Chapter 18: A good Deal
The Cycles of War: History, Politics and Fate – Chapter 14 (Draft) – Saphira Don
Lin’s office was submerged in artificial dimness, lit only by the pale glow of the central monitor projecting real-time data. In front of him, a tangle of charts and tables hovered in the holographic air: political polls, recent speeches by delegates, their public and private interactions. Every variable was perfectly aligned, every prediction calculated with the mathematical precision only Omnis could guarantee.
None of it helped.
Lin drummed his fingers against the desk, feeling the pressure tighten around his chest. Five votes secured. They needed six. Six to approve Bastion. Six to keep the Universal Government from collapsing beneath the illusion of stability.
The problem was there was nowhere to get that sixth vote.
He had reviewed every option: blackmail, bribes, promises of promotion within the party, veiled threats of political ruin. But the remaining delegates were an impenetrable wall. Either too deeply committed to their factions, or simply incorruptible. Or at least, not corruptible enough with what Lin had to offer.
Sweat gathered on his forehead.
There was one more option.
An option he should not even consider.
He took a deep breath and let his mind approach the dilemma as if it were just another equation. Just data, just probabilities. Omnis contained every fragment of information within the Universal Government. Every archived document, every recorded communication, every search, every trace left in history. If someone had a secret big enough to bend them, Omnis knew it.
But accessing that information was forbidden.
“Forbidden.”
A word that felt ridiculous in this context.
Lin closed his eyes for a moment. He knew it was illegal. He knew he should not do it. But if Bastion failed, the war in Tau Ceti would spiral out of control. The Universal Government could not afford that. They could not afford to lose.
Lin inhaled, opened his eyes, and spoke in a controlled voice.
“Omnis.”
The system responded immediately, in its neutral, precise tone.
“I am listening.”
Lin swallowed.
“Provide me with any hidden records on the remaining delegates.”
Silence stretched for a brief moment before Omnis replied.
“That information is classified under the Universal Government Data Protection Decree. Access is restricted.”
Lin did not hesitate.
“Authorization code: Santiago-Delta-47.”
A faint hum vibrated through the room. Lin felt his skin prickle.
Robert Santiago’s code.
The only code that allowed certain restrictions within Omnis to be bypassed. No one had ever told him directly how far its reach extended, but Lin had heard it whispered through the corridors of power. Santiago could see more than any other official in the Universal Government was allowed to.
Omnis took only seconds to respond.
“Access granted.”
Lin let out a shaky breath.
The holographic air in front of him filled with new data. Reports erased from public records, accusations that never reached daylight, events silenced with surgical precision.
Lin scanned each name until something made him stop.
Delegate Hal Varandis.
A member of the neutral faction.
Lin recalled his voting record. Varandis had never been a man of firm decisions. He navigated political waters without getting too wet, always aligned with the balance of power. He stayed on the margins, letting others tear each other apart in ideological conflict while he secured his future with an unblemished career.
But Omnis told a different story.
Eight years earlier, a barely perceptible scandal had surfaced. Varandis had been linked to a minor in a clandestine relationship.
A flash of memory crossed Lin’s mind.
Yes.
He vaguely remembered a news item that appeared and vanished within hours. There had been no concrete evidence. Only the testimony of a journalist, swept under the rug before it could spread.
Lin focused on the final line of the report.
The sole source of the accusation was the reporter Saphira Don.
Lin frowned. The name meant nothing to him.
“Omnis, give me information on Saphira Don.”
The system processed the request in milliseconds.
“Saphira Don. Investigative journalist. Formerly employed by the Klynos Chronicle until five years ago, when she lost credibility following an article deemed unfounded regarding government corruption. Since then, she has published independently and maintains a marginal following on alternative communication networks. Currently resides in the peripheral district of Klynos.”
Lin narrowed his eyes.
He had heard of the Klynos Chronicle. A sensationalist newspaper that once tried to challenge the official narrative of the Universal Government, until it was shut down due to lack of credibility.
This woman had been part of that.
A whisper of doubt crossed Lin’s mind.
Was she reliable?
It did not matter. He did not need her to be reliable. He only needed her to have the information.
“Give me her exact location.”
“Processing…”
A map of Klynos appeared in the holographic air. A blinking point highlighted in the city’s lower districts.
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Lin took a deep breath.
He was not proud of what he was about to do.
But if Bastion was not approved, everything he had worked for would collapse.
He shut down the display and stood up.
It was time to find Saphira Don.
Saphira Don rubbed her eyes, tearing her gaze away from the manuscript floating on the holographic screen in front of her. The Cycle of War, she had titled it. A grandiose title, but so far all she had were disconnected chapters, fragmented ideas, and a maddening lack of cohesion.
She rested her elbows on the old desk in her apartment, feeling bare wood beneath her palms. The only thing she owned not made of cheap industrial polymers. The dim lamp light cast deep shadows along the edges of the room, projecting the silhouettes of piles of papers and data disks stacked in disarray.
Saphira exhaled sharply and rubbed her eyes again. Before she could keep tearing her mind apart over the damn book, she needed something to keep herself upright.
She stood and walked to the small wall terminal, activating the touch panel with a flick of her wrist.
“Omnis, coffee. Strong.”
The system took a few seconds to respond.
“You do not possess sufficient shareholder funds to request luxury dispensations. We suggest selecting a standard option or submitting a credit request.”
Saphira muttered under her breath and slapped the panel with her palm.
“Standard, then.”
The automated dispenser hummed reluctantly and spat out a cup of lukewarm liquid with about as much body as stagnant water. Saphira took it without enthusiasm, scanning her apartment.
The wallpaper peeled at the corners, the table bore cigarette burn marks she had never bothered to fix, and the chairs were a mess of cheap plastic and loose screws. The only reason she still had electricity was because Klynos subsidized basic connections to prevent chaos in the poorer sectors.
Shareholder funds.
She spat the words in her mind as if they were poison. She had no investments, no contracts with major media firms. She had nothing.
Nothing but a story she still did not know how to finish.
She exhaled slowly.
She knew what she wanted to tell. She had known since the day the Universal Government silenced her career and consigned her to obscurity. She had investigated history, the cyclical violence defining humanity, the way every revolution eventually became the very thing it had fought against. From the first interstellar conflicts to the current war in Tau Ceti. A red thread running through centuries, always leaving behind the same trail of blood and ash.
But she lacked proof.
The final blow.
She knew the Universal Government manipulated history. That Omnis recorded every decision, every crime, every lie sustaining power. But she had no access. All she had gathered were interpretations from secondary sources, censored documents that only hinted at the truth without exposing it.
Saphira ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes.
She needed more.
A knock at the door pulled her from her thoughts.
Her brow furrowed immediately. No one visited her.
She stood cautiously, moving her left wrist to activate the identification scanner in the doorframe. The system returned a name almost instantly.
Lin Sujimoto.
A sharp knot formed in Saphira’s stomach. That name was not insignificant.
She took a deep breath and opened the door.
The man standing before her did not look nervous or impatient, but there was something in his posture, in the way his eyes discreetly assessed the small apartment, that reminded her of Universal Government officials. Men who did not show up at your door unless they wanted something.
“Miss Don,” Lin said, making a slight greeting gesture.
Saphira crossed her arms.
“If you’re one of Santiago’s people, I have nothing to say to you.”
Lin tilted his head with a half-smile.
“I didn’t come to ask you anything. I came to offer you something.”
Saphira did not respond immediately. But she did not close the door either.
Lin took it as a tacit invitation and stepped inside, surveying the apartment with a neutral expression.
“Quite peculiar,” he remarked, glancing over shelves packed with old physical books and data disks scattered across the table.
“Censorship is bad for business,” she replied coldly.
Lin sat down without waiting to be invited.
“Don’t you offer coffee to your guests?”
Saphira scoffed.
“You’re not my guest.”
Lin smiled faintly and pulled a small device from his jacket pocket. He placed it on the table, and instantly the holographic air lit up with the classified report on Hal Varandis.
Saphira felt her skin prickle.
“This is…”
“Your article,” Lin said, meeting her gaze. “The one on Hal Varandis you published years ago.”
She did not need to read it. She remembered it. It had been her big break. And her death sentence in journalism.
“What do you want?”
Lin slid a finger across the device, enlarging the article.
“I want you to publish it again. This time, it won’t go unnoticed.”
Saphira let out a bitter laugh.
“So this is what the establishment resorts to now?”
Lin tapped the table lightly with his fingers.
“I won’t bore you with political details. I just want us all to reach an agreement.”
“And how do you expect me to do that?” she asked incredulously. “Official media is controlled, alternative channels barely reach anyone, and every time I try to publish something substantial, I’m erased within minutes.”
Lin nodded slowly, as if he had anticipated the answer.
“I can guarantee that this time, no one will erase it.”
Saphira looked at him warily.
“How?”
Lin leaned slightly forward.
“Omnis.”
A chill ran through her.
Lin continued in a measured voice.
“Robert Santiago has access to certain system functions that others do not. I can ensure your article circulates through every relevant information channel. It doesn’t matter how many try to stop it. It doesn’t matter how many censorship orders are issued. It will be seen. Long enough for us to pull it back.”
Saphira bit her lower lip.
The offer was dangerous. But worse, it was tempting.
“And what do you want in return?” she asked, lowering her voice.
Lin activated another command on the device. The Varandis report faded, replaced by encrypted lines of text.
Saphira blinked.
They were internal Omnis records.
Pure history.
Real history.
Her breathing quickened.
“The real question,” Lin said, “is what do you want in return, Saphira. I want you to publish the story. In exchange, you will gain access to restricted Omnis archives. I can’t imagine the power such a database would give a journalist.”
Saphira felt her mind split in two.
The journalist who hated Santiago, who hated the Universal Government and everything it represented, wanted to spit in Lin’s face and throw him out of her apartment.
But the writer… the writer knew this was what she had been searching for for years.
Documents no one could see. The history that truly happened, not the version altered to serve a regime.
The Cycle of War.
Saphira took a deep breath and turned toward the window. Outside, the city of Klynos continued its monotonous rhythm, indifferent to the power games moving through its depths.
She clenched her fists.
Finally, she looked back at Lin.
“What’s the catch?”
Lin shook his head.
“There is no catch. We need to publish that story.”
Saphira nodded. She had already made her decision.
“I’ll do it.”
Lin smiled.
“Good.”
“But I want full access. No filters.”
Lin hesitated for a moment.
“That… will have limits. But I’ll see what I can do.”
Saphira held his gaze a second longer.
She knew she was selling herself.
But she also knew that if she wanted to expose the truth, she needed to see the truth first.
And Omnis was the only way to find it.
