Finding Finn
Jul. 11th, 2012 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinkhcTitle: Finding Finn
Fandom: Original Fiction
Prompt: “Explosions”
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 5,063
Benchmark +50
Warnings: No standard warnings apply
Summary: Series: Lizards: What If? What if Kat were captured during the rescue of Sandasin? What if Bailey were not all sweetness and light? What if Kat met Finn before getting involved with Chase?
The sun was setting, casting bright colors out along the horizon. Katrin leaned on the railing of the North Watch Tower and stared out at the beauty nature was providing. As much as she hated closed in places, Kat had always loved heights. The North Tower was one of her favorite perches on the base, and she could often be found there. The senior staff jokingly referred to it as her Thinking Spot. She didn’t argue because they were entirely correct, she liked to climb the tower to think.
Someone was climbing up behind her, the deck beneath her feet vibrated, warning her that she would soon have company. A glance over her shoulder identified the bright red head of Ahn Bailey as she hoisted herself awkwardly up over the edge of the platform. Her assistant glared daggers at her as she panted out, “Why do you do this to me?”
“Do what?”
“Make me climb up here to talk to you?”
“I don’t make you do anything Bailey. I’m just standing here.”
Irritated, the Captain huffed out a breath and waved a clipboard in Kat’s direction. “Your radio is off. Again. You really suck at being a base commander, do you know that?”
“I never asked for the job.”
“You’ve got it, so shut up, quit whining and do it. And keep your radio on,” Bailey scolded. Kat kept her around for just this reason, Bailey wasn’t awed by her rank, her abilities or the fact that she was who she was. It was refreshing.
Kat flailed a hand out and caught the waving clipboard, snatching it from Bailey’s grasp. “I might be mistaken, but this could be construed as insubordination.”
“So put me up on charges and fire me, roust me out and make me a civilian, I dare you.” Bailey crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at the reluctant Commandant of the Ontferian Militia.
Kat pointed a finger towards Bailey’s freckled nose. “That is a very nasty little smile, do you know that? Stop it, stop it now, there will be no smiling. The base would collapse into chaos and anarchy and the world would end - again - if I fired you. You’re too good at your job. I believe it might just be a plot for global domination. I feel like a tool, like a little cog in a great wheel of your making.”
“Bitch, bitch, bitch. You’ll be the first against the wall when I decide to take over if you continue to make me climb towers to deliver reports. Why am I hand delivering reports to you, anyway? Oh, right, because you refuse to stay at your desk. You have a case of wanderlust that draws you to every point on this base, except Headquarters, where you are supposed to be.”
Kat smiled sweetly. “I love you, Bailey.”
“Shut up and read your report, you brat.”
Sobering, Kat did as instructed; Bailey really wouldn’t have come out herself if it were not important. And she had a point about the comm, Kat vowed to try to keep it turned on going forward. Her eyes widened as she read the report. “Is this accurate?”
Bailey snorted. Of course it was accurate.
“Fine, that was stupid question. What was the source, and who did the translation?”
“Harper found it, scanning the netspy program. Then Wils checked and double checked it, and ran it past Davi’dan.”
Head bent over the clipboard, Kat went to the ladder and climbed down, still reading as she went. “Let’s go, it’s Headquarters Time!”
“Now she wants to go to Headquarters…” Bailey sneered at the Commandant’s back and hit her comm link, ordering the senior staff and Communications personnel to rendezvous at Headquarters as soon as possible.
~*~
Rocking back and forth in her chair, Kat played with a stylus, twiddling it between her fingers as she listened to the discussion going on between her techs and the senior officers.
“I did verify the source code, and it is coming off known channels. We’re definitely missing some of the higher level band of communications. Whomever is broadcasting from the Central Command base on Vartur is using the channels Hatton’s units were known to be using, and the return transmissions are coming from the last known position of Hatton’s fleet,” Davi’dan said, glaring at Hauck, who had asked him to check the information for a third time, provoking the current argument.
When it looked like Hauck and Davi were going to get into a screaming match - again, the pair had been at odds since arriving on Ontferia - Kat raised her hand and whistled sharply to stop them. “I’m calling it legitimate. The L’spi have Sandasin. I believe we all agree that this cannot be tolerated.”
Reluctantly, the officers around the SitOp nodded in agreement. All except Jaquez Dah’nell; not being a member of Psi-Corps he didn’t immediately see the ramifications of Sandasin’s capture by their enemy. He cleared his throat and raised his hand to draw Katrin’s attention and asked, “Excuse me Commandant, but I don’t understand. Sandasin has no idea where we are, he cannot possibly give the L’spi information about our whereabouts, so why is this a problem?”
“Sandasin knows how we operate. He trained us, we’re using his book.” Hauck was pacing now, a sure sign of distress.
Duck was no longer lounging back feigning disinterest. He leaned forward with a concerned expression on his face and explained patiently to Jaquez, “Since the start of the war, the L’spi have been trying to figure out how psionics operate, what makes us tick, how to use us and how to knock us down. There is always a chance they could torture that info out of the old man. He knows us, maybe even better than we know ourselves.”
“He knows our individual weaknesses, as well as our strengths and our habits,” Kat added, agreeing with her teammates. “He dissected every mission, every training session, every wargame. He is probably the only person living that knows how each and every one of us will react in a given scenario.”
Sitting beside Duck looking as worried as her husband was, Tia asked, “What do we do?”
“Retrieval. Failing that, elimination,” Hauck spoke before Kat could, though it had been her intended answer as well.
“Kill Sandasin? You’d kill Yon Sandasin?” Ric’s jaw dropped in astonishment as he looked around, seeing a nod from every member of Cardinal Flight, as well as a bob of assent from his sister Irene.
Wils took pity on the kind-hearted doctor and explained to Ric, “If the positions were reversed, he would give the same order. We’re using his book, as Hauck said. He’ll be expecting it, and he wouldn’t fault us for it.”
“Who goes?” Duck asked testily, looking at Kat. He had still not forgiven her for losing them Chase Cam’ree. She suspected that this was a test.
Hands shot up around the room and voices clambered, volunteering. Hauck stopped the ruckus by stating loudly, “I’ll go.”
“No. I will.” Kat dropped her feet down off the edge of her desk and moved across the SitOp to stare at the sector map on the wall. She ignored the resumption of noise her statement of intent raised, waiting; she knew the direction the most vociferous argument would come from, and was prepared to defend.
As expected, Hauck came straight at her. “I was the one trained for assassinations, Katrin. I’ll go. You’re needed here.”
She spun on her heel and stared up into Hauck’s face; he had come up behind her and was breathing down her neck. “No, Nim. Not this time.” She glanced over with regret at Duck, still mourning the loss of Cam’ree, she couldn’t do that to her team again, couldn’t send one of them away on a mission she was perfectly capable of carrying out herself. “I had the same training you did, and my grades were only a shade off yours in marksmanship. I’m almost as good a sniper as you.”
“Almost. You’re no assassin, Kat.”
She stared at him, letting him see just how serious she was. “I’ll do what needs to be done. I won’t ask this, not this, of any of you. Another mission, another target, perhaps, but this one is mine, I owe it to Fox Sandasin to be the one to end him, if it comes to it.”
Hauck continued to look into her eyes before he acknowledged in a whisper, “You really would do it.”
She didn’t respond. Instead Kat turned away from the map and looked around the room, and began barking out orders, “Tracey, prep one of the Ember Runners from Dianto, one with the registrations intact, you’re coming with me. Ric, I need a sample bag or two of that goo we pulled off the bio-clone Duck ran into on that supply run to Zenisha. Bailey, I’ll need a proper blue Central Command uniform with at least a Commander’s brass.”
“You can have mine. They’re in a small red silk bag in my gear box, if you want to grab them on your way Ahn,” Jaquez said to Bailey as she left to collect the uniform. “They were current before we left for Dianto.”
“Mashadee, Dah’nell,” Kat inclined her head gratefully at him.
“Davi’dan, we’ll need concealed earpieces on set a rotating band, I don’t want anyone to know we’re joining the party.” The tech nodded and moved to the wall, where he opened a supply chest and began rummaging around. He dropped various bits of electronics behind him as he sifted through the contents of the gear box.
“We might run into Hatton’s men on a parallel mission. Based on the communications we have in our hands, I would be very surprised if we didn’t cross paths with at least a recon team from his fleet, I don’t know what Sand’asin did to upset the balance and get hauled in, but apparently; Central Command is cooperating with the L’spi on it, so I don’t discount the probability of running afoul of a counter mission there, Hatton doesn’t want the L’spi to have Sandasin any more than we do.”
“Duck, you’ll be standing by in orbit for an extraction, in case I can’t make it to Tracey.”
Apparently speaking to her again, Duck demanded, “You’re going down alone? With no backup?”
“You and Tracey are my backup. My plan won’t work if I’m not alone on the ground. One person can get in and out a lot easier than a team. Hauck, you’re in charge here, Dah’nell back him up. If I don’t come back, find a way of working together, would you?”
Ric had returned from his run across to the infirmary and handed Kat two packets of clear fluid. “What’s the goo for, Ma... Commandant?”
Kat ignored the slip. “How long will this stay viable before the enzymes start to decay? How long before the decay can be picked up by a standard handheld sensor?” Kat asked her son as she examined the packets.
“Two clicks before the decay is traceable by a deep scan, four until it becomes easily evident. What are you planning on doing with it?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Liesel remarked, looking at the bio-packets with a combination of interest and disgust. She had remained silent through the meeting, staying out of the argument that raged between the remaining members of Cardinal Flight.
“Precautionary measure,” Kat responded without elaborating as Davi’dan made an adjustment on an earpiece and dropped it into her hand. “I hate these things; they make my ears itch,” Kat muttered.
“They give me a headache, but they are harder to intercept or interrupt than anything else we’ve got. What’s with the goop?” Davi’dan asked. Apparently, they were going to keep asking until she gave them an answer.
“It’s camouflage.”
“Well that just makes no sense,” Irene commented.
Kat sighed in irritation. “I’d like to be underway, people, not standing here chattering.”
“You’re waiting for Bailey to come back with a uniform; you have a few moments, so explain,” Irene crossed her arms and blocked Kat’s attempted escape from the Headquarters tent. Kat wondered if Irene had inherited the stubbornness from her or from her late husband. Mahrc had possessed a stubborn streak too, and the look in Irene’s eyes reminded her of him.
“Fine. Fine. If I get caught, I would prefer that they not know I’m me. If I’m smeared with these bio-clone guts, I should be able to fool your average detention troops into thinking I’m a bio-clone.”
Choking on the tea she had been sipping at throughout the meeting, Liesel coughed and looked at Kat incredulously. “You’re going to pretend to be a clone of yourself?”
“Well, I could hardly pretend to be a clone of Commander Prinz, could I?” She waved a hand impatiently in Hauck’s direction. “I have to stop at the armory.” Tired and with her patience worn out, Kat moved towards the doors just as Bailey entered with the requested uniform. Kat reached out to snatch the clothing from her aide, threw it over her shoulder and held out a hand for Bailey to drop Dah’nell’s medals and rank insignia into it. She eyed the glittering assortment in her hand and then smirked at Jaquez. “Medal of Valor, eh?”
He shrugged and winked at her.
“Keep the place safe, everyone, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She glanced back and smiled at them in farewell before taking off at a run towards the armory.
“What was that whirlwind? Was that a plan?” Liesel stared at the others in confusion.
Hauck looked up from where he was tapping on a keypad and remarked, “Welcome to Psi-Corps. We’ve got her back people, let’s do our jobs.” And, as Kat had known he would, Hauck set about organizing what needed to be done at the base.
21st Salmas 5433
Central Command Base, Tartur
It started to go bad almost from the moment Kat smeared on the goop. It irritated her skin as it dried, adding a level of discomfort to an already uncomfortable mission.
She bluffed her way onto the base, pretending to be “Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security.” She even located Yon Sandasin’s holding cell by hacking the computer systems. But when she actually got down to the lower levels, she found out this was not actually a Central Command supply base as it had appeared to be, but was, instead a deeply dug, firmly established L’spi stronghold.
She hated when missions went upside like this. They never ended well. Memories of Barido and the consequences of that failure flashed through her mind.
Creeping towards the holding cell where she had learned Sandasin was being kept, she felt the base suddenly rock with the force of an explosion, throwing her forcefully against the wall. When she regained consciousness, there were seven uniformed Central Command people holding weapons pointed at her. “Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security,” she declared, as she attempted to appear emotionless.
“Yeah, that’s not going to work,” the ranking officer, a dark haired Major said, shaking his head. “Who was stupid enough to send a bio-clone down here?”
She blinked at him and held her blank expression, still trying to play the part of a simple bio-clone on an infiltration mission.
“Could be rigged to explode,” one of the soldiers theorized. The Major pulled a face and looked around to the team’s tech.
The tech, holding a scanner, shook his head. “Trace comes back negative, Major, no boom-boom.”
“Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security,” Kat repeated, smiling up at the Major as she stuck to a simple script the way a real bio-clone would in this situation. “I’m here about the changes to the security procedures.”
The Major glared at her. He had the kind of wild hair that made every mother despair, impossible to comb and make neat. Kat felt an urge to reach out and smooth it down, which she squelched. “Of course you are. You are not going to tell me anything of any use, are you?”
“Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security.”
He waved to the guards, “Kill it. We’ve got to find the target and get out; we have no time to fool with toys.”
Kat realized that this must be the retrieval team Hatton had sent. This was not going at all according to plan, Kat thought as three of the guns came up. “Wait! Your target? What target?”
They had no reason to answer her. In the Major’s place, she probably would have ordered the men to fire. Green eyes met hers and he held a hand up, staying her execution. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about Director Yon Sandasin being on this level, would you, little clone?”
“Block 5, Detention cell 437,” she replied instantly, desperately clinging to her cover persona in the hopes of getting out of this deteriorating situation.
The major waved his men towards the cell and turned to Kat. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put a bolt through your head, clone.”
“Subject Yon Sandasin trusts me, he will accompany me without an argument. If you attempt to remove him forcibly from the premises, he will resist and draw unwanted attention to your party.”
“Bring it,” the Major snapped his fingers at the remaining guard, and Kat was dragged to her feet and pulled along the corridor. From further down the corridor, she could hear Sandasin bellowing his displeasure, making things as difficult as possible for his captors.
He quieted when he spotted her in the company of the Major’s team. “What the hell? Are you insane? What are you doing here, you idiot?”
“Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security, I am here about the enhancement to the security measures.”
Sandasin rolled his eyes and hissed, “They sent a bio-clone to get me out? I trained a bunch of morons. I give up. Twenty five years I could have spent doing something worthwhile! Instead, I sent a pack of mental defects out to protect the sector. My life was a complete waste. Why did I even bother?”
Stifling a giggle at Sandasin’s rant of self pity, she stood at attention, keeping her face blank. “I do not have an answer to that question, sir.”
“Of course you don’t. Who the hell are you?” Sandasin demanded of the Major.
“Major Finn Lowrey. General Hatton sent us to collect you, sir.”
The older man crossed his arms and shook his head stubbornly. “Not going. Hatton is no better than this bunch of Central Command sympathizers and sycophants.”
“Then you’ll die when the base implodes in a little under half a click, Director Sandasin. It is in your best interests to come along.”
She would let Lowrey and his men do the hard part of getting Sandasin out, then she and her team could snatch him from under their noses when they reached the surface. “Central Command wishes to know the status of Director Yon Sandasin,” Kat chirped.
“Enraged. How dare they do this to me, after everything I did for them!” Sandasin ranted at what he believed to be no more than an automaton. “How do they repay me? They send a bio-bot. And adding insult to injury, they send a bio-clone of her. I should have thrown my hat in with Harisse in the first place; she had the right of it, getting out. You always were the smart one, weren’t you, Katrin?”
“Let’s go, sir. You, clone, say whatever you need to say to get him moving.”
“It would be in your best interests to vacate the building, Director Yon Sandasin.”
“Fine. I’ll take this up with Hatton. I wash my hands of Central, you can tell them that, you pile of walking goo and circuits.”
Kat caught him up under the arm and tugged him along to the stairwell. They encountered no interference until they reached the upper level, and got outside the building, where the real Central Command guards were waiting, along with several L’spi troops. A firefight ensued, and three of Lowrey’s men went down in the crossfire.
Bumping Sandasin with her hip to push him up against a storage locker for what little cover it provided, Kat threw her hands up in a protective gesture as an air to surface missile exploded nearby.
“I think they found the bombs,” Lowrey’s tech shouted. “They seem a bit upset.”
Lowrey nodded. “The jumper is landing, get him to it.” He reached a hand out to shove Sandasin towards his remaining men. “I’ll lay down some cover fire.”
Another missile struck the ground nearby and exploded, making the ground shake under their feet. Kat instinctively Shielded, erecting a bubble around herself, Low’rey, Sandasin and Hatton’s strike team. Only Sandasin noticed the bubble go up, the others were too busy scrambling for cover again. He turned towards Kat, his eyes going wide with realization. A bio-clone would not be able to use psionics, no matter how good the copy was. “You?!?” he exclaimed as his jaw dropped.
Kat waved her hands impatiently to silence him. Now was not the time. “You’re alive, aren’t you?” she snapped.
The strike team’s jumper attempted to land, but was fired upon by a concentrated combination of L’spi and Central Command fire. It exploded in a fireball, throwing debris in every direction. Before the smoke had cleared from that explosion, the ground shook beneath them; the next set of bombs Lowrey’s team had set detonated in the base.
“Major Lowrey!” the tech screamed in panic as their transport was destroyed in the air. “Now what? Now what do we do?”
The dark haired Major looked dismayed and at a loss as he stared at the rain of flaming debris. “No backup?” Kat asked him quietly.
He waved in the direction of the falling debris. “That was the backup; our original transport was destroyed after we landed. We crashed. This mission is cursed.” Kat sympathized, this was not turning out to be a textbook perfect mission for her either.
Kat nodded and reached up to tap the comm unit in her ear. “Tracey, I need a pickup for six.”
“On my way,” the pilot answered smoothly, and Kat heard him request over the comms, “Duck, some cover fire, please.”
The sky lit up with explosions as Duck and Tracey cleared a path through the Central air forces for the Ember Runner to land. Kat grabbed the arm of one of the guardsmen that was about to run and ordered sharply, “Stay here!”
She looked over at Sandasin who was now smirking at her. He had realized that he was not going to visit Hatton, after all. She glared at him and snapped, “If you give me any trouble, I will shoot you. I have orders to take you down if I can’t get you out.” She didn’t bother mentioning that she had issued the orders herself and could change or rescind them at any time she chose. Turning her glare on Hatton’s men, she said, “That goes for all of you.”
“I think the clone is broken, it seems to have jumped off its script program,” the tech said, shaking his head in confusion as he looked from Kat to his CO.
As the Ember Runner came into sight, she gave the tech a toothy grin, “I AM Kat Micah Harisse, and I AM here about a security matter. And Central Command and General Hatton and the L’spi can all kiss my rebel ass. You have two choices, either you get your wayward, misguided, delusional Hatton-loving butt over to that Runner, or you stay here and die.”
“You aren’t a bio clone,” Lowrey said, smirking at her.
Kat’s reply was to point her hand past his shoulder and hurl a Psi-bolt at the L’spi squadron creeping towards them.
“She is definitely not a bio clone. You heard her, get your asses to the Runner!” Lowrey grabbed Sandasin’s arm and hauled the Director along with him as he ran.
Shielding, and occasionally tossing a Psi-bolt, Kat stayed to the rear, keeping herself between the Runner and the approaching L’spi. She was running low on psionic energy and trying to hoard what she had left. Hearing the whine of multiple energy weapons charging, she turned and saw a new squadron of L’spi and Central Command troops approaching. Her Shield could not withstand too many hits from an energy weapon. She held it as long as she could, but it failed, just as another barrage of projectiles hit. She went to her knees, winded from the impact of bullets in her chest and the slice of an energy weapon across her legs.
This was bad, she was being cut to ribbons and couldn’t do anything about it. Just as she started to topple forward, an arm suddenly snaked around her waist and she felt herself hauled up against a hard body and dragged along, away from the L’spi. She knew two things: she was bleeding profusely and she hurt, a lot.
“Hang on, I’ve got you,” Major Lowrey said near her ear as he lifted her into his arms. For a moment, she thought that maybe they were going to get away, maybe her team and Lowrey could get her to a medic in time to keep her from dying. She put her arms around his neck and clung, she knew when it was time to let someone else take the lead.
She heard the explosion a moment before the ground rose up under them and hurled them into the air. Lowrey’s arms tightened around her and he had time to let out a vehement curse before they were hit with the rain of debris from the missile as they landed hard and tumbled over and over on the ground.
Pain exploded in her legs, head and gut.
Killed in a missile explosion, how embarrassing for a Psi-op of her skill level.
~*~
“That’s it, open your eyes. Keep them open. Come on, you can do it this time,” an unfamiliar voice urged as Kat struggled to wake.
“Go away,” Kat rasped, squeezing her eyes shut. She had never been in such pain in her life, even childbirth had not hurt this much.
“I can’t do that. So wake up and talk to me. I’m bored.”
Annoyed, she opened her eyes and glanced around. She was in the infirmary. She turned her head to the right, the direction of the bothersome person. She didn’t immediately recognize the man sitting in the wheelchair beside her bed. “There’s no one else you can bother?”
He shook his head, which made his dark hair fall over the bandage on his forehead and into his face. “It’s the middle of the night.” She recognized him now, Major Lowrey. His left leg was in a cast, as was his left arm. The lights were dim in the infirmary for the night cycle, but she could see that he was sporting numerous bruises.
“You look like hell,” Kat croaked, her mouth and throat were dry and she looked around for water.
“You’re not in much better shape.” Lowrey pushed back and retrieved a cup from the stand between the beds. He held it where she could grab the straw between her lips and drink.
She wanted to sit up and fumbled around for the controller. “Raise the bed a little, will you?”
“Not a good idea, Kat,” he advised, shaking his head as he pulled the cup away. “You’re still punched full of holes, you might not want to move around too much.”
There was a dull pain in her middle, in the general area where she remembered taking a few hits. “I can’t feel my legs,” she hissed as she realized the fact. Flat on her back, she also couldn’t see her legs.
He patted her arm. “They’re both there, I promise, don’t worry. They must have you pain blocked, your legs were a real mess even before the missile hit.”
Pain blockers, good for the moment, but horrendous when it was time to stop them. There was no weaning off, it was on one moment and off the next. She almost preferred to fight through the pain from the start. “Well, you wanted to talk, so talk. I’m wide awake now, Lowrey.”
“What shall we talk about?” he asked, turning his chair so that he faced her more.
She had no clue, so she blurted the first question that came to mind. “Why were you with Hatton?”
“Because I couldn’t reconcile myself to being a Central Command sympathizer. Before you and your little uprising, there was no other choice. I hate the L’spi.”
She could accept that. They had hardly been canvassing for people to leave Hatton and join them on Ontferia. “How long have you been military?”
“Since I was thirteen.”
“I thought only Psi-Corps took them that young?”
He chuckled. “They did. I was two years underage, but I passed for fifteen and had a little help with my paperwork.”
“Parents?”
“My father died on a mission, my mother got sick when I was eleven and died when I was twelve. More water?”
She nodded and he held the cup for her. “Keep talking,” she urged. Lowrey had a soothing voice and he could tell a story. He talked for quite a long time, filling her in on life under Hatton as well as telling her some stories about Central Command and the L’spi that she had not yet heard.
It was hard for her to talk for any length of time without losing her breath, but he managed to get her to talk back to him. On the subject of botched missions, she told him a little of what happened at Barido. Then she confessed how it had felt waking up to find she’d lost twenty years. He was a good listener. By the time her eyes were too heavy to keep them open any more, she had decided she liked this Finn Lowrey and told him so. “I like you, Lowrey. I think we’ll hang onto you.”
He squeezed her hand. “I like you too, Kat, and I’d like to stay.”
And so he did.
The End
Fandom: Original Fiction
Prompt: “Explosions”
Rating: Gen
Word Count: 5,063
Benchmark +50
Warnings: No standard warnings apply
Summary: Series: Lizards: What If? What if Kat were captured during the rescue of Sandasin? What if Bailey were not all sweetness and light? What if Kat met Finn before getting involved with Chase?
The sun was setting, casting bright colors out along the horizon. Katrin leaned on the railing of the North Watch Tower and stared out at the beauty nature was providing. As much as she hated closed in places, Kat had always loved heights. The North Tower was one of her favorite perches on the base, and she could often be found there. The senior staff jokingly referred to it as her Thinking Spot. She didn’t argue because they were entirely correct, she liked to climb the tower to think.
Someone was climbing up behind her, the deck beneath her feet vibrated, warning her that she would soon have company. A glance over her shoulder identified the bright red head of Ahn Bailey as she hoisted herself awkwardly up over the edge of the platform. Her assistant glared daggers at her as she panted out, “Why do you do this to me?”
“Do what?”
“Make me climb up here to talk to you?”
“I don’t make you do anything Bailey. I’m just standing here.”
Irritated, the Captain huffed out a breath and waved a clipboard in Kat’s direction. “Your radio is off. Again. You really suck at being a base commander, do you know that?”
“I never asked for the job.”
“You’ve got it, so shut up, quit whining and do it. And keep your radio on,” Bailey scolded. Kat kept her around for just this reason, Bailey wasn’t awed by her rank, her abilities or the fact that she was who she was. It was refreshing.
Kat flailed a hand out and caught the waving clipboard, snatching it from Bailey’s grasp. “I might be mistaken, but this could be construed as insubordination.”
“So put me up on charges and fire me, roust me out and make me a civilian, I dare you.” Bailey crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at the reluctant Commandant of the Ontferian Militia.
Kat pointed a finger towards Bailey’s freckled nose. “That is a very nasty little smile, do you know that? Stop it, stop it now, there will be no smiling. The base would collapse into chaos and anarchy and the world would end - again - if I fired you. You’re too good at your job. I believe it might just be a plot for global domination. I feel like a tool, like a little cog in a great wheel of your making.”
“Bitch, bitch, bitch. You’ll be the first against the wall when I decide to take over if you continue to make me climb towers to deliver reports. Why am I hand delivering reports to you, anyway? Oh, right, because you refuse to stay at your desk. You have a case of wanderlust that draws you to every point on this base, except Headquarters, where you are supposed to be.”
Kat smiled sweetly. “I love you, Bailey.”
“Shut up and read your report, you brat.”
Sobering, Kat did as instructed; Bailey really wouldn’t have come out herself if it were not important. And she had a point about the comm, Kat vowed to try to keep it turned on going forward. Her eyes widened as she read the report. “Is this accurate?”
Bailey snorted. Of course it was accurate.
“Fine, that was stupid question. What was the source, and who did the translation?”
“Harper found it, scanning the netspy program. Then Wils checked and double checked it, and ran it past Davi’dan.”
Head bent over the clipboard, Kat went to the ladder and climbed down, still reading as she went. “Let’s go, it’s Headquarters Time!”
“Now she wants to go to Headquarters…” Bailey sneered at the Commandant’s back and hit her comm link, ordering the senior staff and Communications personnel to rendezvous at Headquarters as soon as possible.
Rocking back and forth in her chair, Kat played with a stylus, twiddling it between her fingers as she listened to the discussion going on between her techs and the senior officers.
“I did verify the source code, and it is coming off known channels. We’re definitely missing some of the higher level band of communications. Whomever is broadcasting from the Central Command base on Vartur is using the channels Hatton’s units were known to be using, and the return transmissions are coming from the last known position of Hatton’s fleet,” Davi’dan said, glaring at Hauck, who had asked him to check the information for a third time, provoking the current argument.
When it looked like Hauck and Davi were going to get into a screaming match - again, the pair had been at odds since arriving on Ontferia - Kat raised her hand and whistled sharply to stop them. “I’m calling it legitimate. The L’spi have Sandasin. I believe we all agree that this cannot be tolerated.”
Reluctantly, the officers around the SitOp nodded in agreement. All except Jaquez Dah’nell; not being a member of Psi-Corps he didn’t immediately see the ramifications of Sandasin’s capture by their enemy. He cleared his throat and raised his hand to draw Katrin’s attention and asked, “Excuse me Commandant, but I don’t understand. Sandasin has no idea where we are, he cannot possibly give the L’spi information about our whereabouts, so why is this a problem?”
“Sandasin knows how we operate. He trained us, we’re using his book.” Hauck was pacing now, a sure sign of distress.
Duck was no longer lounging back feigning disinterest. He leaned forward with a concerned expression on his face and explained patiently to Jaquez, “Since the start of the war, the L’spi have been trying to figure out how psionics operate, what makes us tick, how to use us and how to knock us down. There is always a chance they could torture that info out of the old man. He knows us, maybe even better than we know ourselves.”
“He knows our individual weaknesses, as well as our strengths and our habits,” Kat added, agreeing with her teammates. “He dissected every mission, every training session, every wargame. He is probably the only person living that knows how each and every one of us will react in a given scenario.”
Sitting beside Duck looking as worried as her husband was, Tia asked, “What do we do?”
“Retrieval. Failing that, elimination,” Hauck spoke before Kat could, though it had been her intended answer as well.
“Kill Sandasin? You’d kill Yon Sandasin?” Ric’s jaw dropped in astonishment as he looked around, seeing a nod from every member of Cardinal Flight, as well as a bob of assent from his sister Irene.
Wils took pity on the kind-hearted doctor and explained to Ric, “If the positions were reversed, he would give the same order. We’re using his book, as Hauck said. He’ll be expecting it, and he wouldn’t fault us for it.”
“Who goes?” Duck asked testily, looking at Kat. He had still not forgiven her for losing them Chase Cam’ree. She suspected that this was a test.
Hands shot up around the room and voices clambered, volunteering. Hauck stopped the ruckus by stating loudly, “I’ll go.”
“No. I will.” Kat dropped her feet down off the edge of her desk and moved across the SitOp to stare at the sector map on the wall. She ignored the resumption of noise her statement of intent raised, waiting; she knew the direction the most vociferous argument would come from, and was prepared to defend.
As expected, Hauck came straight at her. “I was the one trained for assassinations, Katrin. I’ll go. You’re needed here.”
She spun on her heel and stared up into Hauck’s face; he had come up behind her and was breathing down her neck. “No, Nim. Not this time.” She glanced over with regret at Duck, still mourning the loss of Cam’ree, she couldn’t do that to her team again, couldn’t send one of them away on a mission she was perfectly capable of carrying out herself. “I had the same training you did, and my grades were only a shade off yours in marksmanship. I’m almost as good a sniper as you.”
“Almost. You’re no assassin, Kat.”
She stared at him, letting him see just how serious she was. “I’ll do what needs to be done. I won’t ask this, not this, of any of you. Another mission, another target, perhaps, but this one is mine, I owe it to Fox Sandasin to be the one to end him, if it comes to it.”
Hauck continued to look into her eyes before he acknowledged in a whisper, “You really would do it.”
She didn’t respond. Instead Kat turned away from the map and looked around the room, and began barking out orders, “Tracey, prep one of the Ember Runners from Dianto, one with the registrations intact, you’re coming with me. Ric, I need a sample bag or two of that goo we pulled off the bio-clone Duck ran into on that supply run to Zenisha. Bailey, I’ll need a proper blue Central Command uniform with at least a Commander’s brass.”
“You can have mine. They’re in a small red silk bag in my gear box, if you want to grab them on your way Ahn,” Jaquez said to Bailey as she left to collect the uniform. “They were current before we left for Dianto.”
“Mashadee, Dah’nell,” Kat inclined her head gratefully at him.
“Davi’dan, we’ll need concealed earpieces on set a rotating band, I don’t want anyone to know we’re joining the party.” The tech nodded and moved to the wall, where he opened a supply chest and began rummaging around. He dropped various bits of electronics behind him as he sifted through the contents of the gear box.
“We might run into Hatton’s men on a parallel mission. Based on the communications we have in our hands, I would be very surprised if we didn’t cross paths with at least a recon team from his fleet, I don’t know what Sand’asin did to upset the balance and get hauled in, but apparently; Central Command is cooperating with the L’spi on it, so I don’t discount the probability of running afoul of a counter mission there, Hatton doesn’t want the L’spi to have Sandasin any more than we do.”
“Duck, you’ll be standing by in orbit for an extraction, in case I can’t make it to Tracey.”
Apparently speaking to her again, Duck demanded, “You’re going down alone? With no backup?”
“You and Tracey are my backup. My plan won’t work if I’m not alone on the ground. One person can get in and out a lot easier than a team. Hauck, you’re in charge here, Dah’nell back him up. If I don’t come back, find a way of working together, would you?”
Ric had returned from his run across to the infirmary and handed Kat two packets of clear fluid. “What’s the goo for, Ma... Commandant?”
Kat ignored the slip. “How long will this stay viable before the enzymes start to decay? How long before the decay can be picked up by a standard handheld sensor?” Kat asked her son as she examined the packets.
“Two clicks before the decay is traceable by a deep scan, four until it becomes easily evident. What are you planning on doing with it?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Liesel remarked, looking at the bio-packets with a combination of interest and disgust. She had remained silent through the meeting, staying out of the argument that raged between the remaining members of Cardinal Flight.
“Precautionary measure,” Kat responded without elaborating as Davi’dan made an adjustment on an earpiece and dropped it into her hand. “I hate these things; they make my ears itch,” Kat muttered.
“They give me a headache, but they are harder to intercept or interrupt than anything else we’ve got. What’s with the goop?” Davi’dan asked. Apparently, they were going to keep asking until she gave them an answer.
“It’s camouflage.”
“Well that just makes no sense,” Irene commented.
Kat sighed in irritation. “I’d like to be underway, people, not standing here chattering.”
“You’re waiting for Bailey to come back with a uniform; you have a few moments, so explain,” Irene crossed her arms and blocked Kat’s attempted escape from the Headquarters tent. Kat wondered if Irene had inherited the stubbornness from her or from her late husband. Mahrc had possessed a stubborn streak too, and the look in Irene’s eyes reminded her of him.
“Fine. Fine. If I get caught, I would prefer that they not know I’m me. If I’m smeared with these bio-clone guts, I should be able to fool your average detention troops into thinking I’m a bio-clone.”
Choking on the tea she had been sipping at throughout the meeting, Liesel coughed and looked at Kat incredulously. “You’re going to pretend to be a clone of yourself?”
“Well, I could hardly pretend to be a clone of Commander Prinz, could I?” She waved a hand impatiently in Hauck’s direction. “I have to stop at the armory.” Tired and with her patience worn out, Kat moved towards the doors just as Bailey entered with the requested uniform. Kat reached out to snatch the clothing from her aide, threw it over her shoulder and held out a hand for Bailey to drop Dah’nell’s medals and rank insignia into it. She eyed the glittering assortment in her hand and then smirked at Jaquez. “Medal of Valor, eh?”
He shrugged and winked at her.
“Keep the place safe, everyone, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She glanced back and smiled at them in farewell before taking off at a run towards the armory.
“What was that whirlwind? Was that a plan?” Liesel stared at the others in confusion.
Hauck looked up from where he was tapping on a keypad and remarked, “Welcome to Psi-Corps. We’ve got her back people, let’s do our jobs.” And, as Kat had known he would, Hauck set about organizing what needed to be done at the base.
21st Salmas 5433
Central Command Base, Tartur
It started to go bad almost from the moment Kat smeared on the goop. It irritated her skin as it dried, adding a level of discomfort to an already uncomfortable mission.
She bluffed her way onto the base, pretending to be “Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security.” She even located Yon Sandasin’s holding cell by hacking the computer systems. But when she actually got down to the lower levels, she found out this was not actually a Central Command supply base as it had appeared to be, but was, instead a deeply dug, firmly established L’spi stronghold.
She hated when missions went upside like this. They never ended well. Memories of Barido and the consequences of that failure flashed through her mind.
Creeping towards the holding cell where she had learned Sandasin was being kept, she felt the base suddenly rock with the force of an explosion, throwing her forcefully against the wall. When she regained consciousness, there were seven uniformed Central Command people holding weapons pointed at her. “Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security,” she declared, as she attempted to appear emotionless.
“Yeah, that’s not going to work,” the ranking officer, a dark haired Major said, shaking his head. “Who was stupid enough to send a bio-clone down here?”
She blinked at him and held her blank expression, still trying to play the part of a simple bio-clone on an infiltration mission.
“Could be rigged to explode,” one of the soldiers theorized. The Major pulled a face and looked around to the team’s tech.
The tech, holding a scanner, shook his head. “Trace comes back negative, Major, no boom-boom.”
“Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security,” Kat repeated, smiling up at the Major as she stuck to a simple script the way a real bio-clone would in this situation. “I’m here about the changes to the security procedures.”
The Major glared at her. He had the kind of wild hair that made every mother despair, impossible to comb and make neat. Kat felt an urge to reach out and smooth it down, which she squelched. “Of course you are. You are not going to tell me anything of any use, are you?”
“Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security.”
He waved to the guards, “Kill it. We’ve got to find the target and get out; we have no time to fool with toys.”
Kat realized that this must be the retrieval team Hatton had sent. This was not going at all according to plan, Kat thought as three of the guns came up. “Wait! Your target? What target?”
They had no reason to answer her. In the Major’s place, she probably would have ordered the men to fire. Green eyes met hers and he held a hand up, staying her execution. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about Director Yon Sandasin being on this level, would you, little clone?”
“Block 5, Detention cell 437,” she replied instantly, desperately clinging to her cover persona in the hopes of getting out of this deteriorating situation.
The major waved his men towards the cell and turned to Kat. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put a bolt through your head, clone.”
“Subject Yon Sandasin trusts me, he will accompany me without an argument. If you attempt to remove him forcibly from the premises, he will resist and draw unwanted attention to your party.”
“Bring it,” the Major snapped his fingers at the remaining guard, and Kat was dragged to her feet and pulled along the corridor. From further down the corridor, she could hear Sandasin bellowing his displeasure, making things as difficult as possible for his captors.
He quieted when he spotted her in the company of the Major’s team. “What the hell? Are you insane? What are you doing here, you idiot?”
“Commander Kat Micah, Central Command Security, I am here about the enhancement to the security measures.”
Sandasin rolled his eyes and hissed, “They sent a bio-clone to get me out? I trained a bunch of morons. I give up. Twenty five years I could have spent doing something worthwhile! Instead, I sent a pack of mental defects out to protect the sector. My life was a complete waste. Why did I even bother?”
Stifling a giggle at Sandasin’s rant of self pity, she stood at attention, keeping her face blank. “I do not have an answer to that question, sir.”
“Of course you don’t. Who the hell are you?” Sandasin demanded of the Major.
“Major Finn Lowrey. General Hatton sent us to collect you, sir.”
The older man crossed his arms and shook his head stubbornly. “Not going. Hatton is no better than this bunch of Central Command sympathizers and sycophants.”
“Then you’ll die when the base implodes in a little under half a click, Director Sandasin. It is in your best interests to come along.”
She would let Lowrey and his men do the hard part of getting Sandasin out, then she and her team could snatch him from under their noses when they reached the surface. “Central Command wishes to know the status of Director Yon Sandasin,” Kat chirped.
“Enraged. How dare they do this to me, after everything I did for them!” Sandasin ranted at what he believed to be no more than an automaton. “How do they repay me? They send a bio-bot. And adding insult to injury, they send a bio-clone of her. I should have thrown my hat in with Harisse in the first place; she had the right of it, getting out. You always were the smart one, weren’t you, Katrin?”
“Let’s go, sir. You, clone, say whatever you need to say to get him moving.”
“It would be in your best interests to vacate the building, Director Yon Sandasin.”
“Fine. I’ll take this up with Hatton. I wash my hands of Central, you can tell them that, you pile of walking goo and circuits.”
Kat caught him up under the arm and tugged him along to the stairwell. They encountered no interference until they reached the upper level, and got outside the building, where the real Central Command guards were waiting, along with several L’spi troops. A firefight ensued, and three of Lowrey’s men went down in the crossfire.
Bumping Sandasin with her hip to push him up against a storage locker for what little cover it provided, Kat threw her hands up in a protective gesture as an air to surface missile exploded nearby.
“I think they found the bombs,” Lowrey’s tech shouted. “They seem a bit upset.”
Lowrey nodded. “The jumper is landing, get him to it.” He reached a hand out to shove Sandasin towards his remaining men. “I’ll lay down some cover fire.”
Another missile struck the ground nearby and exploded, making the ground shake under their feet. Kat instinctively Shielded, erecting a bubble around herself, Low’rey, Sandasin and Hatton’s strike team. Only Sandasin noticed the bubble go up, the others were too busy scrambling for cover again. He turned towards Kat, his eyes going wide with realization. A bio-clone would not be able to use psionics, no matter how good the copy was. “You?!?” he exclaimed as his jaw dropped.
Kat waved her hands impatiently to silence him. Now was not the time. “You’re alive, aren’t you?” she snapped.
The strike team’s jumper attempted to land, but was fired upon by a concentrated combination of L’spi and Central Command fire. It exploded in a fireball, throwing debris in every direction. Before the smoke had cleared from that explosion, the ground shook beneath them; the next set of bombs Lowrey’s team had set detonated in the base.
“Major Lowrey!” the tech screamed in panic as their transport was destroyed in the air. “Now what? Now what do we do?”
The dark haired Major looked dismayed and at a loss as he stared at the rain of flaming debris. “No backup?” Kat asked him quietly.
He waved in the direction of the falling debris. “That was the backup; our original transport was destroyed after we landed. We crashed. This mission is cursed.” Kat sympathized, this was not turning out to be a textbook perfect mission for her either.
Kat nodded and reached up to tap the comm unit in her ear. “Tracey, I need a pickup for six.”
“On my way,” the pilot answered smoothly, and Kat heard him request over the comms, “Duck, some cover fire, please.”
The sky lit up with explosions as Duck and Tracey cleared a path through the Central air forces for the Ember Runner to land. Kat grabbed the arm of one of the guardsmen that was about to run and ordered sharply, “Stay here!”
She looked over at Sandasin who was now smirking at her. He had realized that he was not going to visit Hatton, after all. She glared at him and snapped, “If you give me any trouble, I will shoot you. I have orders to take you down if I can’t get you out.” She didn’t bother mentioning that she had issued the orders herself and could change or rescind them at any time she chose. Turning her glare on Hatton’s men, she said, “That goes for all of you.”
“I think the clone is broken, it seems to have jumped off its script program,” the tech said, shaking his head in confusion as he looked from Kat to his CO.
As the Ember Runner came into sight, she gave the tech a toothy grin, “I AM Kat Micah Harisse, and I AM here about a security matter. And Central Command and General Hatton and the L’spi can all kiss my rebel ass. You have two choices, either you get your wayward, misguided, delusional Hatton-loving butt over to that Runner, or you stay here and die.”
“You aren’t a bio clone,” Lowrey said, smirking at her.
Kat’s reply was to point her hand past his shoulder and hurl a Psi-bolt at the L’spi squadron creeping towards them.
“She is definitely not a bio clone. You heard her, get your asses to the Runner!” Lowrey grabbed Sandasin’s arm and hauled the Director along with him as he ran.
Shielding, and occasionally tossing a Psi-bolt, Kat stayed to the rear, keeping herself between the Runner and the approaching L’spi. She was running low on psionic energy and trying to hoard what she had left. Hearing the whine of multiple energy weapons charging, she turned and saw a new squadron of L’spi and Central Command troops approaching. Her Shield could not withstand too many hits from an energy weapon. She held it as long as she could, but it failed, just as another barrage of projectiles hit. She went to her knees, winded from the impact of bullets in her chest and the slice of an energy weapon across her legs.
This was bad, she was being cut to ribbons and couldn’t do anything about it. Just as she started to topple forward, an arm suddenly snaked around her waist and she felt herself hauled up against a hard body and dragged along, away from the L’spi. She knew two things: she was bleeding profusely and she hurt, a lot.
“Hang on, I’ve got you,” Major Lowrey said near her ear as he lifted her into his arms. For a moment, she thought that maybe they were going to get away, maybe her team and Lowrey could get her to a medic in time to keep her from dying. She put her arms around his neck and clung, she knew when it was time to let someone else take the lead.
She heard the explosion a moment before the ground rose up under them and hurled them into the air. Lowrey’s arms tightened around her and he had time to let out a vehement curse before they were hit with the rain of debris from the missile as they landed hard and tumbled over and over on the ground.
Pain exploded in her legs, head and gut.
Killed in a missile explosion, how embarrassing for a Psi-op of her skill level.
“That’s it, open your eyes. Keep them open. Come on, you can do it this time,” an unfamiliar voice urged as Kat struggled to wake.
“Go away,” Kat rasped, squeezing her eyes shut. She had never been in such pain in her life, even childbirth had not hurt this much.
“I can’t do that. So wake up and talk to me. I’m bored.”
Annoyed, she opened her eyes and glanced around. She was in the infirmary. She turned her head to the right, the direction of the bothersome person. She didn’t immediately recognize the man sitting in the wheelchair beside her bed. “There’s no one else you can bother?”
He shook his head, which made his dark hair fall over the bandage on his forehead and into his face. “It’s the middle of the night.” She recognized him now, Major Lowrey. His left leg was in a cast, as was his left arm. The lights were dim in the infirmary for the night cycle, but she could see that he was sporting numerous bruises.
“You look like hell,” Kat croaked, her mouth and throat were dry and she looked around for water.
“You’re not in much better shape.” Lowrey pushed back and retrieved a cup from the stand between the beds. He held it where she could grab the straw between her lips and drink.
She wanted to sit up and fumbled around for the controller. “Raise the bed a little, will you?”
“Not a good idea, Kat,” he advised, shaking his head as he pulled the cup away. “You’re still punched full of holes, you might not want to move around too much.”
There was a dull pain in her middle, in the general area where she remembered taking a few hits. “I can’t feel my legs,” she hissed as she realized the fact. Flat on her back, she also couldn’t see her legs.
He patted her arm. “They’re both there, I promise, don’t worry. They must have you pain blocked, your legs were a real mess even before the missile hit.”
Pain blockers, good for the moment, but horrendous when it was time to stop them. There was no weaning off, it was on one moment and off the next. She almost preferred to fight through the pain from the start. “Well, you wanted to talk, so talk. I’m wide awake now, Lowrey.”
“What shall we talk about?” he asked, turning his chair so that he faced her more.
She had no clue, so she blurted the first question that came to mind. “Why were you with Hatton?”
“Because I couldn’t reconcile myself to being a Central Command sympathizer. Before you and your little uprising, there was no other choice. I hate the L’spi.”
She could accept that. They had hardly been canvassing for people to leave Hatton and join them on Ontferia. “How long have you been military?”
“Since I was thirteen.”
“I thought only Psi-Corps took them that young?”
He chuckled. “They did. I was two years underage, but I passed for fifteen and had a little help with my paperwork.”
“Parents?”
“My father died on a mission, my mother got sick when I was eleven and died when I was twelve. More water?”
She nodded and he held the cup for her. “Keep talking,” she urged. Lowrey had a soothing voice and he could tell a story. He talked for quite a long time, filling her in on life under Hatton as well as telling her some stories about Central Command and the L’spi that she had not yet heard.
It was hard for her to talk for any length of time without losing her breath, but he managed to get her to talk back to him. On the subject of botched missions, she told him a little of what happened at Barido. Then she confessed how it had felt waking up to find she’d lost twenty years. He was a good listener. By the time her eyes were too heavy to keep them open any more, she had decided she liked this Finn Lowrey and told him so. “I like you, Lowrey. I think we’ll hang onto you.”
He squeezed her hand. “I like you too, Kat, and I’d like to stay.”
And so he did.
The End