Donovan’s mood had swung so much, he did not know how he was supposed to feel anymore. First, he had lost a man and had another wounded at a task that was just some making some ticks on a list. After that, he had another member of his team kidnapped and presumed dead for hours. And just to make his day better, she had managed to survive and escape her captor.

On top of that, he had the Overseer drilling him a new one, because the ships were forbidden from docking or leaving the complex. A potato would have been more useful than the damn Oliver Tharks. The man cared only about his damned schedule and did not even want to hear about the maniac that was on the loose. And how could Donovan forget the Commodore screaming bloody murder at the mark of every hour wanting results. How was he supposed to offer results, with a security force that did not have the equipment to deal with such a situation?

The Chief wanted to hang the Overseer because when he checked on the armoury, he found out that the gear they were supposed to have for something like this, had never been ordered. But the man was untouchable, at least by normal means. However, a mining complex was a dangerous place and accidents happened. A fate that the good Commodore could share if he did not know what was good for him.

Yet, the pile of shit that was devouring him was not enough. A damned to hell Knight Protector had come. And not just some low ranked one, but the bloody Alexandra von Eisstahl. Only the Council could order that mad dog around and even they could hardly hold her accountable for her actions. If she got a whiff of what was going on, Donovan would be glad to find himself in front of a firing squad instead of facing any punishment she might think of.

“Kodiak, Zheng, escort Second officer Kurtz back to HQ.” He snapped at the two men standing behind him. “Keep her there until I sort this mess. And get Dr Saiko to check her up, I don’t want her dying before I can debrief her.”

“Sure, thing Chief.” Both men did not bother saluting and just charged past him to get the injured woman.

A string of profanity followed the two men’s actions, as she was yanked to her feet and nearly dragged through the darkened corridor.

“Bloody, fucking, hell!” Donovan exclaimed in utter disbelieve. “She is not a criminal, you idiots! She is still a member of the security force and an injured one at that!”

The two men dropped Zoë on the ground in their hurry to apologise to her. If her arm was not broken before, now it certainly was. The Chief saw the limb twist an angle beneath her body and the scream that followed was all the confirmation he needed. Perhaps a Decimation Order was the only solution that was left to him and if the damned Knight did not carry it, he would as soon as he had the time.

He had chosen Last Hope because it was supposed to be quiet. His grades at the Academy had given him the privilege to choose his posting. He could have become a Knight-neophyte or joined the Task Force 36, but Donovan Rex was aware he was not an ambitious man. The less he had to deal with, the better. He knew that only the drop-outs were commissioned to Last Hope because there was nothing to do. And that suited him perfectly. His only concern to date was to not step on the ageing Alexei’s toes. Donovan had to be patient for two more years before the Commodore retired due to his age, and then there would be only the incompetent overseer to worry about. He would have had free reign of the entire complex.

That was not going to happen now. It was the fault of the damned eggheads, they had to poke their noses where they did not belong.

“Felix.” He tried and failed to keep his voice calm as he opened the feed. “Inform the Commodore that I kindly request, he gets his wrinkled ass to Docking station 2-24.”

“Ah… Chief? Is that really what you want me to tell him?” The tech’s sounded perturbed.

“Felix, my boy, I want you to quote me on that!” Donovan barked. “If he has a problem with it, tell him to take with Knight Protector von Eisstahl.”

“Copy that, Chief.” King’s sounded almost happy, the prospect of putting the Commodore in hot water was a hard one to pass.

“And Mr King.” Donovan added after a moment of thinking over his next words. “Free time is cancelled. Inform all personal that I want everyone who is not on patrol or otherwise engaged of the following. I want them in full uniform at the dock within the hour. Anyone who gets there after me is going to be flogged.”

“Chief?” Felix sounded confused and worried over the feed.

“On the double Mr King!” Donovan roared and turned to the other members of Team 2. “You lot. The dock is not getting closer, but I trust a good run can get you there in an hour.”

He took the shock baton from his hip and slammed it into the wall. The dancing electric spark emphasised his order and the five men and women in the team jolted into a sprint.

The man she was looking at was far younger than she had expected. But Virginia knew from personal experience that looks could be deceiving. With access to proper gene treatment, anyone could look young and many members of high-society did. The man standing in front her could look like a someone in their late teens, but he had the way of speaking and mannerism of a far older man.

Because of that and the fact he was flesh and bone, every theory that she might have come up with to explain his presence in the collapsed section, was burned. However, his combat armour was of an old design devised from the two badly fragmented suits the archaeologists had found on Jakinta II and Arda-Siglia. And those were not shared with the public, making copying them impossible.

Virginia was also very interested in the device he was using to jam her feed implant. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. And the artefact he had so unceremoniously discarded, he claimed to know what it was and how it worked. It had taken her days just to figure out that the mechanism was a micro-magnetic ejection system of sorts.

“A chat… That sounds lovely.” Virginia managed to squeeze the words through her dried mouth.

“You doctor Werner are a very practical woman.” The man gave her a charming smile and stared at her. “But I guess that’s a benefit of age and not character trait you were born with.”

The way his amber eyes moved, the contraction of the pupils, he had seen the concealed scars from the treatments she had done. It was not done with the use of some ocular implant, at least none so delicate and organic-like. Which meant genetic modification. Or perhaps she had been right the first time; he had to be a really well designed and build, artificial humanoid cybernetic unit. This man did not just wear Lost Tech, he was Lost Tech. But that would mean that he pre-dated The Third Terran Empire.

“My apologies doctor. I did not mean to stare.” The man lowered his head, obviously, he had misinterpreted her facial expression. “Rejuvenation therapy is way out of my skill set. You see, my talents are far more practical orientated.”

He removed a foldable auto-syringe form a pouch on his belt and toyed with it. The item’s design was bare and stripped to its basics. Virginia could not help but observe that unlike the ones she had seen at Doctor Saiko’s this one favoured functionality rather than the patient’s comfort.

“It is a nice change not to force a conversation.” The man said, yet he did not return the auto-syringe to its container.

That was a warning if she had ever heard one. As long as she complied to his wishes, he would not use it on her. Virginia was painfully aware that whatever was loaded in the injector, would make her life a lot more unpleasant then it needed to be.

“What is that you want to know… Ugh, I am sorry, I do not know how to call you.” Virginia said in a shaky but polite voice.

“Helix would do fine for now.” The man smiled at her. “Let’s start with something simple. Tell me about the Liberation War.”

That was an odd topic. But the way he had asked it, made it clear he did not know about the greatest conflict in human history in the last three centuries. This tiny bit of information only gave further credibility to her theory that this was not a man, but a construct.

“The Liberation War started in the year 627 because the…” The man raised his hand and stopped her.

“Doctor Werner, don’t bother with the details or the dates for that matter. Just the cliff notes, please.”

“Very well, Mr Helix.” Virginia saw him shake his head in a show of disappointment. It amazed her how good the emotions emulator was working.

“The Liberation War marks the end of the Third Terran Empire. As a result, the United Republics, The Khanate of Monika the Conqueror and the Jericho Consortium formed. They are the three major powers that share sixty per cent of known space. There are also a hundred smaller nations, unions and pirate occupied worlds.” She tried to read his reaction, but Helix kept his face neutral.

“You could say it was a form of civil war, brought by the over oppressive regime of the Empire and its technological decline forced by its ideological suppression of the religious sects, who were leading the scientific world…”

“That’s enough Doctor. I am more than aware to know how a civil war is fought and won.” He scratched his head and looked at her for a moment forming his next question. “I am really curious to know more about this Third Terran Empire.”

Virginia had expected the question, but not so soon. And the way it was asked, she got the impression that Helix had some knowledge or theory which he needed to be confirmed. It was as if he did not care about the current state of the human-controlled space, but was focused on the past.

“That is a large topic. Could you narrow it down?” She ventured, trying to figure out what it was he really wanted to know.

“Very well.” He stood up from the edge of the table and began roaming from the items laying around. “Capital world, when it was formed, how long it existed, span, etc.”

“I understand.” Virginia closed her eyes gathering all the knowledge she had, which was somewhat difficult with the scrambled errors she was getting from her implant.

“From what we know…”

“From what you know? That is a very interesting way of starting a history lesson, doctor.” Helix picked a broken circuit board and began examining it. Most likely looking for spare parts, she thought.

“A lot of knowledge was lost during the Liberation War and even more was purged by the Empire. So yes, from what we know is the best way I can answer your question.” She raised her voice, getting tired of feeling impotent.

Again, he lowered his head in apology and motioned for her to continue.

“How the Third Terran Empire is lost to us. All we know is that it happened some six hundred and fifty years ago. Although some scholars debate if that should be pushed back to seven hundred…”

“Doctor, cliff notes.” Helix dropped the circuit board and picked up a disassembled recorder.

She took a deep breath and continued. “The Empire was formed around the world of Lekaar II, later renamed to Terra Secundus…”

“Terra Secundus?” This time he did look at her and there was some strange emotion in his eyes. It caught her by surprise. Was it worry or dread?

“Yes. All we know about Terra Prime is that it was destroyed along with all the core worlds of the Sol System just before the formation of the Empire.” Virginia narrowed her eyes as Helix’s face twisted for a moment.

“Via Sankteco, mi salutos vin en la mondo ekster.” He whispered the phrase, but she heard it and her eyes snapped wide open.

Virginia had heard it before. Hell, she was sure she could understand it if she had it written down. She rocked her brain, forcing it to work at a speed it had not in years.

“That’s Unue!” She exclaimed as she remembered the passphrase that had them stuck for months before the unlocked the mainframe’s archive. “You… You can speak Unue! You can speak the origin language! That’s why your accent is so familiar to Alexei’s!”

“Doctor Werner, can you calm down, or do you want me to help with that?” The excitement she felt evaporated as she saw the monomolecular needle emerge from the auto-syringe in Helix’s hand. “Tell me more about this Alexei fellow.”

“Commodore Alexei Neverok.” She saw a shadow of anger pass over the man’s face as she mentioned the name. “He… He… Sorry, my throat is dry.”

Strangely enough, Helix walked to the filtration unit attached to the wall next to her bed and poured the gathered recycled moisture into the detachable hardened plastic cup. As with most of the resources needed for continued inhabitation of the complex, water was used, re-used and gathered from all sources. The fact he knew what the unit was, told her that it must have had the same purpose for quite a while.

“Thank you.” She took the cup and allowed the liquid to slide down her parched throat. Virginia had not used it just as an excuse to hide what she had noticed.

“Thank you. Alexei is native to the Jericho Cluster.” This time there was no reaction from Helix. Had she stumbled on some sort of command-phrase? “He is from Vergonis to be more precise. The local dialect there is the closest we have left to Unue. We know this because of the sign that is engraved in the planet’s crust so that it could be seen from outer space. Because it is an alphabet no one remembers, we have only the local pronunciation to trust on.”

“Don’t worry Doctor, I am not going to judge your ability to speak. All I want is information.” He urged her to continue.

“You must understand, we are talking about centuries of restrictions. Under the rule of the Empire, access to Vergonis was extremely restricted and several purges had been conducted on the local populace…”

Helix tapped the auto-syringe and gave her a meaningful look.

“Right. Short and to the point.” She forced a smile on her face but based on his reaction she had failed. “It should be something like this: Kretu ienla sankturo tela emfero. What it means is lost.”

“You are a lucky woman Doctor Werner. If it were Lucifer and not me chatting with you, he would have immolated you for that poor rendition of the Church of the Third Hell’s moto.” The man chuckled and shook his head as if to shake the smile off his face.

Virginia jumped from the chair and drooped on her knees before the man. Helix was no longer a danger to her. He was a source for so much knowledge, that she did not care if he killed, as long as he shared it with her first.

“I beg of you! Tell me! Tell me what it means! Tell me about this Church!”

He grabbed her by the neck and pressed her against the floor. His grip tightened just enough to trigger a fresh wave of fear. It had the desired effect as Virginia came back to her senses.

“Do not be mistaken Doctor.” There was steel in his voice and hardness to his gaze. “This is not a friendly chat. This is an interrogation. So far, I’ve been polite, because I thought you were a reasonable woman.”

“Short answers this time. I don’t care about theory or thoughts. Do you understand?” Virginia nodded, feeling his weight on her body.

“Good. The Holy Terran Empire, what happened to it.”

“Gone… Reason is… unknown… Precursor of the Third Terran Empire…” She could barely squeeze the words out.

“When? From current date.”

“Six to… seven… ugh… centuries ago.” She had difficulty processing his questions and their meaning. The fear was too great for her mind to work properly.

“Where are we?”

“Min..ning… complex… Last Hope…”

“Do you have access to restricted areas?”

“To… some…urgh…” She felt pain at her neck.

“Final question. Is there a physician or active medical unit on this complex?”

“Yes… Doctor Saik…o… Has… lab…”

The pressure was gone, allowing oxygen and blood to flow through Virginia’s body as they were intended to. She should have kept her cool around Helix, a lesson to be learned for next time, should there be a next time. It took her a few moments to get her breathing back in order and nearly a minute until she was brave enough to stand from the ground.

Sombrely she sat back on the chair keeping her hands on her knees. It was the universal pose of a scolded child, it was demeaning to her, but it was the only one she knew that would not antagonise the man further. Her green lab uniform was a mess; however, she was too scared to fix it.

Although, she had to admit that being pushed by a strong man, was not the worst thing to had happened to her. When was the last time she… Her hand snapped to the side of her neck. The area was painful to the touch and because of his grip. Virginia could feel the small puncture wound on her ebony flesh with the tip of her finger. Helix had injected with some sort of a drug.

“What did you do?” She gathered the courage to ask.

“You do not need to worry about it. As long as you take me to the medical lab, you will be fine.” There was a small green vial between his fingers, held out in a way that she could clearly see it.

“Why?”

“It is simple, Doctor Werner. The two of us are going for a walk and I will need you as relaxed and submissive as you can be.”