The Sixth Line of Defense

by Shiva Winters

  * * *

  It was a scene that deeply amused her to see, as the six of them stood on the fringes of the tangled jungle like scene of greenery gone wild. She could see and sense her daughter's doubts clearly written in her eyes even as the twins bounced around nearby investigating the nearby plants and eager to explore further than the spaces just beyond the airlock. It had taken quite a bit of time in a succession of vehicles to reach this place, since Anslaw had long since been a secret facility far out in the broken rock of the lunar landscape. It had involved taking one of the rarely used vehicles from the lower level tunnel parking facility on the southern end of Anslaw, driving for nearly half an hour through the deep tunnels carved out to aid in the construction of the facility, to reach Aerisa military base at the southern end. From there they were escorted across the base in another vehicle to the fringes of the Fleet Academy, where someone volunteered to lend them a vehicle to allow them to recross all that territory to the far northern edge of Anslaw through the pressurized roadways that crisscrossed the lunar surface. Next to a domed police station that connected to that road where they were 'unofficially' lent one of the police vehicles and sent out through their surface airlock to travel east and south to end up less than a quarter mile off of Anslaw's northern border and this overgrown and abandoned dome. If anything the six hours of travel time was well worth Shiva's growling complaints and her confused expression upon their arrival.

  "Okay.. I'll bite.. what is this?" Vala asked with a touch of annoyance with her smiling mother.

  "Home." Rei told with high amusement bubbling up within her.

  "Excuse me?" Vala asked with a narrowing gaze as Poe looked on with intense interest.

  "Vala, my beloved eldest daughter, I'd like to meet your new sisters. Poe, Isis, and Athena.." The three named had of course known her feelings long before then but all three were desperately excited to hear it had been officially approved. "And.. Ayla is here as my new partner in crime if she is willing." She murmured as she caught a very happy Poe up in her arms as Shiva hugged her daughters.

  "Partner?" Ayla asked with confusion.

  "Yes, sweety.." She told her with a smile. "Vala.. your father.. was.. so very important to me. And to be honest.. if things hadn't happened the way they did, I'd probably be locked up in a dark room perfectly content to drink myself into an early grave." Vala's tears were quick to rise to the surface and Shiva was instantly at her side. "But I wasn't given a chance to do that.. instead we came here and these children were so very wonderful, amazing, and understanding.." Vala nodded soundlessly to that having felt much the same. "But we both know that the adoptions and the farewells that are just ahead are going to be the hardest on those who are left behind because they wouldn't make it on the outside without the suppressants. And the Anslaw that remains behind won't ever be the same again." She smiled over at Ayla who was nearly in tears herself at that thought. "So.. this is their new home as well.. a place where they won't have to say good bye to everyone."

  "Really?" Ayla asked with a choked voice as the twins came over to comfort her.

  "Yep." Rei told her with an adoring smile. "For you, Poe, and anyone else who is going to watch their family spread out across the stars and not be able to follow for whatever the reason. I've sold off some of our properties on Earth, and used the money to buy the dome, the tunnels, and just about a square mile all around us. This dome was built to house the people who built Anslaw, and its' northern edge is just about a quarter mile south of here, it was public land owned by the lunar government, but now it's ours. Devin assures me that he will find a way for a tunnel to be built connecting us straight into Anslaw and all the children who are going to need our help as they wake up and the ones who are going to be working there and living here. I am assured that there is enough room for 2,000 people here with ten acres of environmental dome above, and 16 levels of tunnels below. So welcome home everyone.."

  "Mom.." Poe was quickly transferred over into Ayla's keeping so she could catch her daughter in her arms as she cried.

  "Well there are certainly worse ideas." Shiva commented looking out towards the spaces beyond. Rei smirked at what for her this was high praise. While there had been no official announcements of her future status, it was fairly well established that she was one of most dangerous of the Series 6 children already awake having undergone the most extensive military training and with enough horrible experiences to account for her many issues. Though Devin believed that they would never confine her to Anslaw, he did think that she might have a few more restrictions than the others if only for the piece of mind of those watching over his new command. Shiva for her part was taking that idea rather well, and Rei had been mindful of her situation when she had been arranging things for this new sanctuary and for those who had suffered during the Series 6 programs.

  "Can we go explore?" Poe asked in a heart-wrenchingly soft sweet voice, looking between Rei and Ayla.

  "Of course we can, sweetness." Ayla told her quickly smiling over at Rei. "It's our home after all." More than a little touched by the bone deep gratitude pulsating just beneath the calm surface, she nodded to Ayla and the four of them wandered off, lead by a pair of giggling trouble makers. Vala calmed down a few minutes later and with a blurry eyed smile she smiled at her mother caressed Shiva's hair tenderly before she too wandered off into the distance.

  "I would rather have been stuck back into a freezer than trapped inside Anslaw.. I.. wouldn't have wanted Vala to feel like she had to stay there with me all the time." Shiva whispered to her as she lingered nearby with a cloud of doom and gloom lingering nearby, it wasn't hard to know where Athena had picked up that habit.

  "I know." Rei whispered softly as she moved to duck down nearby and rubbed her back. "But I have never been one of those parents who struggled to understand their children. Vala only just found you.. she would never want to give you up. Anyways, I think her plans have changed recently.." Shiva looked up at her with interest. ".. my gut feeling is she wants to help our new family as much as I do, she was always interested in being a therapist.. being an empath could only be a huge advantage in that sort of career, I just think she wants to be a special kind of therapist." Shiva smiled and nodded as she breathed a small sigh of relief at that bit of news. A moment later her head snapped around at the sound of the airlock door, Rei turned to follow her gaze as Devin, his second in command, now Lt. Gregor and two unknown men entered her dome.

  "Hey there!" Devin called to both of them with a dazzling smile. Shiva glared at him suspiciously, not quite ready to believe that there could be a happy ending for her quite yet. "Don't look at me like that." He glared back at her mostly in play. "Thanks for lending us the keys, Rei." He added as he turned back towards the view outside the protective dome windows. "That's the ridge out there." He murmured pointing out to the south and the edge of the land she owned and the border she shared with Anslaw.

  "It still looks good.." One of men commented thoughtfully.

  "I'll take them below look for a good place for the connecting tunnel." Gregor murmured before leading the two men away.

  "Ridge?" Rei asked suspiciously.

  "The legal departments are telling me that they can't authorize me to connect a still secret military facility to a private residence. However.. if I were to have something built out in the open, there wouldn't be any reason why the two could not be connected." Devin told her chuckling happily at whatever scheme he had in the works.

  "Something.." She murmured glaring at him to ensure he got to his point.

  "That's the beauty of it, you see with my new command being of the variety that will have operations throughout the colonies, we would need nearby access to airfields and a catapult, but if it was on Earth our travel budget would be huge because all the space on bases that fulfills those requirements are full so we would need to use a commercial site to provide for those needs. Howev
er you just so happen to sit almost directly in line with the northern shuttle bay of Anslaw, which has all the room we would need to keep people on the move, and has just enough territory for a new facility on it's border. The added bonus is of course, that we would need no travel budget for trips between Anslaw and our headquarters where everything will be starting, so.." He chuckled at her.

  "Just don't ruin my view." She growled playfully at him.

  "And Shiva.." His voice became tender as he moved closer to duck down on her other side, she watched him as if the bad news was still waiting to strike her down from the heavens. "It's not official yet.. but they not even considering confinement, but they are talking restrictions, okay? They are just worried about putting you anywhere close to an uncontrolled environment." She nodded as he caressed her hair. "It probably won't be any worse than you have been living with before now, and will probably only be for a few years, just to make sure that Vala can keep you calm and on the straight and narrow."

  "Okay.." Shiva agreed reluctantly, she didn't doubt for a moment that the young woman's greatest worry over those assurances were how much her life-style would effect Vala's life and future.

  "You go get a look around, I am sure you can tell us if something needs to be fixed." Shiva nodded, turned, and wandered away. "How has she been handling this?" Devin asked her gently once certain Shiva was out of earshot.

  "Pretty good, she really doesn't like being in Anslaw but there are enough friendly faces there that she likes it better than being confined to Digel." She told him as he offered her his arm and they started to wander across the untamed landscape. "It will be better if the worse comes that she'll have this place with no bad memories to associate with it."

  "Well I told her the truth, there are a lot of people down there fighting on her behalf. And every reason for people to believe a lot of these children can be dangerous if given the motivation or need to defend themselves. I half think Shiva shows off her danger like a poisonous frog so that the brass will forget that is the truth." He commented to her.

  "Which is very true." Rei agreed softly.

  "I don't suppose you take in tenants here." He commented to her pointedly.

  "Maybe for those who are Captain and above.. though Gregor might be the exception." She agreed tentatively.

  "It wouldn't do to have those that this place is being established for to think my entire staff is here to watch them. But Shiva and others seemed to realize that Gregor is just a gigantic bald teddy bear deep down inside." He chuckled back to her.

  "It would be nice to have you both around as good male role models." Rei agreed warmly.