Remnants of the Earth
AEDOLIS => Haviah => The Citadel => Topic started by: Marjorie on October 22, 2019, 01:13:55 pm
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One week was seriously short notice. It was a very slim deadline for gathering Intel, but Emrys had been under the gun before, and what's more there was a lot at steak this time, the least of which was his son's life. If he was still alive. He could only hang onto their mental link for so long. Once the distance became to great, he lost even the faint sense of him.
A preliminary search threw the archives had revealed something about Redtide to him, but everything beyond that name, or code name? Was classified above his level. He'd had to get special clearance to access more than that, and he needed some help if he was going to figure out what he could about whatever or whoever this Redtide was.
That's why he was here, at the ATC, in his full dress uniform (because that was his usual, given his job title) and picking up Nova the way that a Candidate's mentor would normally. He'd told her before hand that dress uniform was necessary.
"Candidate," he said, entering the room she was waiting for him, "let's be on our way."
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[Cont'd from What You're Made Of (http://remnants.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=8391.0)]
Nova had to resist the urge to fidget in her dress uniform as she waited at attention for Emrys to come and collect her.
This is bullshit. Not a word from him for days, weeks, and then suddenly he wanted her to go haring off with him to gods knew where? Fucking asshole.
Although it wasn't like she was exactly in a position to tell him no.
She snapped into a sharp salute when he entered the room, but she somehow managed to make the move look snarky. "On our way to where exactly, sir?"
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Emrys returned the salute. "You know, Candidate," Emrys said dryly,"[/b] "someone might get offended if you don't learn to reign in that sarcastic streak. Candidates exist at the pleasure of their superiors, just as Pilots serve at the pleasure of the Dragons."[/b]
Emrys turned on his heel and exited the building. "Come along, Candidate." He brought her to one of the exits of the ATC and scanned his own chip, which opened the door for him, and logged that he was taking Nova with him.
"We're going to the Citadel Archives," he said as they exited the ATC. "We're going to do some intelligence gathering today. I imagine that chip of yours comes in hand for gathering and analyzing data."
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Nova snorted as she followed him. "Yeah, because you're the first person to tell me that," she muttered. A little louder, she added, "I thought you were above such petty emotions as taking offense, hm?"
She paused while he scanned his chip, then continued along beside him as they exited the ATC. Head cocked slightly, she replied, "Yeah, it's...useful. I can store about half a library in the thing, if I really need to... Am I gonna need to?"
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"I'm not offended," he said, "but if I bring you on a field trip and you start disrespecting me in public or you disrespect the people I work with there will be consequences." He did have a reputation to keep up, as he'd said before.
"Not half a library, I don't think," Emrys said, "I don't know how much information there is out there about it, actually."
There was a care waiting for them outside. The driver opened the door for them as they approached the car. Emrys got in and scooted over to the other side to make room for Nova. "I'll tell you more when we're someplace more secure."
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She gave him a droll look, but didn't reply to that. Sure, he had a reputation and all that, bla bla bla. She wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to make him look bad in front of people.
But if he'd expected her to kowtow at the very sight of him, he should have damn well known better.
"And where exactly is someplace more secure?" Nova asked as she shifted into the car behind him, screwing her face up when the dress uniform tugged and tightened uncomfortably in places.
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"The citadel archives," Emrys said. Much of the database could be accessed externally, but there were some portions that were secured so you had to physically be there to access them. It also stored things that were not electronic in nature, like a museum. That should tell her something about the nature of whatever information they were looking for.
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"So you're taking me on a field trip to the library," Nova deadpanned. Propping her ankle up on one knee, she leaned back and let her head flop back against the seat. "Exciting. Wake me when we get there."
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[[FYI if she scanned him this time she’d find he’s armed with a standard issue side arm.]]
“Very astute observation,” Emrys said rather dryly.
When they got to the citadel building Emrys brought her right up threw the front. Unfortunately with him in uniform that meant pausing for several “good afternoon Pilot Noble’s” and returning a ridiculous amount of salutes because most of the office staff in the citadel were regular military while the people who did the ‘important’ work was the Pilots.
Emrys brought Nova to an elevator and they went up several stories to the archives, then he brought her around to a privet room and locked the door. He hooked up his data pad into the computer terminal and secured the room electronically.
“Alright, Candidate. Anything we discuss in this room is top secret as is anything we discover during our research. My security code is required to do this data search, so if you leak anything I will take a very personal interest in ending you Candidacy.”
He pulled up a standard non disclosure agreement on his data pad. “Type you name and signature code on this. Stating that you understand if you reveal anything about what transpires in here to any unauthorized personnel you will be charged with treason.”
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[Gotcha!]
Nova just huffed at him and let her eyes slide closed, taking the opportunity to rest--such as it was--for the rest of the ride.
She fell surprisingly easily into the role of subservient Candidate when they reached the building, always one step behind Emrys and standing at attention, even as every fucking person they ran into felt the need to stop and salute.
Once they were alone however, she slouched back on one heel, cocking her hip and rubbing at her biomechanical wrist. "Damn, don't these people get a cramp from doing that all day?" she muttered to herself, more for the form of the thing than anything else.
Nova took his threats seriously, and they hit home, though she'd be damned if she let him know it. Rolling her eyes, she reached out and let her fingers fly over the datapad, typing in the required information. "Yeah, yeah, got it. Very scary. Will you tell me what we're actually doing here now?"
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Well, at least she could be professional in public. “You get used to it eventually,” Emrys responded. It had been a novel thing, for the first day or two after Candidacy, to go from having to salute everyone to everyone having to salute him, however it had quickly grown old. There was literally no one except equal or higher ranking Pilots that didn’t have to salute Pilots, which meant you had to return the salute of literally almost everyone you walked by.
Well she didn’t have to LOOK like they hit home, as long as they didn’t. Emrys wasn’t the sort to make idle threats. He did exactly as he said he would.
“We are going to find out everything we can on an organization or entity named Red Tide.”
There was another computer terminal that Nova could swipe in with her chip at to allow her own data chip to search threw his security log in. “This incident occurred two days ago,” he pulled up a file of the attack Red Tide had made against himself, and sent it over to her. It had been slightly abridged and all names redacted. “Officially, this was reported to the public as caused by a gas leak. In light of the meeting that is supposed to occur between the Pilot in that report and who was discovered to be Red Tide or one of their associates it’s important that we gather all intel available so we can use it to our advantage.”
[[fyi there is a PM gonna come your way with info. they can find on on Red Tide. He’ll start with giving her an abridged version of this thread: http://remnants.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=8353.0 She’ll get it as an aftermath report with names redacted.]]
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"Red Tide?" Nova repeated, frowning as she took in the file. It was rather strange to watch; instead of her eyes scanning the text back and forth, she just sort of...stared at it, that single red pinprick blinking behind her left pupil, then after a few seconds glanced away and blinked a few times, storing the information in the proper space.
Finally, she looked back to Emrys, almost incredulous. "A gas leak," she repeated flatly. "People bought that?"
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"People are smart enough not to question what they're told," Emrys replied. In the end it didn't matter what they believed, just that they did as they were told. Besides the reports had been burred in among sport and other entertainment. That's what happened when you lived in a hedonistic dictatorship with strict censors and a lot of propaganda. You just went about your good time and went along with whatever the government told you.
Emrys knew better than to even bother with the news... a Pilot should, so should a Candidate. Of course they were essential parts to holding up the facade that the government created.
"What... there's," he scrolled down the list his search brought up again, "there's mentions of Red Tide referencing back to old Earth eras... sense well before the time that the Dragons came into power." That was, he didn't know what. Unexpected.
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"Oh perfect." Nova glowered and folded her arms, eyes going slightly unfocused as she blinked the command to pull up the holoscreen in front of her face, projected from the chip behind her eye. "I hate magic," she growled under her breath.
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"Look at this," Emrys took the file, rather news article, something from several decades ago. Something he didn't recall seeing, though he never watched the news anyway. There was an image with it: a large stone with writing in several dead languages and are water moccasin inlaid on the top of it.
"There's a translation... The Staler of Souls, daemon of the sea, poisoner of men's hearts will one day flood the world. There's a description of control over water, plants, and poisons..." He glanced at Nova. "Defiantly magic." He didn't seem much more pleased about it than she did.
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"Fuck." Nova glanced to the side, scrolling through her data feed and scanning for the words "sea", "flood", "poison", and "flora" with quick flicks of her eyes.
She gritted her teeth. "There is...a lot here. I don't know how you want me to process through this. What exactly are we looking for? What's the big deal with this "gas leak"?"
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"This red tide - whatever they are, I think an amalgamation of minds," which was information she wouldn't find anywhere... that was what he had gleaned from touching it's - their? mind(s) with his own during that event. "Almost captured a Pilot during that catastrophe. We think they are trying to declare war on us, or otherwise intend to take over Aedolis. Flood the word seems like an assertion of world domination, yes?"
As for her second question: "We need to find out what or who this red tide is and what they are capable of - separate myth from fact, and also ascertain any weaknesses."
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"Gods." Nova scowled again, reaching blindly behind her to find a chair before turning it around and sinking into it. "No pressure or anything though..."
She reached out to tap a few of the buttons on her holoscreen--not as fast as eye cues, but it took less brain space, and she was apparently going to need as much of that as she could spare. "Why now?" she muttered after a few moments, almost to herself. "Why bother now? The world's been going to shit for centuries, they could have struck at any time..."
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"I don't know," Emrys said - he'd almost said and why me instead, but he hadn't decided if she should know he was the main subject of search, even if they were not looking for information about him. He was examining what they gained by capturing him - first, most obvious, he was a Pilot of rank enough to know many things about Aedolis government, social structure, and military... second, specifically because of his job, he was privy to information about Aedolis' friends and enemies... information that could potentially be used against Aedolis or used to launch off the planet if red tide's goal stretched beyond just one world's domination.
"This is a translation of the last warning on that stone."
To stop the spear took the aid of the remaining gods all together, with the men of their tribes luring the spear into the temple ahead, and the gods imprisoning the spear. The spear must never be released, for it will surely know it is being trapped, and will not be sealed again. To release the spear is to doom the world, traveler. All will be stolen. All will be lost. So hearken to the warning carved in the stone, and release not the Red Tide.
"Guess, ah... someone didn't heed their warming. I don't know about Gods... but apparently it took a lot of magic to seal up whatever this thing was in the past. That's something. There is or was a way to lock red tide up at some point. Maybe it can be done again... though, of course we don't know how they did it."
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"Spear," Nova repeated slowly, tapping away to search through the data she'd just uploaded for the word. "Like, an actual spear? That shit is...ancient. Archaic. What are the chances something like that is still around?"
She paused, her eyes flicking away from the screen in front of her to Emrys's face. "Is there any way to figure out who freed the damn thing? I mean, someone must have, if we're taking this old prophecy bullshit as face value."
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"It was before the modern era," Emrys said, "I think." Because he wasn't sure about anything when it came to red tide. "Some information is confirmed though... red tide takes minds... this may be 'taker of souls,' that incident report I gave you demonstrates use of poison, water, and plant magics.
"I don't know if I buy the prophecy, or believe they - it? are powerful enough to take over Aedolis, but it certainly appears they mean to try. They did put up a good fight against a Pilot and their Dragon... the threat is real, whatever their abilities to carry out their end goals."
Emrys shifted in his chair, his hands moving from his data pad to the computer console so he could have two searches up at once. "There's some stuff in the non-digital archives..." He threw some images up. There was the stone tablet, of course, and some art-work of a woman and of red tide. "It's old occult works from the modern era. I don't know if the spears are around, or if they are even actually spears... and it's not some old symbolism.
"There's a lot of government and alien abduction conspiracy theories that existed around the subject of red tide, during the modern era."
[[I'm calling the "present day" equivalent time period of the planet, the modern era.]]
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Nova's ears pricked up--figuratively, she didn't have that many cybernetics.
"Hold on. This thing fought off a dragon?" She leaned forward, blinking her holoscreen away. "Well, let's just go interview the Pilot then, right? They're bound to have more information from actually fighting it than we'll get from looking through data files and old books."
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Internally, Emrys cringed, externally, nothing about his expression changed though. "You are," he said, as simply as if he'd said the weather was nice out today, "I wrote that incident report.
"And I already told you what I know... they - or it, is or are an amalgamation of minds, I know because I connected to them psychically. THey can use water, poison, and plant magic - masterfully. I've fought mages before, killed a few even... I've never faced anything with that kind of power... and hundreds of minds, it was nauseating.
"Dragon fire can compete with their magic - so can psychic abilities, but psychics tend to be limited in the kinds of things they can do, and strength and power, usually. I've known a couple psychics that might be as powerful in their magic."
There was one other thing that he was holding back... he wasn't sure she needed to know, but he also thought that she wouldn't stop looking until she found out what really happened."They took my son and told me they were going to contact me in a week to trade her for the Priestess.
I don't know who she is.
"They also don't seem to realize we belong to our dragons, and there's no way I can give them anything they wanted, even if I wanted to," because Rojgher would kill him to keep that information safe, or to keep him from getting absorbed into that collective that was red tide.
"I want to use this meeting to our advantage."
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Nova blinked.
There were a lot of ways she could have reacted to that revelation--but she had a feeling only one of them would be acceptable to her mentor.
At least, if she wanted to remain on his good side. Relatively speaking.
Letting out a short, sharp breath, she nodded once and pulled her holoscreen up again. "Okay. Priestess. That's good to know, I can work with that." She started combing the data files for any mention of a "priestess" in conjunction with Red Tide.
After a moment or two of quiet though, she couldn't help asking softly, "Which son?"
She wasn't stupid. She'd done her research on Emrys after their initial meeting, she knew how many children he had, who their mothers were, even how old most were--all of the official information, essentially.
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"Right... Whoever this Priestess is, this red tide thinks we, the Pilots or the government, has her," Emrsy said, "I don't know if we do or not. I don't know if I was given high enough access to find out what we know about her, or that we even have her or not."
Which son?
The worthless one. He thought it with such exasperation that she might have even picked up that errant thought from him. "Bevyn." The fact that Bevyn was usually the subject of his rage or the cause of his anger, but that didn't mean he wanted to abandon the child to whatever red tide would do to him if he couldn't get him back. As a psychic, and knowing his son was very weakly psychic as well, the idea that it might be possible to have his - or his son's mid consumed by another entity and trapped within it's consciousness was rather terrifying. He didn't let any hint of that fear slip by though.
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Nova had to swallow back a smirk as she caught a flicker of exasperation from the edges of his consciousness when he said the boy's name. "Bevyn," she repeated, filing the information away to be examined more closely later.
"Alright, priestess, priestess...Ah!"
She suddenly cried out, doubled over, and her holoscreen flickered away. The red dot in her pupil flared and she clenched her jaw, hissing in pain. "L-locked out," she managed to spit through gritted teeth, clutching at her head. "Can't access...hurts..."
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Emrys terminated their connection to the network.
All the data they'd already pulled remained but anything actively being downloaded was cut off immediately. "What happened, are you ok?" There was just a small touch of concern there in his voice as he came around the table and looked at her. He touched her with his mind and eased the pain a little.
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She had to take a couple breaths, but the pain had begun to fade when he cut their connection, and the faintest brush of his mind against hers eased it further.
Fuck, she'd probably have to thank him for that.
Wincing, Nova shook her head slowly, then seemed to change her mind and nodded. "I--I'm fine. I think. Or I will be. I just..." She shrugged, lifting her head to look at him. "I don't know what happened. There was just this--this white hot pain, and then I couldn't access any of the files." She huffed and dropped her head again, rubbing at her still gently aching temple. "...Sorry."
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"It's alright," Emrys had said he didn't know if his clearance was high enough. "I should have been more careful about this." He didn't realize there were that kind of safeguards on files. Of course he could plug into the system, like all Pilots, and it was addictive being connected, but he didn't the way she did.
"Do you know where the files were coming from?" he asked. If he knew their source he might be able to press a contact or request access.
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"H-hang on..." Nova closed her eyes and mentally scrolled back through the files she'd been exploring when she'd been locked on. "Um...shit, that clearance level is insane, does anyone have that?...Okay...Ow!"
A memory of the pain sliced through her mind and she hissed, snapping her eyes open and jerking slightly as though from a physical blow. Shaking her head in an effort to clear it, she muttered, "I can't tell you where the files are coming from, but I can tell you where they came from." She smirked, tired but triumphant. "How'd you like a physical IP address?"
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"That'll work," Emrys said. "Send it over to me, and then delete your trail... I don't want you getting in trouble for trying to access it."
Once he had the IP address, Emrys ran it threw a program that he had, for just this sort of thing. "TRIMM," he said softly to himself, "This file originates from TRIMM no wonder I dont' have clearance for it."
He glanced at Nova. "We're done here for today, I have to confer with Rojgher. I'm going to have a car come pick you up and bring you back to the ATC." Then he saved the files that they had found to his data pad before removing the secure measures on the room.
"Don't forget this is all classified," he said and then stepped out of the room. A few minutes later a yeomen came in and showed her out and to the car that was waiting for her.
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Emrys requested an audience with Rojgher as he waked out of the archives. He went and spoke to Rojgher, and it was agreed that Emrys needed access to the files. However, those files were not released for remote access. He'd have to go there and read then on a stop-gaped computer. He'd also been granted a brief audience with a doctor who he didn't know how she was involved, but she too was on TRIMM.
So, in the middle of the night, someone woke Nova, and told her to get dressed, pack and overnight back, and move. Emrys was waiting for her by the exit with a car. He wasn't in his dress uniform anymore, but he was still armed, and he looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep sense they'd parted. He ran a hand threw his hair and got back into the car.
He didn't have to or even need to bring her with him, but field work was the best test. He wanted to see if she could handle it. She had also proven she could be useful.
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"You--wait a--"
He was gone.
"Ass," Nova grunted to herself as the yeoman approached to lead her to the car.
It was a sentiment that was repeated tenfold when someone appeared in her room at nearly two in the morning and she jerked awake with a yell, instinctively using her mind to fling her alarm clock at what she perceived to be an attacker.
The "attacker" ducked, luckily, and managed to stammer out that Pilot Noble Broin had requested her presence outside, and that she should back a bag.
Nova grumbled insults and curses under her breath all the while she shoved a few changes of clothes and some of her basic necessities into a smallish knapsack, then stalked out to the entrance of the ATC.
"Two AM?" she hissed at Emrys once she was in earshot. "Are you fucking kidding me with this?"
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“This has a time limit,” Emrys said, with little tolerance for her attitude, “and it expires in 5 days. So stop your bitching and get in.” He hadn’t even gotten the nap that she had, so she could shut her damn trap. He’d spent hours speaking with Rojgher, and then further hours making arrangements and finding transportation.
As soon as she was in the car and the door was shut, he put his data pad in her lap. “Sign this,” he said, “it’s a non disclosure agreement, same as the last. Everything you see or do until I return you to the ATC is classified.”
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"Yeah, yeah, I get the drill," Nova grumbled as she signed the pad. Handing it back to him, she huffed, "Honestly, this would be easier if you didn't bother sending me back at all until you know you're not gonna need me. Then I wouldn't be getting woken up at a gods-awful hour. I'd just be bitchy and generally sleep deprived, like you. At least we'd be on the same page."
She smiled as she sat back in her seat, propping her ankle on the opposite knee again. "So. Where to?"
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Emrys ignored her snark. He wasn’t used to people snarking him, but as long as she didn’t do it when others were witness, he let it slide for now. Mostly because he was too tired for a proper dressing down at the moment.
“Frankly,” he said, “the thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t have anywhere to put you while I was in meetings.”
As for her other question, well she’d have to guess. “We’re headed off world, but I’m not allowed to tell you where to,” Emrys said, “but you’re smart I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
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It only took her a few seconds of thought, and even that she was inclined to blame on her grogginess.
"TRIM." She cocked her head again, eyes narrowing slightly. "Why wouldn't you be allowed to tell me that? Did no one think I was gonna figure it out when we got there?"
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Emrys didn’t confirm or deny. “Because I didn’t ask permission to bring you,” Emrys answered her question. Of course his dragon knew because he was in Emrys head, and he didn’t disapprove, that wasn’t the same as asking permission. Also he hadn’t asked any of his other superiors in his chain of command. Emrys was used to working a little outside that chain anyway, though, because of the nature of his job.
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That threw her. In a much smaller voice than normal, she murmured, “Oh...” by way of reply, then lapsed into silence.
After a few more moments of driving in silence, she found her voice again and asked, “So if anyone happens to be nosy, I’m not here in any official capacity?”
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Emrys made no attempt to fill the silence. In the absence of conversation, he rested his head against the head rest and was nearly dozing when Nova spoke again. He sat up a little straighter and looked at her when she spoke though. “If anyone happens to be nosey your an unimportant Candidate who doesn't know anything and is just following their mentor around,” Emrys said.
“I work outside and around the chain of command all the time. It’s fine as long as I don’t commit treason and I keep getting results. With what I do, time is sensitive and I have to move faster than the bureaucracy allows for sometimes. It’s a fine lime to walk, but I’ve managed not to overstep it so far.” A lot of that had to do with as long as he didn’t piss off his dragon, Rojgher’s approval would go a long was to dismiss ALMOST anything.
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Nova shrugged. “Whatever you say, boss. Just wanted to make sure I had my story straight.”
Again, she fell quiet, though rather than rest as Emrys did, she turned her attention inward, flicking through a few commands to bring up her holoscreen—projected from a panel in her cybernetic arm this time. Using the ocular one too much gave her a headache.
She skimmed down through what information she’d managed to download at their trip to the archives before she got booted off the system, both re-familiarizing herself with the details and attempting to find anything she might have missed earlier.
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Emrys just nodded in respect to Nova and then leaned his head back against the head rest again.
Emrys was too tired to care about searching data files at the moment. He fully intended to sleep on the hop to TRIMM and then get down to business once he was there. Sleep deprivation wasn’t something he’d had to deal with much sense the war had ended, but he fully intended to practice the idea of sleep when and where you can. Because once they got there he wasn’t likely sleeping anymore until they left.
They boarded the ship with a swipe of Emrys’ chip and then it would be a short hop over to TRIMM, that would take a couple hours.
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With nothing else to really do for the trip up to TRIM, Nova satisfied herself with an alternation between glancing through and highlighting certain areas of the data files and attempting to catch up on the sleep she'd be missing thanks to this little "field trip".
Well she didn't so much "sleep" as "doze", but at least it was something.
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Once they were nearing the space station Emrys took half a minute to really wake up, then made some likely excuses for them to be here. He sent a communique to some high ranking someone about him being a random inspection from the AEDA, and to expect him within the hour. That one was a text file he sent along with a brief video message which he recorded on the spot. Then he sent a second video message, this one personal in nature, to someone he actually knew on board the station, asking if he was available for drinks later, and apologized for such short notice.
An hour later, they were docked. An attache met them at the docking bay. "Pilot Noble Borin," they greeted him respectfully, then glanced at Nova, "and Cadet...?" He was looking for a name. "I'm sorry, I wasn't able to arrange much for you in the way of quarters that isn't basic, we weren't expecting you."
"That's the surprise in surprise inspection," Emrys said dismissively.
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Still working the kinks out of her neck and shoulders from sleeping in an upright position, Nova replied briskly to the attache, "Erinsri."
It was sort of a bastard's name, with roots firmly planted in ancient Adela that even to a modern ear she knew made her surname sound "low-class", but she'd learned not to care. And most people knew better than to show a reaction, if they even had one.
She rocked back on one heel, eyes darting about warily, as she waited for Emrys to finish speaking with the other man. She'd never actually been off-world before, and she wasn't entirely sure what to expect.
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“That’s fine,” Emrys replied, about only having basic quarters available, “ we’re leaving tomorrow. Show me to my quarters first, I’ll be ready for the tour in twenty minutes.”
The attaché glanced at Nova, apologetic, and almost nervously... though his nervousness was more about offending Emrys than his subordinate. “I’m sorry, sir, I wasn’t expecting your Cadet,” he said.
“It’s ok,” Emrys said, “one night of shared quarters won’t kill us. Have a cot or something brought up to the room while we’re on the tour.”
The attaché nodded. “Of course sir,” he gestured for them to follow, “if you would follow me.” Emrys spared Nova the briefest of glances which seemed to say ‘on your best behavior, now’ before falling in step behind their guide.
“Most of the personal in TRIMM are civilians - especially the scientist, or regular military,” Emrys said to Nova, “There are also a handful of Pilots stationed here, but by and large, they are an independent corporate entity.” Though obviously there was some government oversight. Which is what he was posing as now.
They were lead to quarters which were the sort reserved for junior officers in the regular military. Nothing like Emrys was used to, but nothing that would inconvenience him either. There was one main room that was smallish and doubled as a sitting room and bed room, the smallest kitchenette he’d ever seen, and a full bathroom. It was good enough.
“We’ll see you in twenty minutes,” Emrys said before shutting the door on their guide. “I have to change,” he said to Nova, then headed for the bathroom, “make yourself comfortable, and put some coffee or tea on if there’s any in there.” He pointed at the kitchenette before the bathroom door shut, leaving her alone.
The bathroom was a bit cramped but included all the essentials. He imagined, usually, no one ever changed in there though. No matter. He pulled his dress uniform out of his overnight bag and hung it over the towel wrack, then he shaved and dressed. When he exited the bathroom he had his cover under one arm and his bag in the other hand. His bag was dropped on the small sofa.
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She had to resist the urge to make a rude gesture at Emrys's back as he shot her that look, as though she was a child.
She didn't quite resist the urge to project it toward his mind, however.
Their temporary quarters were honestly nicer than her dorm back home, but she didn't exactly feel the need to say anything about that. Seeing Emrys grab his dress uniform, she supposed she was expected to change too, waiting until he was in the bathroom to do so.
"I thought we were leaving in twenty minutes," Nova grumbled to herself once she was dressed, but she moved to hunt through the kitchenette, coming up with a positively antique tea kettle and hot plate. She filled the kettle with water and left it on the plate to boil before setting herself to dig around a little more, which turned up a few packets of instant coffee, and what she thought was a synthetic green tea mixture. "Make yourself comfortable, he says. Right. Ten minutes of comfort, excellent."
When Emrys emerged from the bathroom again, she jerked her head toward the now gently whistling kettle. "Soup's on."
-
Emrys sent the mental impression of himself slapping her upside the head for her insolence, though he gave no outward reactions.
Even ten minutes was enough for a cup of coffee. He couldn’t even remember if he’d told Nova to pack her dress uniform. Good on her if she did whiteout his remembering, good on him if he had. Either way it wasn’t vital that she was. As a Candidate, she wasn’t inspecting anything. Officially, anyway.
“Thank you,” he said, and headed over the the kitchen. Instant coffee. He made a face. He’d drink it anyway. He poured steaming water into a... paper cup and then dumped the offensive dark powered into it, followed be several packets of sugar and some kind of powered creamer imitator. He made another face after he took his first sip and looked at the cup as if it had offended him, then downed the whole think like a shot. At least it had caffeine and sugar in it.
“Do you want any of this... frankly, I can’t even call it coffee?”
-
Nova shook her head at the offer, tugging at the hem of her semi-formal dress shirt in an effort to get it to lay flat. She hadn't actually had reason to back her dress uniform, but it seemed in her groggy state that morning she'd managed to snatch a few of the nicer things she owned out of her closet and shoved them in a bag. Seeing Emry in a dress uniform, she figured she should go with something a little more formal.
"I don't do substances," she said distractedly. "Not even caffeine, really. Messes with my systems." She tapped the side of her head near the implant in her temple to emphasize what she meant.
-
“I don’t know how you even live,” Emrys teased.
“While we’re out,” he said, “I want you to keen a sharp eye out. They’re going to ignore you. It will be easy for them to forget you’re even here. Use it to your advantage. There’s information here, but I do t know what it is or who all knows it ocean even access it. There’s a Pilot here... a doctor. She’s got some of it, but we also don’t know who is watching us. You read the reports, this Redtide consumes minds and posses their bodies. Anyone could be one of them.” Not to sound paranoid or anything, but when they really were out to get you...”
-
Nova's eyebrows crept toward her hairline. "Was that a joke?"
She swallowed back another snarky comment when he spoke again, slipping with surprising ease into a professional air. She nodded once to show she understood him, but didn't say anything aloud--he had a point, after all. For all they knew, they were being monitored in their own quarters.
"Understood. Sir."
-
“Feel free to use any alternate men’s of observation you have at your disposal,” Emrys said and sent from his data pad to her a new access code. “And you can use this access code.” That was his, new, and a little higher level than the one he’d given her the day prior.
They had a couple minutes to relax before the attaché returned to collect them.
“I was expecting your operations officer,” Emrys said as he looked over the shirt yet man. Much to his amusement, which he shouted with Nova, but didn’t express outwardly, the man squirmed.
“As I said sir, we were not expecting you. He’s in a meeting at the moment but will be available, at the conclusion of the tour,” he said, then lifted a data pad from where he held it at his side, “I do have all the figures here though...” He started to pull up a file.
Emrys waved him off dismissively. “I was most interested in seeing your chief of security, and there reports.”
The attaché nodded. “Of course, sir, we can start the tour there, if you’d like.”
“I would,” Emrys said, “and what’s your name, for my report.”
-
“By “alternate means” I assume you mean “cybernetic enhancements”?” Nova noted dryly as she filed the access code away with a wink and a flickering motion of her eyes.
She hung back slightly when the attaché returned, keeping her arms folded and her weight even distributed between her feet: a silent, if slightly intimidating, shadow behind Emrys.
She watched the exchange between the two men curiously, and couldn’t help the slight twitch to the corner of her lips as she felt a flicker of Emrys’s emotions brush against the outer edge of her mind. She shores up her own defenses a bit more—just in case, she still didn’t trust the man as far as she could telekinetically throw him—but projected back a quick, fiery sense of can we get him to hurry up a bit?
-
“Or psychic spying,” Emrys added. He didn’t know how skilled she was at that though. “As long as you think you can be discreet. As I said, there’s only a few pilots around... if you avoid them and don’t be too forceful, there should be no issue.” It was taboo in their culture, but nothing she shouldn’t be unused to from the other end. Candidates regularly had their minds invaded. Also, Emrys didn’t care about taboo if it got him results. “Also if you open you mind up enough to at least casually scan those around you... you’ll be able to spot anyone linked to redtide. They feel like... you can sense multiple kinds from them behind an odd blankness to the individual.”
Emrys was quite skilled at both psych spying and manipulation though. He was doing it now, with the attaché, keeping him nervous and distracted, so he wouldn’t notice what Emrys was really up to.
We don’t want to raise any suspicions, Emrys thought back at her.
“Duran,” the attaché responded, with a dry swallow, “Jardeen Duran.”
Emrys nodded and followed as the man lead them toward the security offices.
Do you see what I’m doing here?. Everything could be a learning opportunity. There was more manipulation of the situation going on that his psychic press on the man’s feelings. The dress uniform, the way he treated the attaché with dismissive impatience and expectation. His own heir of arrogance that was only part act.
-
I know that, I'm not an idiot, Nova projected back to him, shooting a brief glare at his back.
She watched him as he interacted with the attaché, then snipped at the back of his mind, What, being a pretentious asshole? Yeah, I can see that.
She was being snarky for the form of the thing more than anything else. She could in fact see what he meant, and she filed the information away in the back of her head.
She didn't exactly feel the need to tell him that she was actually paying attention though.
-
Of course he could see the glare at his back but he could 'feel' it. Regardless, he ignored her snide commentary.
Duran attempted to knock, but Emrys reached for the door knob and stepped into the chief of security's office before he could be announced. He moved threw the door with self importance, not even letting the attache lead them in.
"What the f-" the man was on his feet, but his words died on his lips which were left in an almost comical angry snarl, when he saw Emrys uniform. The man was a civilian, in a military styled uniform marked with TRIMM's logo. He carried a side arm, the mark of a security officer that was not just a mall cop.
"Apologies, Quiten," the attache said smoothly, though the was his feet shifted suggested he wished to flee the room, "Pilot Noble Borin is conducting an inspection for the AEDA." Predictably, he didn't introduce or even mention Nova. Nor did he really even care about her except insofar as not pissing off Emrys becaus he hadn't originally made arrangements for two guests.
The snarl on Quiten's face deepen into a frown, but he retook his seat reluctantly. On the wall behind his desk, facing the man's back was a wall of cameras that showed cells - some like jail cells, some with solid doors and no windows, halls, various rooms of many kinds, some that looked like hospital rooms. "What can I do for you Pilot Noble?"
"I'd like all of your reports for the last six months," Emrys set his data pad down on his desk so the man could send him the files, "Have you have any recent issues - downed or malfunctioning systems, personnel issues, break outs or even staffing issues?" This was a high security, locked facility... Emrys wanted to know just how secure it actually was.
The reports could be gone threw later - and likely were not as important as the questions he'd just asked, or Nova's possible access into his systems by just being in the room. However, it was the sort of request he would expect, all their recent incident reports, and all the regular routine ones too.
-
Nova kept herself as unobtrusive as possible as she followed Emrys into the office, taking up a semi-guard stance back by the door. Her eyes flickered over the three men, and she cautiously spread her psychic signature a little further into the room, picking up on ambient thought and emotion.
Curiously, she reached out toward Quiten specifically, smoothing a sort of bland disinterest over his prickling irritation.
She wasn’t exactly practiced with this sort of thing, and she kept her psychic touch light, trying to be as subtle as she could manage. It was more from curiosity than anything else, and she blinked the implant behind her eye active to perform a basic scan on all three of the men as she took another glance around the room.
-
Emrys was skilled enough to motor all three of them psychically. He could have pressed on Quiten's mind also, but he frankly didn't care if the man was mad. Angry people slipped up as easily as nervous ones. He was more interested in what Nova was attempting.
The man relaxed a little, though he was far from pleased or happy... or even neutral about what was going on. He tapped irritably at the surface of his desk and then swiped his finger across it in the direction of Emry's data pad, sending him the requested files.
"Guards complain about the pay, or being off world for months at a time," the security chief said, "sometimes... but they can't really complain all that much, TRIMM pays really well and as a privet security gig, they have a lot more freedoms than soldiers." Theoretically, he was also suggesting they had more freedoms than Pilots too. In some ways he was right, in others he was quite wrong.
"Walk me threw your security measures," Emrys said.
Quiten seemed offended by that direction. He expected Emrys knew damn well what their security measures were and just wanted to check if he kept up on them. Amusement wafted off of Emrys... in fact, he had a basic idea, but sense inspecting this facility was not one of his jobs he didn't know.
"Every inch of this place except inside personnel quarters is under surveillance. "I have the most critical places here - but there's a whole room of screens with all the views running 24/7 and manned by ten people at all times. Of course we don't expect them to actively watch every hall way all the time, but they motor the high priority areas all the time and can quickly pull up any location where any disturbance or incident of any kind is reported. Even if it's reported after the fact. We keep all the footage for sixty days, then destroyed... sensitive information and all. Some of the labs and medical rooms can be temporarily blocked to camera view with the right clearance, given the nature of what goes on here.
Guards move on regular rotations around the facility and about a dozen additional guards move in random paths assigned by the computer, to keep the pattern form being obvious. Guards are armed with stun batons and side arms. Lethal force is authorized for use in self defense, defense of others, or anyone attempting to leave without authorization. Military personnel and Pilots operate outside out chain of command, but adhere to facility regulations. Except when they don't he thought with annoyance.
"All doors to secure areas require a chip scan for entrance plus a retinal scan, some also require a voice of code match... some require military clearance codes. All codes are changed every 10 days... and military clearance codes changes per military regs." Which he wasn't informed about.
"I don't do cyber security personally, but only out communications are tied into the network... everything else is on a separate system and never links to the network. You have to have a local wireless or hard connection to access our systems, and proper clearance.
"Our latest drills showed an improvement in disaster response time to any location on the station at twenty five minutes." Considering the size of TRIMM that was impressive. "And response times to key locations are less." Suggesting they had security hubs in or near those places.
-
As Quiten spoke, Nova decided to try something. She pulled her psychic net back, into herself, and instead extended the abilities again as more of a spire, a probe, aiming not for any of the organic bodies in the room, but rather for the console at Quiten's desk.
Her implants whirred and popped, but internally, behind her own eyes. She winced, then hid it quickly, hoping none of the others had noticed--
And then her eyes widened.
Holy shit. That fucking worked?!
On a very, very basic level, she seemed to have been able to hack into the first layer of security on the console's system. With her freaking brain.
Okay. That was cool.
With rather more finesse than she might have used normally, Nova tossed a vague idea of what she was doing at the back of Emrys's mental shields, along with a hurried, Keep them talking, buy me like two more minutes.
-
Surprise, but not quite the same level of awe, and approval drifted back to Nova, along with an acknowledgment. Emrys had know it was possible he just did know if she could do it... part of why he'd brought her along was she might be able to and no one would actually expect something like that from her... which is why they were all focused on the largest authority figure in the room, him.
"Twenty-five minutes?" Emrys tone was both impress and disbelieving, "without increase in losses or damages?" Emrys expression shifted subtly, as he looked at the chief security officer, feigning, very convincingly faint respect, which was 100% false considering the breach in security that he and Nova posed him at the moment.
"I'd like the report on that as well... do you have a recording of the most recent one? I'd like you to walk me threw it."
Quiten might as well have puffed up his feathers and grew four inches for how well Emrys had just stroked his ego. "As a matter of fact, I do. I would be happy to walk you threw it."
Well, now they had twenty five minutes.
-
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Nova somehow managed to keep her expression blank, almost bored. She leaned back against the door frame a bit, trying to add to the air of disinterest.
Mentally, she was racing through data files, the tiny red dot behind her pupil flickering with each jump through the network. With the passcode Emrys had given her she could move quickly, smoothly, but the system still wasn't designed for something like this.
Redtide, spear, magic, c'mon...
She didn't have time to read everything. Any time her search flagged a keyword, she snatched the file and uploaded as much of it to her chip as fast as she could, then moved on. It wasn't so much that she worried about the twenty-five minute timeline Emrys had just bought, she was more concerned about what prolonged exposure to this sort of thing might do to her.
As she surfed through files, she suddenly smirked, nearly stumbling--mentally--over a security system history.
With a flicker of thought toward Emrys, she noted blithely, If you want to really piss him off, mention that their whole fucking security system shut down out of no where for nearly an hour about...three days ago. Doors, hangars, everything. No warning, no explanation. And...
There was something else, something about a subject--
Ow!
White hot pain flashed through her brain and her whole body jerked as the system zapped her back from that particular file. She blinked, coming back to herself slightly, and glanced between the attache and Quiten, hoping neither of them had noticed the subtle movement.
-
At the moment Emrys sensed her pain - the same as before, Emrys did two things. He soothed her pain psychically, and he leveled a scary looking gaze at Quiten. The attache took a step back and looked actually, terrified of Emrys. "So, why don't you tell me about three days ago when you suffered a system wide shutdown." His voice had taken on the edge of a threat, and the tone of someone used to being obeyed. That was a command, not a suggestion.
Emrys succeeded in keeping everyone's attention squarely on him.
Are you ok?
-
In her current state, Nova wasn’t entirely sure if he seemed professional or genuinely concerned. She managed to keep herself upright, expression blank, but there was a slight tremor that rippled through her body every few moments as she recovered from the white-hot light that had momentarily set every moment of her life on fucking fire.
She kept the pain hidden behind her mental walls, projecting a terse, Fine, I’m fine. I’m pulling out of the system.
Extracting herself was more difficult than hacking in; the system seemed to know she was there now, somehow, and was trying to snatch back the files she’d stolen. Each jolt was another flat of pain, but the only outward sign she gave was a slight tension in her jaw.
-
It was genuine and professional. If she wasn't ok, he'd have a hell of a time extracting whatever she'd found from her memory core... and if she died or was permanently damaged, that would be a personal failure of his. Also, as her mentor, as the one who had taken her from the ATC, he was reasonable for her, she was his obligation now... as much as he thought of her as something between a student, a convent tool in his pocket, and a slave... he was still obligated to her as well.
He sent a simple acknowledgment to her in response, and soothed away a little more of the pain.
The security chief stammered, and the attache looked like he was about to bolt. "As you were, Duran," he said sharply, which nailed his shoes to the bulkhead.
"You didn't think we wouldn't notice, did you?" Emrys focused most of his outward attention on Quiten now. "Explain. Now."
"Well, you see, sir, we... we didn't report it because... because frankly we don't, don't know what caused it. So, what could we report that would be of use." The man was red in the face, sweating, pissed off, embarrassed, and starting to hyperventilate. Just how Emrys wanted him. He really was going to report this back to his superiors... it was huge breach, and to not report it. It was bad and it was more troublesome considering why he was here.
-
Nova was unfortunately having a hard time splitting her attention between the physical and the mental, so she was a little out of it until she managed to finish extracting her consciousness from the security system.
The pain stopped and her shoulders slumped forward a bit, but otherwise she didn't move. Well, I guess that...could have been worse?
Shaking herself mentally, she debated saying what she'd learned aloud, then decided against it; her power here was as Emrys's shadow. It make her easy to overlook.
A subject got out, she told him, even her mental voice reflecting how tired she was from that particular struggle. No idea who, what, or how, but it happened during the shutdown. I couldn't get anything else.
-
Yes, in this case, Nova was Emrys' shadow, the face behind the curtain... and Emrys was the omnipotent, wrathful god. It was working out quite well, despite the hiccups.
"I we... we were investigating... we were going to report it when we knew more..."
"One of the subjects got out," Emrys said with a calm air of assurance that made it clear this statement was not a question. "Did they escape the station."
The color drained out of the security chief. "No, no sir. He was recaptured, never got close to leaving. Out of his fucking mind, that one... That's why they send them here. They're so broken... no fixing them. At least the doctors can find some use for them here."
Emrys frown deepened. He hated the though of those who wound up here - the very faint chance that his favorite daughter might end up among them. Before that genuine emotion even fully formed though, he threw up shields like armor to prevent Nova or anyone else from picking up on it.
"Show him to me," Emrys said, with a clear hair of disbelief... as if nothing that the security chief said held any stock in his mind anymore.
"Yes, sir," he touched one of the screens to change it's view.
"No," Emrys said, "I want proof he's still here. Take me to him."
-
Lie...
Nova couldn’t stop herself from reacting to that. Her eyes widened and she jerked away from the wall, looking back over her shoulder as though she expected to see the owner of that— that damned voice!
Liar, liar, liar...
“Liar,” Nova echoed in a whisper, just low enough that only Emrys could hear. She didn’t seem to entirely realize she’d done it. “Liar...”
She snapped out of it abruptly, giving her head a brisk shake and rolling her shoulders back. Jerking her chin up, she said louder, “Sir, if we’re going to be seeing more the facilities should I start recording?”
It was a subtle, but undeniable, threat. She may only be a Candidate, but she could easily upload any footage she took into the Pilot database.
-
Emrys did the mental equivalent of whipping his head around to look at her, slightly startled.
"Yes," he said, "thank you Candidate." They weren't going to upload anything, but he liked making them squirm. Something was fucking going on here, and it was starting to feel like more than just a connection to redtide... which was kind of fucking mind blowing, sense redtide was already enough to set the room spinning for him. He didn't let any of that reach Nova though.
"Let's go, Quiten."
"Yes... yes sir." The man slid past Emrys like he was afraid he'd catch fire if he touched the officer. Then he led them out the door.
-
Nova gave him a sharp nod and a half salute to acknowledge the order. Her eye flared red as she activated her recording equipment, then cast her gaze around the room pointedly.
As they started following Quiten back down the hall, she projected quickly to Emrys, I think there’s more shit going down in this facility than just Redtide. This might be a false lead, I don’t know. I couldn’t get enough info.
-
We're going to pull all the threads, Emrys replied, unravel whatever we can. I'll probably never get access to this place like this again.
"You will send me all the data you gathered about this incident as well, with real time updates going into the future."
"Understood." The attache made a note on his data pad... probably to remind him not to forget to make sure that happened so Emrys didn't come back and kill him.
It was about a ten minute walk to the appropriate cell block... these ones more like solitary confinement prison cells, than many of the others that looked more like locked down hospital rooms.
"Subject 00247," the security chief said. He kicked the door and someone inside started. Then he slid open a viewing screen. "Back away from the door."
Obediently, subject 00247 backed up to the far wall, and then Quiten punched in a door code and opened the door.
-
The criminal puppet had been made to be observing for no more than three days when it spotted something that brought the full attention of Red Tide's hundreds of thousands of minds to it. A very familiar sight, the magics corresponding to those of the Pilot whose son it was holding hostage. As the Pilot walked by, the puppet was made to form a single drop of water in his path, small enough to be a message to the Pilot without necessarily being obvious to any others, and in a spot where it couldn't be explained by a leak above. The droplet was timed to fall so that Emrys would, if he didn't notice it before it hit and avoid it, be struck in the forehead, though there'd be no other effect except the wetness. Red Tide wanted the Pilot to know it knew he was here, and what that knowledge meant.
Hopefully, the Pilot's reason for visiting the facility would lend itself to him sussing out what the drop meant. In case it didn't, a janitor puppet near that part of the facility was made to make its way toward the Pilot. For now, though, the Pilot's attention seemed to be on another subject.
[OOC: This is it for now. I'll post again once the janitor arrives.]
-
Nova got chills in this place. She tried not to let it show, simply sweeping her gaze from side to side so her chip could record as much data as possible.
The sight of people in what were little more than cages certainly made her stomach flip uncomfortably though.
She continued her “silent shadow” gambit, pausing a few steps back from the rest of the group as they cane to a stop in front of the cell. Her eyes flickered over its occupant quickly, calculating. She couldn’t scan while she was recording—and honestly after her last attempt at mixing psionics and tech she wasn’t sure she wanted to stretch her capabilities.
-
That was ok, because Emrys senses were wide open, even as he had himself carefully shielded. He'd already picked up on the lie the security chief was trying to sell him.
He also. Fuck. That nauseating miasma of minds. Even though he didn't miss a step, or show an outward change. He was so distracted by that unmistakable feeling that he couldn't avoid the drop of water. He looked up automatically.
Fuck.
Red tide. At least one of them are here, now, he sent to Nova.Be on your guard.
"Do you take me for a fucking idiot?" Emrys spat, all the venom he felt for Red tide coming out in his interrogation of Quiton. "Or did you forget Pilots are psychics? Stop. Lying. To. Me."
The security chief almost forgot to secure the cell... actually he backed up toward it without realizing. Which Emrys too full advantage of, pressing closer to the man, pushing him back a step into it. He pressed HARD into the man's mind, it was an intimate, and often traumatic, to do so and Emrys didn't rightly care at the moment. I'm sure someone here could make you into a useful experiment, if you can't be made into a useful security officer. He rested a hand on the door to the cell threateningly. His mental thread had been made so 'loudly' that all the psychics on the station must have heard it, and maybe some of those who weren't might have thought they imagined hearing echos of it too.
-
Oh, shit.
"Pilot Broin." Nova stepped forward, laying her hand on Emrys's arm. He's no good to us if he can't even manage full sentences, she projected sharply, while outwardly she tried to sound professional as she murmured, "I'm sure this conversation can be had once the cell is re-secured, can't it?"
Without thinking, she sent a flicker of thought toward the cell's occupant, a gentle suppression that she hoped would keep him sedate and still until they could get the door shut again.
Her eyes widened as he consciousness brushed his and she actually felt what Emrys had told her about.
Back!
Again, that voice. Louder this time, screaming at her.
Get back, stupid girl, pull back!
Nova jerked her psychic walls back tight around the core of her mind instinctively, sucking in a harsh, sharp breath as she did.
-
Emrys was pissed. Everyone was trying to fuck with him right now and just wanted to quash someone until they were dead or mindless. His rage seeped out past his walls. Nova reeled him back in though, brought him back to the hear and now. He reigned himself in visibly. The picture of a pretentious know-it-all once more. He took a step back and straightened the jacket of his uniform. He stepped to the side, and the security chief was still reeling, but he scurried out of the cell and secured the door quickly.
He had pissed himself. Great. Emrys scoffed, as if he were embarrassed for the man.
The security chief didn't seem to have noticed yet. "The subject... the subject #5862... she... she's a mage. We don't," he swallowed, "I don't know how the systems went down or why. It doesn't look like we were hacked. She didn't... she was chipped. She couldn't have done it. It doesn't make any sense."
Finally. The truth. He was fucking useless, but the truth was helpful. He didn't know what the fuck was going on here, but there was a whole lot of shit going on. "I want the reports," Emrys reminded him, "all of them. Now get the fuck out of my sight. You're useless."
Emrys moved back about three cells, and pointed at a door. The source of that miasma of minds he'd touched earlier. Just thinking about made him feel a little queasy again. "Who is this?" he asked the attache.
Emrys gave Nova the mental equivalent of a glance when he felt her shields slam shit like fort knocks. He didn't try to push past them... that'd require much effort on his part, and maybe harm her. He did send an inquiry her way though.
-
Nova twitched, her eyes fuzzy and distant, though she managed to bring her gaze around to blink at Emrys once, twice. Then her expression seemed to clear slightly and she gave a short, jerky nod. She didn't quite have the presence of mind to project a real answer to him, but she managed a general "don't worry about it" sort of impulse.
...What the hells was that?
I'm gettin' real fucking sick of all this shit I don't understand, she bitched silently to herself, falling into her place behind Emrys once again as they approached the new cell.
-
"Subject #00259," the attache responded promptly, reading off from his data pad. "I'm sorry sir, this subjects file is secured above my clearance."
"Send me the file," Emrys said, and as soon as he had it, he unlocked it.
This was what he was looking for. Not exactly but close. They fed him to the Priestess. I don't know if she's still here.
-
Fed him?! Nova’s eyes widened fractionally, the only exterior market of her surprise and disgust.
Okay...Ew. How does that even— She cut the thought off, retreating back behind her mental walls. On second thought, she didn’t think she really wanted to know.
-
As the Pilot stopped in front of the cell it was being held in, the criminal puppet was made to begin using a waterjet-like spell to etch a map into a section of the cell door. The map was a near-perfect 2D representation of the path from its cell to High Priestess's, with a water moccasin etched in the cell the puppet was in, and an etching of High Priestess's face in her cell. When the etching was complete, the puppet was made to cut the map out of the door, then use a jet of water to push it out onto the floor in front of the cell. That it had felt two minds recoil from its own was of little concern to the deity. Red Tide was, for now, interested only in Emrys.
"Pilot Noble Emrys Broin., the puppet was made to say, its voice an amalgamation of that all of Red Tide's minds, hundreds of thousands strong, "You have arrived at the facility where my Priestess is being held, but you stand before the wrong cell. Take that map. Bring me my Priestess. Another will arrive with the place you will bring her. You have twenty four hours remaining, now that you have the knowledge you need to render to me what is mine. If you cannot bring her, you will bring the coordinates of this facility.", the puppet was made to instruct the Pilot, "Fail me, or attempt to stall, and you will lose what is yours. *All* that is yours. I do not doubt for a moment you have sought information on me. You know what I can do.", it was made to continue. Red Tide would not be denied. Now that the Pilot would assuredly have the information it sought, nothing less than full cooperation would be accepted.
-
Emrys looked at the attache when odd sounds started coming out of the cell. "Leave this place, and raise the guard now, you won't be able to contain them." There was a serious urgency to his tone that prompted the attache to respond immediately.
He was gone before the prisoner spoke.
Emrys had secured his family before he left. They were in the citadel, the most secure place on Adelos, his dragon was near by to them, and they were under guard - guards he had insisted on meeting in person to make sure they were not part of red tide. He didn't think he was being paranoid at the time, but now he was glad he'd taken such steps.
THey really didn't understand how arrangements worked. His dragon would kill him if he gave them anything. He'd hoped to use this meeting to his own advantage somehow but he seemed to be quickly running out of options.
"You will get nothing from me until I see my son. Nothing else will convince me that he is alive and in tact." It was a stalling tactic, but also the truth. He could do neither of the things that they asked of him. He didn't even know the damn coordinates they were at... Only the pilot did, and he was no longer here.
He could probably get into the systems and figure it out, but it was better just not to know.
He also couldn't deliver the priestess, because while he might be able to physically... he'd just be murdered by his own people for it.
-
Nova's eyes widened and she backed up sharply until her back fetched against the wall, staring with a combination of shock, horror, and almost a begrudging curiosity at the exchange.
Run, run, run, run!
She clenched her jaw, shoving the voice away. She was a lot of things--she was even a coward, sometimes.
But she was also loyal, damnit.
"I'm afraid he's not bluffing," she said evenly, trying to keep her voice cool and clipped, in control. This was...this was something else. Oh gods she hoped she wasn't making the worst mistake of her life.
Pushing herself away from the wall, she came to stand beside Emrys and lifted her chin, back straight and firm, though her knees threatened to shake just from the sound of the thing's voice. Voices. Whatever.
"Besides," she continued evenly, "your deadline seems to be made on false pretenses. He doesn't have the information you're talking about. I do."
-
Red Tide carefully considered its options as the humans spoke, debating between devouring the son now and giving the Pilot's companion, as some human minds put it, enough rope to hang herself with before doing so. Devouring the son and using his voice, and only his voice, to inform the Pilot that the deal was off and the lives taken would be on his head was another option, as the Pilot seemed to have no intention of honoring the arrangement if this was his response. "Then you intend to renege on your end of the arrangement?", the criminal puppet was made to ask at length, "Do not take me for a fool, human. Tens of thousands of years and countless of your kind's minds have taught me the treacheries your kind are capable of. You will see your son when I see my Priestess, and he will be in your reach when she is within mine. No sooner than when I have that which is mine shall you have that which is yours. Fail, and your son is forfeit. Delay, and your son is forfeit. Attempt to renege again, and your son is forfeit. Incur my wrath again, and your son is forfeit.", it was made to continue, "But if your companion can deliver that which you will not, then you are unnecessary. Should the child wish to return to the father, he shall. Should he choose instead to become my adherent, he may.". The criminal was made to pause before continuing, "But enough talk. Your time is not infinite, Pilot, nor is yours, companion. You waste it here. There can be no atonement but in the return of what is mine.". At those words, Red Tide sent a subconscious command to its Priestess: As soon as the companion was close enough, she was to attempt to devour the woman's mind unless she agreed to cooperate.
[Note: The attempt would only be successful if you allow it to be. at this time High Priestess isn't powerful enough to forcefully devour someone who is aware of her and what she can do unless they are willing.]
-
Alarm sounded. Warning lights flashed. The attache had had believed him, and relayed that the threat was where he was standing.
Don't be fucking stupid. She was his responsibility she wasn't supposed to be trying to sacrifice herself for him. What the actual fuck? She was just a damn Candidate. Touch the system and inform security to secure the fucking priestess. They need high powered rifles.
"I didn't take anything from you, and all I've known from you is unfounded attack," Emrys said, "I didn't even know you existed until you attempted to kill me. I have no reason to believe anything you say or that you will return him to me at all."
Shore up your mind. I don't know how they, it consumes minds. I don't know if it can be resisted. He grabbed Nova by the wrist and pulled her away from the cell with his left hand as he drew his weapon with his right, emptying his pistol into the prisoner. They could die. It was difficult as fuck to kill them, but they could fucking die. It was high powered thing for a hand gun, the best he could find.
RUN. We're getting out of here if we have to steal a ship. He was dragging her along even as he urged her on. He was headed toward the docking bay.
Emrys would not give then the priestess or their coordinates. Over his dead fucking body. His son would just have to be forfeit. Emrys always knew he would have to be, as soon as he'd lost him. Despite his efforts made to the contrary. Rojgher would never ever allow him to give up information or captives of such importance to what was clearly a seriously dangerous enemy and live to regret it. Besides that, Emrys was loyal to Aedolis, he always had been. Any cost. That's what he'd always believed... he just... never thought the cost would be so high.
TRIMM was fucking STUPID as shit to keep two of them here. Didn't they know they had linked minds? Fucking Emrys knew after ten seconds of interaction with them. And their magical abilities... it was dangerous having one around. Why the fuck did they need this charade? Why didn't they just escape and steal a ship?
Run was not an instinct Emrys usually had, but he'd fought these fucking things before, and he knew the whole damn station was probably outclassed by them.
-
Nova reached out instinctively to dive back into the security system, though she winced as she did it. The system was prepared for her now, and fought back with white-hot flashes of pain that flared through her mind before she managed to shove through a basic message relaying Emrys's orders.
She snapped back out of it as quickly as she could, shaking slightly, but she held her ground. At least until the Pilot grabbed her wrist and started dragging her along with him.
She listened to him, ensuring that the walls around her mind were high and solid, but sent a tiny spindle of through through the tiniest gap she could manage toward him:
You should have told me it was your fucking kid, Emrys.
With the thought came feeling; she was too rattled to stop the emotions from latching onto her words. It was vague and chaotic, but there was a mix of panic, guilt, and raw, steely determination.
I don't have a dragon, she couldn't stop the words jumping from her mind to his, along with the fear she'd done a pretty could job of ignoring since her entrance to the Candidacy program. If we're honest, I'm probably never going to have one. They don't like broken things, Emrys.
She dug her heels in, tugging her wrist in an effort to break from his grip. "Let me do this," she said aloud, quiet despite the blare of the alarms around them. "I'm worth nothing to them, just another washed-out Candidate. Let me get your son back."
-
"I will know!" Emrys shouted at her. "If you do this, if I let you do this I will know, and he will know. It will be the same. He'll execute us both. Hell he might execute my whole damn family to make sure there's no one else they can get to threw him."
-
From the moment the Pilot insisted he had taken nothing, Red Tide knew what his answer would be. It did not wait for the Pilot to finish. The boy had never left its range in the three days since his capture, and it was with little difficulty that Red Tide devoured his mind.
In that instant, its consciousness expanded far more than a mere one mind should have made possible. It wasn't that its magical power had spiked. That was accounted for. It was that its *awareness* had gone to previously unimagined levels. The boy may have been pitifully weak on his own, but, with a multitude of minds reinforcing his psychic power, Red Tide found itself able to tell what nearly every unshielded mind in the immediate vicinity was feeling. It distracted Red Tide enough that it neglected to protect its puppet.
But that was not the only one in this place. The janitor puppet, too, could sense the emotions of nearly everyone near it whose minds were unshielded, though it had been made to head for the docking bay. So too could the High Priestess, who had already taken the initiative. Her god wanted that companion's mind. Whether the woman had spoken the truth or lied in a foolish bluff, devouring her would result in everything she knew being revealed to them, and potentially increase their newfound power to boot. With that in mind, she cut her way out of her cell using water magic, then headed for a spot between their last known location and the docking bay. Any guards she encountered, armed or not, were either ignored or, if they were in her path or attempted to physically stop her, cut down using a more powerful version of the water lance spell Emrys had already seen. Their rifles were no threat to her. She could not die. every wound inflicted healed almost instantly, a sign that her god was in no danger at the time. Anyone near her who was psychic and didn't know she was near and what she could do, she devoured as she went, giving their minds to Red Tide to augment their new power as she hurried to cut the Pilot and his companion off.