“Have a good day,” the receptionist offered faintly before she fell silent, most likely still fretting at her desk, though Soraya didn’t look back to confirm the assumption.
The ride in the lift was swift and silent, and they walked quickly down the hallway once they got to the proper floor. A few workers peered out of their offices after them, whispering to themselves. There was a young man who, as concerned as he looked, didn’t seem surprised to see them. He disappeared back into his office quickly, as if he was afraid he might somehow get involved if he lingered.
They could hear Jennifer talking from inside her office once they were standing outside the door. Faint and slightly indistinct, but not so incoherent that they couldn’t pick out the words.
“The ball is out of my court now, Sloth.”
“She’s up to something.” Soraya’s voice was low and sharp. “Both of you, be ready.”
Elroy and Dhashana loosened up behind her, getting ready for anything.
Soraya tapped in the override code that Elroy had acquired just before they left the base, and as the keypad flashed an angry, urgent red, the door slid open just in time for them to see Jennifer setting her communicator down on the desk. It slipped from her grasp at the last moment, instead falling to the floor as she turned her chair around. She fumbled after it for a second before changing her mind. Instead, she simply stared at the three of them with wide eyes, her jaw working soundlessly for a moment before she managed an incredulous, “What—? Who—?”
She gave up on coherent words after that, instead simply gaping. She looked as if someone had decided to slap her upside the head with a rancid haddock; as if something had sent her entire world reeling in a single moment.
“Miss Etang,” Soraya began sharply, storming into the room, “we’re officers Soraya, Dhashana, and Elroy, and you’re going to need to come with us. You’re under arrest for the breaking of the mass communication protocols.”
Jennifer got to her feet unsteadily and stumbled back, away from her desk. Her voice was faint and far away as she wondered, more to herself than to Soraya, “Did Andrew…?” Her question trailed off before she could even finish asking it.
There would be plenty of time to figure out who Andrew was later, so Soraya ignored it for the time being. She caught Jennifer by the elbow and tugged her closer. As stunned as if the floor had dropped out from beneath her, Jennifer followed easily, and her hands were cuffed together behind her back in a matter of seconds.
Soraya stood in front of her, and when Jennifer simply continued to look rather lost, Soraya snapped her fingers in her face. With a startled jolt, Jennifer’s attention snapped to Soraya’s face.
“What were you doing when we walked in?” Soraya asked seriously, in a tone that brooked no argument. “We could hear you through the door; you were talking to someone.”
“There was no one in here but me,” Jennifer replied, finally getting her wits about her as the shock of the situation wore off.
Soraya arched one eyebrow and looked pointedly at the communicator on the floor. Before she could say anything, Dhashana bent down, picked it up, and put it into an evidence pouch.
“We can get the call log off of it, probably,” Dhashana offered, tucking the pouch into her uniform jacket as she straightened back up to her full height.
“Good,” Soraya sighed, paying no mind to the way Jennifer paled. “I suppose that will have to be good enough. Elroy?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.
“Already on it,” he assured her, just before he took a seat in Jennifer’s chair. He spent a second adjusting it to a better height before scooting it closer to the desk. He cleared away all of the extraneous tabs on her holo network console, pulled the keyboard closer, and started typing. “If I find any clues about what she did, I’ll let you know, but I’m not making any promises about being able to undo it if she did anything huge.”
“I understand,” Soraya assured him. “Just scour everything. And if you can, see if you can undo the damage she did to the scheduling.”
He waved loosely in her direction. He already had the console’s terminal open, and he had started to type and was hardly paying any attention to her anymore. “Will probably need to guess at what the settings are actually supposed to be, but I’ll see what I can do,” he replied already distracted.
“Use your best judgment,” she advised wryly, before turning her attention back to Jennifer. Soraya grabbed her by the elbow, but by that point the shock had worn off enough that some of the fight had returned to her. Jennifer yanked her arm out of Soraya’s hold, only for Dhashana to grab her by the shoulders and start guiding her toward the door like an elaborately shaped shopping cart.
The door opened and Jennifer led the way out, being guided by Dhashana all the while. Soraya, just before she stepped out of the room, took a moment to quietly let Elroy know, “We’ll fill Bates in and someone will send a car to get you later. Just keep up the police officer act until then.”
“It’s not like I planned on shouting ‘surprise, it was a trick!’ as soon as you left,” he replied, his words laced with dry amusement. “See you this evening, then.”
Soraya left him to it after that, stepping out into the hallway and letting the door slide closed in her wake.
After a moment of thought, Elroy tapped into the security camera feeds, bringing up the video on one side of the console’s screen just in time to see Soraya, Dhashana, and Jennifer stepping into the lift. He cycled through the camera feeds until he was looking through the camera in the lobby. He could tell when the three of them stepped off of the lift because he could see the receptionist hop to her feet and start fretting so intensely he could almost hear it through the silent footage.
When they entered the camera’s view, Soraya looked exasperated, and it was plain that Jennifer had started arguing at some point between stepping onto the lift and stepping off it. Elroy supposed he had lucked out if he didn’t need to deal with her.
He kept an eye on the footage until the three of them walked out of the building, and then he closed it and turned his attention back to the task at hand. He had work to do, after all, and he wasn’t going to waste any more of his time on idle distractions.
Hangar Deck, Base, Gaitune-67
The Empress touched down as gracefully as ever on the hangar deck yellow paint and a few moments later Paige and Maya arrived through the door from the daemon passage to greet them.
Maya had changed into her soft trainers, clearly having had enough of clipping around in heels. Paige trotted behind her, contemplating her life choices briefly.
“I’m so glad they’re back,” Maya called back to her. “It’s like a weight off me!”
“I know that feeling,” Paige agreed, grabbing hold of the rail and making it clear she wasn’t going to head down the steps only to walk back up. “How about I organize some pizza. You go down and meet them, and let them know, eh?”
Maya grinned and hugged her friend excitedly. “Sure thing. Thanks Paige.” She trotted effortlessly down the steps and bounded across the deck to meet with the crew who were only just disembarking.
Sean and Karina were the first off the ship. They looked bamboozled and distracted.
“Hey, welcome home,” Maya called over. She paused taking in their expressions. “You guys ok?”
The pair kept walking. “Yeah,” Sean replied. “Just one hell of a trip,” he explained.
Maya watched as he hurried off after Karina. Everything was not all right, Maya concluded. “Hey, Paige is ordering up pizza! Come back down to the kitchen in a bit!”
Sean waved to her. “Sure. Thanks!”
Brock and Pieter were the next off, then Joel and Molly.
“Hey, guys… Paige is organizing pizza. Kitchen. Twenty minutes.”
Brock and Pieter greeted her and hugged her. “Cool bananas,” Brock agreed. “Can’t wait to have some proper food and a beer. That was one hell of a trip.”
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Maya watched Molly and Joel headed not to the stairs of the safe house, but the base meetings rooms, as if they were going to work.
She lowered her voice and leaned in to talk with Pieter and Brock. “What’s going on there?” she asked.
Brock adjusted the bag on his shoulder. “Serious shit going down. You heard we’ve got one hundred days to prepare the Estarians for the ARs heading in?”
Maya clamped her hand over her mouth. “No. I had no idea.”
Pieter nodded grimly, then ruffled his own hair. “Heavy stuff. Suspect they’re going to work,” he mused, motioning to where Molly and Joel disappeared.
Maya sighed. “Well, maybe I’ll take them some pizza and beer down…”
Brock started moving to take his bags upstairs. “Better they come out and join the rest of the crew,” he said quietly with a wink.
Maya smiled, understanding. “I’ll get Oz to summon them then.” She touched her nose.
Just then Anne came bounding over to her and nearly knocked her over as she wrapped her arms around her.
“Hey, trouble!”
“Hey, Maya! You wouldn’t believe what happened out there!”
“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me though,” Maya responded.
Anne looped her arm into Maya’s and started walking her across the hangar deck, chattering away. Maya was vaguely aware of the others getting off the ship, but she’d already decided she would send them a group holomessage to get them out to the safe house for pizza before everything got too crazy.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later Molly was in her quarters sorting her gear out when a message flashed on her holo. It was from Maya.
“Hi, all. Pizza in the kitchen. Beer is cold. We have a hundred days to solve this. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. May I suggest you take the time to replenish and socialize so as to alleviate the stresses we’re going to face. Beer. Pizza. Kitchen. Five minutes. Maya.”
Molly chuckled.
She’s certainly got leadership qualities!
This is true. We probably underutilize that in her.
I think it’s hard when Paige is just so capable and likes taking on so many projects.
But it’s good to know she is there when things spill over.
Oz paused. Are you heading down? I think the troops need to see you now more than ever.
Yes. I will. Gimme a few minutes and I’ll head over.
Ten minutes later Molly emerged from her quarters, showered and changed into her sweats. She headed down to the kitchen to find everyone already eating and breeze-shooting.
Joel pulled out a chair for her on the far side. She rounded the table and sat down. Joel passed her the pizza that clearly had vegetables on it.
“Thanks,” she smiled, taking a couple of slices.
Joel nodded. “It’s been a while since we’ve done this, eh?”
“It has,” she agreed.
“I dunno man. What if they get here and they mind-control us all into being slaves?” Brock posited between mouthfuls of cheesy-goodness.
Crash raised one eyebrow at him.
Sean shifted awkwardly in his seat. “He’s got a point. I mean, we have no way of knowing their intentions. We could just be making it easier for them to come and take over.”
Karina glanced at him from across the table, but said nothing. She took another swig of her beer.
Molly noticed the conversation. Then she noticed Joel watching her to see if she was going to interject or counter what they were saying.
“Hey look, guys…” she interjected. “I know this is all a bit… surreal. And I know it’s difficult to trust something that you haven’t experienced, but we’re going to get through this. And we’re not going to be mind-controlled or anything else. We just need to stop this system falling into civil war.”
She paused, letting her words sink in. Everyone else at the table had fallen silent, listening to her. “We’ve got one hundred days. That’s just over three months. A lot can happen in even a week. We’ve got work to do… and we can turn this all around. We can make a difference. But we’ve got to stay focused on the outcomes we want. Not our fears.” She deliberately tried not to look at Sean accusingly. She wasn’t trying to shame anyone. Just help them see.
She dropped her hand from her beer and continued speaking, looking each one of them in the eye now. “We need to be consistent. But we also need to be specific in our objectives. I have an idea brewing. Something that might be able to plug into the existing system which will give us a read on what the people want.”
“And if they want to go to war?” Sean asked.
“Then, we need to give them the reality check of what that means. They’re outmatched. They can’t possibly survive. But there is no incentive to fight. They’re not going up against anyone or anything that wants to hurt them.”
“I don’t know,” Arlene interjected. “Those ships looked pretty formidable.”
“Yeah, and if they wanted to take us out they would have done so already. That’s got to count for something,” Molly insisted.
Paige was leaning her face on her hand, fiddling with her beer bottle with the other. “It’s almost like we need a way to communicate that to the people.”
Maya nodded in agreement before taking another bite of pizza.
“I think I have an idea,” Molly confided. “But it needs some work on it.”
“Give us a clue?” Paige pressed.
“No. Not now,” Molly smiled. “Now we have beer and pizza. We can have one night off. Let’s talk about it tomorrow when we’re all fresh. For now, let’s enjoy a bit of R&R…”
Giles, who had been sitting quietly taking it all in finally spoke up. He raised his beer. “To taking the night off!”
The group chuckled, then raised their beers too. “To taking the night off!”
Chapter 20
Base Conference Room, Gaitune-67
In the hub of activity and everything else going on the team had barely noticed the absence of the diplomat.
Ben’or sat quietly in the low lighting of the base conference room, connected in a holocall with his Emperor.
“Our ships will be back in the inner system in a few days,” he reported. His tone was sober, but not showing any signs of concern.
“And you’re sure there is no malicious intent on the part of these ARs?”
“Absolutely certain that there are no signs of it, Your Highness.”
“Well, that is something. So what is to be done about this Estarian fleet?”
Ben’or’s jaw set. “I’m afraid that is the major problem.” He paused, shifting his gaze to the table in front of him. “If we allow them to intercept the ARs, I fear this will have massive ramifications for the rest of the Federation. Even if the ARs only defend themselves, the Estarian fleet will be wiped out. There will then be no way of stopping other empires from following suit to try and stop an imagined invasion.”
“How do we know they’re not invading, though?”
“We don’t for sure. But they have done nothing threatening, other than present themselves.”
“It is our own fear that is the invader.” The Emperor took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, contemplating the conundrum.
“This is true, Your Highness.”
“Can we intervene?”
“We have to be careful,” Ben’or explained slowly. “It’s a delicate situation. We don’t want to drag the Federation into it else that will end in all-out civil war.”
“What options do we have?”
“I think we need to exercise patience and allow our friends here to do what they do best: save the day.”
“You mean, leave it in the humans’ hands.”
“I think it’s the best course. They’ve never failed us in the past.”
“This is true.”
There was a long pause between the two leaders.
Final
ly, the Emperor spoke again. “Ok. Well, you have the use of the ships that are already in the system. I’ll be hard pushed to move more in your direction unless the landscape changes dramatically.”
“I understand, Your Highness. Your patience and trust are most appreciated.”
“Of course. Just… keep me posted. In the meantime, I’ll have some of our Generals work up some scenarios, just in case.”
Ben’or bowed his head. “Very wise, Your Highness. I’ll be in touch.”
The Emperor waved a hand briefly before disconnecting the call.
Ben’or found himself sitting in the very dim light in the absence of the holoscreen. He sighed, staring into the nothingness, churning the options in his mind. None of the scenarios he had come up with on the trip back or since had ended with an outcome where the Estarians didn’t suffer massive causalities.
How hard it was to save a race from itself, he pondered in the silence.
FINIS
Ascension
The Ascension Myth Book 12
Chapter 1
Molly’s Classroom, Skóli Uppstigs Academy, Spire, Estaria
(10 days before the deadline of the 100 days)
The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Students immediately started packing up the holos and gathering their gear, filtering out of the classroom.
“Don’t forget to read Chapter 21. There will be a quiz on it at the end of the week,” Molly called after them.
The hubbub of chatter had risen so loudly she wasn’t even sure they heard. As the class filtered out a few people said good-bye to her as they left.
Exhausted, she sat down, taking a moment for herself as the last of them cleared out. She pulled her hair back from her face and breathed out a long sigh. It had been a tough few months.
Glancing up at the door, she noticed Giles waiting for her. She closed her holo up and grabbed her jacket from the table.
“Hey, how is it going?” Giles asked, shifting a book from one arm to the other, casually leaning against the door frame.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 229
