*
“I have reviewed the plans for the next wave of starship decommissions,” Seth said, leaning forward closer to the microphone. “And I can confirm that they will only minimally disrupt the next month of relocation. Most of the trade routes affected by these decommissions are redundant or unnecessary at this time, such as the path between Virgiad and Yuan.”
This was his fifth televised bulletin to the people of the Republic. He didn’t even care what he was saying anymore. This time, he asked Absalom to write his bulletin for him. Absalom refused. He wanted everything to be in Seth’s words. And he didn’t want Seth to lie. How ridiculous was that? He still didn’t know that this was all an act.
But it was almost over. He’d gone over most of the events of the last week in dull, monotonous detail. Seth endorsed every single action of the Republic in a laundry list that would have bored even the most fervent patriot. He wondered if his lack of enthusiasm would play to any other potential freedom fighter out in the Republic listening to him. He doubted it.
“And finally, I looked over the surviving design documents for the Compressed Envelope Map. The plans still exist, and Republic scientists are hard at work modifying them to try and build a safer engine.” He took a breath, glad to be finished with yet another set of lies. “That is all. Thank you.”
Normally, the group of reporters would file out of the room immediately. They didn’t really care much about Seth, only the reports from inside Commissar Absalom’s team. This time, however, was different. This time they exploded into a flurry of questions. They were so fast and so loud that Seth could barely understand any of it.
Seth wanted to just walk away, get all of this over with, but he knew that he should keep up appearances. He held up his hand. “One at a time,” he said, then pointed at one of the reporters near the front, an older woman in a long yellow coat.
“Tell us a little about the attack outside the Mid-Canada zone. What happened?”
“I can’t talk about that,” Seth replied. Like everything else he told the reporters, it wasn’t true. He just didn’t want to talk about it. “Commissar Phaer Absalom filed a report about the incident. The Republic military made that report public two days ago. Everything I can say is listed in that report.”
Another woman stepped to the front of the group and held up a small recording device. “It seems to me like the Republic army could use someone like you. Any thoughts about enlisting when all of this is over?”
Seth couldn’t believe that anyone would ever ask him that question. It was like the reporter walked up to him and slapped him in the face. And there was nothing he could do to defend himself. “I have no particular plans about my future at this time,” he replied.
“How about politics?”
That was all he could take. “I’m done,” Seth said, turned around, and headed backstage before they could ask any more questions. He knew that Absalom wouldn’t like it. Seth was supposed to be friendly and welcoming in his bulletins. But he couldn’t stand there and listen to their idiotic suggestions. He wasn’t going to let them make him the face of the Spatial Preservation Act.
Seth could hear the reporters clamoring behind him as he pushed through the door out of the briefing room and into the hall of the military base. He leaned up against the wall and took a deep breath. His hand reached up to his forehead and he realized he was sweating profusely.
What was going on? Was this what happened to everyone who served the Republic? Did they all start out with good intentions? Maybe they didn’t want to become part of the stifling bureaucracy. Maybe they wanted to bring it down, too. But it was too strong. It was turning an enemy like Seth into a hero, and there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening. Either he had to go along with it or give up on everything he’d worked for.
A group of Republic soldiers turned the corner into the hall and approached Seth. He tried to stand up straight, to look like nothing was bothering him. He wanted to fit in. That was bad enough, and it made him feel awful.
“Hey!” One of them exclaimed. “You’re that guy who’s always hanging around with the commissar! Good work on that rebel scum. Wish I could have been there.” The soldier made a few stabbing motions with his hand and smiled.
Seth pointed at him. “We could have used you there,” he said. Even though it made him sick, he couldn’t stop himself. He had to maintain the act.
“Next time!” The soldier shouted as he walked away. “Next time.”
That was it. Seth couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed himself away from the wall and stormed down the hall towards his room. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have all of the Heilmann Drive plans yet. He had to do something to get the ball rolling. Enough of the design documents were in his possession that he could begin notifying scientists on other worlds of his intentions.
With every round of decommissions, interplanetary communications would take longer to reach their recipients. Even a simple text message still needed to be loaded onto a starship, then broadcast to the destination planet after the leap. With fewer ships, there were fewer ways to communicate. Seth had to start now, even if he wasn’t quite ready yet.
As he walked to his room, he started to think of a code he could use. He would need to be able to send a letter that seemed completely innocuous to anyone who might read it, but would be sufficient to inform an offworld scientist of his plan. Any code would have to be tailored to the particular recipient planet. And it would have to be hard to crack, just in case anyone from the Republic tried. That was fine. Seth didn’t want to work with a scientist who couldn’t crack an encrypted letter.
Already, Seth started to feel better. This was what he was born to do. He was sick of bulletins and ceremonies and inspections. Even worse, since the incident outside of the Mid-Canada Zone, he’d felt lost. Between the soldiers calling him a hero and the doctors asking about how he “felt” about the attack, between the debriefings and the psychological tests, he thought he would never regain his balance.
Now it was all coming together. With his mind puzzling over codes and cyphers, he was at ease again. As he approached his room, he was sure that everything would work out in the end. The act he was putting on for the Republic would not consume him. It would save him.
Seth pressed the small button near the door and it slid open. He stopped in the doorway. It was dark inside. He was sure he’d left the light on. Cautiously, he stepped into the room. Before he could even react, he felt a sharp pain in the small of his back.
It was a knee. Someone was waiting for him. Someone got the drop on him.
Seth flailed back and hit the light switch near the door. The ceiling panels blinked to life, illuminating the room. The first thing Seth noticed, before he could even get his bearings, was that nothing was out of place. His desk was in one piece. Whoever was attacking him didn’t search the room and, most importantly, didn’t find the copied plans.
That would all be moot if Seth couldn’t fight him off. He spun around to face the intruder but only saw a glimpse of him as he dodged to the side. The man appeared to be dressed in a Republic military uniform. But if he hadn’t found the plans, why would someone from the Republic attack him? More importantly, why was he acting on his own?
“Who are you?” Seth asked.
The man didn’t respond, at least not at first. He grabbed Seth’s arm and pulled him towards the wall. Unlike the attackers outside of the Mid-Canada Zone, it was too late to try and surprise him. He was much larger than Seth and there was really nothing Seth could do but hope.
“Be very quiet,” the man growled, then flung Seth against the wall. He pinned Seth’s body to the bulkhead and stared into his eyes. Up close, the strange man didn’t look like a Republic soldier. His skin was dark and weathered, like he’d lived a rough life on a world with a particularly hot sun. The uniform was a few years o
ut of date. It wasn’t something most people would notice. Seth wasn’t most people. This man didn’t work for the Republic. He’d disguised himself to get into the base. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Seth could feel a dull pain up his arm and in his back, so he wanted to disagree with the man. He didn’t have the opportunity. The attacker placed his hand on Seth’s mouth so he couldn’t speak.
“We know what you’re doing and we sympathize,” he said. “But there’s something you have to know: those aren’t the real plans for the Heilmann Drive.”
Suddenly, Seth’s immediate situation was the last thing on his mind. He never even considered that the Republic might show him fake plans, knowing he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. He figured they would let him see the real ones because there wouldn’t be any harm. After all, they didn’t know he had a photographic memory.
“Last week in your bulletin you said that you saw the design documents for the combustion module,” the man continued. “Those plans don’t exist any more. They were destroyed in a freighter accident fifteen years ago. Everyone has just been repairing the current combustion modules since. How do I know? I was on that freighter when it happened.”
Of course. They were showing him fake plans because the real ones were gone. It made perfect sense. But it was also horrifying. Every week, he saw Heilmann Drives pulled apart and destroyed. If the plans were gone and they destroyed every single combustion module... They might never be able to build a starship again.
“What do I do?” Seth tried to say, but it just came out as muffled sound.
Suddenly, the room lit up with a brilliant, flashing red light. A shrill klaxon cut through the air. “They know I’m here,” the man replied. He let go of Seth’s mouth and backed away. “We need you right now. Take this. You know what to do.”
The man in the outdated Republic uniform handed him a small bottle. Then he ran from the room before Seth could ask him anything else.
Seth stumbled back and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall. He ignored the alarm that continued to scream in the air. It didn’t matter. It was just white noise compared to the sudden wave of dead he felt consume him.
He couldn’t believe he’d been duped. All along, he thought he’d been playing Absalom. It was really the other way around. Maybe they even knew about the copies and they didn’t care. They were getting his endorsement every week. And he was getting nothing.
The alarm stopped ringing a few minutes later. Maybe they caught the strange man. Maybe he escaped. It didn’t really matter anymore.
Seth looked at the bottle in his hands and unscrewed the top. Inside, there was a single brown gelatin capsule. He held it up to the light. Inside, he could see tiny circuits running from one end to the other. It was a gnostin. A pill full of dreams.
Someone had a message for him.
6.
The outrage over the Spatial Preservation Act was not limited to Earth, or even the three planets under Republic control. Riots and protests broke out everywhere, especially at ports and docks where seats on departing starships grew rarer and more expensive.
Not all of the resistance was underground. Several worlds were unprepared for isolation from the rest of the galaxy. They did not have infrastructure in place to be self-sufficient. Interplanetary corporations depended on the trade routes for their very existence. Their shareholders would be bankrupted by the Fall. These planets and companies organized opposition around the galaxy, and attempted to pressure the Republic into altering its plans.
There were reports that a few groups attempted to seize departing starships to prevent the Republic from closing the trading routes. This led the Republic to station military officers and troops on all the ships in the galaxy. The soldiers meant less room for people wishing to relocate one last time before the Fall.
Resentment increased across the galaxy, but there was nothing anyone could do to force the hand of the Republic. They controlled the starships, they controlled the trade routes, and they decided that it all had to end.