While mega-corporations vie for control of Andromeda's precious resources, the very anti-corporate Yseult, surreptitiously recruited into the heavily militarised MANTIS soon finds that the drawbacks of corporate life may be a small price next to the...
"I have seen beyond the vale. Those of us that saw the true nature of Andromeda have been touched by a power greater than ourselves and greater than these mighty corporations can ever know. Their petty squabbles will be their end. The Dawn of Order approaches..."
Sheep. Thought Yseult as she gazed over the crowd that had gathered to listen to the oddly-dressed character on the platform protruding from the temple entrance. He had recently become a kind of overnight celebrity, preaching about the future of Human-kind in vague ideological terms. He was ridiculed my many as an attention seeker, latching on to people's fears and discontent with unfounded rhetoric, yet to so many, he had become a visionary, someone who spoke the truths that no-one else dared to.
"... I was once like you, a slave consumer, blinkered by the empty promises of corporations. Lured into their cycle of temporary fulfilment... I was blind, but now... I see. They went to Andromeda to further their own greed, but they have kept from you what they discovered... The future of Mankind. I have seen this future, with my own eyes... But when I open the door to this future to you all, I will not sell it wrapped in a package of lies, I will give it freely to all those whose follow behind me."
There was a cheer from the crowd. They seem so easily pleased. Yseult thought as the man on stage that had termed himself 'The Shadowmancer' moved on to his next well rehearsed soliloquy of crowd-fodder.
"I didn't expect to see you here." A man's voice said behind Yseult. She turned, tensing, as if expecting trouble but it was Riddaeon who stood there.
"It's you." She said, sounding disappointed, though self-loathing would have been more accurate. She hadn't liked that someone had approached her without her knowing. She relaxed and turned back to the podium. Riddaeon stood beside her, taking in the crowd and the figure on stage.
"Doesn't seem like your..." Riddaeon looked for the right words. "Cup of coffee." He said, recalling what Yseult had done with the one he took her on Donwarr.
He doesn't see it. Yseult thought. Few would have in her experience. It was both a blessing and a curse; usually the latter that she could see disparate and apparently unrelated things and make the connection between them. She knew when people were lying, or just improvising and hoping no-one would notice, when the facts didn't add up. But of course, most of the time, there's no way of proving to people how you know. She'd challenged plenty of them, sick of seeing them get what they want with carefully placed lies. But with no proof, most of those instances ended in fights. A few she won, many had been part of the lesson not to bother anymore. Let the liars lie, I'll go live my life elsewhere. Some would tell her she looks into things 'too deeply' but to her it was obvious, apparent and glaring. She didn't know why no-one else seemed to see it. They're all idiots, happy to be taken for a ride... Not me.
"Upsilon." Yseult finally said to Riddaeon.
"What?" He asked in reply, the word being so out of context.
"Upsilon." Yseult repeated. "Big Sal believes something is changing reality, the Universe. I think this man has seen it too. The difference: Sal wishes to understand it, this man wishes to worship it. But what he says... I think maybe they have seen the same thing..."
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