“You see, everything here is intentional.”

  Gaeia Ramlik sat amongst three of her friends at a local cafe, their typical spot near the campus of Gamici’an Institute for studying or hiding out later than they should. They found themselves overall exhausted and overwhelmed; aside from their academic pursuits, the student-led protest demonstration had gone disastrously. Information is still being released as to the number of casualties inflicted by law enforcement sicced upon them, and they expected the details to be falsified or otherwise inaccurate.

  Worse, Gaeia hadn’t seen nor heard from her father for months. Initially, in some sense, she figured good riddance. The daughter of Admiral Gahn felt staunchly opposed to the man’s political views, making for a strained family dynamic. She lamented that her older siblings kept more on the quieter side of the matter, favoring not to further disturb the status quo and to keep the peace between each other. It stood out to her more as moral differences than simple political preferences like the way it is typically portrayed. Seeing the state of things actually being here in the Coalition, she has since gained a much clearer view and insight to what she believed her father didn’t see.

  But as the months passed, a different concern grew. She still loved her father, in spite of everything, wearing and keeping with her a necklace he had given her since childhood. She understood as a foreign student from a world like Ulminh, that her father worked so hard to sacrifice so much for the kind of opportunities she might now be taking for granted here. It thus concerned her to no end that begged the question, “where the hell is he?”

  He has gone completely missing after what was supposed to be a diplomatic voyage. Just like everyone else, having viewed the newsreels and viral broadcasts, it has become common knowledge amongst the public of what happened and its implications by now. Social anger is at the highest it’s ever been. But after that, the trail ends. Very limited details got out aside from very broad strokes of the picture. The only reason she even knows about World Ritus is in its undeniable destruction. This was supposedly the last place her father had been. Suddenly months later, a similar, exponentially more catastrophic incident occurs in Gateyard Olmona, taking out with it the energy and resource demands of an entire sector of Alpharion. Somehow, she hoped that it was a sign, no matter how delusional, that he was still out there somewhere.

  There was a good reason for this hope, a secret that she has kept. She remembered growing up a particular family friend from her father’s childhood would frequently visit her household. One day, rather suddenly, he returned a deeply changed man, and didn’t come by so much anymore. Years later, she sees his face upon the wanted posters, displayed upon the gigantic holoboards of the Coalition. The most dangerous terrorist of the current times, perhaps even in all of history. His name now circulated amongst public and private talk as frequently as this mythical “Lim” figure.

  For the sake of her safety, Gaeia knew not to speak about how that man is her father’s childhood friend. But in the meantime, it gave her hope that if he was behind these incidents, then her father in some way might be with him, and therefore alive.

  But what would he say about this?

  “Well yes, we know that, Kirilii,” replies Vulina, sitting across the table from him. “That’s how hostile takeovers work, and we’ve basically allowed them to—”

  “Well, that’s not quite what I was going to say,” states Kirilii, taking a sip from his drink. After swallowing, he continues. “My argument here is that there is in fact no hostile takeover, in the grand scheme of things. It has always been like this since the beginning.”

  “What are you saying?” asks Werno. “I find that hard to believe, I thought this has been more of a recent thing.”

  “Not to pry at you and I do apologize if I do,” continues Kirilii. “It’s only noticeable now that it’s leaked out to hurt everyone and the majority as well. Otherwise, for the marginalized and underprivileged here, it’s always been like this, and very intentionally so. For everyone else, it came in far subtle ways. They keep you guys preoccupied with struggling across a million different things so that you literally can’t do anything. They have you believing that you’re beating the system when you’re just excelling at the game they’ve already set up for you.”

  “Can I have a few examples?” Werno continues.

  “Tell you what,” comments Kirilii. “Look how nice and healthy you look here. Big muscles and everything.”

  “Why, thank you!”

  “Care to tell me a little bit on how you do it?”

  “Well, I just make sure to pick out the right foods, I know how to study and analyze nutritional data, and what exercises are best for each part of my anatomy. Honestly I’m surprised they don’t teach this in school and that most people don’t do it—”

  “See what I’m saying?”

  “What?”

  “They can very easily teach this in school. They absolutely can! But they don’t, and that’s by design and decision. There is far more than enough across the stars to provide easy access to healthy food, but they don’t, once again by deliberation. You get it now, right? It took so much effort and self discipline to get you here where it would be effortless anywhere else. They want you stupid and unhealthy so you can’t fight back, and even here where you’re not, it kind of works, because you’re thinking more about how much better off you are relative to everyone else, when it’s been set up like this since the beginning.”

  Werno is taken aback by this, having not previously considered the depth to it all, even if it certainly made sense. He found himself rather offended at his own shortsightedness, more than anything.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Like I said,” finishes Kirilii. “Everything here is intentional. You can point out literally anything to me and I’ll have an answer for it.”

  “I do have a question though,” Gaeia chimes into the conversation. “Their whole idea is that they want to stay in power and keep it that way, right? What good is having everyone waking up and seeing it? Hundreds of planets are basically burning right now.”

  “Good question actually,” responds Kirilii. “I actually don't know about that, I can’t give you any single right answer. My best guess personally is that whatever it is they’re doing up there, they don’t have any reason to care about it going on anymore.”

  “Couldn’t we just pin that on arrogance, then?” asks Vulina. “Regimes that get overthrown are plenty throughout history. They seem to be no different as a government should they make the mistake of not fearing their own people.”

  “Perhaps religious fanaticism?” comments Werno.

  “I think,” says Gaeia. “Maybe they have something we don’t know about.”

  “Oh come on, that’s a bit obvious, don’t you think?” says Werno.

  “No, no, let her talk,” responds Kirilli.

  “I mean, let’s take a step back for a moment,” continues Gaeia. “In some ways, it seems to me they don’t really care all that much, right? I feel like they just let some planets burn. They don’t even bother moving in to control the masses. There’s talk about these isolated victories, but I feel like they just let it happen. Like it’s beneath them.”

  “So, are you suggesting that whatever they might have, they don’t have any reason to care about that kind of thing anymore?” asks Vulina.

  “This is going to sound crazy of me to say,” continues Gaeia. “You know that ‘demon’ they’ve been after? Maybe we’re not focusing on everything just yet. Everyone’s upset they’ve been paying for a war they didn’t know about, but have you seen what that ‘demon’ can do?”

  “So it’s not all propaganda, then?” asks Werno.

  “You mean to tell me you haven’t looked a bit into it?” Vulina rolls her eyes at him.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know!” exclaims Werno. “It just sounds so unbelievable to me.”

  “Gaeia, what were you saying?” asks Kirilli. “And yes, Werno, it’s real.”

  “Don’t you think they want those kinds of powers, too?” Gaeia finishes. “Why else would they be so secretive about that? Why else would they not care about what’s going on?”

  Everyone grew silent at this revelation, and their stomachs sank.

  “I’ve never heard of this before,” says Kirilli. “I hate how plausible that is.”

  “I don’t even want to believe in that,” says Werno with an exhale. “That’s just too much for me.”

  “You want to believe in it once it does come to you?” asks Vulina. “Saying this especially after what happened today?”

  “Sorry, no offense to you, Gaeia,” responds Werno. “I don’t think I can believe it to that level. I understand enough that we have to make changes to this system somehow.”

  “It’s not enough that we change it, Werno,” says Kirilli. “We need to throw the entire thing out at this point.”

  Suddenly, the doors to the cafe opened to a group of men as they walked in, atypical to the usually younger student demographic that frequented the place. One of the workers facing the door looked at them nervously, unsure whether to take their orders or not.

  A subtle hush falls over the place.

  Having no particular interest in taking an order, they make their way to the table that Gaeia and her friends sat at. One of them seemed to be viewing some sort of details from within his eye lens.

  The attempts to ignore them failed, and one such man approached the table directly.

  “Are you Gaeia Ramlik, daughter of Gahn Ramlik?” he says.

  The rest of the group froze as they looked at him, unsure of their next move.

  “No,” answers Vulina. “Are you looking for someone? Can I help you?”

  “I’m not talking to you,” he says coldly. He already knows Gaeia is in front of him.

  He looks down at Gaeia, who continues to avoid eye contact.

  “Let me see your ID,” he demanded.

  “I don’t have to provide that,” Gaeia answers. “I know my rights.”

  “You have no rights here,” he says. “You’re under arrest for the comments you’ve made and your presence at violent demonstrations.”

  “Under what warrant?”

  “We’re not required to provide that.”

  Kirilii and Werno eyed each other nervously. The men appeared much bigger and stronger than they were combined, but in a wordless exchange, they considered tackling the man together in a coordinated surprise attack. The issue remained on what to do with the others that came with him.

  Slowly, left with little options, Gaeia produced her identification for him to view. After a quick verification that he clearly didn’t need, given the tools on hand, he pockets the card away altogether.

  “Hey!” exclaims Gaeia. “Aren’t you going to give that back—”

  Suddenly, the man seizes Gaeia by the arm and immediately drags her out from her seat, bringing her over to the rest of his group.

  Almost instantly, Kirilii and Werno spring into action, leaping themselves at the man, only to find themselves tackling a brick wall. The man was in fact so unnaturally strong, more so than any normal person could ever achieve. No matter how capable the two were, the man swipes both of their heads off, killing the two instantly.

  Vulina screamed in terror as the blood of her former friends remained splattered over her, the patrons of the cafe either cowering or fleeing the premises.

  Dragged kicking and screaming, the nameless men threw Gaeia into the back of an unmarked vehicle, wherein she is immediately immobilized by means of sedation and electroshock inside. Quickly, the vehicle soon sped away and disappeared from view, as though it was never there.

  The incident would go on to shake the surrounding community. Vulina is now suddenly left the sole survivor of the group.

  None of it would make the news.