NaNoPrep - Oct 19 Contest - Antagonist

October 19 NaNoPrep - Antagonist Background story.




         Syn Kelesen stormed down the hallway, muttering and grumbling at anyone in his way. This was usually a humorous sight as he was a small man at 4'6" and tended to look like an angry dwarf. Syn didn't care what people thought, he was tired of being ignored and overlooked.
Coming to the Vizr's office he tossed the door open and looked for the Vizr. The room was small with a single desk on the left where the Vizr's assistant sat with a startled look on her face. A small box garden was to the right with a couple comfortable chairs and a viewer on the wall.
"Where is he?!" he shouted at the Vizr's assistant. "Where is that no good back stabbing..." before he could finish his sentence the Vizr and Grand Vizr stepped into the room from the Vizr's office. The Vizr gave Syn a look that could peel the bark off a Kelz tree.
The Grand Vizr simply glanced at Syn and continued his comment "... they need to understand, we won't tolerate their attacks on our way of life. Please try again to get them to come to an agreement. I do not wish to resort to more forceful methods." The Vizr nodded and replied, "Yes Grand Vizr, I will talk to them again, but you know as well as I the Ulik mercenaries don't want to talk." "Do your best." The Grand Vizr sighed, and walked toward the door. As he approached Syn, he paused and spoke, "You really need to relax, I suggest you deeply consider it." And walked out not waiting for a reply.
Syn's fury abated somewhat, he knew he was over reacting again, but dammit, the Vizr had gone around him and disrupted his work. Approaching the Vizr, Syn spoke up "What right do you have messing up my archives?! I spent weeks working on those data modules and getting them cataloged and now I have to start all over!" It was a pet peeve of Syn's to have anyone access or disturb the information archives without his consent and direction; he was after all, The Keeper of Information.
The Vizr looked at him and chuckled, "Watch your tongue, I know how to access the archives, I don't need you to nursemaid me through it."
The insult didn't go unnoticed by Syn, "You left everything a mess, you even damaged a couple modules by leaving them in the lasers too long!" he ranted. Syn was beginning to get mad again. He hated it when people trivialized his work.
         "You will take care of it, that's your position Syn." The Vizr replied. "Besides, you know as well as I that I can't always have you reading the information I need to access." Syn knew that to be true, but it didn't make up for the mess the Vizr had left in his archives. He also knew the Vizr didn't know he knew exactly what he had been reading in the archives but he would keep that to himself.
With a huff, Syn wheeled around and stomped out of the office. The Vizr watched him leave then turned to his assistant, "Myril, please try to get in touch with Xenk, we need to try the Grand Vizr's wishes, yet again."
"Yes sir." She replied and turned on her computer and began searching for contacts.
         Syn arrived back at his office still upset about his visit with the Vizr. Going into the data room, his thoughts shifted to what the Vizr had been accessing, "Why would the Vizr need to research information on old outlawed tech? What would he need with information on weaponized lasers anyway?" he muttered out loud to himself.
This was puzzling and disturbing. Syn Knew the Vizr was always looking for a reason to use more force than was necessary, but this was even beyond him.
Syn carefully reorganized the modules and set the damaged ones aside their red error lights blinking at each other. Once they were all back in place he took the damaged units to his desk and carefully examined them.
The first seemed to be simply overheated and would be ok once it cooled and reset. He placed this one off to the side. The next unit was damaged physically; it looked to have been dropped. "Damn!" he cursed, "This will require major repair, hopefully the data isn't destroyed."
Putting it aside he picked up the last unit, a small hole pierced the smooth surface. Looking closer, Syn realized it had been deliberately damaged with a high power laser, not like the low power ones used to activate and read the modules.
"Why would the Vizr do this?!" he exclaimed. Taking the modules to his workbench he put the heated module in a cooler and switched it on. Taking the module with the hole in it he gently placed a very finely ground crystal powder in the hole with a tiny needle.
Working slowly and carefully he packed the hole full of the powder. Placing the module on the bench he gets out an old con device, these were very useful to repair the cube modules; they were capable of higher power laser bursts that could refuse the crystal. Switching the con on he directed the laser at the tiny hole. The crystal powder being much finer that the larger crystal, melted at a much lower temperature and began to fill the hole and reseal it.
The laser flickered then went out. "Damn!" Syn cursed again. He would need to get that fixed; he really needed to know what data was damaged in this module.
Taking up the con unit, he secured his bench and put the damaged modules into a locked storage drawer. "No need anyone messing with those." He mutter satisfactorily as he made sure the lock was secure. Walking briskly out of his workroom he entered the hallway and preceded left to the lifts. He didn't mind going to the technologist he could fix most anything. He did tend to ask questions and sometimes seemed to judge him.
Taking the lift down two levels he arrived at the service level. This level housed most of the workshops and craftsman who maintained and serviced everything. Passing a few doors he came to the technologist's workroom. With a sigh he activated the door and entered.
Lelk came out from the back and greeted Syn with a nod and asked, "What can I do for you, Syn?"
"I have a con unit that's malfunctioning." Syn replied handing over the unit. "It flickered and went off. It will turn on but the module wont activate."
Switching the unit on, Lelk spotted the problem immediately. "Your laser module is burned out, I don't know if I have another. I will go see what I can find." Lelk placed the unit on the counter and went into the back.
Looking around the front of the workshop, Syn wondered when Lelk would ever get this place cleaned up. Parts of old devices lay in the corners and shelves with working devices lined both walls. The counter in the back of the room where he stood was littered with bits and pieces of crystal and metal.
Lelk can back out and held up a small crystal chip. "I did have one!"
Lelk inserted it into the testing rig he had built for them. It blinked on and a tiny blue light illuminated on its front.
"Excellent, working perfectly." Lelk exclaims, popping the chip out of the tester. "So what did you need the laser module for?" Lelk asked. Syn looked carefully at Lelk then replied, "Why do you always ask when you know I can't tell you. Suffice to say it's to get some old data modules up and running. You know the ones that you could activate with a con device."
"Ah yes, those, they were good units. We should have stuck with them. The new ones aren't as flexible." Lelk chuckled.
"Yea but the new ones hold a lot more information." Syn replied coldly.
"When you going to convert to some newer tech Lelk?" Syn asked changing the subject.
"Never, if I can help it."Lelk laughed. "You know that".


With a slight nod, Syn collected his con and walked out of the shop.

Returning to his workbench Syn unlocked the storage box and got out the holed module. He then completed his repairs on the module and inserted it into a reader. "Damn!" he exclaimed as he looked at the data it contained. "This is going to be a problem, a very big problem."