“What do they want from us? Why did they change the destination?”
Sava growled at Lhom's questions, but as he insisted, she replied:
“What can I know about it?”
“Well, since you call yourself an expert in Zcarbb...”
“By the Secret Council! Go get lost to the Hogloos!"
Azxaron looked at the data that was displayed on his screen and typed new instructions with difficulty. With difficulty because Xini clung tightly to his arm. This time, it was not only to ask for a hug, but also because fear invaded them both.
Being captured by the Zcarbbs would not be too annoying: they would simply reduce them to slavery and make them work in their laboratories, which was not particularly inconvenient, except for the loss of freedom to travel.
However, the Zcarbbs might not understand if they asked for a year of leave before starting work. The emotional period they were going through was unique in their lives: not only would they be inefficient at work, but their happiness would also be spoiled by this loss of freedom and forced labor.
They had promised to serve Lhom, so they couldn’t just abandon him there… Or could they use the one lying opportunity in their lives to break that oath and get to safety? He would wait, but if things got out of hand… Lhom believed their ship could teleport him in an emergency, but he didn’t know that that system was currently set to their people’s DNA only…
“We are in... in the Urus system, still in Utela.” he announced.
As expected, surprise showed on Sava Domeria's features. Among the billions of habitable systems in this galaxy, they had to get to the one she had once saved from the Zcarbbs.
The guidance software indicated a spaceport. No hostile action on its part had been detected: it seemed to be a normal guidance software.
The ship landed, still surrounded by half a dozen Zcarbb fighters.
The crew of the “Lost Truth” waited nervously for the door to open. It would be quick, but they would find themselves thrown into a new journey as soon as they passed through it. An image of the outside was projected in the middle of the door, as if one could see through it.
It looked like a normal spaceport. Ships of various types were there, with a few Zcarbb ships. Workers and robots were transporting goods, as were a few Zcarbb workers. Everything seemed absolutely normal, except for all the Zcarbb soldiers standing guard or those checking their weapons as a reception committee. In short, only the Zcarbbs were not part of the familiar landscape of spaceports. Perhaps the crowds embarking or disembarking were also missing: this place seemed to be a spaceport dedicated to trade.
The door opened on the crowd of Zcarbb soldiers armed to the mandibles.
A worker stepped forward, armed with a scanner. He pointed at Lhom’s weapon and motioned for him to throw it away, before explaining in a clumsy administered gibberish:
“No weapon. No danger. Throw away. Zcarbb stop equipment. You see queen: no danger bring.”
As he said this, he flooded them with jamming software designed to render their electronic equipment unusable. With a sigh, the Hom threw his weapon behind him, then ordered the ship to be closed. The worker flinched:
“But? Check ship! But? But?”
The captain advanced towards the soldiers, apparently without fear.
“Well, you will check later, my good bug. We will first speak to your queen, as you wish. Without weapon, as you wish. However, before being allowed to search our ship, you will have to wait for your queen’s final decision.”
The worker seemed displeased, although it was hard to tell looking at such a creature, but it seemed to give up.
The soldiers then escorted them to the counter located at the entrance to the spaceport. A lady was there, in an administrative uniform of the Network Institution, Sub-Institution of Communications, which also took care of most of the spaceports. With blue skin and a hypertrophied head from which four horns emerged, the employee was clearly not a Zcarbb.
“Your arrival was not planned,” she said, “so please fill out the forms dedicated to exceptional arrivals.”
She handed them all a computerized plastic sheet containing said forms. Even to the Zcarbb soldiers who had landed with them. They diligently began to fill out the documents, under the astonished eyes of the four intruders.
“Do Zcarbb soldiers know how to fill out forms?” Lhom murmured.
“Apparently,” Domeria agreed, forgetting to be aggressive, “they don't even use pre-recorded data...”
The receptionist gave them a look that showed a hint of curiosity.
“You have trouble filling out the forms? It's been a long time since a tourist was stupid enough to land in a Zcarbb zone...”
“We're not tourists, Sava protested, but administrative agents...”
“Oh? Suicidal people then?”
“No, no: we didn't even know it was a Zcarbb zone. We had been cut off from the present for about fifty years. Besides, what's going on here? Why do we have to fill out administrative forms to land in a Zcarbb zone?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The hostess smiled sympathetically, quite proud to teach her patrons something:
“You didn't know that the Zcarbbs keep the administrative structures in conquered territory? The Network beacons, the basic rules and procedures, the personnel… well, they removed all the useless ones, they even improved the efficiency of the system, but overall, the Administration still exists, even in a galaxy half, or maybe three-quarters, under the Zcarbbs.”
She picked up the forms, putting them in the slot provided for this purpose while casting an absent-minded glance at the data that was displayed, automatically processed by the algorithms of her computer.
A name, fleetingly glimpsed, made her stop dead in her tracks. She rushed to her keyboard to review the data, then cast a curious glance at the strangers who were already leaving the spaceport.
“It can't be... But she said it was fifty years ago... It's not... Is it?”
The streets and architecture of Urus were similar to Sava’s memories… Well, many of the buildings had to date from after her visit, of course… Some buildings were even clearly inspired by Zcarbb, which was something that couldn’t be found before.
People walked the streets, wearing dissimilar clothes, as if from different fashions. Many were also in work overalls, or busy carrying various loads… In fact, she had never seen so many people working in an Administration city… except in videos dating from before the unemployment explosion, perhaps.
Many military patrols passed through the streets. Zcarbbs leading robots that looked like them, but they were sometimes also accompanied by soldiers from other species and armed more lightly. Did the Zcarbbs use mercenaries or local troops?
The inhabitants didn’t seem particularly happy, but not particularly unhappy either. At this point, one could think that life continued without any notable change.
Visible from afar, a gigantic palace shone in the sun. It seemed to consist of a dome and multiple towers, made of a mixture of Zcarbb amber and various metal alloys. Several towers were visibly topped with antennas and multiple gargoyles in the image of the Zcarbbs stood guard on the roof... or maybe they were war robots.
The air was almost devoid of traffic. From time to time, a delivery ship, or a winged Zcarbb, or a public transport vehicle could be seen passing by, but nothing like the dense traffic of the past. The advertising billboards had also practically disappeared, those remaining giving local information, such as the weather or productivity curves of the factories.
“Oh! Sava, look!”
She turned angrily to Lhom. She had already told him not to call her by her first name anymore and he was still going! But she remained stunned, forgetting to complain about the spectacle that met her eyes.
A large statue stood in the middle of a vast square. Finely sculpted from holo-images, but with some liberties of positioning taken by the artist, it showed a Ham holding a small Zcarbb princess towards gigantic strategic bombers and Zcarbb shuttles, represented with rock equipped with an antigravity device. The statue was realistically colored and a particular shade in the paint gave an impression of movement.
“But…” Sava stammered, “this… this… this is me?”
The base of the statue must have been sixty-five feet by sixty-five[1]. Names were written all over the base, in holographic letters that changed from time to time. Commemorative plaques floated in the air all around the building, indicating what it was:
SAVA DOMERIA, savior of Urus.
In memory of the Zcarbb attack and the countless victims.
May the Administration deliver us from these monsters.
The Zcarbbs didn’t seem to be moved by the presence of a monument whose text was openly hostile to them. However, that wasn’t what astonished Sava the most.
A monument. They had erected an entire monument to her! She didn’t know whether to feel proud or embarrassed. In any case, she knew she was blushing.
She heard a growl and, turning around, saw an old Human man approaching who looked a little agitated. He spat on the ground and made a detour to avoid the Zcarbb soldiers, all the while muttering to himself:
“Damn chaotiun! How can there still be chaotiuns on a planet infested with Zcarbbs? Filthy beast! What did it mean by ‘improbable plot coincidence’? In any case, if I catch him, I’m going to make him pay for stealing my hat!”
He then noticed that he was facing the young Ham and that he couldn’t go around her without getting closer to the Zcarbbs. Fortunately, he had to tell himself, she seemed to want to head in the same direction but had stopped to admire the monument.
“Anyway, that foul beast could be anywhere now… probably with my hat on… Hey, you’re a tourist, huh? Given the escort.”
“I… almost,” she replied, “I’m an administrative agent.”
“Ah. She was too.”
He pointed to the statue next to them.
“You may know the history of the planet? It may have been forgotten since we're in the middle of a universal war, but a long time ago, it made headlines in the Administration... Those were the good old days... well, when we weren't dying disintegrated by a death ray thrown by the Zcarbbs, of course... There was a time when they got really pissed off and they started destroying and killing everything. They were attacking from everywhere. At the time, I was leading the forces of the Republic of Urus... yeah, at one time we were a powerful republic, among the most powerful in this galaxy... The good old days. Well, when we thought we were lost, she arrived. Sava Domeria. She was an administrative agent too and she had found out why the Zcarbbs were annoyed: one of their princesses had disappeared and they thought it was us. I don't know how she did it, but she gave them back the princess, talked to them, and they stopped all their attacks. Even withdrew from some planets...”
The old man saluted the statue with pride, a simple and classic military salute, but one that showed his respect.
“You know, I saw her in person. She looked a lot like you, actually. She contacted me to help her and I knew right away that she was going to get us out of there... I even got a medal afterward... Then, she disappeared... The girl, not the medal. They say she was killed by Azar terrorists, but I don't believe it. There's a rumor that she had discovered that the old Administration was responsible for the Zcarbb attack and that they silenced her for that. I don't know what to think about it, because it still sounds a lot like simple Confederate propaganda, but it's already more credible than the Azar clan: what would they care about her, them?”
He threw a dirty look at the Zcarbb soldiers who were getting impatient.
“Yeah, whatever, it's not the same world anymore... At least, those Zcarbb scum aren’t killing us massively now... You'll see, one of these days heroes like Domeria will rise up and change the world... At the same time, it seems that it's worse on other planets... Oh, you have to go? Good luck with the queen then. She likes to chat with visitors. Normally, she won't have you killed... Avoid insulting her in front of the soldiers: you can say whatever you want, even against them, insulting the queen directly is the only thing they don't forgive. In a way, compared to the Administration, we lost all freedoms, but we gained the freedom of expression… I suppose that… Well… I have to go try to find my hat. Good luck.”
And the old man walked away.
Sava realized that they had walked a bit together, walking slowly but walking all the same. The old man disappeared around the corner of the statue while she mechanically followed her escort towards the palace.
She suppressed her emotions, but she felt tears ready to well up at the edges of her eyes. This centenarian old man, she had recognized him… Time had indeed passed…
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[1] twenty meters by twenty (O.V.)