The Old Gods

Chapter 2

Rem scraped the bottom of his bowl with his spoon, watching as the metal tool pushed aside the bits of cereal that floated on top of the milk. They floated close together, but never actually touched, with just a small space separating each little wheat 'o'. It had been a small detail that had fascinated him as a child, but he wasn't thinking about that small detail that had been explained by science hundreds of years ago. His thoughts were on the expedition he had been putting together. It hadn't even started and it was already falling apart.

As impossible as it seemed, Rem was not a majority shareholder of his own company. He owned close to twenty percent, which was far more than the next closest person at only two percent.

Hundreds of years of trading and dealings had whittled down what had been an absolute controlling majority to merely a highly influential holding. Normally that was enough since Rem would usually get enough of the other holders to side with him on any decision that it was never an issue, but this morning it had.

The holders had gained a whiff of what Rem had planned to do and they were no happy. There was a movement to freeze Rem's assets in the company to stop him. They had already gotten to his access to company funds, but Rem had enough of his own money to fund the trip. However, he needed the ship. The Aurora was company property and had a lot of scanning equipment that just couldn't be found all together in one ship and it would take too long to build a new ship.

As of right now, Rem was eating breakfast, but after, he was planning on meeting up with several shareholders. He had been making calls all morning and setting up appointments to try and get enough people on his side to get the mission rolling again because every second spent here and not out there was another second that the truth slipped farther and farther away.

Rem needed this to work out. Had had never been so certain in his life than he felt now. It all felt just right to him. He couldn't explain it. It just was. And to protect that, he had to grovel. So be it. He didn't see himself as being above such an act. He was willing to do whatever was necessary to ensure this mission happened.

"Sir," A server bot rolled up beside Rem on its single ball shaped wheel. It was tall and slender, painted black and white to give the appearance of a butler. It had two shiny, glass, eyes and a vocalizer in the shape of a mustache. It spoke with a British accent. Even now, when Britain no longer existed, the accent remained. "You have yet to consume your meal. Would you like for me to take it away?" It bowed slightly at the waist, extending a long and spindly arm that ended in a five finger hand.

Rem looked up at the mustachioed machine. Normally seeing it's goofy, yet somehow regal face cheered Rem up a bit, but he was still feeling anger from the news. Sure, he wasn't above groveling, but he still hated the idea. It was alway like this. People getting in the way and sticking their heads into business they had no right getting involved in.

Yes, the mission was being supported a great deal by the company and therefore it technically concerned them, but it did not impact them. Even if it failed to find anything useful, other operations would be left unaffected. Any face lost due to his 'childish dreams' could easily be regained. The company lost nothing and still, shareholders, even those that had only a single unit, were going up in arms and by definition, they had the right to be heard.

 "Sir?" The butler asked again in the same monotone British voice. No hint of annoyance at being annoyed. It couldn't get annoyed. Not in the programming.

"Yeah," Rem said with a wave of his hand. The butler quickly, but gracefully scooped up the full bowl of cereal and milk without spilling a single drop. It then turned on its wheel and whirred away with its prize.

Rem checked his chrono and frowned. It was time for him to leave his condo and start to mingle with the shareholder.

Rem was on Luna at the moment since the Sol system was the central hub of all galactic travel, therefore the most convenient place to meet others. He was staying in a top floor condo that he owned which had an amazing view of Earth at all times of day. 

His first meeting was on the other side of the moon, the Dark Side, where the only view was that of space, the glass ceiling of the biodome and the sun on occasion. It wasn't that time of month for Luna and so, Rem arrived to a land of black sky.

"Wow that was fast," Rem was greeted by a large bald white man in a casual, yet frighteningly expensive suit. The man lumbered down the walkway of his own home towards Rem who was getting out of his liftcar.

Rem closed the door manually rather than letting the computer shut it for him. "This meeting is my number one priority as of right now," Rem said truthfully. He put on the most genuine smile he could, one that was reserved for the media and meetings such as this. How he hated this man.

The man was Garret Hemsworth, the owner and CEO of the rival company Terra-Star. One might question why an owner of a rival company would buy Rem Corp. Garret was a smart man and he knew that Rem Corp was prospering enough that it was a very safe investment, rival or not. It was a bit of a dirty secret that a large part of Terra-Star's initial success was due to the monetary investments Garret had made into Rem Corp. Now he spent his time trying to 

sabotage Rem's company the inside. 

"As true as that is," Garret said with a hint of slight indulgence. "We both know you rue talking to me at every opportunity. I leave a bad taste in your mouth and I relish that."

"Now I remember why I don't do this that often," Rem said, dropping his smile and any guise of friendship he had put up. "You're just an old man that's angry he isn't at the top and so you become petty."

"See? Isn't this fun?" Garret said and then turned his back on Rem. "Lets head inside before the neighbors see this."

Garret's home was nice, but overly lavish, even by Rem's standards. Everything screamed, "look at me! I'm important," From the self portraits on real canvas to the excessive use of marble in the walls and floor. There was even a massive fish tank that made up the wall of the kitchen.

"Nice place you have here," Rem said backhandedly. 

"You weren't here for the get-together I threw when I moved in?" Garret asked and led them to what might have been a living room, but gave off more of a theatre vibe with the massive holovid projector and the rows of furniture.

"No," Rem said and seated himself on one of the many leather seats. Rem wouldn't be surprised if Garret had hired scientists to create some ungodly creature to farm for the leather. "Must've been busy."

"Busy trying to put together an expedition into madness?" Garret put on his own fake smile as if he wasn't trying to get a rise out of his younger business rival. 

Rem felt a flash of anger, but didn't let it take over. Instead, it simmered a little before going back down. Only then did he allow himself to speak.

"The expedition you've moved Heaven and Earth to try and block."

Garret chuckled, his belly rolling as he did so. "There was no need to go that far. I merely educated the other investors of what you were up to. They did the rest. I'd like to say that..." he tapped his chin and gazed whimsically upward at the crystal chandelier he had. "I was a pioneer. Forging new paths to counter your obvious disregard for what's best for the company." 

"What I'm doing doesn't affect the company," Rem said, agitated. "The resources I'm pulling is barely point-zero-five percent of the available emergency pool."

"Yet." Garret raised a finger. "The twenty percent shareholder is going on what is universally regarded as a suicide mission."

"We don't know that," Rem quickly shot back. "All scans of the system show that there is no danger."

"No danger that is known," Garret countered. The fat man rested back into his seat, letting the cushions soak up his enormity. "Space is full of unknowns. It killed the best Ranger in the galaxy in such a way that no one knows how."

"I intend to find out," Rem said. His patience was already waning. He should have gone to Gongxiou first and saved Garret for last because Rem wasn't going to be in the mood to talk to anymore people after this meeting.

"You don't need to find out." Garret slammed his fist against the armrest in a surprise move, leave Rem wide eyed. "Your family, or at least the men, are all obsessed with something, like some crazy heretical prophesy. How did your father die?"

Rem didn't answer.

"Acute lymphatic cancer that developed months after he nearly flew into a sun on some crazy mission to find something. I tried to talk him out of that one and I failed." Garret calmed down a bit, lowering voice back to an appropriate level. He sighed and seemed physically ill. "I enjoy making your life hard, but I don't enjoy watching each of your family members kill themselves for reasons unknown."

To say that Rem was shocked was an understatement. He had always expected malice and malcontent from Garret, not expressed concern about the dangers he very willingly exposed himself to. Touching, but unneeded and unwelcome.

"Don't talk about my father," Rem got up from his seat and jabbed his finger at Garret. He was shaking in anger. "Don't get in my way." He turned and left, leaving Garret who had a slight smirk creeping to the edges of his lips.

Rem sat back in his liftcar. It lifted up and joined traffic, heading towards the next preprogrammed destination, which was more shareholders.

Rem thought about just cancelling all appointments for the rest of the day, but by the time he had even brought up the cancelation order, he felt like himself again.

Strange, because Rem hadn't felt like himself when he had gotten angry. He wasn't the kind to so easily snap like that about his father. Wasn't even a touchy subject. He knew what happened to his father and understood why it happened. End of story. Garret's comments, which hadn't even been malicious, had somehow gotten to him. Made him angrier than he had felt in a long while. He should still be seething not feeling okay. 

"Whatever," Rem told himself. He had the whole day ahead of himself and he felt confident now. Garret was going to be the worst out of everyone he was going to meet. He should be able to convince a decent number of them to support his expedition.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Rem felt right as rain by the time his liftcar arrived at his next stop.

The day did go well. Rem was able to finish the rest of his meetings and fit a few extra ones as well, giving his side about a forty-two percent control of the vote. 

Most of the shareholders didn't know much about the company and were easy to sway. They had merely jumped on the bandwagon Garret had begun. A few choice words and promises of direct recognition was all Rem needed. He figured that he would be able to win over the rest of the shareholders he needed by the end of the month since some of the larger holders were quite a distance away in other systems and could not afford the expensive trip to Sol. He would make time for them once his business on Luna was done with.

Rem returned to his condo with a tired spring to his step. He felt bloated since so many people liked talking over a meal which meant a lot of food over the course of the day. 

He turned away to bot that offered him more food and went to check his messages on his personal. 

There were several, including one from Teth who was detailing how progress on launch prep had stalled due to the freezing of acquisitions. That angered Rem again, but he quickly calmed himself down.

What was with these anger flashes? He had always kept his more extreme emotions in check easily. Now it was as if he was just naturally and angry person, which was not true.

Rem sent a reply, telling Teth to just do what he could and that it would be handled. 

It would be handled. One way or another.

The next message was from his sister. 

It was a quick blurb about the situation and a scathing few words about Garret who she had also called and chastised. If anyone was naturally angry in the family, it was Abby Harken and that was because she was adopted. Her biological parents were not pleasant. That was all Rem cared to say about them.

He decided to call her up. If anything helped keep him in check, it was Abby.

The tone rang a few times and Abby's familiar face appeared on the holo.

"Was expecting a call from you," She said. Rem could see that she was seated at a desk. Probably at her office since she spent most days there and had a her own room at the workplace for when she couldn't be bothered to travel back to her actual home.

"Were you now?" Rem felt himself smile. It felt odd to smile and actually mean it. It felt good even if it did make his lip twitch.

She pushed aside a few folders on her desk with a smooth sweep of her arm. "Was actually expecting it a few hours ago. Your scheduling must be horrible."

"You have my schedule?" Rem asked. He knew that she did. It was a well known secret between of them that their secretaries spy on the other and report everything. It was a game between them on who could dig up the most dirt on the other and it just so happened that Abby was currently being handed the royal flush.

Off the boundaries of the holo, someone came into Abby's office urgently enough to interrupt the conversation. It looked as if Abby was about to tear whoever came barging in a new one. She was handed something and then her demeanor changed.

"What?" Rem asked, trying to peer at what she had been given. "What is it?"

"I'm sending it over to you now," Abby's said as she pulled up her monitor and began to input a new message. "You'll want to see it for yourself rather than hear it." She finished her message and sent it over.

Rem received it only moments later as his own monitor pinged with excitement.

Rem opened the message and read it aloud.

"From Garret Hemsworth, CEO and founder of Terra-Star, shareholder and investor in Rem Corp." Rem rolled his eyes, but kept going. "To all other shareholders and investors in Rem Corp with exception of Rem himself." Rem frowned and looked up at his sister. Where did she get this?

"Keep reading," she told her brother, her eyes were following along as he read.

Rem went back to the screen. 

"Over the past several months, Rem has been accumulating resources and money from both his personal funds and the company treasury to fund and supply a mission to an uncharted, but known part of space where a renowned Ranger was lost. At face value, it would appear to be a righteous and just cause to determine the fate of someone who had almost single handedly create all growth for the company in the past decade. However, this expedition is merely the machinations of a man whose family has consistently squandered funds and resources in a mad search for something that eludes the rest of us. We all remember how Rem's father died and his father before him or before or before. Keep going back and we see that they all died charging off into deep space on whims of madness and we lose them, these brilliant men who built an empire of wealth. Now we risk losing another one."

Rem again looked up at his sister and mouthed the words, "what the fuck." It was a load of bullshit. Garret was making it sound as if he was just going to some random location in space. No. That was absolutely wrong and a lie. Marty had vanished out there and his fate did need to be ascertained. He knew exactly what he was doing, not tromping off into the wilderness without a clue. He had science, observations, a Ranger and a damn good ship with a damn good crew.

"Keep reading, Rem," his sister said. "It doesn't get better, but you need to read it all."

"Why?" Rem burst. "This fucking cunt of a human is creating fictitious accounts and twisting the truth to turn everyone against me. What I'm going to do is make a statement right now." He was about to bring up a new screen to do that, but his sister insisted.

"Keep reading," she said with a commanding voice that stopped Rem in his tracks. "Or I will."

"Earlier today, Rem came to my home as he did many others and made an attempt to convince me to support his little venture. He covered his ill-gotten ideas with poorly conceived notions and transparent numbers and only succeeded in driving himself into a mad rage when confronted by fact. I fear that he will go into the void with or without our support and so I and several other holders have come together and pooled our resources to buy a controlling share of Rem..."

"Out first act is to remove Rem as the CEO and to place him under a watch state for his own safety." His sister finished reading the important bit. "I'm sorry."

"How is this possible?" Rem said quietly. "I've been trying to buy back a controlling share for years, but never could. The old coots didn't want to give up their holdings for anything. Now Garret has swooped in and bought it up. Just like that." Rem snapped his finger.

"What are you going to do?" Abby asked. She was afraid because she knew of the obsession that had taken her adoptive father and her adoptive brother. They became so focused on one thing and would go into a fury whenever something got in the way, no matter how small. Now Garret had declared total war and destroyed the entire pathway.

Rem sat in silence. At first he felt nothing but an empty pit in his stomach. Then the pit filled up and overflowed with a feeling more powerful than he had ever felt in his life. Anger. Rage. Loathing. No words could accurately describe it, but the feeling took over everything. It corrupted him.

Somewhere, far away, a beast stirred from its timeless state, suddenly aware of its own existence once again. It felt itself out there, a piece of himself called out to its whole. It hungered.

"Oh?" Aetin said to no one, not even himself. "I remember now."