Illian read over the message from Inquisitor Hynn again.

“Until further notice you are not to leave the planet. As you have uncovered an imminent threat to the fleet upon Earth, we will not be allowing any other planet side travel until this threat is better understood. There are several other agents on the planet and they can be utilized to help you identify that threat. Until further notice, your ship is grounded.”

“Now. Do I tell him about my ship being missing?” She muttered to herself.

This is absolutely unacceptable. Damn that man. He sent her here to check in with the agent… things, and now he strands her here? If only that damn creature hadn’t told her about that attack. She reported it to that late hatching, bottom feeding, brackish backwater leech!

“Affirmative command. Grounded until further notice, please send a list of agents and the means to contact them.” She replied.

“I could use a hand here 712.” She said aloud. Grounded. She hoped that the AI was just dealing with some kind of solar anomaly, space weather, as Fy’thrill called it.

She paced around the tiny room in frustration. Now, she is going to be stuck here until this weapon is evaluated. If there is a weapon that can do this kind of damage, she could see the point of the precaution. She just didn’t like it.

Fy’thrill walked into the room, a look of worry on the creature's face.

“Bad news?” She asked.

I suppose that depends on what side of it you are on, Illian thought.

“I’ll be looking for the other agents on this rock soon. We have a mission. Apparently that weapon needs to be tracked down before any further interactions with Sol-3 for anyone not already planetside,” Illian says with clear annoyance in her voice.

“Can we be of any assistance?” Fy’thrill asked her guest.

“I may need you to drive me to the nearest agents once I have the list,” Illian said with the annoyance clearly thick on her voice.

“I know it's not my place, but don't you think you'll stand out, you know… out there?” She asked, cocking her head towards the street beyond the wall.

“Then you will get another transport where I will look less conspicuous,” Illian instructed. Yes her massive frame and environmental suit will likely stand out, but there are ways around that to be sure.

The clone agent nodded at the order, then turned on heel and walked away, leaving Illian alone once more.

The thought of being stuck here for an extended amount of time made her feel sick. She wanted to go back to her quarters and see her mate and sleep in her own rest pod. The suit is also getting uncomfortable. She changes the fluids regularly, has cleaned it several times since coming here, and the electronics still have a high charge.

She sat on the bed and laid back against the wall. Activating the screen on the dresser, Illian started flipping through programs.

—

Orangeskull looked dumbfounded. This isn’t an unusual thing. His lackey, whose name he did not recall, had just told him that nearly two dozen satellites have been reported as lost without any data that tracked their descent or destruction.

“Well, they couldn’t just disappear right?” Orangeskull asks the lackey.

“No sir. I have been told that if they were destroyed there would be data to report that, if they had been knocked from orbit, they would have been seen and tracked on a number of radar systems. These just vanished,” The lackey conveyed.

“Vanished huh? So they didn’t disappear?” Orangeskull asked for clarification.

The lackey looked at the president strangely, likely trying to figure out what the difference between the two is, and finding nothing to differentiate the two words beyond spelling.

“Yes?” The lackey finally replies.

“I see. I see. Well, let’s get a rocket up there to check in on the issue. When can NASA have a rocket ready to zoom up?” Orangeskull asks the gobstopped young man.

“I am… I’m not sure sir,” The lackey replied. The face the man was making made it more than clear that they have no idea what Orangeskull is thinking. Sending up a rocket? What?

“Well then go check on that, I want someone up there looking around for what happened, things don’t just vanish like that,” The president ordered.

The new lackey of the week walked from the room while trying to figure out how exactly he is supposed to pursue the president's orders.

Orangeskull unlocked his smartphone and started scrolling through his contacts to Rocket Man and began formulating the text to the other world leader.

“Hi Kim we have some satellite stuff going on do you have the same” Orangeskull sent.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“This is Su-Ho mister president. I will ask Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un when he is free and get back to you as soon as possible,” The reply read.

He then scrolled down to Vlad and sent a text to the Russian leader, receiving a similar text to that he received from the leader of North Korea, then on to Saudi Arabia, then Israel, then China. No one instantly gave him an answer and his impatience was growing thin.

A knock at the door preceded Kelly entering the office carrying a cold Diet Coke, her energy beaming as she walks to his desk and hands him the drink. “Good morning Mr. President, Jim told me about the satellite issue and I have relayed your concerns to the vice president and Goldie and they are looking into it,” She assures him.

“Good. Good. Who is Jim?” He asked.

“The new Coke boy,” She tells him.

“Oh! Yeah. I knew that. I call him Jimmy,” Orangeskull lied while taking the chilled beverage from the woman.

The woman sits on the couch and begins scanning her social media accounts and checking the current news feed for talking points.

Seeing her getting down to business made Orangeskull self conscious and he began scrolling his social media feeds in the hopes of looking busy.

The television was on and Orangeskull’s friends were busying themselves flattering him. This was the highlight of his day and made him feel important and loved, so he turned it up. A commercial interrupted his fix.

“Are you tired of the dog eat dog contracts of the cellular companies? Tired of exorbitant fees to upgrade to the newest smartphone? Are you environmentally conscious and hate that your old tech is filling the garbage dumps? Well then we are the solution for you. At Myna EC wireless, we offer the most cost effective per month fees for unlimited data and voice compared to all other cell networks. Do you have an old cellphone you want to recycle? We take in all old phones as trade-ins and you will be given a brand new Myna EC smartphone at no cost to you. Do you have old voice assistants? We take these in as trade-ins as well and have a Myna EC voice assistant device at no cost to you to replace your old forced obsolescence devices. At Myna EC, we are dedicated to a green future. Our goal is a negative carbon footprint in hopes to turn around the gross pollution in the tech industry,” The young woman on screen declares.

Orangeskull ignores the commercial, using the time to obsess over the watermark stain upon his desktop that was obviously made by one of his cans of soda.

“You can’t get any good help these days. Look at this. They can’t even clean off a little mark on my desk. This is embarrassing, what a shithole. Kelly, who is supposed to be cleaning my desk when I am away? Have you seen this? There is a ring here on my desk, just look at it. This is embarrassing, this is the desk of the president of the United States, it was Jimmy wasn’t it? Well that is just a shit job. Fire him and get me someone who knows how to do their job. I can’t work under these conditions. I want him fired before I get back. I’m going to the course. I need to play a nice eighteen holes. Tell them to get Air Force One ready, I am going to Mar-A-Lago, I need to get out of here. Make sure that someone cleans my desk right before I get back,” Orangeskull declares and walks out of the room, leaving the half drank Coke on the desk, a few inches from the water stain.

“Yes sir. I’ll have it done. Enjoy your time at the course,” Kelly says mechanically while texting HR to call in Jim and then texting the Secret Service to inform them of the president's plans and then to the airhanger to inform them to prep the jet.

“Myna wireless huh?” She says while searching the web for the fledgling cellular provider.

While browsing she makes note that their smartphones look similar to the more recent generations of the devices. Then she started reading the description,

Myna EC wireless smartphones are guaranteed to outperform any other device in the market today. It has 24/7 live operator assistance, it is 5.6mm thin and weighs 90g. It has global coverage with no extra cost for roaming. The screen is high definition, the sound is capable of 100.4 dBA volume, and the ambient energy consumption allows it to charge through any kind of energy it is in contact with.

“What? How is that possible?” She said.

Myna EC wireless device A-01 can draw ambient power through many means. As the device is in your pocket, it will charge through motion and thermal energy expressed from your body. If left in the sun, it will charge through solar power. ADD TO THIS.

She went to the bottom of the page to see if there was an office nearby, but there is no physical address. All orders are delivered by Myna EC couriers.

“Well they must cost a fortune,” She says to herself as she scrolls to the products and plans link.

Here at Myna EC we pride ourselves in affordable plans and affordable services. Upfront cost of the Myna EC A-01 is $450, much lower than a phone that doesn't promise half as much.

She saw a link for trade-in phones.

Do you have old devices that you can't convince yourself to recycle? We'll take care of that for you. If you supply any smartphone of any brand, you'll receive a Myna EC A-01 for $25.

“What the fuck‽” She said without realizing the words escaped her mouth. “That can't be right,”

At the top of the page there is a ticker of sales that is leaping higher as she browses.

“Two million sold already? This, this can't be right,” She continued.

Like many Americans, Kelly has an old cell back at her house, just sitting in the junk drawer.

She then checked the plans.

All Myna EC wireless plans are sliding scale, a credit check will give you the rate of your plan during checkout.

Kelly entered the relative information. Her income bracket is rather high, so she's likely to pay a little more.

“Credit check in progress,” The website declared while loading.

Your Myna EC wireless monthly rate will be $100 a month, unlimited data, unlimited voice and text, global coverage, and 24 hour a day live tech support.

“Would you like to proceed Kelly?” The screen read.

“Why not?”

“What device will you be trading in for your Myna EC wireless A-01?” And below that, it named every single cell phone she has ever owned.

“Wait, what‽ Is that connected to my credit check? It must be,” She declared and selected her iPhone 6+ and clicked forward.

“What location is your iPhone 6+ currently at?” She read. “It's at home, I can package it up for delivery tomorrow,” She said and typed in her address for delivery.

“Will this complete your order? Yes,” She said and clicked the checkout button.

A few moments later an email appeared, obviously the receipt.

It was the receipt, but at the bottom of the text it had an estimated delivery time, which was counting down from 60 minutes.

“That can't be right.” She declared and gathered her things to head home. She'll be home within an hour without worry and if they're really delivering it within that time frame, she wants to see this courier.