When he appeared on the hangar's reception platform, the software on his wrist-computer immediately discovered the location of the ship whose key they had received, communicating with the local interfaces to illuminate the path before the Hom's steps.

Arriving in front of the opaque force field that protected the indicated place, it went out to reveal the ovoid shape of a magnificent ship.

Silver in color, displaying gigantic symbols of the Administration, the spaceship was a marvel worthy of an alpha+ agent. As a beginner, he would have expected to receive an older model. He decided to make the ramp go down and climb aboard quietly, rather than being teleported or using an elevator beam: he wanted to enjoy the moment.

A micro-camera left his bracelet and projected directly into his eyes the information he wanted to consult about the ship. What he saw pleased him: cutting-edge weaponry, excellent defense software... a core using three grains of stabilizium? It was more power than a spacecraft-carrier the size of a city would require! Such power for such a small ship? Perhaps it was to provide for thrusters powerful enough to outrun any other craft? In any case, these were indeed state of the art models that might be possible to push beyond the recommended limits without too much risk.

The interior was of a regulatory sobriety, but without the grayish and sinister tint of some civil servants' offices: the colors and layouts had been chosen to remain pleasant to the eye.

There were about twenty rooms, not to mention the technical corridors intended to access the core or the thrusters. He went first to the cockpit, located roughly in the center of the ship: models seriously designed for conflict never had windows or walls facing the outside, but relied on the multiple external sensors to reproduce this illusion from the safest place in the vehicle.

The room was a small command room, easily accommodating half a dozen operators. The perimeter of the room was occupied by various secondary stations, such as a communication station, a navigation station, a defense station… multiple functions that could also be managed from the central seat or by using it to transfer functions from one station to another. The large screens that covered the walls presented the exterior landscape of the hangar, as if they were windows.

The central seat was comfortable, even having a wave massage function: a real captain's chair. Even as he sat down, multiple holographic screens appeared, indicating the status of the ship's various functions. He placed his right arm on the armrest, so that his identity bracelet integrated into the wrist-computer could be scanned. His identity verified; the machine began to exchange data with the ship: now he could control it remotely.

He saw with satisfaction that, despite its modernity, the ship had an old Z.I.A. interface, and not those modern models that talked incessantly and had citizen rights. Where was the worlds going if it was said that machines were intelligent and that politicians only needed robotics factories to manufacture voters?

Of course, this was not a thought he would formulate out loud for fear of breaking the law. Not to mention the fear of a fine, he was now a representative of the Administration and had to act as such.

He began to download his own illegal software into the onboard computer. More powerful than the official ones, these would considerably improve its performance, both for hostile and defensive actions. He saw no contradiction between his action and his previous thought: every self-respecting Hom has at least some illegal software or weapons, it had become downright tradition. Some manufacturers even paid fortunes to have their products labeled “illegal” in order to increase their sales to the Hom public.

Satisfied, he left his comfortable seat to wander through his ship. The cockpit gave access to the main corridor where the professional parts were located: hangar for light vehicles, armory... If the first was empty, the second was occupied by a few regular weapons and space suits of various uses. He also found a matter synthesizer there that had already printed his uniform.

He put it on, entrusting his previous clothes to the maintenance drones so that they could take them to his personal room. He would discover it soon.

Continuing his visit, he took the elevator beam at the end of the corridor, preferably over the teleportation module, to go up to the living floor. Going down, he could have gone to the hold but he would explore it last. A corridor led to a circular room, at least twice the diameter of the cockpit, in which there were several groups of armchairs and sofas. A main group surrounded a central table that seemed to be made of wood but hid many electronic gadgets. There was enough there to gather a whole crew, or allow them to disperse into small groups.

Libre smiled amusedly: it was unlikely that he would ever have a crew, most of the alpha-level agents chose to work alone. They had the privilege of such a ship of function anyway. Some even lived there with their families.

The corridor also gave access to two rooms half this size but completely empty. The rest room contained nine other passages leading respectively to seven bedrooms, a kitchen and a shower. The kitchen was stocked with the superfluous necessary for any cook, the tools carefully stored in magnetic drawers to prevent them from being dispersed by some incident, but concretely the indispensable object was the food synthesizer which used the resources of the ship's various matter tanks to produce any food.

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The shower consisted of an area with a sink and three quite-large individual rooms equipped with everything necessary: a far cry from the tiny wave enema tubes used in less expensive ships. The young agent thought that given the position of the showers, he could easily divert some of the water to install a swimming pool in the one of the large empty rooms that was adjacent… He would think about it in time.

As he opened the room marked “Captain’s Cabin”, he had already forgotten that he was in a spaceship: he could just as easily have been in a mid-range apartment. The cabin contained several wall-mounted storage units, a desk and even a partition from the more personal part of the room where there was a real bed. Not a sleep tube: a real bed… although, this one was installed just above a sleep tube. These were mandatory anyway because they also served as escape pods in case the ship was destroyed.

Well, it only left the hold to visit… unless there were also some secret rooms? He would have to check the ship’s plan. Well, if there weren’t any, it was easy to add. He could also explore the maintenance areas, to see the stabilizer core, the Walker engine, the missile launchers and all the other wonders that justified the doubling of the size of the ship compared to the space occupied by the various official rooms.

An alert sounded on his bracelet. A quick glance told him that it was a priority message to read from the cockpit. With a thought directed towards his device, he authorized the internal teleportation and suddenly appeared on his command seat. The wonders of modern teleportation even allowed him to appear seated when he had previously been standing. So where would progress stop?

“Reading!” he ordered. Immediately, a holographic screen oscillating between green and red appeared. It indicated a valid authorization code and was addressed to his registration number.

Priority Mission

Reach the following coordinates in less than 1800 Tiks and wait for instructions.

The coordinates indicated were literally on the other side of the universe. He could get there within a second… Or maybe within a minute, given the departure formalities.

Opening a window corresponding to the navigation station, he selected the arrival point to find himself a little further than the expected location: if he had that much time, he might as well make a small detour to admire the landscape.

He launched the takeoff procedure, letting the administrative algorithms negotiate his departure window. With his alpha+ priority, it would be quick.

Sure enough, a handful of Tiks later, the shuttle found itself instantly transported into orbit, at the optimum distance for infinite teleportation. Although he could have let the automatic systems take care of everything, Libre redirected the command of the Walker engine to a large lever located on a floating tablet linked to his seat, within reach. He thus had the pleasure of personally and manually initiate the jump.

He immediately found himself at the edge of the universe.

Of course, the universe was infinite: any serious scientist would tell you that. However, there were places so damaged that they were considered edges. The “I” sector was one of them.

The space that appeared to his right, on the screens, was black. A total black where not a single star shone, contrasting with the myriad points of light to his left. There were suns on the other side of this zone, but even if you gave their light billions of years to cross it, it would disappear before reaching the other side.

This was a cursed zone, from a semi-legendary past: the third Tanaé and the mysterious “War of the Indestructible” that had taken place there. The civilizations of the first stellar era had had to ally themselves to face an invincible monster that, according to legend, destroyed all the known worlds one by one. This creature absorbed energy. It was as simple as that. No weapon could do anything against it except feed it...

Of course, there were now weapons capable of absorbing all forms of energy and such a catastrophe could no longer occur. It was not even known if the monster responsible still existed and if others of its kind could appear. It had disappeared one day, leaving this area of the universe frozen, devoid of the slightest energy. The suns were out and a cold unparalleled in the void of the universe occupied the place, quickly draining of their energy any devices stupid enough to try to explore the place.

Magnifying the range of his screens, the Hom observed images of planets frozen in a glacial agony. The light of these images had itself undergone a long ordeal before managing to tear itself away from the “I” zone to be offered to the outside vision...

The agent swallowed as he observed the ancient buildings in ruins and the forms of the inhabitants, still standing: only the absence of the existence of movement in these places prevented them all from instantly falling into dust, although dead since an eternity.

This terrible catastrophe had weakened the great nations of the time and allowed the emergence of a group of fanatics: the “anti-globalists”. Their goal was to definitively put an end to space civilizations and to prohibit interstellar travel. Specialists of this time of history explain the popularity of this movement by a belief of the time that the overpowering power of the Indestructible monster was due to the existence of the stellar nations and their determination to confront this threat, thereby feeding it. The end of the third Tanaé was the great war of the anti-globalists whose victory inaugurated the fourth Tanaé: the Dark Age. It is said that the Hogloos had supported the anti-globalists, which had allowed their civilization to become so powerful during the fifth Tanaé…

Tearing himself away from the sight of this cemetery of nothingness, the Hom ordered his device to set the jump for its final destination. He suddenly lowered the lever, as if his vigorous action could pull him faster from this terrible place.