HOMO DEUS part 5

"What now, sir?" asked Sean, having finally digested and accepted this fact. 

The Team Zero operators looked at Xiao Tian, who is looking at Secretary Li and the rest of the higher ranking officials. 

Xiao Tian then turned to General Ling who is being restrained by MPs, intending to interrogate him for information. 

As if understanding what Xiao Tian has in mind, he kept his mouth shut. 

"I suggest you start speaking up," warned Marshal Romanov, looking at him sternly. His eyes looked at the Team Zero operators and then turned to General Ling, as if warning him of the methods the Tier 1 operators of Team Zero have when it comes to opening one's mouth, especially now where he no longer has the protection of UNSSD after being exposed as traitor. 

"I have nothing to speak," said General Ling coldly, as if readying himself to his fate, willing to use his entire life to buy time for the Director. "You can use your "memory rejuvenation" tactics on me all you want," he sneered at the Team Zero operators. 

"Think of your daughter, Harriet," said Xiao Tian. "How do you think she will feel if she learned that her father is a traitor to UNSSD and mankind? If you come clean, we can consider it as a form of redeem by service. The impact to you and your family's honours will be minimised." 

Sean silently commended Xiao Tian's strategy. After all, its an open secret among them that General Ling is a very loving father to Harriet, especially given how he is a single father. Instead of brute forcing and warning of personal consequences, Xiao Tian is instead appealing to his relationship with his daughter, trying to convince him to cooperate for her sake. 

General Ling clearly is shaken, no longer having the resolve to keep silent and ignore them. 

After much hesitation and deliberation, he sighed, opening his mouth. 

"The Director..." he muttered. 

What he said next shocked everyone in the room. 

Director Kovac 

Ever since Director Kovac had his fateful meeting with his old mentor Sir Howard in his estate in the Arundel castle, he has pondered over Sir Howard's assertions on what constitutes mankind, and what constitutes humanity. 

While still vehemently opposing his eugenics ideas, Director Kovac eventually arrived at the same conclusion that mankind's divided nature will be a major hindrance to its survival and continuation. All of the galactic civilizations outside of those originating from Earth are all organised as united civilizations, yet the Earth is still organised as nations. 

Unlike Sir Howard who advocates simply destroying sentient life on Earth and starting over from scratch with a new form of designed life to carry on the legacy of Earth's civilization, Director Kovac seeks to rebuild humanity, cell by cell, neuron by neuron. 

"And how is he going to achieve it?" asked Sean. 

"That I don't know," replied General Ling. "All I know that the kind of research he needs to conduct is considered morally reprehensible by UNSSD's regulations, hence he needed a glove. That glove is Archangel." 

"And he is not worried about the consequences of his actions? Be it betraying UNSSD, hurting innocents or unethical experimentation?" exclaimed Nanami. "You all know how f***ed up Archangel's experiments are! The Director's name will be tarnished!" 

General Ling sneered. "Name? Hmph. NAME? The Director doesn't care if he goes down into the trash can of history to ensure the survival of mankind's legacy and civilization. History will declare him a criminal, but he is contented with that! He knows the sacrifices necessary, and if the day comes, he will gladly walk in front of the firing squad to atone for them!" 

"So will I, so will Richard!" he yelled. 

"You are insane," scolded Secretary Li. 

"So be it," said General Ling. 

"I have said everything you all need to know," he muttered. He then breathed a huge gulp of air, then closing his mouth quickly, and a muffled scream of pain is heard. 

"HIS TONGUE!" yelled Phineas, realising that he is trying to commit suicide by biting off his tongue, hurriedly rushing forward with Louis and Ariel, trying to force his mouth open to save him, but General Ling held his lips close with all of his strength and willpower, rendering their efforts pointless, and he soon passed out. Horrified, Phineas immediately radioed for medical attention. 

Secretary Li silently buttoned up the top button of his shirt, standing still. 

MPs rushed in, tending to General Ling, as well as to escort the higher ranking officials out. 

"I am going to find the Director," said Xiao Tian. "Someone has to stop his madness before he succumbs to it." Being close to the Director, Xiao Tian is determined to pull back this well-respected elder of his when he still has the means and opportunity to. 

He moved, stopping when he realised that his comrades are all following him. 

"What are you all doing?" asked Xiao Tian, puzzled. 

"We are a team sir," replied Sean. "We are going with you." 

He raised his fist. The remaining Team Zero operators did the same, raising their fists. 

Xiao Tian smiled, appreciative of his comrades. He raised his fist too, and they fist bumped. 

"Save the last bullet for me!" they all yelled in unison, then rushing out of the building, back into their cars outside. 

"We need to get to Libya as soon as possible," said Santos, removing his rubber bullet magazines with live bullets. The rest of Team Zero doing the same. 

"We can take the space elevator and then we transit by space shuttle down," suggested Sean. 

They agreed. Louis radioed Franz in Taiwan, who managed to coordinate a shuttle currently docked in the Lunar Bravo space station. 

"Artemis 7 is there right now with the rest of Gold Squadron finishing training, he will escort you guys down," said Franz, referring to Vasily. 

"Copy that," replied Louis. 

Jay and Xu Qing set their autopilots to the space elevator in Sulawesi, just located outside the city. 

Upon arriving, they rushed into a military use cabin, quickly wearing pressure suits and securing themselves into the passenger seats. 

"3...2...1..." 

The cabin lifted off, travelling at breakneck speeds into space. 

Sean breathed, doing facial movements to withstand the G-forces. 

It did not take too long for them to arrive at Lunar Bravo, arriving into the arrival hall in the civilian-military dual use space port, around them are fighters and bombers of Gold Squadron landing and returning to the pressurised hangers after completing their training. 

All except 2 fighters that belongs to Harriet and Vasily that have landed before the rest of their comrades in Gold Squadron. The 2 of them quickly went to greet their comrades. Robots and maintenance crew are rigorously prepping their fighters again for operations, doing quick maintenance, refueling and re-stocking their weapons. 

"Franz told us everything," said Vasily. "We will head out in 10 minutes. Harriet and I will escort you guys down." 

Harriet nodded silently. She is visibly distraught, no doubt due to the revelation of her father as a traitor. 

Santos tried to comfort her, saying that she can choose to opt out of this mission. 

She angrily refused, lashing out at him, taking him aback. 

"Let her fly," said Vasily, giving his wingman and commander a hug, calming her down. 

"Denying her of missions will be interpreted as doubting her loyalty," explained Sean. 

Xiao Tian concurred. He knows how good of a pilot Harriet is, and trusts her character. 

With that, the Team Zero operators wore Exo-suits, rushing into a light stealth space shuttle. 

Outside the hanger, Vasily and Harriet have already taxied their fighters out onto the "runway", activating their repulsors and hovering up, the ion engines powering their fighters activating.

Both the F-130EX flown by Harriet and the SU-700 flown by Vasily are capable of in space and in atmosphere flight. 

They took off, spiraling, waiting for the space shuttle carrying Team Zero to take off. 

The shuttle powered on, moving into the "runway" which is in fact an enclosed corridor with artificial gravity and pressurisation.

"V1!" said the pilot of the shuttle, pulling up the controls, V1 referring to the speed at which an aircraft or space craft must take off and pull up from the ground. 

The space shuttle reacted to the inputs from the pilot of the shuttle, taking off into the cold vacuum of space. 

The 3 spacecrafts headed for Libya's position in space. By travelling through space, the trip which would cost them 11 hours if they traveled by air in Earth, is greatly cut down to just slightly below 3 hours. 

Sean decided to pass the time by taking a quick nap. 

He did not sleep too long, for soon, the shuttle had arrived to a standby position over the North African landmass. 

"We are commencing re-entering procedures," announced the co-pilot. 

"Gold 1 to Skyhawk," radioed Harriet. "We are entering atmosphere." 

She and Vasily lowered their aircraft, flying down into atmosphere. Their fighter's exterior turning red hot from the friction. 

The shuttle followed suit. 

Sean looked out of the window, shocked to see that they are essentially enveloped by flames thanks to the insane amount of heat they are being subject to by the friction. Even though he knows that they are 100% safe given the strong materials used to construct the shuttle, he still cannot help but to feel nervous. 

This caused him to subconsciously to grab Frederica's hand, who is seating next to him. 

Frederica is stunned, feeling her partner's hand on hers. 

"Sorry!" apologised Sean, preparing to move his hand away, only for Frederica to silently flip her hand, grabbing his hand, their fingers interlocking. 

"So soft and gentle..." thought Sean, realising that he is holding hands with a girl, prompting him to blush.