Interzeit: A Space Opera

By

Samuel Eddy

Copyright © 2016 by Samuel Eddy
.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN
978-1-365-09106-3

Take this! My love! My anger! And all of my sorrow! –
Domon
Kasshu

Special thanks to
Jeremie
Fletcher for cover art.

The streets echoed with the
ambient static
of thousands. In the fading light, the
crowds shifted in a large mass. A
lmost choking with life,
they are
penned in by the tall towers of
Shengen
.
The brilliant
neons
and holograms began whir
ring to live. They painted them
selves into existence on the black canvas of the night.
Ads for good times, in the
place
where they never ended.
Food, drugs, sex, clothes, music, vulgar media and games.
They were endless in the city, free from
constraint, limitations set only by the mind itself
.

As it grew later, artificial watchmen of light appeared in front of business
es
.
Nol
watche
d them move through the street. He peered
through them all, phantoms of technology.

On the wall, in the wall, the glassy surface inside it
,
a light turns
from red to green.
Another job well done.
The system ran through its diagnostics, the lights throughout the large space flickered on and
off in an ordered pattern. D
oors opened and closed, there was a soft hiss as the toilets flushed throughout the house.

Such
cacophony meant success,
no unexpected set backs.
The wall
generated a message, “Diagnostic protocol completed”
.

His
smiled
.
Nol
walked out of the half built room, and hopped down the stairs. Lower and lower down, the building was closer to finished.

It was a
freespace
building, domiciles that were self-modulating and controlling. They had become a fad
over the last few years. They
allowed people to live however they wished, and if they could not think of what that was, the machine could decide for them.

He reached the ground level.

“Is the job done
Nol
?” one of the three asked,

He nodded,

“Great!”
P
ic
, the senior system engineer exclaimed.

Bela
,
and
Tores
laughed, excited, nervous.

They gathered their
things,
hit the lights, and then the street.

“You have the tickets, right
Pic
?”
Nol
asked,

Pic
revealed them confidently as they flowed into the crowd,
they exchanged smiles
.

He
had found them off a
n
Ighzec
player. They were going out of town, and the nearest
stadium
wouldn’t honor an exchange. Of course
Pic
hadn’t had an exchange, but
he
worked out a surreptitious deal of some kind.

What that was, they all knew better than to ask.

Nol
and the others were feeling excited
.
For
Nol
,
this was the first official planetary event
he was old enough to go to
. It would be broadcast
ed
everywhere of course
,
b
ut that didn’t do it justice, you ha
d to be there, really be there, “T
o take in the scale of it all
.”
Pic
was fo
nd of saying
.

Eventually they reached the ve
nue, “Enhanced Reality Theater”.

The line filled in quickly, and they were in the dark amphitheater
faster than expected
. The tickets helped them navigate
to
the seats, and the experience began. As
Nol
sat into the chair, the darkness changed, it morphed and grew.

Everything faded. It was
fa
int at first, the lights
, but
s
oon they were glinting all around him. His sense of balance and orientation fail
ed
. His mind feels the change, he’s in space. Floating around weightless, the stars glint, the moon is in the distance. After much searching he finds the Earth, which is only in the most relative of ways, “below” him.

The music starts faint, and erratic. After a few minutes it
builds upwards
into higher harmonies and complexity.

“I can feel it,
it’s almost here.”
Tores
says,

H
er face bleeds into the vacuum briefly as she speaks,
but fades
back into darkness silently
.

She was right, the music crescendos, then the deep bass crooned.

“
It i
s the 250
th
year of the Interstellar era. The world of humanity has reached great heights, and perilous existential lows. Two hundred and fifty years have passed since mankind to
ok
its second great leap forward into the cosmos.
Space op
ened, welcoming them
home.

The
Moon,
and Mars
were at last obtained
. Mankind’s bounty ov
erflowed, and all of humanity’s
light, the light of life, spread throughout the solar system.

It was good
for all, until
the year
120 IE. A rogue colony invaded the Earth and Mars simultaneously. The fractional and separate forces were slow to respond, and billions lost their lives.

The Lunar Protectorate, then known as the
Moon Operations Bureau, acted definit
iv
ely
in
ending the chaos. With the launch of a new type of military craft, the war was ended before the fire burned away all of man’s gains into space.

This new craft, partly piloted by
a human
, partially by machine was like a new life entirely. This cybernetic
mech
, “
Skyking
” was launched at
the
colony in desperation.

The fearless pilot, Rise
Nataka
, destroyed the entire colony along with all of the militants in a single battle.

Peace was returned to the heavens, but at what cost?”

The stars morphed and zoomed past, in the distance a small yellow orb glowed with a growing brilliance. The exp
losion swept through
Nol
, rippling
outwards.

“
After the fires died, e
veryone worked
towards a unification of
space
.
B
ut
this
movement
was
not without its own problems. Soon groups began banding together, forming larger factions. These factions pooled together their catastrophically large resources, and began building
war
mechs of their own.

As the decades rolled on, another war seemed all but inevitable.
These new armies were assembled like
gods of death. Tensions tighten
ed
between factions, and humanity was once again
on the brink of an
nihilation.

The newly formed
A
utocracy of
Kuipterra
attacked a fleet of
resource probes as they passed
the
Saturn
, violating an economy treaty with
TianShanTech
.

Drone crafts in the nearby
spa
ce
started
annihilating each other, and a
s the transmissions of conflict grew, more
drones
across the system began to engage each other out of “self defense”.

Th
e cost skyrocketed
with
both groups
fumbling
through the chaos
,
u
nder
pressure by their people to throw
their new armies
in
to stop the madness.

An
interspace
meeting of delegates came together to end the conflict. Eventually these minds and leaders reached the conclusion that all humanity must be united. There could be no separate factions or states as any major state might eliminate all life.

They recognized that their problems were irreconcilable
.
The interest of the groups were too different, any compromise might force conflict out of desperation.
Violence
and the aggressive actuation of engineering was the only solution.

A middle way was forged, a new structure laid over all other structures, The Planetary Cabinet. This executive administration would work with the governments of the factions to implement
system
wide policy.

Its
agenda and staff were to be chosen as the result of a
combative competition known as “The Unified
War
”
.

The words materialized ou
t of the
starscape
. The inebriated and the emotional cheered, unable to restrain their worship of the institution.

So it began, the last time
Nol
had seen it live
,
he had been a child, but
in truth, he was a shameless
fanboy
. H
e had seen
holocordings
of
all nine of the previous tournaments, many of them several times.

This year, t
he
Lunar
mech
had gotten knocked out in the semi-finals by the representative from
Mars
.
The two had fought in
deep
Earth orbit. The Martian unit,
Phobos
, successfully disabled
Skyking’s
main reactor, sending it hurtling towards re-entry. Thankfully
,
the unit and pilot were recovered before they crashed to the planet.

Mars was set to face the current three decade champions of the games
,
The
Kuipterra
n
Autocracy, and its unit,
Tystrophanes
.
It was p
iloted by the prince of
Kuipterra
himself,
Maxelus
Calatian
the
IVth
.

The
world around them lurched onwards. The
M
oon and Earth were pulled away, the red planet soon replacing it.

They descend through the thin nitrogen buffer of Mars, the sand and dust pick up as they reach the surface. Looking up from the ground,
Phobos
appears from over a ridge. Covered in matte black plates, and glinting red sensors, it jumps high in the air. It sails in a precise parabola, drifting down into the canyon. The Martians’ had a soft spot for the subterranean.

Landing,
Phobos
draws it
s
metallic
longsword
. The weapons whirrs to li
f
e as it leaves the sheath, the edges of the blade glows red hot, working up to a
n
icy blue.
It plants the weapon into the rock with a hissing sizzle, and waits.

Several minutes pass, a faint glow is seen in the sky. It burns like a comet, and explodes. Through the smoke
,
several plates of metal and debris jettison off the mass. Large
fins and sails
unfold,
the object slows and then glides towards the arena.

Tystrophanes
shines
purple, its exterior
hull
foreign to Earthlings. Its loud colors and sharp angles cut through the sky. The sails rip away from
Tyst
r
ophanes’
s
back, and it drifts the rest of the way down on small powerful jets.

A pane materializes broadcasting
the Martian
pilot, Kale
s
Marik
.