LOCATION: NASA HEADQUARTERS
CITY: WASHINGTON, DC
DATE: APRIL 15, 2032 | TIME: 8:00 AM
After running an exhaustive battery of medical tests and scans, Elise Draven’s team administered Vitalyx and later Rejuvenex to Rin Shale.
Her body responded perfectly to both, and a month later, she was not only healthy, but smiling and joking. She and Erik had grown close, and he rarely left her side during the entire ordeal.
After she was cleared medically, she and Erik were transferred to Washington DC and assigned to NASA Headquarters. Erik would leave for Peacekeeper assignments as needed, but always returned to Washington after, rather than to his home in Edenkoben, Germany.
Rin Shale had become an extremely valuable asset for the Celestial Intelligence Service.
First, she spent weeks describing the world she came from.
The briefing room she reported to each morning may have been plain and boring for people from Earth. But for Rin, who’d only ever known gray and black, everything was a marvel.
They brought her cups of this wonderful drink called coffee, and she would hold it near her face, close her eyes, and inhale the aroma. Then take a single sip, and let it linger on her tongue before swallowing it down.
The flavors!
It was bitter and nutty.
And tasted of something they called chocolate.
It was utterly delicious to her palate of limited experience.
The staff had taken to giving her a full ten minutes with her coffee before they began the briefings because they found her distracted if they didn’t.
She’d set the cup down and run her hands along the smooth surface of the polished wooden conference table, feeling the tiny grooves of the wood grain on her hands.
She once took off her shoes and socks, and just moved her feet back and forth on the low-pile carpet, delighting in all the new sensations.
They adored Rin for her almost childish innocence and the wide-eyed way in which she took in her new world.
After the customary ten minutes, they would begin. It was usually six or seven members of CIS. This day, April 15th, the CIS Lead Director himself joined them.
“Good morning, Miss Shale. How are you feeling today?”
Rin smiled.
“I’m great, thank you Director Rourke. But please, call me Rin.”
Nathan hit a button and a screen in the front of the conference room came to life, showing similar rooms from all over the world.
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, was there. Members from the European Space Agency and Roscosmos from Russia were represented, along with India and China, Canada and Mexico.
“Good morning, everyone,” Rourke began. “We’ve got Rin Shale here again. Today, we’re going to get into the history of her world and learn what we can about those who run it.”
It was Rin’s fifth day of these briefings, and until now they had been careful with her, not wanting to overwhelm or push her for too much information at a time.
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When she had assured them she was willing to talk, however, they had called in the big guns: the regional headquarters all over the world and the Lead Director himself.
She nodded, and took another long sip of her coffee.
“What is your planet called?” Rourke asked.
“They call it 45218063, but we refer to it as Nocturnus.”
Rourke’s brow raised.
“Nocturnus. That has a meaning in a language from our history called Latin. It means night, or darkness.”
Rin nodded. Her hair, which had been saturated with oil and grease from the very atmosphere on Nocturnus, was full and bouncy now. It bobbed with the motion, and Erik, sitting in the back, smiled.
She had come such a long way in these four months.
“That’s right,” Rin said. “It means darkness in our language, too.”
Nathan continued with his questions.
“We have learned a bit about the Obsidian Empire. What are you taught about the history of Nocturnus?”
“In our schools, we learn that our distant ancestors had angered the gods who oversaw the planet. They were good workers at first, but millions of years ago, rebellious thoughts began to fester amongst the people.”
She took a sip of coffee.
“When it grew to a fever pitch, they dared to strike against their benefactors, the very gods who provided them with life and security.”
She looked down, fiddling with her hands for a moment.
“They were crushed completely. The gods, angry at the people’s defiance at their generosity, killed everyone on the planet. Their fury knew no bounds, and the gods burned the forests, the cities. The endless fires evaporated all of the rivers, lakes and oceans, and then the planet was abandoned. Over a period of millions of years, the ash settled, then seeped into the planet itself. Eventually, 500,000 men and women were brought to the planet to do the important work of extracting energy from the ground.”
She glanced at Erik. He nodded to her encouragingly, and she continued. Her voice was quieter now, and Nathan, sitting just a few feet away, had to lean in to hear her.
“We named the planet Nocturnus because even in the middle of the day, the skies are always dark gray with heavy cloud cover.”
They continued the discussion.
The Regional Director from Paris asked more about their educational curriculum. They asked her about the division of labor in what made for society on Nocturnus, and that was where things grew interesting.
“At the age of fifteen, we are given access to our System.”
Rin stretched her slender arm in front of her and formed a fist for a moment. She smiled.
“Our System is nothing like yours,” she continued. “Ours does not provide us with power or strength like this. Our System is a set of rules and controls. We are evaluated and assigned jobs. We work those jobs for our entire lives.”
Rin put her hands together in her lap, and her shoulders slumped.
“It’s a simple existence.”
“Were you happy there?” Nathan asked.
Rin’s eyes shot up at the question.
“I… I suppose I have never thought of that. Happiness is not a consideration for any of us. We simply are. We live, we work, and we die. In between, we are matched with one mate and are expected to produce the customary two children. No more and no less. We keep our heads down and follow the rules.”
“What happens if you don’t?” Nathan asked.
Rin’s expression grew dark. She turned toward Erik.
“Erik saw what happens. My daughter was dying from the respiratory disease which eventually takes all of us. I went to the infirmary to see her…”
She began crying, and Erik rushed to her side, wrapping his hands around her shoulders.
She rested her hand on his, taking strength, and continued.
“The nurses informed the Black Guard, and they dragged me by my hair all the way back to Shale Street, where all of my friends live. They beat me in the street with hard, metal batons to set an example. If it hadn’t been for Erik, I would have died right there.”
“And does the System not stop any of this?” Nathan asked. “Does it not provide you with any boon at all? Help with healing, for example?”
“Oh no,” Rin said. “That’s only for Them. The System for us is only a means of subjugation and control. As soon as I decided to skip work and go to the infirmary, a splitting headache assaulted me. Every step in the wrong direction, away from work and toward my daughter, was agonizing. My legs were heavy, and at times I thought my back may break. But I pushed forward.”
She looked up at Nathan, then at the camera for the others watching remotely.
“I got to hold her hand for just a moment before I was taken. I regret nothing.”
“You are very brave,” Nathan said. “Fierce, even. This has been a lot for you today, so I have just one final question. Who teaches the technology they use to open the portals, and what sort of people are chosen as their apprentices?”