The yellow Overseer looked up from the file in his hands and into the eyes of Forsoo. Forsoo looked back, face set in a soft smile.
“It says here you were the one who triggered Waise’s insurance policy,” The Overseer said.
Forsoo nodded. “They were giving her a way out. Admirable, but sadly against our wishes. She needed to be taken care of or she would have betrayed us to them.”
“I happen to agree with you. But…” The Overseer looked torn. “…I did think you had higher standards than the rest. I always figured it would have been Arlowe who activated it.”
“Perhaps I do have higher standards,” Forsoo said, shrugging. “I saw a situation where relations needed to be solidified quickly, or everything would be at risk. I acted.”
“Hrm… Well you are finally getting an accommodation and promotion for this. Congratulations are in order, you are the new Primary Agent of this facility.”
“Thank you sir, it is my honor to serve the Seers.” Primary Agent? That was just three steps of power beneath the Director! Forsoo was now only below Overseers and Site Directors! This was great! Those ponies were the best thing to ever happen to him!
“Now, your responsibilities have changed. You get to decide what missions you go on, and you get to assign others to missions. Consider yourself lucky that the previous Primary Agent was on an assassination assignment that went south.”
“What happened to her?”
“Was successful but was killed in the act. The target was also an assassin, took her out with him.”
Forsoo winced. “Ouch.”
“Indeed. The office is through there. Some of her personal items are still in there, haven’t had a chance to clean it out.”
Forsoo nodded. “It will be no problem.” He left the Overseer’s office and entered his new place of work. Like everything in facility G.A.L., it was predominantly a dark grey color. Two bookshelves liked the side walls; two television screens flanked the doorway. He slid behind the sleek desk and placed himself in front of the state-of-the-art computer to discover that the rumors were right, the chair really was more comfortable, despite looking exactly like every other chair in the building. There was a purple cactus growing to the side, and an image of a purple gari woman on the desk. He carefully set these things aside - someone would be by to pick them up later. He was considering keeping the cactus though.
He began to read through the feed that the Overseers created – fashioning missions and goals for every agent worldwide. He didn’t plan on assigning anything right now, only wanting to familiarize himself with the system. He looked at the many kinds of missions available at the moment.
…replace the Tertiary Magistrate of Kobalt…
…get more individuals into the Status Intervention Senate to clean up the mess…
…assassinate Emin Montreal…
…trigger a rebellion in Dialo without killing the Magistrate…
…keep United Space from passing…
…promote jiggle-jelly.
Forsoo groaned upon reading the last one. Economic missions were the worst. They were very vague and it was generally impossible to tell if there was a success or not…
Arlowe stuck her head in the door. “Forsoo-“
“Ah, yes, Arlowe, come on in. What are you doing these days?” He smiled warmly.
Arlowe squirmed. “I uh… Besides translation software, I’m the secretary. Blagha wants you to know she’ll be off site for the day, so unless the Overseer steps in you’re in charge. Nothing should happen, just expect more people to call you. All security clearances have been transferred.”
Forsoo nodded. “Thank you Arlowe. Your contribution is greater than most.” Arlowe left without a word – evidentially still not wanting to talk to him. She had been rather close to Waise, even if she knew Waise was a complete sack of trash.
Site Director… Essentially, Forsoo thought to himself. Life is good.
The phone line rang. He answered. “Acting Site Director Forsoo, what can I do for you?”
“It’s Cred! Calling to let you know there are power fluctuations… Do not be alarmed, we’re fixing them.”
As if in response, the lights began to flicker. “Thank you for the update Cred. It’s appreciated. Call back anytime.” He hung up, turning back to the computer. He looked through the classified documents now, finding all sorts of juicy stuff he had never known about before. He had access to almost everything at the moment, with only a few files restricted to specific Site Directors. There was a more in-depth report on the inner workings of the Star Weapon. Apparently the Director had ordered its construction before the technology to build it even existed. Curious.
Then he ran across a heavily restricted file titled “ICON – Overseer Level+ Access Required.”
The Overseer only file. It was legend amongst agents. Most had never seen it, and many thought it was just a legend. But here it was, right in front of him. He supposed Site Directors were allowed to know it existed, perhaps to remind them that they didn’t know everything.
ICON… Did it have to do with the Director? He supposed that made sense, the Director was such a mysterious individual, but the files for the Director weren’t anywhere else…. Perhaps that was the ‘icon,’ the Director.
Well, that couldn’t be it, the file was almost as old as the Seers themselves, written before the database was even created if the ‘date filed’ was to be believed. Perhaps it was a list of all gari who had filled the role of Director over the centuries?
It was interesting to think about, to say the least. Maybe one day he would know.
The line rang again. “Acting Site Director Forsoo, how may I help you?”
“Wow. That’s a chipper voice,” a woman said.
“Who is this?”
“Javelin, but that’s not important. What’s important is that apparently our firewalls have been breached by an unknown force again. You weren’t here for the attack a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t matter right now. Just know that something tapped into the database and got some information. We don’t know what it got. And it’s back.”
“…What measures of defense are being taken?”
“The coders are working on enhancing encryption and the theorists are cooking. Current suspect is that alien robot the Equi found and lost, but we have no proof.”
Forsoo grunted. “And it’s not like we can just ask them how they dealt with it without being suspicious. Has the current attack been stopped?”
“No, it’s still going on, but it hasn’t accessed the database yet. We’re rerouting power and trying our best to keep it out, but it’s still causing power fluctuations. We’re pooling all the resources we can into this.”
“Good. Keep me posted, and keep up the good work.”
“Ugh. Too happy.” She hung up.
Forsoo looked at the phone in distaste before trying to focus on the files once more. He was concerned that the alien machine might be here, but he knew he couldn't really do anything about it. He wasn't one of the techies, so he let himself become absorbed in the computer. It was a few minutes later when the intruder alert alarms started blaring. What?
He quickly called Arlowe. “What is going on?”
“Corridor 5B. Equi.”
Forsoo grabbed a remote, quickly adjusting his wall screens to the correct frequencies. There was a small troop of ponies, accompanied by Discord, walking down a hall, saying something to the camera… “We look for the Mite.”
He groaned. So they had tracked the Mite here. What a mess. “Arlowe, identify the individuals… I want to make sure.”
“Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Discord, and… not sure. Closest match I have is a character from their fiction, Daring Do.”
“I’d love to know the story behind her…” He said. “Patch me through to them.”
“Done.”
“Princess, this is a restricted facility. Why and how are you here?”
“We found stuff of another alien Mite. One MIte had found files that led us here. Alien Key in facility.”
Her gari wasn’t perfect, but Forsoo understood what she was saying. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Forsoo said truthfully. “If you will allow the agents to take you to the lounge we can talk this over…” And perhaps discover if amnesiacs work on your kind.
Daring Do whispered something in Twilight’s ear. She nodded, and the group teleported elsewhere. She saw the trap.
“Hall 7C!” Arlowe announced. Forsoo quickly switched the channels – seeing them only the briefest of moments before the teleported again, narrowly avoiding agent gunfire.
They were being stupid…
Forsoo gritted his teeth. Section 4D… Lavoratory 5E… Corridor 2F… They just moved too fast! ...But there was a direction – downwards.
“Set up a tranq team at Hall 1M. They’ll be there if they continue on their path!”
“Yes sir!”
Forsoo liked the ponies, he really did, but he couldn’t just have them ruin his job like this. They needed to be stopped before they got too far in. He wondered if he’d have to kill them… he hoped not.
The Equi went past floor after floor – G, H, I, J, K, and L… Before arriving exactly where expected, right in the middle of an ambush. The darts flew true, heading right for the ponies. Daring Do was the only one they missed completely. Twilight and Sunset fell to the ground while Discord was completely unaffected. Forsoo found himself cursing Discord for cheating, until he realized that Discord wasn’t fighting back at all. Daring Do was, knocking the agents out with flare.
Forsoo tensed when Discord magically woke the two sleeping mares up with a gong. Forsoo couldn’t let this go on. ”Agents! You now have permission to use live rounds!”
The live rounds had little effect – a simple magic shield blocked them. Perhaps if they had used live rounds first, the ponies wouldn’t have been expecting attacks, but they were ready to fight back now. They teleported away once again, defying the agents.
Forsoo seethed. They were still going down. N… O… They were headed right for the offices. Forsoo's face became panicked. He ran out of his desk and rushed into the Overseer’s office. “Overseer! They’re-“
“I know,” he said, a deadly calmness around him. “Their magic overrules all our security measures save one.” He frowned. “I cannot give them what they want.”
“…What do they want?”
“A secret that not even you can know,” he said. “But seeing I’ve armed the self-destruct… No. Nevermind. I cannot say. Even now.”
“Why not?” Forsoo asked, curious and terrified at the same time.
“Who can say? They might save you and get it out of you later.” He stared intensely into Forsoo’s eyes. “We cannot let them know. They cannot be allowed out either.”
Forsoo gulped, but nodded. This is what he had been trained for. They were going to go down with the base. The two of them stepped out of the office into the hall – hall 7Q.
The Equi appeared seconds later.
“What the heck is going on?” Sunset demanded.
“You are not supposed to be here. We defend our secrets.” The Overseer spoke in almost perfect Equi.
Twilight frowned. “Why hide this from us? We could help understand it!”
“I will not say,” The Overser paused. “I will say I am disappointed in your conduct.”
“Same,” Sunset declared.
Discord snarled. “On our way here our little Mite friend informed us of some other rather indicative files about your little group you have. Nice Star Weapon.”
Twilight looked sad. “Why? Why do you do these things?”
Forsoo answered. “World needs us. Keep balance. Prevent toppling.”
“We never had to do any of this back home…”
“You lost your sun,” The Overseer observed. “Along with most of your population. You cannot judge us for what we have done to keep ours.”
The Equi were taken aback. Discord looked ready to smite them. Forsoo prepared for the worst.
“Disable self-destruct,” a heavily distorted voice rang out. The Overseer and Forsoo turned to see the Director behind them.
“You’re back?” The Overseer blurted, startled. “You weren’t supposed to be back-“
“I came back early. Had an epiphany.” The Director turned to the Equi. “I will see you four in the Overseer’s office. I will answer you and your Mite’s questions. The time is at hand.”
The Overseer trembled at the Director’s words. “But Director…”
“That is my decision. Come, Twilight Sparkle and company.” The Director wordlessly walked into the office and sat down.
Twilight, Sunset, Yearling, and Discord went inside. The doors sealed shut behind them.
Forsoo turned to the Overseer. “…Care to tell me now?”
The Overseer was stunned. “I… I… no… But… …We wait and see Forsoo. Until then, we have to calm the Site. Tell them it was resolved.”
Forsoo gulped. That wasn’t going to be easy…
While I am certainly enjoying this story thus far, there is one thing that to me doesn't make sense. The Equestrians had to travel for hundreds of years to find this planet, a habitable one, but the actual odds of this are next to none. There are an estimated 40 billion Earth-sized planets in the Goldylocks Zone in our galaxy alone. How the hell would they never randomly jumped into one of these systems? And if they have the technology to build such massive ships and go faster than light, how did they never do what we already have and use telescopes to look out into the stars at other planets?
Right. No. No, preventing internal threats does not explain why you shot down a refugee ship a few hours after it had contacted you with no hostility.
8018262 For some reason I want to try to answer these, but author gets last word if/when he responds about it.
1. That's just 40 billions in OUR galaxy. How many more stars are out there in our galaxy, or another galaxy even. it's ridiculous the numbers were getting into here. Not to mention the way they are traveling by BLIND TELEPORTATION in space.
Unfortunately my answers break down a bit since its been a while since I read earlier chapters and I may have forgotten important points, but I am gonna try anyway.
2.I want to say they didn't have time to build the scopes, but they had time for the Ark, or maybe not, maybe all effort went to the Ark... Anyway, even if they DID make the scopes there is no guarantee they would know what to look for like we would. How long did it take us to figure out what a "habitable" world would be, even stretching what we would consider habitable?
3. Their drive if I remember right from the earlier chapters is driven by a miniature sun as its energy source. It explodes to produce a huge surge of energy, then they use that to teleport. I don't remember if a cruising speed for in-system travel or engine type for in-system travel was ever mentioned. Maybe they just used smaller core sustainable jumps for in-system travel.
Anyway, i've been awake far too long, this is just random extrapolation pulled from the story so far by my sleep deprived mind. Ill post this and see what kind of response Ive got when i wake up for work.
8018262
40 billion earth sized planets is a true statistic (far as I know). However, how common is life? That's an unknown. Scientists have used the Drake Equation as a guide to estimate how many 'advanced civilizations' there would be out there in the galaxy. The number varies from single digits (suggesting it's exceedingly rare) to hundreds of thousands. We just don't know the prevalence of life in our universe, and life is required for a solidly oxygen atmosphere, which is required for Equis/Earth life. (And having too much oxygen causes it's own problems). I specifically chose to make habitable worlds rare in this setting for plot purposes - I think there's maybe 100 in the entire galaxy, and you've seen 3. (the ruined planet was habitable, just had a radiation problem.) The only reason they found these is because they were directed to them.
Their ship is FTL, but it's slow, and would take months to cross the 100,000 light years of the galactic disc at top speed. And they were moving out *very* slowly, checking out every star they thought might have something. (those 40 billion or so earth sized planets that DON'T have oxygen atmospheres, or life of any kind, don't have a jupiter, don't have a magnetic field, etc.) They checked maybe a star every couple of days, staying to study the more interesting places they found. So let's assume 3 stars a week, 50 or so weeks in a year, 150 stars a year, over around 600 years... 90,000 stars, if you want to round up, they've explored around 100,000 stars in their time out here. That's a lot. But there are a hundred billion stars in the galaxy. If there are only roughly 100 habitable worlds in the entire galaxy, even if we assume they skipped one million stars they knew wouldn't work for their purposes, that doesn't even dent the stars in the galaxy as a whole.
As for your last point, they were using telescopes to look out into other stars. That's what Luna was doing in the Observatory in the early chapters. Maybe this allowed them to cross out, say, a million stars, oh, maybe even ten million stars they wouldn't have to go in and check. Ten million isn't even one percent of a hundred billion.
Thanks for your question! I never really got the chance to write this out in the story.
-GM, master of SCIENCE.
8018262 I don't think they did randomly jump, they used that alien map they found. The Gari's world is one of those worlds on the map, if memory serves.
On topic, the mystery deepens! Is this 'secret' they found another mite? Do they have magic too in the form of seers?
8018276
"Eating up your own propaganda."
That's what Forsoo is doing, he truly believes that what the higher ups say is better for the planet as a whole, not just the Seers of Garilend. Though there IS a bigger reason behind the shooting down besides simple paranoia and ensured dominance.
-GM, master of polls.
8018309
8018317
Oh thanks for your input! Some clarifications though:
It wasn't quite blind teleportation, they knew which star they were going to each time they jumped - or which direction they were going anyway - but it was still pretty slow.
There is a cruising system - the main engines (like the ones salvaged and used to make New Cloudsdale) were sub-FTL speeds. The stellar jump drive needed no external 'engines' at all, it just teleported the ship.
And yes, the only reason they found the habitable worlds is because it was on the map. It would have taken many more centuries to stumble across one by accident.
-GM, master of inks.
8018311 My meaning was not 40 billion planets with life. I'm talking about planets capable of sustaining it. An Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone with a Nitrogen-oxygen wouldn't be horrendously uncommon. And I was just pointing out something, I know you had to do this for plot purposes. Oh, and I did the math, the if you travel across 100,000 light years in 6 months, you are travelling about 60 TRILLION meters per second. That speed isn't slow. Hell, compared to all our modern devices, going at ONE light year per 6 months is impossible.
Yep the Overseer is one smart cookie, aliens who can warp reality, yea rally best to NOT be hostile toward them. Better to convince their higher ups that you secret organization is needed and get their help. Simplistic propaganda is fine for the lower ranks, but successful leaders need to see things in shades of grey not black and white
8018606 when Discord gets involved you need to think in butterflies of plaid, not shades of gray. And mostly "If I screw up with the reality warper's friends there'll be hell to pay for my organization - and the entire planet."
Gotta say I'm anxious for the next chapter. That director fella has his head in the right place
I love this the most out of the entire awesome chapter!
8018534
Our Oxygen atmosphere was formed because there were microbes that made it. Without life, you get things like venus and mars, atmospheres that are NOT rich in oxygen. Oxygen is not a common element to be found in dense quantities in atmospheres. Sure, they probably do exist, but the best known way to get them is to have microbes, over the course of several million years, convert the atmosphere. (Or terraforming, but if the Equi had the means to terraform, they would have stayed on the ruined planet, or some other a long time ago).
Well, yes, i'm aware any sort of FTL is impossible. (There was another story in the works that was supposed to use RL physics, but that's been put on the backburner for now.) And I'm aware slow is a bad term, heck, any sort of 'speed word' is a bad term when talking about the immensities of space. XD
-GM, master of slices of bacon.
8018311 Not arguing, just discussion.
I've always thought life would be a bit more common. Aside from Earth, our own solar system has one other celestial body has large amounts of stable surface water. This being Titan, and while the liquid is methane, I see no reason something couldn't evolve to live there. Considering creatures like the Tardigrade can live pretty much anywhere, and there's that one Arsenic consuming organism found in a toxic lake in California.
Aside from that, we have Europa, yet another moon with, in my opinion, a high probability of some kind of life, fueled by hydrothermal vents in a planetary ocean under a frozen surface.
Well the Director is different than his cohorts. I guess this is good?
8018915 IRL, life is probably pretty ubiquitous throughout the universe, if recent discoveries here are to be believed-the oldest evidence for life on Earth got pushed back to 4.2 billion years ago, which is effectively the moment things cooled enough for there to be liquid water. Whether or not it's complex life is another matter, of course.
8018915
True, very true, scientists are scraping Mars and Europa looking for possibilities for life. But just as the Drake Equation proves that we really don't know the values or probabilities of complex life, there's another concept that makes us wonder if life really is that complex: The Fermi Peridox. Where ARE all the aliens? Why haven't we seen any definite evidence of life anywhere?
Now don't get me wrong, I think it'd be cool to have aliens. (Though sapient aliens would be philosophically challenging). And if we find things on Europa that'll be great, and it'll probably deny my assumptions in this story. (Because even if complex life is super-duper-rare or perhaps even unique to earth, microbial and simple life can create a simple atmosphere, which means it's habitable.)
There is a problem with titan - life as we know it needs liquid water. Titan's isn't water. Now, it is fully possible for life NOT as we know it to form there - there are theoretical forms of life based on things other than carbon and water - but we've never seen any evidence of it. Earth is carbon-water, every last one. Even tardigrades need it eventually.
-GM, master of bikes.
8020694
I'm a fan of the Zoo hypothesis actually. Same lines as Stark Trek's federation, there are aliens out there, possibly watching us, but they don't contact other species until they reach a point in their development I mean... honestly, looking at the world today, would introducing humans to the intergalactic community really be a good idea?
We also used to think that all life needed the sun in one way or another. Until we found a thriving ecosystem miles below the surface, powered by Earth's on hydrothermal vents. I get what you're saying, but it's fair to point out our view of life has always been very centric to ourselves. Like back before we found those vents, people thought nothing could live down there because of how inhospitable it is.
8021116
Yeah, life as we don't know it would be very interesting. Frankly, had I thought of it, I might have included an uninhabitable world that was filled with non-standard Aliens, but I didn't think of it. XD
That being said, as for the Fermi Paradox and the Zoo Hypothesis... Are you up for watching a really long video that explores the concept in depth!? Cause I got one!
You don't have to watch it if you don't want to, but I'll leave it here. (It is really long, thought provoking, but long.)
Credit where credit's due, PhiliChez showed me these videos a few chapters ago. XD
-GM, master of vids.
8021135 I'll watch it later. I have class between now and when it'd take me to finish it, but I'm always up for sci-fi
I am surprised they would manage to tranquilize Twilight. She would be anticipating the attack and would rise defensive wards around herself or she would wear something like Celestia around neck with defensive ward enchantments.
8023532
*shrug* guess they just got lucky. And shot a lot of darts quickly. Didn't really matter in the end, seeing as Discord cheats.
-GM, master of cheating beets.
Or, my own personal theory, the Gari have an immortal of their own.
Very nice chapter, good work.
8023819 It's not cheating. He just plays by a different set of rules.
Mainly, his.
I have to say. It gives me a DEEPLY satisfaction when 'magic' simply faceroll over technology like that. Overpowering every thing technology has to offer with barely any effort~
Please. more!
8032868 Only to certain degrees. Something like Discord, who just naturally no-sells everything would be all but impossible to deal with conventionally, but the ability to put up a barrier to block gunfire won't help when the one with that power doesn't see the bullet, that was fired at over a kilometre away, coming. It's also probably possible to overload barriers. Teleportation would cause trouble, but in between teleports, the user is still vulnerable.
8032868
Me too. My headcanon is it's Clarkian Tech, so any technology just gets hacked -- via physical access, and probably via a route unknown to us -- roughly instantly. Not to mention it emulates any tech that they haven't invented yet...
Also, no one seems to have mentioned it, but I suddenly suspect the overseer is the one who hugged the tree, and that's the epiphany mentioned.
Or maybe it's just an empty folder meant to act as a symbol.