Chapter 60: Gifts

Some of the guests at the party introduced themselves but the majority waited for two things, Safo to finish his meal and Advisors. When Safo was busy with snacking the door opened and the four advisors entered the banquet room.

Soon everybody moved aside to open the space in the middle and Safo Nur was facing six advisors. The main event of the evening was about to start.

Halazar started the speech. “Safo Nur, I congratulate you on your excellent performance at the tournament winning for yourself 41% of votes on the pre-vote poll. You are currently in second place.

Today, as we - Advisors agreed upon us, we will give our presents to the winner of the tournament. After a discussion, we decided that it is you, Safo Nur, who deserved our attention.

Let us give you our modest gifts.”

The hulking figure of the Military Advisor, Maun Drew, moved forward.

“Yes… As Halazar said previously, we want to congratulate you. I saw your resources and recalled my youth. I, too, have a fire resource. While I have a blue fire, a bit more fearsome than your red flame.” Maun Drew said his words slightly mumbling because advisors asked him not to mention the fact that the admirable old advisor was stronger than a kid. “Anyway, I wanted to give you my personal soul weapon.” People in the room gasped in awe.

The Soul weapon was the peak of engineering of the Empire scientists. It was ten times more costly than the molecular separation type weapons that O’rmon used. The main purpose of the weapon was to consume raw soul energy from its owner and transform it into a resource form reinforcing on the way out.

“Wow, you can buy ten disk-swords if you sell that thing,” Kutch whispered to Safo.

Maun Drew drew a device that resembled a grey metallic cylinder. Maun neared the cylinder to his fist and the hole started to move and disassemble itself into pieces only to be assembled back tightly equipped on Advisors's hand.

“That is how you put this on. To turn on, you are supposed to send some of your energy in it and the rest is assured.” As soon as he said it the other end of the cylinder turned blue. A blue flame blazed from the device as if it was some sort of a lighter. And that was almost what the device was called - The torch.

Maun Drew handed over the torch to Safo along with instructions to it.

“Come to my office tomorrow, I will teach you some tricks.” And then with a stern tone, he added: “Don’t forget.”

Only after seeing that Safo nodded in understanding, he returned to his place amongst other advisors.

Next, stepped forward Halazar and Elixio. “We thought for a long time about what to give you, many offers were made and at the end, we decided to present a collective gift. From all the advisors, we bestow you your new ship.” Elixio Quirz spoke solemnly and loudly.

He opened his palm and a hologram of a ship of enormous sizes appeared on the screen. It was mostly green in color with black trim and a dark green reflective windshield on the front.

Elixio waved his hand for about a minute in order to calm down the excited crowd. And then continued his speech.

“The displayed ship is a gift from two Advisors, Halazar Woods and Kundlur Gar. They hope that the ship will help you to finish your task with excellent results.

But, a ship by itself is not much of a use, without a crew. So I and advisor Nachto found you the ten best professionals in New Tenga. Their services cost a lot, so we only paid for the first three months for you. Enough for you to become a King and hire them from the administration treasury.” Elixio winked jokingly.

“And finally, Development Adviser - Zavitye Vem provided the ship with furniture and equipment.”

The crowd cheered and whistled. The gift was truly King-size.

With the presentation being over, Advisors came to greet Safo personally and had a friendly but short polite chat. Only the Internal Security Advisor - Kundlur Gar was a bit stiff.

Safo showed his concern about his son’s health for which Kundlur shortly replied that Kardon currently was in the hospital. Doctors were trying to install bio-android legs. The process was long and strength-consuming, but he was fine and alive.

Elixio came with ten psiora, introducing Safo to his new crew members on the ship. The leader of the crew was an experienced captain. He was from an old generation psiora, judging by his neon pattern on the bald head. His people, however, were well-trained young psiora of a different look. They promised to take care of the ship and Safo’s life. They agreed to meet on the day of departure again.

Instead of talking that day at the party, both parties decided to eat and drink, leaving serious matters for another day.

Unfortunately, Safo couldn’t enjoy all the food on the tables, he had to interact with the guest who came to meet him one by one. He got acquainted with many businessmen, politicians, and celebrities of New Tenga. All wished him good luck and showed their willingness to work with him IF he would be selected as a King.

The majority of the guests gave money as a gift, eventually making a little more than a hundred thousand zees at the end of the day. It was enough for Safo’s daily spendings for the next three months.

The rest of the evening Safo spent talking to Environment Advisor - Nachto about the situation on both Atan - hazardous and Hfan - the rotten planets. By Nachto’s words, Safo Nur understood many things currently going on in the New Tenga.

Most of the poor population of psiora lived underground at Hfan while very few could survive on Atan. The problem was that New Tenga could refuse to receive trash and waste from all across the universe. It was the main source of income and the main food for the dying star.

The red dwarf's name was Ten, a mere memory of the mighty giant star that psiora used to have on their home planet. Ten needed to be fed constantly to be able to last longer. So the most part of the litter went to recycling, everything that was left went to Ten’s all-consuming maws.

“Nachto, I will ask a straight question. I’m new in this world, so I do not know many things. What can I do as a candidate and King in the future? What needs to be done now? If you could give me directions I promise to move the cogs in my head to find out the solution to make things better.” After listening to Nachto for over two hours Safo was tired and wanted to know the answer right away.

With the words: “It is a complicated question.” Nachto rambled on everything that he thought was important, which was everything.

As Safo understood, it was truly a complicated subject. First of all, they needed more factories, machines, or at least manpower to improve the recycling process. According to Nachto, they could process the objects on the surface while under the piles were trash that lay there for centuries, even thousands of years.

Second, they needed some efficient way to deliver trash to the dying star. At the moment, the only way was to just load the trash on ships and catapult everything in the direction of the Ten.

The third problem was that they wanted to clean the planet from the radiation hazard. Ideally, they should close the trash portals and prohibit access to the planet for good. But New Tenga was constantly receiving funds from the Empire for their recycling work.

To fix the issues that piled on top of each other, New Tenga desperately wanted skillful people. Which could come only after proper education, which lacked due to the ‘work should be done first’ rule. Most of the psiora worked in litter-related fields. Few psiora wished to spend their lives teaching at school. The salary was just too low.

Imperial money was intended solely for trash recycling, nothing more. A mercenary career promised a good future if one could survive the missions. The mortality rate for psiora under 21 was higher than others almost double. The deplorable path of New Tenga could bring to extinction the Psiora race in the future.

With deep thoughts, Safo didn’t notice how the party came to an end and people went home. Kutch was standing before him to take him back home.

“I guess I have to find a place to live. With all my money I can afford it, now.”

Kutch understood that Safo was referring to O’rmon and their awkward relationship. Despite Kutch’s wishes to live together, he knew that it was the right thing to do. Also in a couple of days, Safo’s legs should be healed and they will have to go to do the tasks to earn stars for Safo. He wondered if Safo allows O’rmon to join the crew.

At home, Safo drove his wheelchair to O’rmon’s locked door and knocked.

“O’rmon, come out, I want to talk.”