Sarah, who had been observing her progress, wanted more however. “Maya”, she asked, in a polite tone that completely surprised her, “This is good, but for an operation as critical as this one, I think that everything should be double checked. May I access your memories, please?”
Recalling their first meeting at Bel Sharra, when the ‘other’ Sarah had simply taken what she had wanted by force, Maya glowered, but at a reassuring nod from Skylaar, she relented. “Okay,” she said. “If you need to.”
“I do,” Sarah told her. “And I thank you for granting me the privilege.”
She closed her eyes and Maya felt a familiar pressure on her forehead. It swiftly grew in intensity, and as it did so, she felt Sarah’s presence conjoining with her.
The images themselves came next, just as she had expected, unreeling themselves in a rapid fire succession. Sometimes they paused, and Maya knew that Sarah was focusing on a particular portion. At other points, they flew by, nearly too fast to comprehend. Then, finally, they subsided, and she felt Sarah withdraw.
“I have it,” the woman announced, and she immediately began to alter Maya’s work. In short order, she had added several critical changes, and when Maya looked at the final result, she had to admit that the end product was far more accurate, and reliable.
Their collective rendering depicted the entire building, as well as its surroundings. Its exterior was a tall spiraling cone, which tapered from a wide base at the bottom to a very fine point at its apex, and it was set in the center of a gigantic plaza, with several lesser dome-shaped structures surrounding it.
In her preliminary edit, Maya had also indicated that tunnels ran under the surface of these domes to the main tower, and emptied into the chamber housing the Tree itself. Sarah had embellished this by adding the fact that rather than running straight to it, the tunnels tended to spiral and twist around on one another before eventually arriving at their destination. It was a typically Drow’voi arrangement and a vital piece of information.
The Tree chamber itself had also been fleshed out, and now showed a spiraling ramp that ascended all the way up its height to the top. Both women had been careful to illustrate the level spots all along this curving track, which resembled wide terraces more than anything else. There were nine in all, and they overlooked the crystalline Tree and the oval depression at its base. This was filled with some strange fluid that Maya insisted was not water, but something else altogether.
Skylaar examined their work carefully. “So there are three passages leading into the Tree then,” the Nemesian observed. “We also have—are those windows at the very top of the main building?”
The young woman nodded and Skylaar continued. “If we set up sensors in these tunnels, with remotely activated explosives, we can control who comes in and also seal off the passage that we choose for our bolt-hole. The JUDI could meet us at the exit, and we could be gone before Angelique would be able to recover and give chase.”
“What about those windows? Are we going to secure them too?” This question came from Jeena.
Maya gave him a surprised look. He had entered the room without her realizing it. She hadn’t expected him to play any part in the operation itself and she certainly hadn’t anticipated him being dressed as he was. Jeena was wearing the same black body suit as everyone else, and he sported a very serviceable looking ka’na and matching daggers.
So he’s not just an experiment, she realized. He’s an agent too. A lot suddenly made sense.
The neoman’s response to her insight was one of his inscrutable smiles, and then he folded his arms, patiently waiting for the answer to his question.
“The same as the tunnels,” Skylaar responded, also confirming Maya’s conclusions about his actual status. “Although I doubt that Angelique will come in that way. She thinks that she has the upper hand here, and is not expecting us.”
“Even so,” Sarah countered. “We cannot discount the possibility that she will send some of her forces there to secure the high-ground.”
“No, certainly not,” Skylaar agreed. “So we add sensors and charges there as well, but I think the majority of our effort should be focused on these underground passages—and on determining which one will afford the best escape route. I am betting my credits on this one.”
She was pointing to the westernmost tunnel. This was the longest of the three, and after clearing the plaza, it split off into several directions, although Maya was unable to say where each branch terminated. Her dreams hadn’t taken her that far.
Skylaar however, was unfazed by this lack of information. “Once we arrive, we’ll task a ‘bot to explore them”
Maya regarded her companions gravely. “That’s if Angelique hasn’t already set up traps of her own and is just sitting down there waiting for us.”
“Indeed,” Josette replied. “Knowing my sister though, I would venture to guess that she is upside with the ships, and at worst, has sensors watching on the ground for her. She doesn’t want to scare off the Three, or risk alerting anyone right now.”
“I concur,” Sarah said. “Just the same, when we go in, Maya, we have to be on the alert and ready to deal with any opposition that we might encounter.”
Maya frowned. Performing some unknown ritual in the middle of a crumbling ruin, at the behest of a strange galactic overmind was bad enough. Having to rescue a pair of untrained civilians—and themselves--from the clutches of Angelique and goddess-knew-how-many-seasoned-and-well-armed-agents, elevated the entire affair from simply being ‘very bad’ and straight into ‘completely-fekked-beyond-all-hope’.
Grunvaald Haarmaaneplaatz, Vaalkenstaad Township, Zommerlaand, Sunna 3, Solara Elant, United Sisterhood of Suns, 1049.03|07|02:91:20
“Lily!” It was Hanna. “Grammy’s gone!” She was holding a note in her hand, written on real paper, and waving it in the air.
Lilith looked up from her com terminal in confusion. “She’s what?”
“She’s gone off on some kind of adventure,” Hanna exclaimed. “Enggredsdaater just came by to tell me, and she said that Grammy took your assistant with her! I tried calling her on her psiever but she won’t pick up.”
Lilith snatched the message away from her sister-in-law and read the words for herself.
“I have been called by the Gods to undertake a great task. I have taken Jan with me. Please don’t be angry with her; it was all my doing. We are leaving Zommerlaand, but we will be back soon. Take care of the farm for me. Don’t worry. I’ll be all right.’
“Love, Grammy”
Lilith immediately tried calling Grammy herself. When this failed, she attempted to contact Jan bar Daala with an equal lack of success. Irritation and anger quickly wedded with her sense of alarm, and she shouted for Ingrit. Of all of them, her wife was perhaps the closest to the old woman and the most likely to have an inkling of what was going on.
“Did you know about this?” she demanded.
“No, Lily, but I’m sure that everything’s all right,” Ingrit replied.
“Well, I’m not,” Lilith countered sharply. “For one thing, my adjutant did not have my permission to go running off with her, and for two, the tone of this note strongly suggests that Grammy isn’t in her right mind.”
Ingrit started to contradict her, but Lilith cut her off. “I know exactly what you’re going to say to me, Ingrit. I’ve put up with all of Grammy’s mystical claptrap just for your sake, but this is going too far. Vitkaa or no, she’s old, and this has to be the product of some kind of senile delusion.’
“We need to go after her right now, and get her back, for her own safety. While we’re at it, I intend to have a little ‘chat’ with Ensign bar Daala and address her patent irresponsibility. She’s an officer and she knows better.”
Ingrit looked forlornly to Hanna for support, but her sister agreed with Lilith. “She’s right, Ingrit. Grammy wouldn’t have gone off like this unless she was out of her head. You know that she’s been getting a bit forgetful latel
y. We need to go and get her.”
Ingrit’s shoulders slumped. She could see that she wasn’t going to win this fight. “All right. What should we do?”
Lilith closed her terminal down and rose. “Get out to the spaceport and catch up with her before this foolishness proceeds any further. I’m going upstairs to get my jacket.”
“I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things while you’re gone,” Hanna volunteered.
“Good,” Lilith replied. “This shouldn’t take long.”
***
By the time Lilith was back downstairs and headed out the front door, Ingrit had brought the farm’s hovertruck around. The moment she was aboard it, they were off, headed for Waanderstaad spaceport. For once, Lilith didn’t castigate her mate for her speeding. She was too angry and too concerned about Grammy to bother.
Although Waanderstaad was rightly considered to be one of the largest spaceports in the Sisterhood, the passenger terminal itself was actually quite small in comparison to other ports. Waandarstaad’s main business was the transportation of agricultural products, not passengers. As a result, when Lilith and Ingrit arrived a few minutes later and entered it, they didn’t have very far to search before they realized that Grammy and Bar Daala were not there.
Ingrit was finally starting to share her wife’s concern. “What now?”
“Now we talk to the Port Police,” Lilith said.
The police station was just off the main lobby, and a single, rather bored looking policewoman was on duty. When Lilith fished out her military ID and gave her a chance to read it however, all lassitude fled the woman and she sat up straight in her seat, fully at attention.
Lilith had to resist the urge to smirk. Clearly the policewoman was ex-Navy. Only sailors reacted like this in the presence of a Flag Officer. With a certainty, she knew that the woman would do all that she could to help them, and might even bypass some of the red tape just out of respect for her rank. It was one of the few times when Lilith had to admit that there were some advantages to the promotion that Ebed Cya had forced upon her.
“Yes, Admiral?”
“There were two women that came through here today,” Lilith explained. “One is an old woman and the other is about 20 standard. Their names are Ms. Helga Mariasdaater, and Ensign Jan Bar Daala. Can you help me find out where they went? I think they may have taken a flight off planet.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the policewoman answered crisply. “With the emergency restrictions in place, we didn’t get a lot of travelers passing through today, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”
She paused. “Admiral, I don’t mean to be rude, but can you tell me why you need this information?”
“The old woman is—“Lilith searched for the right words, and then found them. “A bit—odd---and I’m afraid that she may have had one of her, um, spells. You see, she’s my in-law and I’m very worried about her.”
“Didn’t you say that she was with another woman? Surely she would—“
Lilith interrupted her. “Officer, at this moment I’m not certain that either of them are completely sane.”
The officer nodded in sympathy. “Do you know about what time this might have happened?”
“Sometime in the last few hours. Try from 02.083 hours to now.”
The policewoman tapped a few commands on her virtual keyboard and a list came up in the air between them. “These are all the departing flights so far.” The list changed as she announced this, and then shrank in size. “These are the ones carrying passengers.”
A second passed, and then, “Ah, here they are! Concordia Spacelines, Flight 909 to Ashkele. It has three stops, Thermadon, Luma and Wrede. It also looks like there was a third woman that went with them,” the officer added. “A Ms. Kaly n’Deena. Is she someone that they know?”
“Yes,” Lilith answered, shaking her head disparagingly. “She’s a neighbor of ours, and one of my in-law’s friends.”
The fact that Kaly had also involved herself in the affair only underscored the power of Grammy’s influence, and just how wild her delusions must have been to convince her to accompany them. Kaly had always struck her as a fairly level-headed girl. Until now.
“Do you know what time they are scheduled to arrive at their first layover?”
“The convoy should come out of Null at 05.00, and Flight 909 will be in Thermadon for an hour before moving on,” the policewoman said.
Then the officer’s brows furrowed in concern, “Admiral, do you think your relative is safe with these other women? Do you think there’s a possibility that she might be in some kind of danger? That they might have lured her offplanet for some reason?”
“No,” Lilith answered firmly. “I’m certain of that much. I think this is more a case of her leading them into something and not the other way around.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, ma’am, if we can come up with a good reason, I could have them all held when they reach Bel Sharra,” the policewoman offered. “That one, the Ensign, could be detained for being away without leave—she is AWOL isn’t she?’
“Yes, she is,” Lilith said.
“And I think Ms. Mariasdaater could be held for a psych evaluation. Not sure about the third woman though. We might have to get a little creative there. She’s RSE—a civilian basically—so she can come and go as she pleases.”
Ingrit was positively horrified. “Lily? We can’t do that! We can’t lock up Grammy!”
Although Lilith would have preferred to do just that, she had to demur to her pairmate. When this business was over, she would still have to live with the woman.
“I appreciate the suggestion,” she said, “but no thank you, officer. This is a private, family matter. We’ll handle it ourselves.”
“Believe me, I understand,” the woman replied sympathetically. “I used to have an aunt that would go off wandering from time to time and I had to track her down more than once. She was about Ms. Mariasdaater’s age, 250, and sometimes people that old do things like that. I wish you the best of luck.”
Lilith thanked the kaaper for her assistance, and led Ingrit over to the military portion of the terminal. A Troop Leader was on duty there and she walked straight up to her, flashing her ID again. “Troop Leader, I need a direct flight to Ashkele for myself and my spouse,” she said. “Your soonest.”
The Marine didn’t argue, or even ask her why. Lilith was a Vice-Admiral and that was explanation enough. It took only a few seconds before she located the nearest vessel.
“That would be the Sybil Ludington, ma’am. She’s due to put in here in four hours to take on some Troopers going back out into the field after leave. She was supposed to transit to Sagana direct, but since she’s not on a priority mission, I can have her Captain make a side trip. Shouldn’t be too far out of their way.”
“Nothing sooner than that, Troop Leader?”
The Marine shook her head. “Ma’am, I’m sorry but the Ludington’s the closest ship.”
Lilith nodded unhappily. Four hours it was then. She turned to Ingrit. “Ingrit, go back to the farm and let Hanna and Marina know what’s going on, and tell them where I’m going. I intend to catch Grammy at her final destination.”
Ingrit shook her head. “No. I’m coming with you.”
Lilith sighed with tired resignation. “Fine, ‘we’ then.” This, she decided, was the ‘down’ side to marriage; the family that came along with it.
She had one last thing to attend to before they could depart. She had to call off from work. Admiral ebed Cya was expecting her to complete her latest reports on the Seevaan maneuvers and this would definitely bollix things up.
When she reached her, Ebed Cya proved to be completely sympathetic and understanding.
“Take all the time that you need, Lilith,” she said. “I can have one of the other Flag Officers work from your notes. And it’s actually a good thing that you’re going to Ashkele; your old Battle Group is there, and I’m certain that Katrinn wouldn’t mind a courtesy visit
.”
Even though the Athena was no longer officially under her command, Lilith still liked to keep tabs on its adventures, and the last she had heard, Battle Group Golden had been assigned to a standard patrol in the neighboring Elant. Ebed Cya’s news came as a surprise.
“What in all space are they doing out there?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow. “I thought we already had all the assets we needed in the area, monitoring the war games.”
“We do,” Ebed Cya answered. “Golden was dispatched on a special mission at the request of the RSE. General Angelique bel Thana made it herself. She’s also placed herself in charge of the Op. Katrinn and the other officers are answering directly to her.”
“Really?” Lilith returned, wondering what could be going on in Xee space that would merit that kind of attention, or such tight operational control.
“According to Bel Thana, there’s some kind of Marionite mischief going on, and it may involve the Hriss and another weapons deal. She’s ordered the Battle Group to keep an eye on a particular section of the Drow’voi ruins, and she also has them monitoring all space traffic coming in and out of the system. Beyond that, the meat of it is on a ‘need to know’ basis and apparently we don’t ‘need to know.’”
Lilith grimaced. She didn’t particularly care for the idea of the RSE commandeering naval vessels for their own business. Especially when they were keeping the Navy in the dark.
She also knew just as well as her superior did, that they had the power to do so. It was part of the Executive order that the late Chairwoman Marina bel Rayna had issued when she had authorized the agencies creation. In the name of state security, the RSE could order the military to help them, and the armed forces had to comply.
This didn’t mean that she had to like it however. The RSE’s predecessor, the OAE, had possessed the same mandate, but they had never done business like this. They had always worked closely with the Navy when it came to special operations and their policy had always been one of cooperation rather than co-opting. Lilith’s opinion of the RSE dropped several notches, and seeing Ebed Cya’s expression, she could tell that her superior was just as displeased.
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