《The Executioner: Days of Judgement》


 One

    The year 1825 of the Emperor Saris, counting 14858 years of the House of Lios, Planet Vazz¡­


    The missile blasted and blew a huge crater some fifteen feet in front of Derran, dusting his neck as he kept his helmet-covered head between his knees. Then, an instant later, one overshot him, landing among ground troopers in the raw behind.


    Poor bastards. They didn''t even have time to scream. Their torn body parts and guts landed partly over his back and arms. He tried not to notice it.


    Derran knew that at that point it really didn¡¯t matter if the targeted droid-lunching station was five meters or five hundred miles away. They were never going to reach it.


    The objective, to incapacitate it, seemed all but forgotten, a dream told to them by some superiors who obviously underestimated their enemies and who vehemently and blindly louded their own superiority.


    He could only guess which of the next projectiles would terminate him together with who ever remained of his unit.


    "We are dead here!" Next to him, Wills was yelling, still keeping his hands over his head as if that could offer any protection and keep him safe.


    "Sure we are! We¡¯re all dead!" he answered back through the grinding teeth then lifted his rocket rifle and fired three shots at the low flying droid which was already turning around, getting red and ready to blast them again.


    He did not even wait to see if his shots had brought it down. It did not matter. Not much. The shots would have been registered and the next droid would come and pound them even harder. \


    So, he frantically searched the space around. It was not easy to see anything. The smoke and dust around had turned the mid-day into dusk. Blown parts of the walker, a two-story-tall tactical armored unit, burned but yards away.


    His squad was lucky to have escaped from it before droids had shredded it completly down. Many units around seemed to have less luck, with dying screams of men trapped inside, frantic shrieks slicing through Derran¡¯s heart. He could do nothing for them.


    "That hole there looks better!" Derran yelled again through the explosion, and before another droid could re-target them, he jumped up and raced forward toward the hole, to the place where a large, knocked-down bar-reinforced concrete wall covered most of the bomb-produced crater underneath, providing at least some kind of protection.


    As he moved, his left calf shoot pain through his whole body, but he did not stop, only twitched and jumped in. Seconds later, three other troopers skidded in on top of him.


    "Is that all we are?" Derran asked unsure, his voice trembling through his quivering lips.


    "Probably..." Wills uttered the words out, getting off him. The squad of fifteen seasoned and hardened veterans brought down to four. Derran dared not to look at their faces to see who made it, and who didn''t. He dared not to think whose body parts were still covering his fatigue armor.


    As a droid¡¯s whistle appeared overhead again, they creped deeper inside the hole, inching onward.


    The explosion over their heads shook their protective roof, their body heat obviously revealing their location.


    ¡°Check your armor,¡± he instructed his men. ¡°One of them must be leaking heat.¡± But then, if his calf was cut and hurting, it might have been him. He put his gun down and felt it with his glove. The armor was still hanging on, but the stream of blood was sipping through its crack. ¡°Shit, my armor is down¡± he grunted and took out pain-blocking syrum and sticked it in his neck. Then the wound freezing and disinfecting foam that he sprayed in between cracked leg armor. He did not dare to take the cracked armor off.


    ¡°Mine is gone as well,¡± Ron-Ton replied as he hustled to get deeper inside the cover of the crater. ¡°The heat regulator seems to be shot.¡± He tried punching it with his armored fist, but it showed no sign of light as it lay dead there on his left hip.


    ¡°Go deeper in the hole! Cover yourself with dirt!¡± he ordered. ¡°I''ll do too.¡±


    But it was too late. Another missile tried to find them, and Derran felt its torching flame on the back of his neck as it lifted the ground under their feet and raised him up and threw him on top of his friends.


    If they stayed where they were just a minute ago, their body parts would have been mixed with the debris of stones and metal that scattered the back of his helmet.


    ¡°No way back now,¡± he shouted over the ringing in his ears, his fingers moving over his left shoulder which he seem suddenly unable to move very well,. The shielding was torn there and his gloved fingers could feel the moisture of his blood. It did not hurt. The syroom worked fast.


    "Just a scratch," Derran told himself and pulled from his backside pocket the last bottle of the honey-like septic foam to spread over the wound.


    ¡°Everyone okay?¡± he called through the curtain of dust to his friends.


    ¡°Yeah, I''m fine here,¡± Wills answered with the coughing voice.


    ¡°I heard you use the foam. I could use it on my knee,¡± Ron-Ton told him, and Derran passed the bottle to him.


    ¡°Anybody else needs to be foamed up?¡±


    ¡°No, I think I''m fine,¡± Kazan''s voice came through. Derran heart warmed just a bit. He was glad it was Kazan who was the forth, a kid from his own sector. ¡°Only if you have something to stop the ringing in my head, that would help.¡±


    ¡°Hey, don''t bitch,¡± Will answered. ¡°The ringing only means you have something still remaining in there, and in your case, Kazan, I think that might be improvement.¡±


    Derran didn''t want to wait for the dust to settle but found the hole through which the light was beaming down, and leaning against the bare and twisted iron bars. He placed the gun through it and steadied his shaking hand. And waited. For one breath and two. Another. Everyone waited as well.


    When he heard the low zooming sound, he squeezed the trigger, holding it and letting the bursts of deadly light zip the air above, and did not stop squeezing that trigger till the droid passed over, exploding in the air and hitting the ground somewhere beyond them.


    ¡°We have to move on!¡± he yelled. ¡°Twenty seconds max!¡±


    ¡°Hey, the hole goes deeper,¡± Kazan said, obviously not eager to go and expose himself again. ¡°Would be smart to check it out. I see something like a little tunnel.¡±


    ¡°Go then,¡± Derran told him unnecessarily since he already snaked through debris to the narrow tunnel.


    The last in line, Derran stepped swiftly over debris, his armor scratching over the sticking metalix bars. But he felt no pain. Only numbness. And rage. Rage over everything. Over the enemy he fought, over his superiors for their infinite stupidity. To think a long time ago, now seemed like a lifetime ago, he raged over his father who suggested he better not have anuthing to do with this war.


    Before there was a very tall building here, Derran could tell, with thick iron posts sticking out from underneath. But the whole structure seemed almost completely obliterated, probably during the last week¡¯s orbital bombardments, the one that lasted for a whole seven days and was supposed to destroy the planet''s defenses.


    Nobody could hope that the bombardments would completely obliterate all the Techies military structures, but they were at least supposed to soften them enough so the mock-up troops could be placed on the ground and overrun the place without much trouble.


    As soon as they hit the ground, it was obvious that nothing of the sort had happened and that their enemy¡¯s defenses were almost intact.


    Lack of information. Lack of intelligent planning or understading of the enemy. And too much of stupid bravado and confidence. It could only lead to a complete disaster. And now, as he looked at that small tunnel that might have been a utiity corridor time ago,a week ago, he thought how stupid that it might serve as his toumb.


    The command, in their last briefing, said that the plan was to save this planet. No more turning livable environments into some indiscriminate space rock. How noble. But for Derran that only meant spilling his own blood and the blood of his men. And with the enemies'' droids operating so freely, almost completely unharmed, it came down to a lot more than blood.


    If he was going to die, maybe it was just that he dies under the ground.


    In the distance, more blasts, explosions, the chaos raged. People died. Those that remained screamed, calling for backup, help, syrums. More droids would come for them. For each they shot down, at least three would come back to finish the job. The battle was without hope. He dreadfully accepted it.


    Maybe if they sent magnetically-shielded heavy mechs, maybe they could have stood up to the droids, Derran thought before realizing whatever was to happen next, he will probably not be around to see. Stupid assholes! To see my end just because some ignorant general thought that he could mope it all up with a light infantry!


    His men did not wait for his thoughts. They moved deeper inside, and, surprisingly, instead of narrowing down, the crater and the tunnel sneaking through it seemed to grow bigger. Soon, they could even stand in it with their back stretched straight. A sliver of hope sparked inside Derran¡¯s head as he thought about the prospect of his near future existence.


    Not dead, we are not dead yet.


    Two of them had still lights working on their helmets, and when they lighted up the darkness in front of them, they could see an iron door blocking their way.


    ¡°Let me through,¡± Derran commanded as he threw his rifle around his shoulders and pulled out his laser knife from his left boot.


    He didn¡¯t bother with the lock or try to bust through it. It seemed secured enough and would not bulge not even an inch. So he used the knife to go through the metallic sheet, cutting out a dog¡¯s door in its lower half, big enough for each of them to crawl through it.


    Two flashlights were sufficient to point the stairs that seemed to spiral themselves to somewhere underneath. Derran pointed them down.


    ¡°Who knows, maybe we can get to that droid station this way,¡± he whispered hopefully although he doubted they would find anything more than the stinking sewage where the stairs ended.


    They descended in a single file, with stairs spinning around and around, showing no sign of ending.


    It was a good respite. At least for a few minutes. They almost felt safe since all that structure above their heads provided the best possible protection against the flying machines that were waiting for them outside.


    *** But as soon as the stairs ended, the anxiety returned. Instead of the river of crap, they faced something completely different. They looked at the perfectly round, smooth and made of concrete tunnel, perfectly maintained with no cracks or mold. It was going both ways and was big enough for four of them to comfortably walk shoulder to shoulder. Could it be some kind of an underground public transportation? It had no rails. And it was not vacuumed-sealed, so it could not have been a tube like those he flew through in Capital City. A water tunnel? Its floor and walls were completly dry. Clearly it must have been some kind of a government installation. The only question was what kind.


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    Whatever kind it was, Derran just wished it was not the kind that would get them killed. Maybe he wished for too much.


    How well was it guarded?


    He could see no light other than their own. Still, he brought his gun back to his hands, and pointed it in front of himself.


    They moved aimlessly around till Derran rested his hand on the shoulder of his nearest companion, indicating him and the rest of them to stop.


    ¡°What is it, Sergeant?¡± Wills¡¯s whispering voice hardly made it to Derran.


    Derran put a finger to his lips, and nobody made another sound. The battle that raged above could be heard no more. They went that deep. Forward or backward, the tunnel was equally dark and quiet. Which way to go? The darkness ended both ways with their breathing being the loudest sound around.


    None of them were sure. Derran had to decide and chose to point forward to the right.


    They tried to move as quietly as they could. Obviously, they were not quiet enough as before too long they could hear spiders with their metallic legs scratching the concrete floor and walls, somewhere coming from the blackness, clanking their ways toward them, frantically, almost animal-like.


    Before even seeing them, before waiting for their machine guns installed on top of their heads to cut them down, Derran fired a salvo of plasma rockets down the tunnel. As they exploded, the ground all around them shook, the tunnel squealed, the broken pieces of the mortar from the ceiling started to rain over them.


    ¡°This must be a military installation¡­ If they have spiders guarding every door,¡± Derran grunted.


    ¡°Yeah, but what kind?¡± Slicky said from the back.


    Who knows, maybe this can take us to the droid station, Derran let his hope light up.


    ¡°Well, they know we are here now¡­ So, we better hurry!¡±


    They ran then, as fast as they could, as fast as the light in their helmets showed them the way. Soon, the darkness ahead was lighted with the metal of spider legs and torsos melting and burning, with many parts still covered with the orange plasma. Blown pieces of concrete debris lay everywhere revealing a few feet of tare in the tunnel¡¯s right wall.


    Wills, without any thinking at all, stuck his head in it. "Airway... Big enough to¡­" He said as the noise of countless more spiders rushing toward them overpowered his voice. They could not have been more than a hundred yards away, a minute time to reach them at most.


    ¡°Can we get in?¡± Derran asked.


    ¡°Maybe¡­¡±


    Derran checked his plasma rifle. Only three charges left. So he reached and pulled off a metallic ball from Wills¡¯s belt. It instantly lighted red, with five seconds counting down.


    "Make the hole bigger and get in," he told them as he pointed to the airway. His trembling fingers moved feverishly over the timer, but he succeeded in stopping it when only one second was left. He moved the timer forward till it hit eighty seconds mark.


    He then threw the bomb like a bocce ball in the direction they came from, making it roll with all the bouncing noise it could make, hoping it would attract all the spiders.


    ¡°No way of going back there now,¡± Wills commented while he could hardly squeeze his shoulders through the airway. Luckily, they all fitted inside.


    ¡°Go forward, fast¡­¡± Derran begged them.


    There was not enough room to stretch up, not even to their knees, so with their bellies pressed against the tube, they used their elbows, knees, and feet to push themselves forward, stopping the crawling and getting dead quiet only when they heard the thunder of spiders passing them by.


    If they have thermal scanners, we are gone, Derran thought, unsure that the tunnel''s wall was thick enough to prevent them from being detected. And the soft plastic that the airway was made of certainly would not conceal their body heat.


    But spiders didn¡¯t stop, and the bomb went off, and the airway shook like a suspended bridge in a torrential wind.


    "Well, at least we have some air here," Wills''s chuckles reached Derran and he instantly shushed him down.


    They continued to crawl, almost soundlessly. Soon the fresh air rushing like a river through the tube chilled their sweat.


    They moved as fast as they could, fearing more spiders would come to meet them. The only question was from which side. But none came.


    I guess whoever build this, have not considered that not all of the emperor''s soldiers were oversized, meter- shoulder-wide fighters. Who knows, they might not have even considered that people from Lixia might actually side with the emperor. Derran tried to occupy his thoughts, tried not to think of cramping muscles and what was waiting for them in front.


    Never thought of being small would ever have any benefits sometimes. And all the rap we used to get the entire time during the training from the rest of the troops? I¡¯d like to see them in here now¡­.


    Soon the tube tilted to the right, and the shimmer of the light further ahead meant that they came out from behind the wall.


    ¡°The lights out!¡± Derran commanded as the light grew stronger.


    In another few seconds of crawling, they figured the rays of light were coming from the airway opening. A bit more of moving their elbows and knees and soon the first of them was right on top of it.


    The opening was big enough for Slicky to see everything below them, and the light was enough for all of them to see a pure terror on his face as he turned his head around to look for the Derran¡¯s instructions. His lips moved to form words but Derran could not read them.


    So, Derran nudged his head, indicating them to move forward. In three elbow pulls he was on top of the airway net, checking to see what had spooked his comrade so much.


    The openings were tiny, less wide than his little finger. But that was still enough to see three oversized metallic humanoids guarding the door. Each of their hands was substituted with a neuron gun with its ammunition taking almost all part of their torsos. Transparent, electric shields were placed three feet in front of them. They were standing guard, waiting patiently.


    Nothing would come through them. Any kind of a frontal assault would prove to be futile and fatal. They could take down ten thousand armored infantry troopers in a matter of minutes. Derran wasn¡¯t even sure that a hand grenade thrown from a side would be enough to take them all down. And they had but a few left. Maybe only burying them under a whole mountain could disable them. He was not sure.


    Wills lifted his head, looked back at Derran, asking for instructions. Without a word, Derran pointed his head forward. They quietly crawled past them, not even breathing, thanking space spirits that their prying red eyes have not turned up and zoomed in on them.


    They moved onward, but the next ventilation opening was close by and it proved to be showing the same scene of more silver-looking humanoids guarding the steel door behind them. They crawled past that door as well.


    But then suddenly, the airway split into three parts. The middle one seemed the biggest, so that¡¯s the one they chose.


    Derran calculated that all that air must be needed for a lot of people¡­ And it had to be people. Why would they do that for animals, certainly not for machines? How many, maybe thousand or ten thousand? He could only guess.


    Then another thought crept, uninvited in his mind. How many of them are going to die here? Who is it going to be next?


    Probably all of us. And it will come before I would be able to see it. That fast. Maybe it''s even better that way. And for what? Oh, pa'', were you right or were you right?


    He clunged his teeth, not letting the tears come down.


    Suddenly, they started to hear distant voices, firm sounds of someone talking.


    Derran pulled Slicky¡¯s leg, signaled him to stop, and listened. Nothing could be heard close by, only those distant voices, and they seemed too distant that they could not even understand them at all.


    They waited and waited, and still, not even a single feeble sound had reached their ears. With a laser knife from his boot, he pecked a few holes in the tube.


    He looked at the yellow-painted concrete floor which was at least ten feet below them now. He could see nothing. So, he put his laser knife to work some more and silently sliced a hole in the tube big enough to jump down through it.


    He was expecting to land in some kind of a passageway, unoccupied. But he was wrong.


    As he jumped down, his heals didn''t even connect with the floor. In a blink, he saw a back of a humanoid guarding the white gate six feet behind them. As the humanoid finally noticed the vibration of the air and started to turn around, Derran touched the floor with his toes, and rolled over toward the robot, then jumped on the machine''s back. His hand, with the laser knife still in it, went deep through the protective shield of his neck, puncturing it all the way through. He left his knife in there and grabbed a thick black cord buried inside, yanking it out with all his strength, taking out its energy cord and making a killing machine only a harmless and permanent metallic statute.


    ¡°That is how you kill a fucken robot.¡± He was so proud of himself then, not believing himself of what he had just done.


    Three of them came down as quietly as they could, but the alarm started to reverberate through the whole space, almost piercing their ears.


    He showed two of them to guard the back door, and with Wills, he rushed forward.


    Less than fifty yards away, they almost flew through the swinging door with their rifles pointed forward, waiting to fire them¡­ But nothing met them on the other side. They were once again in the darkness, in the corner of a stadium-type structure.


    Twenty feet forward, they came out of the corridor to the space that opened downward.


    It stretched hundreds of steps below them and as far as their eyes could see. It was a colossal dome-type structure, resembling sports stadiums only multiple times bigger. The bottom of the dome was filled with thousands of people, each sitting in front of multiple monitors with their hands coiled over droid control sticks.


    Derran¡¯s and Wills¡¯s mouth-dropping shock swiftly turned to a maddening, teeth-clinging rage as they observed the entire battle being played out on the enormous 3D screens in the middle of the dome.


    It was as Derran had feared.


    The second wave of the troops, which came after them, were almost completely wiped out. The battle was obviously lost even as the Imperial command seemed to lunch the rest of their reserve jets. They obviously were trying to fight off droids, and failing miserably.


    Derran understood right away the stupidity of the strategy of his commanders, the textbook objective of trying to achieve the air supremacy. How they could think of accomplishing it with the far inferior technology was something he could not figure out. And to throw in ground troops and lightly armored units to somehow compensate for the error was equal to sending his men to the meat-grinding machine. In a moment of a heartbeat, he understood it all, the enemy not only using pitiless AI droids to fight a battle but also machines controlled by humans to lead the way. It was a deadly combination.


    Them losing a battle was not a fluke. Connecting the intelligence and ability of AI to predict any established military strategy with the creativity of humans to improvise has given the enemy an edge. The enemy would win this battle. Derran was certain as he watched more of his troopers die. And the enemy and its AI would understand where it made the mistake and would compensate for it and build better outer planetary defenses. What was for machines to spit out hundreds of thousands of droids capable of doing in space what they did on a planet?


    So the next time the Imperial forces come to overtake the planet, they would not even be able to land on it. The tide of the war would change. And in the end, the combination of the powerful AI and human creativity might win over brutal military conventional power. The battle was lost, and probably the war with it. Everything would change.


    ¡°Stupid general assholes,¡± was all the comment he could mumble as the nightmarish future flashed in front of his eyes, one bloodbath after another, and hundreds of billions of people all lost to heartless machines and their masters, including his family and his home¡­


    ¡°This comes down,¡± Derran¡¯s whisper was almost inaudible as the sound of gunfire could already be heard coming from behind. ¡°Even if it means us¡­ Let¡¯s just bury them all. Right here, right now. I lived long enough anyway. So, let¡¯s just bury them in their own hole.¡±


    With those words, he finished his instructions to Wills without knowing that they were being recorded on their helmet censors, without knowing that those words were to be later played over and over again, billions of times over, throughout the empire, for centuries to come, that those words would become part of the legend.


    He fired all his plasma rockets toward the center of the dome where he was guessing that the energy supply pod must have been located. He threw in all the grenades toward it as well, but the huge engulfing inferno which suddenly exploded ate them before he could see them detonate.


    Men screamed and the ground shook and the inferno of torching fires swallowed thousands. There was no place to hide.


    Little did Derran know at the time that the explosion ended destroying the main nerve of the central command system of the Vazz, incapacitating all their flying droids as well as their humanoids meat-grinders, and practically winning the decisive battle for the Empire in that bloody two-year-long conflict.


    The peace treaty was signed not even a week after that day.

 Two

    Millenniums come and go, and a very few of the human-made structures endure the ultimate test, the test of time. One of those that persevered through millenniums was a small shrine of the god Warash, still firmly remaining with its massive stone columns providing support, just as they did for tens of thousands of years. Everything around it has succumbed to the power of passing seasons and has long been forgotten, with rolling hills and trees covering what once was a famous pilgrimage destination. The religion of old had long been forgotten, and Warash had perished together with the civilization that once worshiped it.


    Ten centuries ago, a big chunk of Silvira¡¯s Northern Continent became the property of the House of Solan, including the old shrine. The family built their main estate a few miles north of the shrine as the region enjoyed one of the mildest weathers anywhere on the planet including stunning lakes and waterfalls, tame forests and warm water gazers.


    The family put their hearts and roots into the property, managing it well. Led by teams of archeologists and ancient artifact restorers from local universities, they regularly maintained their estate, including the shrine, assuring that it would remain standing for another thousand years. Still, with the power of managing the empire centered in the Capital that was thrree gates and twenty days of travel-time away, the family became irregular visitors to their beloved estate and had used the shrine only on special occasions.


    Yet, for one night not long after the war with Techies was over, the shrine was not abandoned at all. Eight men covered in long black robes occupied stone posts in its once worshiping chamber. As if they had just finished some ancient ritual, they all set quietly in a circle around an open fire flamed by fresh logs that provided the only light in otherwise empty, ghostly shrine. Their long shadows danced nervously to the music of fire against the surrounding walls.


    Most of them had their faces covered and hidden by the sagging hoods that provided additional warmth as if they were afraid to surrender their faces to the cold or to reveal their identity. It was a chilly late evening of mid-autumn and many had their hands extended toward the fire. Some cared not of the cold but seemed lost in their own thoughts.


    They were all rich and influential people, leaders of their clans and families, people who controlled gala-corporations and lives of billions. These were the people who could afford to live wherever they wanted, for as long as they wanted. In the ostentatious comfort they circled themselves in, the sense of cold was long lost to them. And they trembled now experiencing it as if it was happening to them for the very first time.


    Their host was the first to get up and speak out loud. "I know there are some of you who do not accept the Religion of KARMA in their hearts. Still, all of us know the ways of cosmic justice and what it means to do right and wrong. What I''m trying to say is... we should not just do right because we might believe doing so might make space spirits kind to us and invite us to their league, might consider us worthy to be invited to sit at their table and reward us with deity itself.


    "No, we should not do right just for rewards some might bestow on us, but because we know that the alternative... cannot be accepted. We have to do right so we can know that we did the best we could, that our very existence has not been in vain, not spend only on acquiring wealth, engaging in personal pleasures and satisfying our own vanities. For, no matter how long we may live, we have one life to live. And what binds us together is that we chose to do it right. So, I''m asking you all, whatever we decide on today, let us keep in mind not our personal interests and desire but the thought of... using this chance to set boundaries for the evil never to prosper within our borders AGAIN! DO YOU AGREE WITH ME?"


    His voice was thundering, reverberating in the empty space and walls that had nothing but their shadows to show. But only silence, long and heavy, came back as an answer.


    The host let them to their thoughts and set down. Le them simmer in the cold for a bit longer, he thought.


    Simmering they did. It was a long while before another one dared to speak. ¡°We failed... There is no other way to put it.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± another man''s timid whisper added.


    ¡°Two billion citizens killed, two planets destroyed, over a trillion of credits cost associated with the war¡­¡± Another saddened voice added, the speaker''s lost stare deeply buried among the fire-licked logs.


    ¡°The poverty percentage of the whole population increased from twenty percent to present thirty, an all-time high. People have never been this poor,¡± the other voice added in agreement.


    ¡°Trade was interrupted, inflation ate savings, everyone suffered and will continue to do so for who knows how long.¡±


    ¡°We are aware of these¡­ very worrisome numbers. For the war that was won, obviously, it came at a great cost.¡±


    ¡°Yet, what could have been done?¡± The man stood up, bringing his warmed-up hands to his face, rubbing his dark and thick beard.


    "Still," the man who started the conversation got up as well, took the hood off his head by going through his long hair with his gloved hands. "What is really worrisome is that all current macroeconomy models and long-term projections clearly point that the government cannot continue to spend at the levels it currently does. It is just not doable."


    "Yes, I looked over your models, Dr. Larik. I have to agree, the results are unambiguous. If nothing is done, the current policies will inevitably lead to another disaster and another war. And the demise of the current government is certain. It is just a matter of time."


    ¡°And the empire as a whole will crumble, with countless numbers of our citizens perishing to war and famine.¡±


    ¡°Yes. I see it as well. The only way it is all going to end is in a new wave of really messy new wars. The hate will spread. It will never end¡­¡±


    "Models show probability of such scenario increasing if nothing is done¡­ We may have twenty years at most before the inevitable starts to unravel yet again."


    ¡°Twenty years only? What can we do in such a short time?¡±


    ¡°Twenty years at most.¡±


    ¡°The emperor should not have been so lenient on the rebels¡­¡±


    ¡°To be perfectly fair, one can argue both sides- ¡°


    ¡°But that peace treaty, the deals they got! Some would say that they were not punished at all. Some would say they were rewarded as if they won the war. It¡¯s just asking for another system to rebel!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not true. They are forbidden and prevented from using any robotics now. No auto-directed droids or self-governed humanoids. At least we are done with that mess¡­¡±


    ¡°A mess?¡± Dr. Larik had a different opinion and protested instantly.


    "Come on, Dr. Larik, we all are fully aware of how sympathetic you were toward their cause and ideas."


    ¡°Please!¡± Senator Sulivaro, the host of the gathering, seeing the argument developing, had swiftly raised from his seat, and with his raised hands showing them to settle down, took the main word. ¡°There is nothing we can do about the peace treaty now. Maybe they got too much. Maybe they didn¡¯t. That was the emperor¡¯s decision, and that is done. Arguing about it means that we are letting our attention slip away from the pressing matter, that we are accepting the ultimate defeat. And I am not ready to do that.¡±


    Another of them stood up in frustration. "But what do we do? We can''t reduce our expenditures now with the level of unemployment, starvation? That would create even more social unrest and misery. We can''t cut the budget now?! At least the losers should pay for it."


    ¡°I thought a lot about this...¡± the soothing voice of a man holding a cup of still steaming tea made the man take a seat again. ¡°¡­during the war and after. I tried putting in a lot of different factors¡­ And the only solution I find is by introducing new types of measures, the ones that we have never resorted to before. It is not only that we need to do major reform. We need to restore people¡¯s faith in the future of the empire.


    "I am not only talking about the economic revival that should ultimately lead to the increase of the purchasing power of our citizens. That may not be enough."


    ¡°You are right. We need to give people hope and show them they can count on us being fair, being in their service¡­¡±


    ¡°But the government cannot serve as an institution of offering employment. The bureaucracy is already the multiples of what should be.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we know¡­we all accept that. We all have been schooled in the mechanics of Economics. We all know what that means.¡±


    ¡°So, then it is not surprising that the new legitimate business start-ups are recording all-time lows, black markets are flourishing, tax receipts are down and decreasing, lawmakers are screaming for tax rates to go up, scaring people even further.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all due to ignorance and corruption. The corruption we have in the system is just outrageous.¡±


    "You are right; a lot of it is due to the problem with corruption. It limits and prevents new investments and competition, prevents new blood to rush through the economy creating new jobs.¡±


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    ¡°The only thing corruption creates is distrust.¡±


    ¡°And anger. There is only so much that people are ready to put up with.¡±


    ¡°Quite so.¡±


    ¡°Yes, people are not stupid. They can add things up.¡±


    ¡°By many measures the level of corruption today is the highest we ever had in the history of our empire.¡±


    ¡°So, if we do not do anything about it, I think that we all know the only way it can take us. All models show that it will cause another war, just like it did this one."


    "Well, to be exact, the reason for this war was that those rebel planets didn''t want to break away from their use of humanoids in their society, everyday life, even when the emperor clearly outlawed it all-¡±


    "Yes, but that was outlawed over fifty years ago! If not for the corruption, and paying off the local police and the emperor''s representative, they would never have a chance to build such powerful robots, and continue perfecting it until they had an army that almost cost us all our lives and everything we built in the past."


    "You are right about that. The corruption is one of the things we really need to worry about."


    "If we weed it out, our tax revenues will increase.¡±


    ¡°Investments will increase. When people think they do not need to bribe anyone, they will invest in their own future. We know that to be true.¡±


    "Yes, the economy will bloom again, and people will be happy."


    ¡°And occupied.¡±


    "Yeah, but how do you stem corruption? People are just too eager to disobey the emperor''s laws."


    "You have to look at it from their point of view. There are a lot of reasons why somebody decides to break the law. We cannot just oversimplify things. We need to look at them in detail. Maybe they think they will not be caught. Maybe they do not consider it fair and tolerable, I mean, we have so much regulation that I bet if someone was to examine any one of us, anyone of us..." The man pointed finger at each one of them, "They would be able to find something wrong with what we do, some law we ourselves violate."


    Some of them nodded their heads, some didn''t, but none of the eight men dared and cared to comment it.


    "It is just too much, too difficult, too complicated."


    "Yes, I think all of us are aware of that...I can even second that with a psycho-mathematical model pointing how, most of the time, simple solutions are almost always better than the complex ones."


    "Yes, many of us who are in business are aware of how difficult it is to do anything... But we do not say anything. Why? Because stiff regulations keep the cost of entering into our business high enough so that no new players and new competition emerges. It is simple and known for as long as there is the universe. Yet, we still support such system."


    "We have to scrap all those regulations, give people more freedom. All the tax laws, countless business regulations... Really, the only thing they serve for is for some small government official to blackmail business owner into bribing him...We have to change that...That is the first thing."


    "That would create a tide that could lift all of us. In the long term, it would help us all.¡±


    "Give them ten laws instead of ten million..."


    "And then, make sure they follow it, stick to it. And if they don''t, then punish them hard."


    "And who is going to do that, make them stick to it, make them be punished? Our present police force? You could buy an officer for ten credits now, and an emperor''s judge...? That will cost you a whole of one hundred... So I hear." The man added swiftly as he saw all eyes turn to him, staring and questioning.


    "No, obviously not. We need something new, something special, something that will be difficult to infiltrate by law-breakers, criminals, something effective."


    "You think we need another secret police? All secret police we ever had, throughout the history, proved to be too difficult to control, too corruptive in itself... Do I need to remind anyone of the Emperor Khan history?"


    "No, I am not talking about any type of ''secret police''. I am talking about selected few, those that would report directly to us and would not be under the command of some bureaucrat or the corrupted police.


    ¡°Everything they do would not be done in secret. We want to show a complete transparence. We could make all their actions be publicized, to make them feared, to make people understand that there is a law and that they can trust it, and it¡¯s the same law for those that are on every step of the economic and social ladder.¡±


    ¡°It makes sense ¨C make an example of those that are caught. Show that nobody is above the law. Restore faith.¡±


    "They could operate with a different set of rules and a strict set of codes."


    "It seems you are talking about creating sort of law-enforcing executioners that would also serve as special agents...¡±


    "So, what, no more secret contra-intelligence then?¡±


    "Well, the one we have right now really served very little if any at all. It didn''t prevent any serious terrorist attack, didn''t prevent the war. Yeah, I think we can seriously consider consolidating it to a more very reasonable level."


    "That would save us billions of credits each year."


    "Yes, we can use the end of the war as a way to cut it in half, and then slowly, every few years, reduce it even further."


    Senator Sulivaro scratched the back of his head as he twisted it to his left side and said, "Hum, I like that idea...I would support that."


    ¡°So will I!¡± Suddenly the scent of optimism weaved itself inside their voices.


    "If we do this, it really may change things for the better."


    "But, how do we create this ''special'' police? Who would we put in it?"


    "Certainly nobody from the present police force..."


    "Or any other type of our numerous security units."


    "You gentlemen are right. We need fresh blood for this unit. If they are to have all that power, we have to make sure that they are of impeccable character and qualities."


    "We will have to train them, test them, filter them... Select only the ones that fit the extremely selective criteria¡­"


    ¡°Your experiment will fail,¡± Prince Ramazisky the Third, the youngest of them all, declared in a jovial and uplifting voice. It was almost the first thing he said the whole evening and everyone had instantly turned their eyes to him.


    ¡°Why, why do you say that?¡± Professor Wallic wanted to know.


    "You look at a man as if he is incapable of change as if his character is a dot in a line of time that stretches onward in a straight manner. But we are not such creatures. We change. We evolve. And just because the person is trustworthy and honest at one point, it cannot guarantee that he will always stay so."


    "Still¡­" The professor was not ready to give up, but the young prince interrupted him right away.


    ¡°All that power you are ready to bestow on to the new order, the power over life and death,¡± he said in a sobering voice, ¡°could be so easily abused. If we had learned anything from the history is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even the most trustworthy individuals can be changed with years, weakened by the temptation of passing time¡­ Your psychoanalytical models of an individual have to include the inevitability of change. It always happens. And not always for the better, especially when the power is so great and temptations to abuse it even greater¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, naturally we would put in place checks and balances, a multiple levels of control, to make damn sure that never happens.¡±


    "No!" Prince Ramazisky said stubbornly. "Not that it does not happen. If you want your model to have any chance of success, you have to engineer in it a mechanism that will correct the system once it fails. It will only be a matter of time.:


    ¡°That would not be easy.¡±


    "Yeah. But it can be done. I am optimistic. It can be done,¡± Senator Sulivaro said. ¡°We can include certain boundaries and corrective methods to compensate for the imperfections in the human character and for the instances that Prince Ramazisky talked about. At the same time, we can reward them enough so that they would never fall into the traps of the bribes. Make them proud to listen to the strict code we set them to follow¡­"


    "Yes, pay them so well that everyone would want to be in it... Give them more than enough money to take care of their families and themselves."


    "We have a lot more to think about this before we approach the emperor with such a bold idea."


    "It is not just about ideas... We have also to think of how to implement them, especially what Prince Ramazisky talked about¡­ We have to test all the variables and make projections, see what would work the best. The margin of error cannot exist, not at this time."


    "That is true - this is a very complicated matter. We will have to do a lot of number crunching."


    "But, you know what, I think he may actually like it."


    "Wallic, you have a lot of good ideas. Why don''t you draft most of them down?¡±


    "We can meet again in a month''s time. I will also put some figures in the model, and see what we come out with. All of you think about what you think would be the right thing to do. Between eight of us, we can certainly come up with something brilliant. Hopefully, we can go with a detailed plan in front of the emperor before his birthday"


    "That gives us only sixty days?"


    "Yes, we better start right away...start gathering some numbers, more information."


    "Do we talk to anybody else about this...? The mister of defense might have something to say about all of-"


    "No! This has to stay confined to us. This is just between the emperor and us. Otherwise, it will probably be killed before it can even see the first fruit,¡± Senator Sulivaro concluded as his face turned into a frown expression of uneasiness and misgiving. ¡°We need to stem out the corruption. This is our only way. Otherwise, count the days before we all fall.¡±

 Three

    Exactly sixty days later, all eight of them were greeted by the emperor himself in one of the more private but still very colossal reception rooms, nested deeply inside the Emperor¡¯s Palace.


    The emperor, with his long white beard and thick almost connected eyebrows that seemed to purposely hide half of his eyes as he frowns, seemed older than all of them combined. Yet, his handshake was firm, and his guttural voice strong and overpowering, echoing against the tall walls covered in paintings of beasts he slew, in the age-long gone when beasts roamed freely and could still be slain.


    "Gentlemen, I consider all eight of you some of the brightest minds and the most righteous souls thorough out the entire realm..." The emperor started with his cardinal baritone tone. They slowly set around a massive, twenty-foot long, white-washed wooden table. It seemed heavy enough that not even the united force of nine of them would not be enough to move it an inch.


    ¡°That is why I asked you to come here, and come up with the plan to revitalize the empire, to help people live better, for the war we fought should never be fought again. So, tell me, have you had enough time, have you done anything concerning this matter?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sure we have¡­ We have outlined about twenty different policies which should revitalize the economy¡­ You can see them here¡­¡± The screen popped in the air in the middle of the long table, and graphs of all types emerged from it.


    A lot can be written about all the things that were said during the meeting. For the next three hours, the council talked to the emperor, explaining exactly what each of those graphs and diagrams represented and how they will improve the empire.


    "We expect that the economy would start growing again, easily surpassing previous records of two percent growth a year. These measures would also help reduce tax dodgers and improve job markets. Unemployment would become almost a matter of the past."


    Then the council started to talk about their ideas concerning the creation of a new investigative unit, informing the emperor about all their ideas concerning this matter.


    "We believe that the selection process should not include any person who is presently or has been in the past employed by the police or the Tax Authority. We have comprised the list of over ten thousand candidates and believe that from that group, we can form the very first working group of about twenty investigators. They are to go through the toughest screening as well as the training process we can come up with. That will guarantee that only the best and the most suitable will be selected."


    "I also believe that we have to change everything.¡± The emperor suddenly interrupted them, not moving his eyes from his hands which he placed in front of him, at the table. ¡°You spoke in very general terms, which I have to agree with, and not just because of the science behind it. That is exactly what I wanted you to do and why I entrusted you with this task to begin with. But, I do not know yet how exactly the government would look like once you do all the changes you are talking about. And that worries me¡­I cannot see it¡­¡±


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    "You have to give me more evidence of that, and more proof that when we change things, they will work for the better. I have to see that clearly, and at present, I really do not. I want a clear plan, clear tasks, clear steps, everything¡­ I need so much more details from you before making my call, understood? In the end, whatever I decide to do, let me assure you that I will hold you responsible for this program. There will be no excuses accepted. So, do it right."


    Then he exhaled a long breath, and as if he doubted whether he was too tough on his advisers started to talk in a calmer, sweeter voice. "But still¡­ your idea about creating a new type of police¡­ I find it very interesting indeed. I like to think of cutting out the middle man¡­ It might be the best way, the only way, since your statistics on corruption seem very discouraging.


    ¡°I like the idea of giving them authority to do all three duties at the same time, to investigate, to judge, and to execute that judgment. Except, that may be too much power¡­And we all know what that can do to a person... So, it is not only that you select the best candidate, but that you teach them how to use that power, and guard them of never getting spoiled by that power¡­So, each one of their actions has to be documented and evidenced.


    ¡°Out of eight of you, there should always be a panel of three which should go over each one of their ''investigations''. I plan to periodically go over their files as well as go over your files¡­ Just to make sure they are satisfactory.


    "But, the idea here is, since they will have all that great power, almost the power of the emperor himself, I do not want them to investigate just every-day crimes. Do you understand that? For that, there is already local police and internal police who should worry about the corruption within. Sure they can have an authority to prevent any wrongdoing they see happening, but I want these elite groups of investigators to concern themselves with the matters that might upset the core of the balance of the entire empire."


    The emperor, stroke his beard, sudden and unexpected enthusiasm gleaming in his eyes. He didn¡¯t want to stop talking. He liked the idea. He saw its benefits clearly, as well as its danger. ¡°They are to investigate cases which are given to them directly by you or by me, the cases which seem to carry overweighting important for the prosperity of the empire as a whole. If we had people like that before, Vazz would never be able to build their war machines, the war could have been prevented and the lives of billions spared."


    "And you were right - the selection process has to be done right, and I see what you planned out seems to go in the right direction. A very interesting starting point, that is.


    ¡°To the list of those two thousand candidates, you will also add additional ones. I want each great house, all twenty of them, to have a chance to volunteer one of their family members to serve in this unit. It will be up to them if they can complete the course and become investigators, but I want all of them to have a chance. Understood?¡±


    Everybody shook their heads in reverential silence.


    "I believe I will have more to say once I take a longer time to think about this matter. So, I will shortly let you know about my final decision. Until then..." The emperor finally got up from his seat, and the councilmen followed, each one of them smiling, not hiding the pleasure to see their restructuring plan being so positively accepted.


    If they only knew back then what they have started and what future timeline they helped create if they only knew what that future would bring on themselves personally, bring on to the entire empire, and beyond¡­

 Four

    ¡°You need to wear that uniform here?¡±Derran''s father asked him.


    ¡°I cannot take it off. I still have to wear it for another two months. Those were the rules.¡±


    ¡°And then?¡±


    ¡°Then I''ll take it off and never put it on again.¡±


    ¡°They teach you how to kill. And from what I''ve seen, you did very well.¡± Harsh words, his father did care to pick them to be soft. He could see they landed on his son harder. There was no pride, only sorrow. He sighed deeply, feeling even more remorse than his son. ¡°But what they have not cared to teach you is how to live with it.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡±


    ¡°Filled your heart with hatred, blinded you with thinking of your enemy as less than humans so you could do their bidding.¡±


    ¡°I know. And you have no idea how sorry I am.¡±


    ¡°I don''t want you to be sorry, kid. For one thing, I''m glad you are still alive, because...¡± his father had to stop as tears that suddenly bursed out of his eyes ran uncontrollable down his face. ¡°For all the time that you were gone, I just prayed to all the space spirits to save you.¡±


    ¡°Dad, but you do not even believe in space spirits.¡±


    ¡°What can I say? I was desperate.¡±


    ¡°I''m so sorry, dad.¡±


    ¡°I''m so sorry too.¡±


    ¡°You were right, you were right about everything.¡±


    ¡°No. If I was right, if I was so damn right, you would not have gone to the war in the first place. I would have... been able to connect with you, teach you and explain what I saw. If I was right, I would have done right. I was wrong. I was so wrong. And I failed. I failed your mother, your sister, and you.¡±


    The embrace was hard, harder than Derran thought his father was capable of, as if that hug and the strengh of it could transmit all the love that his father felt for him.


    ¡°No, dad, no dad. It was not your fault.¡±


    Receives invitation for the


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I just got invitation...¡±


    ¡°For what?¡±


    ¡°To train...¡±


    ¡°And you''re ready to trust them?¡±


    ¡°No. Never again.¡±


    ¡°Good. Maybe then you can do some good.¡±


    ***


    ¡°I want something in return.¡±


    ¡°You are still on active duty-¡±


    ¡°You can shuve your active duty up your ass, Sir. You want my cooperation and are interested in using me, I have no problem with that. But, I want my parents taken care off. And my sister. The top healthcare for all of them.¡±


    ¡°We can do that.¡±


    ¡°And I want it now. Not negotiable. I want them to be taken cared off, and to be able to have a body transffer when they get old.¡±


    ¡°Certainly. We''ll put then on the A+ list. No problem.¡±


    ¡°You were right. He might be one to keep, certainly someone who has a lot to teach others. Now can he do it?¡±


    Three men sat in a darkened conference room, looking at video bits being played in the air in front of them.


    "I''ll tell you one thing, my son, " A tall woman with deep facial lines and graying hair was hugging her boy and whispering in his ear. "Our house might be one of the smallest and, right now, certainly the least well-off. Through the past hundreds of years, we''ve been betrayed, manipulated, targeted, almost to the point of a complete extinction...That is all true, no need to be ashamed of it. But take that as a motivational tool, something to push you forward, to fight that much harder."


    The boy struggled to come out of her embrace, but she put her both hands on his cheeks as she continued: "You know, a long time ago, the emperor came from your bloodline, and if this gives you a chance, maybe you can return that fortune and respect to your house and family once again."


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    Three men turned their heads to another video showing a man covered in a knee-long, brown coat made of the most expensive Echemonian-96 quality silk talking to a young man who was standing, tall and thin, a few inches above him.


    "Don''t you pay no attention to those that say our house is made of criminals! Don''t you dare fall for that! Besides, there has never been any proof, any real proof that we are members of organized crime! I can''t believe that anyone could even suggest that¡­" The voice seemed a bit too loud, and the man in the coat lowered it instantly. "You are given a chance here, a chance to work for the police, for the empire. Just consider, if you succeed and you become one of these top investigators, how much help would that be for a family, for your brothers, for me? So, of course, I want you to go, and not just go - I want you to win! Make it work! However, you can."


    The man in the coat didn''t seem to like the soft tone that persisted in his son''s eyes and face. "Listen to me boy! You have done almost anything your whole life. The only thing you did was enjoy what was given to you by me. This is your chance to become someone more, someone who can help contribute, help your family become even bigger and stronger. So, of course, you will do it. Either make it or don''t come back. Do you understand?"


    Three men stopped the video and looked at each other.


    "So, what do we do? Do we disqualify these two candidates right away?"


    "Why should we?"


    "Well, their family ambitions will obviously skew their judgments, compromise their integrity. I mean, one of them is told to become the criminal and help his family become even more deviant and powerful, the other to become an emperor himself!"


    "Yes, that is true. But let''s turn the table around, if they were told to become the best possible agents they could, would that really make a difference? I believe they need to make their own choices. Being isolated and away from their family might change a lot of things. That is my opinion. What do you say councilman Wallic?¡±


    "I say, let them stay here a bit longer. Their training and testing have not even started yet. We can note this and vote on their removal at the later moment."


    "But how about this one?" One of the councilmen said pointing to the video stream that filled the air above them the very next second.


    "Take this! Take it!" A woman was pushing a small communication pod into the jacket pocket of a long-haired, blond teenager.


    "But, mom! Didn''t you read the file they gave us? They specifically said ''no'' to any communication devices."


    "I know, I know, but how would they know...If you hide it good enough, they will never find out. And who knows, that way you can always call us, ask us for help if there is anything that we can do."


    The councilman who put the video in continued explaining, "I understand that the kid kept the pod..."


    "That kid needs to be returned home," the other one answered. "The whole scene is making me feel angry and disgusted. It doesn''t matter what test scores he had, how brilliant he might have been. If he can''t resist his mother plea to break the rules, who knows if he will ever be ready to walk all by himself on his two legs straight?"


    "I agree. He is already twenty-one years old. He should have some sort of self-esteem build-up, some sort of rebellious independence, some mechanism to say what is right and what isn''t."


    "Same here. He already broke the code. He could not follow what was asked. So, send him home now, together with his mother. Better now than in a week when he starts sobbing after talking to his mommy. I bet he was never even away from her. Spacespirtis! Twenty-one years old."


    After long hours of examining video bits, six councilmen gathered outside in a gazebo overlooking the campus. They set around an oversized, rude, ceramic pot from which the wildflower tea was steaming and fragmenting the air. Each, using a long wooden ladle, served themselves a cup.


    Above them, heavy clouds were piling up, looking gray and menacing. Autumn came fast to the Planet Fyora and lasted short, and those clouds might break out in snow rather than rain.


    "It was a good idea to let one of their parents or guardians come here on the planet to say ''good-byes''."


    "Yes, the idea of letting them see where their children would be living was a good one, and this way we can put them into elevated stress situations like saying ''good-byes'' always are and see how exactly they all behave."


    "It is not to say that these kids cannot outgrow a lot of errors of their youth and upbringing..."


    "But that would require so much more effort on the part of educators...To change many of them this late in their development years would require a lot of energy."


    "And a lot more time, and time we do not have...so, this is a very good preliminary screening. Great idea, Senator Sulivaro. "


    ¡°So, all in all, we already tossed out fifty of them.¡±


    "Yes, that leaves us with exactly one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine candidates to start with the training process. The youngest is only fifteen, the oldest twenty-one. "


    "Not all of the farewells were bad. Look at this girl here¡­" The man placed a video bit above the fire pit. One skinny girl, dressed in running pants and a thick winter jacket was not taking her eyes off her mother. "Only fifteen years old. She is one of the youngest ones. And, look¡­ She is comforting her crying mother. Look at that look in her eyes. How strong, how determined. She looks so calm, so assuring. And her hands, touching her mom like that!"


    ¡°You think it would be the other way around. Mother consoling her daughter.¡±


    ¡°Not here. She seems trying to be so strong for her mother. She seems tough¡­so ready to be here, so eager to embrace her opportunity.¡±


    ¡°What is her name?¡±


    "Siya Flint from the Siux system¡­ Her scores are the top one percent of all the aptitude tests. She is very impressive indeed¡­ She displays the capacity to retain almost perfect memory, can learn a thirty line poem by heart after a single reading."


    ¡°It would be good to have individuals of such quality work for us.¡±


    ¡°Still, she is not through yet. It will be interesting to see if she can make it to the finish line.¡±


    ¡°Maybe we can help a bit, push her¡­¡±


    ¡°No. Actually, move her to the toughest group¡­If she makes it there, then we¡¯ll talk about her. If not, she is better off then becoming a doctor or a scientist. That is the best what we can do for her.¡±


    ¡°I hope she makes it,¡± murmured one of them.


    ¡°So do I.¡±

 Five

    After saying good-byes to their parents or guardians, the candidates were led to a medical lab where they were anxiously waiting in a very long line.


    ¡°So what are we doing here?¡± one of them asked nervously.


    ¡°Probably another set of medical tests.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯ve already done those, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± the boy who was a head taller than anyone answered. ¡°But these are probably new ones, probably just some routine exams.¡±


    Those words did little to calm anyone down. Most of them were nervous. Nobody wanted to be turned down just because of some medical conditions. In the end, over fifty of them did not make it and did not even get to see the inside of their training camp.


    Those that did were finally given the password to walk through the tunnel toward the camp and the direction to which barrack to report to.


    In the Green barrack, situated in the middle of the camp, one hundred of new candidates didn¡¯t even have time to fully unpack when a boy-sized man in a light brown fatigue suite and a perfectly shinning combat boots walked in. An over-sized, rounded green hat covered most of his face.


    ¡°Attention!¡± he yelled, forcing them all to hustle and line up in front of their bunks.


    "Hello, boys and girls! And those of you who are neither," he continued, walking slowly between the bunks, wood creaking sound of his boots the only noise filling the silence of his pause.


    ¡°My name is Sergeant Derran, and I am here to be your combat training sergeant.¡±


    ¡°Now you look at me, how short I am¡­ compared to the tallest of you - even two heads shorter, right? And the scars on my face¡­ ¡¯who would want to keep this body, so short and ugly?¡¯ you may be wondering...


    ¡°I am sure some of you, probably, do not find me to your liking right now. But I promise you, by the time I finish with you, none of you are going to find me to your liking at all...I can guarantee you will not like me at all! Probably will hate me enough to remember me for the rest of your life! Which by your looks, should not be that far off anyway.¡±


    He took a moment with only his deep and angry inhales could be heard for the words to sink in before continuing. ¡°What you need to know right now is that I just do not care! I don¡¯t care who your mommies, your daddies, your granddaddies, your grand-grand-grand-daddies are, or who they were. I do not even care who you are for that matter! The only thing I care for, as of right now, is how well you listen. And how well you can do what I ask from you!


    "I think you were previously properly briefed of what you can and cannot expect here. Wakeups¡­" He looked at the piece of paper he put in front of his face. "Says here, 6 AM. I say, spaceshit!?! I say wake-ups are any moment I damn please to come in here and tell you to get your sorry asses up! Do you understand that?"


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    ¡°Breakfast at¡­ Hell, I won¡¯t even bother going through the rest of this paper. It¡¯s useless,¡± he said as he tore the paper up and threw it on the floor.


    ¡°The only thing that I can tell you is¡­ You may think you will eat three meals a day, but you will be lucky if you get three meals a week! They lied to you! They all lied to you! All of them! Your parents when they told you how smart you are, or the best or whatever other crap they told you to inflate your useless little egos. They lied to you when they told you that you had a chance to become someone, someone special, that you¡¯re ready for this. Well, you ain¡¯t.¡± Derran stopped in front of two candidates who had extra pounds of fat around their bellies.


    ¡°The bottom line is that you will eat, sleep, exercise, and even shit whenever I tell you to, is that clear?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±


    ¡°That is the only way to pay for the privilege of being here¡­ And for those of you who do not like that privilege, remember, the only right you have right now is to quit, to pick your bags and run to your mommies. The way I see it, for most of you that is by far the smartest thing to do. Do you understand that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±


    He walked to the tallest candidate and scanned his tag. ¡°Says here, Fedorankiss ROekj. What kind of parent would name their child like that? You can break your tongue just by saying it. I guess they did not like you from the moment you were born¡­ I guess that¡¯s why they sent you here, wanted to get rid of you and your stupid ass!¡±


    Even though saliva from Derran¡¯s mouth was reaching kid¡¯s face with each word the sergeant was yelling, kid¡¯s eyes did not move, did not flick, and face stayed stone firm.


    ¡°Now, that¡¯s what I call a soldier¡­ brave and stupid, ready to die whenever his superiors tell him to. Are you ready to die, boy?¡±


    ¡°No, Sir!¡±


    ¡°Fkiss my ass! I bet you are ready to die.¡±


    ¡°No, Sir!¡±


    "Don''t you fucken be a hero with me!"


    ¡°No, Sir!¡± he yelled even more forcefully with his whole lungs.


    Derran nodded his head and walked to the boy next to him, passed him, went further down, his face souring in disgust. "Fear, that''s all I fucken smell here. You all reek of it! Don''t even need to look at you¡­ could smell it out of the barracks. And you have the right to be scared. Because many of you may die here¡­ maybe some of you even came here to die. Did you come here to die?" "No, Sir!" only a few dared to answer.


    ¡°Well, if some did, you just let me know. And I¡¯ll just shoot you down right now and get it over with. Understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± Everyone answered and barrack windows shook.


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    ¡°Don¡¯t you fucken never forget that.¡±


    Derran started to walk back to the entrance, looking at each of them, not sparing them


    ¡°For those of you who are stupid enough to stay, I¡¯ll teach you how to shoot, how to fight, how to sneak to an enemy guard and slit his throat right open before he even has a chance to piss his pants¡­I have to teach you how to be the meanest daughters and sons of bitches that space has ever seen, and I have less than a year to do so¡­


    ¡°And just by looking at you, looking at how pathetic you look, worse than a wet cat - I say that a year will not be enough time for many of you...¡±


    ¡°So, right now, I see through the window that we are being blessed by what locals call here ¡®Fyoran drizzle¡¯¡­¡± Even those that didn¡¯t dare to move their heads had moved their eyes toward the windows where a torrential shower poured its soul outside, and the raindrops washed over the windows with a frenzy of a waterfall.


    ¡°So, we are going to take a little ten-mile run outside through the countryside. If any of you think of dropping dead, well, please do so, for I will not stop to pick your sorry ass up, but will be glad actually to have one less sorry ass to yell at! Now move!!!¡±


    The dirt road that snaked up the thick pine forest became slippery enough for almost all of the candidates to fall down, at least once. As the slope increased, it became more of a stream of rushing muddy water than the running track. Their line, started with four of them running abreast, soon stretched. As they circled the mountain and headed back, it was more than a mile long.


    The first ones made it back to the barracks as the rain stopped and the fog started to set in. The last ten, as the night fell, and they could not even see their step, needed the help of the sergeant''s flashlight to guide them home.


    But Derran had counted only ninety-nine of them. He walked backward, stopping every few steps trying to listen. He hoped that nobody was stupid enough to venture into the woods, looking for shortcuts.


    He took out his military-grade thermal scanner. Far up the road, beyond the second curve, he could see a heat signature of a body lying down.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± He asked as he appeared suddenly on top of Siya.


    ¡°I think I sprained my ankle,¡± she said unable to stand up.


    ¡°Relax¡­¡± he said as he made her stretch her leg and then pulled out her ankle. ¡°See if that feels better.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir, yes it does¡­¡±


    ¡°Good, because I was not planning on carrying you,¡± he said as she got up, surprised how little pain she felt. Then they quietly walked back to the barracks.


    ¡°Sir?¡± She stopped before the entrance stairs.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Sir, you said... you will leave anyone who falls behind...¡±


    ¡°A young girl of fifteen is reminding me of what I said? Is that what I am seeing here?¡± Derran smirked.


    The girl didn¡¯t answer.


    "What this little girl does not know yet is that a real soldier has a right to talk spaceshit¡­ Space hell, a real soldier, a true soldier has a right to talk any kind of shit she or he likes. He has a right to talk since he will do the walk ¨C knowing that that walk may cost him his life, understand?"


    Siya still said nothing but her eyes were fixed on his.


    "What the true solder doesn''t have a right, does never have a right, is to leave his comrade, his friend-in-arms behind, especially if he can help. Understand that? So, the only question then that emerges right now is: do you think I am a real soldier or some space-shitting asshole who dresses up as a sergeant to play around with little kids?"


    Siya knew to keep her mouth shut.


    ¡°So, now get your sorry ass out of this rain, and don¡¯t you ever dare question if I am a real deal, understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir! She answered shivering as much from cold as from the energy that came through his words.


    It seemed everyone inside the barrack heard the speech and the sudden silence was only interrupted by Siya¡¯s hurried creaking steps.


    The next day, after breakfast, twenty bunks were emptied. As he watched the last of them being stripped of the bedclothes by the maintenance crew, Derran was not sure whether he should be glad to note that neither one of those bunks belonged to Siya''s.


    ***


    Derran did not want to waste six months to wait to start teaching them hand-to-hand combat as was originally designed in the program. He felt, since it takes years to develop adequately fast reflexes and train the body in the art of close combat, he could not afford to lose those six months. So, the very next day, he took all the candidates to a practice dojo and decided to spend the whole day evaluating them properly.


    None of them were ready for a full dose of practice, not even close. They were not even half of what he was when he signed up for the army. But, he did practice martial arts since he could walk, so maybe it was not a fair comparison.


    So he started slow, pairing each of them next to a practice droid that he previously set to a pre-novice level, and teaching them the simplest of hand and feet movements.


    After a long hour of hustling to line them upright, he noticed a blond kid of decent build whose hand movement was faster than the rest of them. He measured it. Fifty BLs. Not bad. The kid was only fifteen. Maybe with the training, he could get it to be all the way to six, seven hundred BLs, maybe more. He took on as dummy himself and measured his own impact strength. Two thousand three hundred and fifty BLs. He was slipping. When he was in the top of his shape, he could easily do over three thousand.


    He also paid Siya added attention. She was slow and weak, but agile and persistent, and she was already showing improvement. Another kid with the potential to learn, he was happy to conclude.


    Just before he was ready to call the practice off and send them to the cafeteria for their brunch, the accident happened. One of the clumsy kid stepped into the working area of a girl that was practicing next to him, and her droid had accidentally bumped him, knocking him hard on the tip of his nose. He twisted awkwardly around and flew through the air, and when he landed, his leg snapped as if it was a twig.


    The boy yelled in pain and the blood from his broken nose ran down his face and his shirt. All the droids instantly froze, and the girl whose droid had knocked him down covered her mouth and then fainted as she realized the quantity of blood that was already soaking the floor.


    Derran towered over the kid and before calling the medic, he showed the kid how to hold his nose to stop the bleeding.


    The accident was not a big deal. The nose could be fixed and the bleeding was already being controlled. His leg was all twisted, obviously broken, but no bones were sticking out and it was nothing that the med lab could not take care of. But the kid kept on screaming and screaming. Obviously, he never felt this kind of physical pain.


    ¡°Stop yelling,¡± Derran told him, but that accomplished nothing and the kid continued to scream as if they were skinning him alive.


    ¡°Control that pain, and stop yelling!¡± He ordered him, but the kid would not listen.


    ¡°This is nothing. You are fine. So, either you stop crying or I¡¯ll send you home,¡± he said calmly in the end, but the kid could not be calmed down.


    I guess two less to worry about, Derran thought as he glanced at the girl who still laid unconscious.

 Six

    A month into the program, Derran was rather happy with how things were progressing. He was satisfied that the seventy candidates who still decided to stay in the program all seemed to be already in a very good shape with many of them picking up skills faster than he originally anticipated. Maybe not all of them were mommy¡¯s boys and daddy¡¯s girls after all.


    Yet, he was well aware of the depressing fact that it would still take him years to teach them everything they needed to know and that he was not given enough time. But, at least, it appeared to be a very satisfactory beginning.


    So he was less gloomy and almost enthusiastic until he got an unknown call on his communicator. It was meant to be used only in the case of military emergency or a call from the councilmen, so naturally, it got his full attention. But, it was neither.


    As he answered it, he saw a man he had never seen before. Deep blue eyes stared at him.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± He asked as the man was not eager to identify himself.


    ¡°I am sorry to disturb you¡­¡± The man didn¡¯t seem sorry at all.


    ¡°But there is something we would like to talk to you about¡­¡±


    ¡°Who are you and how exactly did you get connected with me?¡±


    "I am Filo Donovan, Donovan of Donovan Industries¡­Well, you have our grandchild in there, Wrankies, and¡­"


    Derran didn''t want to respond at all to that, so he just kept his mouth firmly shut.


    ¡°He has been saying all these great things of how great you are, and how much he is admiring you, and that you are one really great-¡±


    ¡°Wrankies saying that? Are you kidding me?¡±


    ¡°Well, yeah, he was saying how great it is that he can have such a great mentor as you, the chance to learn from the best - you being decorated war hero and everything¡­¡± The man stopped to clear his throat. ¡°But anyway, we were just thinking how great it would be if you would consider becoming an instructor for his younger brother and cousins. After, I mean, after your job is finished over there and our grandchild successfully completes it all, graduates and all¡­We would naturally pay well for it, pay for it all, if you know what I mean.


    ¡°Really? I did never consider myself an instructor¡­That is a lot to think about,¡± Derran seemed to had put on his thinking hat and scratched his head as if that would help him think faster.


    ¡°How do five hundred thousand credits sound to you?¡±


    "Five hundred thousand?? Hum¡­ Five hundred thousand things to think about¡­ that''s a lot to think about. It might take me a lot of time if you know what I mean¡­ It may take me a long time to think about it all.


    ¡°Well, does six hundred sounds better then¡­? I mean even if you pass him successfully, there is no quarantine if he will pass other sections as well, and just imagine¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, six hundred a section, that would be like three million in all to you¡­ wow, that is some serious thought to think about.¡±


    ¡°Well, so you see that seems very fair, and¡­you can see why we are not ready to offer more?¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course, but can I just ask you one question?¡±


    ¡°Yes, certainly¡­¡±


    ¡°Now, I had no clue, as I didn¡¯t want to have a clue who Wrankies was, but now that I do, I mean things change drastically. Now, I have a whole new appreciation for him. Before I just considered him a spoiled brat, but now with what you showed me and what I know, I think he can do so much more. Actually, I think he is good to go and do so much more. I think I was holding him back all this time.¡±


    Derran paid no attention to how gloomy and frowned the face of the man was becoming. "I think he is all good to do some cliff climbing in this rain we are having today, I mean, good to do some serious cliff-climbing right now. I was not going to make anyone do it on the account of it being very slippery and we have already lost a boy doing it. He slipped, fell a hundred meters down. Now dead. Sack of mashed bones and churned meat dead. Crazy what one fall could do."


    "What do you want?" the man asked with a shivering voice and a face white as a choke.


    "Well, now, on the account of him being Donovan, of Donovan Industries, I think he can handle it all¡­"


    "Don''t you dare!" Mr. Donovan shrieked. "Just tell me what you want?".


    ¡°You know, you know I have every right to do so. I can take your boy out. Right now!! I decide. I know you know that. And if slippery rocks don¡¯t present a big enough problem, a little push, well, a little rock to his head¡­ Like who would ever find out that that rock was kicked off by someone¡¯s boot? They would probably never even find the rock, might not even suspect that it was it that got him down the fastest way.¡±


    ¡°Just tell me what you want?¡±


    But Derran ignored his plea. "So, you do know this, this that I have every power to do so right now, but my question to you is, do you know that I have every bit sick mind to do just that? I bet if you talked to anyone who knew me, they would have warned you, didn''t they?"


    The man''s face was frozen in disbelief, mouth trembling, a mind incapable to comprehend what is going on.


    ¡°I am not your fucken instructor, old man! And now that I know who you are, think! How much is it worth to you that I, at this very moment, don¡¯t do something like that?? Only six hundred thousand?¡±


    ¡°If you do that¡­¡±


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    Derran extended his hand to shut off the communicator.


    "Six hundred fifty¡­seven hundred¡­?" the man spoke swiftly, eyes panicking.


    His hand stopped, but the crazy look on Derran¡¯s didn¡¯t change.


    ¡°Eight hundred thousand? More? That is incredible!?¡±


    "And I thought you loved your grandkid, build all this empire and have a family to help you grow it. Maybe I am talking to a wrong person, maybe I should be talking to his father or mother?"


    ¡°One million? But you better-¡°


    ¡°No!¡± Derran cut him off sharply. ¡°I think I made it very clear, you do not make demands. You meet them, understand?¡±


    ¡°You would not dare do it?!¡±


    ¡°Ask the guys who gave you this number if I would not. You know, I do not even like the kid. What you need to do is ask yourself a question if that all he is worth to you. And don¡¯t go cheap. I hate cheap.¡±


    The next day, Derran called Wrankies into his office. He played him a full recording of that call.


    ¡°You see, they really do love you, to the point¡­¡± Derran said


    ¡°Sir¡­You were just kidding, right? I mean about taking me out-¡°


    "Would I lie about a thing like that? You think I am the type who would do that?"


    ¡°No, Sir.¡±


    ¡°I mean a type of a man that would lie?¡±


    ¡°No, Sir.¡±


    "And about the other stuff¡­ The kid¡­ I did a worse thing than that to people I did not even know. And you, as I said, I do not even like. I watched you around, how arrogant sometimes you behave, how much you like to splash to others about all the places you were able to travel to, how you had this and how you had that¡­ I mean, if I take you out, I certainly know nobody here would miss you. Do you understand that?"


    "Yes, Sir." The young man uttered it quietly, obviously hurt by his words.


    Derran saw it clearly, nodded his head and pointed to Wrankies to sit down.


    "You see, they have already sent the money. I mean, it is a lot of credits. There''s no way that I will ever be able to make even half of that in my lifetime. And with that money, you know, I can live forever. So what do you think I should do?"


    ¡°Keep it. You can keep it if you want. I won¡¯t tell anybody. Do with it whatever you want. I don¡¯t care. But I will definitely not retire from the training now. If you want to, you can kill me. I know that. I don¡¯t care.¡±


    After that, Derran stared at the kid for a long time, neither of them saying anything. Nothing needed to be said. It was all understood. Wrankies¡¯s face fully showed it all with tears that were hard to be fought back. He did not even need to continue, but yet he did. ¡°I stay. I¡¯ve got nowhere else to go. And if you thought my grandfather bad, you should meet my parents.¡±


    Derran sighed. ¡°They still love you.¡±


    Wrankies smirked. ¡°On some level, they probably do. But¡­ they love some other stuff much more than they care about me. No, I am here. And if I do not make it, it¡¯s okay that I end here.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to. I actually want you to live. And of course, I cannot keep the money. I will forward it to the commission. I think they will be glad of 1.5 million credits to go into their budget.¡±


    "You know, Sergeant, the sad part is how little my family has faith in me, how much they distrust that I cannot make it on my own. But the saddest part of it all is how much I am worth to them¡­One and a half million might seem a lot, but that is less than my father makes on one freighter in a single month. And he''s got fifty of them. I guess that is the value of my life to my family, less than a month of work of one of their freighters¡­"


    ¡°So, what should we do with you then?¡±


    ¡°Just send me back home¡­ I probably deserve it.¡±


    ¡°Stop that!¡± Derran raised his voice for the first time, seeing his eyes nailed to the floor. ¡°Self-pity stinks, and I have no place for it here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±


    ¡°So, raise your head and look me in the eyes as I talk to you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±


    "You listen to me now, boy, you can''t choose your parents¡­ they are who they are. You do not even need to judge them. It''s all futile. You have not walked the road they had to know why they became who they are. Besides¡­ maybe they are the best parents you can ever hope to have. I do not know. Nobody does. And all of that is beside the point anyway. The point is that none of us have control over our families or other people. We cannot choose how they behave, understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±


    ¡°We cannot control them. They are the way they are. Once you accept that, the fight stops, the struggle ends. You just accept them the way they are. However, that does not mean you have to be the same way.


    "No, it doesn''t. Because you have a lot of power residing inside of yourself. So much power, so much power¡­ and all that power permits you to make your own decisions. So, you can pick your own path, choose who you are really going to be. You. Choose. That."


    "You cannot change the past and erase your history. But that is all it is. Just your history. Today, this very moment, and every moment afterward, you have to know that you have the power to decide and shape yourself into a person who you want to be. It''s really all up to you. Do you understand me?"


    ¡°Yes, Sir.¡±


    ¡°So, if you accept what I just told you, and you understand that you can decide who you are now and choose who you want to be in the future, why then get upset over what someone else does?¡±


    ¡°I do not know, Sir. Maybe I am hoping that they would be better.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, maybe that is what it is. And maybe, it is a way that our brain is trying to find an excuse to say, well, I failed because my parents are like this and like that¡­ they didn¡¯t do this and they have not done that¡­ You can fill in this and that with all you want, but that servers nothing to help you¡­ So, to say it in a simple term, no excuses and no blame games. That¡¯s for the weak-minded, for those that decide they want to fail. And you¡­ you are not going to be a quitter and blame your family for it, and you will move on and try to be one of the first emperor¡¯s investigators in the history. Understand?¡±


    ¡°And when you get there¡­ and if you listen to me, you will get there. That I do promise you, I bet my life on it¡­ Then, you will not waste your life opportunity to try and regain their love and approval. You will be your own man. And just as you will accept them as they are, they should accept you. If they can¡¯t, it will be their loss.¡±


    Wrankies continued to intensively stare at him with gleaming eyes, forgetting even to breathe properly, and Derran nodded his head as he continued. ¡°You - You will have enough integrity and knowledge of how money can change and influence people that you will never let it do the same to you¡­ Because you, you are worth so much more than that.¡±

 Seven

    Three months later into the training¡­


    Derran ran to the barrack as he heard an explosion, then painful shrieks and screams of horror, confusion, and chaos.


    "What is going on here?" he yelled, asking for the explanation, seeing many of the candidates piled up in front of his office door. It was the room right next to the entrance he didn''t only use for doing a file work but also to sleep in it even though he had every right for a more comfortable sleeping arrangement in the main building. Keep it close to the troops, you are their leader, not their boss, was the philosophy of his own drill commander, the philosophy he considered adopting on a few occasions.


    "Somebody answer, what is going on?" He asked again and started to move candidates out of his way. They all appeared paralyzed, looked like they took a zombie pill.


    "He is dead..." someone whispered through the silence.


    "Who is dead?" Derran asked loud enough to turn all their heads around. "Let me through, let me see."


    "Make room!" he asked again as the candidates were just not moving out of the way fast enough.


    As the line opened up to his office, he saw the blood-covered floor and body parts splattered in the middle of the room. His closet was blown off and below it, the lower part of the dead body was lying there, the blood still sipping out.


    "Everybody out!¡± he yelled at them, pushing them out of his way "Everyone, except three of you! You three, closest to the body, you do not even move - not even an inch!"


    "It''s Virkle..." Siya, one of the two who stood with their backs to the sergeant, said. She could not stop starring at the blood that ran down the floor, reaching the edge of her shoes.


    "Siya, Fkiss! Yes, two of you! Walk! Slowly! Backward, toward the door. Do not touch anything, okay? And everything is going to be fine. Just get out."


    As two of them started to leave the office, he turned to the other boy. "You know why I left you here, Rich?¡±


    "What the high hell is happening here?" Derran heard behind him two of other commanders rushing in the barrack.


    "Give me a minute, Sill. One of the boys is dead. Give me a minute here.¡± He answered in a single breath, thinking of the best way to proceed.


    "What can we do? Can we help?" asked Virrana, the only female instructor whose barrack was the one next to his.


    "Take the kids out. I will stay here. I first need to talk to Rich, then I will see you all."


    Derran swooped like a praying cat around the room, seeing if anything else was out of place. "So, Rich, you know why I left you here, right?" He repeated the question to the boy who seemed completely lost, whose white-washed face seemed not to have any blood left in it.


    "We, we were just..." he seemed to have lost ability to talk. He tried, he kept opening his mouth, but words would not come out.


    "Wait," Derran said, all cool and relaxed, like it was just a breakfast ritual, "Let me just wipe off that brain and guts from your face, and then, then you can tell me exactly what happened."


    "We..." Tears rolled down his face, leaving the trail of the cleanest part of his cheek.


    "I know, I know that, but if you do not tell me something after that, I will really slap you really hard...Would you like that?"


    "Looking for the files, looking for the scores...someone said that you were already grading us...we just wanted to see." Derran could hardly make sense of half pronounced words he started to utter.


    "And you thought that I would keep your scorecards in the locker?"


    Rich¡¯s tears didn''t stop coming down.


    "Now, this is very important, and I would like for you to think hard about it before you say ''I don''t know''. I want you to take a deep breath. Yes, that is good. Now exhale it, let it go, let it all go. Now do it again. Breath! That¡¯s better. Now, remember what I said. I do not want to hear you say ¡°I don¡¯t know¡¯. I want you to tell me who told you such a thing, about you being graded right now, and about me having the grades in here?¡±


    "Mirinlo... Mirinlo did. It was his idea," he said at once. Derran sighed, put a hand on his shoulder and helped the boy out of the horror room. He instructed Siya to take him to an infirmary and went to talk to Mirinlo.


    He was ready to bring him in and make him clean the mess as he talked to him about what was said and done. But the boy locked himself in the bathroom, and even after it took an hour to get him out, Derran could see that he was still locked in.


    There is so much you can do to push some¡­ He thought as he looked at his uncommunicative and not responding face. These kids, most of they were raised to have everything. They were taken cared of to the point of never having to feel pain, any pain. And now, they are exposed to the cruelest of life endings¡­ All this might be too sudden for them, too much.


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    So, in the end, he just took the boy by the hand and led him to the infirmary. In less than four hours, he, together with Mirinlo were flown out.


    Less than an hour later, Derran from one level of anger to another.


    "Are we to think you had nothing to do with this?" he stood in front of the huge screen where three members of the commission he didn¡¯t know stared back at him. Their question was pissing him off, and he didn¡¯t mind showing it on his face.


    "Maybe one of your bombs left from the war kept in the closet, maybe one of them exploded..." One on the left insinuated.


    "I am sorry, I do not know your name?" Derran asked politely.


    "My name is Sulivaro, Senator Sulivaro..."


    "Senator, no, I didn''t have any bombs in my room closet. Obviously, someone placed it there. I carry no weapons with me, and none, not even a knife, was placed by me inside any of the space of that room. Do you understand that? Did I make that clear? It could have not been me!" he answered with a hefty dose of anger and impatience.


    Three people on the commission looked at each other.


    "Was your door knocked?"


    "No, it was not. It didn''t come with a key, but I put in a little sensor so I would know if someone was sneaking in."


    "What does that sensor say?"


    "I didn''t have time to look at it yet, but none has been going to my room since the program started."


    "How about the closet, does it have a lock?"


    "I do not believe it does, but even if it did, you understand, most likely I would not lock it unless I was to keep some records in there, records that I would want to hide from others. Since I don''t, and whatever filing I do, I send in right away, I had nothing to hide there...You understand that locking stuff away sends a bad message to the others. It says you do not trust them, that you are not part of the same team.


    "There are only two things that this could have happened. Either Virkle was trying to place a bomb he didn''t know how to manage inside my closet, or else someone had placed it there before him, and he has died.¡±


    "Which one do you think that is?"


    "I would like to know which one I would like it to be...I certainly would hate to think that one of my own would want to kill me...even though that would mean I have a big problem since then someone else has tried to kill me, someone I do not know. Like they say the old book says, a known threat is always better than an unknown one.


    Hours later, when he finally made it back to the barrack, he saw them all grouped together around a few bunks, worried and quiet. The blood and the remains of Virkle in his office had been removed by the cleaning crew and now his office looked like nothing ever happened in it at all.


    "I just came from talking to the commission. You have a right to know that it seems someone was targeting me¡­ All the evidence is pointing that way. Virkle was certainly not the target.¡±


    He walked to stand among them, and they all quietly circled around. "I offered my resignation on the account that I may indirectly endanger all of your lives as I did to Virkle, but¡­the commission turned that down.


    "What I can offer you is that currently there are still twenty more assigned drill sergeants here. If any of you want to, you can be transferred to one of them, so you can complete your training with them. You are given an option to do that. And it would be wise to think about it."


    ¡°Sir?¡± Siya interrupted him.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Do you have any idea who could have done this?¡±


    "I do know it cannot be any of you¡­ I know you well enough by now." His eyes went over their faces as he spoke. "Besides, I have not even trained you into the use of explosives yet. So, unless one of you had a sideline hobby I did not know about creating a homemade explosive device, you are all in the clear. But¡­ I really do not think any of you could do it. But¡­"


    ¡°Yes, Sir?¡±


    "You have to understand, there were billions of people who lost their lives in the last war. Wounds are still too fresh to heal. Those that were killed¡­ they all had family and friends. The hatred toward the imperial army burns hot and is powerful enough to cloud the rationality of many who suffered. You have to understand. I''ve been there. Those people¡­ the things we did to them, the suffering they all experienced¡­ It is incalculable. It would not be surprising that one of them decided to ease their pain by killing me. As you all know the army decided to create and market me as one of the symbols of their victory. Why they did that, especially since they perfectly know I was just one of the soldiers, nothing more?" Derran shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe the same reason as to why they fought the war the way they did¡­ because they are that stupid and ignorant. So, they made a mark out of me. I know that. I knew that as soon as I saw the first video bit hit communication lines. And that is probably what this is all about. You deserve to be fully aware of that. So¡­¡±


    ¡°But who could have known you were here? Isn¡¯t it supposed to be all secretive?¡± Siya was not ready to quit, was trying to add it all up, find the answer.


    "Of course. But, I cannot talk to you about that now. Actually, the commission has ordered me not to look into this matter. They promised to do that, although I trust them not more than I trust my generals. Still, it is not my job. My job is to prepare you, the best I can, so you can pass your initial testing by the end of your first year. Maybe when you become all-powerful investigators, you can look into this¡­ I understand you will be able to do just that sort of thing. Until then, my hands are really tied¡­"


    He could see them starting slowly to relax, the information he gave them slow to process, but still relieving their doubts and fears. They seemed to relax so much and the chatting slowly increased that Derran decided to speak up again. ¡°Please consider what I have told you. I will not bare any ill feelings if you decide to move to another barrack and have a new instructor.¡±


    The next day, or the day after that, to Derran¡¯s sobering surprise, the commission received zero transfer requests.

 Eight

    "Good morning, soldiers! At ease¡­ I have good news and bad news¡­" Derran with a harsh voice and murky face greeted the candidates one morning. "Good news is that now there are only forty-five of you left in the program and that during the last ten months of training, you almost learned how to be a real ground-based trooper. You passed through most of the elements of the basic training. And many of you have been asking yourself questions of why do you really need to learn how to use every available weapon, why you have to learn the hand combat. Well, because you just do not know when you will need it. And that is exactly what is going on to happen next. That is bad news¡­We are going into combat, real combat."


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°What combat?¡±


    ¡°Who are we going to fight?¡±


    ¡°Where?¡±


    ¡°When?¡±


    Hundreds of questions started to come from all sides as candidates jumped up with each eager to know more.


    Derran raised his hands, quieting them all down. "You are going to experience real combat. We have information that the peace treaty that has been signed almost two years ago has not been, as you probably know, signed with all the houses on the Planet of Vazz¡­There is a small region where rebels, are still known to cause trouble, well, don''t know if I can call them rebels, they are labeled by the army as rather thieves, renegades. We are to go in there and patrol one of the airways that have been seeing some engagement from this bandit group. And when I say ¡®bandit'' I hope that''s all they are, and not, what I am more afraid of, some heroic ready-to-die-for-a-cause fanatics."


    Everyone instantly became very quiet.


    "Our mission is to secure this road and engage anyone who is raiding transporters there. And let me tell you, they are raiding transporters. People are dying. It would be a folly to think that this is not going to be a star-gazing picnic. The army has already lost about a hundred troops during the last year to combat in the area. Let''s hope you do not become an incremental part of that statistic.


    "It is only fair of me to warn you what you will be facing¡­Regardless of how the army markets these guys, these are probably veteran soldiers, snipers, people who lost dear ones in the war and hate you enough to put a laser knife between your eyes just for wearing that uniform.


    "On a bright side, they seem to have rather limited use of droids since the army got mostly rid of all of them¡­Probably a few neuron slicers, but plenty of explosives and booby traps. And you saw what a bomb can do to a person right here, so¡­"


    He could see fear starting to creep across many of their faces. Their eyes got wide, many held their breaths. He could not blame them. Actually, he admired it. Maybe he taught them something after all.


    ¡°Much better to know fear now than all that crap about being holly imperial warriors that nothing can touch, spaceshit I was fed by my drill sergeant. How much did those lies help us? All that ego-boosting got us as far as the first droid, the first shot that grinded our inferior armor like it was made of clay, not metal... stupid fucks." The memories came back, but he should not burden them with those, and he pulled himself together.


    ¡°Well, the mission is to last four weeks, and with the end of that mission, it is my understanding that this part of your training will be over. I can guarantee you that you will use some of the skills that I tried to drill into you during the last year, as well as guarantee you that when we get into combat, many or some of you will not make out of it alive."


    "Now, a good point is that you do not need to do this¡­You have not signed up for the army. Consult with your families, consult with yourself¡­you have about a day to think this through, think if you want to sign this release form if you want to continue with this program¡­ In case you decide to continue, sign it, and slide it under my door. You understand the risks now. You understand that there is no pressure for you to sign. You decide what you want. I will not think of you any less if you do not sign, and leave¡­


    ¡°For those that have lost their brain capacity and still desire to continue¡­we are shipping out to the Space Elevator and then to Vazz in exactly¡­ twenty hours.¡±


    For a few hours, not a single paper was slithered into his office. He decided to take a few hours off and decided to spend a day in the Space Elevator bars.


    Just an hour before the deadline, he went back to the barracks and his office and counted a pile of thirty-five release forms.


    ¡°You know, many of these kids are from very prominent families. They have enough money that they could live forever. Yet, they¡¯ve decided to risk it all.¡± Derran told Virrana, the other drill instructor.


    ¡°You have to respect that.¡±


    ¡°Tell me that if we come back alive,¡± Derran answered sourly.


    ***


    Two weeks into their assignment, all the warnings that Derran gave them seemed over-exaggerated. They were positioned about a mile away from the mining operation in a small transport station which connected the rail from the mines to the planetary main railing line.


    Their objective was to secure the station as well as that part of the rail system. For all thirty-seven of them, it became even somewhat of a boring duty consisting mostly of observing monitors and patrolling the parameters of the station without even the slightest of an incident taking place, not even a single laser shot, not even a single sight or sound of the rebels.


    The regular army would drop in on them from time to time, usually in the evening hours, bringing them food and checking if their security equipment was working properly. Freight trains would come in and go, but they, just as other transportation that passed through the station, would not stop in and would zip through faster than the speed of sound. So mostly, they were completely left to themselves.


    They learned really soon that the food they were served in their training camp, the same food they used to complain so much about, was at least three classes better than what they were given at the station.


    "Well, these are your regular combat food packs. What did you expect?" Derran told them with half a smirk seeing most of their faces covered in complete disgust as they tried to eat their rations. He chuckled and expected most of them to lose at least five percent of their body weight by the time moth was over.


    Even though most of the candidates seemed bored and start to relax, to Derran, it all seemed too deceptively peaceful. He didn¡¯t like the looks of the regular troops. He didn¡¯t like how spooked and nervous they sometimes came across. He was on alert, counting days until their task was over, blessing each day which ended in kids being progressively more bored.


    So when Fober ran hysterically inside the station on the morning twenty days into their training, screaming, "They took them!" Derran jumped from his seat and was on top of him before he could utter another sound.


    "Who took whom and where?" he asked, trying to stay calm.


    "Some armed men...¡±


    ¡°Were they the army? What armor did they wear?¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so. Their fatigues were dark green, some gray, all mixed up, different.¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡± Derran spoke as he swiftly pushed the kid toward the door.


    "I saw three armed men sneak up to the patrol, just outside the gate, I think Fkiss, Bardon, and Siya were in it. They came from behind them, disarmed them, then pushed them inside the woods. I saw an old air transporter land there, and it took off really fast¡­ I saw it all from the distance...But it was all done before I could fire..."


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you communicate it all in? You have your communicator implant on, right?¡±


    ¡°I did, but¡­¡± They turned their heads and looked up toward the control center which had an empty two seats. Sari and Vatiz which were supposed to be occupying them just walked in the room, giggling faces suddenly being instantly frozen as they met Derran¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯ll deal with two of you later,¡± Derran said with enough anger to permanently scare the giggles of their faces.


    "Which way did they go?" Derran grabbed a few things off his desk and pushed the boy outside. He pointed his finger to the part of the sky where nothing could be seen, other than trees and menacing grey clouds coming their way.


    "Listen to me now, okay? Call all the units in and barricade yourself inside. Nobody leaves! Then call in the army station and tell them what happened. And, do not shoot at anyone unless you know who it is. Understand?"


    "Yes, Sir!"


    Derran jumped on a jetter, floored the power pedal, and took the air scooter high in the air. He could not see anything in the distance, but his scanner locked in on the implants which kids were injected with. It detected them already ten miles out.


    He wasted only a moment to scan the area of human thermal signatures, fearing a possible ambush. But if there were snipers hiding someplace, they must have had a good insulation shields as no traces of body heat could be detected.


    So, with the reckless determination, he let the jetter loose in the direction of the old air transporter. They headed north, away from the major army station and toward the thick forests which covered most of the wilderness there.


    They didn''t chop their legs off to get trackers out. Kids don''t even know they have those implants, so they would not know to reveal them. Good that we never told them.  He thought hopefully as the cold air needled his eyes. But what if they have tracker busters? They may be expensive now, but still¡­ Maybe they rushed out so fast because they don¡¯t have those? Hopefully, those signals are of them and not of their body parts.


    The rocket purred quietly underneath him, and he counted the distance slowly closing in. In a few minutes, he cut it in half.


    If there were no shots fired, maybe they are still alive. Fober didn''t say anything about them jumping on them, hurting them, with knives ... So, it was not an assault on the station. More likely they wanted them alive, more likely they were kidnapped...Let¡¯s just hope that¡¯s all it is. He tried to make sense of what happened, keeping his almost closed eyes on the tracker, not letting the power pedal lift of the floor.


    When he noticed the distance to be less than two miles, he brought the jetter down, closer to the treetops as much as possible, slightly slowing down.


    It took him another ten minutes to see the air transporter as a dot in the air. He knew he could catch up with it, but then what? He could not stage the boarding of the flying transporter all by himself. So, he decided to keep his distance hoping he will not be detected.


    Steep mountains, covered with icy peaks, soon appeared in his vision and the dot disappeared behind their stiff cliffs. The snow started to fall down announcing the coming blizzard and an eye-visibility swiftly became a matter of the past. He could hardly keep his eyes open, ice needles gnawing at his face.


    Luckily, his tracker was pointing out that the transporter seemed to have entered the forest, and landed somewhere close to the body of water, probably some small lake.


    He came to the spot soon enough, raised his scooter high over the place, but there seemed nothing there. He could see nothing, and their tracking beam had suddenly died.


    They must be there, he thought as he carefully landed the air-scoter right next to the ice-covered lake. He looked again at his thermal scanner and a very weak and diminishing signal moving deeper into the forest. He pointed his rifle forward and decided to follow on foot.


    He wasted no time hiding among the trees but ran toward it. He only stopped when he stumbled on footprints in the ankle-deep white blanket. The snow started to come down hard, and the footprints were slowly being filled up.


    Following those prints, he pushed through the falling whiteness and soon noticed a heavily-camouflaged cottage less than twenty yards away. Next to it, two of the kidnappers, with their backs to him, were pulling a mask over the twenty-foot transporter.


    He instantly ducked himself in the snow. If I didn¡¯t come here right now, in ten minutes, who knows if I could ever find this place? They obviously knew about the coming storm. Smart planning on their part. But they rushed it. Fools. Ten minutes later and my scanner would pick nothing.


    He considered his options. If he goes further into the clearance, toward them, he knew they would notice him right away. Sure, he could drop those two without much problem, but what would happen to the kids? They seemed to have taken them to the cabin.


    He decided to circle around and approached the cottage from the back.


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    The place was obviously not a military installation, but rather just a rude place where shepherds could keep their sheep and hide away from a snowstorm like the one he was in.


    As soon as his back was against the cottage rough wooden wall, he scanned its entire interior. There were eight heat signatures. Five next to the fireplace with three of them lying down.


    Those must be kids, he thought. The others were constantly moving around the first floor.


    What do I do with those two camouflaging the transporter?  His thoughts went to the laser knife in his boot, but he felt his muscles all tensed out, his fingers half frozen. You would be lucky to get a jump on one of them before the other fires a shot. There has to be a better way¡­ But if they are covering the transporter, that means they may be staying here for a while, no?


    He decided not to rush too much, but to take on the elevated position by climbing to the second floor, breaking in through the window as his laser knife soundlessly opened it up.


    The room he entered had four bunk beds, covered by thick, wool blankets. They were all empty. He crawled to the door, fearing his steps would creak him away. He put his ear to the door leading out of the room.


    "¡­we just wait here for an hour. Slicer will be here with his transporter and then we can get the hell out of this planet. We wait¡­We are early anyway. So just stay calm." The voice was deep, overpowering, and he thought of nothing he''d rather do than to put a blaster to the man''s vocal cords.


    Instead, he forced himself to check his scanner again. Two men were still outside. Kids'' tracker implants seemed to be neutralized as they worked no more.


    They found them. Took their time. Not all that smart after all.


    He thought about opening the door but he feared it would make too much noise.


    There is no good way to do this...only one way...In an hour, it might be too late. With more people around, what are my chances? And there is no guarantee that the army will be able to find this place, no guarantee that if they do, they will manage it without the shooting, without killing the kids in the crossfire? No, I am all those kids have¡­I am the best they have.


    He took a deep breath, then another.


    Do I go slow or fast? For a second he panted for air, but then steadied his mind. Nice and slow, don¡¯t be stupid¡­ nice and slow.


    He waited to hear the sound of the voice occupy the air and went slow and opened the door as quietly he could. The voice got quiet and below everyone turned around and looked up, and whoever didn''t have a gun in his or her hands, reached for it.


    He kneeled down and pressed himself against the wooden beam which, at best, could only protect half of his side, and only against the firepower of low intensity


    In the space below, he could only spot three kidnappers, their guns already zoomed in on him. From the corner of his eyes, he knew they were powerful enough not just to blow away the wooden beam but to blow a hole in the cottage roof, after passing right through him.


    But his rifle was already pointed toward the man standing in front of the kids, the one he thought he heard talking, the one he thought was their leader.


    "You move! And I''ll blow your head off!" Derran''s eerie yell froze the air. "You do not move an inch!" He commanded again to the man whose helmet still covered most of his face, whose hands were raised halfway in the air, indicating to everyone to be still.


    ¡°They can shoot you before you pull the trigger¡­¡± Yes, that was the voice he heard, that was the leader.


    "You better tell everyone to relax. I''ll start to waste all of you before they drill a hole in my shield." He lied about the shield.


    ¡°You have no shield.¡±


    ¡°You calling me a liar? Who do you think I am? I also didn¡¯t have a scanner to track your ass down, right? How did you ever think you can get away with this? You must be the stupidest assholes I ever met. I do not have a shield¡­?  Well, if that¡¯s what you think¡­one way to find, no?¡±


    ¡°Well, it does not even matter. We have enough power to break through any shield.¡±


    "Sure, sure you do¡­They certainly can try." Derran squeezed the trigger halfway. "But I''ve already pulled the trigger, and if I let it go, live or die, my shot will find you."


    He could hear other guns being re-checked again, saw how three of the kidnappers started slowly to spread around, still locking their guns on him.


    The man would not answer, his hands still folded in the air.


    ¡°The real question you have to ask yourself is if one of your men does not fancy you very much, if one of them has a problem with you, if one of them would not mind seeing you dead¡­¡±


    ¡°You do not need to worry about my men- ¡°


    ¡°I am not the one that is or should be worried. But you, you should. The way they move from one leg to another, waging the situation, thinking¡­ calculating. Because you and they all know, if they start shooting, you know who will die first.¡±


    "Everyone, just take it easy!" the man was urging.


    "We all will probably die," Derran continued "since I have so much explosive strapped on me that after I blow up, I''ll make a crater in here large enough to look like a space missile hit you." As he spoke, he unbuttoned with his free hand part of his jacket revealing a hand grenade there. A single grenade could not do so much damage, but they didn''t need to know he had only one.


    As the men below started to process his words, Derran considered the threat of the two men outside, and how easy it would be for them to get through the window and flank him from behind.


    "Wait, wait...I am sure we can work something out...Nobody needs to die today."


    ¡°That really depends if you want to listen or shoot¡­¡±


    ¡°So, what do we do?¡± The man asked.


    "You need to let those kids go!" Derran threw a half a glance at them. They were tied with ropes, but none of them seemed bleeding or hurt for that matter. "The only reason you are still alive is because they are still alive."


    ¡°Just take it easy. Nobody needs to die today.¡±


    "I bet that is the smartest thing you said in your whole life... Take your helmet off. I want to see you."


    With one hand, the man slowly took the thing off his head.


    His face was thin, sunken with penetrating sparks of the eyes, permanently fixed on Derran and his every twitch. A man way too young to be standing there in charge, yet his face lines so deep.


    ¡°So much pain, so much suffering, for what?¡± Derran muttered quietly to himself before pulling himself together and announcing in a firmer voice. ¡°I can¡¯t let these kids die here¡­ But if they do, I do not plan to write home about it.¡±


    Their leader suddenly chuckled. ¡°Just tell me, since when does the empire send kids to do man¡¯s job?¡±


    ¡°Since when do brave men of Vazz kidnap kids?¡±


    ¡°Well, you will be glad to know I am not from Vazz.¡± He saw the leader cast a quick and nervous look toward the back. A brunet was there standing behind the kids, her hands on a neuron gun pointed at them.


    ¡°It seems I am pointing the gun at the wrong person,¡± Derran said and shifted the gun to the woman who stood behind the kids, pressing the release button with his pinky and re-locking his shot on her.


    ¡°Maybe you don¡¯t mind dying, but can you live with those dearest to you to die for you? What a bastard would that make you?¡±


    "And you, what kind of bastard are you? You rather have these kids die than be safely taken away?"


    A ransom, that¡¯s all this is about¡­ they want them alive¡­


    "Hell, if they are so stupid to be caught, I should probably shoot them myself. What I won''t do, as I said earlier, is to write home about it. They go nowhere! I am ready! Lived too long as it is!"


    The man''s hands were instantly raised a bit higher, his posture became even tenser. But his voice was still cool. "Just relax, soldier. I''ve already told you that nobody needs to die tonight. Okay? Everyone, just relax. I am sure we can work something smart out. By the way you, you sound familiar, have we met before?"


    ¡°No, I am quite sure we have not¡­look fella'', I feel bad for you, but you better tell your folks to put down the guns. I will drop your lady there, then you. You know you cannot stop that from happening.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and your kids and you will be next. You know you can¡¯t prevent that. Look, you sound like an honest guy, fighting this hard for these kids here, risking your life for them. That is¡­profound. Especially since I know who they are, and I know what they are worth. I am sure we can work something out.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean you know who they are?¡±


    ¡°Kids from rich families, kids from major Houses of the empire¡­We know all, all right?¡±


    Derran knew that Siya and Bardon were not from rich families, and the House Fkiss belonged to was nowhere rich enough to pay a hefty ransom. Everybody knew that. That information didn¡¯t come from the kids. Somebody else talked, maybe someone even in the army.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you have your facts straight, you got the wrong kids. But besides¡­I don¡¯t have any money on me¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but we are sure you can call someone who does.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I can do that¡­ Sure I can. And in ten minutes, while I am stretching negotiations with you and a person who is going to pay, the army special units are going to land here right on top of you. And then you won''t have any options of not anyone dying tonight.


    ¡°Get real! If you really want to live, you better leave now¡­ You still have your lives and plenty of time to get away.¡±


    ¡°Well, I cannot do that. But at least it seems you are an honest guy¡­And I know you do not want to kill anyone either¡­You could have waited for some of us to fall asleep, could have tried to kill us all by nightfall¡­¡±


    If I had my father¡¯s sword, if my rifle had a silent mode, if there was no snow, if¡­ No need to think about that now¡­


    ¡°I know why you didn¡¯t. I know you are a veteran, a soldier who saw too much of the killings, too much of blood being spilled. I know you saw too much of death.¡±


    ¡°Ten of my fifteen boys cut to pieces by your droids ¡­...Most of what remained of them I had to scrap off my face. But you are not taking these ones with you¡­¡± The gun really didn¡¯t even need to be pointed at the woman¡¯s head anymore. If his cramping finger let go of the trigger, her head would be no more. Together with him.


    ¡°Yeah, and twenty thousand of my town¡¯s folks got torched to the ground by your bombs, everyone I knew¡­And now, now we are not allowed to use humanoids to help us survive? Do you know what that means for the planet like this? We are starving here, man! Our children are starving!¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so right from the start? I¡¯ll share half of my dinner plate with you. And I¡¯ll throw in my dessert to sweeten the pot.¡±


    "Gripac?" One of his men, the one that was right underneath Derran, called him, asking for a command to shoot. Obviously his men were getting nervous.


    ¡°Well, nice to meet you Gripac¡­I am Derran, the last man you might ever see.¡± He tried to interrupt the thoughts he saw clearly sliding away from him, dreading what will come next.


    ¡°You know, your voice really sounds very familiar¡­¡± Gripac started in a slow voice, his eyes never leaving Derran¡¯s. ¡°¡­like the voice in that stupid video bit about that butcher of Vazz¡­¡±


    Derran didn''t like where that was going. "Look, if this is really just about the money, then you leave. You leave right now. And let these kids be. And I give you my word that I will drop here in this very cottage or in any other place of your choosing, one million emperor''s credit within the next twenty days."


    ¡°Yeah, I can trust you to do that? Besides these kids are worth much more than that.¡±


    ¡°Of course they are! They are worth more than all the money can buy¡­Worth more than old soldiers like you and I put together. But that is all the money I can get hold off, and that is all the credits you can get¡­So choose, choose now, before someone else does not do it for you.¡±


    Gripac thought for a second, then two. ¡°And you say you will not shoot after us, and you will honor our deal?¡±


    "Yes, you have my word. You have the word of an old soldier. I''ll give you your money...But know this, with that money I am not just buying the lives of those kids lying there...And everyone else in here for that matter. With that money, your fighting days, your raids, your killings...It all stops. With those credits, it is all over. Those are your last credits!"


    The silence lasted with no end. "You see¡­¡± Gripac suddenly interrupted it. ¡°Nobody has to die tonight, Derran.¡± The man even smiled at him.


    "I sure hope so," Derran said hearing the noise to his back.


    Gripac slowly lowered his hands and waved to the others to do the same.


    ¡°Two of you go and warm up the engines.¡± His instructions followed.


    ¡°Better tell that to the men in the room behind me. I can hear them and they are getting awfully close to fucking the spaceshit out of our deal.¡±


    ¡°Maraz, Wiz! Get out of there! You heard me! Go out and take the cover of the transporter! You come through that door, I swear, I¡¯ll shoot you myself.¡±


    ¡°Okay, boss.¡± The grouching response followed.


    Even as all of them left, and he heard the transporter lifting off, Derran didn¡¯t want to risk going out of the cottage. He gave his spare gun to Fkiss, and they just set down and waited for another hour before the army could track his locator beam to come and rescue them.


    ¡°Why did you do it that way?¡± Siya asked him in the end, as they were being led to an army air transporter.


    ¡°There are a lot of things that you can do only once¡­And if you do not do them right, well¡­you cannot redo them¡­Nobody dies tonight. I like that. It seems as I was putting ideas in my head, he was putting some in mine.¡±


    Two days later, they were pulled back from the planet, and send back to their training camp.


    On their arrival, Derran asked the commission to talk privately with Senator Sulivaro.


    He got a secured private link to him, all the way to the Capital where the senator was located.


    ¡°Senator Sulivaro, this is Derran. I have a favor to ask¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­I saw your report, entirely. I guess I know what this is about.¡±


    ¡°One and a half million credits, I gave you a few months back. You know all the circumstances about it. Of that money, I need one million of it back. You can transfer it to the following account...¡±


    ¡°Sergeant¡­ I¡­ We need to talk, in person, not just about this-¡°


    ¡°We can talk all you want, Senator, but I need this money now. No ifs, no buts, no citing any kind of spaceshit regulations, no nothing.¡±


    Both men stared at each other for a moment.


    ¡°I gave my word,¡± Derran offered an explanation, but his words were still cold and threatening. ¡°And it will take more than a million of those stinky credits for me to even consider breaking them.¡±

 Nine

    In twenty days, Derran used the first free Friday night, to run to Spacetop, the small town next to the Space Port. He chose to enter the first bar he saw, and then was startled right there on the entrance.


    "What are you kids doing here?" Derran asked as he stepped in, seeing Wrankies, Fkiss, and Siya sitting around a cheap table, drinking from a big pitch of golden beer. "Aren''t you too young for that? Plus, you are getting up tomorrow to start the last part of your training, and..." Derran stopped himself, then turned his head around thinking.


    "Oh, well. After everything you''ve been through during the last year, I guess you deserve it." he said as he set down next to them.


    He waived to the waiter asking for a double shot of the locally brewed bourbon.


    ¡°Where have you been, Sergeant? You¡¯ve been gone for a long time.¡± Wrankies, noticing how relaxed Derran became, decided to inquire.


    Derran nailed the shot that just arrived, and asked for another. ¡°You really want to know?¡±


    The tone of Derran¡¯s voice implied there was a lot more to it. But Wrankies failed to register it. ¡°Yes. Of course. Siya was just saying that you probably went back to the planet to honor your deal.¡±


    Derran looked at Siya. She decided not to say anything, noting that something is off.


    ¡°No, she was wrong, and if you betted, she lost.¡±


    They all chuckled at that and the girl admitted that she will pay the next round.


    ¡°Actually I asked a friend of mine to do that in my place.¡± Derran¡¯s voice was too cold. Siya knew it. ¡°I had some other things to do.¡±


    ¡°Come on, tell us, did you go and see your lady? Where did you go?¡± Siya put a hand on Wrankies, trying to tell him not to press for it.


    ¡°I had some unfinished business to do.¡± The second glass of bourbon was on the table, but Derran just stared at it.


    ¡°Yeah, you want to collaborate on that, Sergeant?¡± Fkiss didn¡¯t catch Siya¡¯s look to keep quiet. ¡°Come on, Sergeant, we are war-bodies now¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, if you put it like that, maybe you have a right to know¡­¡±


    Derran down the shot, and then took Fkiss''s half-full glass out of his hand and emptied it as well. He then poured himself a glass of beer and emptied it too.


    ¡°Who says beer does not go down with bourbon?¡±


    They all knew then that the things were off, and nobody dared to chuckle again. ¡°I went to¡­ to see a person that I needed to clear something with¡­a guy that planted that bomb in my closet.¡±


    ¡°You ¨C You found him? You found who it was?¡± Fkiss asked in disbelief.


    "Sure, sure I did. It wasn''t that difficult to do. I mean all that spaceshit I told you about leaving it to the commission, it was all to get you and them off my back. There was really never a chance for me to let that one go. That kid died because of me. Too many people died around me." Wrankies did not even think to encourage him to talk anymore, but words came out nevertheless. "Once I set down and thought about it, I figured out the possibilities, what to look for¡­ I asked some of my old friends in the army intelligence to give me scans of the skies during that period. There were only supply vessels docking on the spaceport during that period. I thought for a while what if someone landed a small space ship directly on the planet... But those vessels are rare and expensive, and didn''t fit the profile of a killer¡­ "


    They looked at him, not fully understanding it. "Such an expensive traveling arrangement would imply that the assassin was very professional, highly-skilled, which we all know, he was not. The explosive he used, my size, positioning, I mean, if I was any shorter, that could only give me one nasty haircut, you know¡­ A dumbass¡­"


    ¡°So, I thought what a dumbass would do. I paid a visit to the captain of the supply ship that came during that time. At first, he didn¡¯t want to collaborate on his recent passenger list, but I kind of persuaded him to change his mind.¡±


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    Derran poured himself another glass. ¡°So, after some persuasion, he told me who paid him five thousand credits to hitch a ride and not be on a passenger list, and then¡­ I went to find that lucky guy.¡±


    ¡°And¡­?¡±


    ¡°And, he was lucky no more.¡± Derran emptied another glass. ¡°I found him in the same shitty space station where the captain left him, whoring and drinking away like there is no tomorrow¡­¡±


    ¡°Was there¡­Was there a tomorrow for him?¡±


    ¡°After killing Virkle, should there be¡­? Besides, do you think that was the last time he would have tried to do something that stupid again? How many would he kill next time?¡±


    Derran finished the last of the beer. "Well, that shit is not good for you anyway," he murmured before continuing. "But, before that had happened, he was very interested in opening up. Strange how much even the smallest of chainsaws can open a man''s mouth."


    ¡°Strange, yeah, yeah, really strange.¡± Fkiss suddenly nervous words seemed stuck on his lips.


    ¡°He was paid a hundred thousand credits¡­Didn¡¯t really know I was worth all that much¡­to do it¡­¡±


    ¡°By whom?¡±


    ¡°Remember the kid that died during the first week of training, when he stepped on a landmine¡­? We never found out was it his detector that didn¡¯t work right or he didn¡¯t pay much attention when I thought you guys how to use them....¡±


    ¡°His father?¡±


    "Yes. For the death of his kid, he decided to go out and contract someone else to die¡­ to kill someone else, life for life, I guess. I think that is how they look at it from Sira VI where they came from or some shit like that."


    ¡°What did you do with him?¡±


    "I actually never had a chance to talk to him¡­ He actually took his own life about two months ago. I guess after he found out I was still kicking and that he hired a killer who killed an innocent boy. Strange. You know in a way, I doubt that the man like him had actually hired a killer. I bet it must have been the boy''s mother, the one that pushed for it¡­ But not much I could do about that. Plus, enough tragedy had already happened. Time might be her best punishment. I sent the file to be processed by the police on Sira VI. But I seriously doubt they will ever get anything done on that account. Maybe it''s better that way."


    Derran sighed and pushed his chin against his own chest. ¡°I did what I thought was right¡­ and to hell with the rest¡­¡±


    "Hey kids..." the man, two heads taller than Fkiss, turned around from standing at the bar and called them. "To all of you." He said and raised the cup with the funny shinning cocktail inside. He seemed already too drunk.


    "Do you know the man you are sitting next to, do you know who he is?" The man continued speaking way too loud for someone who was not drunk.


    "Yes-"


    "I tell you who he is!" The man stopped Siya from answering..."He is the hero of the battle of Vazz! The great hero who saved us all!" the man approached them in unsteady step, ready to fall down any second "Except, I know better. I was there. I know, the real Sergeant Derran. He is no hero! He is a coward! The only reason he because he tried to hide underground."


    "Yes, you are right!" Derran got up and leaned toward him. "That is the truth, everything you said is the truth... Except..." He stood next to the drunken man looking him in the eyes." Except that you were not there. You were not there, chicken face. You could never have been there for you look too stupid to even know how to calculate a droid flight, and I swear, I do not know of anyone so stupid get in the army and live to talk about it."


    ¡°You are the stupid one,¡± the man replied.


    ¡°That is true, that is true as well. And I¡¯m certainly not a hero, and never will be. Don¡¯t want these kids here playing heroes either¡­ don¡¯t you know, man, whose mother is the first to cry?¡±


    ¡°You are just a scum, the murdering scum!¡± the man drunkenly raised his voice.


    ¡°Well, you speak the truth again. I am the scum and I am the murderer, and¡­¡± Derran looked at him with a sudden indifference. ¡°What the fuck should I do with you then?¡±


    All three candidates set there, unable to move, waiting to see who is going to throw the first punch. Two men stared at each other. Then the drunk put his glass down, and suddenly with a very firm, sober step walked out of the bar.


    ¡°Damn, I am losing my edge. I probably should have called him ¡®father of his sister¡¯, tell him¡­ whatever else ¡­ I never thought he would just leave. It could have been a good fight.¡± Derran said as he watched him leave.


    ¡°He was two heads taller than you¡­ could have nailed you to the floor.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Derran said, and only then took his hand out of his jacket pocket. They all glanced at a part of a gun¡¯s handle there. ¡°But since that is not going to happen, I will buy the next round, and then you can drag my sorry-drunk-ass home.¡±

 Ten

    "Your examinations are going to start tomorrow." Derran gathered all of them together in the cantina. Less than four hundred candidates were still left in the program, thirty-seven from his own group. "I am very proud of all of you¡­that is why I want you to go to you barracks, relax tonight and fall asleep early. A big day is waiting for you tomorrow, and I want all of you to have the best possible chances of finishing the program and become the very first group of emperor''s investigators."


    After finishing that short speech, Derran decided to answer the call he received earlier from the council. They wanted to see him in private in the large meeting room in the office building. Surprisingly all eight were there, in person, all dressed ceremonially in their long black robes again, not taking their stares of him.


    It all made Derran feel very uneasy.


    After declining their cup of steaming herbal tea, one of them stood up and started to talk. It was the only woman on the council, the emperor¡¯s mother.


    "We wanted to talk to you before the events of tomorrow are to take place," she started in a very cardinal tone. "Almost a year ago, we selected over two thousand possible candidates to train for the position of a new division of law enforcement. We are very pleased to see that so many of them are still present here today.


    ¡°Even though they are supposed to have their big exam tomorrow, they have actually been tested on and off during their stay with us. That is part of the reason why so few of them still remain with us.¡±


    ¡°That was our plan from the start¡­To create an isolated environment where we could get to know them, where we could teach them as well as constantly monitor them and continuously grade them in the area which we consider important for the duties they are to perform later.¡±


    Derran picked up a cup of tea and set down. He figured, by then, that the meeting might go on for a while.


    ¡°So, the subjects have been undergoing testing ever since they came here. We were particularly interested in the following areas:


    ¡°Number one was intelligence. Most were screened before they came, but they were also repeatedly tested on their basic intelligence and how well they can remember information and interpret that information. They were also tested on how well they can conduct themselves when the unexpected situation arises, how well they can manage situations with no established patterns to guide them through it. We consider that the purest test of intelligence, how well a person can adapt to the changing environment.


    "The second area of interest was naturally physical elements. What kind of endurance they have, can they learn the skills necessary to defend themselves or subdue the threat when it emerges? And how do they manage the power, limitless power, once they acquire it? Does the power intoxicate them, or do they yield it according to the principles of justice and fairness?"


    Derran wanted to say, ''They are still young, learning¡­ Can''t expect them to go from spoiled brats to cold-blooded assassins in a matter of weeks.'' But the sternness in her eyes said that no commenting would be appreciated, so he just let her talk on.


    ¡°But those were just the basic testing. What we wanted to know, is their moral fiber. So we also tested them, as much as we could, on moral integrity, honesty, basic human principles¡­ I do not think I need to explain those very much to you, and why they are so important for the job that we are preparing them for.


    ¡°We kept on scoring them from 1 to 10 with 10 being the top grade, giving them scores as each of the opportunity presented itself. For example, when one subject found out he could order three lunches on his card which was supposed to be programmed to permit only one, how did he react? If their behavior during the selection process didn¡¯t provide enough ground for grading, then we created special situations for them¡­


    ¡°So, in a way, this time they spend during the training wasn¡¯t as much about training them for the final exam as much as it was used to select a few that we thought had enough dedication and integrity to become one of the most promising new members.¡±


    ¡°So, it was all part of a lie?¡± Derran finally interrupted.


    ¡°Yes, you are absolutely right.¡± Senator Sulivaro answered it. ¡°I mean, we wanted to train them. They had classes in ten different subjects so far, and they will continue to receive even more education, ranging from engineering to economical modeling. But we thought that testing them without them knowing they were being tested was the most perfect way to do it all.¡±


    ¡°So tomorrow¡­?¡± Derran still asked.


    ¡°All of them have already passed. Their test scores in the subjects have only orientation value. You do not think that we would trust the future of our empire to an outcome of a single test?¡± The iron lady tried to explain.


    ¡°Yes, they all passed.¡± The senator added. ¡°Otherwise they would not be here¡­but their education has to continue¡­¡±


    ¡°You could see it for yourself on Vazz. They are not ready.¡±


    ¡°Well, a few of them are more prepared than others¡­the age difference also plays a big role here.¡± Derran tried to defend them


    "It''s not about that¡­ They and their families will start to earn compensation from the program as of tomorrow. We know a few of those kids are from very well-off families, but mostly they come from extremely economically-challenged backgrounds, and the reason they are here is because of their financial situations. They will be happy to hear that, we know. Their families can depend on it."


    ¡°That is good¡­At the time when unemployment is so high¡­¡± Derran was saying, ¡°And it is only fair.¡±


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    Everyone nodded their heads, many sipped on their teas, and a short moment of silence Derran used to start adding things up.


    ¡°We have actually called you here to talk to you about something more than that.¡± Senator Sulivaro stood up again, slowly sipping the hot tea, waiting for the tea as well as words to sink in. ¡°Actually, the students were not the only ones being tested here. We also wanted to select people who had experience and see how they would fare¡­ We placed them in authority-filled positions, such of drill sergeants and subject teachers.¡±


    Derran didn¡¯t like where this conversation was suddenly heading, and a frown on his face clearly showed it. He looked at all of them and saw all their eyes on him, waiting for his reaction as he took it all in.


    ¡°Your scores¡­ they are off charts, by any psycho-physical model, by any pre-set testing standard we used.¡±


    "And we used many¡­" one of the other councilmen joined in.


    ¡°You scored off the chart in almost every area¡­Far better than anybody else we tested here and elsewhere,¡± the senator was blunt. ¡°We want you.¡±


    "We were actually hoping to get you even before the program started... You were on top of our list. But we needed to make sure you were the right man for the job, really sure." Derran thought about the assassin he killed only a few weeks ago and was not so sure.


    "You have to understand, with your credentials, history...¡±


    ¡°Your judgment is impeccable-¡±


    ¡°And so is your moral compass-¡±


    ¡°The way you protected those kids-¡°


    ¡°¡­that¡¯s what the empire needs, someone to clean it, but with enough¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­kindness and empathy to protect the weak and innocent¡­¡± Suddenly all of them were talking at the same time, excited voices rising on top of each other.


    ¡°We have nobody that is as good as you, not even close¡­¡±


    "And how could we expect some 20 years old to be able to complete some of the toughest jobs that space can throw at them?"


    "They are good kids, really good kids!" Derran tried to defend them, but he knew he didn''t have to. It was not about the kids. It was about him. Still, his voice stopped them, and he had himself a moment to think about it all. Still, the numbers did not add up correctly.


    "Yes, but they are just kids...Most of them didn¡¯t have to face a serious responsibility in their lives before they came here. They need a guiding hand, they need you." Senator Sulivaro said seeing how hard it was for Derran to start processing it all.


    ¡°Your pay will be off the charts as well. If you want to, you can actually suggest it yourself, and we will consider it¡­ ¡°


    ¡°You would be the first Emperor¡¯s Chief Investigator, with the power to investigate anyone, judge anyone and prosecute them at the same time¡­just like you did with Siritus Faraz, the man who planted that bomb which killed Virkle.¡±


    ¡°You know about that?¡±


    "Sure¡­ we tracked every second of your life as soon as we considered you for this post, long before you even came here."


    Derran was not sure he liked it, but Sulivaro offered a smile and mild words, ¡°You see, you are already a CEE, you just didn¡¯t know it yet.¡±


    It was all very flattering, but the whole realization was very much troubling him.


    "Now, if you need time to think it over-"


    "If I need time to think it over..." Derran interrupted the councilman, "...then this job is definitely not for me."


    The councilmen, hearing his words, exchanged glances, hopeful glances as if they were drafting the top dog for their team. It did not go unnoticed by Derran.


    ¡°So what kind of assignments you want me to do?¡± He asked them after a long minute of silence, testing them.


    ¡°Actually, your assignments will be tough¡­ You know your life will constantly be in danger.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but what would be the first one you would want me to look at?¡± he pushed.


    Senator Sulivaro exhaled a long breath before he continued. "First of all, we want you to find out who was leaking information. The kidnapping of the children on Vazz, that had nothing to do with us. Leaking that you were here working with us¡­ only a few knew about it. Somebody leaked the information that was very restricted."


    ¡°Maybe the Army?¡± Derran asked.


    "No, they didn''t have that information. Also, there was another leak. Some of the children knew there were being tested. That is why they raided your office when the bomb exploded. Nobody, besides nine of us and the emperor himself, knew about this. It is obvious that someone had released the information that we were conducting grading during the training process...¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know about this, and I am pretty sure no instructor did... If they did know, I would have known as well.¡±


    "Yes, we know that... Nobody was supposed to know. It was supposed to stay a secret. Clearly, it did not."


    "Yes, that will be your first mission, see which one of us messed things up, find out which one of us broke the code."


    "The real question here is¡­" Senator Sulivaro walked over to him, and stood face to face next to him, putting his hand on his shoulder, "whether you are ready to stop being a soldier and become something more than that. Are you prepared to become an CEE who will have the power to prevent future wars, who will permit that the empire never needs another soldier to begin with? Are you ready to do that, and do that right because, you as I both know that the job will probably cost you your life, sooner or later."


    Derran took his eyes off the senator''s and looked through the window. He was certain that the gunshot he could barely hear came from somewhere from outside. Then another one, and another one¡­


    He let senator¡¯s words hang in the air as he moved toward the window, his eyes racing toward the barracks nested by the edge of the forest, racing just in time to see the far-out guard tower being blown to pieces in a large fireball explosion.


    The ground shook. People¡¯s screams could already be heard.


    ¡°Is that part of your testing as well?¡± He asked Sulivaro, but as he saw the confusion and fear wash over his face, he knew the answer before Sulivaro shook his head in denial.