FutureSight - a YEAR 10000 story

09 - The Moon of Dampheere

The base was huge, bigger than he ever could've believed. There were people bustling around, running errands and following orders. It looked like a crowd was beginning to gather around them.

"Now, let's step out of this thing and I'll take you to see the man in charge. His name is Vergeir, and I suggest you treat him with some respect."

They walked down a ramp and began pushing their way through the crowd. Everyone's eyes were on him, and he guessed that they didn't see all that many outside visitors. Then he wondered: how long has everyone been underground? It was just a disturbing thought.

The three weaved their way past the people, and everyone else began to return to their routines.

McGraw was the one leading them. He turned a right, walking down a narrow pathway, then jogged up a flight of metal grated stairs. At the top there was a door to a building which overlooked the entire underground expanse. He opened the door and let them in first.

"Vergeir's room. And remember, this is the man who runs the Consheir rebels. Tread lightly."

Daren walked in first, stepping into the ill lit room. He saw a man sitting a desk in the far corner, typing something. That was Vergeir he guessed.

McGraw and Koe came in from behind. "Vergeir, there is a man here to see you," McGraw calmly stated. "His name is Daren, and he is interested in doing some business with our faction."

"Is he now?" the dark haired man at the back of the room replied. "Which one of you is Daren then?"

Daren stepped forwards, giving the man eye contact as he swiveled around in his rotating chair. "I'm Daren, this is my friend Koe Kavoly. I was introduced to you organization through Koe, and then through McGraw here."

"I see. And pray tell, what is it that you want from us?"

Daren cleared his throat. "I have a deal to offer you. In exchange for fixing my freighter, I'll help you retrieve something that could be extremely useful in your fight against the Triad and Sel Sarrak Combine."
"And this would be...?" Vergeir prodded.

"A machine," Daren stated. "That has in its ability the skill of predicting the future. It belongs to the Triad, and it is top secret all the way through. The only way I found out about it was a job for the Combine. A job that went sour."

Vergeir seemed to hold his breath. Daren imagined that he was mentally looking over the puzzle pieces.

"Ah, and you must want to get us this machine so we can in turn put more pressure on the Sel Sarrak Combine. A roundabout way of revenge, very good. But, you stated that you wanted us to fix your freighter to seal the deal. Tell me Daren, where is your freighter?"

"On the desert world of Grimrall," he said. "It's just about one of the only things on that planet, so it'd be kinda hard to miss."

Vergeir nodded, and then Daren remembered that alien he'd ran into.

"There's also another thing I'd like from you," he said, catching Vergeir's attention once more.

"And what is that?"

"On that empty desert world I ran into this... this thing. It killed all the villagers there and has a damaged ship. If you could capture this thing and bring it in for interrogation, we might be able to learn something from it-"

"And why do we want to do that?"

Daren leaned forwards some. "Listen, I fought this thing. It was strong, had something like a grenade launcher with infinite ammo. It was damn near impossible to kill. And the problem I have with that is that I think it was just a scout. I think that where there's one, there'll soon be two, and three, and half a dozen, and-"

"Point taken," Vergeir said, nodded to himself slowly. "So you want us to interrogate this creature for more details on a possible invasion."

"Yeah, that's the scoop. It knows English fairly well, so you shouldn't have any trouble understanding it. Just capture it alive and bring it's ship in for studying."

"I see." He nodded more to himself and swiveled back around in his chair to face the computer he was working on. "Normally I might not believe such claims, but it happens we've met these creatures before."

McGraw looked stunned. "I-I had never heard of it before."

"It's not important right now," Vergeir murmured. "Tell me, where is this machine that can tell the future?"

He swallowed. He didn't actually know for certain, but he'd been putting together a few puzzle pieces himself lately. Besides, something of that nature could only be at one place. "Fortimus Palus."

Vergeir turned around slowly. "Is it now?"

He nodded to him. "Bout three months ago, right before my jobs started drying up, I did several runs for the Triad. I was shipping materials to that base world. Now I don't know how one would build something like the FutureSight machine, but this equipment was out of the world stuff, stuff I'd never heard about before. That, and Fortimus Palus is the only base big enough to hold an object of that importance. How we would break in is one question, since they'd have the FutureSight machine. I've seen inside the planetary defenses and I'm willing to throw in my guns for it once my ship is fixed. Plus, their machine doesn't work all the way; they aren't done with some of the bugs yet. We might just be able to pull a fast one."

"I see," he repeated.

Vergeir stood up and gestured towards the door. "If you could so kindly leave me to myself, I will dwell on these matters until I've reached a conclusion."

They exited by the door, and waited outside.

"So, whaddaya think he'll say?" Koe asked McGraw.

McGraw just shrugged slightly, lifting his eyebrows some. "Vergeir is a fairly reasonable man. If he sees that the deal is fair to both parties, he'll likely go along with it. Since you're asking for two things though...I'm not sure what he'll decide."

"Yeah, but the thing with the alien isn't exactly a favor," Daren said. "I mean, I think it's something that concerns all of us. And hopefully he'll recognize that."

"Well, you did agree to help him storm Fortimus Palus," McGraw added. "That counts for something. Still, even that part is a bit tough: storming Fortimus Palus isn't something that happens every day. It'll take some major firepower - or some major cunning - to get through the base defenses."

"Yeah, well I'm confident we can get the job done," Daren said. "And how much longer will it be until he gets us an answer?"

"Vergeir is a very decisive man. I would think any minute now."

They waited about three more minutes, discussing random useless tidbits, such as the weather on Dampheere. After those minutes had passed, the door cracked open a bit.

"I've made up my mind," Vergeir stated calmly," I will accept your deal. FutureSight, as you call it, is too great of an opportunity to pass up. I've already made the calls. They should be headed to Grimrall right now to retrieve the two ships and the alien."

"Good," Daren said, then patted him on the back. "Good man. Tell those flyboys to be careful. That thing plays it hard."

"Indeed." Vergeir sealed the door behind him again.

Now they had more time to kill. He guessed it would be maybe a day before anyone came back with the ship and the alien. The best thing to do until then: get to know the base personnel.

"So McGraw," he started off," what kind of things does this base offer anyways?"