Defending Elysium (2008)

Defending Elysium is a Science Fiction short story written by American author Brandon Sanderson in 2008; it was later expanded upon by the Skyward series which is to consist of at least four books. The story is exclusively on Sanderson's website taking place centuries before the novels.

Synopsis
Oddly enough, the ones who made first contact were an outdated, nearly bankrupt phone company. Second contact was made by the United Governments Military when they accidentally shot down a Tenasi ambassadorial vessel. The Phone Company negotiated Earth out of danger following the Tenasi incident. The Phone Company had brought FTL communication to humankind.

Plot Summary
The story opens with Jason Write in his private cabin aboard a shuttle, watching a video playback of a woman thrashing in a hospital bed. He could do nothing for the woman right now, not until he reached Evensong - an orbital platform hanging between Saturn and Uranus, and the frontier of humanities conquest in space. As the shuttle begins to dock with the Evensong, his support operative, Lanna, enters Jason's cabin informing him that his colleagues have been sent on assignment elsewhere and she is the one that will be accompanying him. Lanna has booked Jason in to a hotel under a peculiar alias, suggesting that Jason is actually an agent.

As they prepare to depart, Jason notices his control disk being tapped. Sending Lanna a coded request in the form of a question Lanna responds in kind. Someone had managed to tap Jason's control disk. While Lanna could easily install a tap block, Jason doesn't order it. Strolling off the shuttle he steps to one side and apparently searches for his ID while watching the other passengers walk by, knowing the one that tapped his control disk should be there. The report of a murder on the news feed sets Jason into a hurry.

Captain Orson Ansed of the Evensong police department meets his officer, Ken Harris, outside the scene of a crime in Topside's slums. They find the corpse of a missing Varvax ambassador inside a cylindrical burner. A newcomer bustles onto the scene that Orson believes is the press at first. Upon seeing the man's silver bell pin on the lapel of his suit, Orson realises his jurisdiction has come to an end with the arrival of a Phone Company (henceforth, PC) operative. Jason now has authority at the scene.

Jason begins to question the time of death of the victim and makes note of Orson's regard for him. As a member of the PC Jason is accustomed to the general annoyance at the interference, but also the relief that the PC were there to deal with an alien ambassador. Having his own mystery to solve regarding a missing scientist, Jason hands the investigation back over to Orson.

Outside, reporters have gathered but Jason isn't interested in the slightest at giving an interview. They also know this and allow him to leave without commotion, but not before Jason has had a chance to scan the crowd of people for the one that got off the same shuttle as him. Sensing the man following him, he gives Lanna the code to shut off the hack to his control disk and leads the man to a nearby cafe.

Coln Abrams observes Jason Write, trying not to look suspicious. Coln works for the United Intelligence Bureau and shows some reservations against the PC; Write in particular. Suddenly, the wire-tap Coln had been using to listen in on Jason and Lanna's communication indicated that his cover had been blown. Showing that he'd noticed Coln, Jason asks him to come talk to him. They talk and Coln supposes Jason thinks he's there officially - the UIB regards the PC with little trust. As Coln stands to go, regretful that he wouldn't be able to discover anything now, Jason surprises him by allowing him to tag along.

At that moment Jason senses something awry, shortly before a hail of bullets tear through the window. Jason lashes out with his mindblades, splitting each bullet in two. He then feels for the sniper, but he can't sense him outside any more. After analysing the bullet holes in the window Jason concludes that they had been aiming at the UIB agent, and not himself. Wondering why, he scans the cafe with his Sense and notices a nondescript man watching him with slightly unfocused eyes. Without bothering to see if Coln follows, Jason leaves the cafe.

Sonn, the Varvax Foreign Minister converses with Jason about the recent murder of his ambassador. Meanwhile, Lanna has been running up Coln's background and it turns out he's a fugitive from the UIB training facilities. He hadn't been caught because they never expected him to make it as far as Evensong.

Coln is showing remarkable interest in a picture of the PC's FTL communications apparatus that had been taken by the only spy to infiltrate the PC's central headquarters. Coln is of the impression that Jason had ordered a hit on him back at the cafe, oblivious to Jason's psionic abilities that had saved him. Lanna explains over the comms why she and Jason are here: Two months prior a scientist name Denise Carlson disappeared from Eversong's PC research facility. While en route, Jason got word of Miss Carlson being located and taken to a local treatment ward for severe mental problems. Jason is here to escort her back to Jupiter Fourteen for proper treatment.

Arriving at the hospital they find a mentally unstable Denise Carlson; amnesia, says the nurse. On their way out with Denise, Jason recognizes a man from the cafe hiding behind a door with his Sense. Jason mulls over why she'd been taken while they all eat. In her amnesiac state Jason also wonders what they did to her and if they'd been successful. Denise says there's something odd about her food and Jason figures because she's amnesiac she can't find the word to describe it. Pouring salt into his hand and asking her to taste it confirms what she was referring to.

Lanna has arranged their return to Jupiter for 10:30 PM local time. But Jason suspects something might be amiss, that the ambassador's death and Denise are related. Jason then contemplates the vast differences between their races, how underdeveloped humans are while quoting from Virgil a passage of the Elysian Fields. Comparing it to Elysium, space is the place heroes go when they die.

While contemplating Denise's fate after she'd been kidnapped, Jason comes to a startling conclusion. Rushing into her room he experiments with the light settings - making them harsher than a regular human could stand - and reveals her to be a Varvax imposter. Trying to settle his theories Jason makes his way back to the hospital. Telling Lanna to inform the police to ignore reports of a madman attacking an orderly, Jason enters the orderly lounge and locates the man he'd seen back at the cafe - the one who'd hidden himself when he'd taken Denise from the hospital. The man turns to run but Jason catches him and implants the idea that he can read minds.

Back at the hotel, Jason convinces Coln to take Denise to Jupiter Fourteen, handing Coln his PC pin so officials at the office won't give him trouble, but only if Jason will tell him if the PC have FTL drives and are keeping them back from humankind or not. As they are about to leave Denise becomes unresponsive and Jason realizes a faint whiff of gas in the room. All three are rendered unconscious.

Having his Cytonic Sense disabled, it is revealed that Jason is optically blind. With his link to the outside world severed, Jason is trapped both physically and figuratively. Without his Sense the darkness swallows him whole, sending him into a blind panic as he is unable to answer the voice interrogating him from above. He is given three minutes to co-operate or the girl dies.

Coln is similarly imprisoned, but unlike Jason he can see the confines of his "prison" for the storage closet it is, with Denise sat beside him. Suddenly, Jason's intercom crackles in his ear and Jason tells Coln to cut the power. Somehow, not sure if he can trust Jason, Coln does as he's asked anyway, finding a power jack on the wall.

Unable to escape the darkness, Jason slips further into insanity, wanting nothing more than to find bliss in unconsciousness. Then with the power cut, his Sense returns, only for a brief moment before the backup generators kick in and re-energise whatever was suppressing his Sense in the first place. He wouldn't allow that to happen though, lashing out with the destructive force of his mindblades and shredding apart his telanium prison and the suppressor along with it.

As Coln severs the power jack the room next to his explodes. Looking into the room he is stunned to find Jason at its epicentre. Jason only tells Coln to take Denise and go when Coln questions what he is. The same voice that had interrogated Jason comes again from a wall speaker. Jason demands that the owner show himself and punctually a man appears down the hallway outside. The man is Edmund, a man Jason supposedly knows from his past. And another thing occurs to him: the shooting in the cafe had been to test his mindblades.

A battle, unseen to normal eyes, rages between Jason and Edmund, both men possessing the mindblade ability. Jason is surprised to find that Edmund has surpassed him and he gambles that the Varvax taught Edmund to use them effectively; to which Edmund discovers Jason's bluff about reading minds. Realising the potential difference in ability, Jason uses the only thing he can think of to gain the advantage. By focusing Sense in on himself he is able to step outside normal space and vanish. Reappearing moments later with his hand inside Edmund's chest, gripping the man's heart. Edmund's mindblades explode where Jason had been and Jason squeezes the man's heart, killing him. In his last moments, Edmund reveals why the Varvax would need to learn Cytonic suppression technology, which Jason doesn't want to believe.

Using FTL, Jason transports Coln, Denise, and himself to the PC headquarters on Earth, revealing the PC do in fact possess FTL technology, and that they were keeping it from humanity until they were ready. The machine Coln originally thought was the FTL drive is in fact a coffee machine. The real FTL drive is the man - dressed up as a security guard - seated beside it. His mind is the link for millions of FTL transmissions. Lanna rushes into the room and is introduced as Jason's wife.

Jason is contacted by the Varvax Sonn who explains how the Varvax compel their subjects into submission, including other alien races they have subjugated, as they will with humanity, all in the progress of peace. Humanity has not been the one trying to infiltrate the Varvax to gain their technology; on the contrary it is the Varvax who have been trying to infiltrate humanity for, Jason says to Sonn, their weaponry, as it can destroy the Varvax ships with ease. The reason the Varvax and other races progressed so quickly in FTL technology was their sacrifice of technological advancements - their ships are amongst the most powerful, most advanced in the galaxy, and yet were shot down by a single human missile. Jason subtly implies this as a threat to which Sonn calls "disturbing." Jason agrees before severing the communication.

In the last moments of Defending Elysium, Jason sits back and tells Lanna to prepare a press release: tell humanity that the Phone Company has finally developed faster-than-light travel, and that it will be released to the public. His last words are a hope for the illusion he'd believed in for so long.