Intro 4: Proper Manipulation

2481 C.E.
UMOJA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
UMOJA

The rest of the day Paskirov spent in the library, researching what useful military knowledge the Umojans had in their public domain, Summers was in the city, and Williams was probably training. In the evening, Chester came to them after dinner with news.
'Guys, the professor you heard about is called Dale and has a gred to see us. In his villa. On the planet Antiga Prime. It's more of a ranch, really.'
'Right, finally. And we get to show him the sphere, I presume?' Paskirov asked.
'Yep. He is a guy who has done much work regarding alien life. The university will send him the lab results before we have arrived. He may tilt the scales, if you know what I mean.'
'When do we leave to Antiga Prime?'
'The next ship is in a couple of days. I will get a little safe to keep the orb in. I will carry it in my backpack. You guard, right?'
'As long as you have the sphere, kid,' Williams replied.
'Just make sure you don't forget the combination, or we may have to call the Protoss to open it for us,' Summers laughed.
'Haha, veeery funny there. You better find something for the summer, Summers. It's currently the hot season in his coordinates,' the scientist responded in vexation.
In two days, the four left. Their fake ID's were worth the money and without any complication the four made it to Coryntin port. There, they took an old aerobus to the small vilage of Yellowfields, where the professor's ranch supposedly was.
The battered old machine stopped at the landing site and the four left it and went to the central square. The heat was suffocating, and although all four had light clothes, Williams also wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and Chester wearing black glasses, the afternoon sun was merciless.
'Not a bad place,' Summers noted, looking at the calm square and the neat buildings around it.
'Where does this professor of yours live exactly?' Williams asked, ever coldly.
'Ah, the ranch is outside the village. North of here,' Chester looked at the digital compass on his wrist. 'This way.'
'Any sort of public transport?' Boris said.
'According to this table, that old bus was the only thing close to that,' Summers replied, looking at a nearby wall. 'It's walking, I guess.'
Half an hour later, the lonely village was behind them and they were on the road to a lonely house on a hill, overlooking Yellowfields. In every direction Boris could look at, there were no mountains or high elevations. There was only an endless field covered in dry grass. The sun was setting as they approached the two-story house.
As they were walking, Chester decided to check the sphere. He took the safe out of the bag, dialed the combination, and as he was opening the little door, he tripped on something and fell over the safe he was holding in his hands.
'Urgh,' he uttered, still on the ground, looking downwards and drawing breath.
The sphere rolled a few meters down the slope.
'Here let me help you,' Summers kneeled to the Umojan, while Williams turned to fetch it.
'Wait, hold!' Paskirov stopped him. 'Look at it!'
The little ball stood on the ground, its lights dancing in its interior as they had done always. But this time, it was different.
'The lights are moving! I mean, in order! Look, they are making circles!' Chester said in surprise.
Under the light of the sunset, the tiny stars in the darkness of the sphere had each assumed an orbit of its own, each precisely around the center of the orb, and were following them.
'Oh my god!' Summers was stunned.
'Mister wizard, that's not normal, is it?' Boris asked the Umojan on the ground.
'Don't approach it! Wow... I don't know. It never did that before,' Chester was thinking aloud. As everyone assumed a distance, the sparks entered stable orbits around the perfect center of the sphere, in a common plane. 'Yet again, we HAVE never been this far from the sphere before, have we?'
'True. This means that we are somehow disturbing it,' Williams inferred.
'Okay, let's try this. I approach it slowly, nobody else moves, alright?' the scientist began.
'Whatever.'
He carefully drew closer and closer to the artifact. As he did, however, the sphere got more and more disturbed and by the time he was next to it, it was back to normal. The Umojan was disappointed and began moving away cautiously. As he did, the order in the artifact was restored.
'That's funny. Maybe it's me. Captain, wanna give it a shot?'
Williams approached it, but it was disrupted again.
'I guess we just pick it up and add another detail for the Professor...' Boris concluded and picked it up for the Umojan. They proceeded to the house.
'What time is it?' Summers asked.
'No, I haven't adjusted my watch to the local time,' Boris said. 'You should have taken one, like a normal person...'
'Do you think this guy has been spying us with binoculars or something while we were approaching?' Summers tried to fight the heat with humor.
'I doubt that a person who lives here cares much about others, Steve,' he replied, ringing the bell. 'Let's hope he cares about round alien things, though.'
The white door opened and Professor Dale smiled at them.
'Ah, hello, boy, welcome to my house. Ah, you must be his friends from the army!' He shook hands with the officers. For a moment, his warmth dimmed against Williams' emotionless attitude, but sprung back when he invited them inside.
They sat in the dining room, all but the ghost examining the interior. They had a dinner, during which the four told Dale their story and when they were done, he moved to the real reason why they were here.
'I received the reports from the labs back home. Queer matter, no doubt. Who- or whatever created this is beyond doubt light years ahead of us in terms of technological development. Who else knows about the artifact?' the professor assumed a serious tone.
'People from the Confederate armed forces, professor. Expeditionary Fleet Lambda. I can give you the names of most of them, if it will be of any good to you,' Paskirov replied.
'Not me, really, I am just an old man in the province. Perhaps the Umojans will want ot know in the future, but not me. Are the Confederace posing any threat to us?'
'Most likely no. They are convinced that the aliens who captured us, the so-called Protoss, have taken hold of the sphere as early as when we were all on that green planet, out of our ships. Me and my three friends are mere deserters; we won't be missed more than any other four cowards. Except for Williams, maybe,' Paskirov explained.
'So we are safe here... Good. As for the sphere, no ideas on how it works, boy?' the professor smiled at Chester.
'Actually, we did discover something more on our way here. You should be interested to see it,' the scientist said and took it out, leaving it on the table for Dale to behold. 'When we found ourselves at a certain distance from the orb, its lights began to move in regular orbits around its center. Approximately in a single plane. LIke planets around a star, or electrons around a nucleus, in the children's model. But now the lights are all random.'
'Can we leave it here and move away now?' Dale's interest grew.
'Certainly.'
The five went next to the farthest wall, looking at the artifact. The lights in it floated in their usual disarray.
'It should be fine as it is... Strange. I... I don't know what's making it behave this way. When I approached it like this,' Chester walked closer, 'It was again... getting chaotic, like it is now.'
'Are you sure you saw it right, boy?' the professor asked.
'Absolutely!' he replied and the officers nodded in confirmation.
'We thought - well, Williams thought - that human presence was what was making it look weird,' he clarified.
'Maybe it does not work because we are not in the same conditions as before. You know, outside...' Boris suggested.
'Yes, your friend is right. We need to replicate the exact same conditions for the experiment to work. My, boy, whoever taught you science should be feeling disappointed!' the professor made Chester blush. 'Where was it that you see it happen?'
'Outside. It fell on the ground and rolled away from us,' the ghost said.
'We have to go to that same place, then! You lead,' Dale turned to the door.
Outside the wooden house, they walked to where the sphere had rolled, left it on the ground and moved away. To their glee, it became orderly again, throwing a dim light onto the dark ground.
'Woow, it must be something from the house, then,' the Umojan supposed.
'Indeed, it must, boy. Wait till I get it,' the professor said and walked to it.
To Chester's great surprise, he saw that Dale was not disrupting the orb. The orbits were distinct even as he picked it up and turned to the four, holding it in front of his face.
'I can pick it without problem, but none of you can, is that so?' Dale asked.
'Actually, I haven't tried before,' Summers said with a smile of hope.
'Have a try then,' the professor gave him the sphere as he approached. He was not affecting it either.
'Amazing!' Chester exclaimed.
'Indeed,' Boris agreed. 'You lucky you...'
'Stop wondering at the wonders of this universe like pious fools and think about what makes it behave like that, boy!' Dale reproved the Umojan, as if telling a lazy pupil to solve a simple problem.
'Erm, well, there's probably something special about you two. I suppose something by birth that makes you fundamentally different from the rest of us... No? Wait, ahem...' Chester was losing initiativeness.
'Maybe brain waves? Something?' Boris dared suggest. 'I read about these things once... Somewhere, I can't recall where... A long time ago...'
'Be more practical, boy, think simpler explanations. It's not like you don't know Occam's Razor. And no, lieutenant, I'm afraid you are wrong. Simply put, brain waves do not have a medium through which to reach this sphere, I am sorry.'
'I am trying to think, professor,' Chester said in bewilderment after a few seconds of gazing at the sphere.
'Do you two have watches or anything?' Williams suddenly asked the professor and Summers.
To Chester, it seemed like a stroke of genius. As if a magician had suddenly conjured a set of lost keys he was looking for out of thin air in front of his nose. He saw the professor smile.
'Indeed. Lieutenant Paskirov has a digital watch, and you, boy, have a wristband of gadgets. Also, when we were in the house...'
'...the electric appliances were disturbing it!' the Umojan completed the thought with a wide smile. 'The electric currents create an electromagnetic field that disrupts the motion of the lights in it! Of course! It was so simple all along!'
Boris found himself smiling politely, while those around him spoke some unknown dialect.
'So what about Williams? He has no electronics on him either,' he noted.
'Indeed, he doesn't. But remember - he is gifted,' Dale replied. 'His abilities are probably disrupting the motion of the sparks in the artifact, too.'
'Well that makes sence,' Chester began. 'What follows from everything we saw up to now is, that the little sparks are driven through these exact orbits by some delicate magnetic fields in the sphere, which suggests that this sphere is, in fact, a piece of fine Protoss electronics. Also, it has magnetic properties per se. And finally, Williams' own abilities must be something about this fundamental force. Am I right, professor?'
'Yes, go on,' Dale was seeming more approving.
'And the artifact should also have a reciprocal effect on Williams, right? I mean, when he found it...' he continued.
'Well, the orb does make me feel a bit different when close to me, yes,' Williams answered with curiosity.
'Do you feel any different when close to electrical currents, then?' the Umojan again asked. 'When electric machinery is turned on or off? On the ships?'
'No, I don't.'
'When near the Protoss?'
'Aside from hearing them... Yes, I do. I sense them in ways I don't sense humans. Except other ghosts.'
'Right. So you can essentially feel the Protoss like you feel the sphere?' Paskirov took his turn to ask.
'Yes, I do. But only if they are close. In fact, unless they are talking to me, I need to be no more than two meters away in order to feel them. Alright?'
'Yes, yes, just asking,' Paskirov ended.
'It just occured to me, professor,' Chester came again, 'that the Protoss may, too, be unable to use this thing.'
'Indeed, quite probable, boy.' Dale said and paused for a second. 'Let's go back to the house. We need to talk.'
When they went in, the professor raised a new issue.
'Did you all see how the sparks were moving inside?'
The four confirmed.
'This is just like planets around their star, gentlemen. What we may have here,' he pointed at the artifact on the table, 'is an orrery. A very precious alien orrery. Do you realize what this shows?'
'An unknown star system somewhere in space?' Paskirov suggested.
'Or maybe one that is already known,' Summers mentioned.
'Quite possible, Lieutenant Paskirov. Either way, I can assure you that Umoja is not a world that will leave this without attention. Fitz, boy, would you go chart the sphere's system on a piece of paper? Take some candles from my cabinet and find a place outside. I will, in the meantime, write a letter to the university. This should start them going.'
'So, professor, Umoja is, indeed, going to examine the sphere?' Paskirov asked Dale.
'Oh, boy, you betcha they are! I've seen them waste resources for more than one expedition to wherever on much more worthless things than this. They will check for this system, alright. And what's on it.'
A while later, Dale returned with the letter and a smile.
'I have it here for you. It whould persuade them to at least browse through their stellar catalogues for such a place. Chester is still up there, measuring the relative time intervals of the periods of rotation. Not with the chronometer next to it, of course.'
'We are very grateful to you, professor,' Boris said with a smile, kicking Summers' lower leg sideways.
'Yes, yes, indeed we are, sir,' he quickly confirmed.
'You four will be my guests for tonight, I have rooms upstairs. Fear not about your sphere.'
'Oh, no, not at all, sir,' Boris assured him. 'I trust Chester will surely keep a vigilant eye on it. With his safe and all.'
'My servants will show you the way when you are ready. Good night,' Dale said and went upstairs.'
The next morning, they ate and the Dale personally took them to Cryntin transport. They said farewell and the four took the passenger ship back to Umoja.
***
UMOJA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
UMOJA

When they arrived back to the university, they found themselves already expected. As they walked the steps up the official entrance, a man with two bodyguards cut their way off. He was dressed in a formal suit like his bodyguards, but had far less threatening appearance: he had a grayish hair and a rather weak chin. He greeted them.
'Good day and welcome to the University of Umoja, Doctor Fitzpatrick, Lieutenant Paskirov, Lieutenant Summers, and Captain Williams. My name is Ailin Pasteur and I am the ambassador of Umoja in the Terran Confederacy,' he said in a formal tone that rivaled the impersonality of the very ghost. The four greeted him.
'We received Professor Dale's letter. Doctor, the original, if you please,' he turned to Chester as the scientist handed him the paper. 'Good. We were even further intrigued by what you found while still on Antiga Prime. To be precise, were were astonished. What you have found is unprecedented... But first, if you don't mind...'
The guards turned towards Chester and Williams immediately assumed battle stance.
'No need to worry, captain,' Pasteur calmed Williams down, 'I merely want to replicate the results you saw. If you follow me to the jeeps please.'
The diplomat led them past the university to the parking of the land vehicles and there Boris saw two big jeeps with darkened windows. Summers, Pasteur and one of the bodyguards sat in one, and the rest sat in the other. Normally, such secrecy and government presence worried Boris, but he had noticed a relative benevolence in the Umojans, compared to the Confederacy, so he tried to relax.
The jeeps quickly rode towards one of the boulevards and exited the city. As they were on one of the roads, much to Boris' anxiety, the drivers just turned left and drove straight into the open grassless field. A hundred meters from the way, they stopped and the group left them.
'If you please leave all your electronic equipment in the vehicles, please, so we can not interfere with this strange orrery?' the ambassador invited them.
Unwillingly, the four took off all electronics and put them in the jeeps. Then, Pasteur just waved and the drivers drove past the group into the distance.
'Doctor? Would you put it on the ground?'
Chester left it lying down on the dry clay, watching its ever random sparks float.
'Mister ambassador, I think that the captain should also step back,' Boris noted.
Williams immediately understood and walked twenty meters away.
'Is it because of his unusual talents?' Pasteur discreetly asked Paskirov.
'Yes, his presence disturbs the sphere,' Chester answered. 'We also think that Prot... Wow, look!'
The sphere's interior was shadowy despite for the noon sun. The orrery it housed had reassembled itself. The ambassador's eyes revealed awe.
'Wh... ell... Then it really is... A map. I cannot believe it!' he began growing more emotional. 'It is in front of my very eyes, fully... Functional... With no scientific explanation of how it could be any hoax, and still my mind cannot comprehend this fantastic... Thing!'
'Enchanting, isn't it?' Chester smiled.
'Boys, I guarantee you, Umoja is not leaving this unattended. Oh, no. You three will be given a job very soon. As early as tomorrow, I hope. Doctor, you are going with them. I am not sure if such a find can earn you praise... Yet... If you understand,' Pasteur's tone changed from declamative to elegaic. 'It's just that the society - humanity if you wish - is best left in ignorance with regards to this sphere. We need to first obtain more alien artifacts, more information about what lies out there in space. We do not want useful things for the Confederacy and we do not want them to attack our expeditions to wherever this system is before they have even taken place.'
'It's okay, sir, I understand,' Chester reassured him.
'We will send you to find where this place is, gentlemen. This, and the planet where Captain Williams made his discovery of the Protoss remains. Hopefully, you will establish contact with the Protoss and befriend them. Tomorrow, you will be told what we have decided. At nine o'clock, be in the rector's room.'
'Wow, thank you, sir!' Boris was glad.
'You're welcome, son. You made the right choice coming to us.'
***
SPY DECK
UMOJAN ORBITAL PLATFORMS "GANYMEDE"
UMOJA SYSTEM
The Spy Deck of the Umojan platforms was the high tower from which the Umojans kept a close eye on everything that happened in the local space. As they flew towards it, Chester could not believe how fortunate he was to actually go to the Umojan observatory, where the majority of the finest starmaps known to man were made. He would go to the place where the tedious observations of the Umojan astronomers reached farther than any Confederate scientist could dream of.
The four were brought to a huge darkened hall with a holographic projector in the middle. The projector was several meters in diameter and was located beneath floor level. Pasteur was with them, prepared to brief them on their mission. He turned on the projector from the control console and the hologram of a star system identical to that of the sphere. It had a star and seven planets orbiting it in the same manner as the lights in the artifact. Close observation had revealed that the sparks in the sphere looked all identical, as far as the eye could see, even through non-electronic equipment. Only the third one from the star increased its brightness for a brief moment at one point in its orbit, that is, when it was aligned with planets number two and three. Thus, the humans would have to look at the third planet in the systems that were present on the Umojan starmaps.
'This, gentlemen, is the first system of interest,' Pasteur said under the dim light of the hologram. 'It is known simply as 2477MA01 and is the closest one to here. We do not yet know anything about what its planets are composed of, nor we know if there's any life on it. In fact, the very colouring here is artificial. What we know of is that the star is a bit brighter than a sun and that number three is your point of interest. But first, you will go to the old 2481L37ET, the planet where you found Mr. Williams here.'
'So, we are going back...' Paskirov said.
'That's right, lieutenant. But do not fear, we have included warships in the expeditionary fleet. You will be briefed later. Now, you are to check the temple there again, this time with real scientific equipment, and record all observations. This is the second system, the third and the fourth,' Pasteur continued, switching through another three maps. 'Nothing unusual so far, but remember that it is you that are supposed to make these four systems special! Their third planets are where alien things, hopefully, are.'
'When we get there, how do we find them? I mean, It's an entire planet down there, and a temple cannot be seen from space,' Summers objected.
'True, lieutenant. Although one of the science vessels we have prepared does, indeed, have a powerful telescope, your best bet is to go down and sweep over the possible locations of the land where any temple probably is. If, of course, we are talking about ruins. If you are lucky, you may find a settlement of some sort. Maybe the sphere has other properties you do not know of. Also, Mr. Williams, I believe, did sense the sphere, so it is possible that he also feels an artifact.'
'If we get close enough,' the ghost clarified.
'And one more thing, gentlemen,' Ailin Pasteur began concluding. 'We have an additional assignment for you.'
'We are listening,' Paskirov said.
'There are two professors that matter to us, Clarke Ethan and Adrian Powell. They were imprisoned by the Confederacy not long ago, an unpleasant set of events that I will not discuss. Suffice to say, you will liberate them and get them back to us. They are kept in a huge prison on the surface of the planet Maltair VI. Security is high, but we have prepared for that. You are to free only the two professors... And any dissidents you find appropriate. The admiral you will be serving under knows the details.'
'Always glad to hurt the Confeds,' Summers smiled vengefully.
'I'm happy, lieutenant,' the Umojan diplomat replied and led them out.
Having left the Spy Deck, they entered a conference room where the officers of the expeditionary fleet met. The four were introduced by Pasteur, who then left with Chester, and the admiral proceeded. He looked a bit older than Pasteur and had a full, cleanly trimmed whitening beard and mustache. His face was oval and jovial. He led the three to their seats and walked up to the projection screen to explain the incoming operation.
'Gentlemen, I am Admiral Jeffrey McNorman, and I was assigned to lead this expedition for the Umojan World,' he began, friendly, but serious. 'We are going to fly to several unexplored systems and we are going to look for anything alien on them. You all are already familiar with the artifact that our three former Confederates discovered,' many eyes turned to Paskirov, Summers, and Williams. 'We all go there and see what we can find. But be aware: there is no telling what lurks in those unknown worlds. These three have already encountered an alien race called Protoss, who have technology far surpassing ours. This fleet is to fly safely and staying out of trouble, but nothing is certain. Which is why, it is time to move on to the fleet itself.'
He changed the slide with the remote control and a battlecruiser was shown. Some of the officers, including Summers, gasped in surprise.
'This is the Behemoth-class battlecruiser Andronikos. Take a good look at it, sirs, it is the flagship of the fleet, the newest model. It will be under my command and here is where the artifact will be kept. Next, there is the Mammoth-class carrier Enteos, under the command of Commodore Richardson. You can see its photo... And its scheme... It will be carrying much of our ground security force, as well as our machinery. Then, the spine of our fleet, the Wanderer-class vessels...' McNorman continued through the briefing.
The fleet had, in addition to the two big ships, seven Wanderer-class ones, two light cruisers that carried additional machinery, and a whole six science vessels. They were specially equipped with solar panels and had excellent arrays of various sensors and detectors. Although they lacked any weaponry, the science vessels were not useless in battle due to their ability to form a damage suppression matrix around a ship. In theory, McNorman explained, it was supposed to partially negate energy and projectile weapons, as well as the explosions of missiles. Furthermore, Andronikos was equipped with a state-of-the-art weapons system, called a Yamato cannon. It was a special array of machinery that was located on the front of the hammerhead and that allowed for an enormous blast of energy to be released forwards. McNorman boasted at how it could rival the strength of a nuclear blast and how it burdened the battlecruiser's energy conduits.
The security of the scientists, Umoja had determined, was to be overseen by a battalion of marines, firebats and goliaths, plus siege tanks in several companies. They were kept throughout the ships, so that no one was left without a garrison, except for the science vessels.
Paskirov, Summers, and Williams were assigned their positions. Paskirov was a Colonel, like Summers, and was in charge of the battalion, while Summers was in charge of the armored division. Williams was a major and commanded the ghost company and its respective service personnel. Boris was allocated to the Enteos, where one infantry company and Summers' mechanized company were traveling. The ghost company were aboard Andronikos, while Chester was stationed in the science vessel Mercator. Boris suspected that such high positions to deserter officers were a sign of the high esteem in which Umoja held the Confederate military. Such overestimation, for a military so corrupt.
As the briefing came to an end, the officers left for their ships, now docked in the same platforms. In his new cabin, Boris sat on the bed and thought about the new road he had taken. His family would not be happy with him if this expedition was unsuccessful, not only because of his treachery to the Confederacy, but also because of their conservativeness and dislike for the nature of the Umojans. Still, the sphere was there. It was a backup for him, that at least in Umoja he had gained recognition. He looked at the little marble sculpture of a turtle that he always carried with him, then at the photo of his girl and then at his uniform. It bore the colonel insignia, a sign of a new beginning. It also bore the the coat of arms of this new expeditionary fleet. It was a golden eagle on black background, standing proud in a heraldic position with the silhouette of Umoja above its head. The colors of the fleet were mainly black and then golden yellow and it had no name. It was just an expeditionary fleet led by McNorman into most mysterious places. The operation did, however, and it was called Stellar Shrine by the Umojans in their hope for discovery.