The God Complex: The Book Of Alan, Destroyer Of Worlds

Chapter Thirty-Two

It was one Hell of a sight: The SS ABADDON ONE, pristine and glistening white against the twinkling expanse of space. Suspended alone in such a remote part of the sky, it was impossible to truly grasp its size as they approached.

Gabe fed in the signal tracker sent by Stone and allowed the auto-pilot to guide them to their allocated parking bay. As they neared, the Archangel became dwarfed by the shadow that now loomed ominously over them.

'Pretty impressive, huh?' said Gabe.

'Don't get any ideas,' replied Monkey, 'I reckon that costs more than ten-thousand credits.'

'What sort of food do you think they've got on that thing?' said Jaibles hungrily, 'if it's anything like the YAMA, it will be wall to wall five-star dining.'

Gabe shook his head.

'What? We're guests of honour, we're the heroic renegades who suffered a great injustice in uncovering corruption and righting wrongs.'

'What do you mean we?' snapped Gabe.

'You heard her, they want all three of us to give an official statement, all for one and one for all.'

By the time the Archangel docked, they were excitedly waiting for the ramp to descend. Jaibles had even deemed this occasion important enough to wear clothes - clean ones.

The safety light turned green and the escape hatch opened. Waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp was an impatient looking Miss Stone.

'Gentlemen, right on time. Please follow me.' She turned on her heels and paced towards a door marked 'Meeting rooms 314 - 796, Gymnasium & Cigar Lounge.' Gabe, Monkey and Jaibles quickly followed.

Plush red monogrammed carpets lined the floor of the gilded mahogany hallways. Between the windowed oak doors of each meeting room hung ornate portraits of Abaddon's ancestors, each staring down at Gabe in solemn arrogance, leaving him in no doubt where they placed him in the great pecking order of life.

Jaibles nudged Monkey and whispered, 'if this is how he decorates the corridors to his meeting rooms, imagine what the rest of the shuttle looks like?'

'Once again, allow me to express the gratitude of his excellency, the Supreme Leader of the New World: President Abaddon and all of EDEN for your cooperation today. Here at EDEN, we take our responsibility seriously.'

Gabe was hardly listening, his attention was on each passing meeting room, each occupied with EDEN officials being studiously productive and immaculate in their neatly pressed black jumpsuits. Occasionally they would look up and catch Gabe's passing eye. Not once did they smile.

'We understand our responsibility didn't end when we saved, trained and evacuated every living person from our dying planet. It is still our responsibility to maintain law and order as we search for our new world, then rebuild society to maintain the status quo.'

'What if people don't want the status quo? What if the status quo was what got us in this situation in the first place?' interrupted Jaibles.

Miss Stone flashed him a sour look and ignored his question. 'We're nearly there,' she continued sweetly and marched on ahead.

They followed her in silent awe of the decadence of their surroundings. They had already walked the equivalent of the entire length of the Archangel and still couldn't see the end of the hallway.

Up ahead, Miss Stone had stopped at a large door and waited patiently for them to catch up. As they did, Gabe noticed the remaining two meeting rooms were also occupied - the first with Dawkins, his head low and defeated as an aggressive looking Eden official shoved several papers in front of him. The second with Training Command Cain who gesticulated wildly and banged an angry fist on the steel table.