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[ericbarkman]

Tales of WID 72 #11 The ESS Job

     The lock clicked open and Diego Serrano put his lock pick equipment back into his bag.  He opened the safe, and found a stack of cash, a folder filled with papers, and a handgun.  He grabbed the cash and the folder, but left the gun as he closed and relocked the safe.      “We’ve got a problem,” Jacques Dupont said over the comm.  “The maid is making her way up to the office.”      “That’s not a problem,” Diego said.  “I can just leave through the window, I’m not too high up.”      Diego looked out the window as he opened it up.  He grabbed his whip from his belt, ran, jumped out the window, flicked his whip towards a streetlamp, which it curled around, and he swung down to the ground.  Jacques was waiting in the car, and Diego ran up, got in, and Jacques took off.      “So, you go the folder?” Jacques asked.      “Yep, and a bit of cash too.  Looks like about $100,000 so not bad of a bonus.”      “Hopefully our employer doesn’t have a problem with that.  She just asked us to get the folder.”      “What she doesn’t know can’t hurt us,” Diego said.      “Here you are,” Diego said as he slid the folder across the table to their employer.  They were in a coffee shop.      “Good work,” she said.  “The money has been transferred to your accounts.”      “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Jacques said.      “And I understand you two also got a bit of a bonus on this job,” she said.  “Don’t worry, it’s fine that you took that $100,000.  Although, if you would like to make a bit more money, I do have another job.”      “What kind?” Diego asked.      Their employer opened up the folder and looked through it.  She took out a paper, and put it on the table.  “This is a set of blueprints,” she said.  “It is quite valuable to us, but the prototype has already been built, and that would be even more valuable.”      “What is it?” Jacques asked as he picked it up and looked at it.  “Is this some kind of weapon?”      “Nothing so crude,” their employer said.  “But I don’t want to bore you with the technical details.  I think you’ll be more interested in the price I’m willing to offer.”      “I can’t believe we accepted that job,” Jacques said as he drove them back to their apartment.      “It’s a lot of money,” Diego said.  “We could retire after this job, if we want to.”      “If we wanted to we could have retired years ago.  But that’s boring.”      “Which is exactly what stealing from the ESS will not be.  Like, we’ve dealt with their security before, but this is the main ESS headquarters.  The most secure building on the planet.  Just think, we pull this off, we’re legends.”      “Can we pull this off though?” Jacques asked.  “Like this feels like it’ll be more than just a two man job.”      “So, we put together a crew then?  I mean, it’s been a while since we’ve been part of a larger crew, but we both know a few people we could bring in.”      “Oh yeah, who are you all thinking?”      “This is an FBI building,” Jacques said the following morning.  “Why are we outside an FBI building?”      Diego checked his watch.  “She should be getting out shortly.”      “Who?”      “Remember Roz?”      “Of course I remember Roz.  Why are we here for Roz?”      “She’s the best lock breaker we know, but she got caught a couple years back in Vegas, so decided to work off her sentence with the FBI,” Diego said.  “And there she is now.”      Jacques looked over as Roz was coming out of the building.  She noticed them almost immediately, and a frown appeared on her face.      “Hey Roz, long time no see,” Diego said.  “How’s Sam?”      “We broke up after I got caught,” Roz said.  “What are you two assholes doing here?”      “We’re putting together a team,” Diego said.      “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m on the other side now,” Roz said, pointing her thumb at the building she had just come out of.      “Good point,” Jacques said.  “We’ll just be on our way.”      “Wait,” Diego said.  “Would it interest you if I told you it would be enough money to disappear and start over?”      Roz pulled up her pant leg a bit to show off an ankle monitor.  “I’d need to disappear first.  And once that happened, there’d be no going back unless I want to spend my time in prison.  How difficult is the job?”      “You ever hear of the ESS?” Diego asked.      “You can’t be serious,” Roz said.  “I know you guys think you’re the best of the best, but the ESS are so far out of your league it’s not even funny.”      “If you’re not interested, that’s fine,” Jacques said.  “Plenty of other people we can ask.”      Diego took out a piece of paper, wrote something on it, and handed it to Roz.  “In case you change your mind.”      “Uh huh.”  Roz stuffed the paper into her pocket without even looking at it.      Jacques knocked on the door, and waited.      “Is this really a good idea?” Diego asked.      “You wanted to get help from Roz.  You lost your right to criticize my suggestions.”      “Did something happen between you and Roz?  Like, that seemed like you had more of a problem than just her being with the FBI now.”      “Just drop it.”      The door opened, and Jacques’ brother Marcel was there.      “Jacques, it’s been too long,” Marcel said.  “How are you doing?”      “I’m doing okay,” Jacques said.  “You remember Diego?”      “Hey,” Diego said.      “Ah yes, your annoying friend,” Marcel said.  “Come in, come in.  What are you two doing in town?”      “We’ve got a job, and it’s more than just a two person operation,” Jacques said.      “Who else do you have so far?” Marcel asked.      “It’s just the two of us, so far,” Diego said.  “Unless you’re in.”      “Tell me about the job,” Marcel said.      “We’ll be stealing something from the ESS,” Jacques said.      “What was Dad’s number one rule?” Marcel asked.      “Don’t steal from law enforcement,” Jacques said.  “But he’s long gone.”      “It was a good rule though,” Marcel said.  “Remember when Uncle Jean tried stealing from Interpol?  Remember what happened?”      “This is different,” Jacques said.      “You’re right it’s different,” Marcel said.  “It’s the ESS, that’s so much worse.  And besides, I thought you were done working with family.”      “So you’re not in?” Diego asked.  “Not a problem, we can find someone else.”      “Of course I’m in,” Marcel said.  “Jacques is my brother, and family is important to me, even if it’s not important to him.”      Diego and Jacques entered the gym, and looked around.  There were a handful of people exercising, but not a lot.  And most of the equipment looked old, with some of it no longer even looking functional.  They went to the manager’s office, and knocked.      “Come in,” someone said.      They went in, and saw the manager, Darren Jefferson, working on the computer.      “Jacques, Diego, good to see you guys,” Darren said.  “Please, sit down.”      “Thanks,” Jacques said as he sat down.      “So, how are you doing?”  Diego glanced at the computer screen as he sat down.      “Eh, I’m doing okay,” Darren said.      “Business is down though, I see,” Jacques said.      “I’ll figure something out,” Darren said.      “Before bankruptcy?” Diego asked.  “I couldn’t help but notice those financial reports you’re looking over.”      “It is what it is,” Darren said.      “We’re putting together a crew for a job,” Jacques said.      “You know I went straight when I married Greg,” Darren said.  “I mean, not straight straight, but I stopped being a criminal.”      “We could really use you on this one though,” Diego said.  “You’re the best bruiser I’ve ever worked with.”      “What about Ivan?” Darren asked.      “Ivan’s good, but he’s not you,” Diego said.  “And last I heard he’s in a Russian prison.”      “Carlos?” Darren asked.      “He’s getting chemo for his cancer,” Jacques said.      “That sucks, I hadn’t even heard about that,” Darren said.  “But surely there’s someone else you can go to.”      “With your cut from this job, you could afford to keep this gym open for the rest of your life,” Diego said.  “You don’t have to decide right now, but call us if you decide to join.”      “You think he’ll decide to join us?” Jacques asked as they walk through the city.      “Yeah, I think so,” Diego said.  “Roz too.”      “I’d be very okay with her not joining us.  Besides, even if she did, how would we know she wasn’t just going to turn us over to the FBI.”      “Come on, we know her, we can trust her.”      “The fact that I know her is why I don’t trust her.”      “I know you asked me to drop it, but really, what happened.”      “Well…” Jacques started saying, before a teenage girl bumped into him.      “Sorry,” she said before running off.      “Did she just?” Diego asked.      Jacques checked his pocket, and his wallet was gone.  “She did.”  He looked up, and she was gone from sight, so he took out his phone.  “Looks like she took a left up ahead.”      “I can loop around and get ahead of her,” Diego said.      “No, I have a better idea,” Jacques said.      Carlie looked through the wallet after she had returned to the warehouse attic she was living in.  There were a couple twenties in it, a driver’s license, and a few other IDs.  No credit cards though, that was interesting, but cash was nicer anyway.  Harder to track.      As she was looking through it, she heard someone coming up the stairs.  She hid behind some crates, and looked out, to see the guy she had taken the wallet from.  And after looking at his phone, he was headed straight for her.      “Could I get my wallet back please?” he asked.      Carlie stayed in her hiding place, as he continued to approach.      “And are you interested in a job?” he asked.      “What kind of job?” she asked, standing up.  There was not really any point in hiding anymore.  “And how did you find me?”      “I have an app for that.  Well, for tracking my wallet that is.  And I’m a fellow thief.  My partner and I are putting together a team.”      “So we have a pickpocket for our team?” Diego asked, later that day.  “No offense, but this might be a bit out of her league.”      “Not much more out of her league than it’s already out of our league really,” Jacques said.  “And we need all the help we can get.  So far we have a pickpocket and an impersonator.  That’s not much.”      “We’ll have a bruiser and a lock breaker as soon as Darren and Roz agree.”      “If they agree.  But even still, we’re trying to steal from one of the most secure places on the planet.  It’s not going to be easy.”      “We don’t want too big of a team though.  After a certain point, adding more people is just going to complicate matters.  Especially since we’re apparently already including some pickpocket we just met.”      “How long were you planning on waiting for Roz and Darren?” Jacques asked.  “I don’t think our employer wants to wait forever on us doing this job.”      “No worries, we can start on the planning right away, and bring them up to speed when they get back to us.”      “And if they don’t?”      “Don’t worry, they will.  Have I ever steered you wrong?”      “Malibu, two years ago.  Tokyo, five years ago.  Brisbane, six years ago.”      “See, only three times in the decade that we’ve known each other, that’s not bad.”      “Those were just the big ones.”      “So, what exactly is the ESS?” Carlie asked.  “And what are we stealing from them?”      It was the following day, and Jacques, Diego, Marcel, and Carlie were beginning to work on the plan.      “The ESS are a secret organization that dates back to World War 2,” Diego said.  “Possibly even older.”      “They are an international organization,” Jacques said.  “They deal with threats of advanced scientific natures.”      “A secret science police, essentially” Marcel said.  “Some of the most advanced technology on the planet.”      “Uh huh,” Carlie said.  “Like, I’m just a pickpocket here, what are you expecting from me?”      “You’re a really good pickpocket though,” Jacques said.  “You managed to get my wallet, and I almost didn’t notice it.  That’s no easy task.”      “You haven’t answered her other question though,” Marcel said.  “What are we stealing?”      “Don’t know exactly,” Diego said.  “It’s a device of some sort, and we know what it looks like, but we don’t know what it does.”      “Ah yes, this sounds like it’s going to go amazing,” Marcel said as he rolled his eyes.  “How much intel do you have on the ESS base?  And which one for that matter?”      “We know a fair amount about it,” Diego said.  “Probably one of their more well known bases, at least amongst those who know of the organization.”      “Well known also tends to mean better security,” Marcel said.  “Wait, please tell me it’s not their London base.”      “It’s not their London base,” Jacques said.  “It’s their Winnipeg base.”      “Dammit, that’s almost worse,” Marcel said.      “How is that worse?” Carlie asked.  “London is controlled by an evil alien empire.”      “Yeah, but the Winnipeg base is better secured,” Marcel said.  “It’ll be easier to get to, but harder to deal with once we’re inside.”      “What we’re thinking is that you’ll be posing as a government official doing an inspection,” Diego said.  “The rest of us will be your staff.  Roz and I will be your security specialists, Darren will be your bodyguard, and Jacques your driver.”      “And me?” Carlie asked.      “You’ll be an intern or an assistant or something,” Diego said.      “They’re not going to let an intern in, even if they let the rest of you in, even if we’re able to fool them in the first place,” Marcel said.      “Thus why I said ‘or an assistant or something,’” Diego said.  “And don’t you have that friend in the Spanish government?  He could get you credentials.”      “It might work, but it will take more than just his assistance, and I still can’t promise we’ll be able to get your entire crew in,” Marcel said.      “We’re also still assuming Roz and Darren are going to join said crew,” Jacques said.      “Wait, so not everyone you’re planning on including in this has even agreed to join?” Carlie asked.      “Not yet,” Diego said, before his phone started ringing.  He took it out.  “Oh, this is Darren right now.”  He answered it.  “Hello?”      “So, assuming this plan doesn’t totally fail, and we get in, what happens next?” Marcel asked while Diego was on the phone.      “We have a basic layout of the base,” Jacques said.  “So we know where the device is, and we just need to work our way in that direction.”      “Okay, Darren is in,” Diego said after he hung up the phone.  “So, now we’re just waiting on Roz.”      “Question,” Marcel asked.  “Do we have a computer person?  Like, I know Roz is good with locks, and I’m sure we all have decent computer skills, but doesn’t this seem like the kind job where we need a dedicated computer person?”      “You have anyone in mind?” Diego asked.  “I know a number of hackers, but none that we can reach out to for this.”      “Gregor?” Marcel asked.      “He’s living on Maltork Four these days,” Jacques said.      “Cinda?” Marcel asked.      “She’s working with the Scorpio Syndicate on some project in Antarctica,” Diego said.      “What about that Dalton chick?” Marcel asked.      “Diana?” Diego asked.  “Maybe, she’s not really a thief though.”      “Did you hear about that job in San Francisco three months ago?” Marcel asked.  “With the cars?”      “That was her?” Diego asked.  “Impressive.”      “Do you know her?” Jacques asked.      “I know someone that does,” Marcel said.  “I can reach out.”      “With her we might not even need Roz,” Jacques said.      “If they just have computer controlled locks, sure,” Diego said.  “But if they have any others, we’re still going to want Roz.”      Diana Dalton checked the status of the program she had running on the computer to her left.  It still had another three minutes to go, at least.  So she turned to the computer on her right, and made sure the virus was ready for upload.  She then turned to her center computer, and checked the floor plans of the building.      “You’re going to want to make a left turn up ahead,” she said over the comm.      “Is the security down yet?” came the reply.      “It’ll be down by the time you get there.”  Diana checked the computer on the left.  “I hope.”      Her phone started ringing.  She did not recognize the number, but the program she had on her phone identified it as Marcel Dupont.  She picked it up.  “Bonjour?”      “Hello, this is Marcel Dupont, although I assume you already know that.  And your accent is atrocious, by the way.”      “You’re Lisette’s cousin, right?  I worked with her on the San Fran job.”      “Yeah, and I’m part of a crew looking for a hacker at the moment,” Marcel said.      Diana checked the computer on her left.  Still another minute on it.  “What kind of job do you need my help with?”      “We’re going up against the ESS.”      “I’m in.”      “What, just like that?”      “It’s the ESS, that’s like, the ultimate challenge.  I’ve been developing a few things I’d like to really put through some tests, and this is the perfect opportunity.”      “Oh…okay,” Marcel said.  “I was expecting to need to convince you.”      “No worries, but I need to get back to my current job first, so I’ll talk with you later.”  Diana hung up the phone, just as the computer on her left finished running its program.  She turned to the right, and uploaded the virus.  Then over the comm, “Okay, security is down, you have five minutes to get in, get what you need, and get out.”      “So, you never really told me why you decided to ask Carlie to join our crew,” Diego said as he sat down with Jacques for some drinks.      “A teenage pickpocket?” Jacques asked.  “Honestly, she reminds me of you at that age, back when we first met.”      “I mean, I can’t deny that there are some similarities, but we don’t really know anything about her.”      “I didn’t know anything about you back then, but I knew you were in a world that had failed you.  I didn’t know how back then, but I could sense that was the case, and I sense that with her too.”      “I mean, anytime someone’s living on the streets that is a pretty big indicator right there,” Diego said.  “But bringing her into this isn’t necessarily the best idea for her.  Like, the rest of us, we’re career criminals, that’s not going to change, but she still has a chance.”      “It changed for Roz and Darren, and you still went to them.”      “That’s different, we know them.”      “You’re taking this job because of the challenge and the money.  I’m mostly just taking it because you are.  Darren actually needs the money to keep his business afloat, and Carlie is in this because she needs the money to get her life afloat.”      “I just hope we don’t end up sinking them,” Diego said.      “We could always back out, if you’re worried about that.”      “No, no, we’re still going to do this.”      After the crew arrived in Winnipeg, they met up at the hotel they were all staying at.  Diana was setting up her computers.  Darren was doing pushups in the corner.  Carlie was playing with a yo-yo.  Diego was writing on a whiteboard.  Marcel had fallen asleep on the couch.  And Jacques was ordering some pizza.      “Yeah, and extra cheese on that last one,” he said.  “Thanks.”      “So, what are the chances we run into one of the local superheroes?” Carlie asked.      “Probably not very likely,” Diego said.  “I doubt they’d get involved in ESS business.”      “You’d be surprised what superheroes all involve themselves with,” Diana said.  “But even still, they’re probably busy enough with other stuff.  It’s a decent sized city.”      “So, how long until we go in?” Darren asked.      “What do you think, Diana?” Diego asked.  “How long until your system is up and running?”      “I’ll have everything set up in about an hour or so,” Diana said.  “After that, it’s a matter of how long it takes me to get into the ESS computers.  That I can’t really predict.”      “If you even can get in,” Jacques said.      “I haven’t met the computer system that was able to keep me out yet,” Diana said.  “It’s a matter of when, not if.”      “Okay, let’s go over the plan one more time,” Diego said the next day after Diana had finally gained access to the ESS network.  “Just to make sure everyone knows what we’re doing.”      “I’ll be posing as a government inspector from Spain,” Marcel said.  “I had to call in so many favors in order to get the right credentials, so we better pull this off.”      “And Roz and I will by your security consultants,” Diego said.      “Despite Roz still not being here or even contacting us,” Jacques said.      “She’ll be here,” Diego said.      “I’m his bodyguard,” Darren said.      “And I’m his personal assistant,” Carlie said.      “I’ll be driving you all in, but I’ll be waiting in the car,” Jacques said.  “If I have to do anything else than driving, that means things have gone wrong.”      “Once you’re inside, if you can get ID cards, I can rewrite them,” Diana said.  “They have a built-in computer, and I can rewrite the information to fit you guys.”      “Are you sure you can do that?” Jacques asked.      “Yep,” Diana said.  “That said, the less I have to change, the less likely I am to be noticed, so preferably go for people that already have the right security clearance.  That way I’m just changing personal information, although if you can get people of the same size and hair and eye color and such, that would certainly help as well.”      “And gender, I assume,” Darren said.      “That’s only in the medical data section of the card, which can only be accessed by medical professionals under normal circumstances, so I’m not even going to bother dealing with that section,” Diana said.      “Okay, and once we’re able to pose as ESS agents, we’ll need to get away from any that we’re with,” Diego said.      “I’ll be figuring out security blindspots for that,” Diana said.  “Or creating them, if I have to.”      “And then we find our way to the device we’re after,” Diego said.  “Which according to the base layout we have, is likely in this area.”  Diego pointed to a spot on the printout they had on the wall.      Jacques drove the limo into the parking garage.  He stopped before the barrier, and rolled down his window.  There was a panel with a button to print out a ticket, but also with a number pad.  He typed in the sequence that Diana had got for them, and then hit the button.      The ticket it printed out included a parking spot on it which was located on the lowest level, so he drove down there, and parked in the spot the ticket indicated.  As soon as he put the car into park, the parking spot started descending, eventually coming to a stop in a much nicer looking parking garage, even further underground.      “Okay, we’re here,” Jacques said.      Darren got out of the car first, and looked around.  There were a few ESS agents in the garage.  Most appeared to be arriving or leaving, and did not pay them much attention, but there were a few that looked to be security, and they were eyeing him up.      Darren opened the door for Marcel, who got out, with Carlie and Diego following after him.  The four of them walked over to the elevator, where two guards were standing.  One of the guards held out a computer pad with an outline of a hand on the screen.      “Good day,” the second guard said.  “What is your business here today?”      “My team and I are here on behalf of the Spanish government, to inspect the base security,” Marcel said as he put his hand on the computer pad.      “We weren’t informed of any inspection,” the second guard said.      “Well, it wouldn’t be a very good inspection if you knew it was coming, now would it?” Marcel asked.      “His credentials do check out,” the first guard said.  “Now the rest of your team.”      Darren put his hand on the computer, and the guard nodded, then Carlie went next, and the guard nodded again.  And finally Diego did so.  The guard raised an eyebrow as he looked at the screen.      “Something wrong?” Marcel asked.      “The system says he checks out,” the first guard said.  “It just took a moment longer than usual.”      “And this is your whole team?” the second guard asked.      “My driver is in the car, where he’ll be waiting.”  Marcel pointed at the car.  As he was doing so, they noticed another car come down into the garage, and Roz stepped out of it.  “She’s also with us.”      “Sorry, I’m late,” Roz said as she came up to them.  “Hit some traffic on my way here.”      The first security guard held out the computer pad to her, and she put her hand down.  He nodded.  “Okay, you all check out.”      “You’ll have to go to the visitor check-in,” the second guard said.  “That’s the only place the elevator will take you until you get an ID card.”      “Thank you,” Marcel said as he entered the elevator, along with the rest of the crew.  As soon as the elevator doors closed behind them he turned to Roz.  “I’m surprised you actually showed up.”      “I said she’d make it,” Diego said.      “This better not go sideways,” Roz said.      “Guys,” Diana said to them over the comms.  “Could you warn me if you’re going to start talking about stuff you don’t want overheard while in places with security cameras.  I’ve got footage on loop to cover your conversation, but some warning would’ve been nice.  Oh, and unless I say otherwise, assume you are always in a place with security cameras.”      “Right,” Diego said.  “Oh, you’ll need this.”  He handed Roz a comm which she stuck in her ear.      After going down to the visitor check-in, they were given visitor IDs and an escort to show them around the base.  No one seemed exactly pleased at this random inspection, but no one seemed to think it was suspicious either.      “Right this way,” their escort, Agent Evelynn Woods said.      Diego looked around as she led them down a corridor.  There were a lot of people around, more than he had expected, and a lot of them seemed to be in a rush, running one way or the other.  “Something big going on?” he asked.      “I don’t know all of the details, sir” Evelynn said.  “But the UES Unity is back at Earth for some restocking of supplies, and apparently they brought back some sort of intel.”      “What kind of intel?” Roz asked.      “I’m sorry ma’am, but I don’t know myself,” Evelynn said.  “It’s for level eight security clearance and above.  I’m only a level five.  Hopefully this won’t get in the way of your inspection.”      “Quite the contrary,” Marcel said.  “It’s when people are at their busiest that security is most likely to be vulnerable, thus making it the perfect time to locate said vulnerabilities.”      “I suppose,” Evelynn said.  “Okay, right in here is the main security room,”  She led them into a large room.  The walls were lined with screens and there were various holographic displays throughout the room.  There were about two dozen agents in the room, who looked up at their entrance, before most returned to their work.  One came over to them.      “Agent Woods,” she said.  “These are the inspectors?”      “Yes,” Evelynn said as she introduced them to Agent Kate Zimmerman, who was in charge of security on the base.      “A pleasure to meet you,” Marcel said.      Uh huh,” Kate said.  “Just try not get in the way of my people while you’re working.”      “We’ll do our best to make sure you don’t even notice us,” Marcel said.      “Right,” Kate said.  “There’s a computer over there you can use, and if you need anything else, you can have Agent Woods talk to me.”      While most of the crew gathered around the computer, Carlie made her way around the room.  She was pretty good at being ignored, so most people did not even take much note of her, with the exception of the few she bumped into, who gave her dirty looks as she apologized.      One, though, actually looked her over as she was apologizing.  “You’re here with the inspection team?  You look a little young.”      “Yeah, I get that a lot,” Carlie said.  “Just the random nature of genetics, I suppose.”      “Uh huh, just try to pay more attention to where you’re walking.”      “Right, yes, I’ll do my best,” Carlie said before going back to the crew.      “How did it go?” Diego asked.      Carlie lifted the sleeve on her left arm to show five ESS ID cards she had nabbed.  “All level ten or higher.”  She passed them out, just before Evelynn returned to the group with some coffees.      “So, what do you think so far?” Evelynn asked.      “Everything in here certainly looks good,” Marcel said.  “But we’ll need to check out a few areas.”  He brought up a map on the computer screen.  “There, there, there, and there.”      “The first two and the fourth will be no problem,” Evelynn said.  “But the third area is restricted.  You need special permission from the Director to go there.”      “Don’t ask about the Director,” the crew all heard Diana say over the comms.  “There’s a complicated situation with him, and I haven’t figured out how much you would logically know.”      “Then just the three areas for now,” Marcel said.  “I’ll take one of my consultants to the first, while my assistant takes the other consultant to the second.”      “Oh, you want to split up?” Evelynn asked.  “Umm, right, about that…”      “It would be more efficient,” Marcel said.  “And allow us to get out of your way faster.”      “No, yeah, that’s, yeah,” Evelynn said.  “I’ll just go grab another agent to escort the second group.  Not a problem.”  She looked around the room.  “Agent Barnes, get over here.”  The agent came over as she introduced them.  “This is Agent Luke Barnes.”      “Excellent, let’s go Barnes,” Marcel said.      Diego and Carlie followed Evelynn as she lead them into a power station room.  There was a generator in the center that took up most of the room, and a few computers on the wall for diagnostic purposes.      “Okay, I’ll walk you through what you need to do,” Diana said to Diego and Carlie over the comm.  “Carlie, you might want to distract Agent Woods while Diego is doing this, or else she’s probably going to notice.”      “So, Agent Woods, how long have you been with the ESS?” Carlie asked as Diego started working on the computer.      “Six years,” Evelynn said.  “My mom is an agent too, and my dad is an engineer, so I was able to join right out of high school.”      “That’s pretty cool,” Carlie said.  “My parents kicked me out when I was fourteen, so I can’t exactly rely on them for job opportunities.”      “That sucks,” Evelynn said.  “But you seem to have done pretty well for yourself.”      “Yeah, I’m pretty resourceful, if I do say so myself,” Carlie said.      “Be careful what you say to her,” Diana said over the comm.  “Don’t want her learning too much about the real you.”      “But that was years ago,” Carlie said.  “I know I look like a teenager, but I am in my twenties.”      “No, don’t bring that up if you don’t have to,” Diana said.  “That just sounds more suspicious.”      “I didn’t want to say anything, but yeah, you do look pretty young,” Evelynn said.  “I mean, I still get carded myself whenever I try to buy some drinks.  And up here the drinking age isn’t even twenty-one, it’s eighteen.”      “Okay, I think she might be flirting with you,” Diana said.  “Maybe try asking if she’s interested in going out for drinks later.”      “Do you want to maybe go out for drinks later?” Carlie asked.      “I mean, maybe, it’s pretty busy here, so I’m not sure when I’ll have some free time, but maybe,” Evelynn said.      “Okay, I’m done over here,” Diego said.  “We can move on.”      Marcel, Darren, and Roz followed Luke down the corridor.  Marcel was about to nod to Darren, when a door opened, and three people came out.  They were wearing uniforms that showed them as UES fighter pilots.      “So then, do you know what Pandaherbs said next?” one of them asked.      “What did she say?” the second one asked.      “She said that those Ghotelon ships looked like butts.”      “That wasn’t me,” the third one said.  “That was Dino Chick that said that.  I mean, I agreed with her, but she was the one that said it.”      “Are you sure?”      “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know what I did and didn’t say.”      As they passed them, Marcel waited until they had turn down a different corridor, and then nodded at Darren, who grabbed Luke in a chokehold and held him until he lost consciousness.      “Over here,” Roz said, checking a door.  “This broom closet should be a good place to hide him.”      “Right,” Darren said as he stuffed Luke into the closet.      “How far down to the vault?” Marcel asked.      “It’s three floors down,” Diana said over the comm.  “There’s an elevator just ahead you can take down there.”      The three of them went to the elevator and rode it down.  There was an automated checkpoint just after they exited it.      “Let’s hope this works,” Marcel said as he swiped his card on it.  It asked for a fingerprint and eye scan, so he put down his finger and lined up his eye, and the light turned green.  “Green is good, right?”      “Yeah, green is good,” Diana said.      Darren and Roz did the same and got through as well.  They went down the hallway, which had multiple doors.      “The next one on your left,” Diana said.  “There is a keypad, but I can’t get into that remotely.”      “Don’t worry, this is where I come in,” Roz said.  She sprayed a film on the keypad, which revealed fingerprints.  “One, four, seven, and zero make up the code.”      “It should be a five digit code,” Diana said.  “One wrong attempt will alert security.  Two wrong attempts will lock down the door.  Three will release a knockout gas both inside the vault, and immediately outside it.”      Roz looked at it.  Without touching it she started moving her fingers over the buttons in different orders.  “One definitely follows from seven, zero is last.  Four is probably the double.  I’m thinking it’s four, seven, one, four, zero.  Unless it’s the seven that’s the double, in which case it’s four, seven, one, seven, zero or seven, one, seven, four, zero.”      “Just make your best call,” Marcel said.  He kept glancing down the hallway.      Roz pressed four, seven, one, four, zero.      “Security alert was just sent,” Diana said.  “I can take care of it, but the next attempt needs to be right.”      Roz looked over it a bit more before pressing seven and one.  She stopped and looked again, and then pressed four, seven, and zero.  There was an electronic sound coming from the door, and after ten seconds it opened up.  They went inside, and found the walls lined with safes.      “Okay, it’ll be the one marked KR-052,” Diana said.      “It’s over here,” Darren said.      “Okay, now comes the fun part,” Roz said as she looked it over and frowned.  “It’s a hybrid lock on this thing with both a mechanical and an electronic mechanism.  I’m going to need some silence here.”  She put her ear up against it as she started turning the mechanical lock.  “Never mind, it has a silencer on it.”      “Meaning?” Marcel asked.      “Meaning I can still do it, but it’s going to take even longer,” Roz said.  “I’m going to guess it’ll be at least an hour.”      “There’ll be security patrols down there multiple times in that hour,” Diana said.      “Then everyone else will just have to keep them distracted,” Roz said.      As Diego and Carlie were being led to their next destination by Evelynn, Diana contacted them over the comm.      “There’s been a slight change of plans,” Diana said.  “Apparently the lock on the safe is a bit more complicated than we thought it would be, so we need to keep security from finding them for the next hour or so.”      “So, Agent Woods,” Diego said.  “Could you tell us a bit about security patrol schedules.”      “Of course,” Evelynn said.  “We can go back to the main security room, and I can show you them.”      Over the comm Diana said, “The next patrol will be in about ten minutes.”      “Actually, first, is there a restroom around somewhere?” Diego asked.      “Yeah,” Evelynn said and pointed.  “Just over there.  We can wait for you outside.”      Diego entered the bathroom, and did a quick check to see that all of the stalls were empty.  “Okay, what happens if Darren just takes out the security patrol?” He asked over the comm.      “When they don’t check in, a much bigger security team will be sent down there,” Diana said.      “What kind of check in?”      “They make an audio report after each floor they look over, and if they are late, their supervisor gets a notification.”      “So, in theory anyone could make the report.”      “Their voices are on record,” Diana said.  “The computer will recognize if it’s someone else.”      “Well, then I guess we’re about to figure out who’s better, their voice recognition, or Marcel’s voice imitation.”      Darren stood next to the door, and waited until it opened.  Two guards came in, and started pulling out their weapons as they saw Roz and Marcel.  Darren punched the one closest to him in the side of the face with his right fist, before pushing the guard with his left arm, causing him to get knocked into the other guard so they both hit the wall.      The guard that Darren had directly attacked had dropped his energy pistol, which Darren kicked towards Marcel.  The other guard though still had his as he stood back up and tried to aim it at Darren, who grabbed the first guard in a chokehold, and tried to use him as a shield, while also causing him to pass out.      “Drop your weapon or I drop you,” Marcel said as he pointed the energy pistol at the guard who was still armed.      The guard turned and pointed his pistol at Marcel.  “Do you even know how to fire that thing?” he asked.      Darren used the momentary distraction, and threw the now unconscious guard he was holding aside, before kicking the energy pistol out of the other guard’s hand.  He then went over and grabbed the guard by the shirt collar, and punched him a few times until he too was knocked out.      “What was that?” Darren asked as he put the guard down.  “We’re not trying to kill them.”      “These things have a stun setting,” Marcel said.  “And it would have been nice if you had left one of them conscious a bit longer, so I could have heard more than just a single sentence from one of them.”  He searched through the pockets of the one who had spoken, and took out their comm and ID.  “This is Agent Chandler,” he said, his voice mimicking that of the guard.  “Everything on this level seems to be normal.”  Then into his own comm.  “So, did that work?”      “I think so,” Diana said.  “There don’t seem to be any alerts raised, at least not yet, but I’ll keep my eyes on them.”      Diego and Carlie were back in the main security room with Evelynn, who was showing them security patrol schedules.  Diego was only half paying attention to them, as he noticed the doors open, and some security rush in, and go to Kate.  They whispered something to her, and she said something to them before they came over to Diego, Carlie, and Evelynn.      “Could we have a word?” Kate asked.      “What seems to be the problem?” Diego asked.      “Agent Barnes was just found unconscious in a broom closet, and the rest of your team is unaccounted for,” Kate said.      “That’s odd,” Diego said.  “Have their been any breaches in security?”      “Cut the bullshit,” Kate said.  “I’m having my people do a closer inspection on your credentials, but you could save yourselves a lot of trouble and just confess now.”      Diego glanced at Carlie, who’s eyes were wide.  “There’s nothing to confess to.  Whatever’s happened here, it’s not our fault.”      “We’ll just see about that,” Kate said.      Jacques was still waiting in the car, which was parked in the garage.  He was increasingly noticing looks from the guards, who were clearly being told something over their comms.      “Did something happen?” he asked over his own comm.      “There has been a complication,” Diana said.      “What happened?”      Diana filled him in on what had been happening.      “That’d explain why those guards keep looking at me funny.  Oh great, and now they’re coming over here.”      “The cameras will catch it if you do anything to them, and I can’t put these ones on a loop without someone noticing.”      “What about the elevator?”      “I can loop that before you get on, but someone might still notice you entering the elevator on the garage cameras, and not being in the elevator on the elevator cameras.”      The guards were up to the car.  “Please step out of the vehicle, sir,” one of them said.      “Do it,” Jacques said before he opened the door, and slowly got out.  “Something wrong, gentlemen?”      “You’re going to have to come with me,” the same guard said.      “Of course,” Jacques said.  “That’s not a problem at all.”      He got out of the car, and the guards led him to the elevator, with one of them bringing him in, while the other went back to his post.      “No cheesy elevator music in here?” Jacques asked the guard who was standing behind him in the elevator, who did not respond.  “Also, you probably should have brought another couple guards with you, I’m not just a driver.”  Jacques backed into the guard, pressing him back against the side of the elevator, grabbed his arm and twisted his wrist, causing the guard to drop his energy pistol.  Jacques elbowed the guard in the chest, before picking up the pistol and pointing it at him.      The guard coughed.  “What the hell are you…”      “This thing is set to stun, right,” Jacques asked, looking at the setting.  “Excellent.”  He fired at the guard, knocking him out.      “What are you doing?” Diana asked.  “Even without them seeing that on camera, it’s only a matter of time until he’s found.”      “You said Roz needs time to crack the lock, so I’m providing a distraction, I suppose,” Jacques said.      The elevator came to a stop, and the door opened, showing three guards, who quickly reached for their energy pistols, but Jacques managed to shoot all three of them first.      “Okay, that was definitely caught on camera,” Diana said.      “Figured as much,” Jacques said.  “Where are Diego and Carlie at?”      Carlie and Diego were being lead down a hall by four guards.  Two were in front of them, and two were behind.      “Jacques is on his way to you,” Diana told the two of them over the comms.  “But they are also after him, as he’s knocked out a few agents.”      Carlie looked at Diego who was looking at the guards in front of them.  “Well, I guess the jig is up,” he said before spinning around, his whip coming out of his sleeve, and he used it to knock the pistols out of the hands of each of the guards behind them.  Then he turned back to the front where the other two guards were turning around, and did the same to them.      Carlie backed up to the wall, as Diego kept turning around and around, whipping at the guards hands whenever they tried to pick up their guns.  Eventually, two of them charged at him and tackled him to the ground, while the other two were finally able to get at their guns.      Diego got his arm out and flicked his whip at one of the pistols still on the ground, and managed to sent it flying over to Carlie who caught it.  She aimed it at one of the guards who was just picking up his, and fired, then aimed it at the other one going for a gun and fired at him too.  Then she shot both of the guys on Diego, and he pushed their unconscious bodies off of himself.      “Good shooting,” Diego said.      “I used to play a lot of shooting games on the Wii,” Carlie said.      “Uh, we’ve got a slight problem,” Diana said over the comm.  “Remember how earlier we were talking about the local superheroes?”      As she was saying that, the superhero known as Amazing Archer and and his teen sidekick Dark Hawk came around a corner.  Amazing Archer had his energy bow drawn, and was aiming straight at Diego.      “Oh shit,” Diego said.      Carlie aimed the energy pistol at Amazing Archer.      “Surrender and we won’t have to hurt you,” Amazing Archer said.      “I could say the same thing to you,” Diego said.      “My costume will diffuse the stunshot from that pistol,” Amazing Archer said.  “And I can drop you long before you get close enough to use that whip of yours.”      “Yet you haven’t shot us yet,” Diego said.      “That’s because I’d prefer you just surrender,” Amazing Archer said right before getting tackled from behind by Jacques, who knocked away the bow.      Amazing Archer tossed Jacques over his head, and Diego ran over to help, while Dark Hawk tried running over to Carlie, but she aimed the energy pistol at him.      “Don’t come any closer,” she said.      “Hey yeah, no problem,” Dark Hawk said, as he slowed down but still continued moving forward.  “But you know, my suit will disperse the stunshot, same as Amazing Archer’s.”      “You sure about that?” Carlie asked as she fired, and the stunshot was indeed dispersed by Dark Hawk’s suit.      “Pretty sure,” Dark Hawk said.  “You know, you’re really cute.”      “What?  Are you hitting on me or trying to arrest me?”      “Oh, right, sorry, surrender and we won’t have to fight.”      “I mean, I’m not exactly fond of either of those options,” Carlie said.      “Oh, umm, well those are kind of the options here.  I’m not exactly used to criminals not fighting back.”      “Are you making progress here?” Marcel asked as he stood over Roz.      “I’m working on it,” Roz said as she was continuing to turn the lock on the safe.  “And could you not hover over me?”      “Sorry,” Marcel said as he backed off.  He walked over to Darren who was watching the door.  “No more patrols yet?”      “No, according to Diana they’re being kept busy by the rest of our crew,” Darren said.      “Hmm, I hope they aren’t doing anything stupid,” Marcel said.      “You don’t much care for Diego, I’ve noticed.”      “After Jacques started running with him, he stopped running with our family.  And family is important.”      “You ever ask Jacques about it?” Darren asked.  “Find out what his reasons were?”      “Does it matter?”      “Of course it matters.  When I came out to my family, a lot of them stopped acting like family.”      “No one in our family cares that he’s bi, if that’s what you insinuating.  And it’s not like him and Diego are a couple anyway, I don’t think.”      “Maybe no one cares, maybe someone does, but either way there could be any number of reasons that he stopped running with family.  And it’s not like he cut off contact, did he?  I mean, you’re still here.”      “He still talks with a few of us, but not many.  He wasn’t even at our father’s funeral.”      “Then you should talk to him about it.  Communication is important.”      While Diego and Jacques were still fighting Amazing Archer, Carlie was continuing to talk with Dark Hawk.      “I mean, I suppose it doesn’t matter too much,” Dark Hawk said.  “Like, your friends over there are going to lose and be captured.”      “Says you,” Carlie said.      “Come on, I’m sure you’ve heard of Amazing Archer.  Have you ever heard of him losing a fight?”      “Well, no, not exactly.”      “Exactly,” Dark Hawk said as he took a pair of handcuffs out of his utility belt.      “Cuffs?  Shouldn’t you at least buy me dinner first?”      “Wait, are you flirting with me now?”      “Sorry,” Carlie said.  “Although you are probably pretty cute under that mask.”      “Yeah, I’m not falling for that and taking off my mask.”      “Suit yourself.  And fine.”  Carlie put her hands out in front of herself, and let Dark Hawk come over and cuff her.      “See now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Dark Hawk asked.  He glanced over to see Diego and Jacques were still giving Amazing Archer trouble.      “No, it wasn’t, Bobby,” Carlie said.  He looked back to see her drop the cuffs on the ground while looking at his learner’s permit.      “How did you do that?”      “I’m a pickpocket.  I’m also half decent at picking locks.  So, Bobby Anderson I was right, you are pretty cute under that mask.  And I thought driver’s license pictures always looked horrible.”      “That’s…um…just a fake ID for preserving my secret identity.”      “For someone with a secret identity, you’re a pretty bad liar.”      “Aha,” Roz said as she turned the lock, and it clicked into place.      “You got it?” Marcel asked.      “Part of it,” Roz said.  “Like I said, it’s a multi-part lock, but I’ve got the mechanical lock figured out, so next is the electronic lock.”      “Hurry up in there, if you can,” Diana said over the comm.  “Diego and Jacques are in a fight with Amazing Archer.”      “How are they doing?” Marcel asked.      “They’re still conscious,” Diana said.  “Although I’m not sure for how much longer.  And there’s more security on it’s way to their position.”      “I can go help,” Darren said.  “I don’t think you still need me down here.”      “Yeah, we can handle ourselves,” Marcel said, and Darren took off.  Marcel turned back to Roz.  “How much longer are you thinking?”      “Could be a few minutes, could be another half hour,” Roz said.  “Hard to say for certain.”      “You said it was an electronic lock, so what if we…”      “That might work,” Roz interrupted.  “Unless they have a failsafe in place, in which case, we’ll be screwed.”      “Right,” Marcel said.      Darren rode the elevator up to the level that Diego, Jacques and Carlie were on, but it was a short distance away.  As the elevator doors opened, he saw a bunch of ESS agents running down the hall.  He reached out and grabbed one.  “Sorry,” he said before hitting the guys head against the wall, knocking him out.      Darren stepped out into the hall, and there were five agents who had run past but were turning around now that they noticed one of them was missing.  One had just passed the elevator, and was within range for Darren to grab his wrist, and twist it, causing the guy to drop his gun.  He then punched the agent in the throat, before grabbing him by the shoulder and forcing him to turn around.  “Sorry,” he said.      The other agents were trying to get a shot on Darren, but he was doing his best to keep the agent he was fighting between him and them.  He then grabbed the agent by the top and bottom of his shirt, and threw him at the others.  Darren used the momentary confusion to run up to the rest of them.      He bodychecked one of them into the wall before elbowing the next one in the back of neck, and moved from that motion right into a punch in the back of the head of the third one, and then kneed the fourth one in the side, saying, “Sorry,” after each hit.  While the last three were knocked to the ground by the blows, the one he had bodychecked came at him from behind, and tried to grab him.      Darren let him, but then pushed back causing them to both trip over one of the people on the floor.  Darren’s head hit the agent in the nose, and Darren was pretty sure that nose was now broken.  “Sorry,” he said as he jumped back to his feet.  The final one, the one he had kneed in the side, was getting back up at the same time, and Darren used his momentum from the jump to punch the guy in the forehead, knocking him back down.      “Sorry,” Darren said as he made sure each of the agents were knocked out before moving on.      “You could have just taken an energy pistol and shot them with it,” Diana said over the comm.      “I don’t like guns.”      “They have a stun setting, which does a hell of a lot less damage than you beating them into submission.”      “I don’t like guns.  And the worst I did was break a nose.  ESS medical tech can fix that no problem.  Medical tech they chose not to share with the general public, for that matter.  How much further to the others?”      “Take the next left, and you’ll see them.”      Darren took the left, and saw Diego and Jacques being beaten pretty soundly by Amazing Archer, while Carlie and Dark Hawk were off to the side talking.  Darren ran up to Amazing Archer, who did turn around and catch Darren’s right-handed punch, before Darren kneed him in the stomach.  Amazing Archer barely flinched, but Darren did not let up, and punched him in the head with his left hand.      That staggered Amazing Archer for a few moments, enough for Darren to get him into a chokehold.  That caused Dark Hawk to run over, but Jacques and Diego started fighting him, while Darren choked Amazing Archer until he seemed to lose consciousness.  He then continued for a bit longer, just to be on the safe side, before dropping him to the ground.      In the meantime, Diego and Jacques had managed to restrain Dark Hawk long enough to tie him up.  “So, should we check who they are under those masks?” Jacques asked.      “It’s not really our business,” Darren said.      “I already figured out who Dark Hawk is,” Carlie said as she tossed his wallet on him.      “Doesn’t really matter though,” Diego said.  “I’d rather not become an arch-nemesis to a superhero.”      “Y’all might want to get out of there,” Diana said over the comm.  “There’s more agents on their way.”      Marcel was pacing back and forth as Roz continued to work on the lock.  He was trying not to keep asking her how much longer it would be, when he heard something in the hallway outside.  He went over to the door and listened.  Someone was just getting off the elevator, but it sounded liked it was just one person.      “Who’s down here with us?” he whispered into his comm.      “There shouldn’t be anyone else down there,” Diana said.  “Just give me a second.”      Marcel listened as whoever it was got closer and closer.      “Someone else is looping the camera feed,” Diana said.  “I mean, besides me.  It’ll take me a bit to get past it.”      Marcel sighed, before stepping out into the hallway.  Admiral Jon Teleros was there, and Marcel immediately recognized him.  He did not have a weapon drawn though.      “Admiral Teleros,” Marcel said.  “I wasn’t expecting to see you down here.”      “Yeah, I have a habit of showing up unexpectedly,” Jon said.  “And I suppose this explains the distraction the rest of your team is causing upstairs.”      “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Marcel said.  He put his hand close to the pocket he had hidden an energy pistol in.      “You can pull that out if you want,” Jon said.  “But I should warn you, that I am pretty quick on the draw.  I wouldn’t have come down here on my own if I couldn’t handle myself.”      “Look, I’m as confused by all of this as you are,” Marcel said.  “I was lead down here as part of my inspection by Agent Barnes, and then I don’t know, he said he was going to use the restroom or something, and he never came back.”      “He was found in a broom closet, and three other members of your team, your driver and your assistant, as well as one of your specialists, have all been seen assaulting agents.  Not to mention that we’ve discovered that the video cameras in several sections of the base are running on a loop.  I had our technicians put this section on an additional loop, as I assume your team was still getting the actual feed.”      “It’s possible my team was using this as a method of infiltrating the base.  My specialists were assigned to me by my government, I did not choose them personally.  And my driver was hired from a local company for this trip, recommended by your organization, I might add.”      “You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that,” Jon said.  “But I’ve been going over your credentials, and tracing back messages and while some are legitimate, others are not, so I did some digging, Marcel Dupont.  Your driver is your brother Jacques, and Diego Serrano is one of your specialists.  Our computers almost caught him when you came in, but you apparently have a really good hacker on your hands.”      “You sound pretty sure of yourself there.  So, do you think you know who everyone else is?”      “Not yet, but we’ll figure it out,” Jon said.  “If you willingly surrender yourself, and give the real identities of the rest of your team, things will go a lot better for you.”      “So, what’s next?” Darren asked as they got into an elevator.      “How’s Roz doing?” Diego asked.      “She’s still working on the safe,” Diana said over the comm.      “How long is that going to take?” Jacques asked.  “We should’ve been on our way out by now.”      “She’ll get it,” Diego said.      “I’ve got some bad news though,” Diana said.  “Marcel’s comm just shut off, but before that happened he was talking with Admiral Jon Teleros, who knows who he is, and who Jacques and Diego are.”      “That’s bad, that’s very bad,” Jacques said.      “What about the rest of the crew?” Diego asked.      “From what I heard just you three have been identified, but Teleros is trying to get Marcel to turn on the rest of us.”      “That’s bad, that’s very bad,” Diego said.      “He won’t turn on us,” Jacques said.  “Family is important to him, and I’m his brother.”      “Teleros already knows about you though, so he wouldn’t be turning on you,” Diego said.  “And the rest of us aren’t his family.”      “You’re the only of us he doesn’t like though,” Jacques said.  “I don’t even think he’d give away your name, but since that’s not a concern, I think we’ll be okay.”      “Then why did he turn off his comm?” Darren asked.  “I don’t want to be insensitive to the idea of you guys getting arrested, but I have a family.  And then there’s Carlie.  She needs a home, not prison.”      “Definitely don’t need prison,” Carlie said.  “Not sure on the home thing though.  That didn’t exactly work out for me.”      “Even if he gives you up, which I don’t think he will, Diana should be able to get you a new identity,” Jacques said.      “I like my name,” Carlie said.  “Plus, he only knows my first name.”      “Although if you want I could get you set up with Carlie as your legal name when we’re done here,” Diana said.      “Yeah, that would be great,” Carlie said.      “If we get through this,” Darren said.  “And I don’t want to have to change my name either, and I have a life that I don’t want to leave behind.  And Marcel does know my full name.”      “Then we’ll just have to hope we get down there before he says anything,” Diego said.      “If he says anything,” Jacques said.      “Aha,” Roz said as the safe door unsealed, and she opened it up, revealing the device within.  She had no idea what the device was, but it matched the picture she had been shown, so she picked it up and stuffed it in her bag.  “Roz to everyone,” she said over the comm.  “I have it, let’s get out of here.”      “There’s a slight problem,” Diana said over the comm, and explained about Marcel and Jon.      “Shit,” Roz said, as she stood up and turned around, just as Marcel and Jon came into the vault.  Jon was now holding his energy pistol, and had it pointed at Roz.      “Hello Roz Montoya,” Jon said.      “You gave him my name?” Roz asked.      “I had little choice,” Marcel said.  “We’ve lost.”      “Put the bag down,” Jon said.      “Right,” Roz said as she slowly lowered it to the floor.  “Just out of curiosity, why are the lights so bright in here?”      “What?” Jon asked.      “Now?” Diana asked over the comm.      “Yes, please,” Roz said, and the lights went out, and Roz grabbed her bag again, while trying to silently move from where she was standing.  She was trying to circle around to the door without being noticed.  She just managed to go through the door as a flashlight was turned on, but it was still pointed inside the vault, and Roz went running down the hallway, in the opposite direction from the elevator.      The elevator that Jacques, Diego, Darren, and Carlie were on, lurched to a stop, as the lights went out.      “What happened?” Jacques asked as he turned on a flashlight.  “Did they locate us?”      “No, that was me,” Diana said over the comm.  “Had to take out the base power a bit sooner than we would’ve liked, or else Roz would’ve been captured.”      “Of course,” Jacques said.  “Well, then let’s get going.  Only ten minutes until it comes back on.”      Darren went over to the door and pried it open.  They were just passing a floor when it had stopped.  “It’ll be a tight fit, but we can get out,” Darren said.  “And looks like this corridor is empty.”      They all pulled themselves out, and started walking down the corridor.  “What floor are we on anyway?” Jacques asked.      “Let me just bring up the base plans,” Diana said.  “Okay, you are on the floor with…the experimental vehicle storage.”      “Experimental vehicles?” Jacques asked.  “Give me a rundown on whatever you can find out about what’s stored here.”      Roz turned a corner as she kept up her run.  “Where to?” she asked.      “There’s an emergency staircase not too far from you,” Diana said over the comm.  “Take the next right, and then a left after that.  But be careful, without power in the base I can’t be watching what’s happening through the security cameras.”      “Yeah, no worries, I can take care of myself.  Do the stairs lead all the way to the top?”      “No, they only go up a single floor, but that’s where the rest of our crew are at the moment.”      “And where do we go from there?”      “Still working on that, just try and get there in one piece.”      “Right,” Roz said before she heard something behind her.  She made the right turn, just before an energy blast went past, and hit where she had just been, a second earlier.      “You’re only making this harder on yourself,” Jon shouted.      “How much distance between the turn I just made, and the next one I have to make?” Roz asked.      “Five hundred feet,” Diana said.      “And then how long to the staircase after that?” Roz asked as she shut off her flashlight and counted in her head as she ran.      “There’ll be a door the staircase on your left after one hundred feet,” Diana said.      A light appeared behind Roz just before she made the left turn, and she increased her pace as she went down the this hall until she stopped and felt along the wall for the door.  She opened it and went through to the staircase.  For that she turned her flashlight back on, and started running up the stairs.      Jacques looked over the controls of the hovercar as he got in the driver’s seat, and they looked simple enough.  It was really more of a hoverbobsled though, as its shape was long and thin.  It seated five, and it was the only vehicle they could find that would fit through the doors in this place.      “How do they even get the other vehicles in and out?” Carlie asked as she got in the second seat.      “Teleporters,” Diego said as he got into the third seat.  “Unfortunately those aren’t an option for us.”      “This seems like a bad idea,” Darren said as he got into the fourth seat.  “Even if this thing fits through the doors, it’s still going to be a tight fit.”      “I can manage it,” Jacques said as he started it up and it lifted a foot off the ground.  He turned a dial, and it raised another half foot.  He put his hand on a lever and twisted it, and the hovercar started moving forward.  He pulled it back a bit to increase speed.      “How’re you figuring this out so quickly?” Carlie asked.  “There’s no labels on anything.”      “It’s what he does,” Diego said.      Marcel faked himself tripping as he ran alongside Jon.  Jon glanced at him, but continued running, leaving him behind.  Marcel turned his comm back on as he got up.      “I’ve got myself away from Admiral Teleros,” he said into the comm.      “Yeah, after giving up the rest of the team,” Diana said.  “What the hell were you thinking?”      “I only gave up Roz’s identity, and she’s going to need a new one either way because of the whole FBI thing.  It was something I could give him to earn some trust, but it doesn’t change anything.”      “And if she hadn’t got away from him in the vault?  You could have at least lead him away from that.”      “How?  If I had run, he’d have just shot me, and would have checked the vault anyway.  I did what I had to do.”      “Right.”      Roz exited the stairwell, and found herself in a hallway that was being lit by an approaching vehicle, which stopped right before her.      “Get in,” Jacques said.      “Right,” Roz said as she got into the backseat, and Jacques drove off.      “Guys,” Diana said over the comm.  “Marcel turned his comm back on, and he’s telling me that he just gave up Roz’s identity, since it won’t matter anyway, and that he didn’t give up any of the rest of us.”      “Screw that,” Roz said.  “Like I believe him now.”      “I believe him,” Jacques said, as he came to a stop.      “What are you doing?” Diego asked.      “We need to go back for him,” Jacques said.      “No, we need to get out of here,” Diego said.  “And even if we wanted to save him, this thing is full.”      “He’s my brother, I’m not leaving him behind,” Jacques said.      “Fine,” Diego said as he got out of the hovercar.  “I’ll go get him, you get the rest of the team out of here.”      “What?” Jacques asked.      “None of the rest of us are going to be able to drive this contraption out of here,” Diego said.  “So get the rest of the team out, and I’ll get Marcel, and we’ll figure something out.”      “But…” Jacques started saying.      “Get Carlie and Roz and Darren out of here,” Diego said.      “Right,” Jacques said.      Marcel was going down the hallway.  “Is there just the one staircase from this level?” he asked over the comm.      “Yeah, sorry,” Diana said.      Marcel opened the door and listened.  He did not hear anyone in the stairwell, and started going up the stairs, when the lights turned back on.  The staircase only connected the two levels, so he as he approached the top, he stopped and listened again.  He still did not hear anyone, so he went up and out the door.  But that is when he heard someone, and saw that someone, Jon, come running down the hallway.      “Finally caught up?” Jon asked.  “Your team has escaped, so I’m going to need the names of the rest of them now.  If we can get them before they leave the city, that’ll take years off your sentence.”      “Yeah, about that,” Marcel said.  “You already know all of the names that I know.  I don’t know the names of the bruiser or the kid.”      “And the computer hacker?”      “Sorry.”      “That’s too bad, but…” Jon started saying, before he suddenly turned around, and brought up his energy pistol, right before it was knocked out of his hand by the crack of a whip.      “Sorry, I’m late,” Diego said.      Marcel picked up the fallen energy pistol and pointed it at Jon as he went next to Diego.      “Ah, the famous Diego Serrano,” Jon said.  “Although maybe a bit too famous now?”      “Naw, I’m fine with my level of fame,” Diego said.      “Even if you escape, we’ll be able to track you down,” Jon said.      “You’re hardly the first to claim that,” Diego said.      “We’re the ESS,” Jon said.  “There’s nowhere you can run to that we won’t find you.”      Darren covered his eyes as the hovercar went down the hallway at ludicrous speeds, but then peeked out through his fingers to watch as Jacques seemed able to turn on a dime every time they came to an intersection in the hallway.      Up ahead now, there was a door that was closed, and Jacques started slowing down, but then it was opened as a bunch of security came through.  “Everyone down,” Jacques said as he started speeding up again, and the agents started shooting at them.      The hovercar raised up, and went just above the agents, and through the doorway, with less than an inch of clearance, into a stairwell, where it went up the stairs, in a spiral, at a speed that left Darren wondering how they had not yet crashed and died.      Eventually they made it to the top, after having passed multiple floors, and Jacques slowed to a stop, so he could get out and open the door.  He then went back to driving the hovercar, and brought it out onto the roof of the parking garage the ESS used as a cover for their base.  He drove off the roof, and a few blocks away, before letting everyone out.      “Now what?” Carlie asked.      “Now the three of you go meet up with Diana, while I go back inside for Diego and Marcel,” Jacques said.      “By yourself?” Darren asked.  “Look, I don’t exactly want to have another go in that hovercar, but I think you need me.”      “Maybe,” Jacques said, but then he took off, before Darren could climb back into the hovercar.      “Well, let’s get back to the hotel room then,” Roz said.      “We can’t just abandon them,” Darren said.      “We have the item we were supposed to steal,” Roz said, holding up her bag.  “And whatever I may think of Jacques, him and Diego are some of the best.  If he doesn’t think he needs us for this, I’m inclined to trust him.”      “Fine, we’ll go back to the hotel, and decide our next move from there,” Darren said.      Diego and Marcel ran down the corridor, in the same direction that the rest of the crew had gone.  As the they were approaching the staircase, twelve ESS guards came out, their weapons at the ready.  Marcel pointed his stolen energy pistol at them, and Diego had his whip at the ready, but they knew they were outnumbered.      “Put down the weapons,” the lead guard said.      “Dude has a whip, that’s not much of a weapon,” another one of the guards said with a snicker.      Diego briefly considered it, before slowly putting his whip down, as Marcel put down the energy pistol.      “Cuff them,” the lead guard said, and two of the others went forward to do exactly that, when a sound came from the staircase, and suddenly the hovercar came out, and went over the guards, and landed between them, and Diego and Marcel, on its side.  The bottom was facing the guards.      “Get in,” Jacques said, and both Marcel and Diego climbed in, while Diego grabbed his whip.      Jacques brought the hovercar back into the air, and as they were going back past the guards, Diego flicked his whip outside the hovercar, and knocked the energy pistol out of the hand of the guard that had laughed at it earlier.  The hovercar once again shot up the stairs at a ridiculous speed, but then it started slowing down.      “What are you doing?” Diego asked.      “It’s not me,” Jacques said.  “It’s running out of power.  We’re going to make it to the roof, but that’s about it.”      And sure enough, the hovercar stopped just after exiting out onto the roof.  The three of them got out and went over to the edge of the roof.  It was five stories tall.      “Okay, they’ll have the exits guarded, so we’re going to need to climb down.”  Diego said.  “We should be abled to drop down from level to level without much difficulty.”      “Maybe you can, but I’m not, no, I can’t,” Marcel said.      “Me neither,” Jacques said.  “If I try, we’re going to have another situation like in Boston, at best.”      “The hovercar you were using should have a couple jetpacks in it,” Diana said over the comm.      Jacques checked in the storage area.  “There’s one.”  He handed it to Marcel.      “I’m not leaving you behind,” Marcel said.      “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea,” Jacques said.  “Just go, and then Diego and I will be right behind you.”      “You’re sure?” Marcel asked.      “I’m sure,” Jacques said.      Marcel strapped on the jetpack, turned it on, and tested it.  It worked perfectly, and he flew off.      “You don’t have an idea, do you?” Diego asked after Marcel was out of hearing range.      “Not really,” Jacques said.      “I could try and help you down my way.”      “Even then, I don’t know.  You should just get out of here.”      “You know I’m not going to leave you behind.”      “Yeah,” Jacques said.      At that moment two dozen ESS guards came out onto the roof.  They did not even say anything, just shot Diego and Jacques with their energy pistols, knocking them both out.      “We have to go back for them,” Darren said.  He was back in the hotel room, with Carlie, Roz, Diana, and Marcel.      “How?” Marcel asked.  “They know all our faces, except for Diana.”      “And I’m not really wanting to go in there,” Diana said.  “I’m strictly a voice over the comm for these kind of jobs.”      “They also know who both Marcel and I am, thanks to him,” Roz said.  “So that introduces even more problems.”      “I had to give them something,” Marcel said.      “So you say,” Roz said.      “And you’re going to need to change identities anyway,” Marcel said.  “That’s why I gave them your name, and not Darren or Carlie’s.”      There was a knock at the door, and everyone looked at each other, before Diana checked the security camera feed in the hotel hallway.  “It’s an older woman,” she said.      “Possibly our employer?” Marcel said.      “But how did she find us?” Roz asked.      Marcel walked over to the door, and opened it.  “Hello?”      “Can I come in?” she asked.  “I believe you have the object you were hired to procure.”      “Diego and Jacques aren’t here, so how do we know that you are our employer?” Marcel asked.      “How else would I know where to find you?” the woman asked as she pushed her way in.  “Now let’s see the object.”      Roz took it out of her bag.      “Excellent,” the woman said as she took out her phone.  “I’ll transfer the money to your accounts right away.”      “And what about Diego and Jacques?” Darren asked.      “They’re getting paid as well,” the woman said.      “Yeah, but they are in ESS custody at the moment,” Marcel said.      “Oh, don’t worry about that,” the woman said.  “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”      Jacques and Diego were in an ESS holding cell.  Diego was pacing, while Jacques was leaning against the wall.  It was a standard ESS holding cell, with walls on three sides, and a forcefield on the fourth.  There were beds and chairs inside, as well as an attached bathroom.  There was even a touchscreen computer built into the wall, but it was not on a network.      “This is my fault,” Diego said.  “You didn’t even want to take the job.”      “It’s fine, we’ve been arrested before, and at least the rest of the team got out.  And thanks to this, Darren will be able to keep his business, Carlie won’t be living on the street anymore, and Roz can start over.”      “Marcel’s going to have to start over too though, and he didn’t need or want to before this.  I may not like the guy, but even still.”      “Yeah, I know what you mean.  Whatever problems I have with Roz, I’m still glad she’ll be able to start fresh.”      “You never really told me what happened between you two.”      “You remember how she used to be dating Sam?”      “Yeah?”      “Do you know who Sam was dating before that?”      “Wait, you and Sam?” Diego asked.  “Really?”      “It was before we met.”      “I mean, obviously.  Pretty sure I know everyone that you’ve dated since we met.  But anyway, what’s our next move here?”      At that moment, someone walked in front of their cell.  It was the woman that had hired them.  “Good day gentlemen,” she said.      “How did you get in here?” Diego asked.      “I work here,” she said.  “Quite impressive work you did, even if the two of you did get caught.”      “Wait, what the hell is going on here?” Jacques asked.      “We needed to test for vulnerabilities in our security,” she said.  “After finding out that you two broke into a former apartment of Jack Masterson last year, we thought you’d be the perfect candidates, and were we ever right.”      “Wait, this whole thing was a setup?” Diego asked.  “Then our crew?”      “They were still paid, and are being let to go their own way,” she said.      “And the two of us?” Jacques asked.      “You’re being transferred to my custody,” she said.  “You see, I’m putting together a team of my own.”

#Jacques Dupont #Diego Serrano #Roz Montoya #Marcel Dupont #Darren Jefferson #Carlie #Diana Dalton #ESS #heist #Jon Teleros #Kate Zimmerman #Evelynn Woods #Luke Barnes #Pandaherbs #Winnipeg #Tales of WID 72 #Eric J. Barkman

[ericbarkman]

Tales of WID 72 #17 What’s in a Name?

     Green Man looked around the mess hall and saw a table with a few of his fellow fighter pilots: Cheddar Cheese, Pandaherbs, and Dino Chick.  After grabbing his food he went and sat down with them.  Cheddar Cheese and Pandaherbs were playing a game of Scrabble, and looked up as he sat down, while Dino Chick was reading her computer pad, and did not look away from it.      “How goes the game?” Green Man asked.      “We’ve just started, so it’s too early to tell,” Pandaherbs said.      “But this is going to help me out,” Cheddar Cheese said as he placed the word ‘cheddar’ on the board.  “Double word score, and a double letter score on the H.”      “Playing your own callsign, or at least a part of it,” Green Man said.  “Nice play.”      “Does that mean I have to play ‘panda’?” Pandaherbs asked as she looked at her tiles.  “Because I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.”      “How’d you get that callsign anyway?” Green Man asked.  “There’s gotta be a story behind Pandaherbs.”      “It’s not that interesting,” Pandaherbs said.      “Come on,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “There’s got to be something.”      “Well, how’d you get your’s?” Pandaherbs asked.      “Well, you remember how I was one of the test pilots for the Falcon-class space fighters?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      Green Man rolled is his eyes.  “No, you’ve never bragged about that dozens of times.”      “I mean, it was an honor to be picked for that, but…do either of you have any experience with them?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      “I got my start on the Eagle-class before switching to the Hawk-class,” Pandaherbs.  “I kind of miss the extra firepower, and I can’t imagine how bad the Falcon-class would be.”      “I’ve been on the Hawk-class my whole career,” Green Man said.      “Okay, well, the prototype versions of the Falcon-class had a problem with the environmental systems,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “Nothing disastrous, but after my first test flight, the cockpit smelled like cheese, really strongly so, and the flight crew started joking about that, and the name kind of stuck.”      “That’s hilarious,” Green Man said.  “Come on Pandaherbs, your story can’t be that bad.” “What about your story?” Pandaherbs asked.      “I mean, my story is about as boring as Dino Chick’s,” Green Man said.      “Hmm?” Dino Chick asked as she looked up from her computer pad.  “Did I hear my name?”      “Whatcha reading about?” Green Man asked.      “A new study suggesting that dinosaurs may have been a bit fuzzier than previously thought,” Dino Chick said.      “Cool, cool,” Green Man said as Dino Chick went back to her reading.      “Yeah, we all know she got her name from her love of dinosaurs,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “So what?  You love the color green?”      “I’m all about environmentally friendly solutions to problems,” Green Man said.  “Come on, you guys know that right?”      “Honestly no, I don’t think I did,” Cheddar Cheese said.      “Me neither,” Pandaherbs said.  “I don’t think it’s come up.”      “Huh, I’ll have to be more vocal, I guess,” Green Man said.  “But now we all know the reasons for each others’ names, except for your’s.”      “Okay, it goes back to when I first joined the ESS,” Pandaherbs said.  “Long before I even thought about becoming a pilot, but the nickname kind of stuck.  See, there was this thief we were after, and he used marijuana for medical purposes.  So I was posing as a dealer to try and find him, and I’m waiting at the meeting point, only he doesn’t show.”      “Okay, then what happened?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      “Okay, and I’m not bullshitting you on this, I waited an extra twenty minutes, when I heard someone coming up behind me, so I turned around, and there’s a panda there.”      “No, come on, that’s not true,” Green Man said.      “I swear it’s the truth,” Pandaherbs said.  “The agent training me kept making jokes about me trying to sell drugs to that panda for years afterward, and eventually it became a nickname.”      “Where did the panda even come from?” Cheddar Cheese asked.  “Was this in China?”      “No, apparently the panda had escaped from a zoo,” Pandaherbs said.  “It showing up was just a coincidence.”      “Come on, I don’t believe that,” Green Man said.      “Believe what you want,” Pandaherbs said.  “But that’s what happened.”

#Pandaherbs #Cheddar Cheese #Green Man #Dino Chick #UES #Unity #ESS #Hawk-class #Falcon-class #Eagle-class #Tales of WID 72 #Eric J. Barkman

[ericbarkman]

Tales of WID 72 #13 Disunity

     “And Lieutenant Commander Tanaka has increased shield efficiency by five percent,” Commander Katherine Tartovsky said as she was giving her report to Captain Benjamin Grayson.  She was the first officer about the UES Unity, and he always had her give a daily report on what was all happening on the ship.      “Excellent,” Benjamin said.  “We were cutting it pretty close in the battle against that Argosian warship, so that is a welcome development.”      “The next item on my list has to do with fraternization amongst the crew.”      “Regulations permit dating, as long as it’s not amongst members of the same department, or between department heads.”      “Yes, sir, unfortunately it has come to my attention that there are two cases where that’s being violated.”      “Which two cases?” Benjamin asked.      “Lieutenants Harris and Banman, as well as Lieutenants Anderson and Delgado.”      “Hmm, I’ll have to have a word with them.  Is there anything else?”      “No sir, that’s the final thing to report.”      “You wanted to see me, sir?” Lieutenant Jane Anderson asked as she entered Benjamin’s office.      “It’s been brought to my attention that there have been some breaches of regulations as of late,” Benjamin said.      “Sir?” Jane asked.  “What sort of breaches?”      “When out in deep space, when the only people you see a lot of days are other members of the crews, it’s only natural to form bonds.  That was understood when designing regulations regarding fraternization amongst starship crews.”      “Of course, sir.”      “So for most crew they are simply not allowed to date amongst their own department.  Department heads, however, are also not to date other department heads.”      “Of course, sir,” Jane said.  “I understand.”      “Excellent,” Benjamin said.  “You are an excellent security chief, and Lieutenant Delgado is an amazing fighter squadron leader, and I’d hate to lose either of you.”      “So yeah, that’s what the captain said,” Jane said as she finished explaining to Leandra Delgado what Benjamin had told her.      “That’s too bad,” Leandra said.  “We were having some fun.  Although he also asked me to go have a chat with him later, so that’s probably what that’s about.”      “He also has meetings scheduled with Wesley and Chuck.”      “What about Tanaka and Cerise?”      “What?  Are they seeing each other too?” Jane asked.  “Are all of the department heads seeing other department heads?  Either way, he’s probably just unaware of them.”      “Possibly, hopefully that’s all it is.”      “What do you mean?”      “Well, it looks like he’s talking with the same sex couples, but not the straight one.”      “Come in,” Benjamin said when he heard his door chime.  He looked up as Leandra entered his office.  “Ah, Lieutenant Delgado, please have a seat.”      “Of course, sir,” Leandra said as she sat down.      “Do you know why I called you here?”      “I have a pretty good idea.”      “Yes, I assumed Lieutenant Anderson would have talked with you by now.”      “Permission to speak freely, sir?”      “Go ahead.”      “How many relationships are you aware of that are against regulations?”      “Only two,” he said.  “Why?  Are there more I should be aware of?”      “There is a third I am aware of, but unlike the two you are dealing with, the third is a straight couple.”      “I hope you’re not insinuating that I am selectively enforcing rules as a result of my religious beliefs.”      “No, sir, I am simply pointing out how it looks.”      “What is the other couple?”      “Lieutenant Martel and Lieutenant Commander Tanaka,” Leandra said.      “Then I will talk with them as well,” Benjamin said.  “I was honestly unaware of this.”      Doctor Fareed Karim was just finishing up a physical on one of the fighter pilots that was in Leandra’s squadron, Pandaherbs.      “You seem to be in good health,” Fareed said.  “Although make sure to keep up with the stretches.  Spending time cooped up in a cockpit can definitely have an effect on your body.”      “Not a problem, Doctor,” Pandaherbs said as she stood up.  She left just as Benjamin arrived.      “Good to see you, Captain,” Fareed said.  “Here for you regular physical?”      “Another time, perhaps,” Benjamin said.  “I actually came here to ask for your opinion on something.”      “Of course, on what topic?”      “I notice that you’ve made multiple requests to UES Command regarding fraternization rules.  Specifically regarding department heads on a starship entering into relationships with other department heads.”      “It makes sense not to have people date within their own department, no doubt,” Fareed said.  “That can cause all sorts of issues.”      “The department heads are all also in the chain of command to captain the ship though, if something were to happen, which makes them a department of sorts.”      “If something were to happen to you, Commander Tartovsky would be in charge.  After her would be Lieutenant Commander Teng, and then Lieutenant Commander Tanaka.  So that’s three people that would be out of commission before it would become relevant.”      “Which is not an impossibility,” Benjamin said.      “Maybe not, but the ship is often out in unexplored space, and the only Humans are those aboard the ship.  You have a wife and family back home, but not everyone does and most Humans crave companionship, which can be important for mental health.  I’m not saying the rules should be completely gotten rid of, but perhaps that starship captains should be given a bit more leeway in their application.”      “You mentioned Commander Tanaka.  So then I assume you were already aware of the relationship he’s in.”      “I’m the chief medical officer aboard the ship,” Fareed said.  “There is a great deal I am aware of, or at least suspect.  In this case it was more of a suspicion than actually knowing.”      “Are there any other suspicions you have?”      “Of course, Captain, but I’m assuming you already know more than I do, and that’s why you’re here talking with me.”      “Even if I were to convince Command to amend the rules, is it really a good idea to let the relationships in question continue?  Tanaka and Martel aren’t even the same rank.  They may be in separate departments, but that is still a thing to consider.  And when it comes to Anderson and Delgado, Anderson is the chief of security.  That means that she has a certain level of authority on most people on the ship even outside of her department, and even more so on away missions, since she generally leads those.”      “Lieutenant Delgado is in charge of the fighter squadron though, so it’s not exactly like she goes on the same type of away missions.”      “True, that is a fair point.”      “I don’t suppose you have any issues with Harris and Banman though, beyond just the current status of regulations.”      “I don’t think it has any negative effect on ship operations,” Benjamin said.      “That’s a very specific way of answering that question,” Fareed said.  “Captain.”      “Perhaps.  My religious views are not something I push on those under my command, but that doesn’t erase them.  I’m sure you understand that.”      “Yes and no.  But it isn’t always easy to separate yourself like that.  Even if you don’t overtly evangelize, it can still affect how you interact with others, and how you make decisions.”      “Everyone has views on the world, and those views affect them in those ways,” Benjamin said.  “You can’t just pretend something is false, which you believe to be true.”      “That’s not what I’m saying, not exactly.  But plenty of people believe things to be true about you, based on your skin color, and even if they don’t overtly act on that, it still affects how they treat you.”      “Hmm,” Benjamin said.      A few hours later, Benjamin was talking with Admiral Jon Teleros over the long range comm.      “Yes, I have read the requests from Doctor Karim,” Jon said.  “And I will say, I don’t entirely disagree with him.”      “But you do partially disagree?” Benjamin asked.      “The UES is an interesting organization at this point.  It’s a military, no doubt, but not everyone in it has actual military training, since most of us were transferred over from the ESS.  Some, like you and I, were in the military as well, but not everyone was.  And the ESS is far more lax with fraternization rules.”      “That they are.”      “There have been debates at Command about the requests.  Most of those who previously served in a military are opposed, while those who did not are mostly in favor.  There are a few exceptions though, of course.  And I haven’t made an official decision either way.”      “Why not?”      “Well, for one thing everyone knows my history, so everyone is going to think I’m biased.”      “You and Isabel didn’t get together until later though.”      “True, but that’s never stopped the rumors.  And I’m already not exactly popular amongst the other admirals.  I’m not the only one pulling double duty with both the UES and ESS, but I am one of the more high-profile examples, and the one that deals with the stuff everyone else wants to ignore, or has to ignore.  Stuff like Harkon Smith’s department, or Aaron’s kid and his friends.”      “I don’t envy you on that,” Benjamin said.  “I hope to be a starship captain for as long as I can.”      “Yes, that’s something I’m sad to have missed out on, but let’s get back to your request.  If you want me to back your doctor on this, then I can do so.  I don’t know that it’ll do any good, but I can certainly try.”      The next day, Benjamin was in his office, when the door chimed.  “Come in,” he said, and Katherine entered.      “Sir,” she said.  “I’m here with the daily report.”      “Good morning, Commander,” Benjamin said.  “Please sit down.  What’s on the docket today?”      “Lieutenant Martel was wondering if we could divert course to run some more precise scans on a nearby system that’s giving off weird readings.”      “We are out here to explore, so I’d say that sounds like a good idea.”      “Next on the agenda, Lieutenant Harris has done some more work on translating the Uthrareenn language, and he is fairly certain that we inadvertently insulted them during the trade negotiations.”      “How insulting?”      “They may be charging us about double what they normally would.”      “Not ideal, but it could be worse,” Benjamin said.  “I’ll let the diplomats on Maltork Six know.”      “Next up, I heard about your conversation with Doctor Karim.”      “Did you now?”      “I have some concerns,” Katherine said.      “I can’t say that I don’t myself, but I’m more concerned with what you all heard of my conversation, and how?”      “I didn’t hear the details, just that it happened, and then I heard that Admiral Teleros finally took a position in the debate.”      “I did talk with him as well, if that’s what you’re insinuating.  I am impressed at how much you’ve been hearing.”      “As your first officer, it’s my job to be on top of things,” Katherine said.      “Indeed, which is why it’s somewhat surprising you didn’t hear about the relationship between Tanaka and Martel.”      “It must have slipped my notice.”      “Of course.  Unless there’s anything else, you are dismissed.”      “What can I do for you, sir?” Jane asked as the entered the captain’s office.      “How often do you check the ship for bugs?” Benjamin asked.      “With the size of the ship, and the size of my security staff, along with our other duties, the entire ship gets checked over the course of each week.  The details are all in my regular logs.”      “Yes, I was looking them over, and I notice you always have teams of two working together.”      “Of course,” Jane said.  “As much as Earth is trying to show off a united front when dealing with other worlds, we are still a world of many nations, and thus a ship with a crew of many loyalties.  Is there something specific you want to know?”      “What I am about to tell you stays between the two of us.”      “Of course, sir.”      “Commander Tartovsky was aware of a conversation I had with Doctor Karim.  She claims to not know the details, just that it happened, but I’m unconvinced.”      “She is the first officer,” Jane said.  “She is aware of the schedule we follow, and thus if she did plant anything, she’d know when to remove it.”      “Which is precisely my worry.  I’d like you to change up the schedule, but don’t update the files for now, just let your team know the details face to face.”      “Understood, sir.”      Jane was in sickbay with one of her security officers, Yun Liu, and they were scanning for listening devices, when Katherine came barging in.      “What’s going on in here?” Katherine asked.      “Just doing routine security sweeps,” Jane said.  “Nothing to worry about.”      “This isn’t scheduled for today,” Katherine said.      “Wasn’t scheduled for today, ma’am,” Jane said.  “The Captain asked us change around the schedule a bit.”      The scanner chose that moment to start beeping.  “We’ve found something,” Yun said.  She reached under the desk that scanner indicated, and pulled out a small listening device.      “Good find,” Katherine said.  “And I suppose it was a good call on the Captain’s part.”      “We’ll get this taken apart and studied right away,” Jane said.      “Of course.”  Katherine stepped aside, to let them pass through the door.      “What have you found out?” Benjamin asked as he entered the security room.      “Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?” Jane asked.      “The good news,” Benjamin said.      “The bug is Russian made,” Jane said.      “But the bad news?”      “We have nothing to tie it specifically to Commander Tartovsky.  She’s hardly the only Russian on the ship, plus it’s not like anyone else couldn’t have gotten a Russian listening device.”      “Keep working at it,” Benjamin said.  “But yeah, if we go forward with this, the Russians will claim we’re just trying to get rid of their person.”      “That’s why I’m leaving it out of my official reports for now,” Benjamin told Jon over the comm.  “But I thought you should know anyway.”      “Yeah, that’s a good call,” Jon said.  “If nothing else, knowing about it helps me understand some motivations better.  I think the Russians are trying to make you look bad.”      “Oh?”      “You’re the African-American captain of the first Earth starship.  A starship called Unity, and with an international crew, since we’re trying to portray ourselves as United Earth when dealing with the interstellar community.  But if they can show you applying regulations in a discriminatory fashion, that makes you look bad.”      “Based on reports from my Russian first officer though,” Benjamin said.  “They’d risk her looking bad as well.”      “It’s a risk they’re willing to take, I’m sure.  Russia is far more obvious in its homophobia than America.  And on top of that, she’s not exactly popular amongst her Russian colleagues and superiors.  She’s good enough at her job to have got this far despite it, but they wouldn’t consider it a major loss if her career was destroyed.”      Leandra entered the security command center, where Jane was still hard at work on learning about the listening device.  No one else was in the room, and Jane looked up at the intrusion.      “What are you doing here?” Jane asked.      “Curious, mostly, about what’s all been going on.”      “Not much I can share, I’m afraid.”      “I don’t even mean on the investigation, although the rumors on the ship about that are certainly interesting.”      “What are the rumors?”      “Everyone knows that a listening device was found, but there are various theories about what sort, and who placed it, and what this could mean for the future of both this starship and the United Earth Spacefleet in general.”      “All very good questions,” Jane said.  “We’re supposed to be a unified crew, but you take people from a bunch of varied backgrounds, each with their own cultures and prejudices, and sometimes it works out, but other time it doesn’t.  Not sure yet which this is going to be.”      “You wanted to see me, sir?” Katherine asked as she entered Benjamin’s office.      “Yes, please sit,” he said, and she did so.  “I’ll be frank.  You know all about the listening device we found, and neither of us are idiots.  We both know that you’re the one that placed it.”      “I doubt you have any evidence towards that,” Katherine said.      “That’s irrelevant.”      “If you’re trying to remove me from my position, accusations without evidence will only hurt your case.”      “Which is why I’m not trying to remove you.  I’m not going to lie, I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you, but I do respect you, and I do think you are good at your job.”      “Thank you?”      “I would very much like to trust you, but for that to happen, you’re also going to have to trust me.”      “How do you mean?”      “I’ve been looking over your service records, both ESS and Russian Armed Forces.  I, of course, did so back when you were first chosen as my first officer, but I’ve been giving them a closer look.  Specifically I’ve noticed several situations in which, despite ESS regulations, you ended up in situations where you had to choose between following ESS orders or Russian orders.”      “Real life is rarely as neat and tidy as the people making regulations wish it to be.”      “Oh, I am fully aware of that, but what interests me the most, is that in most of those situations, you chose to follow the ESS orders.”      “I made the best choices I could, based on what I knew at the time.”      “Do you regret any of them?”      “Some, but not all, and I also regret some of the times I made the opposite choice.”      “Well, now I feel like you’re in another of those situations,” Benjamin said.  “Your superiors in Russia want me out of the captain’s chair of this ship.  And they are trying to use this situation to that end.  So, you have a choice.  You can continue following their orders, and maybe you’ll succeed.  But ask yourself, why are you doing that?  Do you think I am a bad captain?”      “No, sir.  I may not agree with all of your decisions, but I do respect you.”      “Then is it about advancing your own career?  Perhaps your government is planning to recommend you as the new captain.  But if they don’t, what’s going to happen to you then?  If they manage to get a different Russian in as captain, the other governments are not going to be okay with this ship having both a Russian captain and first officer.  So then, you’ll be moving backwards in your career, laterally at best if the UES goes with another American captain, or really any non-Russian.”      “Like you said, that’s assuming they don’t recommend me,” Katherine said.      “You know your superiors and your government better than I do.  You tell me.”      “What do you want from me, hypothetically speaking?  If all this was true, and I admitted to it, I would be discharged anyway.”      “Give me the names, off the record, and we can move forward, with a greater sense of trust.”      “You know what bugs me about this whole situation though,” Leandra said.  She was still in the security room with Jane.      “That we weren’t even really a couple?” Jane asked.  “We were just having a bit of fun, letting off some steam.”      “It’s the fact that here we are in the year 2017, and we’re out here exploring the galaxy, and doing all this Star Trek shit, and yet not only are people still full of prejudice, but some are stoking that prejudice and using it for political gain.”      “People are flawed, and just because we’ve jumped forward in our understand of science and technology and the universe, that doesn’t just erase the flaws we have.  That’s part of why I joined security.  I keep seeing flaws in people, and want to keep them from hurting others as a result.”      “How’s that working out?”      “Dealing with physical threats is a lot easier than less tangible ones.”      “Don’t I know it.”      “So, I hear the vote went in our favor,” Benjamin said, over the long range comm.      “It went the way we wanted, thanks to the information your first officer provided,” Jon said.  “It remains to be seen if it’s in our favor or not.”      “What did you do with that list of names anyway?”      “I just had conversations with them.  Although the less you know about those conversations, the better.”      “Of course, sir.”      “That said, I’m sure there will be a cost to pay for this.  Politics is a never ending game, and while we might have the upper hand for the moment, that’ll hardly last.”

#Benjamin Grayson #Katherine Tartovsky #Jane Anderson #Leandra Delgado #Fareed Karim #Jon Teleros #Pandaherbs #Yun Liu #UES #Unity #Tales of WID 72 #Eric J. Barkman

[ericbarkman]

Tales of WID 72 #5 Just Gals Being Pals

     Lieutenants Jane Anderson and Leandra Delgado sat down in a booth at the back of the bar with their drinks and some food that Jane had ordered.      “What even is that?” Leandra asked.  “It looks disgusting.”      “It’s called garmuth,” Jane said.  “We had a Larusian cook on base when I was a teenager, so I picked up a taste for their cuisine.”      “I think it’s moving.”      “Well yeah, it’s supposed to be,” Jane said as she picked up a piece and tossed it in her mouth.  “So, what’s up?”      “What do you mean?”      “You wanted to meet for drinks, I assumed there was something you wanted to talk about.”      “I just meant as friends.  Or was that presumptuous?”      “I mean, I hadn’t really thought of us as friends.  Like, we never really interact outside of work related stuff.”      “Yeah, but to be fair we serve on a starship,” Leandra said.  “So we’re pretty much always at work, except when we’re able to go down to a planet for some time off.”      “True, not that Maltork Four is exactly where I’d consider going for recreation,” Jane said.  “And not just because the last time we were here was…well you know.”      “Yeah, that was certainly an odd situation.”      “No kidding.  Even aside from the classified part of that which we shouldn’t mention in public, there was that con artist, and we even had a CIA operative that had snuck aboard.”      “What happened with that operative anyway?” Leandra asked.  “Like, I had heard you had him tossed in the brig, but I never heard what happened to him next.”      “After we got back to Earth and helped with damage control, we just handed him back to the CIA.  It wasn’t exactly a time that different agencies could afford to be fighting with each other.”      “True that, true that.  Too bad that cooperation couldn’t have lasted.”      “It never does,” Jane said.      “So then, you know what I said to him?” Jane asked.  It was later in the evening, both of them had had a few drinks by this time, and Jane was talking about her teenage years.      “I’m going to guess it had something to do with where he could stick that trombone,” Leandra said.      “Pretty much, but he just kept playing it, so I just grabbed it and threw it out the window.  You know how far you can throw things on the moon?”      “I’m guessing pretty far.”      “Yeah, I had detention for a month after that, and I was grounded even longer.  Not that being grounded really meant a whole lot.  There’s not a lot of things to do on the Lunar Colony anyway.  At least not when I was living there.”      “Even still, it must have been pretty cool living on the moon.”      “I mean, yeah, there were definitely cool aspects, like the aforementioned gravity.  Very limited choices when it came to friends though.  And I’ve only been on three dates in my life.”      “What?  No.”      “I mean, after I finished high school, I joined the ESS pretty much right away, and I’ve been pretty focused on my career since.  This is the first time I’ve actually had a night out in the past five months.”      “We are going to change that.”      “How about that guy?” Leandra asked, as she pointed at a Urkotuon at the bar.      “That’s not a guy,” Jane said.  “Urkotuons don’t have gender, and they don’t do romance or sex.”      “Really?  That sounds boring.”      “It works for them.  You really aren’t that familiar with a lot of alien species, are you?”      “I generally just find out about them when I read a mission briefing.  I mean, I grew up on Earth and didn’t even know that aliens were real until I was asked to join the Unity.”      “Ah yeah, I guess I sometimes forget that aliens were kept secret on Earth until the Caldore invasion.  But as head of security I also need to make sure I know a wide range of customs, so I don’t inadvertently insult anyone while keeping people safe.”      “Yeah, I mostly just pilot my fighter and shoot people down when I need to.”      “You did manage to navigate the Yungoonch situation pretty well last month.”      “I got lucky on that,” Leandra said.  “But we’re not supposed to be talking about me being lucky, we’re supposed to be helping you get lucky.”      “I don’t know that this is the rest place,” Jane said.  “I mean, I’m not necessarily opposed to dating a non-Human, but if we’re just talking about sex, a lot of the time the parts don’t exactly line up.”      “You’d be surprised what you can manage,” Leandra said.  “I met a Forsoothian a couple months back, and we had quite the night together.”      “Man, you are the pickiest person I’ve ever met, turning down every suggestion I make,” Leandra said after another hour or so had passed.  “If you’re only wanting to date Humans, you’re pretty much gonna have to wait until we get back to Earth.  Or date someone on the crew.”      “I’m the chief of security,” Jane said.  “I can’t go dating someone on the crew.”      “Maybe one of my pilots.  I mean, my squadron is attached to the ship, but we’re not technically ship crew.  There’s a few of them over there.”  Leandra pointed to another table in the bar, where City Boy, Cheddar Cheese, and Pandaherbs were sitting.      “You can’t set me up with someone under your command,” Jane said.  “That’s a major conflict of interest.”      “I’m not setting you up, just letting you know the option is there.”      “I mean, I suppose that wouldn’t strictly be against regulations for me to date someone on your squadron.  But, like I said, dating’s not a big deal to me.  You’re the one who’s apparently made it her mission to set me up with someone.”      “If I’m pressing too much, I can back off,” Leandra said.      “No, it’s fine,” Jane said.  “Kind of amusing actually, I mean, we’re just joking around right.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  What about you?  Anyone special in your life?”      “Plenty of special people,” Leandra said.  “I’m not really one to limit myself to monogamy.  I’ve had a few boyfriends and girlfriends over the years, but never anything really serious.”      “Girlfriends?”      “Yeah, that’s not a problem is it?”      “No, of course not.  My best friend is a lesbian.”      “And you?”      “I don’t know,” Jane said.  “I mean, all the dates I’ve been on were with guys, but like I mentioned, that’s only been three dates.”      “Hmm.”      “Wait, was this supposed to be a date?”      “No, if it was intended to be a date, I’d be very clear with that upfront,” Leandra said.      “Could it become a date?”      “I mean, maybe, but we’re both pretty drunk at this point.  It might not be the best idea.”      “Yeah, maybe not.”      The next morning, Jane went down to the cafeteria on the ship for some coffee and breakfast.  There were a few other people in the cafeteria, including Leandra, who Jane went and sat down across from.  “Morning,” Jane said.      “Sleep well?” Leandra asked.      “Not really, and I have a pretty bad hangover now.  You?”      “I slept okay, but yeah, definitely have a hangover too.  Last night was fun though, right.”      “Yeah, but about what we were talking about near the end there.”      “About us dating?”      Jane looked around, but no one seemed to be paying them any attention.  “Yeah, that.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re a lot of fun, and really gorgeous...”      “But…”      “But I mean, even if you aren’t technically part of the crew, you do still live on the ship, and work with us.”      “I hear Wesley and Chuck have started seeing each other,” Leandra said.      “Neither of them are in charge of security.  They are the chief of communications and piloting, which means not a lot of conflict of interest there.  Still technically a breach of regulations, but as long as they keep it on the down low, they’ll probably be fine.”      “I mean, I don’t want to give you the wrong idea either though.  I’m not looking for anything serious, I date casually, so if that’s not something you’re interested in, it’s a moot point anyway.”      “Yeah, I don’t know,” Jane said.      That night Leandra returned to her quarters after running combat drills with her squadron.  She was in the middle of trying to figure out how she was going to explain the amount of repairs that Team Fancy’s fighter was going to need after simple training exercises, when her door chime rang.      “Come in,” she said as she put her computer pad down.      The door slid open, and Jane came in.  “Hi,” she said.      “Hello,” Leandra said.  “What can I do for you?”      “I’ve been thinking about our conversation, and about what I want, and about my job and such.”      “Okay?”      “I mean, like I was telling you, I’ve never really had much time for dating because of my job, so maybe something more casual would be a better idea for me at this time.”      “If that’s what you want, then I’m game,” Leandra said.  “Just as long as you’re not planning on trying to change me.  If you decide you do want an exclusive relationship with someone, that’s not going to be me.”      “No, yeah, I understand that.”      “Excellent, so what do you want to do now then?”      “I don’t know exactly,” Jane said.  “Not a lot of experience in this area.”      “Why don’t you come sit down with me?”      “Right.”  Jane sat down next to Leandra, and looked at her.  She leaned over, and Leandra leaned back, and they kissed.

#Leandra Delgado #Jane Anderson #Pandaherbs #Cheddar Cheese #City Boy #Maltork Four #Forsoothian #Urkotuon #Chuck Banman #Wesley Harris #Tales of WID 72 #Eric J. Barkman

[ericbarkman]

Tales of WID 72 #2 Dogfights and Duels

     “All pilots report in,” the squad leader, Lieutenant Leandra Delgado, aka Eyepatch said as she flew her fighter through space, the rest of the squadron following behind her.      “Cheddar Cheese here, reporting in,”      “Shiny Wheels here, I am good to go.”      “Dynamite Breath, checking in.”      “City Boy, all systems are good.”      “Pandaherbs, no problems here.”      “Geekstuff, I am a-okay.”      “Supply Drop, ready and waiting.”      “Dino Chick here, all systems are go.”      “Team Fancy, good to go, and a little bit bored.”      “Green Man, everything checks out.”      “Doctor Salt, ready to go.”      “Okay,” Eyepatch said.  “Let’s do this.  Follow me.”  Her fighter moved down towards the moon, with the others following behind.      Dino Chick checked her sensors as the squadron entered the atmosphere.  The atmosphere was pretty similar to that of Earth, although with slightly differing concentrations of a few gases, but still breathable if they had to leave their fighters for any reason.      Her sensors also picked up the Yungoonch military base that they were here to investigate.  There were fighter craft there, but they were all on the ground.  The sensors were picking up twenty-eight of them.      Eyepatch opened a comm channel to the Yungoonch base.  “Attention Yungoonch military, this is Lieutenant Leandra Delgado, squad leader of the fighter squadron attached to the UES Unity.  We are here to investigate your base on the authority of the Galactic Community.  Do we have permission to land?”      “Permission not granted,” the Yungoonch commander replied.  “We do not accept your authority.  Please leave immediately, or your fighters will be shot out of the sky.”      “I’m sorry, but we have a job to do here, and we intend to do it,” Eyepatch said.  “We’d prefer your cooperation, but if we don’t have it, we’re still coming in.”      “Then prepare to die.”  The commander cut the comm channel.      Eyepatch switched back to the squadron channel.  “Okay people, looks like we’re going to have a fight on our hands.”      Shiny Wheels glanced at the sensors, showing the twenty-eight fighters approaching their squadron.  She smiled as she switched from general flight mode, to fight mode.  The wings opened up to reveal increased weapons over the basics that were always visible.  It also increased maneuverability and acceleration at the cost of top speed.      Dynamite Breath launched a pair of missiles at an incoming fighter, before going down to avoid some return fire.  He looped back around, and came up behind the fighter, which had managed to avoid his missiles.  He started firing at it with his energy auto-cannons.      The fighter started evasive maneuvers to try and get out of the way, but he was still getting a few shots on it.      “I’ve got one on my tail,” Supply Drop said, over the comm.      “I’m on it,” Pandaherbs said.  “Just try and stay alive long enough for me to take it out.”      “No promises, I’m updating my will now, just in case.”      “Oh yeah, what do I get?”      “Nothing, I want to make sure you don’t have any incentive to take your time.”      “Fine, fine, but you owe me for saving your life.”      “I’ll buy you a coffee.”      “Your life is only worth a coffee?”      “Fine, two coffees,” Supply Drop said as the fighter behind him was taken out by Pandaherbs.      Doctor Salt checked her sensors.  Five of the enemy fighters had been taken out so far, although so had one of theirs, City Boy, although he had managed to eject before his fighter had been destroyed.  She noticed one of the enemy fighters was veering down, possibly to shoot down his parachute.      Doctor Salt went after the fighter, and started firing at it.  She scored a few hits, not enough to destroy it, but enough for it to turn away from its course, to try and get out of the line of fire.  She kept on it though, continuing her firing as she followed it through the clouds.      Green Man flew through the explosion of the fighter he had just destroyed.  He checked his damage readouts.  His shields were down to forty-nine percent, so he was still in decent shape.  He checked his sensors, and found a new target to go after.      Apparently his target decided to go after him as well, as he realized they were headed straight towards each other, in a deadly game of chicken.  He launched a pair of missiles at the target, who shot them down.  So then he started firing his energy auto-cannons at his opponent, who was also firing back at him.      Shields were now down to thirty-four percent, as they were getting closer and closer to each other.  He could not tell what his opponent’s shields were at, but at least some of his shots were getting through to the fighter itself, so clearly it was not in the best of shape.      The distance between them continued closing, as they were only about half a minute from crashing into each other.  Shields were at twenty-eight percent.  Twenty seconds left.  Twenty-one percent.  Ten seconds left.  Twelve percent.  Green Man fired another missile, which impacted the enemy fighter.  It did not cause it to explode, but it started going down, just before Green Man would have flown into it.      He checked the sensors, and saw that it was going into a downward spiral, before crashing into the surface below.      Cheddar Cheese braked hard as he noticed an enemy fighter coming at him from behind.  It still managed to get a few hits on him, before rocketing past him, at which point he started accelerating to chase after it.      He launched a missile at it, opening a hole in its shield, which he poured energy auto-cannon fire into before it closed.  He did some decent damage, when he noticed another enemy fighter coming up behind him.  He tried the same maneuver, but this one had apparently seen him try it the first time, as they were not fooled, and stayed behind him.      He checked his shields as he was pelted from behind.  They were down to twelve percent, as he had already been sustaining a decent amount of damage throughout the battle.      The enemy fighter in front of him was still not that far off, so he set a collision course for it, and set his fighter to maximum acceleration.  He guessed that he had damaged its sensors, as the pilot did not even attempt to evade.  Cheddar Cheese hit his eject button, and shot out of his fighter, right as it crashed into the enemy, destroying them both.      “Man, and I just got a custom paint job on that thing,” he said as he started falling, and his parachute deployed.      Team Fancy flew towards two of the enemy fighters that were in formation, and then activated the tractor beam she had recently jury-rigged to her fighter.  She locked onto one of the enemy fighters, and used the tractor beam to veer it into the other one, destroying both of them.      “Sweet, it worked,” she said to herself before her internal sensors showed the tractor beam apparatus catching fire.  “Shit.”  She hit the button that was meant to disconnect it if anything went wrong, but apparently things were going wrong enough that the button did nothing.  “Shit, shit, shit.”      She opened up the missile targeting program and rewrote a few parts of it, before launching off a missile.  It started flying away from her ship, but curved around, and started coming back.      “Something wrong with your missiles?” Geekstuff asked over the comm.  “Looks like one is going back to hit you.”      “No, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s under control,” Team Fancy said.  “I have everything under control.”      As the missile came closer and close, she checked and double checked her angle, and the missile’s angle.  The missile skimmed along the bottom, not actually touching her fighter, with the exception of the tractor beam apparatus which was hanging off the bottom of her ship.      As it was torn off, she lost control of her fighter as it went into a downward spiral.  She checked the internal sensors, the fire was gone with the apparatus.  She then tried to take back control of her fighter as it continued to careen downwards, the ground getting closer and closer.      The inertial dampeners had also been damaged as the tractor beam had been routed through that, which meant she had to slow her descent slowly.  As the ground got closer and closer, she slowly started levelling off, until she straightened out just as she was skimming the ground.      “You’re down to twelve fighters,” Eyepatch said over the comm to the Yungoonch.  “We still have nine in the air.  That means we’ve taken out sixten of yours while you’ve only taken down three of ours.  Surrender and you won’t have to lose anymore.”      “Yungoonch do not surrender,” the Yungoonch commander said.  “But perhaps we can reach an agreement.  You and I can meet, face to face, one on one, but not in the base.  In the wilderness outside.”      “There’s a lake I noticed a few kilometers from your base.  How about we meet on the south side of it.”      “That would be acceptable.  Remember, just the two of us.”      Eyepatch brought her fighter in for a landing.  She then climbed out of her fighter, after making sure that her energy pistol was at her side, and walked over to the lakeside, as she heard a teleporter effect there, and the Yungoonch commander appeared.  He was alone, just like he had promised.      “I’m here, alone just like you asked,” Eyepatch said as she looked up at his face on his ten foot tall body.      “Good, good.  Then we can discuss this properly.”      “Our mission here was to investigate your base because of the claims of the Bisnians that you’ve been developing weapons to use against them.”      “The situation between us and the Bisnians is our business, not yours.”      “They asked for help, and the Galactic Community asked as to look into it, since we were in the area.”      “That’s just like the Bisnians, running to others like cowards.”      “What kind of agreement were you hoping to make here?” Eyepatch asked.      The commander took two swords off of his back and threw one in front of Eyepatch.  “A duel,” he said.  “One on one, to the death.  If you win my people have been instructed to allow you to inspect the base.  If I win, your people are to leave.”      Eyepatch eyed the sword in front of her that was longer than she was tall.  “I’m not sure that sword is quite my size.”      “If you wish to provide your own close combat weapon, that would be acceptable.”      “I may need one of my people to fly one down here.”      “Also acceptable, as long as they leave immediately afterwards.”      “Eyepatch to everyone,” she said over the comm after returning to her fighter.  “Does anyone have a close combat weapon I can use for this duel?”      “I have a stun baton,” Pandaherbs said.      “Do explosives count?” Dynamite Breath asked.      “No, explosives don’t count,” Eyepatch said.  “And I don’t know if a stun baton would be acceptable.”      “I have a rapier,” Team Fancy said.  “You can borrow that if you want.”      “Yeah, sure, just send it down here and hopefully it’ll work out for me,” Eyepatch said.      Eyepatch grasped her borrowed rapier, as the Yungoonch commander stood across from her with his massive sword.  She knew all he needed was one good hit, so she would have to use her smaller size to her advantage.      The commander ran at her, and she rolled out of the way, managing to come up right behind him.  She slashed at the back of his left leg, but did not do too much damage before he whipped around, swinging his sword at her.  She ducked and it missed her by centimeters.      But he then kicked out her legs from under her, and she fell onto her back.  He brought the sword up and them struck it down at her, but she rolled to the right just before he made contact.  It was a pretty forceful hit, and she was able to roll a bit further, and jump back to her feet, while he was pulling the sword out of the ground.  She also managed to get in another few slashes on the left leg, before backing off as he turned to face her again.      “You’re better than I thought you’d be,” he said.  “But your luck can’t last forever.  All I need is one good hit.”      “Then come and get it,” Eyepatch said as she surveyed the area for anything she could use to her advantage.      The commander ran at her again, and Eyepatch ran as well, but at an angle to run past him, and towards a nearby tree, which she went behind.  He came up after her, and started swinging his sword at her as he tried going around the tree, but she kept moving and he kept just hitting the tree.      Eventually one of those hits was hard enough to lodge the sword in the tree, and Eyepatch used the opportunity to get a few more hits on him while he pulled it out.  She was continuing to concentrate on the left leg, in the same area, and it was getting pretty bloody by this point.  Then, right as he pulled his sword from the tree, she had injured him enough that he fell onto his back.      Eyepatch leapt to the side to avoid him landing on her and towards his word hand, which she stabbed, pinning it to the ground, and causing him to drop his sword.      “Surrender,” Eyepatch said.      “I already told you, Yungoonch do not surrender,” he said.  “Kill me and you win.  Let me live, and you do not.”      “And what did you learn during the inspection of the base?” Captain Benjamin Grayson asked as Eyepatch gave her report.      “They have indeed been developing weapons to use against the Bisnians,” she said.  “As well as gathering a significant amount of intel on them.”      “Hmm, we’ll send the information to the Bisnians, and they can do with it as they will, which I believe concludes our business in this system.  We’ll have to head back to Earth to replace the fighters your squadron lost.”      “Of course, sir,”      “I’m just glad none of the pilots were killed,” Benjamin said.      “Yeah, we got lucky on that.”      “Luck has nothing to do with it.  You’re the best of the best, and you showed that today.  Dismissed.”      Eyepatch went down into the meeting room that her squadron used on the starship.  They were celebrating their win, eating cake and other foods, drinking various drinks, and having fun.  Someone had set up a pool table, and a few of them were playing a game of that.  Some of the others were just talking and laughing, and Team Fancy was just leaning back in a chair, and enjoying a beer.  But they all turned to face her as she entered the room.      “You all did good out there today,” Eyepatch said.  “And I’m giving you all tomorrow off, so feel free to celebrate as much as you want tonight.”      There were cheers at that, as everyone went back to what they were doing.  Eyepatch went and sat down next to Team Fancy.  “Thanks again for the use of your rapier,” she said.      “Not a problem,” Team Fancy said.  “I do have a question though.  Permission to speak freely?”      “Go ahead.”      “Did you actually kill the Yungoonch commander?”      “Enjoy the party,” Eyepatch said as she got up and headed for the door.

#Leandra Delgado #Eyepatch #Cheddar Cheese #Shiny Wheels #Dynamite Breath #City Boy #Pandaherbs #Geekstuff #Supply Drop #Dino Chick #Team Fancy #Green Man #Doctor Salt #Benjamin Grayson #UES #Unity #Yungoonch #Bisnians #Tales of WID 72 #Eric J. Barkman

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #40 Trust is a Curious Thing

     Melinda Summers looked into the cell where Deanna was lying in a bed, with an IV connected to keep her sedated.  Even though she knew the door was locked, she checked one more time , just to be sure.      “Everything seems to be just the way we left it,” Mary Bishop said as she came up beside Melinda.      “That’s good,” Melinda said.  “At least as good as anything regarding this situation is.”      “So, what are we going to do about it?”      “I’ve been going over the files on all of the guards and other employees Deanna had here.  They seem to have mostly been taken from 1984, which is good as it’ll be relatively simple to return them home with their memories of this erased.”      “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll be very easy now that we’ve allied ourselves with the Temporal Development Division.”      “Still not a fan of that decision?” Melinda asked.      “Why wouldn’t I be a fan of that?  It’s not like they’ve erased our memories before.  Or brainwashed you to turn on us.  Or killed my father.  Oh wait.”      “If it weren’t for Rupert Teleros being in charge now, I’d have the same reservations.  Not to say that I don’t still have any concerns, like the fact that we’re already the ESS time division, and now we’re also going to be the operations team for the TDD.  But at least my concerns are lessened.  And in the meantime, our bigger problem is what to do with Deanna.”      “The brainwashing won’t work on her?”      “It might.  It might not.”      “Right, right, I know, I know, she’s complicated.  Speaking of, what about Sesla?  Are we still going to be working with her, considering she’s Deanna’s future self?”      “I mean, that’s a millennium of difference.  Not to mention that Deanna’s recent actions have taken her in a different direction than Sesla ever went.”      “Still, it might be better to keep her in the coma for now,” Mary said.      Meanwhile in the team’s base in the Cretaceous, Jack Masterson and the Ghost of his temporal duplicate were in Harkon Smith’s office.      “Doctor Quill has finished growing the clone body for Imhotep,” Ghost Jack said.  “So we’ll be able to transfer his consciousness soon.”      “That is good to hear,” Harkon said.  “There weren’t any complications with the new process?”      “Doesn’t seem like it,” Ghost Jack said.  “Everything seems fine.”      “So, I take it we’ll be growing a clone body for Sesla next,” Jack said.      “That’s what I wanted to talk with you about,” Harkon said.      “You don’t trust her, do you?” Jack asked.  “I mean, dumb question, of course you don’t.”      “As different from Deanna as she may be, she does still have her own agenda,” Harkon said.      “True,” Jack said.  “But it’s not like she’s the only person we have working here that does.”      “The difference is that everyone else here is on much more equal footing,” Harkon said.  “We were barely able to defeat Merlin.  If Sesla turned on us, there’s little we’d be able to do.”      “So, does that mean we aren’t going to be growing a new body for her?” Jack asked.      “We’ll have Doctor Quill start on it,” Harkon said.  “But I have not yet decided if we’ll follow through on that.  Understood?”      “You’re the boss, boss,” Jack said.      “Understood,” Ghost Jack said.      Melinda was supervising a team that was bringing several of Deanna’s guards outside to be teleported up to the UES starship Unity.  While most of the United Earth Spacefleet were unaware of time travel, there were a few high ranked individuals who were and who allowed the ESS time division to use some of their resources at times.      “Uh, Melinda, could I have a moment of your time?” Abigail Esau asked as she came running up.      “Sure, what’s going on?” Melinda asked.      “I’ve been going over the information we have on the temporal anomalies on this planet, and I’m concerned that just because we’ve stopped Deanna once, she may still continue to pose a threat.  Versions of her from before we stopped her could travel through a temporal anomaly and then we’d be in trouble again.”      “Hmm, yes, that would be a problem.  The anomalies are much different that what we’re used to dealing with.  They provide a much different set of problems than the time doors or even the Palore timeships.  Do you have any ideas on how to deal with it?”      “Short of destroying this planet in the past, no, not really.  And I’d be worried about what effect that would have on the timeline, especially because of the stuff involving alternate universes.”      “Yes, well we do have Tesla and ERK-147 working on studying this planet, so we’ll see what they come up with,” Melinda said.      Nikola Tesla threw a ripe apple a few meters in front of himself.  He then walked to it, but in a circular path so as to avoid the temporal anomaly.  He found the apple, rotten as if it had been there for a few months.      “Interesting,” he said.  “ERK-147, how big is that anomaly?”      “While less than a meter wide, it extends several kilometers up,” the little bot said.  “It also extends approximately three meters underground.”      “Fascinating,” Nikola said.  “Did the anomaly mapping from the Majestic include the underground portions?”      “It did not.  They only mapped the ones in the atmosphere.”      “We’ll have to complete the maps they started first of all.  That’s the number one thing.  And then we’ll do the second thing.”      “Which is?”      “That’s an extremely good question.  We need to determine how exactly this planet works in this method.  Objects managing to be on the borders of different times.  The fact that this apple and I started in the same time and location, but now we’re in a different time and location, but have experience a different amount of time getting there.  We are on the cusp of great discoveries here, and it’s really quite invigorating.”      Ghost Jack put one of his hands on the comatose Imhotep’s head, and the other on the head of the clone body they had made of Imhotep.  Both bodies were pressed up next to each other.      “Let’s hope this works,” Ghost Jack said before entering both of them simultaneously.      Imhotep’s dream was much the same as it had been the last time he was there, looking like Imhotep’s old home back in Egypt.  But at the same time he was entering what would have been the clone’s dream, if it had a mind.  However, being mindless, all he found was a vast nothingness.  The last time he had tried something like this it was very uncomfortable, but this time it was actually painful.      “Welcome back,” Imhotep said.  “Is it working?”      “It hurts, but seems to be working as intended,” Ghost Jack said.  “So, let’s try transferring you across.”      Ghost Jack took Imhotep’s hand, and tried bringing him over to the clone body.  It felt like a migraine extended across his entire body, which was really weird considering he was a ghost and had no body.  But as the pain faded, Ghost Jack realized that the clone body now had the dream world, while the original was now empty.      “It seems to have worked,” Ghost Jack said.      “Seems that way,” Imhotep said.      Ghost Jack exited back into the med lab.      “Did it work?” Doctor Jeri Quill asked.      “We think so,” Ghost Jack said.      Jeri gave the clone body a stimulant, and after a bit it woke up.      “Imhotep, is that you?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yes, it is I,” Imhotep said as he sat up.  He looked at his original body lying next to him.  “This is very strange.”      “Yeah, but at least you won’t have to regularly see a second you,” Ghost Jack said.  “That’s when things really get weird.”      “What are we going to do with my old body?” Imhotep asked.      “It’s your body, so it’s your choice,” Jeri said.      Over in the cafeteria, Jack was having lunch with Dorian Winters and Philip Wilson.      “Yeah, it took some work, but we managed to stop Deanna from whatever she was planning,” Jack said.      “So, you don’t even know what she was up to?” Philip asked.      “Well, we know she was trying to become more powerful, so that she could kill Sesla without us being able to stop her,” Jack said.  “Still don’t know why though.”      “Killing her own future self,” Dorian said.  “I can’t even imagine what her motives for that could be.”      “Yeah, well, for now we have to figure out what to even do with her, in order to get the timeline back on track so Sesla is still her future self.”      “Can’t we just brainwash her?” Philip asked.      “That’s the plan,” Jack said.  “The difficulty is ensuring that it sticks.  You know how much trouble we’ve had with Aphrodite on that matter.”      “Please sit down,” Rupert Teleros said as Harkon entered his office at TDD headquarters.      “Thank you,” Harkon said as he took his seat.      “I read your report on the events at this rogue planet.  Have you determined yet how Deanna even found out about it in the first place?  Or where this Chloe that she bought additional information off of, was able to get it from?”      “Not yet, we’re still working on trying to figure it all out.  Were you aware of this planet beforehand?”      “No, we were not, and that’s very worrying.  That someone in the twentieth century has this sort of information without us knowing about it, it’s unprecedented.”      “We are doing our best to look into it, although we are also having to deal with the cleanup on the planet.  Not to mention learning more about it, which itself is taking resources from our investigations into alternate universes.”      “No, I understand.  Although if you need more personnel, I can arrange that.”      “No offense, but our people are already some of the best,” Harkon said.      “Oh, no doubt you have quality, but at times I’m sure you could also use more quantity.  But if you don’t think that’s currently a concern, then I’ll trust your judgement.  In the meantime, I do have another thing to add to your plate though.”      “So, what have you learned?” Melinda asked as Nikola and ERK-147 entered her makeshift office.      “The temporal anomalies on this planet are like nothing we’ve encountered before,” Nikola said.      “Yes, I already knew that,” Melinda said.      “I don’t just mean in the effects,” Nikola said.  “I mean in the way they interact with time.”      “My sensors can detect the anomalies just fine,” ERK-147 said.  “But they read completely differently than the time doors or the Palore time drives.  If I had just detected them without knowing their significance, I would not have even known they affected the timestream.”      “So, what does that mean?” Melinda asked.  “Is there a way we can get rid of them?”      “It’s too early to tell,” ERK-147 said.      “But the other question is if we want to,” Nikola said.      “Abigail brought up the possibility that because of them, even though we’ve defeated Deanna, she could still try again from before we did so,” Melinda said.  “I can’t say I’d want to risk that possibility if we can avoid it.  Especially since we only defeated her thanks to someone from an alternate universe that we might never be able to bring back here.”      “It’s true,” Nikola said.  “That is a risk.  But also, think of the possibilities it could bring.  The whole reason we’ve agreed to work for the TDD was for access to more time periods.  But if we could learn to harness the natural forces on this planet, we wouldn’t need them anymore.”      “You wanted to see me?” Jack asked as he entered Harkon’s office.      “Yes, come in please,” Harkon said.      “I hear you just came back from the TDD base.”      “I did, and they have a mission they’d like us to take care of.”      “Sure we don’t have enough to deal with already?”      “Melinda is in charge of the stuff on the rogue planet, and as for investigating your friend Chloe to find out where she got her information on it, we can’t exactly send you for that.”      “I suppose not.  So is this mission from the TDD something I’ll be doing on my own then?”      “You can take a few agents with you, if you think it’ll be necessary, but I don’t know that it will be,” Harkon said.      “What’s the mission?”      “You’re not going to like it.  But we need to return the time door in 2349 to the space station Oracle.”      “So the TDD can continue their experiments there?” Jack asked.  “After all the effort we went into to stop that?”      “All we did was prevent them from further altering the timeline in that area.  We never did anything to fix the changes they had already made.”      “Even still, letting them back in there…”      “Is exactly the sort of thing we expected when we agreed to join them,” Harkon said.  “I’m not too happy about it, but the Palore are the bigger problem now.”      “Are they though?  We haven’t even encountered them in a while.  Doesn’t it seem awfully convenient that just as we are becoming a bigger and bigger threat to the TDD, that suddenly a new enemy causes us to ally with them.”      “Is this your knowledge powers kicking in, or just speculation?”      “Just speculation, for now,” Jack said.  “I’ll do this mission, but I am wary of it.”      “Quite a lot to get done here,” Mary said as she sat down with Abigail for lunch.      “Yeah, I’ve been working non-stop for the past eight hours,” Abigail said.  “There’s so much to go through.”      “I think you’ve been staring at computer screens a bit too long then,” Mary said.  “And your eyes are getting a bit red.”      “Yeah, well, we need to be prepared if Deanna attacks again.”      “Ah yeah, I was hearing about your theories earlier from Melinda.  Do you ever miss the old days, before all this time travel stuff?”      “Even before time travel stuff, I don’t really miss much from after the incident.  You?”      “I don’t know.  I mean, it was certainly simpler back when I was just a simple farm girl in the 1870s.  But I don’t know if it was better.”      “If I was still in 2017, we wouldn’t have met though, so there’s that.  I mean, I suppose we’re in 2017 right now, temporal anomalies aside, but that’s only because we’re on a mission.”      “Yeah, I definitely don’t want us to have never met,” Mary said.      “And even if life is a lot more complicated now, we probably won’t be doing this all our lives.  Maybe one day we can get married and settled down, and live a more normal life.”      “And we could choose from any number of time periods to live in.  Preferably your time or further in the future though.”      “Eh, even in my time people can be plenty homophobic.  My hometown is a pretty good example of that.”      Philip and Dorian were sitting at a table in a bar, nursing their drinks, while trying to figure out their next move.  They kept glancing at the table in the back where Chloe was sitting.      “She’s not going to just tell us the source of her information,” Philip said.      “Well, not for free, obviously,” Dorian said.  “That’s why we need to offer her a decent chunk of change.”      “I don’t think we’ll be able to offer her enough for that.  Giving up sources isn’t exactly a good long term business strategy.”      “Then what are we supposed to do?  Just sit here hoping she meets her source while we’re watching?  Who knows how long that could take, assuming it even does.  Plus we can’t risk spending too much time here and accidentally messing up Jack’s timeline from when he was in this era previously.”      “No, we need to figure out where Chloe lives, and search her place when she’s out,” Philip said.      “So, we’re just supposed to follow her home?  In her business, I’m pretty sure she’ll notice if she’s being followed.  Hell, she’s probably already figured out that we’re watching her.”      “Maybe we can use that.  Convince her that we’re checking her out, and one of us goes and hits on her?”      “We’re a gay couple.”      “Yeah, but she doesn’t know that.”      “You want to do what?” Sandra Rodriguez asked.      “Hire you to fly me to the space station Oracle,” Jack said.      “The last time you did that, I was trapped there for months.”      “It’ll be easier this time.  We don’t have to worry about the mercenaries now.”      “Oh yeah?”      “Yeah.”      “Do I want to know why?”      “Probably not,” Jack said.      “And you want to bring the time door with?  After all the work it took us to get it off there in the first place, you want to go and just bring it back?”      “Yeah, we have our reasons for doing so.”      “I mean, I’m going to charge extra for this.  A lot extra.”      “Yeah, no worries.  We can cover it.”      “Hey,” Philip said as he went up to the table where Chloe was sitting.  “How’s it going?”      “Not interested,” Chloe said without even looking at him.      “Not interested in what?  All I asked was how’s it going.”      “You and your buddy over there have been checking me out all evening.  But I’m not interested.”      “Right, sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you.”      “Could you also make sure your friend doesn’t bother me next?”      “Yeah, yeah,” Philip said before returning to the table with Dorian.      “So, how’d it go?” Dorian asked.      “Didn’t work, we’ll have to figure something else out.”      “That’s the last of them,” Mary said to Melinda as they watched the final of Deanna’s employees being teleported up to the Unity.  “It’s just Deanna herself we still have down here.”      “Hmm, yes,” Melinda said.  “Could you send Abigail up there to make sure they are ready to receive her?”      “Of course.”      “And then meet me by Deanna’s cell with all of the other agents we have on planet.  Except the science teams.”      “Right away.”      “They have phone books in this era, right?” Philip asked.  “If we can just find out Chloe’s last name, we can look her up in the phone book.”      “And how are we going to manage that?” Dorian asked.  “Jack doesn’t even know it.”      “Then we’ll just have to try following her and hope she doesn’t notice us.”      “It’s too bad we can’t just go invisible…”      Philip and Dorian looked at each other, their eyes wide.  “Dammit, how did we not think of that sooner?” Dorian asked.      “I guess we’re just idiots, but we thought of it now.”      “Can’t have her seeing regular Jack, but we don’t have to worry about her seeing Ghost Jack.”      Mary joined Melinda at Deanna’s cell, along with another two dozen agents.  Every one of those twenty-four agents had their weapons at the ready as Melinda and Mary entered the cell.  Mary checked the IV, to make sure it was still secure, while Melinda checked the medical scanner to make sure that Deanna was still fully sedated.      Mary and Melinda started rolling the bed containing Deanna out of the cell, while every other agent had their weapons trained on Deanna.  They went down the hallways, taking the shortest path to an exit.  Every time they went over a bump on the floor, everyone tensed up for a moment, before they continued on.      But they eventually got outside without incident, and Melinda activated her comm to the Unity.  “We’re ready,” she said.  “Get a lock, and teleport us up.”      Ghost Jack floated down into the gym, where Imhotep was working out.  “So, how’s the new body treating you?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I mean, I know it’s genetically identical to my previous body,” Imhotep said.  “But it feels different.  It’s going to take some getting used to.”      “Yeah, I can imagine.  I don’t know how comparable it is to back when I first became a Ghost, but I’m sure there are parallels.”      “Possibly, I suppose I just need to give it some time.”      “Ghost Jack, please report to the time door room,” they heard over the PA system.      “Guess someone needs me for something,” Ghost Jack said.      “How long until we get to Earth,” Melinda asked after going up to the bridge.      “Should be a day or two,” Captain Benjamin Grayson said.  “Mr. Banman, can you give a more specific estimate?”      Lieutenant Chuck Banman looked down at his piloting console.  “Thirty-five hours and nineteen minutes.”      “I’d prefer faster, but if that’s the best we can manage, it’ll have to do,” Melinda said.      “We could go faster, but it would involve going through hostile territory, which I’d prefer to avoid,” Benjamin said.  “And we don’t want to be starting any wars.”      “No, we don’t,” Melinda said.  “This will have to do, and hopefully it’ll be enough.”      “Yeah, that’s not a problem,” Ghost Jack said.  “Is she still at the bar?”      “She was when we left,” Dorian said.      “That’s the bar right up ahead,” Philip said.      “Ah yeah, I’m familiar with that bar, albeit from my own time,” Ghost Jack said.  “I’ll go scope it out, and find out if she’s still there.  You two wait here.”  Ghost Jack flew off, turning invisible as he did.      “Wait, what?” Philip asked.  “We’re just supposed to wait out here on the sidewalk?”      “I mean, there’s a bench over there, we can go sit down, I guess,” Dorian said.      As they went and sat down, they heard someone coming around the corner.  Neither of them thought much of it, until they heard and recognized two voices.  The first was Jack, but it was too soon for Ghost Jack to be coming back, not to mention he would not be walking.  And they knew the regular Jack was off on a mission in another time period, which meant it could only be the regular Jack from earlier in his personal timeline when he had previously been in this time.  That was only confirmed by the fact that the other voice was Deanna, from back when she was still their ally.      “Oh shit, we can’t let them see us,” Philip said as he looked around for somewhere to hide.      “If we run that’ll just make them more likely to notice,” Dorian said.  “We just need to keep them from seeing our faces.”      “Wait, are you suggesting what I think you are?  But we’re in public.”      “Yeah, well, it’s our best bet.”      They started kissing, and Jack and Deanna passed by without incident.      “Okay, I think that worked,” Dorian said after they had turned another corner.      “We should maybe head out though, just in case they turn back,” Philip said.  “I don’t know how common guys making out with each in public is in the 70s.”      Meanwhile in the future, the present version of Jack was playing a game of Jakut with Sandra while they were en route to the space station Oracle.      “Checkmate,” Jack said as he moved a piece on the board.      “Yeah, that’s not how this works,” Sandra said.  “I mean, that is a legal move, and even gets you two points, but there isn’t a checkmate in this game.”      “Right, right.  So, you just win by getting the most points before the game ends?”      “Kind of, but there are some bonuses awarded after the end.  That can change things up.”      As she was explaining, the ship dropped out of superspace, and an alarm started blaring.      “Proximity alert?” Jack asked.      “Probably the same mercenaries from last time.  I thought you said they wouldn’t be a problem this time.”      “They won’t, I just need to let them know that,” Jack said as he followed Sandra up to the bridge.      She opened the comm to the lead mercenary ship.  The image of the captain appeared on screen, the same one they had encountered last time.      “Hey Totorgo, long time no see,” Jack said.      “I don’t believe I gave you my name last time,” Totorgo said.      “Yeah, but I got it from your employers,” Jack said.  “We’re kind of working together now.”      “Wait, you’re what?” Sandra said.  “You failed to mention that.”      “It’s complicated,” Jack said.      “Do you have any proof of this?” Totorgo asked.  “Or am I just supposed to take you at your word?”      Jack typed a handful of characters on the keyboard.  “I’m sending an authorization code now.”      “Hmm,” Totorgo said.  “It checks out.  You’re free to go.”  The comm ended.      “So, you’re working with those bastards now?” Sandra asked.      “Like I said, it’s complicated.  Turns out they aren’t quite as bad as previously though, and more importantly there are worse problems out there.  The enemy of my enemy is my reluctant ally and all that.”      “Right,” Sandra said.      On the Unity, Mary and Abigail were having lunch in the mess hall, with some of the crew.      “And that’s when she realized that there was confetti coming out of the back of her fighter craft,” one of the fighter pilots, who’s callsign was Cheddar Cheese, said.      “I still don’t know how you managed that,” said the pilot in question.  Her callsign was Pandaherbs.      “What did the admiral say about that?” Mary asked.      “He didn’t say anything,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “But I heard that he looked like he was holding back some laughter.”      “Yeah, I could see that,” Abigail said.  “Admiral Teleros seems like he has a good sense of humor.”      “Wait, do you know him?” Pandaherbs asked.      “Kind of,” Abigail said.  “I have a friend who’s dad used to work with him.”      “Oh yeah, who’s that?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      “Curtis Hammer is my friend, his dad’s name was Aaron,” Abigail said.      “Aaron Hammer, yeah, he was part of the Admiral Teleros’ old ESS team back in the day,” Pandaherbs said.  “Captain Grayson was on that team too.”      “That’s pretty cool,” Abigail said, right before alarms started blaring.      “What’s going on?” Melinda asked as she went onto the bridge.      “We were dragged out of superspace,” Benjamin said.      “What?” Melinda asked.  “How?”      “Don’t know that yet,” Lieutenant Cerise Martel, the chief science officer said.  “We’ve never encountered something like this before.”      “That’s because that technology shouldn’t exist yet,” Melinda said.      “There’s a ship nearby though,” Lieutenant Commander Jiang Teng, the chief tactical officer said.  “And it is a type of ship we’ve encountered before.  It’s a Palore ship.”      “Dammit,” Benjamin said.  “What are they doing?”      “Nothing yet,” Jiang said.  “They do have their shields up, but their weapons aren’t locked on us.”      “They are hailing us, Captain,” Lieutenant Wesley Harris, the chief communications officer said.      “On screen,” Benjamin said.      A Palore captain appeared on the screen.  “Hello Captain Grayson, my name is Daskata.  You have someone aboard that I want.  Hand them over and you’ll be free to go.”      “Who would that be?” Benjamin asked.      “I believe she goes by the name Deanna,” Daskata said.      “What do you want with her?” Melinda asked.      “That is not your concern, Agents Summers,” Daskata said.  “You should just be glad I am not asking for you and your people as well.  But if you resist, I will be taking you and Agent Esau as well.  You have ten minutes to comply.”  The viewscreen went back to a view of space.      “What are our chances of escaping from them?” Benjamin asked.      “Not good,” Chuck said.  “We can’t go back into superspace as long as whatever they did is in effect.  And at sublight speeds, well unless they are a hell of a lot slower than us, it’ll take a very long time to get outside of this area of effect.”      “And fighting them?” Benjamin asked.      “Based on my scans, they are a lot more powerful than us,” Jiang said.      “Deanna is your prisoner,” Benjamin said, turning to Melinda.      “We can’t turn her over to them,” Melinda said.  “Who knows what they’re planning on doing with her.”      “Do you have any ideas on how to deal with them, in that case?” Benjamin asked.      “So, what did you find?” Philip asked after Ghost Jack had returned to him and Dorian.      “Well, I followed her to an apartment,” Ghost Jack said.  “Took a look inside, and it certainly looks to be her place.”      “Okay, then the plan is to wait until tomorrow, and then go in and check it out when she’s gone, I guess,” Dorian said.      “Yeah, I’d say so,” Philip said.  “And hopefully we don’t have any more close calls with the past versions of Jack and Deanna.”      “You saw them?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yeah, but luckily they didn’t see us,” Dorian said.      “As far as we know anyway,” Philip said.      Mary and Abigail joined Melinda and Benjamin in Benjamin’s office, which was just off the bridge.      “Why not me?” Mary asked, after they had the situation explained to them.  “Or any of our other people?  Why did they just say that they would take you two if we didn’t cooperate?”      “Perhaps they didn’t know who else was all aboard,” Benjamin said.      “Then how did they know that I’m aboard?” Abigail asked.  “No, I think Mary is on to something here.”      “Possibly,” Melinda said.  “But we don’t have much time.  We can’t outrun them and we can’t outfight them, at least not in starship combat.”      “You want to go aboard?” Benjamin asked.  “We don’t even know the size of their crew, but I doubt we can take on all of them.”      “Maybe we can’t, but Deanna can,” Abigail said.      “No, we can’t be considering that,” Mary said.  “We barely managed to stop her the last time, and now we’re just going to wake her up.  Hell, for all we know, she allied with the Palore, and that’s why they are here.  To free her.”      “My gut says they aren’t allies,” Melinda said.      “Even if they aren’t, she’s not our ally anymore either,” Mary said.  “Let’s say she does defeat all of them.  Then she has a timeship.”      “To be fair, you need multiple timeships to actually use them for time travel,” Abigail said.  “It’s why ours is mostly only of use as a starship.”      “Even still, setting her on the loose with a starship as powerful as that doesn’t seem like a great idea either,” Mary said.      “No, if we do use her, we’re going to need a plan to deal with her as well,” Melinda said.      After arriving at the space station Oracle, Jack teleported aboard with the time door.  He appeared in the area that had previously been controlled by Sesla.  But with the changes to the timeline, he was not certain what to expect.      As he appeared there, there was someone waiting for him.  The man named Xavier, who had been Sesla’s servant, and who still looked the same.      “Hello Xavier,” Jack said.      “Master Masterson,” Xavier said.  “We’ve been expecting you.”      “Have you now?”      “The Mistress foretold your return.  I will take you to her.”      “I still need to set up the time door.”      “All in time,” Xavier said.  “All in time.”      Melinda held the injector up to Deanna.  “The second I inject the stimulant, I will back off, and then you’ll teleport her over.”      “Of course,” Taro Tanaka, the chief engineer said.      Melinda injected the stimulant, and then backed off, and Deanna was teleported over to the Palore ship.      “Now we wait,” Melinda said.      “And hope we don’t get screwed over in the process,” Mary said.      Jack was lead into the throne room by Xavier.  It looked much the same as the last time he had been here.  The only major difference was that the throne was now on a swivel, and was facing away.      “Mistress, Master Jack Masterson has arrived,” Xavier said.      “Excellent,” came a female voice from the throne.  It was not the voice of Sesla though, but it was a voice Jack recognized.      “Abigail?” Jack asked.      Meanwhile, in another era, Abigail, Mary, and Melinda were on the bridge of the Unity, waiting along with the bridge crew for what was about to happen.      “The Palore ship hasn’t left yet,” Jiang said.  “But it also hasn’t made any aggressive moves.”      “Can our sensors detect anything happening aboard it?” Benjamin asked.      “Not really,” Jiang said.  “We’ll be able to tell if they lock weapons on us, or whatever, but if Deanna is actually doing anything aboard the ship, we can’t determine that currently.”      “Which means, we’re in the dark for now,” Mary said.  “I don’t like that.”      “Wait, their shields just went down,” Jiang said.  “In fact looks like their ship is dead in the water.”      “How many lifesigns are aboard it?” Benjamin asked.      “One human, and a few thousand Palore, but it looks like the Palore are all unconscious.”      “Hail the ship,” Benjamin said.      “Yes, sir,” Wesley said.      It took a few minutes, but eventually Deanna appeared on screen.  “Would anyone mind explaining why I’m aboard a Palore ship?”      “They wanted you, and we didn’t have much choice,” Melinda said.  “But we woke you up to give you a chance.”      “Uh huh,” Deanna said.  “Why?”      “We figured that you’d be able to take them out,” Mary said.  “And now you’ll have to turn yourself back over to us, or we’re going to blow the explosive we put in your head.”      “You mean this explosive?” Deanna asked, as it materialized in her hand.      “Shit,” Melinda said.      “So, what exactly are we looking for here?” Dorian asked as he was searching through desk drawers.      “Anything that’ll give us any clues as to where Chloe got that intel from,” Philip said as he looked through the closet.      “The problem is that she deals in information,” Ghost Jack said.  “So even if we find clues to one of her sources, it might not be the one we are looking for.”      “We’ll just have to be thorough then,” Philip said.      Ghost Jack passed through a wall, and then came back.  “There’s a vault in this wall,” he said.  “It’s too dark to read anything in there though.”      “Can’t you like, create some kind of ghost light or something?” Philip asked.      “Yeah, no, it doesn’t work like that,” Ghost Jack said.      “Where’s the door?” Dorian asked.      “Behind this painting, I assume,” Ghost Jack said as he took a painting off the wall, and revealed the door.      “I’ll see if I can unlock it,” Dorian said as he put his ear to the lock and started turning it.      “Captain, with your permission, can we fire all weapons at that Palore ship before Deanna does anything else?” Melinda asked.      “Permission granted,” Benjamin said.  “Commander Teng, open fire on that ship.”      “Yes, sir,” Jiang said as she did so.      The Palore ship was pelted with weapons fire.  Without any shields, it was quickly destroyed.      “Any remaining lifesigns?” Melinda asked.      “The Palore are all dead, many of them vaporized,” Jiang said.  “There’s no sign of Deanna though, alive or dead.”      “I’m going to guess it’s too much to hope she was vaporized,” Mary said.      “It’s hard to know what kind of abilities she even has after stealing powers from magic users from other universes,” Abigail said.      “Other universes?” Benjamin asked.      “That’s classified, by the way,” Melinda said.  “Everyone on the bridge is going to have to keep that quiet.”      “Sorry,” Abigail said.      “Got it,” Dorian said as he unlocked the vault and opened it up.  It was full of filing cabinets, which themselves were full of a variety of documents.      “This could take a while,” Philip said.      “Maybe, maybe not,” Ghost Jack said as he started looking through them.  “Everything seems to be pretty well organized, so we just need to find the right stuff.”      “Like this,” Dorian said as he pulled a folder out of one of the filing cabinets.  “This is the intel we got from her.  At least some of it is, but there’s more in here than what she gave us.”      “Hmm,” Ghost Jack said as he looked over Dorian’s shoulder at the files.  “Wait, that one there.”      “This?” Dorian asked as he looked at a paper with some sort of symbols he did not recognize.  “What is this?”      “I can’t read it,” Ghost Jack said.  “But I recognize the letters.  The other Jack might be able to decipher it though.”      “What language is it?” Philip asked.      “It was a language used by the first generation of Gods,” Ghost Jack said.      “The first generation?” Philip asked.  “Like, what are we talking about here?  Greek Gods, Egyptian, Norse?”      “All of them,” Ghost Jack said.  “The first generation had the progenitor of each of the different pantheons.  So Chronos for the Greeks, Ymir for the Norse, I think, I don’t know who for the Egyptian or others, but you see what I’m getting at.”      “So, Chloe got her information from one of them?” Dorian asked.      “Don’t know,” Ghost Jack said.  “I feel like that’s unlikely, but clearly there’s some sort of connection.”      Meanwhile in the future, Jack was still trying to process the situation, as the chair turned around, and Abigail got up off of it.  It was clearly Abigail, but she was as pale and bald as Sesla had been in this era.  And she was wearing the same sort of black dress.      “You seem surprised to see me,” Abigail said.      “How did you wind up here?” Jack asked.      “Leave us, Xavier,” Abigail said, and Xavier bowed before leaving the throne room.  “Sesla needs to be here.”      “But you’re not Sesla,” Jack said.      “Somebody has to be, and she got killed back when she was Deanna, so I’ve taken her place in the timeline.”      “When did this happen?” Jack asked.      “From your team’s perspective, it’s happening right now-ish.  Deanna was killed while en route to Earth from the rogue planet.”      “And what, you just didn’t return through the time door when you got back to Earth?”      “No, I did, I went back to the base in the Cretaceous, I just never left that era, at least not with time travel.”      “So what?  You’re tens of millions of years old at this point?”      “And I don’t look a day over twenty-five.”      “That’s insane.  Why would you do that?”      “Like I said, to preserve the integrity of the timeline.”      “There’s got to be an easier way to do that,” Jack said.  “And why from the Cretaceous?  Why not just stay where she was when she was killed, and take her place from that point on?”      “It’s complicated, as you will soon learn,” Abigail said.  “But the war for all time is about to become far more chaotic.” To be continued…

#Jack Masterson #Melinda Summers #Mary Bishop #Abigail Esau #Harkon Smith #Philip Wilson #Dorian Winters #Imhotep #Jeri Quill #Benjamin Grayson #Katherine Tartovsky #Chuck Banman #Pandaherbs #Cheddar Cheese #Sesla #Deanna #Xavier #Progenitors #Palore #Jiang Teng #Unity #UES #ESS #Rupert Teleros #TDD #Oracle #Sandra Rodriguez #Wesley Harris #Cerise Martel #Chrono Hustle