October 2942
With the Xi'an fleet
Xi'an / UEE Border
Trr'enth had been true to his word, bringing Gedion along with the Xi'an task force searching the borders for the pirate menace. Little did he know that the last two months of his life were to have been the most boring and uneventful. He had hoped to assist in the search while furthering relations and connections with the Xi'an, but found himself more a prisoner than a partner.
He was allowed outside of his small bunk room only once a day for one hour, and then only in the main mess hall for a meal. His other meals were brought to him on a metal tray, flippantly handed over by an indifferent Xi'an crew member. A single computer terminal in his room was available for him to pass the time, but it only accessed the most censored and safe content available. All other functions were locked out by a passcode.
For the first few days, Gedion was pretty pissed about the whole thing. He genuinely cared about the slaughtered Xi'an and the threat to human-Xi'an relations, and by extension XSO-Xi'an relations. But no matter how loud he yelled, and pounded on the wall, he couldn't change his situation. He had created so much racket that a Xi'an crewmember had taken some pity on him on the fourth night while delivering Gedion's dinner. As the Xi'an passed Gedion the tray, he explained that Trr'enth only consented to Gedion's request to come along because XSO had returned the body of the dead Xi'an they had recovered after a pirate attack. Simply put, Trr'enth felt indebted to XSO for this action, and the Xi'an don't like to be in debt to anyone, especially not aliens.
'At least I learned something about Xi'an culture' Gedion thought to himself, trying not to write the wasted months off as a total loss. But the thought was on little consolation to him. He was bored, he was lonely, but the thing that bothered him the most was feeling misunderstood. To the Xi'an, he was just a nuisance, an obligation to be fulfilled.
---some time later---
Another day spent laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for something, anything to happen. All of Gedion's attempts to converse with his caretakers as they delivered his meals had failed, and in his daily hour-long trip to the mess he was always ignored. He sat on his bed, tapping the wall and wondering half-heartedly if he could somehow tap it enough in the same spot to wear through it and create a hull breach. The boredom was unbearable. Just then, his evening meal arrived.
It was the same Xi'an who had explained to him with Trr'enth had agreed to letting Gedion onboard. Gedion recognized him because he seemed to be a little shorter and rounder than your average Xi'an.
"Something special tonight, I think you'll enjoy it," the Xi'an said flatly, without eye contact. He placed the tray on the small table across from the slim bed that Gedion presently sat on.
Gedion couldn't think of anything meaningful to say as he watched the Xi'an leave the room and lock the door behind him. He walked over and took a look at the tray. Nothing about it looked out of the ordinary... except for a small corner of white sticking out from under the plate. Gedion pulled it out and discovered a long, thin strip of paper, with a string of characters on it. He stared at it, puzzled, then realized it could only be good for one thing.
Gedion sat down at the computer terminal, which sprang to life with such interesting information as Xi'an weather and something like a shopping channel. He tried to access a page that he knew would prohibited, prompting the authorization window to appear. He slowly entered the Xi'an characters from the slip of paper, carefully making sure not to make any mistakes, as his Xi'an alphabet recognition wasn't stellar. His finished the code and hit enter.
To his amazement, the screen went black. A single cursor blipped in the top right-hand corner for a moment, then flashed 'loading program' written in English. He watched as more text flashed across the screen. It appeared to be scanning through directory after directory of some file system. What it finally landed on sent chills down Gedion's spine.
It was an intelligence report about a suspected UEE secret program for the elimination of Tevarin refugees. It was a situation that Gedion knew all too well. He had known that some element of the UEE was clandestinely carrying out genocide against the remaining Tevarin, and here was the proof in this apparently Xi'an intelligence report. As he continued to read the document, he was even more surprised to see his name mentioned in connection with what he thought was his undetected efforts to smuggle Tevarin orphans to safety.
Gedion was now thoroughly panicked. It had all happened so long ago, before he had even joined Ballistic Logistics, and he was sure no one knew, no one except for... her... But now here it all was. The Xi'an somehow knew. Had they turned the information over to the UEE authorities he was sure he'd not be safe in UEE space again. But they hadn't turned the information over. So why show it to him now?
Thoughts raced through Gedion's mind frantically as sweat poured from his brow. As he finished scanning the report, the text disappeared from the screen, replaced by short, broken sentences.
Seer...
We are those who believe...
Salvation through Unity...
The Prophecy...
We watch, we see...
Krell in danger, like Elysium...
We will show the way...
The screen went blank again. Then...
Share a deceiver with Photeus...
-K
The screen blinked out again, then returned to the same Xi'an weather station it had previously been on.
Gedion's head spun. Who was this K person? How did K know about Gedion's past? How did he know about the prophecy? And what did it mean, "we are those who believe?" And how did they know Photeus? So many questions swirled in his mind, and there was no way to get any answers. There was nothing for him to do until K contacted him again.
Gedion decided his time 'helping' the Xi'an was over. He needed to get back to the XSO fleet ask Photeus about this 'deceiver'. Maybe he would have some idea who K was...