The lean officer sighed tiredly.
“And that’s why we need to move quickly, so we don’t lose it, Ixim.” She rubbed at her face. Battle fatigue was quickly catching up to her now that the adrenaline and endorphins in her bloodstream were starting to ebb. Along with her natural stimulants and painkillers’ failure came the return of the dull ache in her shoulder, reminding Vaughn of just how close she came to joining the untidy heap of bodies on the floor. Which also reminded her;
“Where’s Brin?” She looked sharply about. “I left her by that column over there, after you healed her but I don’t see her anywhere.”
Pausing in the act of connecting his com link, a lozenge of silver-blue and green about the length of his little finger, to Isivir Command, Ixim shrugged.
“I’m not sure, colonel.” He admitted. “I did see a team of healers pull her out of here shortly after you instructed Qint in the policing of the fallen.” Then he was lifting the com back to his mouth.
Undaunted Vaughn strode to where Qint was directing traffic. The ISD agent was remarkably efficient, already seeing the survivors up and gone and now directed agents protected by translucent energy fields in their removal of the bodies.
“Colonel.” He nodded in greeting when she drew up in front of him. “Liaison is on her way, clean-up team is right behind her, survivors have been evacuated to the Sith’anur Tactical Base just outside of the city, which has a full-service medical facility, and I’m having the bodies removed to a temporary morgue set up at the local ISD office three leagues from here.”
“Good work, Agent Qint.” Vaughn acknowledged with a smile. “Did Agent Brin go with the survivors?”
“Yes, sir, she did. While she had the benefit of an extraspacial healing, the healers that triaged the survivors indicated she’d need a dunk in a green tank for a couple days to bring her back to full capacity. I authorized her transfer myself.”
“Very good. Now, could you authorize transportation there for myself and Agent Ixim?”
Part of the massive military infrastructure that helped the bureaucrats hold the Pax together, the Sith’anur Tactical Base was carved into the mountains to the north of the city, a brooding presence overlooking the urban forest that was Ven Cor’brin. Despite being chiseled out of the weathered granite, the base managed to maintain the organic feel every Sidhe structure had: a sinuous series of interconnected chambers and passages open to the sun and filled with green and growing things in between machines of mass destruction.
Nestled in the largest of the chambers hollowed from the belly of the Mountains of Silver was the base’s medical complex, an intimate cluster of domes grouped around a central stalk that provided administrative and transport connectivity. It was to one of the southwest facing domes that base personnel guided Ixim and Vaughn after their arrival via Fleet shuttle. Being a military facility, Sith’anur Control only allowed access by cleared military vehicles. His procurement of transportation so quickly and easily on a military shuttle was an indication of how powerful Qint and the ISD was, Vaughn realized. Hopefully she’d made an ally in the agent instead of an enemy with her seizing control of the archive situation.
Regardless of what she left behind, her and Ixim were now on the base. She paused at the oval entrance leading into what base healers were calling the ‘tank room’ to take in what now unfolded before her. Like most Sidhe structures, the chamber appeared to lack any significant corners, a smooth flowing of ceiling into wall and down into floor, all in subtle hues of pale green and blue. Besides their organic origins, the colors were also soothing to both the eye and the mind.
The chamber’s equipment, most beyond Vaughn’s ability to identify, also lacked hard edges, smooth and rounded shapes built into the walls themselves to present little, if any interruption in the room’s visual flow of lines. However, there was no denying the purpose of the mass of equipment in the room’s very center.
Connected by common power systems and monitoring lines, the regeneration tanks sat in pentagonal groups of five, power and circulation systems in the center, the pill-shaped cylinders, four metres tall and two in diameter, creating the perimeter with their vertical, clear crystalline masses. Five such clusters sat in the chamber’s heart, their pattern an echo of the cylinders’ arrangement in each tank cluster, space enough between them to allow for the circulation of medical personnel, dressed in pristine white uniforms with the healers’ blue leaf on the breast and collar. Rank for the healers, like the rest of the Pax military, was found on their sleeves. Several were making their way around the tanks, checking monitors and entering data into floating holographic access points at regular intervals around the tanks themselves.
Filled to each tank’s capped top with an emerald-green fluid that shifted thickly with every movement of the tank’s occupant, the gel’s color the source of its moniker, the green tanks shimmered with subtle energy fields that promoted and aided the healing process. A number of the closest ones were filled with the injured members of Vaughn and Ixim’s Isivir team, including a battered-looking Deks, sporting no less than four weapon strikes on his body, and Brin.
Spotting her comrade, Vaughn touched Ixim lightly on the arm then indicated Brin’s tube with a motion of her head. Nodding in acknowledgement, Ixim then went to consult with a number of healers that were discussing the team’s progress as Vaughn stepped towards Brin’s tank. The beautiful Teserin weapons master was awake and lucid as Vaughn approached, her bright eyes watching the human draw close.
Dressed in a modest, yet revealing two-piece garment in white that resembled a human bikini, Brin floated suspended in the gel, her lithe, fit body wreathed in healing energies. A close-fitting mask covering nose and mouth, provided air and she gazed through the gel with no protection over her eyes, an indication of the gel’s benign nature. Her hair, normally spiked erect, hovered over her head, a halo of green-tinted white.
A com crystal, built into the tank’s base, lit up as Vaughn came to a halt in front of the tank.
“I get blasted and wake up in a green tank.” Brin’s voice chirped from the com. “I hope I didn’t miss any of the fun.”
“You mean like Ixim showing up and nuking the hell out of everybody with his extraspacial powers? Or the O’thik in battle armor appearing out of an extraspacial port to blast the survivors into dust?” Vaughn asked with a grin as she looked up at the floating Teserin, hanging nearly half a metre off the bottom of the tank.
“You mean that kind of fun?”
Brin chuckled softly.
“Yeah, that kind of fun.” She replied, her eyes dancing. She abruptly sobered. “Did we take heavy casualties? I see a couple of our team members in the tanks around me.”
Vaughn nodded in tight confirmation.
“Over half the team is dead, Brin. The rest in tanks, like you.” She glanced over at Ixim, still in consultation with the uniformed healers. Feeling her eyes on him, he looked up and, upon catching her eye, slowly shook his head.
“And it looks like most of them are going to be in there a while.” She continued, returning to Brin. She saw the lithe weapons master grimace around her mask.
“Bah! That puts us in the light with nothing at our back.” Brin hissed. “What the shadow happened? Where did those operatives come from?”
“A good question and one we’re currently trying to figure out, along with the ISD.”
“ISD?” Brin’s eyes narrowed. “What are they doing mixed up in this?”
Vaughn shrugged. To be frank, she wasn’t quite sure how the Pax’s internal security force, akin to the Directorate’s Unified Bureau of Investigation, and the former United States of America’s Secret Service, became involved in the confrontation between covert enemies.
“If I were to guess.” She began after a moment’s thought. “I’d say it was because Ixim involved the military in defeating the Viseith incursion.”
Brin nodded her understanding.
“That would make sense.” She rasped. “The military is prohibited from becoming engaged in internal security matters by the Pax charter, and the military’s own statement of purpose. That’s the ISD’s direct responsibility. As soon as the military informed the local field office of their Tactical action at the archive, the ISD was obligated to investigate.”
It was Vaughn’s turn to nod in understanding. Unfortunately, by virtue of the nature of the conflict currently raging in the Directorate, the military couldn’t help but be involved with internal security. If they didn’t, local security forces would be overwhelmed and the Directorate would rip apart from forces within. Still, she could see the logic in prohibiting military involvement.
“A traitor.” Brin hissed without warning. “The only way the Viseith could’ve known we’d be at the archive today is if they had somebody on the inside.”
“Ixim and I concluded as much.” Vaughn admitted. “The ISD also found a communication device of some sort on one of our people shot during the fighting, a Juresil named Grenbark.”
“Grenbark?” Vaughn could hear the uncertainty in Brin’s voice. “That doesn’t make much sense. He was top in his class at the academy, and a ten-year veteran in the field. He, and his family are staunch supporters of the Pax, his father and oldest brother both serving in the Chamber of Lords.”
Vaughn could feel her lips purse thoughtfully.
“That’s reserved for members of the traditional nobility, isn’t it.” She said and Brin nodded, making the gel slosh uneasily around her head.
“Without the backing of the nobles, the kings who first created the Pax would’ve failed.” The Teserin went on to say. “The Juresil Tree Lords were instrumental in insuring the Pax’s future success, the Grenbark family prominent in their place amongst them. I’d name Ixim a traitor before a Grenbark.”
“But that could very well be the reason the Viseith chose him, Brin.” Vaughn countered. Who better to make a turncoat then a widely respected member of a traditional nobility long held to be supporters of the Pax? It would certainly reduce any suspicions and doubt concerning their loyalty.
Whether she was coming to the same conclusion as Vaughn had, or not, Brin remained unconvinced.
“Huh.” She grunted. “I guess the ISD’s investigation will be the proof of that. The com link could’ve just as easily been planted on Grenbark before his death, or even during his search.”
“Then we either have a traitor in the ISD.” Vaughn mused, arms folded across her chest. “With the power to plant evidence. Or the traitor in Isivir clothing, working hard to cover his or her tracks by shifting the blame elsewhere.” She looked back up at Brin.
“One way or the other, we still are firmly in ‘trust no one’ territory.”
“You can trust me.” Ixim rasped suddenly, stepping up beside Vaughn to look at her for a moment before glancing up at Brin. “No drax in his or her right mind would endanger the Pax.”
“Nor would the Teserin, as you and I’ve already talked about.” Brin hastened to add.
“And with the Directorate having no involvement whatsoever between the Pax and the Praetors, I’d be little served by helping the Viseith.” Vaughn pointed out.
Ixim chuckled softly, earning him a quick look from both Vaughn and the floating Brin.
“What’s so funny?” Vaughn asked. Ixim looked at her, a thin smile on his handsome Teserin face.
“It would appear the fate of the Pax suddenly stands in the care of a drax, a Senisar Sidhe and a lone human. The universe indeed has a perverse sense of humor.” Then he was abruptly sobering.
“According to the healers, weapons master, you’ll be finished in the tank by nightfall, as soon as your bio-chemicals and energy resources have been rebalanced.”
The gel in the tank sloshed again with Brin’s acknowledging nod, as slight as it was.
“Excellent. I’ll rejoin the two of you then. What’s our plan of attack in the meantime?”
Vaughn glanced over at Ixim, who made no move to speak. Apparently she was still in charge.
“Well, I think we have little choice but to soldier on. I’ve asked Ixim to contact Isivir Command and request additional assets so we can reconstitute the team as soon as possible. We expect that updated operative list sometime this evening. As soon as the new members arrive, we carry on with the information Damatakrice gave us.”
“In the meantime I suggest we find a more secure location.” Ixim interjected. “Somewhere the Viseith won’t be so tempted to come and complete the job they started this morning at the archive.”
“A Teserin enclave?” Brin asked. Ixim glanced up at her then back down at Vaughn, a grin suddenly appearing on his handsome face.
“No, somewhere better. A drax nest!”