write about it, I mean. What good will it do me to remind myself of that unspeakable nightmare? What good will it do others to learn about it? Aside from my own mother, no one knows, and hopefully no one ever will.
To reiterate, I don't know why I am writing this, but I can only hope that whoever reads this in the future will understand… and forgive me.
About twenty-eight cylerons ago (one and a half Earth years), I was hired by the Federation to investigate a matter of corruption among certain officials, who for safety's sake shall remain nameless. During the course of my investigation, I stumbled upon a web of conspiracy between the officials and the then-dormant Kaizaxx. It became apparent to me that they were plotting to dismember the Federation from the inside, and because the officials in question happened to be so highly regarded, my findings were rejected and I was demoted to UGF Civil Agent, 4th class.
With no tangible evidence in hand, and with no one else bothering to investigate the matter further, I decided, very foolishly, I might add, to pursue the matter myself. I won't go into details at this point, but with some stealth and the aid of the small handful of Federation agents who believed me (my mother, for one) I was able to infiltrate some of the conspirators' most imperative meetings. What I learned shocked me to the core. The Kaizaxx conspiracy to overthrow the Federation had been in planning for over seventy-seven cylerons (more than four Earth years)!
Their prime weapon was an unfinished project started by the Department of Intergalactic Defense, whose plans were stolen and then modified by the Kaizaxx. The weapon's capabilities are based on the closed-universe theory - the one which states that once all the energy of all the stars and galaxies in the universe dies out, the universe itself, which is always expanding outward from the Big Bang, will suddenly have reached its maximum expansion and will then snap like a rubber band back to its original starting point (the Big Bang), whereupon all matter will once again be contained in a space the size of a grain of dirt.
What this means is, their new weapon is theoretically capable of expanding and collapsing matter in concentrated areas. Whether or not they have worked it out that way is anyone's guess. My guess is that they must not be able to choose controlled targets yet, or they would surely have used such a weapon in their last war. At present I would guess that any attempted use of the weapon on a planetary scale would likely have an adverse backfire effect that would include the Kaizaxx themselves in the collapsing matter.
Anyway, having finally accessed the proper evidence, I hacked into their computer system, and began to download information about the weapon onto my portable ZY drive. Unfortunately, the information contained far too many megabytes of input for my pathetic little portable system to hold, so I had to stop at only 15% download. Fortunately, though, it was just in time for me to make my escape before UGF security discovered me.
The next week, however, I was called to a private hearing where I was accused by the conspirators of hacking into and damaging their system. With the rest of the Federation on their side, my testimony about the weapon meant nothing. The Council ordered me to turn it over to the conspirators, but I refused, telling them that unless they viewed it for themselves first, I would not cooperate with the real criminals. This, of course, only resulted in my suspension and arrest. I spent sixteen cylerons (nearly a year) in prison before my case was reexamined for my upcoming appeal.
During the appeal process, I was to be extradited to Turo, but along the way, the ship I was traveling in was accosted by a Kaizaxx ZMX cruiser, and I was taken into their custody. They demanded that I give them the ZY drive I had used to download the weapon information. It turned out that in downloading that input, I had removed it completely from their system (not something I had meant to do! I didn't even know it could be done with a ZY!). Although I had only retrieved a mere 15%, it was enough crucial information to leave them all hanging. It also turned out to be information which they had gathered from Federation files to begin with, and those files have now been placed under maximum security, so that not even the Kaizaxx or those corrupted officials can hack into them again.
This meant that I alone had the one crucial bit of information which they so desperately needed in order to complete their weapon, but of course, I wasn't about to give it to them. I would rather die a thousand deaths! Fortunately, I had hidden the ZY long before this first confrontation with the Kaizaxx, although I tried to convince them that I had destroyed it. Wrong thing to tell them. Whether they didn't believe me or were furious at me for 'destroying' that input, I don't know. All I know is, what came next is going to be a lot harder for me to write, let alone think about. That is why I am going to stop now, and continue with the rest of it tomorrow. - Pleakley
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Phew! What an update these last three chapters have been! I hope this keeps my loyal readers happy for at least a little while. Wow! I'm very impressed with myself! Anyway, before you nitpickers out there say anything in reviews, yes, I know all that technical stuff was sketchy and didn't make sense, but hey! I don't know one @#$%&!!! thing about computers and such. In fact, I'm surprised I made it this far! So please, bear with me here.