Project Faith

Chapter 18

"Creating an enhance army is illegal by Association codes," Ezi said, "which does not apply to my people."

"SINDRI operates outside of the official government of Earth," Lydia said. "We operate under our own rules. Rules, at times, could cause some serious problems. Secrets of SINDRI need to stay that way, secrets. We have a motto: 'Through the shadows, we persevered.'"

Ezi laughed. "Human seemed to be a very paranoid species."

"Cautious is the word I would use," Lydia replied. "To be honest with you Ezi, you are an unloose end. I should kill you. But I won't."

"Why not?" Ezi questioned. "You are logical, you should kill me, but I'm glad that you decided against it, but why?"

"You could have leaked the info anytime you want," Lydia said, "but you didn't. There are two reasons why. The first is because you trust us, for now. The second is because you have your own agenda. What is it?"

Ezi smiled a big toothy grin. "I need friends, with power and influence and you fit both categories perfectly. It can be a very mutual and beneficial relationship."

"As long your agenda does not overstep mine, we have a deal. If you screw me, I will screw you, hard."

A puzzled look came over Ezi's face. "How is that a bad thing?"

"Trust me," Faith interjected. "It is a bad thing."

Lydia entered the code by Ezi's door and her cell screen opened. "Welcome back to the crew of the Enigma."

"Thank you," Ezi said as she limped her way out of the cell.

"I hope y'all made up," Piet's voice came over on the intercom. "We have a priority message sent by an SMP." An SMP or secure message probe was a way to communicate with each other when neither party was connected to the Interstellar Network Hub. It was a very risky way to send a message. Probes could easily get lost and never find its destination. They usually contained a short message, like 'Connect to the INH ASAP,' which was the message of this one. Each ship had a unique ID probe number, which assisted the probe in location the ship, but the sender must have a recent location of the ship or the probe could wander in the vast areas of space. It could take days, weeks or years for a probe to reach its destination. Lydia was lucky. This probe was launched four days ago. SINDRI kept better tabs on their ships. Piet informed Lydia she must connect to the INH.

Lydia went to the briefing room waiting for Vlad to connect to the INH. While waiting, Lydia's mind was wandering. 'What other agenda Amulius had? What was he keeping from me? What was his real endgame?' These were answers she knew that she would never get from him.

"Incoming message from Amulius," Piet said. "The channel is open."

"Lydia, we have good news for you." Lydia could hear the excitement in his Amulius's voice. "We located the ship. I'm sending the coordinates to you now."

"This is a big move," Lydia warned. "We spend most of this mission striking military targets. This could get really messy."

"You attack who we tell you to attack little girl," Another voice jumped in the conversation.

"Captain Jackson." Lydia recognized the voice right away. "Do you ever go back to Star Force?"

"I'm more effective here," the Captain snapped back.

"There is too much liability to attack a civilian ship," Lydia said. "We are talking war crimes. Are you ready for that?"

"You already committed war crimes," The Captain said. "What a few more dead monkeys?"