[center][h2][color=6ecff6]The Bahiri Stellar Directorate[/color][/h2][/center]
[h3][color=6ecff6]Bahiri Prime, Apartment complex Oak Trees, apartment 76-B[/color][/h3]
Alek had just arrived home from work and he rushed straight to the TV wall. Today was the big day. Not for him, but for his friend Jasper. But knowing a person from the Ring of Fire was something, and Alek wouldn’t stop bragging about it to everyone who was willing to listen. He absent-mindedly scratched his ear for the millionth time, then remembered that he shouldn’t do that and forced his hand to rest in his lap, also for the millionth time. 

It was just two days after the surgery and the small scabs itched like hell. But he had already been given some compliments about his new long and pointy ears, some even from the women. And women normally avoided Alek as if he were a Minion, so if enduring a bit of itching would be the cost to change that, he will gladly pay it. And the money for the surgery, of course, which wasn’t cheap either. But in these days, you couldn’t hope to get certain social status with just the basic look.

The show was just beginning, Alek cheered loudly when he saw Jasper’s face amongst the contestants. He was hard to miss with his bright blue skin, long green hair and a pair of small horns. His opponents didn’t look nearly as impressive as Jasper – three Normals, but without any remarkable improvements, and a very nervously looking Amphibian. After everyone was properly introduced, the host, Pia Malden, gave a signal to start the show up and light the fire. Pia was definitely on top of Alek’s celebrities-I-want-to-lay list. She had a reptile-like forked tongue, and when she wasn’t talking, she would often stick the tips of it out and licked her lips. Alek found that incredibly hot, so hot that he watched every show Pia was hosting, just to see her on screen.

The fire around the arena was raging, the contestants all trapped inside. Only one would get out alive. Today they were each given a short blade, so Alek expected it is going to be rather quick match. The fight started, and the contestants rushed towards each other with bloodthirsty screams. Jasper dodged a cut from one of the Normals and stabbed his blade deep into man’s chest. The Amphibian tried to surprise him from behind, when Jasper was retrieving the knife, stuck between the Normal’s ribs. The hit from the Amphibian threw Jasper off balance and Alek gasped for air. But Jasper didn’t hesitate and as the Amphibian closed in, he grabbed the poor creature and pushed him into the fire. The Amphibian let out a desperate screech, which was completely outvoiced by loud cheers from the audience.

[color=6ecff6]“YES!”[/color] Alek cried out with the crowd on TV. Life was great. In fact, the only thing that would make his life better right now, would be Pia waiting for him in his bed.

[color=6ecff6][h3]Bahiri Prime, The Blue Order headquarters[/h3][/color]
Life was horrible. Not life in general, just Tilak’s life. Why did he have to be the one to deal with all this mess? He sighed and reviewed the report he had been unsuccessfully trying to put together for the last hour.

[color=6ecff6]“The action in the science center was a success. The suspect was brought into custody and all of his personal belongings confiscated.” [/color]Tilak was glad he could at least once use the word ‘success’ in the report. [color=6ecff6]“His interrogation brought us to the thought that there is an organized group of individuals with the same traitorous ideas.”[/color] Even reading these words that he had written himself was sending shivers down his spine. An organized group, very well organized from what they could gather. All traitors trying to destroy the system. 

[color=6ecff6]“Investigation amongst his close coworkers confirmed that he was often seen entering abandoned building just outside the complex.”[/color] Up until now we look like a competent group of professionals, Tilak thought. He wished he could just end the report here. [color=6ecff6]“Close examination of the building revealed nothing interesting inside, except for a hidden entrance to the maintenance tunnels. Six members of the Blue Order entered the tunnels to discover where the suspect has been going. Two members returned finding only dead ends, the tunnels sealed of or collapsed long time ago. To this time, the remaining four members did not return.”[/color]

The report ended there. Tilak was staring on the screen, wondering if he could change some words to make it look better. But he had lost four men on a routine mission. Four well trained, well geared men. How the hell do you make that look better?

[color=6ecff6]“Further investigation of the suspect’s belongings revealed the group is calling themselves The Fist of Justice.”[/color] Useless information, a pathetic attempt to look at least a little competent. Look, I found something, I'm not a complete failure! [color=6ecff6]“Evidence suggests that many other people are involved, including some in high positions in the government.”[/color] That was nearly a complete lie. The nonexistent evidence could not possibly suggest such thing. But still there could be something to it. The suspect was a prominent scientist, even one of the candidates for the Committee, although he wasn’t chosen in the end.

[color=6ecff6]“We will continue the search for more information about the group as well as for any information about our missing officers.”[/color] Someone will, anyway. Tilak will probably be kicked out of the Order. Or something worse. He sighed and sent the report to the system, then rested his forehead on his desk. Life was so unfair.

[color=6ecff6][h3]Bahiri Prime, undisclosed location[/h3][/color]
Some might say that life is unfair. Omega would never say it out loud, but the thought had crossed her mind a couple of times. But of course, it was completely illogical. Life just is. Fair or unfair is a point of view of its participants.

But this morning was worse than the one yesterday, that could be measured and compared. Ever since her last augmentation procedure, which finally allowed her to connect herself to the Collective Network, thus becoming a proper Master, she has been having incredibly vivid dreams. She often woke up so confused that she didn’t even know who or where she was. And the Network connections, however short and sparse, didn’t help much either. The sheer amount of raw information stored there was overwhelming.

The Minions that Sigma had assigned as her caregivers have already prepared food and took care of other primitive needs of her body. She vaguely noticed that there was one man amongst her normally female-only staff, but it didn’t really matter. In Omega’s world, gender was just an unimportant concept. The Minions were just tools, carefully selected to serve her every need. And as for her personally – she did think about herself as a female, but it was more of a conformity with the method of communication. Since her body was nearly useless shell with the sole purpose of keeping her brain alive, its gender was the last thing anyone would care about.

One of the girls carefully fed her. The food was just a tasteless shapeless mush, which provided all necessary nutrients to her body and the only movement required to eat it was swallowing. Omega sometimes wondered what real food would taste like, but since she could hardly lift her hand, let alone chew solid food, these thoughts were just a fruitless waste of time. She also sometimes wondered what it would feel like to not be so exhausted all the time. But since her augmented brain was consuming nearly all her body’s resources, that was yet another useless thought. For a supposedly super-smart person she sure spent a lot of her time thinking about unimportant things.

She sighed, and gestured the Minions to plug her in. She had a job to do. Now that sounded little too ordinary. She didn’t have a job. She had a purpose… a calling… a destiny? Quickly searching her mind for more fitting words brought her dozen other synonyms, but none really fit perfectly. In the end, it didn’t really matter how you will call it.

Felling the cold metal on the skin at the back of her head, she shut her eyes closed and tried to prepare. As if you could be prepared for your brain suddenly being connected to everything. The Collective Network was a remnant of one of the original custodians – a network connecting everything on Bahiri Prime together, storing data from all of the systems, from the most vital like life support, to the most meaningless like status of every single streetlight in the city. In addition to that, the Masters were using it to store every bit of information that was acquired. Reports from all public organizations, countless lists of all official trade transactions, even copies of every bit of broadcast from all of the official TV channels – everything could be useful one day.

Not even Masters with their augmented brains could hope to comprehend such amount of information. That is why each was assigned an area to control and each had to report to Master Alpha. Omega was to oversee the Blue Order and make sure that every sign of change is suppressed at its beginning. The stability must be maintained. No changes are allowed.

There have been some minor problems with certain individuals over the course of time, but no major problems, especially ever since she replaced the original Omega. Not until now. When she ordered the scientist to be arrested, she was sure there was something wrong going on around him. But this definitely wasn’t what she expected. She went through the report of Blue Order officer Tilak who was overseeing the arrest, getting more and more surprised. 

She started searching the databanks for any information about this “Fist of Justice” but so far found nothing. It was still a strange feeling – when she was plugged in, she stopped existing in her frail body. Her consciousness moved into the virtual environment. Suddenly she had no shape – no hands to touch, no eyes to see. Yet she could watch video and read and control the things around her. To her, the Network seemed like a comfortable office with tons of screens and the databanks like endless shelves filled with nicely labeled books.

Her face would be frowning, if she had one right now. How could there be nothing about such organization? The Masters tried to have everyone under constant but invisible surveillance. There were some blind spots, but not that many. As she browsed the information connected to the report, she noticed that Tilak’s superior asking whether he should remove the officer for failing his duties. Omega carefully assessed every aspect of the failed operation, but found no error. Everything was done according to the set guidelines. Punishing anyone for unforeseeable consequences would be illogical.

Omega delved deeper into the Network, trying to go through as much information as possible, dismissing the parts that weren’t connected to the case and saving the rest for future use. If there truly was an organized group threatening the stability of the entire Directorate, even armed well enough to take out men from the Blue Order, she had to act fast.