Nova (9 page)

“Proconsul Far’allyn Tanad, you are placed in protective
custody under Shield Operative authority until transfer to Sigil and an
investigation is initiated.” Goyan Hadarr announced calmly, her sharp eyes
deposits of flint for all the warmth they exuded. “Drop your weapon.”

Naxos stood to her side, his eyes scanning for any
interference, but the remaining hostiles still in the courtyard were pinned
down by Ca’rrakk, Rygel, and Perez. Captain Serros and her target were nowhere
to be seen.

“Major Hadarr! You
dare
arrest me?” Tanad growled in
response, dark eyes blazing. “I am a member of the Vosaia Consulate and you and
I report to the same masters!”

“Yes. And I act as they would have me; you do not.” Hadarr
answered, barrel never wavering.

“Really?” Tanad asked, her voice tinged with incredulity as
she shot a glance at Lieutenant Belgrum Naxos. “When only one stands here to
interfere?”

At the Proconsul’s words, Belgrum’s aquamarine eyes swiveled
between the two Vosaia, tongue flitting to the taste the air and the strange
note of certainty and edge–walking hysteria in the Proconsul’s tone. From the Quorum
Shield Operative, Naxos could taste
nothing
. It was as if the space
where she stood was a void of emotion or presence. The Braxien found himself
wishing that the Captain with her Synergy Arca Enhancement was present to
reassure him that he did indeed stand with another being, not an empty vessel
that appeared to be a person.

“I represent the Quorum and the Consulate. What do you think
our
masters
wish? An identified, rogue member of the Consulate
selling Arcatech secrets to the enemy?” Hadarr’s voice held scorn, yet again, Belgrum
could sense no real emotion.

Surprisingly, the Proconsul seemed to calm at the other Vosaia’s
words. “I see.” With a quick swipe of her fingers, the politician punched a key–command
into her CPA. “What I do, I do for the Vosaia.” Tanad stated with a strange
dignity. A moment later, her body ripped into a spray of blood and then a
thousand pieces of nothingness as the micro–charge that was either on or within
her body detonated.

 * * * * *

Unknowingly echoing her Executive Officer’s sentiments, Avara
Serros found herself experiencing a strange sense of déjà vu as she focused her
speed and reactionary senses to reach the Vosaia STF Agent who ran at a near
equal pace through the far end of the courtyard. Z’arr was making her way to a
side entrance that the Captain knew from Nova’s debriefings to be the main processing
and packaging location for refined Adrenix. Serros watched as the Vosaia was
forced to pause a moment for the automatic double–doors of the building’s west
end to open before she disappeared inside.

Close on her target’s heels, Serros slid to a half–stop on
the slippery smooth, mustard yellow and blue flooring of the building’s atrium
before catching a flash of sapphire hair whipping around a corner. The two,
pursuer and prey, ran flat–out past startled employees through a series of
short, cross–cut mustard yellow hallways that melted together in a nauseating
blur until the corridors opened into a cavernous processing hall. Huge spigots
held aloft on automated track positioned on the structure’s low ceiling
methodically spat yellow Adrenix into enormous, circular shaped glass vats. The
impressively sized drums were then rotated away on track for storage and
shipment to major hospitals, medical facilities, and military distribution
centers across the galaxy.

The Captain could see numerous workers of various races calibrating
and checking each vat that after being filled, was hermetically sealed and then
packed for shipment in reusable and padded durexium drums. Despite the
carefully wrought seals, Avara noted that all of the Adrenix packaging employees
wore full covering: protective suits with oxygen filters intended to stave off
any negative effects from exposure to high amounts of the adrenal enhancing
agent.

After a wave of dizziness and a sense of euphoric
infallibility shot through her body like a bullet when she inhaled a gulp of
air a little
too
deeply, Avara could understand the precautions very
well. Though the place was a nix addict’s paradise, too much exposure would
equate to extreme neurological breakdown, with the eventual result of being
reduced to a near or fully vegetative state.

With a conscious mental exertion, Serros dampened the
effects of the drug and narrowed in on her quarry. Agent Z’arr seemed to be
having similar issues, for the Captain saw her shake her head and half stumble
to a halt. Avara didn’t blame her since she knew that the only reason she
herself was less affected was due to her Physical Potency and Vitality
Enhancement, an augmentation that from her research, Captain Serros knew Lieutenant
Z’arr did not possess.

The Vosaia was just reaching to key a command into her CPA,
probably to activate her armor’s retractable helmet to protect herself from the
toxic vapors, when Avara decided the time to speak had come. “Agent Z’arr,
wait!”

Rich violet eyes snapped to Serros’s own dark blue orbs,
searching. “And would it be prudent for me to do so, Shield Operative?” The Captain
could tell by her position, loose yet almost thrumming with an easy tension,
that the Vosaia was ready to drop into a fighting crouch at a second’s notice.

“Yes.” Serros answered calmly, her posture relaxed. “I need you
to accompany me back to Sigil and the Quorum to resolve questions about that
Arcatech Enhancement data you carry.”

“I would, yet others seem to feel the same way. I believe
you met them, outside?” Z’arr’s tone held a note of grim humor but her eyes were
intent, measuring.

“Oh, we weren’t formally introduced.” Serros replied with a
shrug, matching the pearl–skinned Vosaia’s tone. “Too many bullets interspersed
with some dying precluded proper acquaintance. In fact, I was hoping
you
could help me out with that.”

“Unfortunately I cannot, as it seems I do not know who they
really are myself.”

“Well, why don’t you come with me and we can figure it out
together?” The Captain offered.

“Intriguing, Captain.” The Vosaia commented. “However, trust
is in short supply today, you see. Just as I do not seem to really know who
they
are, I also do not know who
you
are. For myself, I think the prudent
course would be to contact the Vosaia Consulate directly.”

“It
does
seem to me that you’ve had an unpleasant day
at the office, Agent Z’arr.” Captain Serros agreed, deliberately keeping her
tone and energy amiable, unthreatening. “Have you considered that someone
associated with the Consulate is most likely connected to your day’s
difficulties?”

“Of course.” Z’arr agreed without pause. “It has also
occurred to me that you are apparently connected with a person who
precisely
fits that description. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you and Goyan
Hadarr seem to be rather
closely
associated
, at that.”

Almost despite herself, Avara offered a genuine, if rueful
laugh at what must have been Z’arr’s first impression at seeing the Captain and
Major Hadarr together at Revenant. “She and I are
not
acquainted very well
at all, I assure you. As you’re no doubt aware, we happen to have the same
employer, the Quorum.”

Agent Z’arr shrugged in response, and Serros could detect a
faint relaxing of tension in the motion. “Well, I am not entirely surprised,
especially given what I know of Major Hadarr’s reserved reputation. However, I
also
know
that as a former STF and a current Quorum Shield Operative, she is
ideally placed to be the cause of my ‘bad day’ at work. To avoid an even worse
day, I suggest you and I peacefully part ways, Captain.”

“I can’t do that, Lieutenant Z’arr. I was tasked by the
Quorum to bring the Arca Microtech data back to Sigil and you in for
questioning.” Serros could sense the spike in tension that cracked through Z’arr
at her words, and that the Vosaia was about to bolt.

“K’llan, please. You can trust me.” Avara said, using the
Vosaia’s name for the first time. “I will bring you safely to the Quorum.” Looking
directly into Z’arr’s rather remarkable violet eyes, Serros purposely lowered
the cognitive barriers she had been trained to keep around her mind. With a
gentle flex of her will, she employed her Synergy Enhancement to radiate the veracity
of her claim. The Captain poured her sincerity and her sense of self towards Lieutenant
K’llan Z’arr, counting on the Vosaia’s racial empathic and quasi–telepathic
gifts to strengthen the reception of such a mode of communication.

K’llan Z’arr felt as if she had been suddenly tossed into an
icy pool of water, so great was her shock at the sense of this Human’s emotions
and mind. Yet
cold
was not the correct word for the sensation. Indeed,
warmth would be the more appropriate descriptor for the actual sense of the
woman that was flooding her senses. K’llan was astounded by the sheer
power
of the Human’s
nya
, her soul–energy ringing with a purity of self and
will she had rarely encountered even in aged Vosaia. And the Human was doing it
deliberately, consciously opening a window into her soul so that K’llan would
be able to judge the authenticity of her claims by a means that usually only Vosaia
or Karukai can even
attempt
to employ. More, K’llan could
feel
the truth of Serros’s words. Against all expectation and as if reading words
from a child’s primary, K’llan abruptly understood the basic framework of who Captain
Avara Serros was.

At that moment, enveloped in the undeniable warmth of Captain
Serros’s bared soul, K’llan felt no hesitation, no doubt birthed in the fear of
duplicity, only a sense of certainty, of rightness. The sensation was curiously
reminiscent of childhood feelings of safety, of contentment and home.

And then that feeling was brutally ripped apart by a flash
of searing pain as a spray of bullets tore into Serros’s armored flank, casing the
Human to issue an involuntary scream of agony.

Captain Serros whipped her head around to see the gray–armored
soldier that had just fired. The hostile was standing in front of one of the
empty glass vat–lines that methodically creaked towards ceiling–affixed Adrenix
funnels. With her side sheeted in fire, Avara struggled to gain her feet as she
watched the enemy shift focus. Assuming she was eliminated as a threat, the
soldier was now training his assault rifle on the Vosaia STF Agent, who stood as
if transfixed.

Avara could
feel
confusion and raw pain radiating off
of Z’arr. The Vosaia was clearly roiling from the slicing pain of feeling the
bullets that tore into Avara during the psychic connection the two were still,
somehow, unexpectedly locked in.

With a scream, the Captain brought her will to bear and by
fusing her DSA, KS, and KB Arca augmentations, channeled the kobalt fueled energy
coursing through blood and viscera to sheath her body in midnight blue energy
and then
shriek
through the air with unnerving force. A living missile, Captain
Avara Serros slammed into the gunman and propelled both of their bodies through
four separate empty vats and into the wall behind. A deafening sequence of
crack–booms
tumbled within the work space as the two crashed through containers and smashed
into the wall with a thundering clap, thick shards of industrial glass spraying
the room like shattered stars. Blackness warred with the almost primal elation
Avara felt at taking down the enemy who’d first shot her and then had been so
intent on spending the STF Agent’s life.

Still striving to dampen the pain of their connection, K’llan
almost frantically ran through the debris of the decimated packaging floor to Captain
Serros, who was obviously disoriented as she struggled to regain her footing.
From the far left corner of the room, Z’arr spied another gray–armored enemy.
K’llan whipped her pistol into position and snapped off three shots in less
than a heartbeat before the hostile could follow through with a rifle–blast
that was definitively trained at the back of the Human’s skull.

Gradually regaining some sense of equilibrium but still struggling
to reach a sitting position, Avara took a closer look at her downed assailant,
much of which was now a blood–drenched, pulpy mass of flesh, glass, and durexium
armor. Still, as her mind sluggishly resolved what sight had captured, surprise
flashed like a persistent on–duty alarm.

The soldier’s helmet had cracked during their flight through
the glass vats and rather personal acquaintance with the half–sundered wall. As
a result, the right side of the soldier’s helmet and visor was entirely missing,
revealing a decidedly feminine face, skin snow–white except for the deep red
whirls that traced her left cheek and utterly bald, alabaster head. Eyes the
same crimson hue as her skin markings stared into space, the verity of death
settling in as her heavy lids twitched once in a final, nerve induced ripple.

“Oh… By She Who Watches! A
Karukai
!” K’llan Z’arr
gasped as she reached the Captain, sounding as if she herself had just been hurtled
into a wall by the revelation.

“Yes. A Karukai keeping her identity outwardly secret while
somehow
walking freely on a Quorum world. All with the aid of a Vosaia Proconsul.” K’llan
noted that Serros’s tone held less shock than her own.

A bare second later, the face that so riveted their
attention disappeared before their eyes in a whirlwind of exploding flesh as
the entire body detonated, horrifically spattering the two with gory residuum.

“A micro–explosive programmed to go off in the case of lost
life signs after a certain period of time.” Serros announced, voice low and
grim. “Like a Grey.”

“A Karukai… But… the implications,” K’llan uttered, her
voice trailing off as horror gave way to implication. Her quick mind began
rapidly connecting fact and potentiality, with frightening inference swirling into
deadly clarity.