After all these years, you’d think the nerves wouldn’t bother him anymore. They did. They probably always would. He paced back and forth on the marble floor, his eyes watching the floor dead ahead while a myriad of people spoke back and forth, their words falling on deaf ears. In truth, they were loud enough to be heard – but the sounds from outside were overpowering. The city, itself, was deafening every day. Today was worse, though. The crowd growing outside the Palace of Kings, named by some old leader from a time long before him, was screaming and chanting – their words were the ones which concerned him. They screamed obscenities and disgust. They were angry, and they had every right to be that way. Yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, an incursion occurred on their industrial world.

The mines were attacked, and hundreds of thousands of innocent workers lost their lives defending what belonged to them. Currently, the Armada was in pursuit of the invaders – and he didn’t doubt for a minute word of their utter demise would reach him soon. However, right now he had little to nothing to show for their efforts. He doubted the people would be happy if those were the words he spoke to them. The people in the room were talking a mile a minute, offering opinions and ideas on what to say, on how to pacify the crowd. On some level, their words registered and the pertinent pieces he stored away for use, but for the most part they spouted their usual nonsense.

A special meeting of the Council was already called, and he wondered when they’d begin to filter in from their respective homes and haunts. The Council of Gods was already prepared, the tables set out and the chairs brought in – those high backed, uncomfortable monstrosities they used out of a love for tradition. Still, it would be good to have people who truly understood what it meant to run things around again. They’d been separated for some time, each working on their own places and things – building up their own peoples. The council rarely met anymore, but that would have to change. Things were changing. Undiscovered cultures were coming from nowhere and attacking him. HIM! Shaking his head, he stopped pacing and turned toward the oversized window.

The people in the room stopped, as the chiming sound announcing midday began to ring. It was time for him to give his speech, and he shifted nervously as his feet carried him to the stand holding his ceremonial outfit. The long, black robes covered every inch of his body from the neck down – the collar raising up and up until it stood a full foot above his head. His hands wrapped around the cool metal of the head-covering, which enclosed around his head with a resounding snap. It was stuffy and hot, not even a few minutes of wearing it and he sweated bullets beneath it, but it was part of the outfit. The thing had no mouth, but it was comforting to the people who knew it. To outsiders, of course, it was a bit intimidating – and in some cases kind of ridiculous.

Within the confines of the helm, he opened the Gya’kun – his third eye pulling apart on his forehead. The exertion of his spiritual essence washed over the crowd when he pulled back the curtains and stepped out into the midday sun. His hands lifted, and the essence spreading out amongst them brought silence to the crowd. Of course, they all thought it was their own idea to quiet down and listen, but it was truly just mass mind control keeping their tongues still.

“My people, I regret having to be here today. I regret the circumstances which brought us together. This attack was unprovoked. This attack was atrocious, and the work of an unknown group of terrorists. Right now, as we speak, the Armada is running them down. They will not last throughout the remainder of the day, that much I promise you. But, let us not forget what happened. The mines were attacked, presumably for control of our immense resources – and people lost their lives. But, their sacrifices cannot be thought of as in vain.

“They saved our land. The ones who died fought bravely, and they died well defending the resources which keep you, their family, safe. They fought with what they had, and I promise you they will not be forgotten. In the future, this will not be a problem any longer. Effective immediately, the security around Furyk will be increased ten-fold. Several legions of the Armada are being moved as we speak, and stations are currently in production that will automate a defense system surrounding the planet. Until these defenses are in place, however, travel between the worlds will be restricted.

“I apologize for any inconvenience this might visit upon you, but we simply cannot risk more lives at this moment. You, the people, are what make this Federation great – you make us the power that we are, and I will not allow you to be in unnecessary danger. When more information is known, it will be passed along through the appropriate channels. Please, my friends, return to your homes. Mourn the lost, celebrate the living. And remember, we are one people. One world.”

As he spoke, the Gya’kun slowly closed – until by the end the only thing keeping the people silent was their own willingness to listen. It opened their minds, allowed him to begin uninterrupted – and then closed. They listened on their own now, their rapt attention focused on his every word. His hands lowered to, until they rested on the massive stone balcony and he leaned against it, his words reverberating throughout the whole system. He held tightly, indenting the balcony with his fingers. The anger was apparent in his voice, and the people felt the true passion in his words.

As he finished speaking, they began clapping – loud, raucous clapping and screams of adulation and joy at knowing the Federation planned to take care of them. Of course, some were angry at the travel restrictions – their vacations ruined, or trips to visit their families on distance worlds. That didn’t mean they didn’t understand the necessity, however, and even they joined in the clapping and screaming eventually. Smiling inside the mask, Odwin turned and walked back through the balcony window – reaching up and unsnapping the helm, setting it back on the pedestal.

Sweat ran down his face, but he refused to acknowledge it. Instead, he walked to the opposite end of the room and pushed open the door from his office. The air on the other side seemed to warp and twist back in on itself, and then the council chambers appeared directly before him – separated inside its own, special pocket dimension. A plethora of doors lead off in random directions, the pathway in and out for the other members of the council – who should be arriving any moment.

There was much to discuss, and many new rules and sanctions that would be put into place after the recent events. He took his seat at the end of the table, and his eyes closed as he lost himself in his thoughts – attempting to figure out who might have thought to attack them, after all these years of peace and prosperity for everyone.

A face covered by the brim of a solid black fedora rained tears as he stood at the fore of a large funeral procession; the body in the casket had, before his very eyes, sparked with the last remnants of electrical energies that powered the various implants that allowed the old codger to last as long as he had. A whopping three hundred some odd years. He didn't register whether or not anyone else has noticed the sparks of energy, that was the furthest from his mind. No, he had other things to worry about, namely the eulogy he was set to give at any moment.

Ester, an elderly usher, had come to move him along, and almost instinctively he moved his right shoulder forward to remove her hand from his body. He loathed being touched, even more so now that his grandfather had passed, the usually charismatic young man had been a recluse to everyone that wasn't an executive employee at the company that he own owned half of. The young man moved, allowing others to pay their respects to the man who had become known as the Godfather of Human Cybernetics, improving quality of life through robotic enhancments. That was his motto, always his motto. Either way, he mumbled out an apology to Ester, who had come to them with pennies to her name begging for an augmented liver. They gave her one, free of charge, and she had been ever grateful. The procession carried on for several minutes, with everyone saying a few words to the deceased man. Customs. He had seen it at funerals before, people came and paid their respects either legitimately or for show. It wasn't hard to tell who was doing it for what reasons.

It wasn't long before they motioned for him to come to the front, for the person next to him to whisper for him to put his game face on, the new half owner of the Raeym Corporation was needed to show the competition that they would not falter. The man was right, of course, their competition sensed blood in the water - they were there now networking with his new partners, spreading the wondrous news of their new innovations and patents.

He stood up, brushing imaginary dirt off the Joseph A. Banks, three piece platinum edition suit he wore. It fit him comfortably, something that he had picked up from sitting under the proverbial learning tree of his grandfather. The suit and the man make each other, a symbiotic relationship. Steady steps took him to the podium, hushed murmurs followed him as his passed, whispered condolences from this he both knew and didn't. He could see the Ruby red roses and the deep blue tulips that hung as wreathes around the casket, the mahogany tomb looming like a single candlelit flame in an otherwise dark room. He took his place behind the stand, removed his hat and placed it down. His sky blue eyes, contrasted against his soft brown skin, he possessed a powerful aura that drew people to him - and as he stood there, quiet and contemplative, the crowd silenced their murmurs and waited for his words.

After a moment, his words came, The measure of a man can be taken when he attends a funeral, how he received his guests and how his guests receive him. For that, I must apologize to a long time family friend. Mrs. Ester, I treated you wrongly today, even on a day of my greatest sadness. May you ever find it in your gracious heart to forgive me for not being the man that my father and mother, my grandfather wished that I would be. The woman nodded her forgiveness. She had already forgiven him moments after the incident. For the rest of you, my grandfather would be greatly amused by this turnout. Both by the outpouring of love, and by the underhandedness of his goes - who even now utilize his death as a way to curry favor with retailers, with the military, with the consumer.

To many of you, he was Kaige Geoffrey Chamberlain the First, but to me he was always just G. He may have been a hard man to deal with, strict and hard handed, but for his family he would have moved the entirety of heaven to secure their happiness. And that was what he did when he started this company with Mister Phoenix Raeym. When they started the Raeym Corporation, their goal was simple. To improve human lives through the use of advanced robotics. But to G, his true goal was to ensure that his family was well taken care of. Unlike myself, he did not go to college and get a doctorate in bioengineering, robotics, mathematics, and a bevy of other fields, but by candlelight did he study the intricacies of the human anatomy and the deeper meaning of robotics while he toiled in factories.

I stand before you today, Kaige Geoffrey Chamberlain the Third, the son of a deceased father and mother, reared by the man whose soul today ascends to heaven,a young soul chosen to undertake the career of a lifetime. Today, friends, family, and new competition, I stand before you as new 50% owner of the Raeym Corporation, where tirelessly we work to innovate new designs into human-robotic hybridization.

Almost as if on cue, as if words were the final steps he needed to take his grandfather's seat, the supercomputer chip, trademarked and controlled by Raeym Corp., clicked on that he had a notification. It wasn't just any notification, he had become strangely accustom to the ticker tape feature at the bottom that alerted him of the ongoings of his company, but this one sort of burned into his brain it's urgency. The odd hieroglyphics, an alien language that he had seen etched in his grandfather's books appeared before him. Emergency Council Meeting!

He missed nary a beat, Let us not dwell on the past. But look forward to the future, to a future where humans and robotics come together to advance humans to a stage where we are not inferior to alien kind, where we are not submissive to those of magical persuasions. We are human kind, Raeym Corporation is robotics, and together, we can make them one in the same.. What was once hushed silence erupted into a thunderous applause, and Kaige allowed himself just a moment to soak it in, before he turned his back and walked away.

----
Twenty-Five Minutes Later
----

The hustle and bustle​ of the funeral was past him now, the dark colors and sad faces were several miles behind. The soft swoosh of the elevator was the only sound that sang in his ears, and that too was about to end. Doors opened, and into a lofty fifty-sixth floor office of Raeym Corporation did he step. It was like his second home. His desk was covered in papers, information that pertained to both the Corp., and the others' affairs. An attack on a mine was situated at the top. Was that the reason for the meeting? He had remembered seeing strange people with his grandfather, but would they know that he was dead and that his grandson had taken his place in all affairs? All of them.

His brain flicked through the files of the RaeKai chip, his own had been merged with the chip taken from his grandfather, giving his access to all passwords, files, and other computerized items of the company. He found the password and entered it into the locked file of his brain. In turn, a secret door opened on the far wall. Kaige adjusted the cufflinks on his suit and stood, walking towards and through the door.

On the other side, one other waited - a man he had seen before, his chip informing him that his name was Odwin, a member of the Council of Gods. Kaige placed a hand on the seat before him, choosing to stand for the moment.

Sir Odwin, it is a pleasure to meet you, but a shame to do so under these circumstances. As he spoke, his chip connected back to his building, allowing him to operate as though his presence was still there. He could not have been the only one called to this meeting, and for that, he would wait. Others were bound to show, or were they in such dire positions that the attack on the mines, and the death of his grandfather were only the beginning?

There was no secret to be discovered in all the information being gathered that the events of the day before were profoundly changing, not just to this world and all under its dominion, but too those far beyond it.

The evidence the cold eyes had laid sight upon implied as much, for they spoke of something more grand and ominous, that which the many peoples and the many nations knew not of and could not be made aware of; the hours reading revealed knowledge so arcane that what glimmers of hope that this could all be resolved swiftly faded. These were times unlike anything these people were to know and perhaps more forebodingly, ever would know. That was what made them so dire to understand. Not the lives lost, not the damages sustained, not the injured economy. No, it was that there was more to come.

While in regular times and trials those eyes would have viewed the speech as rousing, but they had no such opportunity to even be present. The chaos that followed in the wake of the storm, particularly that which knowledge could only be discussed behind closed doors, had been more pressing. The threat and that which it posed needed to be understood in the most precise of details with such utter secrecy that the thoughts themselves had to be shrouded by technical and even unnatural wards. Even these too were under threat, that was how grave the danger was. It was by sheer coincidence, maybe fate itself all along, that this information was bestowed upon a man from so far outside the bounds of reality. Someone who really should not have had a stake, let alone a say, in its distribution to him, but such was the nature of the station he was in.

Recitation and contemplation put the inner turmoil to calm, just as they did all other things. The memories and the information suppressed by the psyche, at least for now. Their time and place would come soon enough.

For now, the intensity of focus shifted itself visibly as the eyes moved again, now to view the vast rolling sea before it. The sights, sounds, senses as a whole all returned to the foreground rather than their prior place of being relegated to nothing. This beach, whose white sands shone brightly in the morning sun, were akin to the pale flesh of the very old in soul and far younger in body man. Truthfully, were it not for the synthetic material that made up his open longcoat and its midnight coloration, he might have otherwise been effectively invisible here. The beauty of this untouched place, where he had been the only man to ever set foot, was distracting enough to let such a fancy carry. Adding in the fact he was both pale and bald helped too.

His elopement here was brief, all too brief. Although it was the only place he knew where he could keep his secrets to himself and only share them with the land of which was content to drink them in, never to share them either. Just where this land, this place was across an infinite sea of stars no one but he likely knew. So it made for that much desired sanctuary to ponder the weights of the world that he had in part accepted. Once upon a time it was not that way, a place to hide and think, but that was then. The only thing that had gone truly unchanged was the sea and this beach it seemed.

The man took a few steps forward, hands concealed behind his back, boots parting the incalculable grains of sand, and before his next had so much as sunk into the sea before him, he had vanished without trace. His footsteps followed suit, being made no more by the wave that then broke. Once again this world was free of the outside.

Where he returned however, sometime and somewhere, was vastly different and in the company of two familiar men. He observed them and their exchange with a odd quiet politeness and even more odd stillness. There was this particular way he stood and watched which seemed only in part human, as though he himself did not realize he was genuinely here, perhaps mislead that he was in another place which might as well had been a dream. The reality was that he was indeed here though he appeared content not to change anything of his actions in spite of this. Rather, the courteous silence and motionlessness just seemed to be inherent.

"Yes, it is unfortunate we find ourselves meeting." He said, proving to cant his head some, "But I assure you both, as if you had any doubts, this is of tremendous import."

As a general in charge of the planetary defense force, Himebabi felt personally responsible for the extent of damage the United Federation of Planets suffered in the attack. Moreover, he expected a firm chastisement that such a calamity slipped through the mantle of his protection. Yet, as he strode in and quietly beheld the board room, he observed that President Inaeldo perhaps ruminated on other matters; not that he ever could read the man’s mind, much less his face, which seemed less than human in its emotive capacity than any else he recollected.

Not the last to enter, he caught the tail end of the discussion and further saw two others already present. One in body, the other considerably less so. He nodded in acknowledgment to the president, again to the chairman, and lastly to the third, the final a man of equal rank on this committee to his own but whose service was of a vastly different form. It was a new face to him, but one with familiar features.

Ah yes, Chamberlain’s grandson and heir, remembered Himebabi.

There was to be a fifth and six member of this council present before before they would convene. In the meantime, he would gather his thoughts.

Himebabi wandered toward the window and glanced out. The crowd was so dissimilar from the near-riotous rabble his motorcade pierced a handful of minutes prior as to be unrecognizable. No voice shouted, no fist raised in anger, no weapon glinted and threatened to transform protest into rebellion. Instead, faces were turned up toward the balcony with undeniable reverence. The president’s speech, while poignant, was certainly not transformational. The affect was uncanny; no, more than that, it was unnatural.

On the wall, a video screen, muted, relayed the latest world news. Unable to hear what the anchor alleged, he instead relied on the chyron at the bottom of the screen. It wasn’t merely the crowd outside their building whose anger was quelled, but worlds over.

Fortuitous beyond credulity, but nevertheless welcome.

Indeed, the circumstances of their meeting were dire indeed. A planet was attacked, millions were dead – and millions more were still missing. Those they found, at least until this point, were probably better off dead. In a matter of a few hours, the entire economy based around their mining systems was in shambles. If the people truly understood how dire a situation they faced, even the Gya’kun might not have quelled their anger and their thirst for revenge on the government that allowed such a thing to happen. Now, though, the board was meeting – something that hadn’t happened in a long time, and something he had hoped wouldn’t be needed. Yet, the meeting was called and here they were, filing into the room one after another. Two still seemed to be missing from the group, but they would either make their way in their own time, or they wouldn’t. Regardless, the meeting would be held.

The newest face among them, though he recognized him as the grandson of another councilman, spoke to him. The voice was almost dead-on familiar, but that mattered little. The hierarchy of the council allowed for descendants to take the place of their ancestors, without a vote, but only under circumstances relating to death. News reached him a day ago that Councilman Chamberlain was dead, but in the aftermath of the attack on the Federation, he paid little mind to it.

Now, his replacement stood before him, and was greeting him – and the news popped to the forefront of his mind once again.

“Ah, yes, Kaige the Third, is it? I’m sorry to hear about your grandfather. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done. I’m sure you have more pressing matters to attend to, as I’m sure all four of us do – but we must meet.

“As of right now, all travel between planets within the Federation is restricted to military movements only. The people are calm, I saw to that a few moments ago, but we’re not sure how long that’s going to last. The truth of this cannot get out, they only know what I’ve told them – and for now that’s enough, but we must keep things quiet. However, we cannot restrict their traveling for long. As such, I propose the ban be lifted now.

“I’ll keep you updated on what the military reports, if they manage to catch the ship that caused this wanton destruction. That’s all I have on the matter, but perhaps either one of you has more to share?”

His words flowed without the aid of the Gya’kun. These people were too strong-minded to succumb to it anyway, and even if they weren’t, they were his friends after a manner of speaking. Though in truth, most of them worked for him in one way or another. At least the General and Kaige, though Raeym corporation wasn’t strictly under his control, they operated in territory owned by the Federation and so obeyed his laws.

Taking his seat at the farthest end of the long table in the room, he crossed his fingers and planted his elbows on the wooden surface, letting his chin rest just on top of his enclosed fingers. He awaited what, if anything, the others had to say on the subject, or any subject that they felt warranted galactic attention. For his part though, he simply had nothing else to say at the moment.

General Moartyme steepled his fingers as he sat, elbows on the conference table, and nodded slightly in concurrence with President Inealdo. His wasn’t the innate action of a sycophant; instead, he saw and supported the wisdom present in his leader’s words. By this point, with only a half-cycle having passed since the attack, the local system was secure. Indeed, that was part of his purpose in coming to this meeting. To provide an update to the other board members on the status of their defense force’s reaction to the attack.

“All vessels, foreign and domestic, within 100 AUs scanned and deemed safe. Outliers currently being interviewed, but none of serious concern. Mostly smugglers, a handful of which, as we are aware, are permitted in Federation space for economic purposes.”

He took a small sip of water and continued.

“Prolonging the travel ban serves no purpose. Indeed, to do so is detrimental as, with industry crippled, we must rely on maintaining a healthy trade relationship with our neighbors.”

He glanced around and confirmed his suspicion of unanimous support on the matter.

“I will immediately inform the defense force that the ban is lifted.”

He stood and walked over to a corner of the room, pulled a communication device from his pocket. Placed within his ear, he opened a secure line to military headquarters and passed along the order. Within a handful of minutes, vessels would once more be free to come and go at will. Satisfied that the orders were being carried out, he returned to the table, where the other members graciously awaited in silence.

“Now to the matter at hand. As to preventing such a heinous act from again occurring, we will be constructing an intelligent network of satellites to scan incoming vessels for threat signatures and deploying them in a series of overlapping grids around each planet and, moreover, around the entire system. Instead of minutes notice, we will in the future have over an hour in which to coordinate a response. This, our best scientists assure me, includes from superluminal and extradimensional infiltration attempts.”