She frowned for a second. “Oh, right. The equipment parts we were supposed to transfer to another mining station is in fact a radio transmitter. I think that they switched the parts somehow.” She said.
Mathias sighed, he should have asked her that before they even boarded the shuttle. He was too distracted by the prospect of escaping slavery to think clearly.
“Alright then, let’s go back to the shuttle and tell them about the ship.” He got to his legs and started towards the door, but the hologram interrupted him.
“There is no need, this ship’s communication device can send the message on the frequency your friends are using.” It, Asumy said.
Mathias turned towards the hologram. It looked like a young man, maybe twenty five years old, with short brown hair, dressed in a dark blue uniform. The uniform had a strange symbol on its shoulder, it looked like a winged sword of some kind, and Mathias didn’t recognize it.
“And how do you know the frequency of our ‘friends’?” Mathias asked suspiciously.
“I have been monitoring all communications inside the Solar system for the past 66 years.” Asumy said simply.
Mathias saw Gloria’s jaw open, and Mathias’s did the same, it took him a moment to gather himself.
“66 years? You are telling me that you were here for that long?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“That can’t be. Humanity had ships and facilities in space, but only very little, and that was before the war, we did have the capability to come this far into the system, but every ship was destroyed in the war, the facilities abandoned, and the Ra’a’zani either took over or destroyed the rest when they came.” Gloria said, she grew up in one of the cities that managed to survive the war, where she went to school, so Mathias guessed she knew what she was talking about.
“You are wrong.” Asumy said.
“Then who left you here? And why?” Mathias said.
“I was instructed to remain here by my friend, Professor Hyeon Seo-yun of Olympus. She wanted me to monitor the progress of people on Earth, in the event that humanity ever manages to unite in a single entity. And if they were worthy enough in my opinion, to release to them the technology that Seo-yun left with me.” Asumy said.
“Olympus? What is that?” Mathias said, he ignored the part about the technology, one step at a time, he thought.
“Olympus was a country that was based in space, its territory spread out throughout the Solar system.” Asumy said.
“A country in space? Why didn’t I never hear anything about it? And where is it now?” Gloria asked.
“Olympus left the Solar systems 66 years ago, they took all their people and technology with them.” Asumy said.
“You are talking about the lawbreakers, the ones that stole the Earth’s technology and left.” Gloria said.
“The lawbreakers?” Mathias said. “They are only stories told by those born before the war, a story to justify their greed.”
Gloria looked at him. “One of my teachers was born before the war, they did have better technology then. He was almost eighty years old and he still looked as if he was twenty. He told us that before people didn’t age like we do now, that they aged only the last few years prior to death, he also said that the lawbreakers were real.” She said.
Mathias looked at her skeptically, he was aware that he didn’t have any kind of an education, everything he knew about his own world and its history came from stories told by those that survived the war, and the rest of his education came from the Ra’a’zani, he learned more about technology from them than from his own people. He looked at the hologram.
“Is she right? Is this a lawbreaker ship?” He asked.
“Olympus is the ones she is referring to, but they were never lawbreakers, nor did they steal any technology from Earth. None of technology Olympus took with them belonged to Earth, it was Olympus that developed it and owned it.” Asumy said.
Mathias looked at the hologram open-mouthed. “But why did they leave then?”
“One of the Earth’s governments instigated an attack on Olympus station, hoping to steal information on Olympus technology, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of Olympus citizens. Not wanting to have something like that happen again, Tomas Klein leader of Olympus decided that they should leave the system, and start over somewhere else, far away from the greed of those on Earth.”
“But why did they then leave this ship?” Gloria asked.
“The ship was left on orders from Professor Hyeon Seo-yun, Tomas Klein ordered all technology, ships and stations that weren’t being taken with them to be dismantled or destroyed. He was disappointed in humanity and did not believe they were ready for the technology Olympus possessed. Humanity only reinforced his belief by going to war after Olympus left, instead of joining together. Seo-yun on the other hand still hoped that humanity would change, so she left me and this ship here behind his back, so that should humanity ever become worthy, I would release technology left with this ship.”
“Wait, you were here when the Ra’a’zani came. Why didn’t you help?” Mathias asked accusingly.
“There was nothing I could have done, the Earth was devastated. You had no presence in space, you were trying to survive. I don’t have the control over the ships maneuvering, and even if I did send a message to Earth, there was no one that could have gotten here in time, and even if they did, there was nothing they could do. Star Gazer is still just one ship, and even though she is armed, she is not a warship.”
“Alright, I understand why you didn’t contact us prior to the Ra’a’zani arrival, but why not after they came? You could have made contact with the resistance, taught us how to fight them!” Mathias said angrily.
“I did contact the resistance, why did you think they sent you here? I sent them a message with these coordinates.” Asumy said.
Mathias looked at him surprised. “But why wait until now? The Ra’a’zani have been here for ten years…” And then it dawned on him. “You didn’t think we were worthy.” Mathias said.
“You were still bickering amongst yourselves, the resistance was fractured into many factions, each working for its own interests.” Asumy said.
That was the first Mathias heard about that, he believed that the resistance was united, everyone working for the freedom of mankind.
“But that isn’t the case now?” Gloria asked. She took the news in stride, suggesting that she knew about the different factions. She had been a part of the resistance longer than him.
“No, the resistance had finally realized that if they want to free humanity, they need to work together, towards the same goal.”
“Alright, how do we contact the resistance?” Gloria asked.
One of the panels in the room turned on. And Gloria approached it.
“Just speak, I will transmit your message.” Asumy said.
Gloria looked at Mathias for a moment and then spoke.
“This is Gloria Adriano, code 765143-Sunshine.” She said. Every resistance member had a verification code that told to those listening to the frequency that they were the part of the resistance. Actually, they had two, one that was real, and a fake one, that they were supposed to give in the event of being captured, to let the resistance know that they were compromised. And to give them a chance to plan an operation, or feed the Ra’a’zani false information. Gloria continued her message.
“We have arrived at the set coordinates, and have discovered a space ship, upon boarding it, we identified the ship as Olympus Explorer Ship Star Gazer, it was left here 66 years ago. Requesting a rescue team with someone who has knowledge of piloting a space ship, the ship is operational. Also, there is a computer aboard the ship, it called itself an Artificial intelligence.”