A Lords of the Stars Short Story

Mattias von Schantz

A slight difference in chemical composition was the only distinction between a biot and a biological organism. The biot, like the biological organism, was made up of billions upon billions of tiny cells. But the biotic cell was not based on carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen - instead, it was based on the elements that constituted the framework of technological civilization: silicon, copper, iron and titanium. The biotic cell was artificial, produced in the laboratories on Mars, but did not differ significantly from its biological counterpart. Except in two important ways: the biotic cell was more resilient, and easier to program.

October 8, 2718, Lowell City, Mars

He felt the light hitting his eyelids. Warm, inviting rays of different wavelengths struck the photoreceptive cells of his retina. With a slight effort, he managed to open his eyes.

The room he was in was almost empty, apart from the hard bunk he was lying on and the ceiling lamps he was now - against his will - staring straight into. With even more effort, he managed to sit up.

A middle-aged man wearing a white coat pulled out a chair and sat down in front of him.

"How do you feel?" asked the man. “Tell me your name.”

He had to think first.

“Myan Lami,” he answered after some hesitation.

“I don't know; I feel so empty, as if I’ve been asleep all my life.” He was really quite disoriented.

“In a sense, you have. You have no memory of what happened before because you have not existed before.”

Memories were surfacing now, Lami felt. Not memories of experiences, but implanted knowledge. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a bell rang.

“Biot?”

"Good. You will soon feel completely at ease with yourself. You are Myan Lami, serial number NL-27, assigned as a Special Agent for the Sunguard.”

The Sunguard - this paramilitary police organization on which the ultimate responsibility for maintaining peace and security within the Terran Federation rested. And it had succeeded with this endeavor - more than just well. Since the Kelar War in the late 21st century, there had been almost 700 years of uninterrupted peace. Even though humanity had encountered several civilizations around alien stars, peace had been maintained. And all because of the Sunguard.

Stolen story; please report.

Unfortunately, that security was cracking at the seams now. The rights of the Terrans were still upheld - but at the cost of the freedom of the other races. To secure the future of the Terran Federation, these artificial humans were now taken into service. Almost identical to the original, but with a strength and speed - and abilities - that far surpassed them.

That was who he was: Myan Lami. Human, but also superhuman, Special Agent with unlimited authority. He was ready for his first mission.

"Well," said the older man, “you have a few different missions to choose from.” He adjusted his archaic glasses. From his collar, the emblem of the Sunguard shone down at him. It testified to wildness, but also to safety.

"Which ones are there, and what do they involve, sir?"

“Two weeks ago, an observation squad of regular Sunguard soldiers disappeared on the first planet of Epsilon Indi A. This needs to be investigated.” The old officer continued to leaf through his papers. "Furthermore, there is unrest on Jerr right now. You would be needed there."

When the Sunguard War Cruiser Yeltsin landed at Kerrma-non Airport, Myan Lami was on board. With military precision, weapons, supplies, and soldiers were stowed aboard the jeeps that would take them to the barracks. Kerrma-non, the capital of united Jerr, covered a large area. The airport was located on the outskirts, which is why the journey to the city took over an hour. Meanwhile, Lami took the opportunity to get to know the soldiers who were in the same car as him. It soon became apparent that he was the only biot on board.

The explosion came as a shock. Despite all security measures, the Jerrassian Liberation Front had managed to reach the convoy.

Now the car and all his newfound acquaintances were scattered across the street. Well, he was biotic, and as such, he could take quite a beating. In less than a second he had grabbed a gaser-type pulse rifle, which he now aimed at the crowd. The gaser beam, which was obviously invisible itself, excited the atoms in its path and caused the air it passed through to glow. Humans - black, hairy Jerrassians - screamed. A commotion ensued. Lami continued to fire volley after volley into the panicked crowd. Such was his programming, his education. He carried out the orders he was given.

The nightmares came unexpectedly. These weren't ordinary nightmares, since biots don't need to sleep, but there was no better name for them. In fact, it would probably have been better if they had arrived while he was sleeping, Myan thought, because then he could just have dismissed them as mental aberrations created by the brain after an exhausting day. Instead, they came during his waking state, and he had to accept them as part of his personality.

Was he faulty? Had a bug crept in somewhere in the production process that made him unfit to be a Special Agent? He had shot at people, shot and killed. Of course, his actions had been appreciated by his superiors - for although the dead had been human, they had not been Terran, and thus it was quite all right to limit their rights - all according to the Terran philosophy.

No biot would imagine harming a Terran. But the question was: what really was the difference between Terrans on the one hand, and Jerrassians, Kelar, and Etarians on the other? They were all human, just originating from different planets.

The certainty grew stronger and stronger that he had acted wrongly. Although he was artificial, in the eyes of many (though not in his own) a machine, he could not escape his conscience. He had to do something drastic. He requested a transfer to the expedition to Epsilon Indi A 1.

It was dangerous, of course. The previous expedition had fallen silent within 17 hours. But even if he now had chosen his own death, he had to do this. For his own sake, for the sake of the dead, but above all, for the sake of the equal value of all people. 

Whether they were born in the solar system or around Tau Ceti.