* * *
Five days of quiet, ticked slowly by with Vala worrying that any minute Shiva was simply disappear from her side and go running headlong into danger. The stories carried back by Alex and the twins about the 'hour of sneaking' had been both amazing and horrifying, the latter because Shiva would knowingly risk her life for a box filled with strange objects. Perhaps the only thing that had kept Vala from yelling at her was that Kali told her that Anslaw was now completely secure and that no General or high ranking officer could re-write the security codes from the outside and invade the base without a fight. Nothing could have taken away the horrible feeling of waiting that was almost made worse by the fact that Shiva seemed so very calm about it, as if once that box was in her position all of a sudden nothing could worry her any longer. As annoyed as this made Vala feel, the moment she was summoned to Alex's office, that calm sort of waiting disappeared in a heartbeat the black clouds loomed back over her senses.
The large beautiful office did not for a moment seem like it belonged to Alex, the grand scale and the sense that it was laid out by someone convinced of their own importance instantly struck her as being the kind of space Alex would never make his own. Perhaps one of the many millions of things left behind to collect dust when this place had been emptied save for those three dozen souls brave enough to face its' dark empty halls, even still the room only added on top of the situation to make her even more worried and nervous than before. The fact that he wasn't alone surprised and frightened her more than a little since at the sound of their entry the woman who turned towards them was not only in a Lieutenant's uniform she had a pin of the scales of justice on her collar that marked her as being part of the Advocate General's command. Only the fact that Alexander was there looking on calmly kept her from really, truly panicking at the sight and sending Shiva running towards some unknown escape plan.
"Lt. Konas here brought word from General Owen and a letter from Devin." Alex murmured over to Shiva as they approached. "Devin has been arrested, officially, and taken into custody."
"Have their been any other attacks?" Shiva asked as she moved to stand in front of him seemingly ignorant of any other presence inside the room, he shook his head and handed a file over to her.
"You have publicly been listed as a fugitive from justice, but.. they know Rei isn't dead yet.. she and Vala have been listed as missing, and as possible hostages." Alex murmured to her in the next moment.
"Well, at least the General knows how to follow instructions." Shiva agreed with a sigh as she flipped though the bare contents of the folder before passing it back to him. Vala realized at those casual words that Shiva's calm patience had not been the result of any single event or because she had suddenly felt safe in Anslaw but a necessary calculated state of readiness that was part of some plan.
"Are you going to tell us what you are planning, the General seemed quite annoyed that you hadn't shared any sort of information with him?" Alex requested in such a way that Vala knew that he didn't expect to get any more information out of her that the General had received.
"Wasn't planning on it." Shiva commented to him as she squeezed Vala's hand and stepped away to cross over to a nearby computer terminal. "How much trouble is Lt. Hornton in right now."
"A lot.. the story he has been telling to the General.. it's pretty hard to believe, and he has been outright refusing to share any information with her about where you might be and what you might be planning." The Lieutenant murmured back to her watching Shiva with confusion and suspicion.
"Well then, it certainly seems advisable that I let them know where they might find me." Shiva murmured with a dark sense of amusement rippling through her small body.
"Shiva.." Alex murmured with deep suspicions and just a hint of a reprimand.
"Easy there Lt. Colonel.. I wouldn't have waited this long if I wasn't planning on ending this quickly. I had hoped that the General might uncover something more, but the attack on General Winters did provide enough clues to give me a starting point." Shiva glanced up from the computer to give Vala an apologetic look, and somehow that was enough to allow Vala to take a tension relieving breath.
"Could you be a little more specific?" The Lieutenant asked with a narrowing gaze.
"Yes, I could." Shiva countered with a sharp edge in her soft voice.
"I believe Shiva's point is that the less we know at this point the fewer hours we will have to spend in front of a board of inquiry later." Alex murmured back to her. "She put it rather nicely for us a few hours after I got involved.. how did that go?"
"No matter what, the first act will be a criminal act, whatever may come from it, no matter what else happens because of it, the first act will be one punishable by treason." Shiva murmured off-handedly as she pulled a pad of paper into reach and began to write out some things in cool calm strokes of a pen.
"Seeing as how she is already a wanted criminal, Shiva can hardly lose much in the eyes of your superiors." Alex commented over to her. She gave him a thoughtful look at that and seemed to find fewer reasons to ask for answers after that.
"Give her some newly discovered information about me, I don't doubt that Dr. Powell had some sort of secret file on me in his database. That should explain her disappearance and presence on this base well enough, perhaps even prove some of your innocence later on." Shiva suggested over to Alex, to which he nodded thoughtfully.
"Top secret files do require hand delivery." Alex agreed with a murmur of sound as he caressed his goatee. "A crack team of researchers managed to access more of the encrypted files.." He added looking over at the Lieutenant, who almost seemed grateful that she was being provided with a believable enough alibi to cover for her absence.
"What base did you leave from Lieutenant?" Shiva asked returning to the computer terminal screen.
"Feramere.." She murmured back clearly not sure why that would be important. "But.. I am stationed at Digel.."
"Is that where Devin is being held?" She nodded at Shiva's odd questioning and a moment or two later the printing device in Shiva's background sprang to life to run off a few sheets before returning to a quiet state. Shiva added just a little more to the note before she pulled the page off of the pad and folded it in half. "We are leaving in six hours, Lieutenant, that should be enough time for you to get some rest and be ready for our flight around the far side of the moon. Alex I will need one of the emergency oxygen masks with a fresh supply of air, if you or one of your men could make sure that it is working properly and remove any markings that will lead back here it would be appreciated." The Lieutenant gave Alex a sharp-eyed look but he only shrugged at her as he agreed to Shiva's request. "Our final destination will be Digel base."
"You are not turning yourself in.. are you?" She asked with confusion and surprise. This seemed to be just enough to make Shiva smile wickedly over at her.
"Not yet." Shiva agreed as she left the desk behind taking the hand written note retrieving the printed pages on her way back across the room. "Here's our flight plan, and if you will take care of this at the appointed times, Alex." The latter was passed into the Lieutenant's keeping the former was handed over to the Lt. Colonel's. "Send the mask to my room so I can retrieve it on my way to the shuttle bay." With none of them being sure of what she could possibly be planning, Shiva took Vala's hand and together they wandered back across the room. Just before they were cut off by the door Vala's backward glance caught Alex's highly amused expression as he looked at the note in his hands as if suddenly he had a very good idea what might follow. Shiva wasn't in any mood to talk about it and in truth Vala was far more interested in making sure that it was a memorable parting so that Shiva would be sure to come back to her.
The Sixth Line of Defense Page 30
