Sevi stayed behind on the ship while the others went in search of whatever information they could gather about First Captain Nuren’s plans. She prayed to the Center alot, asking for the safety of her friends as they traversed the planet that was hostile toward their guide Kal. She also monitored the vital signs of her friends as recorded by their spacesuits, and screened incoming messages trickling through the IP universal messaging system for any communication from the Banned Regions. The ship was cloaked, so she felt safe in her position, and she would leave the ship sparingly for fresh air and to explore the nearby rocky formations at the edge of the immense rainforest.
It was Whadgaf’s idea to leave her with the ship and Sevi familiarized herself with the controls just in case she was called on for a rescue mission. Sevi didn’t mind being alone. When she wasn’t busying herself with the current mission, she reviewed updates to the medical information repository for recent developments with various patients at Universal Infirmary Branches across the universe.
The daylight and twilight periods on Wiis both last as long as two days on Earth, and Sevi has waited patiently through one daylight and twilight cycle so far with no communication from her friends. She prays for them now as she sits in the new twilight, just after the setting of both of the suns of Wiis.
Maria, Whadgaf and Kal traveled through the long night toward Faswad on jet bikes that allowed them to move under the military’s radar for aircraft when they were over the northern continent where Faswad is located. They each wore cloaks that obscured their faces and when they landed in the cover of night in Faswad that was still teeming with life, they moved quickly at Kal’s direction through the pedestrian walkways to a large apartment building overlooking an ornate fountain in a park. When they arrived at the closed double doors of the entrance, Kal frantically pressed a communicator button multiple times on the wall next to it.
“Please stop that or I will send security,” a voice said from the speaker underneath.
“Egret, this is Kal and I need to speak with you urgently. Please let me up.”
There was a buzzing sound and Kal led them inside the building that was made of carved stone and seemed much more expensive to Maria compared to the wooden apartment building in the south. They took a large elevator and when it stopped, Maria was impressed that the entire floor was an apartment as they walked into what reminded Maria of a living room. The walls were gray like metal and a large screen hung on one wall opposite what looked like a comfortable couch.
“You are brave to come here,” Egret said as she entered the room wearing typical twilight attire on Wiis that is basically silk pajamas.
“You know what I risk to be here,” Kal said and he knelt before Egret. “My friends and I have traveled from the Banned Regions to find information about Pen’s plans with the Interstellar Panel. We fear that there are many lives at risk.”
Egret approached Kal slowly and when she was close, she put a hand to his chest and moved to kiss him, but Kal turned his head.
“You know that nothing is for free,” Egret said and grabbed his chin.
Whadgaf grabbed Maria’s arm tightly.
“Do not intervene until I say so,” she said sternly.
Maria listened but Whadgaf could tell that she wanted to hurt Egret for making Kal noticeably uncomfortable with her physical advances.
“You’re asking me to have intimacies with you for information about Pen’s current plans with the IP, and the new Earthling Representative?”
“You’re very well informed for a banished man of the Banned Regions. Why did you come here? Why is this important enough that you would put me in the position I am now to finally get what I want from you?”
“Pen is doing something and I need to know if it threatens the innocent inhabitants of the Banned Regions. I couldn’t get the information I needed from the smugglers in the Banned Regions, so I knew I had to come here myself. I’m being honest, Egret. We just want to help the innocents still left in this universe.”
“You came here because you know I detest my cousin Pen and you figured that I would do anything to make her upset. Including helping a traitor to gain sensitive information about military operations and objectives.”
Egret looked at Kal seriously and then she smiled.
“I’ll help you but I really wish you were trying to assassinate her or something. You should spend time alone with me while you’re here, you should make the choice to. I won’t force you. But you must promise me that helping you will undermine Pen’s reputation and make her look bad.”
Kal nodded, though he was unsure what he and his friends could do with the information.
“The Earthling Representative to the IP wanted Representative Eakran to be a fugitive,” Egret said.
“Because he wants to bury the truth about the organization that is the official representative of Earth,” Whadgaf interjected
Egret smiled at her. “You have interesting friends, Kal. You’re probably correct, no one believes that this Consortium is a true representative of Earth, there was no mention of them in any of Eakran’s transmissions during his time on Earth. The Consortium has technology that far outpaces anything else on Earth and they made their intreaty to the IP Representatives completely independent of Eakran’s evaluation.”
“How is that possible?” Whadgaf asked. “The Representative organization should have been identified by Eakran in his final recommendation to the IP. And how were they able to achieve interstellar travel when the majority of Earthlings are not even aware of the civilizations of the universe?”
“Contact between Earth and IP civilizations happened long ago, it is just not common knowledge. The Earthlings demonstrated an ancient connection to some Representative cultures and they knew that a new representative could help them change the IP and to use its influence around the universe in ways they saw fit. Pen believes that the Rhasdwiis and Earthlings have a common ancestor, and she is voting with the Krognians and the Hafjeris to secure all of their priorities for the IP.”
“What is the First Captain’s priority?” Whadgaf asked.
“Interstellar peace,” Egret said. “She would slaughter millions in the name of peace. And the Mhadswiis agree. Pen has drastically changed the function of the IP Security Officers recently, and she wants the power to occupy cultures and enforce IP laws in places deemed lawless.”
“She wants to use the IP to justify colonizing other planets?” Maria asked.
“That is one way to put it,” Egret said. “The Representatives in opposition, Prab and the Kazi Lograt, and the temporary fill in from Druont would put it that way. The only thing slowing Pen’s plans is the size, or lack thereof, of the IP Law Enforcement forces. It wouldn’t be possible to occupy Earth with the current force. The Earthling is working to remedy that.
“But who does she want to occupy?” Kal asked.
The downstairs communicator alarm sounded before Egret could answer.
“They must know you’re here,” Egret said. “I guess you should run now. I hope this was worth it.”
Kal led them through the apartment and to a large window, and the three lept out as the jet bikes materialized underneath them.
Before they board their ships to leave Wiis, Kal, Whadgaf, Maria, and Sevi stand in a circle.
“She’s going to occupy the Banned Regions,” Kal says.
“Are you sure?” Sevi asks.
“From what we found out, it makes sense,” Maria says. “It’s a way to get Eakran.”
“But the Banned Regions?” Whadgaf asks. “She can’t justify killing everyone there, and short of that, she would make everyone there the direct responsibility of the IP. It seems like more trouble than it’s worth.”
“She could occupy and install a leader,” Kal says. “A proxy government. I have to get back. I have to warn everyone.”
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