The Sixth Line of Defense

by Shiva Winters

Chapter Seven: Sheltered from the Storm

  "So the DNA analysis confirms it?" The General murmured to him as they basically strolled through the silent corridors. It had quite a number of hours since Shiva had stormed off when everything had started to become too much for her frayed nerves, and once informed that she was dangerous in that state the General had seemed content to hold off his questioning for a while longer. While the quest for answers was paramount, Vala had been in no condition to recall anything clearly and Shiva had been on the very edge of violent acts, the guard she had shoved in hanger bay had been damn lucky she had just a little control left. It was just a tiny piece of good fortune Shiva hadn't walked away empty handed otherwise there was the chance that trouble would have followed that incident. "She was attacked by someone in series 5?"

  "Not just someone, sir, multiple someones." Devin corrected gently. "They are still analyzing and collecting samples, but so far they have found six different genetic samples.."

  "Six.." The General's thoughts almost certainly followed his own, that it would have been a bloody mess to spread than much of it from so many bodies.

  "I can't imagine her holding much back.. with the General dead and Rei hanging on by a thread." Devin commented trying to ease a little of both their fears.

  "No, probably not.." He agreed with a cold shudder.

  "I had your people hack into the central archives to search the database through the genetic matching programs.. it wouldn't serve anyone to have the ones' responsible for this knowing that someone is investigating this incident." Devin added for his own piece of mind, the General gave him a slim smile of approval and a nod for him to continue. "All six samples are direct matches to Series 5 soldiers and spread across three different units.. it confirms that she was faced with multiple teams."

  "Is.. she really that dangerous?" The General asked with a sudden worry.

  "There is honestly no way to tell. Most of the scientists who created Series 6 died of old age decades ago, the director of research at Anslaw died in a car crash taking the codes and clearances needed to unlock the database and enter the vault with him to the grave. We've been operating with half-truths at best.. but my gut.." The General gave Devin a significant look. ".. says yes. She took on multiple heavily armed teams hauling an unconscious woman and teenage girl who must have been... numb with what she saw, and still managed to get away with them having every advantage."

  "How is perhaps my most pressing question.." The General commented with a sigh, but then shifted topics before Devin would feel compelled to try and speculate. "Tell me about that ID badge and that day pass."

  "Private 1st class Gorden's records state he is a loyal officer in good standing stationed out of Tinner base, her served there for 2 years exceptional ratings on his last three evaluations by his CO, Lt. Ashen who is also based at Tinner. The day-pass was also issued by Lt. Ashen." Devin told him.

  "And Tinner base?"

  "Used to be a major staging point during the war now more or less a service and storage depot for military surplus, headed by Colonel Freedmont, high marks on every evaluation over the last 4 years." Devin murmured back to him.

  "Makes it almost sound like a dead end." The General commented with a humorless chuckle.

  "Or the perfect place to start." Devin commented back to him.

  "Start what?" The General asked suspiciously.

  "Sir.. it's either find out the truth on our own, or watch Shiva blast her way out of here.." Devin warned with total honestly. "And the truth is if someone really is using Series 5 under the table and for their own purposes.."

  "The body count can only sky rocket from here." The General agreed solemnly. "And what do we do about Shiva.. the federal, state, and local police all have warrants out for her arrest.. the Military Investigations department has already launched an full scale search for answers, rumor has it that Advocate General is out for blood. They aren't looking for you yet, but.. I don't that will not last for long. The evidence we have might be enough to clear her in our minds, but there is no way it will satisfy all of them.."

  "I know you are not one for 'Rogue Actions', sir.. but it may just be a matter of telling Shiva what we know and letting her put that anger to good use." The General gave him a significant look. "Anyways, I think our first priority is to find out if Series 6 is in danger of joining their predecessors in someone's back pocket." He was given a curious look. "It's the one thing that seems to make sense of.. all of this, sir. For starters, let's just assume that we aren't dealing with some super secret presidential order to eliminate Shiva specifically, that this was the rogue actions of some person or group with control over Series 5." The General nodded since that much seemed fairly obvious to both of them. "If this is the case, that it is almost a safe bet that they would also have some future plan for that.. asset." Again the General nodded thoughtfully, since again it was no small leap of logic. "What happens to Series 6 if they are all declared unfit for civilian lives?" The General's footsteps stopped, his eyes went cold and he glared at Devin as if a rage had just been born within him. "The other three who were released before Shiva.. I've tried to trace back how they were selected since Shiva seemed at times just as big risk as any of them proved to be.. but I can't find the paper trail. So Shiva suddenly finds a reason to straighten out her act and a General who sat on the board of inquiry that limited any further efforts towards reclamation finds good reason to have second thoughts. Now suddenly he's dead, Shiva's on the run and accused of his brutal murder."

  "All of it." The General growled at him as both of them came to a stop.

  "They sabotage the reclamation program on Earth to end any further investigations into Series 6 by picking people who could do as much damage as they could to a society to which they couldn't adapt. They slash my funding the first chance they get so that I am forced to shove Shiva into situations that are meant to break her down so that she is forced to do something stupid when that didn't work immediately. When things suddenly change, they kill the one ally I manage to find willing to help her, and try to frame an innocent person so that the program is destroyed and Series 6 falls under their 'stewardship'. That way they can make all those kids up there into monsters that can be used for the same games they have been playing with Series 5." Devin reaffirmed, the General unleashed a sound of rage he had never once displayed before as he spun to throw his fist towards the nearest wall, Devin was impressed to see a man his age with the ability to put such a sizable dent into a steel plated wall. Growling with a firey anger, the General spun back towards him.

  "How do we stop this?" He demanded of Devin.

  "Shiva's the key, she's only one strong enough with the training we would need to pull this off. We need proof to take to someone we can trust.. you were right when you said we don't have enough to clear her name, but.." Devin murmured to him a low urgent voice and left the rest unsaid.

  "Give her the excuse." The General agreed coldly as his rage went quiet and a burning resolve replaced it. The General turned and began the same slow walk that had carried them that far. "Take whomever you need, people you trust.. put them on it as soon as we are done with this.."

  "Yes, sir." Devin agreed keeping his voice calm as they reached the outer edges of the medical wing. He had always trusted General Owen, knowing him to be an honorable and just man. But in that moment Devin was so very proud that he had been able to get Shiva to show him just a little of her own trust. A short silent time later they were turning the corner to find Gregor's silent, stoic presence half slumped in his chair, even though he looked to be asleep at the sound of their approaching shoes his head turned to look over at them suspiciously. Once he saw who they were he gave a tired stretch and moved to meet them just out of hearing range of the door, giving them a sharp salute. "How is it in there?"

  "Calm for the last couple hours. I am fairly certain Shiva is asleep, sir." Gregor informed them, the General checked his
watch and gave Devin an impatient look.

  "It would be too painful to try and question Vala, sir." Devin murmured to him. "Gregor call up Tina, have her get up her to relieve you for the rest of the night, once you bring Shiva back here. She'll probably have expected this.. let me go see if I can wake her." The General gave him a grateful nod. Rei was the only one who was awake when he entered the room. "It's Devin." He whispered to her as he approached.

  "Shiva expected you hours ago." She told him with a slim smile.

  "Better that she got some sleep first." He agreed reaching out to rub her back, Shiva stirred and one eye popped open, she then yawned gave him a sleepy nod before she was crawling up into his arms. "She be back soon." Rei smiled and nodded as she rubbed Vala as the other girl made sleepy noises.

  "Neural Imaging?" Shiva murmured as they stepped back into the hall. Tina arrived a moment later and Devin agreed quietly as he waited for Gregor to give her a quick briefing of who was and who wasn't allowed in the room.

  "She looks pretty out of it Lieutenant." The General murmured to him.

  "No offense, sir, but she doesn't have the energy for the hours it would take for a debriefing, I think we should try an old Series 3 trick." He gave Devin a look of doubt but looked over at Shiva dozing against his shoulder and nodded his agreement. Gregor followed behind them as they moved down the hallway and into the nearest elevator. By no means a new technology, neural imagining was able to record the electrical signals of the brain and interpret those signals into useable data. In terms of recalled memories it could translate those stored images and feelings into visual data. While it had become a useful tool in many criminal investigations and a better way to retrieve eye witness accounts, it was only useful in capturing a few images or pieces of scenes. A normal person's thoughts were simply too chaotic, too jumbled up to recall a whole sequence of event even a sequence lasting as little as 30 seconds. Emotional trauma, distractions, wandering thoughts would interrupt the flow of data and most people simply couldn't achieve and maintain the level of focus such retrievals required. It was not until Series 3 and their altered ways of thinking and perceiving the world around them that neural imaging could be used past those very human limitations. With photographic memories and minds capable of pushing aside all the mental 'slush' that would get in the way, many of them had been able to records whole entire events sometimes as long as fifteen minutes. Whether or not Shiva could do the same was not yet clear, but her simple question meant at the very least she had prepared herself as best as she could for what would soon follow.

  By the time that they were reaching the right room, she had woken up enough to signal she wanted to be put down. She entered ahead of them and didn't even bother looking for the light switch as she rubbed at her eyes, yawning as she went about turning things on and changing settings around. It was easy to assume by how easily she took to the room that she might have done this before for whatever reason. Even the General seemed impressed by her slow competent adjustments. Gregor guarded the door to insure they would remain undisturbed while Devin moved to create an encrypted database to contain the sequence. Shiva picked up the halo and settled it around her skull as she took up the only chair inside the room. She laid back closed her eyes and steadied her breathing like a real pro. When the screen flashed on there was just an flash of a single image something dark and filled with needles and surgical tools, but it passed by far too quickly for Devin to catch more than that as wet crackle sounded through the speakers around them as everything seemed to hang for a heartbeat or two.

  "What the hell.." The General demanded giving Devin a confused look. The screen flashed over in the next second and they were looking at a steel cased injector, a perfect crystal clear image of one clutched in a black gloved hand and Shiva's own arm clutching at a wrist that was bent at an odd angle. It was such a perfect image that it was almost possible to read the serial numbers of the canister that had been loaded into the device. In the next second the images began to flow out like the first stream of water pouring out of damn about to burst. It sped up as the image darted to the side and an image of a fist swept through the shadows as Shiva's memory lunged upward to kill her attacker in a single blow, the memories began to race forward with a speed that was completely unreal as things and events flashed across the screen. "Too fast!" The General demanded. Almost as he spoke it ended on another frozen image that of Vala inside the interior of a military vehicle pulled into a civilian parking lot. Shiva gave one bone jarring sob as she threw the halo away and curled into a tiny shaking ball of misery.

  "Gregor.." Devin whispered. With a nod the sergeant stepped away from the door and made comforting sounds as he gathered Shiva up against his shoulder and carried her from the room. Devin stepped over to the controls and rewound the entire sequence. "38 minutes 47.3 seconds.." Devin murmured as he brought that first image up onto the screen. "And that.. is what Shiva's nightmares look like." He murmured as black shadowed figures with faces hidden by surgical masks leaned overhead against the back drop of a blood red light, holding surgical tools over someone who could not have been more than a child.

  "Monstrous.." General whispered with a cold shiver. Devin agreed without sound or gestures as he started the playback, both of them watched in horrified silence as the images played back in perfectly laid out seconds without skip or edit, a total recall of everything she had seen and done. He knew without a word ever being said that Shiva would probably do anything to forget it, and was probably willing to do even worse things in order to silence those memories forever after. "And.. I thought her beating up a gaggle of well deserving bullies was bad behavior.." The General whispered coldly through the air as the last image froze on the screen.

  "She was fighting to save her family, General."

  "We'll talk about what we can do with her when she has slept herself out. For now get our best people in here, she saw license plates, serial numbers, truck numbers, even a few dog tags.. I want a report and analysis on this tomorrow afternoon, after you get everything started go get some sleep for yourself." Devin nodded and saluted as the General left the room.