The Sign of the Fallen

5

Newton awoke early the next rotation. Although there were no bells to signal the time to awake on the off rotation, the artificial lighting outside was still set to light up as it did every rotation. The off rotation was the only time breakfast and lunch could be eaten in the cafeteria. Generally, socializing during the working nine rotations only happened at dinner in order to keep learners focused, but on off rotations they were allowed to talk more with their peers.

Newton took breakfast alone in the cafeteria, since he was the first learner awake. He was fairly sure most leaders were awake as well, but they typically stayed in their offices in the tower of the academy as to not intermingle with learners. This kept a professional boundary between teacher and learner.

Newton glanced around the white stone walls as he sat at his usual table in the far corner of the room. Like the rest of the academy, the cafeteria was white, plain, and the only decoration on the walls was the posted terra code. Two brown wooden doors were the only way in or out of the room. Above, the skylight let in the orange artificial lighting, which was the only splash of color in the environment.

Finishing his breakfast and knowing his friends wouldn't be up for some time, Newton made his way to the library for some research. He still had to write his report for Kortoba, which he had been putting off, but this wasn't the reason for his visit to the library. He was looking for information that would not be present to the public. He needed a book for this research.

Yanking open the glass door, Newton stepped into the library. To his left, the terra code was posted. Attached to the front of the bookshelves in the back of the room were the only pictures at the academy- depictions of the founders of the academy and their struggle to unite the planets in the General Assembly. Round tables where learners typically worked on their assignments were set up at the front of the library, and Newton weaved his way through them to get to the bookshelves.

Predictably, Newton was the only one in the library. There was no need for a leader to be present, since they trusted the learners to put everything back correctly. Wilso, who often visited the library, would find out who was responsible if anything was not in the correct place.

Before going down the row of books on agent reports, Newton paused to study the picture hanging on the shelf. It showed fighters engaged in a battle; the inner planet alliance's blue fighters buzzed through waves of the outer planet alliance's red fighters. In the background, two cloaked figures handed a scroll to the man who would introduce it as his own plan to the planet's.

Everyone was familiar with the story. The great compromiser, Clayton Reiny, who was credited with forming the general assembly, succeeded with his proposal after almost all fighters were mysteriously destroyed in the battle of Torknot. Even Newton wasn't sure how they had managed to wipe out two entire fleets, but he knew it had something to do with the Protectors, who had deemed it necessary for this loss of life in order to unite a universe and prevent further bloodshed.

Newton thought of how difficult a decision this must have been as he walked to his destination. He knew he could have to take a life when he became an agent, but at that scale was incomprehensible.

He stopped when he arrived at the section he was looking for and after a moment of thumbing through the record books, he found what he was looking for: agent mission records during the time period Elson would've been an active agent.

He opened it to where Elson's records should've been, but there was nothing. No records were present for anyone named Elson. Frowning, he flipped through the whole book page by page. He found nothing.