Chapter Three - Malfunctions
“Can someone please turn that alarm off,” Hadiyah yells out to her small circle of employees.
“Sorry Mam’am, it can’t be turned off until the entire system is reset,” Samir cautiously says, knowing that his superior already knows the precautions and alarms of the entire system here on the planet Zerron.
The planet Zerron is widely known as the home of The Universal Portal Company (also known as the UPC) and The New Vane Magic School. Seventy-five percent of the planet is covered by sand and is uninhabitable but the twenty-five percent makes up for it with flying cars, high skyscrapers and the newest technology emerging all the time.
The UPC has been around for a good twenty years now, founded by Doctor Russell Anzak and his team. He took knowledge from the New Vane’s Magic Industries and mixed in elements from science and technology that helped him to finish his research on portals and voids and how they operate. Little is known on how he came up with his theory in the first place and he refuses to share said information. Regardless, Zerron and many other planets share in this technology of being able to transfer oneself from point A to point C in a matter of seconds. The UPC is a tight ship and they do not allow anyone to just walk in and use their services. A comprehensive background check and credits are required before one can even use the portals.
New Vane’s Magic Industries and it’s school are also located on Zerron and can be found at the capital, New Vane, which is several hundred miles from the UPC. Just like the UPC, its secrets are kept on heavy guard and to attend the magic school, an even heavier background check is required. There are many magic shops located around the school and the main factory but the prices are giving favor to the wealthy and royalty.
After Dr Anzak went public with his research, the NVMI banned him from their city, stating that teleportation should only be used either naturally or by magic and not science. They’ve even tried to get the UPC to move to another planet, but with some of their factories underground, that would be almost impossible.
Most of the people who live on Zerron are either dark brown or dark brown with a light blue tint to their skin, depending on their family background. The ones with the light blue tint are looked down upon since their family ties are of the lower class.
On this particular day, the UPC is facing massive malfunctions and reports of random portals opening on several planets, some of which are unaware of such technology and have been marketed untouchable or unworthy.
“Then find a way to turn them off, Samir, I can’t concentrate in this noise,” exclaims Hadiyah. “If they want me to find out the why, I need some peace.”
“Heh, I bet Vane is having a field day with this mess up,” chuckles Makis.
All eyes are on Makis as they know that comment will only enrage Hadiyah.
“Oh come on, you know it’s true since they hate u—” Makis is cut off.
“Makis!! Get back to work or go home, I am sick of your crap,” she hollers.
“Sorry boss.”
Hadiyah, Samir and Charis are all natives of Zerron and all share the same dark skin and black hair. Hadiyah is the eldest at twenty-eight and is in charge of keeping track of any malfunctions that might occur with any of the portals that are used daily. They also monitor any odd activity and unauthorized use of a portal. There are several hundred groups like this all across the UPC.
Makis’ mother was born on Zerron while his father was born on Nertew, giving him a light blue tint to his skin. His life was rougher than the other three, making him a sarcastic and bitter person. He had to work harder than full-blooded natives to get him where he is today.
Several minutes go by as all thirteen employees are typing away at their computer stations trying to find a solution to the problem. Besides the screeching alarm, not a sound can be heard, until, “Ma’am, I think I have something,” says Charis. “It’s the locations that are having these random portals opening up.”
Walking over to Charis’ station, Hadiyah leans over, “What do you have, Char?”
“It seems that the main area being affected is a planet known as Earth, which is supposed to be off limits due to their lack of technology and advancement. But that isn’t the strange part, for whatever reason, there’s matter coming through the portals that are opening on Earth. The matter isn’t registering as human, but robots, highly advanced ones like the ones made here for protection and security. It looks like the robots are programmed for one thing, to retrieve someone or something. It’s hard to read through all this programming, so I’m afraid that I can’t figure out what they’re after. But if this planet is so underdeveloped, what could it possibly have that someone wants so bad and how are they able to open up several portals like this without clearance, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Earth, where is that, can’t say that I’ve heard of it,” Samir asks.
“Milky Way galaxy and it’s the only planet there with intelligent life. Wow, can you image a place like that, without any neighbors to communicate with? It’s like they’re all alone out there.” Charis answers.
“Enough of the planet, can you figure out where the portals are originating from?” Hadiyah replies.
“No. The programming is highly advanced and there are so many blockers in place, whoever it is, they don’t want their identity known and it seems that they want to place the blame on the entire UPC.”
“So in other words, not our fault but now we need to find out who is up to this,” Hadiyah says, walking back to her terminal. “I’ll pass on your findings to the executives, good work Charis.”
“Hey, Charis, look at this,” whispers Samir.
Charis leans over into Samir’s station so only the two of them can hear each other.
Samir continues, “Look here, its faint, but it seems twenty minutes ago a man-made portal opened up.”
“That’s out dated technology, so it’s no surprise its faint” Chairs whispers, “Do you think someone has hiding on that planet? That could explain the robots.”
“Okay people,” Hadiyah calls out. “It seems these robots have retracted from the planet. We need to try to track their location to discover who started this mess. The executives are in talks right now to figure out what to do with the planets that have been affected but it seems like Earth was hit the hardest.”
“Miss Hadiyah, we found something else,” Charis speaks up.
“Yes?”
“Tell her, Samir,” Charis nudges Samir, who is great at his work but shy to speak about it.
“Umm, well, it looks like a man-made portal was opened about twenty minutes ago. Shortly after, the robots retreated. I think it was a person that they were after and once the robots showed up, whoever it was freaked and used a potion to escape,” Samir says in one breath.
“Good, thank you Samir, now we have a small clue to go on. Okay, we all know what we have to do and to answer your question,” Hadiyah continues, “Yes, it’s going to be a long night.”
