The screeching tone of his door buzzing was a terrible to sound to wake up to. He knew for a fact that he was not going through a hangover, but that terrible headache could only be the result of alcohol, or in this case, poisoning. He grabbed the chair and pulled himself upwards to take a seat. The buzzing noise insisted and his haziness only angered him further. He looked up at the answering machine. ''Mr Kart, your public communicator is here to see you, should I let him in?'' damn it. He always had the worst timing. He looked out his window dazed as he was; the rays fell almost horizontal above the tickling old-time fashioned clock that decorated the wall beside his oak wood office desk.
''give me a minute'' he managed to mumble. His suit was a mess and he was in no situation to handle kessen. He tried to put some order to his office, gathering the documents that Sabek threw everywhere while snooping around his office, looking for god knows what, considering all the valuable information were on one's projectile reader.
A paper fell from his pocket as he was kneeling forward to grab some of the documents that were on the ground in front of him. Dario swept his fingers above the small paper and turned towards the light of the room. It was cardboard material and looked awfully closely to advertising rectangle shaped cardboards that were used before the electronic personal adapter became a necessity for the average citizen. The paper read simply 'red sun'. It had small inscriptions on it, Dario looked closer, and a specific time was written. '22:52'. He took a moment to realize through his hangover. It was an invitation, an unexpected one; his life was not spared for just any reason, they wanted to meet him. He quickly shoved the piece of paper in his vest's breast pocket.
He heard the door to his office open; Kessen entered casually placing his jacket on the chair opposite to his desk. ''You really made a mess here, what happened?'' he said look at the scattered papers and unhinged flaps of his closets.
''A bad night, that's all'' Dario said mumbling almost to himself. He glazed at Kessen and turned to his desk to place the rest of his papers, hoping he didn't notice his anxiousness. His suspicions would still be there and his arrival signaled all kinds of trouble at this time. Considering his achievement of bridging the nations of humans and Reticuli with a seemingly meager and unremarkable offer on his part, anyone would get suspicious but there was only one person he feared and he was standing before him.
''I apologize'' Dario looked up surprised to see Kessen dropping his head in an apologizing manner '' what I said last night, I must have misunderstood. It was quite unprofessional of me; I hope it didn't affect our working relationship''.
Dario froze, the sincerity was not there. He was still suspecting him But all Dario could do was nod his head ''of course, no hard feelings, it is your job to thoroughly understand the workings of my job.'' He calmly said and proceeded to stack all the documents upon his desk.
''So shall we adjourn to today's meetings?''
'' oh right, I almost forgot''
''what were you doing here anyway?'' Kessen asked casually while picking up his own blazer from the hanger and exiting the office matching the walking pace of Dario.
Dario locked the office behind him carefully this time, though the lock of his office seemed useless after last night's events. ''I was semi-celebrating, this was an important moment for us'' he said, treading carefully, after all whatever Kessen felt that was off last night, was still in the back of his head.
''It was a big success, many of our people are feeling the change coming, usually nothing decent comes out of those meetings'' he said coldly.
Kessen's comment felt as generic as they come. But Dario ignored it, changing the subject. ''What is next Kessen?''
''Oh yes, we have the meeting with president Reispan and then we have to make some adjustments with the department of ethics, they keep pestering me to bring you in for a reevaluation, but that is tomorrow.''
Dario almost smiled. That was hardly surprising, Kessen seemed to have lost no time reporting him to the ethics department, but he didn't even have the guts to back that statement. He sighed nodding towards him. It seemed things were not exactly veering his way so far.
Dario threw his jacket inside the car and climbed in behind it. He let his mind wander for a while as his car was going upwards and around the skyscrapers of the central city through the traffic lines. His hands were trembling; he crossed his arms to hide it from Kessen who was casually looking out of the car window silently. He had pulled himself into some serious trouble that would only escalate with time.
''The president is ready'', Kessen said without warning. That caught Dario of guard.
"Right now?''
''Well, yes. She is currently on Pluto."
"Very well, put her through". Dario said and sighed once more as he tied his suit in the back seat.
A rectangular window screen suddenly opened on the backside of the front seat and President Reispan appeared. Her black hair fell to the sides and her half crooked smile was painted on her face. She seemed thinner than the last time Dario saw her, her cheeks were shrunken and black circles were formed beneath her green eyes.
"Good day, Dario. You seem awful" was the first comment President said to him. "Yes, yes I know, I am no better" the president said seeing Dario's sarcastic smile. "Currently I am having some trouble mitigating the situation on Pluto, I have something of importance I need you to look into." She was obviously referring to Hern, he caused a huge scandal on Pluto that even the president herself had to attend to the situation.
"There is a group of Changers moving around in Sector 3.1 for the past few days. They are attempting to recruit more people." Dario's face grimed as he heard that.
Dario glanced at Kessen who was moving uncomfortably in his sit. This topic was a sensitive one. He had to pretend that the group of Changers did not exist as he was unable to represent their interests, so Kessen just pretended that the conversation was not anything of importance.
"Why did not anyone let me know beforehand? Why aren't the enforcers taking care of this already?" he said with clear irritation seeping out.
"There are more problems than we anticipated" the president countered while interlocking her fingers in front of the screen. "Firstly the situation with Hern took away my attention and I was unable to take immediate actions, secondly the Enforcer's manpower was significantly lowered due to the area's numbers in criminal actions till now. And finally the Changers managed to conceal the extent of their actions for quite a while."
"You are leaving me to clean up a huge mess" Dario said coldly, which was obvious even to Reispan who simply looked down.
"Yes it seems so, but the amount of coincidences cannot be overlooked, I ought to think you will take care of it, there is no other option. I will send you all the necessary information" She said with finality.
"Now there is something of equal importance that I need to ask you before I leave, I heard you were called by the committee, is it something I need to worry about? Cause god knows I have enough going on as it is, my sector is a mess" the president asked him with sincerity, but they both knew he couldn't answer honestly in front of a public representative.
"No nothing to worry about, everything will be fine" Dario answered with assurance, he was convinced that was what the president wanted to hear but also it was her way of supporting him during the situation that any of them might face in their career as well as throw some sand in Kessen's eyes who was ignoring them all the while.
"Good to hear, I will be in touch" she extended her fingers towards the screen, and their conversation ended. The screen in front of Dario receded and disappeared.
"Dario" Kessen called at him suddenly with a serious tone. He turned to look at a worried Kessen sitting stoically with his fingers interlocked. "Do you think the Changers are right?"
Dario was surprised by his question but quickly gathered himself. Kessen rarely asked him anything related to his own personal ideology and he was expecting a real answer. "Yes, I think they are right in part. There are faults with our society without a doubt, a lot of them"
"Then you think they should have a voice?" Kessen was supporting a small traditional notepad with his one hand and was playing around with a pencil in the other. Of course he had no intention to record this conversation; it was one of those, one of a time, 'breaches of trust' instances by Kessen. Dario almost let a smile slip to his lips.
He fell back on his sit, relaxing for a moment and thinking of the repercussions of answering this question with complete honesty. "No, I think if we allow any leeway, our own society will be consumed again. Our evolution and our ability to contest with the galactic forces are far more important than trying to fix every problem with our society. Unfortunately we need to project a single ambition towards the other civilizations that are watching us closely, so any further growth in our society will have to wait."
Kessen nodded and said nothing else.
Dario understood why Kessen asked him. As a duo of a public communicator and a politician, this was the first situation of debatable ethicality they had to face. But all of these wouldn't matter if the committee realized what he did. He imagined Reispan would be furious if she lost another member of her sector. Failing to pass the ethics committee would only mean imprisonment and the loss of his position. He had to pull through somehow, there were things he still needed his position for achieving.
The car stopped. They were here; on the place every politician around the Earth despised and feared. The public communications building stood above the rest with its greenish and blue features. Metallic golden arcs circled the pentagon building and enveloped it like a garland. It looked beautiful on the outside but it was more like a beautiful death trap. The punishment for not following the basic laws for public communications could be the capital punishment, while the instances were few that did not encourage Dario much.
He got out of the car and came face to face with a slim woman holding a small projector. A screen came out and spoke with a soft and delicate voice "Dario Sanders, you are expected in the 40th floor. The committee is already gathered. Please follow the bureaucratic procedures carefully".
Dario pulled out his own projector and begun to fill in the instances on the files she send him. One by one the fields were filled and Dario's face darkened. He stepped inside the building and looked around at the plain interior.
There was nothing of notice aside from the few projected images of the risen heroes. The ones that build the society of today; to every earthen those were familiar images. But there was something distinct of those specific images. There was something missing; it was of course the symbol of the Rise. How did it escape their notice? Before he could think on it further the slim woman ushered him forward and towards the escalator.
They rode it for what felt like an hour. Small droplets of sweat were forming on Dario's face. He couldn't hide his anxiety from his 'dear' public communicator - Who was side eyeing him all along. He knew that if they found that small mistake he did, everything would crumple. He would most likely face execution.
The elevator arrived with a dong. He stepped outside into a very narrow corridor which had only one door at the end of it. Its symbolism was apparent even to a stroke victim; one door, one exit. They decide who comes in and who exits.
A few guards were around the corridor, each of them trying to fight of their boredom. One of them yawned conceitedly, whilst glancing at him sideways as if asking Dario to fight off his boredom.
Dario kept moving. One step in front of the other, and each time his well-polished shoes would make a heavier impact on the ground. He wished that the floor would shallow him whole.
The green, metal double doors in front of him sided sideways automatically. He walked in with the rest of the group who were trailing behind him. The room inside was lit in a magnificent way. The gold chandelier above him reminded him of the comforts the council of public communicators enjoyed. They were all sitting on comfortable red armchairs. Everyone seemed still, seemingly waiting for his arrival.
Dario took a seat at the metallic chair that was prepared for him. He was visibly shaking he pulled his hand in front and intertwined his fingers. He found the courage to look up at his judges. His eyes widened slightly. In the middle of the public communicator's table, saw the last man he expected to see; ex-president Sabek was smirking at him.