10.43

Of course, Harry would never let Simon disappear just like this, so, he jumped into the hole before it could close.
With a quiet noise the wall closed behind them, plunging them into darkness.
Not far from them a light blue light shone in the dark, guiding them to a different place.
The two hesitated shortly before Harry helped Simon stand up and they followed the light, it couldn’t get worse than it already was. Just in case, Harry pulled his pistol out and walked in front.
Following the light down the stairs, a long corridor and stairs up again, it didn’t seem like the light changed at all on their way, it was always right in front of them but still too far away to see its source.
Standing in front of a door the two nodded at each other as Simon activated the mechanism and Harry directed his pistol at the door. The door slid open and revealed a brightly lighted room.
More than a dozen light screens filled the whole room, showing the situation outside. A control panel with blinking lights was standing in the middle of the room, a young man sat in front of it, clearly it was him who guided Simon and Harry here.
“You guys sure are late!”
The young man complained before he turned around to them.
Harry froze, he knew the young man. A while ago, he was the young man who asked him about Ty. What was he doing here?
“I’m sure you want to know why I’m here, I’m working under royal command. It’s my duty to protect the faculty and the scientists.”
“Why were you looking for Ty then?”
“Because he is the first priority following imperial order, I had to know where he was. Who would have thought that I had to work so hard just to find out that he simply went home. I would have had an easier time, If you told me.”
“Do you guys really think that it is important who had more work to do, I think I would like to know what’s going on.”
“It’s simple, the zerg are invading.”
“The zerg?!”
“That’s impossible!”
“Then, you have a better explanation? It’s not the federation and for terrorists it’s too large scale. Besides that I have other evidence. If you think it’s something else, show me your evidence, if you can convince me, I will help you to take care of it. ”
“What evidence do you have?”
Simon didn’t believe what he said just because he said he was under imperial order.
“It’s seems like you don’t know what professor X was researching as of late. The terrorist from the shooting incident may not have been found but he left a large puddle of blood. We could confirm that there was a strange substance in his blood that seemed to have made him stronger, thus we thoroughly examined it. There were residues of zerg poison. Having enough poison to use it in an experiment for developing drugs is impossible for normal people, but if it were the zergs then it would explain a few things. The people who behave strangely, I knocked one of them out and let the professor examine him, in his body was also zerg poison. We found a small parasitic body in his brain, it’s most likely that the zergs are controlling him. We haven’t found a way to test people yet, that’s why I will be evacuating you two now. If I’m right you two found out that Robert is also on the list, so, you would believe me more than him and come with me, professor X is waiting for us at an other location. We will take a space ship to Ty’s planet, I don’t believe that we can’t find a solution for this with the smartest heads in the empire assembled at one place.”
“Even if what you say is true, who says that you are not one of them?”
“You don’t have to believe me, but you should know what happens to a imperial knight that doesn’t follow his commands.”
Of course, Simon knew. Every imperial knight was implanted a special chip that could kill him at any time and the emperor was the only one who could make the decision to kill him. If a knight was going against the imperial order, he would simply be eliminated. But that was not something that you could talk about with an outsider, like Harry, present.
“Then, we will follow you for now and if you do something strange I will shoot you, how does that sound?”
Harry was confident that he wouldn’t lose to a imperial knight, no matter how strong he seemed, and this guy didn’t seem to be his match.
“I don’t have a problem with that, let’s go!”
The young imperial knight tapped a few times on the control panel, which opened up an other door and walked ahead. He was sure that those two would follow his lead, since this was the only way for them to leave safely.
After the three walked for a while and came out at a place far away from the faculty, Simon and Harry breathed a sigh of relieve. It seemed like this guy wasn’t a liar.
“The star ship is over there, let’s hurry up, we let the professor wait for a long time. And while we are at it, please give me your light brains.”
“Why would we do that?”
“I need to intercept the signal or else they will try to locate you.”
“I already did it to Simon’s and mine, are you saying you are better at it than me?”
“I know a lot more about the star net of the empire than an outsider like you, didn’t I also find you this way?”
“Weren’t you using the cameras in the faculty?”
“No, I checked your location and then used the cameras, the energy source is only working for the control room, if I want to activate the cameras I have to do it one by one. How many cameras do you think there are, if I had to check every one of them I would still sit there next week. ”
Harry grumbled for a bit, but at the end he had to relent since he really didn’t know as much as an insider about the possibles of the imperial star net.
“Who are you anyway, to know all that stuff?”
Simon wasn’t really convinced, but since Harry had handed over his, he also did the same.
“I haven’t told you yet? I’m the imperial knight Ash Brighton.”
“Huh, the first imperial knight, Brighton?”
Simon was stunned, who would have thought that he would meet that legendary figure here.