Chapter One - The Plan

Zar grabbed the metal railing. It was wet from condensation, and he felt the cold
rush through him. He sighed, as an afterthought to his decision. He needed
confirmation of his plans more than he needed warmth. Ironically, chasing cold, dead
hands was what he was after.
He saw his breath rising in the morning air, joining molecules of fog around the
passenger ship which carried him and dozens of believers for a ritualistic visit to the
Relic Ship of Asluan.
On the long, open deck, a few people prayed, humming holy words Zar knew well
enough, after decades of forced education. He despised the religion they all represented,
the parasitic form of personal duty towards a flying corpse that toured the planet in an
airship constructed thousands of years ago. Smaller craft such as the one he boarded a
few hours ago would drive to meet the Relic Ship, as it made its way around the globe.
No one stepped on the holy flyer, only admired and prayed to it from a distance.
Scripture told of Asluan as a young general, a military strategist who managed to
save the last of Zars kind, five thousand years ago, from annihilation. The general had
sacrificed himself, in an epic and gruesome battle with the old gods that spanned a
thousand years in the blink of an eye.
Thats not how the few remaining history texts from that time told the story. Zar
was part of a minority who still believed in the old gods, maybe a thousand strong and
dispersed throughout the planets cities. Their beliefs were taboo, not to be repeated or
spread publically, generally laughed at and practically punished through loss of status
and wealth. Zar himself had never made his beliefs public, but he had watched media of
people who dared to brand themselves heretics. Just a few days later, they were not to
be found on the Soul Network or anywhere else, in person. The priesthood made certain
of that.
There He is, cried a voice not far from him. Heads turned, rapidly, as prayers
grew louder. A God among us, a saviour to us all! a few chanted.
A long wooden bow, reinforced with metal and gilded beams pierced the fog, in
the distance. The passenger ships engines spun loudly to avoid collision, keeping the

mandated distance from the Relic. The ancient airship had primitive controls and
positioning, relying mostly on wind and internal computers to chart its course. Other
flying craft avoided it, anything larger than a bird flying closer than thirty paces would
get shot at by onboard defenses.
In the fog, it seemed ghostly and dark. A slender shape, maybe twelve paces wide
and some eighty long, with two long rudders trailing in its wake and a large red balloon
supporting its weight. The wood was black from the substances that fought the passage
of time, while the original golden details around its keel kept the markings of the Old
War. The ship had some dignity left in it, most assuredly through a projectile gun at the
front and a more modern energy weapon at the rear. The deck was elevated and held a
long gilded coffin, slightly angled aft. Inside, hands on his chest and dressed in more
precious metal, rested Asluan, the great saviour of Dorlan.
Believers fell to their knees. Zar grudgingly took part in the event, eyes trained on
the ship. The Relic was now flying parallel, close enough for his inspection. It was too far
away for a jump. There were no obvious cameras or monitoring devices, although he
suspected sensors existed, otherwise the weapons onboard wouldnt find targets.
Looking up at the giant balloon that supported the ship, he wondered if there was
anything more inside it, other than gas and a supporting structure.
Some of the believers started throwing sand at the Relic ship. They all wore
pouches with a special substance inside that changed color when thrown. It was
considered a way of absolving sins. Zar took a fistfull and threw some as well, more out
of spite. A woman next to him looked curiously at what he was doing, since his gesture
had been exaggerated. He replied with a lost stare, feigning some form of madness. She
soon looked away, praying louder.
If he couldnt board the Relic ship by air, reaching it while on the ground was
impossible. Once in a while, it was driven down by air tugs and kept tied for
maintenance by the priesthood technicians, at Asluans Tower. Going up the seat of
governments second most important and holy symbol was suicide, if you werent one of
them.
Shooting down the damned thing was always an option, but Zars group had
thought about it and smarter minds agreed it would only have strengthened the belief
system, not to mention cause a crackdown on any suspected dissenters. They already

were on the very edge of paranoia, seeing stihs and shadows around them all the time,
thinking they were followed, with a major religious anniversary coming up. That wasnt
a way to solve anything, when really, all Zar needed was a Soulkeeper connected to the
Relic. That basically meant a small box, the size of a human hand, inserted into the
coffin. The whole trick was boarding it without damaging anything.
Using a small drone might have been an option, depending on what the ships
sensors picked up on. Zar had thought about building a small wind-driven replica of the
Relic ship and sending it in, but there was still the small matter of operating the casket.
He sighed again. In a month, the Relic would reach the capital city, Dor. He needed a
plan by then.