Chapter 1 - 02: The Month is September

A discussion was continuing in the room. "How are you feeling? Any drowsiness? Sickness?"

"I'm fine. Just tell me what's going on. I can't remember anything at all. The only thing I remember was that room and how familiar it looked."

"It's familiar because you've been in that room before. A lot of this ship will seem familiar to you. As you might have already noticed, you have some form of amnesia. This state was induced on purpose."

"Why?"

"The reason will be revealed to you later when you have been reconditioned for proper function in the human social system. All I will tell you know is that you have been identified as a good leader and skilful in the art of dogfighting in space."

"What would that mean?"

"You will be assigned to be the leader of a squadron of scout fighters on the exploration vessel Kirkor. Of course, you will have to be trained first."

"Training?"

"You are most certainly talented at this, but you need to know more about yourself first. Take this file. We'll begin simulations tomorrow in a fake cockpit. Get some sleep."

Harrison promptly stood up and left Kanya in the room. The file was full of clippings and photos. Kanya was in for a long night. He studied the file intently.

According to the file, he was an expert pilot of fighter class ships and frequently led raids and attacks against bases much larger than his own. From his records, he frequently succeeded. It also said he was quite adept at repairing things regardless what it was.

He gleaned through loads of photos, from those with his parents and siblings, to those with his former squadron. The record stated that his squadron was ambushed and killed during a scout mission. It felt wrong. He knew that it wasn't true, but didn't know what part of it was wrong.

But if it were true, would it have been the purpose of his memory erasure? He was thinking deeper. It was probably more likely they stumbled upon something they shouldn't have. He somehow recalled being told stories of these people whose memories were erased. He even remembered some of them being assigned to the ship he was assigned to.

Losing himself in deep thought, he suddenly realised someone was knocking on the door. A female voice beckoned, "Is it OK for me to come in?"

Chapter 1 - 01: The Year is 3031

The year is 3031. This year is of no significance in history. It is of no significance to any normal person, any average person. Nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen this year that will concern the normal citizen on any of the Terran colonized planets. But for a few people, it will be the first day of a step in the direction of a new life. However, only one of them will cause the shift of events that will alter destinies and fates forever. This one, at this point in time, cannot remember his name. He is among those who have chosen or been chosen to have their memories wiped.

All he will remember when he awakens will be the room he woke up in. This room will be a simple room in a space vessel known as the Medical Vessel Number 2904. It is currently travelling through Dekaten System to Remote Station 29.

***

The room is unfamiliar to him. He remembered seeing this room before. It was darker before. His eyes blinked a few times to adjust. "Where am I?", he thought. He saw a green light flashing at the door. He got up and walked to the door. He knew it was supposed to open, but it didn't. Seconds later, it opened. He knew it wasn't him who activated the door.

On the other side, there was another man. "I see that you are awake. Come with me, we have much to talk about." In his hand was a large file. It was labelled "Subject 3002 - Kanya Methodius". "Oh yeah, and by the way, I'm Harrison. I see you've already taken interest in this file I'm holding. Yes, your name is Kanya."

Harrison led Kanya down a long series of doors. As he looked back, he could no longer tell which was the room he was in. He had forgotten to take note of his room number. They finally came to a door which led to another hall of doors. Harrison just went into the closest unoccupied room. Kanya had no idea how he knew, but he knew the configuration of lights above the door meant it was unoccupied.

Chapter 00 - 4: Prologue Part 4

Before the Arlt Alliance, Arltians did have a war known as the War of 23. This war was, as the name would suggest, the struggle of power by the 23 most powerful colonies. By the time the war ended, only 7 of the most resilient colonies survived within the borders of Arltian space. These 7 formed the Arltian Alliance, gathering less advanced colonies within it to stave intergalactic conflict. The two Terran corporations depended heavily on the Arlt Alliance for the education of the Gifted. Although there were only 28 of them in total, having the Gifted fully utilized was central to the accelerated development the Terrans had experienced. Before long after the 28 Gifted children were placed into key positions within the two corporations, the Terrans caught up with the most advanced colony within the Alliance.

Before long, a 29th Gifted came into view, and was the only Gifted Terran to receive education from other Gifted. This 29th person is now the Head of the First Division of Engineering within the TRi. It is believed that this 29th person already has understanding far beyond Arltian technology due to the unhindered learning from other Gifted instead of the Alliance.

As of now, there have been no other reported Gifted than the original 29. Terran territory has expanded greatly and efforts have begun on restoring the planet Earth. An individual body was formed with funds from GMTi and TRi to commence and execute all restoration processes to ensure neither corporation could lay claim to Earth.

The Terran Meganet eventually spanned far and wide, making Terran territory close to 25% the size of Alliance territory. It is believed that the Arlt Alliance has hyperspace technology independent of the travel gates, but has kept quiet on such technology, fearing that it might be used for conquest instead of exploration.

Darkness falls.

Chapter 00 - 3: Prologue Part 3

Fortunately for the TRi and GMTi, they have made few enemies in their deep space exploration efforts. However, this is more of result of intelligent life being scarce rather than Terran prudence. They have made a few allies other than those through the Arlt Alliance as well as some enemies. Following advice from the Arlt Alliance, the two Terran corporations have refrained from involving themselves in any underdeveloped planets. Apparently, history has proven that interference will only cause disaster for the race being artificially advanced. The TRi and GMTi hiring has seen little diversity in terms of race. This is actually because few races in the Arlt Alliance would consider working outside their own races' companies, and even fewer would consider working with a corporation that isn't part of the Alliance. In that sense, the TRi and GMTi are full of normal humans, not taking into account the Gifted. The majority of the Terran race speaks either English or Standard Mandarin, which were adopted as the two main languages of the Exodus parties. This proved to be a peculiar advantage in trade.

The Arlt Alliance had developed a translation technology which it had no qualms in sharing. This made it easy to accomodate the two simple 'dialects' which Terrans spoke into the Alliance language database for translation in their device. Some races also favoured trade with Terrans because there was no need to learn an obscene amount of dialects just to trade among the multiple trade stations and complexes scattered across Terran territory. Some races simple preferred not using a translation device for the fear of it producing the wrong words in the wrong context - although such errors are generally tolerated most of the time.

Within this relatively new and growing race, some of the Gifted had begun to execute a plan covertly among themselves. And within this plan, there were a few people who had yet to learn what role they had to play.

Chapter 00 - 2: Prologue Part 2

Life is currently very different from back then. Humans are now led by a group of people who are called the Gifted. The Gifted are more advanced humans - they have been singled out for extrarodinary abilities. Among these extraordinary abilities is wisdom, which led to the Gifted being favoured as leaders over normal people. Of course, few people in the lower ranks understood this. There was a rebellion once against the Gifted - with one problem. They couldn't claim that they could do their jobs any better than the Gifted. Their place was sealed among the reigning top of the companies by the most logical argument - meritocracy. While they were detected and traced via ancestry, their abilities were unquestionably above all the rest. Most people are under the employment of one of the large corporations. If they are not, then they are probably working with a smaller corporation whose purpose is probably to serve one of these corporations. Pirates are rare, and if any, are probably working for one of the larger corporations in secret, stealing technology and shipments from other pirates in the Alliance systems. Each corporation has immense military strength, and has roughly several hundred thousand military vessels in active service at any time. Civilian-owned vessels are few, since most corporation work is done on planets or on larger motherships, through which there is usually a corporation shuttle class ship to borrow.

Research is the current focus of each corporation. The main focus of their research is weaponry and biology. Most computers have been reduced to mainframe systems, but personal computers now come in all shapes and sizes. Military computer systems are largely unlinked, but civilian carriers do have networked systems. Biotechnology is currently the matter of the most interest, but not the furthest along.

The most advanced technology made by Terrans so far is a method to harness zero point energy. This technology is by far the most coveted in the universe - but its existence has been kept secret by the TRi and GMTi for many decades. It's discovery has been erased from Earth's records. While the scientists who played an important part in its discovery were heralded as revolutionaries, their discoveries have been changed and modified to hide the existence of this technology.

Recently, technology to create artificial wormholes has been discovered. This is hoped to one day end the Terrans reliance on the Arlt Alliance hyperspace trade gate network. However, the technology has been unsuccessful at transporting living matter for some unknown reason. As of current, the technology is being harnessed for faster-than-light communication systems. Experiments with hyperspace are still in progress - it will be needed to plug the Terran vulnerability to attack.

- to be continued -