Chapter 4 4

"Are you alright?" the voice called in my brain. "Where are you?"

"Who are you?" I demanded, searching my room for the intruder.

But I knew. I could feel it. Him. He wasn't in my room, or our cube. He was inside my head.

"What are you doing here?" he'd asked. "How did you get inside my head? Who sent you?"

"Sent?" I demanded. "How did you... What is happening?"

It went on like this for a good hour. Demanding to know whom the other was. What we were doing in each other's heads.

Somehow, I shut him out.

He was gone.

Only to be there again a few days later. Only he was clearer. Like I could hear him better.

And then, one morning I was getting ready for work, and I suddenly felt like I was somewhere else. Somewhere semi-familiar, but foreign. I was in his head.

He never would tell me his name. So I had never told him mine. I didn't know where he lived or where he was from. I had no idea what he looked like, but his voice was as familiar as my own.

When the anxiety of having someone randomly pop into my head subsided, I found...a friend. Someone to talk to. And he, likewise.

It became a bi-weekly tradition, to check in with one another, and just...talk.

But now wasn't the time, when I had all this steam burning my face and hands and arms. He'd understand if I connected later.

It takes me an hour and a half, but I finally get the pipes fixed. An idea strikes, a way to potentially make some new pipes. Stronger ones, ones that would never break, never warp, and never leak.

I finally get back on my feet and I slip my audobuds in my ears, and tap the circle on my connect-link that says The Black Hole of Truth.

"Welcome back to this highly illegal episode of The Black Hole of Truth with Arden Black," a confident female voice comes through, straight to my ears. "Today, I want to talk about something that became my obsession back in my school days. You know, five solars ago, when I still lived on Falbos."

I smile, because she's so bold and brilliant. This is the most listened to spacecast in the galaxy, and the most illegal because of her content. Arden Black is constantly dropping hints about where she is and who she is; constantly teasing the authorities, daring them to find her and shut her down.

"I want to talk about the history of the Nero."

I head back toward my office to do some research. But even though I've walked past it a thousand times before, I still stop and stare.

I press pause on the spacecast.

There is a core in each of the quadrants. A massive pillar that runs seven-terra levels below ground, up to the top of the building. Glass keeps it contained and amplifies the glowing blue beauty of the Neron core.

Neron is everywhere. It's energy. It's life. It's in the air we breathe, it's in my blood, it's in every tool I use. It's in all of the food we eat.

It's also found in solid form on certain planets around the Eon Galaxy. In solid form, it can power anything. Weapons. Ships. Buildings. Entire planets. The company I work for, Horne Energy, buys solid Neron and powers every city on Korpillion.

Our modern space travel exists only because of Neron energy.

I might be mixed in the dealings of Neron, but for most, just the word strikes a quake of fear in the back of one's throat.

Because where there is Neron, there is Dominion.

The mega company has been around for over four hundred solars. Once upon a time, it was called Dominion Blue, because Neron is blue in its natural form. But now they've dropped the façade of being just an energy mining company.

They still mine Neron. But it's gone so far beyond that.

Dominion scouts the galaxy for planets rich in Neron deposits. Once they find one, they settle on the planet and establish a mine. They also buy up as much real estate on that planet as they can. They say they employ the locals, but it's little more than servitude. They take over the economy. And then it isn't long until the governments have less power than Dominion.

They take over planets. Once Neron is discovered on yours, almost everyone will move somewhere else in the galaxy. Because no one wants to be subjected to the control of Dominion.

They don't care about families. They don't care about homes. They don't care about destroying landscapes.

They just want the Neron. Neron makes them money. The entire galaxy is dependent on it.

Dominion is the reason Korpillion is so over-populated. Because every other inhabitable planet in all the nearby solar systems have Neron on them. All those residents immigrated here. To a planet that supposedly has no Neron.

Only it does.

Thirty-seven solars ago, Reena McDyer's father discovered Neron while working as a sewer excavator. Knowing what the discovery of the Neron would do to the planet and all of its residents, he kept his discovery from his employer and immediately quit his job. He was a poor man who was struggling to make his way in the world. I doubt he really set out to get into a life of crime, but when you're desperate, you'll do just about anything.

He began dealing Neron.

Neron can be used to power just about anything. A few shards of it can power your home for over a solar with no bills from the power company. It can serve as the firepower for weapons, like the ones I make.

But it can also do other...things.

Like make you see things, things like your short-term potential future. Things like what your most loved one is really feeling. It can make you sharper, quicker. It can heal you. It can even make you age slower.

But only in small doses. Tapping into Neron for personal gain drains it much quicker than using it for energy. The effects of simply holding it are short lived.

Unless you eat it.

Like the Kinduri.