S.P.E.C.T.O.R – [A Sci-fi space adventure with fantasy elements]

“Shalendra, could I have a word in private?” Rowena suddenly asked, causing Shalendra to raise an eyebrow suspiciously before asking.

“Shouldn’t we help Adam look?”

“And get the outfit that I picked out especially for my husband all messy? No thanks. Let’s leave this to Adam while we have some girl talk.”

“As long as this girl talk is not about joining his lovers group.”

“Hehe, not this time,” Rowena replied with a giggle before stepping out of the room.

Shalendra continued to give her a suspicious look before following her outside.

[Beczontop (Imperial Down): Is it just me, or did that seem suspicious?]

[HackerSu (Trillion): I agree. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them planned for Rowena to act as a distraction.]

[Handsome3horns (Vinox 2): When? We have been watching the stream the entire time.]

[Superior4horns (Vinox 3): Don’t tell me you forgot about the time the stream was muted earlier; you were complaining about it after all, you idiot.]

[MercheadAnderson (Palaxia): So we think the streamer wants to keep what he is looking for secret from them?]

[SciFifanboy (Earth): It makes sense. He doesn’t want the Solarians getting suspicious about the item, in case it changes the future.]

[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): How are you, Earthlings, so knowledgeable on actions that could possibly change the future?]

[RealOtaku (Earth): Movies and TV shows.]

Adam headed towards the back of the storage room, where Elidyr had pointed, while curiously looking at some of the items.

Queen Riniya Solar sat in her personal office, staring with narrowed eyes at the holographic screen above her desk, watching the ongoing interrogation of the Caninian Bullet who had attempted to kidnap her eldest daughter, when she suddenly heard someone knocking on her office door.

“Enter,” Riniya said as she muted the audio from the interrogation.

After the door opened, Riniya watched as Keerla entered before closing the door behind her and approaching the desk, where she slumped down in one of the vacant seats without waiting for permission.

“You know, normally someone waits for permission before sitting down in a formal manner,” Riniya said to her old friend with a smirk.

“Normal people have not been friends with you since childhood, Riniya,” Keerla replied before glancing at the holographic screen and asking, “Has he told them anything useful?”

“Nothing so far. He claims he never knew who hired them because the job was given to him by a broker he is friends with.”

“Sounds convenient,” Keerla replied.

“Agreed. Still, Taegen has ordered someone to investigate this broker just in case, while we continue to the interrogation,” Riniya replied before asking, “Have you found anything out?” 

“Something rather interesting, it’s possible that Adam is a Universal Senator’s bodyguard,” Keerla replied with a smile.

“Oh?” Riniya replied with a surprised look before asking, “Why do you think that?” 

“One of the orbital elevator stations reported that a Terran couple passed through security claiming to be visiting the planet for their honeymoon and that the man was carrying a Universal Force Staff.

“Interesting, I will contact our Universal Senator shortly regarding this,” Riniya replied after thinking for a few moments.

Keerla nodded before saying, “I also pulled the surveillance footage from the university, but it was completely corrupted during the time that Adam fought the kidnappers.”

“That’s rather suspicious. Was it the kidnappers doing so in an attempt to cover up their kidnapping attempt?” Riniya asked.

“I don’t think so, not unless they have found a way to cover all traces of their hacking of the university’s surveillance system. As you know, there is always some evidence left behind when a system is hacked. 

This time, however, there was nothing; it was almost like the surveillance system had a malfunction at that exact moment.”

“And yet you have a theory on who did it,” Riniya said with a smile, as she knew her friend well.

“You know me so well,” Keerla replied with a wink before saying, “I suspect it was Adam or Rowena’s doing. If I had to guess, they were trying to cover up the fact that Adam is a Universal Senator’s bodyguard.”

“Why? People already know he’s on the planet after all, since he passed through security on the orbital elevator station, so why bother hiding now?” 

“Maybe they want some peace while on their honeymoon,” Keerla replied with a shrug before adding, “It’s just a guess, though.”

Riniya tapped the table for a moment before asking, “You said this Adam claimed to be from outside the known universe. How can he be both from outside the known universe and a Universal Senator’s bodyguard?”

“One of them must be a lie, and I would guess that his being from outside the known universe is the lie. We would surely have heard of someone from a race outside the known universe arriving after all.”

“That’s true. It’s not something that happens every day after all. For now, keep quiet about his identity as a Universal Senator’s bodyguard; it’s the least we can do after he saved Liluth,” Riniya instructed before asking, “What about our embassies on Darah Five and Terran Five? Have they responded?” 

“They have, and it’s as we pretty much expected. Rowena Nosferatu is actually in the Sandanar Galaxy at present, focusing on her modelling work whilst also dating a Terran called Philip. As for Adam Spencer, there are several Terrans with the name Adam Spencer; however, none of them are reported to be anywhere near our galaxy,” Keerla replied.

“So, as we thought, they are both fake identities,” Riniya replied as she tapped the table before thinking for a moment and saying, “Contact Shalendra and ask for an update, but make it seem like you’re only checking in and making sure that everything is fine, we don’t them suspecting that we are investigating them after they went out of there way to save my daughter.” 

“Understood,” Keerla replied while pulling out her communicator and searching for a contact, after which she made a call while putting the communicator up to her ear.

It didn’t take Adam long to reach the rear of the storage room, and after looking around for a few moments, he found a small cupboard that was labelled Theodmer Sarmaer.

“What does the temporal displacement stabilisation device look like?” Adam asked as he opened the cupboard and found various-sized metal containers within.

As he finished speaking, an engineering diagram of a dodecahedron-shaped device with twelve faces that had three pipes of different thickness attached to three of the separate faces appeared on his HUD. 

[Justiceistruth (Earth): That’s one strange-looking device.]

[SciFifanboy (Earth): And here I was hoping for a fluidity capacitor.]

[RealOtaku (Earth): This isn’t the movie, Return to the Past, kek.]

[OracleRomy (Elysium): What a strange-looking device. I wonder how it works.]

“How’s this thing supposed to work?” Adam asked curiously as he started to search through the various-sized metal cases.

[NonpareilRaphilia (Aaru): Look, Romy, I guess the streamer heard you. 😹]

[OracleRomy (Elysium): 😋]

[[The temporal displacement stabilisation device uses the different pipe thicknesses of the three pipes to combine the three necessary components in their correct amounts. The thinnest pipe collects dark matter, the medium pipe collects scorpo blood, and the widest pipe collects energy from the subspace drive.]]

[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Is that all the AI is going to say? That doesn’t explain how the device controls the reaction other than determining the amounts of each component needed at all.]

[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): I guess it doesn’t want to say more unless it reveals too much.]

“Here we go,” Adam suddenly said as he pulled the metal box he had just opened out of the cupboard and placed it on the floor, revealing a device inside that looked exactly the same as what Spector had just shown on his HUD.

After placing the box on the floor, Adam held his uniband over it just before a beam of light shot out of it and began to move over the device, scanning it.

[[Scan complete.]]

[[Beginning production of the temporal displacement stabilisation device.]

“Are we done here?” Adam asked as he closed the lid of the metallic box before placing it back in the cupboard.

[[Affirmative. Production and installation of the temporal displacement stabilisation device will be complete by the time you return to me.]]

“Good,” Adam said before standing up and heading back towards the door, and as he passed through, he found Rowena and Shalendra talking in quiet voices a short distance away.

“That was fast. Did you already find what you were looking for?” Rowena asked as she saw Adam leave the room and return to the hallway.

“Yup, we’re all done here,” Adam replied.

“Great, now we can continue our honeymoon. Where are you taking me first, darling?” Rowena asked happily.

“How about …” Adam began to say, only to be interrupted as a jingling noise came from Shalendra, causing her to reach into her pocket and pull out her communicator.

“Please excuse me for a moment,” Shalendra said politely after seeing who was calling her before she stepped away to answer the call.