Diplomat Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

“Only I can get your family out.” These were Jonathan’s exact words to Sandra.

Ashton Federation had detected the appearance of Star Map Draftsman and also knew that Strath Federation was on its way to attack Ashton Federation. As Madam Winifred said, these two events were in plain sight; what worried her was Moreth Federation. No one knew what role Moreth Federation played in these two seemingly unrelated events, whether it was neutral, or whether Moreth Federation was the one leading all this. With two spearheads pointed at Ashton Federation at the same time, Madam Winifred’s nerves were badly frayed, but Cavnos Planet still inappropriately jumped out and proposed organizing the army on the front line of the war. Before the Great War, what Madam Winifred worried about was not the enemy but her own army seizing power, and that was not unreasonable. Duncan was the first to state that he could lead a friendly army to intercept Strath Federation’s troops at the periphery of Ashton Federation’s star field; admittedly, since his family was trapped on Cavnos Planet, he had always wanted to make his mark. After he sent his application for war, Madam Winifred said at first that she would think about it, but then she stopped until Jasper brought the order to capture Duncan and he lost hope in Ashton Federation politics.

There is no need to find out what charge Madam Winifred used to capture Duncan; the ultimate goal was to keep Duncan and his family under control and make sure they couldn’t put the Federation at any more risk when war came, even if Cavnos Planet’s army posed no risk. Sandra was on a diplomatic mission to the Moreth Federation. When she landed on Kunek Planet and learned that her brother had been captured and her family was trapped on Cavnos Planet, she was contacted by Madam Winifred, who had something to tell her. It was not to give her comfort, but to give her another new mission that only the two of them knew about.

“You know the rules of the Federation. The military is not allowed to leave Cavnos Planet on its own and cannot roam around the Ashton Federation starfield with weapons unless they have orders from me, Madam Winifred.” Madam Winifred’s hologram was crystal clear, but she never looked at Sandra. Finally, she turned her face to Sandra and said, “Your family has too much influence on the military, but I know your loyalty, and this detention of Duncan is just to calm the fears of several other groups. But, ah, this also means that now, in your family, only you can continue to be of value to Ashton Federation, and the end result will also affect your family’s future in Ashton Federation. You know that, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Sandra gripped her pants at the outside of her thighs with both hands, nearly ripping to shreds the uniform that marked her as an Ashton Federation diplomat.

“What you have to do is simple. I will give you a coordinate. Go there and find a person, and bring him into the Strath people’s camp to attack Ashton Federation.”

“Ma’am, I don’t understand, why ......?” Sandra asked when she heard that she was going to take someone to where Ashton Federation would be fighting.

“No reason. Just do as I say. Remember, make sure he gets involved in the war; otherwise, don’t come back either.” Madam Winifred finished speaking and withdrew from the communication connection.

The information provided by Madam Winifred to Sandra showed that the person she was looking for was on an abandoned mining planet near Gyaly Planet, where there were abandoned refugees. She had a vague feeling that this person must be related to Ashton Federation, but when Jonathan approached Sandra and made his thoughts clear, Sandra became convinced that the person she was looking for was indeed related to Moreth Federation, or to be precise, to Jonathan.

“We’ve been working together for years, haven’t we?” Jonathan asked when he and Sandra met in his office after she had registered a diplomatic memo at Kunek Planet.

“Yes, Moreth Steader, it’s been at least twenty years or so.” Sandra replied respectfully.

“Yeah, twenty years.” Jonathan walked to the window and looked out, turning his back on Sandra and continued. “It’s not really long. For those who take White Crystal for a long life, it is just a long trip, but for those who cannot afford to buy White Crystal, twenty years is almost half a lifetime. In twenty years, one can do a lot of things.”

“Does longevity bother the Moreth Steader?” Sandra asked as she walked closer to Jonathan.

“Haha.” Jonathan laughed to keep the mood from being so mournful, and he turned to look at Sandra and continued. “It’s my own situation that bothers me, and your situation bothers me too.”

“What’s so disturbing about my situation?” Sandra looked as if nothing was wrong, but inside she was as panicked as if someone were about to steal her secret.

“I’ve heard that Madam Winifred has your brother in custody and your family is confined to Cavnos Planet. I know all about your Federation. But there is a problem: if troops are not sent in time, then when the Strath people really strike deep into the Ashton Federation, it will be too late to stop them, right?” Jonathan glanced at Sandra and continued with a frown. “When the time comes, Madam Winifred and her favorite cronies will put the blame on Duncan, saying that Duncan led the troops poorly and did not stop the Strath people. Perhaps your brother and your family will be in mortal danger. I think you must have seen plenty of examples like this, right?”

“Moreth Steader.” Sandra’s fears, which she had carefully wrapped in impermeable tin foil, were now seen through completely; fear and shame mingled and spread all down the back of her neck, and she felt a cold chill run through her body and her hands shook. “So what do you mean ......?” Sandra asked.

“I’ll tell you plainly. Star Map Draftsman has appeared, but this time seems different from the previous generation’s Star Map Draftsman. I can’t say what is different. He is an opportunity for me. I need you to bring him to Moreth Federation smoothly, without anything going wrong along the way.”

“Why did Moreth Steader seek me out?”

“I have no say in the Moreth Federation, and my whereabouts are watched by the administration, the military, and my mother ...... forget it. Anyway, in the eyes of these people I’m like a piece of cake smeared with honey; they can’t wait to come up and bite me, and they are always watching me. If I leave Kunek Planet, then Star Map Draftsman may be snatched halfway. So it’s more appropriate for you to go. And besides, if Star Map Draftsman really is taken halfway, it won’t reveal that it was the Moreth Federation that found Star Map Draftsman.”

“Then if someone finds out that I found him and recognizes me as a diplomat of Ashton Federation, my family’s situation will be even more dangerous.” After she finished, thinking about this, Sandra felt her body lose half its strength.

“You can rest assured on that. The only one who could snatch Star Map Draftsman is Ashton Federation; the Strath people have not even noticed that a new Star Map Draftsman has appeared. If he really is snatched by Ashton Federation, then you ...... As far as I know, Ashton Federation is also inquiring about the location of Star Map Draftsman.”

“If I go and bring Star Map Draftsman, can Moreth Steader save my family?” Sandra asked, mustering up the courage.

“The Moreth Federation’s Star Bridge, if used properly, can open a teleportation point near Cavnos Planet. You know the political atmosphere of the Moreth Federation; we don’t persecute our own people at will, and I can even convince the Finance Department to assign your family a planet to live on in the star field of the Moreth Federation.” Jonathan finished his speech and took a deep breath.

“If you did, it would mean Moreth Federation meddling in Ashton Federation’s politics. Moreth Federation wouldn’t take that risk, and the Moreth Steader couldn’t arrange that, could you?”

“You are right. Because Moreth Federation officials also rely on White Crystal, they are not likely to start a conflict with Ashton Federation over your family. But if Star Map Draftsman and I can establish cooperation, I can take back all the power of the Moreth Federation. Every word I say and every breath I take will be an order, and saving your family will be just a matter of a word.” Jonathan’s tone as he said this was full of resentment and curses.

“But how can Moreth Steader establish a partnership with Star Map Draftsman?”

“That’s not your concern. All you need to know is that I’m the only one who can get your family out.” As he spoke, Jonathan took a small black box out of the pouch at the waist of his shirt, handed it to Sandra and continued. “Take it. The device will alert you when you are near Star Map Draftsman. Go. Maniya Planet has a mining ship that happens to be going to the planet where Star Map Draftsman is located. If you don’t go, your family’s chances of being rescued will be even smaller.”

Sandra took the small box from Jonathan’s hand, and she didn’t look back even once until she boarded the mining ship above Maniya Planet. The challenge for Sandra was to accomplish both tasks at the same time without letting Jonathan or Madam Winifred see that she was a double agent. The ship was unloading its cargo, and Sandra stood at the porthole overlooking the heavily armed planet, where Moreth Federation’s highest-ranking ships and weapons were located, along with trained soldiers, and where the control center of the Star Bridge was said to be, perhaps below the two blue circles in the clouds. Outside the portholes, ships were lining up to leave. The engine matrices on their triangular sterns had been lit, and the ships that had gained acceleration disappeared from view one by one, even the blue engine light taken away with them, as if they had never come.

Sandra hadn’t figured out what to do when the announcement that the ship was about to depart came on, and she had to go back into the room where the crew was and secure herself to a chair. Even though she was sitting by a porthole, all she saw was a sky full of stars scattered randomly in the light like broken glass crumbs, falling in very slow motion. The mining ship’s chairs were hard, and the angle of the backrest could not be adjusted, so she had to sit sideways, pressing her aching back against the side armrest, which made her feel better. Sandra had been swaying between half asleep and half awake every day since she had been contacted by Madam Winifred, and now she was a little drained; even though the chair smelled strongly rancid, she couldn’t have cared less.

Sandra remembered that when she was a child, the sky was covered with stars on summer nights, and she and her brother would guess, star by star, in the courtyard, which strange world their father was on a mission in at that moment, and even if the two of them argued, her brother would give in to her. The light in her mother’s room would still be on; she was probably doing her crafts again, giving herself over to her memories and to the cool night, to keep away the thoughts of their father that came like a tidal wave. The breeze blew by, and the long branches of the big trees swayed outside the window like an old friend beckoning, extending an invitation to her mother. There was the sound of trotting footsteps on the stairs, and their mother crossed the grass, took Duncan and Sandra in her arms, kissed their foreheads, and looked up at the sky with tears in her eyes. Then she suggested going to play on the swings. Sandra was always the one sitting on the swing, and Duncan would never try to take it until she had had enough. She remembered the feeling of her mother pushing her back, just like now, as the ship ignited and a slight squeezing sensation came from her back.

The mine ship was already building up power at the entrance of the Star Bridge, and after the wonderful combination of fuel and energy in the engine, the hot gas was spewing outward along the pipes of the engine matrix, and the molecules jostled one another, trying to flatten the insulated pipes. Sandra felt like she was inside the cavity of a giant whale, and the vibrations caused by its heartbeat made people feel its vitality. After a short bumpy ride, the ship entered a state of seemingly complete stillness, a peaceful flight thanks to Star Bridge technology, but one that left Sandra drifting back and forth between half asleep and half awake, feeling as if she had lost the strength to breathe, a bit like holding a book in your hand while sleep keeps popping up to pull your eyelids down.

After the ship arrived at the target planet, Sandra took the small box Jonathan gave her and began to follow the signal to find Star Map Draftsman. She walked in the direction of the marker. The unforgiving sand and wind had torn the surface apart, revealing the hard rocks hidden underneath, rounded by time and rain; where there was still water, the surface of the rocks had been eroded into multiple gullies, like iron ropes binding giants. After Sandra had walked for a while, she pulled out her device to check the marked distance. It seemed to be behind those mountains torn into strips. She began to worry whether what lay behind them was the hope of saving her family or the beginning of another disaster, and that made every step heavier. She sat down on the ground and took a deep breath, intending to rest before hurrying on.

“Ma’am.” Before Sandra was sufficiently rested, Madam Winifred established contact with her.

“Did you find him?” Madam Winifred looked like she’d been plagued by severe insomnia all night.

“Found him. He’s just over the hill.” Sandra pointed toward the far side.

“Good job, so get your act together. By the way, I’m telling you: bring Star Map Draftsman to Gyaly Planet. It’s your chance, but things are not good for Ashton Federation.”

“Did something bad happen?” Sandra got anxious when she heard that nothing good was happening.

“We have detected three Strath Federation troop carriers heading toward Gyaly Planet, which means there will be a war there. You have to drop Star Map Draftsman on that planet before the Strath people get to Gyaly Planet. You know that.”

“Yes, ma’am. But what if the other side doesn’t want me to go?”

“That’s your business.” Madam Winifred gave Sandra a cold look.

Sandra didn’t know how to answer. She felt the muscles of her nose tighten a little, with some soreness. Sandra stood up and went on to ask, “Ma’am, is Star Map Draftsman in danger?”

“What do you mean?” Madam Winifred didn’t understand Sandra’s question.

“I mean, will I get killed or hurt or something if I approach him?”

“No one knows that, but historically, I’ve never heard of an instance of Star Map Draftsman harming a human life; their mission is something else, not too relevant to Orion Arm’s civilization.” Madam Winifred glanced at Sandra and rubbed her forehead as she continued. “Sandra, ah, this mission is very difficult, and it also concerns the security of the entire Ashton Federation. Letting you face it alone is indeed hard, but you have to believe that only you have the ability to complete this mission. Within the Federation right now, whoever I send, a bunch of people will oppose it, or a bunch of people will stir up another bunch of problems, and in the end Star Map Draftsman won’t be found and the Federation will be in more danger. As for Jasper detaining your brother, I have settled the matter. This kind of political struggle is what we all hate, but it is also an effective way to check and balance the various interests; otherwise, everything would be a mess.”

“Ma’am.” Sandra felt a little more relieved, as if someone had taken a burden off her, when she heard that the matter of Duncan’s detention was resolved, and she went on to confirm it. “Is my brother okay? I mean ......”

Before Sandra had finished, Madam Winifred raised her hand to interrupt her and replied, “Your brother is fine, and your family is also fine. Don’t worry. I have ordered Jasper to withdraw all charges against your family, and Jasper himself has left Cavnos Planet, so he won’t affect your family.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” The worry Sandra had been holding in for a long time subsided a lot. She put her hand to her lips to keep from crying out, caught her fingers between her teeth, and her lips hurt, along with her heart. After Madam Winifred finished explaining things, Sandra walked quickly toward the side of the mountain. The political atmosphere of the Ashton Federation was unpredictable, with no law to follow; it depended on Madam Winifred’s personal feelings to decide good or bad. If she felt that anyone was a threat to her rule, then they were a threat. She said now that she would let Duncan go, but maybe that would be reversed tonight. As for Jonathan, he had no real power, but the Moreth Federation’s political atmosphere was much better; their ruling power was decentralized, not concentrated in one person’s hands. Now Sandra had to worry about whether Jonathan would really assign a planet to her family.

Sandra checked the amount of galaxy coin in her account; it was enough to pay her way out of here, but it wouldn’t be so easy to get Star Map Draftsman inexplicably involved in a war, and without any obvious signs of human planning either. Since the disappearance of the previous generation’s Star Map Draftsman, Orion Arm had not seen a new Star Map Draftsman for centuries. Some say that he was created by Datheon and should be an object without life or soul, only similar in appearance to a human being, and that he has a very special task to perform and cannot get involved in the civilization of Orion Arm. Orion Arm’s big events, apart from White Crystal, are sporadic wars, which she thought had nothing to do with Star Map Draftsman. From the name, Star Map Draftsman most likely draws star maps. After all, the universe is still at a very young stage; every moment new stars are born in nebulae, and there are also stars whose light goes out with a loud bang, taking everything around them into nothingness. There are even galaxies that collide. As a child at the observatory, Sandra had seen two galaxies colliding 14 million Osei from the Milky Way. What we can see is only the light the stars left a long time ago, or they have already finished their lives. In the end, in this changing universe, someone has to take on the job of mapping. That’s perfectly normal. Hell, she was so tired. Sandra drank some water; she was close to the gathering place of the wandering miners.

This was the old city of the mining planet. It had no name; everyone called it Old City. This kind of planet is not common on Orion Arm. The ore is very versatile: it can be processed and used as fuel, and can even be refined into common medicines. The Federation does not actively take possession of these planets; it lets the working population at the bottom of society extract the ore, and then the Federation sends officially authorized merchant ships to purchase it. The economic structure of these merchant ships is simple. Usually the merchants buy the ships themselves and then rent them out to pilots, who then recruit some mechanics and set out to buy the ore. This business was relatively clean at first, until greedy merchants found that buying and selling slaves was also a good business, and many slaves were then sold on the mining planets. The Federation authorities would not take any action to regulate this; the population of the large Orion Arm was small to begin with, and the shortage of labor was an unspoken problem of the rulers. Some merchants even said that the slave trade would only increase profits and make better use of labor, but this was nonsense: the vast majority of those captured as slaves were Strath people, because their level of civilization was low and they were almost unable to resist.

Sandra looked at the detector. The signal showed that Star Map Draftsman was in the middle of the old city, a relatively long distance away. The clothes she was wearing were the uniform of an Ashton Federation diplomat, which was not ideal for getting through this desperate and resentful city. She found some clothes drying by the side of the road, wrapped herself up in some suitable ones, and stepped onto the muddy, sewage-covered path, giving herself over to this strange city. At first, not far into the city, Sandra was worried that someone might notice her, or that someone was planning to rob her, but she walked for a long time and nothing happened, not even enough to scare away a dozing sparrow; the city was as still as death, without a breath. If you didn’t notice the slight heaving of their chests, they were no different from the dead. Sandra kept walking; the city seemed to be soaked in silent formalin, rotten and lifeless. The people perhaps didn’t even want to say anything.

The signal source in her hand showed that Sandra was getting closer and closer to Star Map Draftsman. She stopped in front of a broken-down house. Through the door frame, she saw objects taken apart from old ships made into a bed and other household things placed all over the house. The iron-frame bed was covered with a single sheet; who knows how many wanderers had lain on it, and it was impossible to tell what material the sheet was. Sandra also noticed the man on the bed. The detector showed that he was none other than Star Map Draftsman, but he lay motionless, no different from the other wandering miners. She surveyed the room, found no one else, and then tiptoed toward the bed.

Sandra approached and examined the man on the bed. His face was too dirty to make out. Probably because he heard someone approaching, he opened his eyes slightly, and his eyes slowly turned and searched over Sandra. He also tried to speak; his lips worked for a while and then went still again. After seeing the device embedded in his skin, Sandra confirmed that it was the Star Map Draftsman she was looking for. She dragged Dawn Lucius up and out.

“Who are you?” Sandra hadn’t even stepped over the threshold when two children came up to her; so much dirt had built up on their outer clothing that she couldn’t tell their gender. When the children finished asking and saw that Sandra didn’t say anything, the two instinctively huddled together, looking at Sandra for a moment and then at Dawn Lucius, who was dragging behind her.

“Who are you?” Sandra asked as she drew her feet together and looked at the two children.

“You have to tell us first.” The child standing behind said.

“Okay, let me ask you guys a question.” Sandra put the rack down and walked in the direction of the two kids. “How did he get here?”

“I don’t know.” The child saw Sandra walking toward them and stepped back warily.

“Did he come here on his own?” Sandra didn’t stop, reaching into her shirt pocket for something as she slowly approached the two children.

“I don’t know.” The two children continued to move backwards.

“If you guys tell me ......,” Sandra continued as she pulled out the compressed, sealed meat products along with a bottle of water and waved them in front of the two children’s eyes. “These are all yours.”

“I don’t know.” The two children said this as they stopped backing up, their eyes fixed on the food in Sandra’s hand.

“Then I don’t care. I’m taking him home, and these, ah ......” Sandra continued as she shook the things in her hands and pulled her clothes aside as if to put them back. “I can’t give these to you if you don’t tell me.” With that, she walked back to the rack and put the two straps back on her shoulders.

“Wait a minute ......” the child standing in front interrupted Sandra, pointing to the food in Sandra’s hand and continuing. “If we tell you, can we have those?”

“Yes.” Sandra dropped the straps, walked over to the two children and handed them the food.

“A man brought him to us. He gave us some galaxy coins and told us to take care of him.” The child standing in front pointed to Dawn Lucius and continued. “That man also said that we were not allowed to tell anyone.”

Sandra heard the child say that a man had brought him there, so who was this man? The only people who knew about Star Map Draftsman were Madam Winifred and Jonathan, so was it possible that Jonathan had sent him here? “Do you remember the man’s face?” Sandra asked.

The two dirty little faces shook their heads repeatedly. “He came with his face covered.”

“What else did he say?” Sandra pursued.

“Nope.” The two children shook their heads and replied.

Sandra had hardly ever seen a slave. Having grown up in a political center, she had heard of poor people on the edges of Visadio Planet’s cities, but had never imagined life could be squeezed like this: some are born in paradise, others are born only to be thrown out of it. She looked at the two children, their feet shoeless, their toes clenched in the mud, their pants just above the knee crowded with patches, their thin clothes hanging on them, trembling slightly like the last leaves on a maple tree in autumn. When Sandra and her mother discussed, before her mother passed away, why the Federation didn’t help more poor people, her mother told her not to worry about why others didn’t help, but to help the poor as much as she could if she came across them. She tried to touch their faces, but her hand drew back in mid-air; she was afraid she would cry. She turned around, intending to drag the rack out of town.

Sandra had just put the straps back on her shoulders when she faintly heard cursing nearby: the sound of hard soles kicking open locked wooden doors, of a bowl on a table and a pair of broken scissors being swept together onto the floor, of the slaves’ heartbeats pooling as they huddled together. Sandra heard it all clearly. She hurriedly dragged the rack back toward the house, then turned back and dragged the two children inside, hiding them at the foot of the wall behind the clutter, although this would not help much. Vicious pirates were coming. They went around catching slaves to sell and plundering these poor people while they were at it. The pirates came and went unpredictably, and the Federation was not willing to spend much time and money hunting them down, so the poor at the bottom suffered their abuse and bursts of hostility.

The pirates searched all the rooms along the road, and those who were found were dragged out and pushed forward in a line. No one resisted; they were used to fate pushing and pulling them, like chickens driven to the slaughterhouse by a farmer at night. The pirates rarely used force against the slaves; they couldn’t even be bothered to fire a shot into the crowd to amuse themselves. She felt the skin on her neck stiffen, her brain like an old machine that had stalled and wouldn’t start. As the pirates approached the house they were in, Sandra pressed her index finger to her lips, signaling the children hiding behind the clutter to keep quiet, but eventually, they were found.