Part 3: Agent Sava Domeria, administrative agent category alpha.
Relative Timeline: Ta6Lo61100
Area: Sector E, Utela galaxy
Location: Interstallar Space
Control: Universal Administration [UA]
Affiliation: Universal Administration [UA]
Slumped on the couch in her living room, Sava Domeria felt absolutely relaxed. The memory foam of this seat was a marvelous invention, even surpassing the food synthesizer in her top ten…
Sitting comfortably as she was, even the usual bad news in the news had no effect on her.
A new rebellion has announced its formation in Homeria. Claiming to “liberate the people from the iniquitous censorship laws imposed by force on Homeria”, they have decided to call themselves the “New New-Rebellion”, the “N.N.R.” Their leaders have officially announced that they refuse to fill out the forms necessary for their activity and that they will soon carry out illegal acts of a terrorist nature, once they have managed to reach an agreement among themselves. The authorities haven’t commented, but public rumor claims that this new terrorist group hides among the Nomads, outside the galaxies, making them difficult to locate. Citizens' committees throughout the Administration have petitioned their deputies to demand that effective measures finally be taken against these marginal bandits who regularly threaten... […]
News on the Zcarbb front. After many peaceful standard decades, the Zcarbbs seem to be launching a new series of gratuitous aggressions against the administered territories. While some attacks seem to follow their usual logic of colonization, others are characterized by unusual violence and massacres followed by the abandonment of the system by the aggressor. This worrying change in Zcarbbs’ habits has caused a reinforcement of the galaxy-fleets stationed on their borders. The Institution of War claims that the situation is under control and that there is no need to worry, while asking for more budget and encouraging valiant citizens to commit to defending Civilization against the nameless barbarity of these monsters who… […]
A new law has been finalized regarding the need for citizen representation within all administered nations and requiring the inclusion in constitutions of the principles…
Just as she was about to fall asleep, Sava was startled awake by a drone. The small floating sphere, covered in pink and white fur except for its retro-looking camera, circled around her, emitting an alarm noise until she felt compelled to get up to catch it.
Although she had programmed this type of alert herself, she still hated it. Before accepting the incoming communication, she checked that her image would not be transmitted to her interlocutor. Even if her pajamas were quite decent, she had no intention of showing herself in such casual attire...
“But it's still a day off,” she grumbled before starting the conversation.
A Yapa in impeccable uniform glared at her, probably annoyed at not seeing an image displayed in return for hers. Politeness required a certain reciprocity.
“Agent Domeria! Are you connected? Answer!”
The Ham gave herself a moment to think. She could pretend to have a reception problem. Or perhaps pretend she was absent and the communication had opened on its own. Although she knew she wouldn't do it, leaving her boss in the lurch when he called her was a pleasant fantasy. She answered him:
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yes, yes, Agent Domeria reporting. Sorry, but I'm not presentable: I'm not supposed to be on duty.”
The Yapa blushed, which was hardly visible because of the red fur covering his body.
“Uh... yes, forgive me for the inconvenience. However, an urgent mission has appeared in your sector[1]. Go there immediately and solve the case. Over.”
The communication cut off and a large hologram floated in the room, detailing the mission orders. With a bad temper, she discovered that a Hom warlord had repeatedly encroached on the territory of a neighboring nation, somewhere in the Utela galaxy, causing some minor damage. The kind of incident that could lead to a local war, negligible on a universal scale but still best avoided in the name of Administrative Peace.
The troublemaker was a Hom with some power, a small dictator who ruled a small piece of a galaxy in sector E, by the Hom custom which said that the one with the biggest gun and good rhetoric had the right to reign.
It was not insignificant that it was someone of her species who was sent to resolve this kind of situation, in this case a Ham, or a female of the Hom race. Envoys of another race had about a 75% additional probability of never returning from those missions or of going on sick leave right after, with a bad migraine. The Homs were universally renowned for the deviousness of their politics and their games of half-truths. Despite her ancestry, she was not sure she would emerge victorious from an oratorical joust against an experienced politician.
Leaving the living room, Sava quickly took off her pajamas and ordered the automatic machines to project her suit. It appeared almost instantly on her skin, first the initial, tight-fitting armor, then the looser clothing that made her feel less exposed. These clothes could easily transform into a spacesuit or instantly make compressed weapons appear, while the initial armor could withstand almost anything.
She then went into the cockpit of the ship. The craft had already started to move towards its destination and her presence was not necessary. Nevertheless, she liked to observe the screens that gave the impression that the space around the vehicle was scrolling. Of course, after a teleportation then a movement at superluminal speed, the clear image that surrounded her was a simple reconstruction of the decor.
The ship slowed down and a very real image appeared: a gigantic space fortress. Appearing to be formed of multiple giant cubes, red, orange, yellow and gray, assembled haphazardly, the immense space base was equipped with an impressive number of cannons pointed in all directions as well as a large model designed to annihilate celestial bodies in a single shot: the kind of gadget that any Hom rich enough to buy a planet liked to have.
The procedure was automated, but she still manually checked that her defenses were all active and that her access authorizations had been accepted.
Her ship decided to park in the middle of a vast space surrounded by large, heavily armed battleships, painted the same dark orange as the exterior of the ship. Fortunately, the interior of the fortress was painted in tones of off-white and black that were more pleasant to the eye and formed numerous arabesques.
Before leaving, Sava added a holster to her belt and visibly added a large pistol. Those of her people liked big weapons and carrying one would flatter their ego while reducing the risk of being assassinated. If killing an administrative agent was a serious crime that could provoke the intervention of the army, it often happened that some mysteriously disappeared despite their advanced equipment.
Outside the ship, a column of about ten soldiers in orange and black uniforms awaited her. They greeted her martially, as they would greet any visitor of their master, then invited her to follow them through a maze of corridors.
They finally reached the throne room, the control room, or whatever pompous name had been chosen. The agent detected its position well before they arrived there: there was an invisible dome that blocked all attempts to probe this part of the fortress. Her suit discreetly retrieved the spy nanobots that had scouted the terrain before her passage, leaving a few behind to generate a backup beacon in case she did not return.
As the armored doors of the central room opened, Sava could not help but tremble slightly with apprehension. She knew the customs of her people perfectly and could avoid most fatal missteps. She knew how the sense of honor worked, sometimes artificial but of a necessary appearance, which guided the actions of the ruling classes. However, one could not exclude the possibility of coming face to face with a deviant of the worst kind who would render all her knowledge useless…
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[1] Note: although the word sector is used, it is in fact a sectoral subdivision which can extend between several sectors… If you have not understood, refer to the documentation available in your nearest administrative center on the subject of administrative divisions.