by E. A. James
And that perfect moment was over all too quickly. It seemed like the second she settled in to enjoy it, an ear-piercing squeal filled the room, bouncing off the metal walls and causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.
“What the hell is that?” she demanded, sitting straight up.
“It’s the Comm-band,” Thor replied, resting his weight on his elbows.
With a grunt, Kira pushed herself up out of bed. The near pain-inducing whine continued to slice through the air. Tossing the clothes on the floor aside frantically, she located the device and announced her achievement with a pronounced, "gotcha!" as she held the metallic band up triumphantly.
Giving the thing one good shake, she hoped to silence the ringing. Instead, she activated the call. An image of the silver-haired, stern-faced Artanis spilled out of the center of the metal band and hovered weightlessly in the air.
“Shit,” she exclaimed, tossing the device across the room and collecting up an armful of her clothes from the ground.
“Kira?” Artanis’ muffled voice beckoned.
“Just a minute,” Kira said as she bounced on one leg then the other, attempting to pull on her pants as quickly as possible. Thor tossed her a shirt as he, too, hurried to the room to collect his own items.
“I’m coming,” Kira called out, pulling the shirt over her head and lunging across the room. “Hey, Admiral Artanis,” she said as calmly as possible as she grabbed the Comm-band from its place on the ground.
“Did I call at a bad time?” Artanis asked.
Kira could feel her cheeks flush, and hoped that the image on her former commanding officer’s end of the call wasn’t as clear as the one she was seeing. His eyes were wide, although filled with a slightly amused sparkle, and the corners of his mouth threatened to turn up in a smile at any moment.
“No,” Kira said, trying to hide her breathlessness. “We were just resting.”
“We?” Artanis asked.
“Hello, Admiral,” Thor said, walking up behind Kira.
“Commander Rockhold,” Artanis greeted him.
Now the corners of his mouth did turn up, and a queasy feeling crept into Kira’s stomach. “How can I help you, Admiral?” she asked, wanting to shift the conversation as quickly as possible.
“You’re needed in a Terran High Command meeting.”
“A what?” Kira asked, her mouth dropping open slightly.
“You heard me,” Artanis replied gruffly. “It’s important, Kira.”
“Everything with you people always is,” Kira muttered.
“I take that as a confirmation of your attendance?”
“Take the fact that I doubt I have a choice in the matter as a confirmation of my attendance,” Kira replied.
“I’m glad to see you still remember how things work around here,” Artanis replied with that fatherly smile he always gave her. “Meet me in Conference Room 4 in an hour.”
With that, the call dropped. Kira let out a nervous laugh as she dropped the Comm-band onto the bed. Thor, too, chuckled slightly to himself as he ran his fingers through his very disheveled hair.
“That was nice while it lasted,” Kira said as she straightened out her shirt.
“It’s the price we pay for being so badass,” Thor replied.
“Sometimes I think I should have just gotten a damn office job,” Kira muttered as she marched toward the door. “How simple my life would have been!”
“You don’t like simple,” Thor observed as he followed behind her.
“I’ve never given simple a chance,” Kira replied, walking down the long, brightly lit hallway.
“Well,” Thor said as he walked alongside her, “if you want, after we’re done whooping Grimm’s ass, and bringing peace back to the Galaxy, and being the heroes, and all that, we can try simple together.”
"What are you saying, Commander?"
“Just a thought that I’ve had in the back of my mind since the whole mining colony incident.”
“Do you think we could do that? Simple? Isn’t that the opposite of everything we’ve done so far? Aren’t we that couple that looks for trouble together?”
“I didn’t say anything about staying out of trouble,” Thor said, eyeing her flirtatiously.
The giggle that slipped past her lips was a sound she was still getting used to. It didn’t fit her—not the her that she was before. But now, it seemed to have become a common part of her persona.
Their conversation was cut short when they entered the ever-busy TSF Arbiter’s promenade. Voices echoed off the thick metal walls, and bodies hurried to and fro. Walking side by side was nearly impossible, given the extremely crowded state of the walkway.
It was probably for the best. She needed to focus. Artanis wanted to speak to them about something important. She knew her former Commanding Officer well enough to know that he wouldn’t call an unscheduled meeting for anything less than extremely important.
Their first stop was the repair bay. Bron, Vinnie, and Alaria were all busy at work. Bron was dealing with the shields, Alaria with the hull, and Vinnie was pitching in where he could, running back and forth between the two with his own personal side-kick, his repair bot, following along behind him.
“We’ve set up a plan of attack,” Bron informed them when they all gathered together on the dock.
“And we’ve got the supplies in order,” Vinnie added.
“Are we still looking at a couple of days?” Kira asked.
“At least,” Alaria informed them. “But that’s not a problem, right? We’ve got the time, don’t we?”
Kira looked over a Thor who returned her glance. “We’re not sure,” Thor spoke. “Artanis just called. We’re wanted in a Terran High Command meeting.”
“High Command?” Alaria asked, her wide blue eyes going wide. “That sounds very official.”
“It is,” Kira answered.
“Do we all need to go?” Bron asked, holding out his oil covered hands. “I’m not dressed for ‘very official.’”
“You never are,” Vinnie replied.
“I’m sure Artanis would understand if you hung back,” Kira replied.
“Vinnie, you’re staying with me,” Bron ordered.
"Fine by me," Vinnie said, walking back toward the ship. "I don't want to sit through a stuffy meeting anyway."
“Damn stuffy meetings,” Vinnie’s repair bot echoed as it followed behind him.
“I want to go,” Alaria said. “And I’m sure Dario will, as well.”
“Radio him and tell him to meet us in Conference Room 4 as soon as possible,” Kira said. “We’re expected there in half an hour.”
And that half an hour flew by. Finding Conference Room 4 aboard the massive commercial station consumed most of their remaining time. What added to the difficulty in locating said conference room was that it wasn't located among the other conference rooms lining the long, official Terran Alliance hallway.
It wasn’t anywhere near the other conference rooms, for that matter. It was tucked way back in the farthest corner of the ship, behind an industrial strength storm door that required a retina scan to gain access.
How they got Kira’s retina into the system, she had no idea.
“You could have given us a heads up,” Kira said as she walked into the windowless room.
Artanis was seated at a long table, with a highly decorated Terran Forces Commander to his right and another to his left.
“I couldn’t risk someone overhearing our conversation,” Artanis replied.
“Why the need for all the high-security and secrecy?” Thor asked, walking further into the room.
“As I said before, there is still a very real concern that Grimm has double agents working among our ranks. We can’t trust anyone these days,” Artanis replied. “Despite the business-as-usual atmosphere hanging around here, nothing is usual. Our situation remains dire, and time is running out. We need to act—now.”
“Definitely should have gotten an o
ffice job,” Kira muttered to Thor as she moved forward to take a seat across from the small collection of officials.
Dario, Alaria, and Thor all took their seats on Kira’s side of the table. A tense silence consumed the room as everyone waited for someone else to speak first. Kira couldn’t help but notice that everyone seemed to be staring at her.
“Am I missing something?” she asked, scanning the faces of the Terran Forces Commanders. “I feel like you’re all expecting me to say something but I have no idea what it is.”
“We were hoping you had an idea of how to go about locating Grimm,” the Commander seated to Artanis’ right answer. She was an attractive woman, in her mid-forties, with long, black hair and uncharacteristically light blue eyes.
“Captain Winter, this is Commander Hopkins,” Artanis said, introducing the woman to his right. “And this is Commander Rush,” he said, gesturing to the man to his left.
“Well, Commander Hopkins,” Kira began, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have no idea where Grimm is hiding out.”
"Are you sure about that?" Commander Rush said. He was a small man but built like a rock. His head lacked any trace of hair, but the bushy beard wrapped around his jaw made up for that.
“What do you mean?” Kira asked, leaning forward.
“This whole thing with Grimm started a long time ago,” Artanis explained. “About eleven years ago, to be exact.”
Kira knew what he was getting at before he even finished speaking. “My first mission,” she said with a tired sigh.
“Exactly. The new intel that your crew collected, that Grimm has been stealing Divarium from the mining colonies, can only mean one thing—he is associating himself with the Empyreans. More specifically, he is showing his allegiance to the Empyrean extremists.”
“The Empyrean extremists we located eleven years ago,” Kira added.
“That’s where you come in,” Commander Rush replied.
“I figured as much,” Kira sighed, leaning back in her chair. “But, I don’t know how you expect me to help you. Just because I went on a mission what feels like a lifetime ago…”
“You can help us find the location of the extremist Empyrean epicenter,” Artanis urged. “We believe that the location of the lab you and Grimm’s crew discovered may be the exact place he’s hiding out.”
“What makes you think he’s even there?” Thor asked.
“Because it doesn’t make sense that he would be,” Dario answered.
Now, everyone turned their attention to him with expressions of confused surprise. Even Alaria seemed uncertain of her adoptive father’s answer.
“You’re exactly right, Dr. Marner,” Artanis answered. “We’ve searched every obvious place in the galaxy. What we need to do now is to look at the not-so-obvious.”
“Isn’t an Empyrean lab an obvious hideout for an Empyrean extremist and coup leader?” Thor asked.
“No,” Kira answered this time. “Because we destroyed it.”
"A destroyed lab is good to no one unless you want to lay low somewhere," Commander Hopkins said.
“No one would expect him to be there because as far as everyone is concerned, it’s good for nothing,” Kira said.
“Okay, so, all Kira has to do is tell us where this lab is—or was—right?” Alaria asked, her voice bouncing with excited hope.
“Oh, that’s all?” Kira asked.
It was clear her dry sarcasm wasn’t widely accepted by her peers. She straightened up in her chair and shook her head.
“Yes, I was given the coordinates for the base,” Kira began. “But, it was a long time ago. Not to mention that I pretty much forgot them the second we returned from that mission.”
“There’s no way you can recall the location?” Artanis pressed.
“I’m sorry,” she replied. “But, I’m afraid I can’t.”
“Would anyone else that was on that mission with you remember?” Commander Rush asked.
“They didn’t even know the coordinates, to begin with,” Kira replied. “Grimm is a very secretive man, especially when it comes to mission intel. I was the only one on the mission besides him that knew where we were going.”
“And the others went along with that?” Thor asked, glancing over at her. “Seems a little shady.”
“They weren’t happy about it,” Kira replied.
“That’s very unfortunate,” Artanis said, glancing side-to-side at his fellow High Command members.
"Does that mean there's nothing we can do?" Dario asked a hint of desperation in his tone.
“Not exactly,” Artanis said, now turning his attention to Kira. “There is one thing we can try.”
CHAPTER FIVE
She knew that look. It was the “you’re not going to like this, but you’re going to have to accept it” look he gave her time and time again when going over her flight reports. Her stomach dropped as she waited for Artanis to continue.
“Anything,” Dario spoke before anyone else could even react. “We’ll do anything it takes.”
Kira looked over at Thor quickly. He, too, seemed to share her premonition that whatever Artanis was going to say was not going to be good—for any of them.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm,” Artanis replied to Dario’s quickly spoken comment. “I only hope it remains once I outline the plan we’ve come up with.”
“Let’s hear it,” Kira said.
"Obviously, our first step in locating Grimm is finding someone who knows the location of the Empyrean's base of operations in Arkadian space," Artanis began. "We had hoped that Captain Winter would be able to provide that information. But, we did prepare a backup plan just in case she couldn't."
“That’s good!” Alaria said excitedly.
“Yes and no. Yes, because we have found not only one, but two individuals who may be able to provide us with that information—a Rengar named Aldo Firax and an Arkadian named Kardok,” Artanis explained.
“And no because…?” Kira pressed.
“Because they’re locked up in Jaantu 7,” Artanis began.
“How long until they’re…” Kira started.
“For life,” Artanis added, cutting her off and answering her half-spoken question at the same time.
“So, how are we supposed to get to them?” Thor asked.
“It’s complicated,” Artanis replied. “We have no diplomatic channels to pull with the Jaantu institution. It’s managed by a private corporation—BanCor—and therefore outside of the Terran Alliance’s reach.”
“And it’s located right in the middle of Bandurian Space,” Thor said.
"Yes," Artanis agreed. "We could always just go in and use firepower to get them out. But, a direct assault on the prison would really upset the Bandurians and possibly lead to war. We have enough of a problem on our hands without upsetting another race."
“So how are we supposed to get to them?” Kira asked firmly.
Artanis, his gaze still fixed on Kira, explained, “that’s where you come in.”
“No,” Kira said, shaking her head and standing up quickly. “No, no, no.” She knew what he was going to say and she was not about to agree to it. “It’s a suicide mission!”
“What?” Thor asked, glancing back and forth between Kira and Artanis.
“He wants to reinstate our bounties,” Kira replied, not turning to face Thor.
“All of them?” Alaria asked, reaching out quickly to take hold of Dario’s hand. “But, they just got them removed. We were finally all feeling safe.”
“Not all of them,” Artanis replied. “Just Kira’s and Thor’s. We can send you both to Jaantu 7 and you can hook up with Aldo and Kardok on the inside.”
Alaria let out a soft sigh of relief, and Kira once again shook her head. Thor joined Kira on his feet, his arms crossed over his chest and his posture defensive.
“You really expect us to give up our freedom, again, and go as far as to voluntarily get ourselves thrown into the exact institution I’ve spent t
he last few months trying to stay out of?” Thor said.
"If we had a better option, we would use it. We wouldn't even ask you if we thought there was another way," Artanis replied calmly. "Kira, you know I wouldn't put you in a situation like this unless I felt it was absolutely necessary. This is the most direct link to the potential whereabouts of Grimm's base of operations we have."
“Admiral, I don’t know…” Kira started.
