Beyond Light

Conflict Resolution Assembly

The moderator designated for the assembly, an Asian woman in her thirties dressing in a black suit and medium-length hair arrived.

Normally —and except for debates— the presence of a moderator was not needed between reunions of powerful politicians, but meetings like the one about to start more often than not ended up being too chaotic that intervention was needed. Both President O’Donnell and the leading figures of the PFSR had agreed to have the assistance of one for the meeting.

She sat between the INSU and PFSR figures.

“Good Afternoon, everyone," she spoke. "Today, as of May 8th of 2543, we are here reunited on the neutral territory of Progressing Ahead Base, Ceres, to discuss an important matter of confidentiality grade: OMEGA, as of article 56 of the Discretion Code For Special Matters and Operations, mutually signed by the Independent Nations Space Union, and the People’s Federation of Sociocratic Republics as per the Yamamoto-Chernov treaty set on August of 2523.”

Grade OMEGA. That was the highest level of confidentiality assignable. She didn’t mention the punishments shall one violate it, as her public was acknowledged on them, but they often included life sentences or even the death penalty. Everyone raised their right hand.

She raised hers too. “With this said, we all swear here before the maximum authorities and the established laws that maximum discretion will be used. Shall anyone of us violate this oath, the highest penalty shall fall upon our moral integrity. I swear it under my nation’s name.”

“I swear it under my nation’s name,” everyone responded in unison.

“Very well,” she lowered her hand. “let’s begin. President Malcolm Jeremiah O’Donnell. What’s the motive for your request for this assembly? what do you expect to achieve with this reunion?"

He straightened up and cleared his throat. “Of course. The motive of this assembly is that we have suspicions about the PFSR sabotaging one of our most important operations. Project Ad-Infinitum, which as everyone is well aware here, had for objective to put humans on Hawking-616a, in the Perseus constellation and galactic arm.”

Everyone on the right side of the room left out small noises of offense and traded words in their eastern languages. Both presidents Ivan Turgenev and Cheng Jiang frowned, focusing their sharp eyes on the president of the INSU.

“Now, they are going to deny it,” whispered Admiral Hopkins, sitting next to William and Admiral Weigh. Doctor Weiber and Admiral Suzuya were at both edges of the row.

“Could you elaborate on that, President O’Donnell?” asked the moderator.

“Yes,” the Union President didn’t lower his eyes from the gaze of the eastern men in front. “as everyone reunited here knows that every project has its confidential parts, we met several problems once on the other side, despite what we decided to show on camera. We are suspicious that the PFSR was involved in one of the problems we met. The INN Eternity of Return got attacked on the other side. Attacked by a group of unknown ships that resemble the engineering of various models of the vessels used by the federation.”

The public around looked confused at each other. Only the President and his admirals —as well as the control center and the ISI— knew about the attack over the Eternity of Return and his consequent disappearance. The news made everyone from both factions flinch over their seats.

President Turgenev and president Jiang looked at each other, and then the Russian president spoke. “That’s impossible. We have no current operations in the active phase of exploring an extra-solar system.”

“Lying…” whispered againAdmiral Hopkins, saving himself from saying a bad word and being heard by the cameras.

“I am pretty sure that you have your own secret projects, Mister Turgenev,” said President O’Donnell. “Projects that you have rights to keep confidential. But let’s see the evidence first. Mrs. Eung, please,” he read the name badge on the moderator’s chest: Eun Gong-Kim. Korean descent, the most likely. He extended to her a small storage device.

“Of course,” she took it from his hands and inserted it into the holographic projector. Light shined, and the device played the Eternity of Return’s recordings from the moment Captain Cortez granted access to the cameras, to the moment all of the communications were lost.

Nobody said a word during the film, but their expressions of confusion and concern said it all. The blurriness and interference of transmitting from 8000 light-years away didn’t allow to differentiate much detail, but the strange figures that attacked the dreadnought seemed like objects pulled out from a high-budget Sci-Fi movie.

Not only their eccentric structures but also their highly resistant shields. In the Solar System, even the most advanced vessels of similar dimensions would have been evaporated by a single hit of a Hydra cannon.

Nobody said anything for a second once the recordings were finalized. President O’Donnell took the opportunity to speak. “Now, before you are wondering whether what you saw was real or not, you can check the nanoencryption algorithms encoded into the recordings, and compare them to the designation IDs from Marshall&Jacobs industries, the manufacturers of the camera codecs. You won’t find a single unmatching digit in the long list.”

President Jiang stared at the stopped image on the holographic screen. President Turgenev straightened his dry, long face, and put his elbows on the table. “President O’Donnell, there is no way that those ships could form part of any of our navy assets. I reiterate: currently, we don’t have any FTL plans active in the phase of extrasolar exploration.”

“Oh, you don’t,” President O’Donnell cynically nodded. “but we are aware of some of your shady tactics. Your intelligence services have a dark history of financing and working under the names of… several, independent groups. There is nothing that says that those ships work for you under clandestine means. And as far as we are aware, your scientists are also working on your own FTL engines, am I right? What’re the chances that you might as well hiding something from us?”

“Is that a direct accusation?” the Russian man spoke in a tone colder than Pluto. “We have taken much trouble to attend this assembly. All over your personal request. Know that we aren’t going to accept any offenses coming from you.”

The people behind him gossiped unintelligible things that didn’t sound to be friendly or wishful. They all swept their eyes over President O’Donnell, who didn’t deviate his green eyes from the light blue of his counterpart.

“Like the backstabbing snakes they are…” mumbled Hopkins. “Look at them, trying to deny the obvious.”

The ministers and generals behind the INN admirals traded mumbles that got lost in their low tones, but William could understand some whispers saying nothing good about the PFSR. Some others disapproved of the president’s way of managing the situation.

“Please,” intervened Moderator Eun Gong-Kim. “let’s keep this respectful and civilized.”

The leaders of both factions finally put their eyes away from each other. They let their backs lean once again on their seats. “President Turgenev, President Jiang,” Eun Gong spoke again. “what can you respond to President O’Donnell's questions?”

President Cheng Jiang finally spoke. “Those accusations lack any basis and are mere waffles to discredit the name of the PFSR. Regarding our faster-than-light technology, yes. We are currently working on our own technology based on the rupture-bending principle that the INSU likes to call leaps. But we are cautious with our projects. Imprudence and recklessness are against the principles of our dogma,” he swept his black eyes with disdain at Doctor Weiber and President O’Donnell.

“Is that supposed to be an insult, President Jiang?” President O’Donnell raised his voice.

“President O’Donnell, please,” said Moderator Eun. He relaxed his posture for a bit. “President Jiang, Please continue.”

“Our first manned mission is not scheduled to take off until 24 weeks. We are aiming for other directions as well, not the Perseus arm, and much less ridiculous distances of thousands of years light.”

Admiral Hopkins immediately got up from his seat. He could not hold it anymore. “President O’Donnell, this is unacceptable! Are you going to allow such mockery over us?!”

“Please sit down, gentleman,” ordered Eun. “This is a respectful, well-behaved reunion.”

“Yet you are letting these shady bastards make fun of us! This is unacceptable! UNACCEPTABLE!” Hopkins showed his canine fangs like a dog and reddened like a boiled tomato. Two security guards approached his positions and stood straight at him. “What are you looking at, you pair of no-ones!” he yelled at both. “Useless imbeciles. I could put you on a sulfur mine on Io if I wanted!”

“Admiral!” Eun Gong got up from her seat. “That behavior is not going to be accepted. Please sit down, or I’ll be forced to kick you out from this assembly!”

“Kick me out? you? a mere—”

“Hopkins, obey now!” President O’Donnell smacked the table and turned his head to the admiral. “It’s an order.”

The Fleet Admiral could not have got any redder without his blood vessels bursting and getting him hospitalized from internal bleeding. He looked at the guards, then at the moderator, and finally sat down with his head down. The guards returned to their places.

No one said anything, not even the PFSR audience on the other side dared to gossip. Their leaders wore impatient faces.

Eun Gong-Kim sat again. “President Jiang, please express yourself respectfully when talking about your interlocutors.”

The Chinese man just squeezed half of his lips, relaxing his back on the seat and looking down. President Turgenev continued for him.

“We are going to send you an expedient with unclassified information about our current projects regarding FTL technology, President O’Donnell. You have beat us in this race. The INSU will pass to history as the first entity to have put people on an extrasolar system, not the PFSR. We credit you that.”

“Please do,” said President O’Donnell. “But we’d rather know more than what you want us to know. We have already shared with you highly classified information.”

“President O’Donnell, you were the one who requested this assembly, not us. The PFSR denies any responsibility for the attack your vessel suffered.”

“Then what are you hiding from us?” Malcolm grinned. “Why not give us access to a classified report?”

“Don’t play with us, O’Donnell,” the blonde man bit his teeth and arched his back against the table. “don’t confuse things. One thing is not related to the other.”

Eun found the necessity to intervene once again. “If I recall correctly, what you accused the PFSR, Mr. O’Donnell, was of the attack on the Eternity of Return inflicted by vessels that resemble the architecture of PFSR ships. Why don’t we let the experts take a look at them and tell us their opinion?”

“I would rather if President Turgenev or President Jiang let us glimpse at their navy assets database,” said sharply President O’Donnell.

“In no world, we are letting you do that,” growled Jiang. “That goes beyond the limits set for the Yamamoto-Chernov treaty, and it violates our discretion code.”

President O’Donnell kept quiet for a second. He preferred to use his sharper words for later. “...Alright. Let the experts give us their opinion first.”

The experts in space aeronautics and engineering from both factions passed ahead and stood near the holographic screens. They moved the recording forth and back, capturing precise and clear frames of the unidentified ships. They negated with their heads as they traded words with each other, and after less than five minutes they declared their final opinion.

“These ships don’t belong to any known form of... human manufacture, be it PFSR or INSU,” the expert from the union said. “Besides some minimal details, those structures don’t match any form of assembly. They also don’t seem to make much sense from a structural design point, unless they were made for very niche purposes.”

The expert from the federation continued. “But there are three things that make them impossible to be of any manufacture known. First, those shields. For their size, we don’t have anything near as powerful as those. Secondly, those propulsion engines. There are no fusion or fissile materials capable of creating that lilac color. There aren’t any other ways of achieving that tone from other methods of propulsion not based on nuclear energy either."

So, there was indeed no way that those ships could have belonged to the PFSR, despite how many secret projects one wanted to accuse them of. But if not then, who? the only other option was one that no one wanted to think about, which sounded for them like children’s tales and nonsense, despite being the other rational option.

Something told William that neither President O’Donnell nor ISI would leave Ceres without making the PFSR yield somehow. Things could explode at any moment, and Admiral Hopkins didn’t look like the only one wanting to rage out...