A Dance of Fire, Silver and Blood. Chapter 2. A Shadow of the Cybermen.
Klaus Schtatten stood in his garden and looked in the sky through almost invisible ceiling. His wife and children were already sleeping, and he went here to spend some time with himself and his thoughts. The weather was wonderful, as it always had been, thanks to the climate technology. Soft rattling of cicadas along with purling of a small brook relaxed his mind and created a soft tranquil state of consciousness.
A strange noise broke the silence, as if something massive was in the bushes. Klaus turned his head in a surprise, peering into the darkness of the shrubbery. Brushwood crackled again, and this time Klaus moved his hand to his waist to grip a blaster, but there was no one. He left in in the house. Door was in a dozen steps from him, and, when he made several leaps towards it, a low snarling was heard from the bushes. And right after that a tall anthropomorphic creature jumped out from the shrubbery.
It had a big head with animal eyes and sharp teeth. It didn't have ears. Its hands were more humanlike. Klaus recognized it. It was a weevil. Creature rushed towards the door and Klaus stopped, balancing on his feet and heavily breathing. The weevil opened his jaws and produced horrifying and deafening growl.
Klaus stepped backwards. From what he knew about the weevils he could conclude that he had not any chance. His death was quick.
Doors opened, and pleasant girl appeared in the passage.
"Welcome to the MigthyTech," she said, smiling. "Follow me, please."
Joren stepped into the hall and looked around. He liked the interior. There were small minimalistic seats, and all the space was occupied by big translucent projections of complicated designs floating in the air, rotating and changing size and color. Joren went after the girl, through a narrow corridor and they came in to the elevator. After some more corridors and elevators they reached a vast room filled with plenty of terminals some of which were occupied by guys and girls in casual clothes.
"Here is your workplace," said the girl, stopping near one of the terminals. "My name is Flaxa, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Flaxa."
Joren turned the terminal on, and it greeted him by name and offered a list of tasks. Before he started to look into them, the screen blinked and a video clip whole room got filled with a quiet buzz, and Joren concluded that this happened not only with his terminal. On the video clip there was Jonathan Klarr, CEO of MigthyTech.
"Sorry for interrupting you, but I have terrible news," he said with a grave face. "Klaus Schtatten, the head of the Seventh Research Lab, was killed yesterday in the late evening. It is a great loss to our company. The list of contributions he made is immeasurable."
Several days passed. Joren got involved in a bunch of projects related to battleship energy shields, power generators and laser weaponry. He liked things he did and also he adored his colleagues. Most of them were interesting and intelligent people. Joren quickly made some friends. One of them was Elias Leine, guy with a great sense of humor. The other one was Sara Broyl, a smart young woman with adorable face and fit body.
One day a big conference was announced. Lots of investors, politicians and journalists were expected. MigthyTech's project leaders planned to demonstrate the latest achievements and to share some ideas on upcoming development.
"I remember the times when the company managed without such pompous events," Elias commented when folks gathered in a bar in the evening. "OK, investors bring money, journalists create coverage, PR, hence, again, money. But why politicians? There are more and more of them. It somehow contradicts our spirit. We make weapons not for politics, but for safety against the foe which is equally dangerous for liberals and conservators, lefts and rights. What the hell do they need of us?"
"They also need PR and coverage," Joren shrugged. "If people look at a politician sharing a podium with the representatives of MightyTech, they might think that he or she is somehow connected to our great mission to defend the Empire. That's it."
"Exactly," Sara agreed, "For example, this senator. Jonah Gillytan. His demonstrative support of the company brings him higher approval rating. It's kind of symbiosis. Politicians open their mouths, we have advantages, they have ratings."
"Gillytan, Gillytan," Joren grumbled. "Hell with Gillytan."
"Right, you should not have mentioned Gillytan, Sara," Elias said. "Our friend has sort of a grudge on him."
"What? Really?"
"My girlfriend dumped me for him," Joran quickly responded before Elias said a word.
"But that means that you have slept with a girlfriend of a senator!" Sara winked. "Not bad!"
Joren gave a smile.
"Not that I am bragging, but actually I've never ever been dumped by a girl," Elias said thoughtfully. "No, really. My first relationship ended when I moved to the this planet and she did not have the opportunity to follow me, the second one just did not work out and it was me who said 'Enough!' first. The third one was just so weird that I am still not sure of its current status. The fourth one is in progress and I cannot say anything about it right now."
"Impressing!" Sara nodded.
"Indeed!" Elias exclaimed. "Well, actually, I had been dumped by a guy. Not that I am into guys, it was the only occasion. And only one night. And it was totally crazy. He spoke with strange accent, had an unfamiliar uniform and asked to call him a captain. And he vanished in the morning."
"Such a tragedy!" Sara sighed and made a sip of beer.
The Conference started with a short mourning ceremony for Klaus Schtatten. All the audience stood up and a solemn composition was played. After that the demonstrations of the latest achievements began.
Rake Olliams, the new head of the Seventh Research Lab demonstrated a device which was called a Control Gum. It was a lump of viscous and sticky substance which could adhere to electronic devices and infect them with a swarm of interconnected nano-robots which could force the entire system to behave in a certain way.
"There is a hope that we can refine it to gain control upon the units of the Cybermen," Rake explained enthusiastically. "We use all amount of available data which we have on the Cybermen, but, unfortunately, it is not enough. If we only had a Stasis Capsule with real examples of the enemy.."
Audience reacted with an excited rumble. Indeed, Stasis Capsule was a dream of many engineers of MightyTech and all the other companies involved in developing weapons against the Cybermen. When some Cybermen along with their ships and other vehicles were captured, there was a special procedure of containing them. It was too dangerous to keep them awake as walking targets because there was always a chance that they would escape and start to convert people and, eventually, take over the planet or space station.
That's why a special containers were used which froze the time for everything which were inside the capsule, like it happens near event horizon of some black hole. And if some special weapon testing was needed, the Capsule was placed into a super durable container with mighty bombs which would explode automatically in case of any emergency. The time freezing device turned off and the testing began inside.
After a short pause the public figures began to make speeches. They told about significance and appreciation of MightyTech's work. After several statements the speech of Jonah Gyllitan was announced. When the searchlight illuminated the seat of the senator, Joren flinched and froze for a moment. His personal health sensor registered a sudden change of the heartbeat rate and blood pressure. Near Gillytan there was Krethana in a gorgeous night gown. She smiled and looked at the senator while he was standing up and moving towards the scene.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the senator exclaimed when he reached the podium. "Today we have have seen amazing and beautiful things. Guys did a really good job. And as a state representative I should say that unfortunately the state does not support you enough. I am going to change it. First of all, I will make an official request to Imperial Government to send a Stasis Capsule to our planet. Also I will propose to provide additional guarding for the company's assets and key people. It is not a secret that Klaus Schtatten was murdered. Weevils rarely walk on their own, and they do not get into secured estates. And we all know that weevils are used by killers throughout the galaxy. Probably, some unfair competitors from other planets are angry with MightyTech's industrial success and they want to sabotage your projects by killing the best people you have. And we shall not allow these things to happen again."
Audience applauded. Joren said to Elias, "One more populist speech. Boring."
When the Conference ended, Sara Broyl approached Joren and said, "Hey! I have a little problem. My scooter broke and I am having it repaired. Could you please give me a lift to my house?"
"Sure!" Joren replied.
Sara lived in opposite district of the Gigapolis, and the trip took several minutes. When they stopped and reached Sara's door, Joren said, "So. Here you are!"
"Oh, thanks," she said and looked in his eyes.
Joren made a little step towards her and she did not step backwards. He touched her hair. She did not recoil. Joren followed an instantaneous impulse and kissed Sara. She responded and leaned closer to him . He stepped backwards and lowered his eyes.
"You still love this Krethana, don't you?" she asked softly.
Joren lingered a bit.
"That's fine," she said. "No, really, fine! I am not into relationships, so I don't require any romantic feelings from you. I just want you here and now. Well, not exactly here, let's get into the house."
Almost the half of the sky was occupied by a rectangular space vessel. It moved down and got bigger and bigger. Joren stood in its shadow among with other people and looked at it. Armour-clad container with the Stasis Capsule inside was on its way to the facilities of MightyTech. Senator Gillytan kept his words.
Joren's personal communicator beeped and he saw a special message projected on his retina. He gave a start. It could only be the message from Krethana, because it was sent by a secured protocol devised by Joren and used by him and Krethana for fun. He believed that nobody could intercept the messages, and, moreover, even detect the fact of sending them.
Joren paused before opening the message. His mind already pictured that she was asking him to let her return to him. And for a second he imagined himself considering this offer.
"Hey, Joren! How are you? I hope you are fine and have forgiven me. I think I should tell you something. Our relationship with Jonah are going well, sorry again. There are some things, though, which make me little bit worry. These things are strange, but I am not sure if they are dangerous or something. His pulse and breathing does not change. He can be very emotional, but his heartbeat rate stays almost the same. Even in private moments of passion, sorry for details. He meditates a lot and says that he is learning to ultimately control his body. And also I think that he has people who shares this habit. Probably it is some secret cult, lol. Also he often talks about political power. I share this obsession, but even for me he dreams about it too much. And his power and influence is actually rising. His approval ratings are going up, and he discovers new levers of indirect influence. It is impressive, but what if some day we wake up on the planet which is controlled by some weird cultists, hahaha. Keep this in secret and delete my message after reading. If things go more serious I will contact you again."