League A (Interdivision): Agent 492 vs Morkotar

[Solar Haven]

Quest at your own pace. This thread must be completed by January 12th, 2014 at 12:00 AM EST. If you finish early, please submit it for judging per usual.

[Lucius]

Prologue

“I’m worried, Lillith.” Duffy said, gingerly prodding his dinner.

The canteen of the Prima Vista was quiet. The crew busy with repairs pre-departure for Eluriand 5. The ship’s engineer, Lillith Kazumi, stared at the agent across the table. She sipped a tumbler of whiskey, trying to find the words of encouragement he sought.

“You know it’s safe, right?” she said softly. “They wouldn’t send you if it wasn’t.”

“Into a wormhole?” he moaned. He put a potato into his mouth, chewed it twice, and swallowed it painfully. Anything to do away with the sense of sadness, anything to feel alive. “There must be other agents suitable for this sort of assignment.”

There was not. Duffy had to jump through the tear in space and time because of his peculiar nature. He emptied his mouth, cut a runner bean in half, and followed the potato with bean and gravy chaser.

“None are immortal, and none live here, and then, and certainly not in both.” She pursed her lips. “Duffy…you’re getting the chance to look back through time.” She sipped her drink. “Back through your time line, at that.”

When the ship reached the devastated world of Eluriand 5, it would dock with the Administrate vessel Atomos. Once they briefed, Duffy would travel, in a drop pod, through the wormhole. Reports indicated that it lead directly to a planet sharing identical geologic markers to the progenitor world, Althanas. Three thousand years ago, at the start of the rise of the solar empires, Althanas’s instability caused its implosion.

“I’ll send you a postcard…,” he said, trying to find humour in a dark time.

There was every risk the wormhole would close, he might meet his old self, or that the temptation to be shot of a war-torn galaxy would get the better of him. There was also every risk he could cause a paradox, his A.R.I.A system alone would, if discovered, accelerate technological growth at unsatisfactory levels. There was every chance this mission to ‘explore’ could in turn destroy.

“As long as it’s not from Alerar,” she pursed her lips. “If the history books are true,” she added. She finished her drink, smacked her lips, and pointed over Duffy’s shoulder to the canteen doors. They were open. Sei Orlouge stood in the portal, eyes narrowed, and hands full of dossiers and documents.

“He’s here, isn’t he…,” Duffy asked wearily. He sighed. He set down his fork. He pushed the plate away. “Well, I’ll be back in a while.” He pushed himself up from the table, nodded politely, and turned to meet his superior officer. “Captain Orlouge, I see you’ve taken to your new station in fine form.” He tried to smile, but as he crossed the polished steel floor, he was distinctly aware of shot daggers from both sides.

“If my being here offends you, Agent 492, file a complaint with the Administrate. For now, I’m too brief you on the reasons for our mission, and then you’re going to tell me a thousand times how you won’t…under any circumstances, do anything to change history.”

Duffy shrugged with a cheeky grin. “Why the hell would I want to see what your ancestors looked like?” he clucked. The thought, on the hand, of meeting Sei’s ‘heroic’ kin had been on his mind ever since he had spied the M class planet through the glistening tear in space.

“They’ll shoot you, just like I did,” came the reply.

The two men departed, leaving Lillith worried, half-cut, and unblemished by the implications of sending the galaxy’s most dangerous man back in time to the world’s most dangerous age.

“A world with two Duffy,” she said with a shudder. “Law save us all…”