Foundation of All

It was time. They had been waiting for docking permissions for a few hours, but eventually the ship rumbled forward slowly under Emily’s expert guidance at the console. The station they were approaching was massive and far away from any planet, out on the far reaches of an otherwise uninhabited solar system. The sun was only a slightly brighter dot in the inky expanse as the ship inched forward and the station extended bridge outwards towards their ship. According to Emily, the Immortals didn’t want to come into conflict with any other humans that would want to settle down in a more desirable star system which is why it was so far from everything.

With a rumble and click Sean heard throughout the ship, they finally finished docking and Emily sat back from the controls. She stood and looked at him.

“Alright. Here we go, Sean,” She said and quickly looked over herself quickly, “We’ve got our fancy clothing bands. No weapons. Washed up and presentable… Are you ready? How do I look?”

Emily was wearing a pattern of bluish mottled loose fitting jacket that went just below her waist with golden little buttons going up the center. Her undershirt was white and her pants were black. Oddly enough she was still wearing her combat boots though. Sean eyed them for a moment before internally shrugging. It was certainly a statement, but who was he to tell her what was fashionable around here? Neither of them was wearing the gray mesh of the clothing band underneath their other clothes. Emily had said it was considered bad fashion to wear clothing bands if you were trying to be more formal.

Sean was in similar clothing but his jacket was green and he was wearing some shining thin black shoes like what he had seen on the feet of the Ruska State representative. After all of this time of wearing such breathable clothing from the clothing band, it was a little odd having just his skin exposed to the air again. He had forgotten about the materials near constant presence on his skin and only now that it was gone was he noticing the difference.

“You look good,” Sean said as he rubbed his chest self consciously as he thought about it, “You would know better than I would about what’s considered fashion around here. Let’s get this over with. We’ve both stressed about this enough, I’d say.”

Emily took a shaky breath. “Yeah. Everything will go great. Totally…”

With that they both left and went to the airlock to the main station. Emily typed in a code in the pad next to the large metal door and it slid open with a hydraulic hiss, revealing the empty hallway beyond. They walked down it as the door slid shut behind them, leaving only the door ahead before they were on the main station.

They went up to it and waited, standing side by side in silence for a minute or so. Sean glanced at Emily wondering what was taking so long before the door finally slid open and revealed the station beyond.

The first impression Sean had when the door opened was the smell of fresh soil. He saw in the massive chamber beyond were what appeared to be parks filled with trees and bushes, and even what he could see was a stream running through the center. Sean heard the babble of casual conversation wash over him from the various people that appeared to be wandering through the space.

In front of them were three men staring expectantly at him and Emily. Two were wearing black metal plating over the gray mesh of clothing bands. In the center the final man wearing what appeared to be some form of yellow ceremonial robes that swirled around him. Stripes and various other symbols and accents covered his robes that dropped nearly to his ankles and billowed open around his wrists. He had a well kept beard and smiled politely as he looked over to Emily. “Ms. Stenson.” He said, “A pleasure to have you back… so soon. What’s it been, a couple thousand years at least?”

“That sounds about right,” she replied shortly, returning his smile with a rather blank look on her face as she did so. Her tone was polite but rather flat as she spoke. The two armored men looked at her with some hostility but forcefully relaxed at a sharp look from the robed man.

The man turned to Sean and his smile became more genuine. “And you!” He said, “Welcome to Immortus Station for the first time. I hear you’re barely a few decades old and newly immortal?”

Sean nodded in reply and the man walked forward and extended his hand. Sean matched his motion and shook it, recognizing the gesture from Emily using it before. “That’s right,” Sean replied and waved his station at the man and his two guards, “Brand new compared to all of you.”

The man chuckled as he released Sean from the handshake, “Don’t you worry, we try to be welcoming to any newcomers. I’m Samir by the way. Chief of Security around here. But it isn’t often we find someone as fresh as you. You’re lucky you were… delivered here first by Ms. Stenson rather than to some of her other allies.”

Sean glanced at Emily and saw her face flicker with annoyance. He knew what the man was doing and suppressed his own annoyance on her behalf. “And where else would she take me?” Sean asked as casually as he could. Samir chuckled darkly, “Oh, all sorts of unpleasant places her friends told her about, I’m sure. You’re lucky she liked you enough to bring you all the way here away from their clutches. We’re much kinder towards our members than they are.”

“You mean the Plaguebringers?” Sean asked bluntly, not liking the man insulting Emily directly to her face less than a minute they left the ship.

Samir’s eyes flickered between him and Emily and he raised an eyebrow.

“The Plaguemother told you about her followers?” Samir asked in surprise, still looking between the two of them. After he spoke Samir winced at the apparent slip of his tongue as Emily’s expression shifted from blank to anger in an instant.

“Well, we got attacked by one,” Sean quickly said before Emily yelled at the man. Or maybe it wasn’t needed as she visibly held herself back and stiffened her expression before he even finished speaking.

“He sure didn’t seem that friendly with her,” Sean added, “Guy was totally insane.”

Samir eyed Sean, “Yes, they do tend to go that way. But she is their leader, don’t let her tell you otherwise. They shout her name as they leave only devastation behind them,” he said, “My condolences that we weren’t the first to find you.”

Samir turned to Emily and met her gaze, giving up his polite facade, “Ms. Stenson, thank you for your service to the Immortal Council in this instance,” he said in a sharp tone, “We will pay you for your service and you can be on your way. We will help Sean here adjust and settle in. Here on Immortus station with other upstanding citizens.”

Emily gritted her teeth for a moment before shaking her head, “I’ll stay until Sean is fully settled. I’m sure it won’t take that long for him to adjust.”

Samir paused and looked displeased but after a second inclined his head slightly. “Indeed. I suppose that’s reasonable. But I suggest you stay in your ship so as not to disturb the rest of the community.”

“I get it,” Emily growled, “God, how many times do I have to tell you pricks. I am not. Involved. With the fucking. Plaguebringers!”

Samir snorted, “I’ll believe it when they stop chanting your name before releasing another plague.”

“I… I… Fine! I’ll go to my ship,” she said, seeming defeated at seeing Samir not budging in the least before storming off.

“Hey, Emily,” Sean called out quickly before she left back into the hallway between the ship and the station. She turned around and met his gaze, “See you later?” he asked, not actually sure what would happen to him next. Her tense posture lightened fractionally and she nodded and spoke, “Bye, Sean. Feel free to come over anytime.”

Samir waved his hand and the door to the station closed with a hiss, cutting her off before she could say anything else with the door.

There was a moment of silence before Samir turned to Sean and let out a thousand watt salesman smile, giving Sean flashbacks to how the man from the Ruska state had looked. Or maybe that’s just his dislike of the man’s disdain of Emily tainting Sean’s perception of him.

“Sorry about that bit of unpleasantness,” Samir said, “She’s a liar and you shouldn’t trust her. But now that we’re done with that, let’s move on shall we? I’m sure you’ll love it here! After doing some basic paperwork we can start showing you around properly.”

Sean followed Samir and was led to an office where he filled out paperwork. So much paperwork. He had no idea how much time passed in the windowless little office sitting with Samir and answering questions about himself, his history, his home planet, the exact events that led him to becoming an immortal… All of it analyzed and questioned down to the smallest detail. He filled out all sorts of forms to establish himself here and become a citizen of the station. Given the way his head was throbbing as it did when he usually skipped sleep, it had likely been at least eight or nine hours since they started. Probably far longer than that.

But eventually, they were done and Sean was freed from what had felt more and more like a prison as they continued to sit there unmoving doing the paperwork. Samir then began the true tour and showed him the various facilities and talked up how wonderful the Immortal Council was.

The open green areas connected to a series of glass elevators that ran up and down through the various levels of the structure. There was a facility for literally everything you could imagine here. Sean had been shocked when he saw a massive room filled with water near the beginning. A ‘pool’ as Samir called it. So much water just sitting in there for people to spend time in. Not for drinking or cleaning, it just seemed… so decadent.

As Samir showed him more and more luxurious structures and facilities, Sean’s mind kept coming back to that first room. To the pool. He knew he should probably be impressed by the zero gravity shooting range that Samir was currently walking them through, but he just wasn’t. It was so removed from his life experience that he had no idea how he was supposed to feel about it compared to a normal shooting range. He hadn’t even used the one on Emily’s ship yet over these last few months.

He had never even held a real weapon before. Nothing that his hometown had access to could be both easily carried and deal with the vicious local wildlife. At least for the pool he could visualize how much of a luxurious waste of resources it was. This? He stared at a woman bouncing off a wall to hit a moving target down the range. He had no clue how impressed he should be. But he imagined it was top of the line given how much Samir praised it as they went through.

Finally, the tour came to an end and he was shown to his room. A massive space with a large white tiled bathroom. Gold trim and a massive bed lined with silky sheets and fluffy pillows dominated the space. He had thought that the room on Emily’s ship had been decadent… but this… this would be enough space to house more than twenty people back home. It felt like too much…

He fell asleep and after he woke up again he left the oversized room and began to explore Immortus Station. Sean started off at a normal shooting range. A completely different place than the zero gravity one. Shooting a gun couldn’t be that hard, right? Wrong. He barely even knew how to hold the weapons, and was surprised when he discovered that there was a safety switch to prevent it from firing if you pressed the trigger and the safety was still on. He spent a while learning that, only firing a few shots between getting his stance corrected and learning about how to handle it safely.

Not that he could hurt himself with it, but the AI instructor told Sean that it was polite to not accidentally shoot other people. Something that was apparently not obvious to other people it dealt with based on how often it kept reminding him of it as he went along. Eventually, Sean was tired of the training and left. He walked outside and shook his head as he realized how utterly useless he would be if he ever had to fight one of those Plaguebringers someday.

Was the gun range training free? No. But it may as well be. Apparently Sean got a kind of stipend since he was so new, so all he had to do was have a machine scan a card he had been given and he could pay for everything. He had been worried about running out of money while he was going over the paperwork with Samir, but Samir had outright laughed when Sean had asked. The amount you were given was inversely proportional to your age, so Sean was being given an insane amount of money just for existing right now.

Sean had asked if he was exploiting some sort of loophole since it seemed that most that came here were much older than he was, but Samir had simply waved him off and told him to enjoy himself. Compensation for the ‘unfortunate’ way he had been found. Sean’s lips had curled downward when he heard that.

Now that he was out of the shooting range, Sean was greeted by several people nearby who noticed his unfamiliar face. While there were hundreds of thousands of people on the station, almost everyone had at least seen each other before considering everyone was immortal. So people naturally gravitated towards him as he walked around, curious about his presence.

When he told them his situation, they became much friendlier and recommended various things he should try while he was around Immortus station. Most were very sympathetic that he had been picked up by the ‘Plaguemother’ and congratulated him for ‘getting away’ from her evil clutches. It was bizarre how much people here seemed to hate the woman he had become friends with over the last few months.

As they warned him about all the bad things they had heard about Emily, he tried to get more details. She was ancient, maybe she was just an amazing actress and she was secretly evil? But no matter who he asked, not a single person could list a specific bad thing she had personally done. All of them spoke of things some Plaguebringer had done and claimed was in Emily or the ‘Plaguemother’s’ name. In fact they spoke of how she pretended to do all sorts of good deeds around the galaxy to cover up all sorts of evil schemes.

Now, Sean knew that he didn’t have the full context of everything and that even now Emily might be lying to him about things. But some of the people spit on the floor in disgust when they spoke about her. He just didn’t think she deserved that from what he’d heard. No wonder why she was so nervous about what Sean would think about her if most Immortal’s first impression of her was from these people.

Making a decision, Sean broke away from his latest conversation and made his way to the ship docking zone where he knew Emily’s ship was. He noticed that the two armored Immortals flanking Samir on Sean’s arrival stood to either end of the hatch.

Sean walked up to them. “Here to see Emily,” he said, glancing between the two of them. They shared a look before the one on the right stepped forward and shook his head.

“This ship is off limits to visitation. Please move along.”

“Well,” Sean said, “Can you at least go in there and tell her I’m here so she can come out herself?”

“The ship is completely locked down. No one goes in or out,” the guard said calmly.

“Are you serious?” Sean asked before wracking his brain for what to say to get past them, “According to who? I, uh. Left something in there. What am I supposed to do?”

The guard hesitated at that and put his hand to his earpiece. “Samir?” the guard said out loud before pausing for a second listening.

“No, she’s still inside,” The guard said, “It’s Sean, the new guy. He’s here and wants to go in. Says he left something inside on her ship.”

Another pause.

“Yes.”

Pause.

“Understood, sir. I’ll tell him.”

The guard looked at Sean again and took his hand off the earpiece again, “Alright. Go on through. But go in there, get your stuff, and leave. Don’t listen to the Plaguemother’s poisonous words no matter how innocent they seem. If you take too long then we’ll go in and make sure you’re okay. But don’t risk it.”

“Er, okay. But I think I’ll be fine so don’t be worried if I take too long,” Sean replied as the door slid open in front of him and he went through. He walked down the hallway and went forward, flinching a little as he heard the outer door boom shut behind him. He waited in front of the inner door, shifting from foot to foot as he stood there. He was really feeling the time pressure the guards had put on him.

The door opened and Emily was standing there in the same blue jacket she had worn a few days ago.

“Sean!” She said, sounding almost surprised, “You came back to see me! Wow.”

“The guards outside sure didn’t make it easy,” he grumbled as he stepped into her ship, “Had to pretend I was here just to pick up something I forgot just to get by them.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed for a moment before she shook her head, “Oh, those… But you got by them at least. So, how was… Immortus Station? You know, their facilities are top of the line, best of the galaxy. Lots of other immortals to talk to, all sorts of…”

“I don’t hate you, Emily,” Sean said, interrupting her rambling. “Something’s in the water over there. I mean it was almost laughable how much they tried to explain how terraforming planets and moving refugees and helping them resettle for free was secretly part of one of your big evil plans.”

Emily nodded and gave him a weak chuckle, “Trust me. If I had any evil plans, none of those jerks would ever know anything at all about them. The Evil Plaguemother secretly rules the galaxy!”

Sean raised an eyebrow and she seemed to rethink what she had just said, “Nope! Not that I have any of those,” she quickly corrected, “Sorry, bad joke.”

“So, tell me about what you think of Immortus station?” Emily said, trying to quickly move past her joke as they entered the old familiar living room and sat down on the chairs. Chairs that were much less luxurious than the ones in Immortus station but more casual and comfortable through familiarity than the more expensive ones.

“Immortus station…” Sean began and launched into his account of the last few days as Emily listened. After that was done, they discussed some of the recommendations Sean had received from the people he had talked with. Emily had several suggestions of her own that none of the others had said. Their conversation was… easy and Sean felt his last shred of doubt fade away. Their connection couldn’t be a lie, and no matter what the other immortals said he couldn’t believe she was faking it. Not until someone had undeniable proof otherwise, and maybe not even then. Their friendship was real, and Emily was just misunderstood by all the others.

And so Sean relaxed and focused more fully on the conversation, the decision lifting a weight off his shoulders that he had been carrying ever since he stepped off of this ship days ago. They were still friends. He could trust her.