Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Inner Workings

     As his associate returned to his report on Colonel Vaughn’s progress at the Isivir Viper Island complex, the man pondered his own words concerning the Isivir and the security breaches within the Pax’s covert operations arm.

     At one time it was thought the only thing more loyal than the Isivir to the Pax was the governing council itself and that, just barely.  However, with repeated blunders in recent days committed by the venerable agency combined with Viseith operatives being captured with sensitive Isivir information, the Pax’s covert operations were under narrow scrutiny.  Recently installed in her position as Isivir Director, Loutann sev’Arbrantus had the dubious task of restoring Isivir honor and dependability while simultaneously achieving ongoing goals of thwarting the Viseith and maintaining various Isivir operations throughout the Pax and beyond.

     Despite her efforts, and those of the Covert Operations Committee, confidence in the Isivir remained shaken.  Wedded to that was the festering tension within the previously secure ranks of the loyal factions outside of the Assembly.  Unrest within the Druidic Circle and the Guild Houses was putting pressure on Assembly representatives to do something about the losses being incurred against business and corporate interests, direct results of Viseith and Praetor activity aimed at Pax institutions.  And, while the Ministry of Extraspacial Affairs maintained staunch support of the governing council, murmurs of discontent from the other ministries were getting louder and louder.

     The bureaucrats were unhappy and who could blame them?  After all, they were taking the brunt of the covert Praetor assault, both in the verbal battle raging in the Assembly and behind the scenes as the Viseith bombed, shot and mutilated them at will in their attacks against government installations and complexes.  When taken together, the uncertainty and tension was making his job in the Assembly of Representatives difficult, to put it mildly.

     A motion out of the shadows captured both men’s attention before he could ponder further on the matter and they looked up to see a knot of Internal Security Division black shirts striding along the corridor towards them, faces grim above their characteristic black suits.  In their midst was an equally grim Juresil Korva, the left side of her beautiful face marked with her order’s telltale tattoos, graceful etchings of blue that followed delicate lines along her jaw and over her cheek.

  “Sorry, sir.”  The ISD detail commander rasped, a broad shouldered Teserin with a jagged scar marching across the right side of his gray skinned face, just above the wire-thin microphone leading back to his com unit, hidden inside his ear.  His left hand kept straying towards the unmistakable bulge of a weapon inside his dark jacket, bulges each detail member wore with familiar ease.

  “She had news net ID and got past our perimeter before we could stop her.”

     The man’s deep blue eyes slid from the commander to the Korva, measuring and evaluating.  She, in turn, returned the favor, her dark brown eyes unflinching as they stared defiantly back.

  “How far into the Assembly complex did she reach, commander?”  He asked in a soft voice that only just hid the steely determination beneath.

  “To the Lords’ Chamber, and the lobby on the tertiary level, sir.”  The commander quickly reported, pinning the Korva down with a hard look from his indigo eyes.  “Not far, but if she’d been a Praetor, . . .”

  “I’m no rebel.”  The Korva suddenly spoke up, twisting to hurl a hard look of her own at the ISD commander before returning her eyes to the man.  “The Circle embraces the Pax today, as it has for millennia.”