Chapter 1: Promotion Day
2407
It was cold. Colder than the rest of the ship. The otherwise sterile gray walls were littered with pipes and conduits running to consoles and devices around the room. It was dark. The lights were intentionally dimmed, all but the center of the far wall. In the light, one could see the intersection of a great number of those pipes and conduits, terminating at a small platform. The platform, such as it was, was nothing more than a raised section of floor, about half a meter above the surrounding area. In fact, it would have been completely unremarkable if not for the forcefield generator hanging above it.
I stood in the center of this room. This cold, sterile room; this horrible room. I knew that once I walked through the door, I would never again see this place; this place that I had become so accustomed to. I reveled in it.
Moving beyond the security door, leaving it behind for the last time, I entered the main research area. This well-lit room was cluttered with workstations, each complete with its own console and work materials, in varying states of disarray. At the far end was another door, leading out to the rest of this ship. A few other researchers were still present, working late. As I passed on the way to my desk, they each offered me their polite congratulations.
By the time I arrived to begin packing away my things, a small group had entered from the ship-side door. The familiar Commander Galan led the group, followed closely by Major K’haeth, our Tal Shiar project leader, and finally a young woman that I didn’t recognize. She was such a small thing, quietly taking in her new environment. She could have almost looked innocent, if not for the neatly pressed Imperial Military uniform she was wearing.
The timing was impeccable. The sort of thing you come to expect from people like these. As I packed away my last piece of personal property, lifting my bag from the now emptied workstation, the men led the unfamiliar face over to me.
“…and right over here, this is wh-… oh, Doctor Merik.” That’s when it dawned on me: She’s my replacement.
“I’m glad I was able to catch you before you left,” K’haeth continued, “I wanted to offer my congratulations on your promotion. You’ve certainly earned it.”
It was a lie, of course. K’haeth and I clashed constantly. All he cared about were his results. Absolutely no regard for prudence, safety, or morality. No regard for the warnings and objections of his senior physician.
It didn’t matter. My assignment there was at an end. My wife and daughter were meeting me there, and then we’d travel together to Llaiir Prime. It was a long way away, I know, but the promotion promised an assignment sufficiently declassified as to allow my family to join me. It was a difficulty journey, but I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome in the end.
A few polite greetings later, and I was on my way. Mirroring my heading towards the exit, the newcomer was shepherded towards the security door. She has no idea, I thought. I wanted to warn her. Tell her to turn around, run. Run fast, run far away, and never look back. But I couldn’t. It wasn’t my place any longer. I was finally free.
Through the door, escorted by a guard, leading me to where my family was waiting. Through a second door, down a corridor. Another and another. Finally, a security door. A wave of relief passed over me as the guard entered his authorization code.
In the next room, I found myself in a prolonged embrace with my beloved wife, Raha, and our beautiful S’anra, barely six years old. It had been nearly a year; long since we’d all started to worry that this day would never come.
As Raha began to recount what she’s heard of Llaiir Prime, how safe and wonderful, I noticed the guard over her shoulder. He’d pulled his rifle from its resting position on his back.
Only I could see him as he took aim.
My promotion was at hand. I closed my eyes.
“At last, this nightmare is over.”