By David C. Daoust
Dakota was having the most interesting couple of weeks. Not only had she spent most of the first week within a corporate star-cruiser, to reach Dori 5, she’d spent the rest of that week within a lab studying mucus. Black nasty mucus, she’d really preferred to never witness, let alone study under a microscope. Upon finishing this research, for some reason unknown to her, the star-cruiser could not get a gate out of Dori 5 for a whole ‘nother week!
Dori 5 was basically a giant space station. Remnants of the living quarters of an Ark Ship, ejected from the mass of said ship upon their arrival to the new solar system. The Ark Ship itself was needed elsewhere. This was the fifth and final section of the Ark Ship designated Grandeuri Alpha, the other four dispersed around separate planets of the Core.
Finally, Dakota got word of a gate. Yet now that all she wanted was to head home, suddenly she was part of this cloak and dagger meeting within a small station Chapel aboard Dori 5.
A Chapel was not a place you would normally find the pragmatic Dakota Sun, though the message buried within her telecom, when she tried to reach Otomo Corp, was compelling beyond reason. And so it was she found herself kneeling in a pew for the past twenty minutes… waiting.
“I have always found it interesting,” whispered a raspy voice behind her, “While my job takes me from every aspect of this life, again and again I find, while the poor folk are praying to God, the rich folk are always ranting about the devil.”
Dakota did not respond to the words, as she was unsure that they were directed to her. She did however glance back to get a better idea of who was speaking. The Chapel was poorly lit to begin with, though the man seemed to choose the darkest pew available. All she could make out was the silhouette of a man. The silhouette of a man that began to list:
“The devil taking their goods, the devil taunting them with loss, the devil the cause of all the worries of all the worlds,” the voice continued, “all the while the poor folk are praying to God, not to be caught for stealing what they need to survive.”
“God’s just a good idea,” Dakota said, already bored with the topic, “this is all appropriately mysterious and all… but I really don’t think you got me here to discuss theology?”
“Fair enough,” the man rose from his pew in the back and moved to kneel directly behind her, “There are things I know of you. Things that make me think you may be sensitive to a cause outside of your current employment.”
“Things?” Dakota mocked.
“I know that while you hold a major share in ‘Otomo Corp’,” the shadowy man clarified, “-In all the Otomo’s dealings in fact- though you actually come from a much humbler background. A background that, I believe, makes you more sensitive to those with far less in life…”
“And who are you? And what is this job you have,” Dakota began to question, averting the conversation from her own life, “that you witness all the mighty and small in all their acts of worship?”
“I work for the people of course,” the man stated vaguely, “All the people.”
“Seems far more likely to me, that you are trying to develop an asset,” Dakota said simply, “Which would make you an intelligence agent. But for whom?”
“Here,” the man handed her a small data file, Dakota could hear the grimace in the man’s voice, as the conversation clearly didn’t lead in the direction he had hoped, “this is the information I thought you may find interesting about your current place of employment.”
Dakota accepted the data, curious at the very least.
“We may speak again,” the man said, “Upon what you choose to do with that information.”
Dakota had already removed her personal data screen from within her vest, and loaded the file in for viewing. The files were dated a week ago; much of the data was her personal notes on the Black Lung Infection… the rest… profit reports.
“But tell me… ‘God is a good idea’ for whom?” the man asked, “Those that want- yet can’t acquire… Or those that have- yet fears loss?”
“Exactly!” Dakota laughed aloud as she spun about to find the man gone without a trace, she rolled her eyes at the whole experience.
