Chapter Two | The Meeting II
The Director nodded in acknowledgement, "Of course, Madam."
Then, the Director nodded towards Felicia, who made her way towards the huge screen everyone was facing and stood beside it. Her face was calm, her features were graceful - she appeared rather dignified.
She gestured towards the screen and began speaking, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused due to the sudden call for this meeting; it is understood that all of you have a lot of important matters you need to attend to as loyal and capable citizens of Star Empire. But the meeting is indeed important as an officer believed to be loyal and outstanding among his peers has betrayed us."
As her calm voice descended, the room broke out into whispers that ranged from disbelief to fury. Gabriel didn't speak anything, he just stared at Felicia's calm face as she started speaking again, this time, there was a profile displayed on the screen with a picture. "I am sure all of you are aware of the youngest Marshal our Empire has ever produced that won the Galactic war this Gale Calendar?"
Whispers again rose all around the room, but they soon quietened down when they realized Felicia had yet to complete her words. "Marshal Caden Earl has been found guilty of treason for colluding with Jean Matthew, the Chief Commander of Phial, one of our most important war prisoners. Jean Matthew has fled to Phial with his soldiers and surely, the matters between our two Empires will be even tenser after this. His Sixth Army has been found guilty of assisting him in his act of treason and are to be executed; however, they are currently on the run. The whereabouts of Caden Earl are presently unknown as well. He has to be found and executed for our whole Empire to witness."
Star Empire and the Phial Empire had never gotten along and disputes were as common as clouds. But things had suddenly gone downhill just last year when the war had broken out all of a sudden. It was obvious that strings were being pulled behind the shadows; Gabriel wasn't naive enough to believe that the war had only been the fault of the government or the citizens - slander between the two Empires was common, but who in their right mind would wage a war just because someone swore at them? The matters truly hadn't been simple.
At that dire time, a new figure rose. Outstanding, talented beyond belief, capable, intelligent, brave and strong - these were the characteristics used to describe Caden Earl, his valiant figure as he fought the enemies, cut down their tamed beasts and won the war had won the hearts of all of the citizens of the Star Empire. He had been made the youngest Marshal in history at the age of 28-years-old. And now... he was to be chased and executed.
The picture displayed on the screen was that of a man in a skin-tight training suit which all military personnel wore, regardless of rank; the only thing to signify his rank as a marshal was through the black robe he wore with a golden emblem of the Empire in the middle. He had dark hair and a pair of hazel eyes that Gabriel found breathtaking, his face was expressionless; his stoic features were charming.
Gabriel had never met Caden, he had heard of him through the news or through idle whispers of his assistants and the other researchers. He had never had a reason to search him up or look at him specifically; he was too busy minding his own business which was his experiments and research projects. Even if he couldn't point out what was going on precisely, he knew things weren't as they were told to be. He couldn't be sure if the allegations levelled against Caden were true or not; he'd just have to wait and see.
"Caden Earl's betrayal is a great loss for our Empire, he was one of the most promising figures of our Empire has had the chance of witnessing. His motivation to betray the Empire is presently unknown as well. He has had the chance of making powerful connections over the years and through them, he will soon know that he is being searched for. To look for him, the President has selected several trusted individuals to gather intelligence regarding his whereabouts." Felicia stopped speaking and scanned the faces of everyone present, "Are there any questions?"
Of the dozen people present in the room - including four of the six Marshals present - didn't speak up for a few moments. The news was big and the Marshals were in a state of disbelief, Gabriel was sure of that as he scanned their tense profiles.
The oldest Marshal of the Empire, a woman who obviously didn't show her old age physically, turned with a glare directed towards the person sitting at the end of the table beside Gabriel, "Thomas, what is the meaning of this?"
The Director, Thomas, calmly looked at the older woman with his lips pulled into a thin line. "I know it is hard to believe, Marshal Reeve. But enough evidence has been gathered against Marshal Caden; they have been compiled by the President's secretary and authenticated by the President himself. Please open the screens present in front of you, all the data is already available for you to see."
Marshal Reeve tensed. She clenched her jaw as she looked at the Director, then her gaze swept through all the other Marshals. "That child has a good head on his shoulders and his heart is also good," she glanced at the Director again, "It would be hard for you to convince me, Thomas. Don't forget that I was there when your section lost the election."
The silence in the room was deafening as Marshal Reeve turned her gaze away, ignoring the tense silence in the room. The Director smiled towards the old Marshal and calmly spoke, "It has been decades, Marshal Reeve. Please don't bring up the past to mislead everyone into misunderstanding my intentions. I am a loyal and upstanding citizen of the Empire, all I wish for is its prosperity."
It was never a good move to bring political issues onto the table, Gabriel thought as he scanned everyone's passive yet tense faces. He was feeling increasingly suspicious.
Everyone in here wasn't a fool; they were old, wise, scheming, and had their own goals - so not everyone believed that a boy so young had the guts to go against the largest Empire in the galaxy for selfish reasons.
Everyone here, excluding Gabriel, had been alive for a long time; they mostly knew that there was something going on behind the scenes. So Marshal Reeve declaring her thoughts about Caden was as good as saying that she wasn't pleased with this.
After the Director's words, which Gabriel knew had a very obvious loophole; everyone moved to open their respective screens to check the reports. Gabriel scanned through the various files, videos, audio recordings, reports, and all the money transfer details quickly; they had solid evidence to prove that Caden was a traitor. Every last detail had been noted down and presented.
After a while another Marshal spoke while shaking his head, "We failed to see through that lad." Marshal Reeve sighed and closed her eyes, but she didn't refute the comment.
A man who looked to be in his early-thirties by appearance spoke up next, "May I be audacious enough to ask the whereabouts of the President?" His gaze was sharp and he looked at the compiled report indifferently, no one could guess if he believed them or not. "Caden was recommended by him to be tested and be assigned a position as the sixth and the youngest Marshal of our Empire; surely, he would not miss this meeting, yes? They were quite close if I recall?"
Gabriel smirked; it was as good as saying that since Caden and the President were close, he was involved in his treason? Was the President against his own Empire?
The Director turned to look at the man and spoke with a nod, "The President and Caden were indeed familiar with each other, however, it was merely on the level of being acquaintances. The President is currently busy with the matter regarding the outbreak of the war soldiers from the Special Prison; he is there with Marshal Onyx who you might have noticed, is not present with us today either."
The man accepted that answer and nodded to show he understood. After waiting for a few more seconds no more words were being said.
Felicia was about to speak about the roles everyone had been assigned but a deep voice broke the silence before she could. The voice had the power to draw everyone's attention naturally, "Excuse me for my rudeness, but I hope everyone is aware of the recently developed technology of our Empire?"
Everyone's attention focused on Gabriel as he finished his words. Even if the people here were at the top in terms of power in the Empire and had met countless people throughout their years, it was hard to come across someone like Gabriel. He was one of the youngest people the Empire had recruited in the recent years and everyone knew what kind of a monstrous intellect hid in his brain. The fact that he was an extremely attractive man also did help in keeping his impression positive. His features were the definition of graceful; eyes the colour of the deep blue sea - mesmerizing to behold, they sparkled with knowledge. His lips were pulled into a small smile and made him hard to be ignored - he was attractive enough to kill.
Truthfully, since the beginning, his presence had been glaring; no one had actually disregarded his presence. He was the person with the greatest mind in the entire galaxy, after all. A person of such caliber was unheard of, much like the young Marshal Caden Earl. Most of the recent inventions of the Empire were by him, the Star Empire's online terminal was protected by him; he was no less a Hero than Caden Earl. He was one of the major reasons besides Caden's victory in the war, why the Empire was this strong, everyone acknowledged this fact.
Gabriel stared straight at Felicia, his question still hung in the air. Felicia nodded her head in response, "Of course, Mr Keil. What do you wish to draw our attention to?"
"Making a video featuring anyone is possible if someone is skilled enough, fabricating audio is even easier. His visits to these places were tracked by his mecha and that can be explained as well; anyone Marshal Caden had allowed to enter his mecha could operate it to lead anywhere. So, this doesn't prove anything."
Gabriel had already realized that something was cooking in here which he had previously not known about.
He was not afraid to declare his doubts even though everyone here had refused to acknowledge all the holes in this grand scheme. Everyone had stopped addressing Caden as Marshal long ago, but Gabriel deliberately addressed him so, his standing was clear - he wasn't going to believe anything unless some real evidence was given. Gabriel left out a single glaring mistake that was as obvious as the sun - if Caden was going to betray the Empire, why would he accept all the money in his account? All of that money would be useless once he left the Empire; anyone with a brain would not be this obvious about his dishonest intentions.
Like mentioned earlier, none of the people present here were fools. They all knew about the loophole with the money but they did not speak up to defend the person who saved their Empire - not even the Marshals. Gabriel had just ended up refusing to cooperate with their plans indirectly.
Perhaps, this was a meeting only for show? Hm, that was food for thought.
After Gabriel stopped speaking, everyone stared at him. He was not afraid to meet their gaze; especially the Director's face who looked to be in disbelief. The Director hadn't been expecting Gabriel to be so upfront about this, it seems.
"W-Well, Mr Kiel--," Felicia, clearly flustered, began to speak but paused when the Director stood up.
He glanced down at Gabriel with a smile and began speaking, "Gabriel, my friend, you are too trusting of everyone. I am aware of the deep friendship you had with Caden when you were young, and it may be hard to accept the facts. But you need to understand that everything is authentic and we, as your seniors, know the truth. Now, Felicia, please announce the roles assigned to everyone by the President." He nodded again with a smile, "The President expects great things from us."
Gabriel just stared at Thomas with a seemingly genuine smile as he nodded in understanding and said, "Of course, Director." But he knew the mocking the Director was aiming at him.
He had never met Caden, so all the things about being friends during childhood were bullshit - he knew it and everyone in the meeting room knew it. The Director then made it sound like Gabriel was too young to understand the 'ways of the world' where the people weren't what they seemed to be, seemingly educating him about Caden's true nature. But, in fact, he was indirectly saying that he was too young to interfere with whatever was going on here, so he better shut up. At last, he had mentioned the President - which clearly implied that Gabriel had to obey everything because he was not in the position to refuse.
They truly were a despicable bunch.
The meeting progressed smoothly afterwards, every member had a mutual understanding to protect their interests even if they did not approve of everything that was happening; one such example was Marshal Reeve. It was to be understood that everyone here was ordered to come was to be assigned roles during this time of 'emergency'. And one such person was Gabriel, but he wasn't given any by the end of the meeting.
Not receiving a role to play during this act was clearly showing that he was not trusted now; during his earlier act of refusing to cooperate, he had endangered himself. Gabriel knew all this; he knew that if he spoke up, all of his hard work, his position in the Empire, everything would be lost because he could not be trusted enough to be included in their schemes - but Gabriel still went along with this.
For centuries, many noteworthy geniuses have appeared in the Empire. For them, Gabriel isn't as important at their plans; even if this meant getting rid of him.
Well, he always wanted to roam the space and locate rogue planets; it would be nice if he could settle on one of those to live peacefully. Gabriel thought ideally.
Gabriel was smart so he understood his circumstances very well. The people during the meeting had heavily underestimated him because of his age, they did not trust him after his declaration and the plan to get rid of him was already in action in their heads - they could not keep a ticking time bomb right next to themselves. Gabriel had seen though their scheming minds.
After he left the meeting room under their calculating eyes, it was planned that he was to be gotten rid of as soon as Caden was eliminated, but since they ended up underestimating him to a large extent - thinking that Gabriel was too green[1] to understand their wise minds - he would remain unguarded and return to work and won't even expect it when they come for his life.
It came as a shock to them when they discovered that Gabriel had already fled with all of his recent research destroyed and the firewall of the Empire's online terminal down and vulnerable to the attacks from the other Empires of the galaxy.
Gabriel took a sip of the blood-red wine he took with himself before leaving the Star Empire in his personal spaceship. His life back at the Empire had been boring and monotonous, there was no excitement whatsoever in his life recently. All of his time either went into his research or in stupid meetings where people clearly lacked sufficient IQ to converse with him. He did not have friends at all, because he found them even more annoying than the meetings he had to attend; besides, he wasn't someone who liked to party and socialize.
With this new turn of events where the presumably loyal Marshal of the Star Empire had been accused of treason with fake evidence planted everywhere and the people who had been 'loyal' to the now ex-Marshal betrayed him for their own benefits - had displeased him greatly. If the Empire could sacrifice a war hero - a Marshal at that - so easily, what chances did he have to ensure his own safety as a shut-in researcher? Although he held power equal to that of a Marshal, he had no personal connections, who would support him if he was accused like Caden someday?
So, he left those backstabbing bastards. It's not like they would have left him alive for more than a week anyway. His plans involved finding a distant backwater planet which wasn't under any allies of Star Empire and settling down. Maybe pick up a few hobbies to pass the time; he could live freely that way.
As Gabriel was lost in his own daydreams, his spaceship manoeuvred through the vacuum of space with fluid ease on autopilot. Gazing at the distant stars, Gabriel spotted one of the terminals blinking - signifying that someone wanted to chat with him.
Ah, finally something interesting. Gabriel thought as he accepted the video call.
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[1] To be green is a Chinese expression with means that someone is too inexperienced. In this case, Gabriel is thought to be too inexperienced to understand/see through their plans for him.
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