Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 454: Undercover

Jaol hurriedly nodded in response to Zac's warning as the ship schematic on the wall changed to a large array of complex schematics and diagrams. They didn't have to wait long until the sliding door opened, and a burly man stepped through, his eyes trained on Jaol who stood by the screen seemingly in deep thought. "You better not be lying about pay-" the man said, but didn't get any further before he was on the ground twitching.

"Undress him and take away anything that he can use to warn people," Zac said.

"That's impossible. He has implants like everyone else. The moment you try to tamper with that a warning will go out," Jaol said with a shake of his head.

Zac thought for a few seconds before he took out a vial and threw over a pill to Jaol.

"Feed him this," Zac simply said.

"If he dies you will be exposed," the comms technician hesitantly said as he looked down on the pill with trepidation.

"It'll just make sure he won't wake up for a day or two," Zac explained.

A minute later Zac inspected himself in a monitor, and it felt like he was on some science fiction show as his clothing completely matched that of Jaol's. The clothes of the poor man who was now slumbering in Jaol's sleeping pod was a bit long and snug, but it was a passable fit that shouldn't arouse any attention from a casual glance.

"Let's go," Zac said as he cracked his neck. "Take me to Dr. Fried's laboratory."

"I-" Jaol said before he sighed and shook his head. "Fine, let's go. Try not to speak. If anyone asks, we're heading toward the re

"Stay calm," Zac whispered. "We'll stow these two in some corner, and after I've captured Dr. Fried you're free to go."

"Yes, yes," Jaol fervently nodded. "How did you know the door to the lab would open?"

"I-" Zac said with raised brows. "Huh. I just figured it would open like all the other ones?"

Jaol's mouth opened as though he wanted to say something, but he slowly closed it again and instead helped move the two guards so that they were hidden beneath a desk in the inner part of the laboratory.

Zac fed them a double dose of his knock-out pills even if the guards were just early E-Grade at best. He didn't want them waking up any time soon even if he started to cause a ruckus when the doctor returned. However, because he had acted so fast he had no idea where the doctor was or when he would return. He didn't dare walk around and look for Dr. Fried though as Zac wasn't meant to be here. He could be stopped at any moment, at which point the jig would be up.

He could only hope that the doctor would return to the lab soon enough. But the minutes passed as the two sat in an increasingly oppressive silence, and Zac was starting to get worried. His eyes were slowly growing bloodshot and his mind was awash with murderous thoughts.

The splinter was making itself reminded, and the effect was even worse than usual. Was it angry because of the close proximity to the Shard? Zac could only bear with it for the moment as he took out a soul crystal to try and soothe his soul.

"Your ship isn't quite what I was expecting," Zac finally grunted, grasping for some topic of conversation to distract himself. "It seems you're using a lot of old technology together with newer ones."

“Old technology? All technology is old,” Jaol said, seemingly more than happy to break the silence.

“What do you mean? Don’t you come up with new things and improve?” Zac said with a frown. “Isn’t that the whole point of your factions?”

“Where did you hear that?” Jaol asked with confusion.

“I-“ Zac said, but stopped himself when he realized he had no idea.

He had just assumed that the Technocrat factions were somewhat like Earth before the integration, constantly figuring out new things. But then again, the Technocrat faction was Billions of years old. Had they reached a point where they couldn’t progress any further?