Dear readers, tonight we print an interview from far-future Earth, part of the Candrassian Order’s on-boarding of a rather uncooperative new field agent. One whom they hope to employ to locate a missing person whose abilities may prove pivotal to the survival of the Order – and, indeed, of humanity in general.

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[[Security Interview_9373_Transcript_Partial]]

>>>Recovered interview content commences from this point, initial moments having been lost due to an equipment malfunction>>

Brother Lucient: …this blasted thing still working? I think so. The little red light’s on…

Fenris: Your recording device is made from inferior materials. It lacks robustness.

Brother Lucient: Well, perhaps if you hadn’t pounded it so hard, Ms Fenris…

Fenris: Just ‘Fenris’. And your line of enquiry displeased me.

Brother Lucient: Yes, well. Onboarding protocols are the same for everyone who wants to work with the Order, you know. So, if we could just start again, please.

Fenris: Hmph. Very well.

Brother Lucient: Now,I appreciate that some of these questions are personal, but that’s the point. I know you’ve worked with Mister Griffin before, but your profile isn’t on the system. So if he wants funding for this ‘mission’ of his…

Fenris: We are wasting time. Proceed.

Brother Lucient: So very kind of you. Now, tell me a little about where you’re from, if you please…

Fenris: Griffin and Sphinx found me in adult form, in DeepSleep, in the prehistoric asteroid facility where I was presumably manufactured. My initial socialisation DevPhase lasted three months, under their supervision. After that point, my growth stage was concluded.

Brother Lucient: …er, thank you. Um, I’m supposed to ask you about your family now…

Fenris: My core social unit consisted of myself, Sphinx and Griffin. Sphinx I’ve seen once this last decade. I’ve communicated with Griffin concerning occasional assignments. But they have been infrequent. Aside from that I have been left to operate independently.

Brother Lucient: And securing this ‘Sphinx’ person is the focus of your proposed mission, I believe?

Fenris: Indeed. His location is in the process of being confirmed. Once it has been, I am to retrieve him immediately. Griffin believes that Sphinx is required to resolve a matter of extreme urgency.

Brother Lucient: Hah! You could say that. Rumours of some form of apocalypse have begun to circulate, if you’d credit it. It all seems rather unlikely, to be honest. Griffin’s long past his prime. But in any case – next question, please: what is your current occupation?

Fenris: My time is currently devoted to a programme of genetics research, focused on fertility enhancement. In pursuit of this, I conduct applied experiments.

Brother Lucient: At the City University, perhaps?

Fenris: No. I work in a private laboratory. My work requires robust security protocols.

Brother Lucient: I’m sure it does. So, these ‘occasional assignments’ from Griffin that you referred to a moment ago. Did they involve your research?

Fenris: No.

Brother Lucient: Could you be so helpful as to provide more details?

Fenris: If I must. I usually act for Griffin as a freelance coercion specialist, in a range of operational contexts. Most involve physical violence of some sort as an underlying factor. Sometimes to protect an asset of the Order’s, but more often Griffin requires me to remove an obstacle to the achievement of whatever his objective may be.

Brother Lucient: So you’re some kind of, what, bodyguard-cum-assassin?

Fenris: Yes. But also a pilot, systems analyst, archaeologist, courier, surgeon and chemical engineer. Amongst other things.

Brother Lucient: That’s… quite a range of specialisms.

Fenris: I am a specialist in almost everything. Given access to sufficient information and experience, most human fields of endeavour are not especially challenging. I was designed to be significantly more intelligent, far stronger and more dextrous than a baseline member of your species. Given that, the benchmarks of aptitude your kind tends to see as immutable are rarely significant.

Brother Lucient: I… see. Well, given the picture that’s emerging, I rather think I’ll fill in the next series of questions on ‘romantic attachments’ and ‘personal relationships’ as ‘Not Applicable’.

Fenris: That would be wise.

Brother Lucient: However, I don’t have discretion over the next question, given its centrality to our organisation. What is your view of the Order’s religious tenets?

Fenris: Hah! As I said to Griffin the last time we spoke, I presume you’re still taking advantage of the beliefs of the credulous – doing so seems to serve your Order exceedingly well. Despite recent social upheavals, your organisation seems as wealthy and as privileged as ever.

Brother Lucient: ‘No contrary religious beliefs expressed’. There, that’s an acceptable entry.

Fenris: Are we approaching the end of this exercise? I have preparations to make.

Brother Lucient: I’ve got most of what I need, yes. But I do require some more details on the background to this mission that Griffin has recruited you for.

Fenris: Very well. In summary. Some time ago,Griffin, Sphinx and I worked for the now-defunct EarthFed’s Supply Management Directorate. Our primary mandate was to secure ancient – but still functional – technology from outlying Systems, which could then be reverse-engineered. The resultant trickle of innovations would then hopefully keep EarthFed’s creaking interstellar economy afloat. Or such was the plan.

Brother Lucient: Well, I’m sure your team worked with the best of intentions…

Fenris: Not for myself. I aspired to personal efficiency, but the wider enterprise was clearly doomed. Irrespective, 10 years ago we traversed a newly-activated wormhole to a far region of the galaxy. Griffin and Sphinx’s team explored an alien facility, where they apparently discovered something so disturbing it drove Sphinx completely insane. Everyone else was killed. The three of us fled back through the wormhole to find EarthFed collapsing around us, Sphinx was put on ice and everyone looked to bolster their positions amongst the chaos. But now, Griffin claims that ships have begun to disappear, ‘linked to our debacle of ten years ago’. And Sphinx, broken as he is, must be found and made sane again, ‘or all is lost. Humanity is depending on us.’

Brother Lucient: Just out of curiosity, you were quoting Mister Griffin there, I believe? Can you actually recall conversations verbatim?

Fenris: Regrettably. Every part of every dialogue-interaction I’ve ever had. And very, very few of them have been worth recalling.

Brother Lucient: I see. And who exactly is this ‘Sphinx’, then, around whom everything seemingly revolves?

Fenris: …

Brother Lucient: I’m sorry, do you need me to repeat the question?

Fenris: …no. He… was a pivotal influence on my initial socialisation DevPhase. It can sometimes make context hard to distil… As with myself, Neroy Sphinx has been many things. Conman. Industrialist. Thief. Politician. And more. But in his essence? He’s an expert at making something out of nothing. Especially when that something belongs to someone else. It makes him hard to predict, and harder to emulate. For a human.

Brother Lucient: Indeed. Well now, I just need to circle-back to something you said before. I’ve been browsing secure records in the Order database while you were talking, and a few things don’t quite seem to add-up.

Fenris: Mm-hmm. Such as?

Brother Lucient: You stated you were a genetic researcher, in a private lab. But we seem to have funded that lab, and apparently it’s located within the City’s sewer system? On top of that-

Fenris: I suggest you bring this interview to an end, Brother Lucient. Immediately.

Brother Lucient: But your fertility research – the implication in these records is that the subject is actually… yourself? So what exactly- agghh!!

>>>The interview ended at this point with the destruction of the recording equipment and an apparent assault on the interviewer, who has yet to emerge from a coma; further additions will be appended as they become available>>

[[Security Interview_9373_Transcript_Partial]]

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Daniel Whiston is the author of the Neroy Sphinx: Back in the Game graphic novel published by FutureQuake Press, with its follow-up Neroy Sphinx: Playing to Lose published by Markosia. Comics written by him have appeared in Judge Dredd Megazine, Sliced Quarterly, Dead By Dawn and Shock-a-Rama. His next book will be Amongst the Crooked Stars.

You can find Fenris on the pages of Under a Crooked Star.

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