6 Billion A.D./Hero of the League

Chapter 5: Hero of the League

Tentative Synopsis: Rigel finally finds Sophiy who convinces him to play a pivotal role in the League as a new threat emerges.

5.1

"It's Rigel."

"What about him?"

"He's been acting strange lately."

"Strange how?"

"Sad, depressed. Sometimes crazy."

"Oh, that's normal. It's an effect of the virus."

"It affects the brain?"

"It does."

-

As he reclined on the virtual beach, he picked up his favorite book.

-

Rigel went berserk on the battlefield. Was it the disease or the plant?

-

Did he just see Vespa kiss her? Or was he just seeing things?

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He heard ten thousand voices booming through his head.

-

Was that a real concept? Or did he just invent it?

-

Dismissing the voices in his head, the sights seen only by him, the false notions, the plant-induced visions, Rigel dove head first into the fray.

-

"Just because they say it's so, doesn't make it so. If ten thousand people said that, it still wouldn't be true."

-

The crowd nodded in agreement.

-

"So what are we supposed to think?

"We're supposed to think for ourselves. That's what he said."

-

"Thirty people in Section 5 were cured."

"That's because they thought it would work. It's a placebo."

-

"So why don't we just convince the rest of them to believe it?"

-

In the heat of battle, Rigel closed his eyes, visualizing victory.

-

Among the incoming lasers, he could see clearly.

-

Rigel expertly navigated through the opposing fleets.

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Sitting among so many of his former sworn enemies, Rigel seemed surprisingly comfortable.

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Since the League formed as a defensive association against the threat, then worrisome, of invasion, it had become increasingly activist.

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I am on your side, the Sentience thought.

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"We think it's an artificial intelligence from the ancients."

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"That's one theory," he said.

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The first war put a long dent in the economy. The economy continued to grow since then.

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At least, that's what the official League statistics showed.

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The League organized the event to bring together some of the better racers.

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A trade fair for members and prospective members of the defense forces.

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Unbeknownst to the organizers, some enemy agents had registered.

-

5.2

The...

5.3

Rigel floated around the zero-g plant chamber.

He liked the silence here. The beauty of the plants.

-

"No!" yelled Morp. "That's insane!"

Rigel smashed the test tube.

-

"But that would be dangerous," said Morp. "As much as we want stronger soldiers, we can't risk the consequences."

Rigel knew vaguely from his recollection that these chemicals were unstable, and could produce a chain reaction with the physical environment. He didn't recall exactly what would happen, but decided not to risk asking Morp and revealing his ignorance.

-

The ship was also equipped with one-g and ten-g plant chambers. Each grew a different set of plants, which were adapted for those gravitational environments. Additional controls ensured adequate supplies of water, fertilizer, and other nutrients.

-

The plants hovered loosely throughout the chamber. Some vines spread throughout large swathes of the volume. Trees grew out in three hundred and sixty degrees, forming spheres that would have looked preposterous on a planetary surface.

-

"Try this one," he said, handing her a root cutting.

-

She warily nibbled on the root. "Mm," she said, surprised that it tasted sweet instead of bitter.

"Now look around," he said.

Looking around the zero-g plant chamber, she was even more surprised. Gone were the plants she had seen just moments before. In their place hovered altogether different plants, in bright hues of indigo and turquoise and bright pink and yellow.

"Cool, huh?"

-

The one-g plant chamber resembled a more normal spaceship module, rather than the huge sphere of the zero-g chamber. As they walked through together, she recognized some plants from her home planet.

-

In the ten-g plant chamber, huge flat plants sprawled along the floor. The antigrav suits they had donned before entering made them look like space clowns. Still, they were able to walk through the heavy mess with ease.

-

"This one makes things smell funny," he said, handing her a flower. She sniffed it. "No," he said. "You don't smell it, you chew it. Then everything smells different for around half an hour."

-

"So all the plants have these funny effects on the body?" she asked.

"No, just some. It's a specialty of mine. I'm a psyschobotanist."

"That's what I thought when we first met," she said."

"No, it's a job title. Like janitor or writer or something."

"Oh," she said.

-

The test tube shattered into ten thousand pieces.

Liquid spilled out into the room.

Air bubbles formed in the liquid.

Where the air bubbles formed, cracks formed in the air. The cracks spread into the walls, floors, and ceilings of the spaceship.

-

Space itself seemed to break apart.

-

"Look what you've done!" Vespa screamed angrily at Rigel. He grimaced.

-

Talk:

I'm thinking that Rigel acts like he's going along with Morp, but at the last minute he starts the chain reaction. It looks like it will cause catastrophe, but instead it does something positive like uniting lines of productive hydrogen throughout space.

-

The lines quickly spread beyond the quadrant, out to distant stars.

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Through vast fields of raw hydrogen.

-

Talk:

Mining space for fusion material.

-

Morp led Rigel and the other prisoners through the hallways.

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"Here," he said, "you'll have a chance to swear allegiance to our cause."

Rigel and some of the other prisoners frowned.

"Or," Morp added, "we can execute you. It's your choice."

-

Rigel swallowed his pride. "I swear to abide by the rules and principles of the Order," he repeated.

-

"I understand that you're on of our special guests," Morp said to prisoner Rigel.

Rigel looked on, without saying anything.

"Oh, do be a dear. Tell us why you're here."

A guard prodded Rigel with the butt of his weapon.

-

As Rigel put on the Order uniform, a transformation took place.

-

Vespa looked out the viewport.

Stars. Tens of thousands of stars. And empty space.

-

"If he doesn't come back, I'm going to get him," she said out loud.

-

Vespa donned her uniform. It wasn't a League military uniform. It didn't permit her to leave the ship. Still, it gave her a sense of confidence. A sense of mission.

-

As she walked by the plant chambers, she thought back to when they first met. How he had shown her the different chambers, the different plants. How she had tried some of the plants, and they had made her feel funny. She carried on.

-

Five minutes after getting to the airlock, she stopped in her tracks. "Oh!" she let out, turning around. Rushing back to the zero-g plant chamber, she jumped up so fast that she almost flew into a wall. Then, regaining her balance, she grabbed a shoot of Permutatix fortis. After biting off a wad, she stuffed the rest into her spacesuit, then went back to the airlock.

-

Permutatix fortis: This hardy perennial favors non-gravitational environments. With its web of shoots emitting alternating leaves, it makes for an attractive plant. The shoots confer strength and vitality. The leaves are toxic, and are not used.

The Botanist's Book of Craft and Lore

-

Flying out into the emptiness of space, Vespa looked around in wonder.

-

Without the shoot of P. fortis, she probably would have passed out in shock. It's difficult for a mind to understand space, while in it. Without the comforts, the references of a planet, an asteroid, or at least a spaceship.

-

Vespa glanced quickly at her visor display. 1050. She still had time.

As she swam through the short distance of empty space separating the space suit from the scout ships, the thought of death briefly flirted with her mind. Then, burping up a hint of P. fortis, Vespa darted into the scout ship.

The League had stationed these scout ships as emergency escape vessels. However, they proved so nimble that crews during emergency routines took to playing war games with them. From there, it wasn't far to taking on their scout roles, flying through large distances, often near or in enemy territory.

Vespa wasn't trained to fly a scout ship. She wasn't trained to fly at all. Still, with a strong desire for adventure, and a healthy dose of P. fortis, she managed to fake her way through the control panel. Figuring out that the obvious green button was for power, and the lever was for thrust, she jolted away from the parent ship. Instantly, alarms started ringing throughout the parent ship.

"What's going on?!" yelled the captain.

"It's one of our own. She took a scout ship towards the nebula," answered a lieutenant

"She?! Who is she?"

"One of the staff from the data center. Name's Vespa."

"Data center? I thought they were supposed to be boring."

"They were."

"There are always exceptions, I guess."

Vespa cruised towards the Order's front line.

Not knowing where Rigel was, or where she was headed exactly, Vespa darted through more space.

A blip showed up on the radar. The Order technician observed the blip with curiosity as the unknown ship veered ever closer to their side. It wasn't marked as an Order ship, or an ally. Was it an intelligence probe? Was it friend or enemy?

As the effects of the P. fortis faded away, Vespa looked around herself in shock. What was she doing here? Had she lost her mind completely? Here she was, ten thousand megameters away from home territory, in fact nearing enemy territory, in a scout ship. And she wasn't even trained to fly!

-

Panic set in. Vespa looked around in confusion at the control panel. It didn't make any sense to her. She had no idea how she had even managed to get here, or start the scout ship for that matter.

-

"Stay calm," she said to herself. Rehearsing some of the lines she vaguely remembered from the data banks, she searched in desperation for anything relevant. "The blue suns of… No. When the gravitational tides come in… Um, no."

After coming up blank, it suddenly hit her. "When in doubt, cast back a fresh root. The Botanist's Book!"

Vermitrius claris. A fuzzy stem yields succulent purple leaves. Grows spherically. The entire plant is known for its ability to reveal scientific truths in geometric shapes. When in doubt, cast back a fresh root.

The Botanist's Book of Craft and Lore

Vespa reached through her pack, digging down until she hit it. A fresh root of V. claris that she had taken from the zero-g plant chamber. Luckily it had survived the journey.

Choking back the bitter root, as pieces of dirt crumbled down her throat, it dawned on Vespa. Here she was, seeking out Rigel, whom she loved. After all those times when he had said that he loved her, and she felt nervous. Now she knew. She loved him, too.

Vespa was on a mission to rescue Rigel. Even if he had turned to the enemy. And she now understood exactly how the controls worked on the scout ship.

Adjusting the wing flaps, throttling up, she zoomed through the megameters.

Enemy craft came at her, but she expertly veiled the scout ship. Vespa maneuvered through their ranks undetected, reaching deep into enemy territory.

-

Vespa burst into the control room.

An armed guard confronted her. "Halt! This is an Order ship. You are wearing a League uniform. And not even a League flying uniform. What is going on? Answer now or you will be shot."

Vespa struggled for words. Suddenly her mind went blank. Not at the most opportune time.

"This is your last chance! Answer now or you will be shot."

Vespa blurted out: "I am an Order intelligence agent. I am returning for debriefing. Put away your weapons." She didn't even know where the lie came from.

The guard looked at her in confusion. "Hold on. I need to see your ID on my visor."

She quickly sent a fake to his visor.

-

Quintium (deuterium, tritium)

-

[Happy, sad, drunk, high]

-

"These herbs make you happy."

"Then why don't people use them all the time?"

"Because they also make you see strange things, which not everyone likes. It's complex."

"And what about these?"

"Those grasses? They don't look like much. And they make you sad."

"So why does anyone at all use them?"

"Again, it's complex. They taste decent. Also, they kind of let you forget stuff."

"Why would you want to forget stuff?"

"It's… complex."

-

"It's called quintium. Sort of like deuterium or tritium, but with five hydrogens."

"And what's so special about that?"

"Nothing intrinsically. However, with the right techniques, it's quite easy to fuse."

"So?"

"So, you can make enough power to get to the stars."

"Oh."

-

"Where do you get this quintium?"

"We mine it from space."

"Mine it? From space?"

"Yeah. There are certain deposits. Among the nebulae. You know that the nebulae are mostly made out of hydrogen, right? Well, some areas contain higher proportions of H5. We have tools and technologies to find those locations, then mine the quintium."

-

Together, Rigel and Vespa walked through the one g plant chamber.

"What else can your plants do?" she asked.

"Well, let's see. There are plants that make you see colors differently."

"Like, red instead of blue?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"What else?"

"Um. There's this shrub. If you eat the berries, you may die. But if you survive, then you're supposed to be able to levitate. Not sure if it's true."

"Aren't you a psycho-"

"Psychobotanist? I am. But there are things that even we psychobotanists don't know."

-

She handled the flower delicately. As her fingers slid up and around the petals, a smile brightened her face.

-

5.4

The...

...

I eventually made the rank of Colonel. Sophiy planned a grand party. There were...

...

Sophiy looked at me affectionately, “I’m so proud of you!” I know, look at me a military man like my father. I hero I suppose. Sophiy said, what’s wrong, you are a hero. “No I’m not. But if it makes you happy then I’m happy. “Rigel are you doing all this for me?” “What if I am.” If being a soldier will make you love me, the that’s what I’ll be.” “Rigel we talked about this.” Sophiy tell me you love me! “Rigel you know I can’t.” Then I’ll become a general, general supreme, the most famous person there ever was. What will it take. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing you can do.” You’re so cruel. You know how long I searched for you. “Rigel I should go. Enjoy the party, you deserve it. “Go ahead run away like you always do! Run away! Sophiy was gone before I finished my outburst.

5.5

The...

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