Trial of the Spirit

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla was silent for a few seconds.

“Wow,” was all she said at first. Finally finding her voice, she spoke.

“Kidnapped, maybe? Probably not as hostages but for what they know.” She stopped, considering another possibility. “Or the clan themselves themselves made the scientists disappear. Which means whatever they are doing, the clan wants it to be kept secret from the rest of the government.”

“Personally, I don’t like either possibility,” said Badreau. “Oh, I don’t know which it could be, if it is either. I have no details on the clan. I was simply handed the request for more information. Still, it means that as well as completing our mission, we may have picked up something the intelligence community can use. If so, we can consider that a bonus, though we may never know the final result.”

She sat up straight and crossed her legs. “Despite the ‘great’ galactic ramifications, it was a simple mission. You did well enough, but let’s see if we can get you doing something a little more complex next. Get some rest for now. I’ll transmit our mission briefing and see where we are to head next.”

Walking to the sleeping quarters, deep in the belly of the ship, Lilla was suddenly surprised at how tired he was. The Captain was right: the mission had not been especially complicated, but she had been on edge all day, not wanting to make the slightest mistake. She had managed to perform her tasks without any errors. Without stopping to grab something to eat, she simply lay back on one of the sleeping couches and closed her eyes. Within minutes she was asleep.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Keen on Lilla learning the inner workings of the Negotiator, Badreau assigned her to the company of a young female officer who led the maintenance crew. Conducting regular preventative maintenance on the ship’s molecular disruptors, the officer decreed they would replace the plasma conduits that formed the main power feed to the weapon system. Hence the two working in a narrow service tube that extended upward at a sharp angle. Balanced on rungs built into the surface of the tube, the technician worked on the conduits while Lilla remained just below her, passing tools and parts as required.

The technician called Lilla’s name and handed down a spent flexible magnetic pipe. Alisia’s voice over the ship’s intercom broke into Lilla’s train of thought.

“Lilla, get up here. New orders.”

“On my way,” she called out. She rapped on the side of the service tube to get the officer’s attention. She scrambled down, then looked at Lilla.

“Captain’s orders, I have to go.”

“Of course. I can summon someone else to aid me here. However, I will postpone the next phase of preventative maintenance, allowing you to examine the deeper mysteries of the neutron laser when you return to my supervision.”

Lilla bowed, a gesture that was instantly returned. “Thank you,” the Jedi said. Lilla was surprised to find she was genuinely interested in learning more about the main weapon system. “I look forward to that.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

On the bridge, the holographic display shimmered with a planet Lilla did not immediately recognise, as orbital information scrolled alongside it. The captain turned in her chair as he entered.

“Ah, Lilla. Witness our next mission. We just received orders. This planet – know anything about it?”

A not-so-subtle test of her galactic knowledge, but Lilla rose to it. “Err, I remember stories of an ancient alien race disappearing, leaving their technology behind. Which every forager in the galaxy promptly scavenged. Oh, and I remember a report on nomads living in the southern hemisphere, something about abandoned slaves.”

“Good enough,” Badreau nodded. “We are not interested in slaves today though. Our old clan friends have a few operations here, and intelligence wants us to do a sweep of the planet to detect any new activity since our last reconnaissance of the system. If we see anything unusual, we are to get as much information as possible, landing planet-side if need be. We are to avoid contact with any military forces. Then we are to be escort duty to an ambassador.”

“All in a day’s work.”

“Just so. We will be jumping in-system within three hours. Use that time to plot the optimum entry point and course to the second planet. Assume a full defensive spread of mines and a battlegroup within an hour’s reach of the planet.”

Lilla turned from the display to stare at her. “I didn’t know it was heavily defended. I thought they had all but forgotten this world.”

“They have,” she said, smiling. “This is a test.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Feeling slightly foolish, Lilla relieved the officer at his station and began integrating known data with likely scenarios for an aggressive defence. Accounting for the gravity wells that existed in the system and the current orbital positions of the planets, Lilla soon worked up three likely entry points and ingress routes before spending the next two hours refining her plans to come up with the single optimum flight plan.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

When she felt ready, Lilla presented her plans to Badreau, who insisted she forward it to the holographic screen. After answering a few pertinent questions without consulting her data, the helmsmen were ordered to make a few corrections and the flight plan programmed into the Negotiator’s computers. Badreau made no outward comment, but Lilla felt she was at least satisfied with her work.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

A jump point blinked open, and the Negotiator flew straight toward the second planet. While the Negotiator lacked any stealth capability, it was still difficult to detect due to its design and speed, and Lilla’s flight plan did much to maximise their cover. This would only work up to a point though, and every crew member on the Negotiator knew that anyone scanning would detect them sooner or later.

The sleek ship crossed the gulf of space between the jump point and the second planet orbiting the star in minutes. On the bridge, every crew member was alert as the planet grew in the viewport. A desolate place of reds and browns, patches of dark organic matter stained vast areas of the surface. As they closed, they witnessed volcanic eruptions concentrated around the equatorial region visible to the naked eye.

Badreau called to the crew working at the stations behind her. “Work quickly. We only want one pass. Scan for all structures in the northern hemisphere and compare it to our records. Highlight anything new and send it to the main display immediately. Within seconds of any sites being displayed, we must determine if the Negotiator is to land or not. Any hesitation and we’ll be out of low orbit and have to make another pass.”

The holographic display shimmered down in front of the main viewport once more but remained blank for several minutes as the ship began to decelerate and enter low orbit around the planet. Lilla was aware of a great deal of activity behind her and did not envy the crew who had to detect, record and process the scan in time to meet Alisia’s orders.

Then a list of inhabited sites began scrolling up the right-hand side of the display, all those that matched the previous reconnaissance flight into the system. They were colour-coded to denote whether they had expanded or contracted, but none had changed to a degree significant enough to gain their immediate interest. As the list began to reach the top of the display, new information started to appear on the left side, recording data from the scanners marking a new development. Lilla began to read the salient information aloud.

“Outpost, 48 miles from magnetic pole, small, standard pre-fab design, pulse generator, no subterranean network detected, life signs…nil.”

Lilla frowned. “Captain, if this is a new site, why is nobody there?”

“And 700 miles from the nearest settlement as well. I think we have it,” said Badreau. “Scanners, any other sites on our horizon?" Upon hearing a negative, she ordered the helmsmen, "Take us in.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Not wanting to give any passive scan a chance to home in on their position, the helmsmen spared no thought to comfort as they changed course and plummeted towards the surface like a meteor. The drive managed to flatten the worst of the atmospheric buffeting, but Lilla retreated to her station in order to have something solid to hold on to. Even Badreau held the arms of her chair tightly during the descent.

As the ship neared the small outpost, the helmsmen bled off speed by pulling the nose of the ship upwards in a high-g manoeuvre that would have pulverised the crew of a commercial ship. Still shedding speed, they swung the Negotiator around, allowing other crew to scan the outpost and verify no obvious dangers before beginning the landing cycle. Though the hull of the Negotiator would have seared naked flesh as it dissipated the heat generated by atmospheric friction, the ship still settled on its landing gear with a grace few other vessels could match. Waving her hand to indicate Lilla should follow, Badreau leapt from her chair to make her way to the boarding ramp.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Though the atmosphere was unpleasantly breathable to locals, it contained traces of sulphur heavy enough to incapacitate a human within minutes, forcing the two to wear face-hugging filter masks. They walked cautiously, alert for any automated defence systems or guards hidden from their scans.

Lilla noticed a great deal of similarities between this outpost and the one on the moon they’d recently visited, constructed from similar pre-fabricated sections. This one, however, was much smaller. Given the race’s love of comfortable dwellings, she could not imagine any more than a dozen working here at any one time. They approached an entry port, and Badreau nodded to Lilla.

She fished her datapad from within her robes and, sliding a maintenance port open, connected it to the outpost’s exterior security systems via a universal interface. She quickly deduced that if anything important occurred here recently, it relied on the outpost’s remote location rather than expensive security hardware to maintain secrecy. Within seconds, she cracked the code and sent a command to unlock the hatch. It slid open with a hiss, permitting entry. Lilla found herself in a tiny airlock.

“Good,” said Badreau, a little muffled. “If everything is still working, we can pressurise this airlock and get rid of these damned masks.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla had no problem with her mask, reflecting that she endured far worse in recent training sessions, but she quickly hooked her datapad to the airlock’s systems and began the pressurising cycle. Checking the atmosphere beyond the second hatch as cool air swirled around her, she nodded at Badreau and removed her mask. Within a minute, they had the inner door open and stepped into the outpost proper.

The outpost’s systems were turned off or disabled, but emergency lighting gave an eerie feel to the place that was matched by the silence. The only sounds were the footsteps of the two of them. The spotlessly clean main access corridor terminated just thirty metres ahead. Lilla took a step forward, but Badreau caught her arm.

“Take another look,” she warned. “What do you see?”

Lilla felt a growing sense of unease, which Badreau’s words had done nothing to quell, and she studied the corridor once more – this time having connected with the Force. The grated floor allowed easy access to the distributed power and information networks that threaded the outpost, the ceiling bland and featureless aside from the emergency lighting fixtures interspersed between their more powerful but darkened neighbours. Nothing seemed out of place. Then her eyes focussed on a small patch of soot at the end of the corridor.

“Small arms fire,” she exclaimed. “And another, there,” pointing to a few metres away on the floor. The Force could not have warned Lilla – and Badreau was right to rely on more mundane means to ascertain what may or not present danger to them.

“Stay alert,” Badreau ordered. “We’ll sweep this place room by room. I don’t want to be here any longer than necessary.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

As Badreau took her datapad and connected a small sensor array to its top bracket, Lilla’s hand went unconsciously to the hilt of her new saber. The metal felt comforting to her hand.

Sweeping the access corridor with the sensor array, Badreau noted they had missed another blaster mark on the inner airlock hatch when they entered. There were four exits from the corridor, two on each side, which they searched one at a time. Lilla entered first, senses alert while followed with a thorough scan. The first exit led to sleeping and living quarters, the second to kitchen and waste facilities. On the other side of the corridor, they found the power station and a small laboratory. They quickly noted that nothing valuable remained in the outpost. Throughout each tiny room, the Jedi found signs of combat, blasts matched with the occasional spray of blood across a wall or fixture.

“Must have been a heck of a fight,” Lilla remarked as they left the kitchens to cross the access corridor once more.

Badreau shook her head. “This was no fight. It was a massacre.” She paused to adjust the sensitivity of her datapad’s array. “The blasts are mostly focussed away from the main entrance. Someone entered this place and opened fire. I am guessing the blast on the airlock either came from a defender who managed to get a single shot off or, more likely, someone trying to escape who got shot in the back as they ran.”

In her mind’s eye, Lilla tried to picture the scene as an unknown invader entered the outpost with murderous intent, slaughtering unarmed civilians. As they entered the laboratory, Badreau increased the intensity of her scans, guessing this was the chamber that governed the overall purpose of the outpost. For her part, Lilla began to consider the perpetrators of the massacre.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“A rival clan?”

“Perhaps,” Badreau said, her mind obviously elsewhere as she studied her readings. “This is odd…”

“Found something?”

“Not sure. The datapad is reading ‘unidentified’. Some kind of residual emission in this room. It is marked as harmless - though that is relative, of course. Not sure I trust a computer telling me something is harmless when it cannot identify it. Still, I’m not a scientist.”

“No clues then?”

“Well, there may be plenty, but damned if I can tell what they are. With the equipment stripped out, no doubt by the attackers, all I am left with is this energy signature. I am getting readings from the walls, ceiling and floor, and only in this room. We can only presume it’s some sort of leakage or by-product from whatever they were working on. The analysts will make more of it than I can.” She adjusted her array, took a few more readings and then said, “Come on, I think we have all we need. Let’s get out of here.”

“So what do you think hap–“ Lilla’s question was cut off by the simultaneous chimes of their comlinks. She reached down to her belt and activated it. “Lilla, report.”

“Contact, low orbit, approaching fast,” came the reply from the officer on sensor duty.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“Come on,” said Badreau, buckling on her filter mask. They pounded down the corridor and hit the release for the airlock. Not having time to override the system’s standard safety protocols, they spent an impatient half-minute waiting for the air system to cycle. Badreau interrogated the Negotiator’s crew for more information on the contact but, struggling to get a clear reading of a fast-moving object so close to the horizon, they had yet to ascertain its signature. As soon as the airlock’s outer hatch hissed open, Badreau and Lilla sprinted across dusty wasteland toward the ship, its drive whining into full power

Badreau shouted through the ships internal communications system the order to take off as they ran up the boarding ramp, and it began to close even before Lilla left its gridded surface. By the time they entered the bridge, the Negotiator had already left the planet’s surface, and the viewport was full of empty orange sky as they rocketed toward space. Their course was taking them directly away from the contact, and as Badreau took her Captain’s chair, a crewman reported that the signature had been identified.

“Show me,” ordered Badreau, and the holographic display shimmered in front of them once more, this time showing a warship skimming the atmosphere of the planet as it sped toward their position, its livery glinting in the light of the system’s star as it moved out of eclipse. Lilla instantly recognised its distinctive cross-shaped silhouette and wide fins.

“This is not good,” said Badreau. “These ships operate in squadrons, never alone. Scanners ahead, I don’t want to walk into a trap.”

“Contact, two!” came the immediate response. The holographic display changed to a three-dimensional tactical view. Lilla could see their current position above the planet with the first ship closing range behind them. Two more were just clearing the horizon of the planet in front of them.

“Yup, there it is,” nodded Badreau, and Lilla noted how calm her voice was, a trait he knew the captains of these vessels were required to possess. Panic spread quickly on a ship if the captain appeared jumpy.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“High energy turn,” she ordered the helmsmen. “Reverse course, make an oblique pass on the single ship. All power to engines!” She turned her head to Lilla. “Heat up the weapons. If he so much as twitches, take him out.”

Lilla called up a tactical display on her own station, prepping the weapons in the wings and the nose. All displayed green and ready. She paid a brief thought to the maintenance work on the weapons earlier and knew she was in good hands. Now all she had to do was shoot straight if the warship proved hostile.

She was a Jedi after all, and would only fire in self-defence.

“Standby,” said Badreau. “We can’t fight all three so we mustn’t get bogged down by this one. They are nearly as fast as us so let’s not get into a running battle. Lilla – you have discretion to fire only if they provoke us. You’ll only get one salvo at this rate of closure, so make it a good one.”

The range counter on the tactical display rapidly counted down as the ships skimmed the atmosphere toward one another. Through the translucent display in front of the viewport, Lilla caught a speck of a white light low to the horizon, rapidly growing in size and definition. She returned her attention to her own station, aligning the weapons on the target.

All around her, the crew went about their duties with a calm and quiet efficiency. Aside from various alerts emitted by the ship’s computer, the bridge was nearly silent – until shattered by the crew member monitoring the Negotiator’s sensors.

“Energy spike!”

Already reacting before Badreau gave the order to fire, Lilla activated the laser and a thick beam of pulsing green light streamed from the nose of the Negotiator, across space, to make contact with the oncoming ship. Making a mockery of the warship’s armour, the beam sliced cleanly through the top fin and continued downwards to cut through its port weapon batteries. The ship immediately began to list amid a blinding array of secondary explosions that pummelled it further.

At that point, the Negotiator’s helmsmen jerked the ship upwards. The hostile ship was damaged but its weapons not incapacitated, and it tracked the Negotiator and opened fire once in range.

Combining the dodge with an axial spin to throw off the trackers, the helmsmen jinked the Negotiator as energy poured past the ship. One, by luck as much as anything else, found its mark just behind the bridge of the Negotiator, and the force of this blast rolled the ship onto its back and sent some crew on the bridge sprawling.

Fortunately, the shields and armour held, and the Negotiator blasted past the crippled ship as the helmsmen regained control.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Unable to reverse course quickly enough to chase, the first ship was effectively out of the fight, but the other two, using the gravity well of the planet to slingshot themselves into position, continued to chase the Negotiator. Seconds later, a crew member reported that the chasing ships were out of range.

Badreau breathed a sigh of relief. “Scan the area ahead. I don’t want to get caught like that again. Damage report?”

“The shields and armour dissipated most of the energy of the blast,” volunteered a crewman. “Self-repair systems already engaged.”

“Good,” answered Badreau. “Initiate jump engines once we are clear of the gravity well. Open a channel to headquarters when we are in hyperspace. I believe we have a potential diplomatic crisis to report. Oh, and Lilla…”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Good shooting.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Human smugglers cautiously took delivery of the innocuous container carrying the deadly artefact as planned, the abundance of credits received ensuring their curiosity would not get the better of them. Inside the container, electronics clicked automatically, calculating and verifying each jump into hyperspace as the pre-planned route was followed.

Forged documentation followed it around as it headed to the Republic Remnant’s home planet. Incriminating documentation that would provide a simple to follow audit trail – when the time was right.

Nothing suspicious was noted as the container passed through customs along with other, similar containers from the same trader.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“Incoming signal,” reported the crewman on the communications station.

Badreau ordered it to be shown on the main display. She raised her eyebrows as the holographic display shimmered down from the ceiling of the bridge and the image of one of the key members of the whole Republic Remnant appeared.

“Grand Master, how can we help you?”

“Captain Badreau, we have a potential situation.” The Ithorian cut straight to the heart of the conversation.

The Jedi's calm demeanour belied what he was about to tell the Negotiator’s captain, but Badreau knew that members of the Council rarely spoke directly to anyone in the field unless there was a serious problem.

“We have reason to believe that an attack on one of the Republic's planets is imminent.” In the background of the display, an aide whispered something to the Jedi, and he nodded before continuing. “We need you to divert from your current mission and proceed with all speed to our best estimate of where the threat is most likely to materialise.”

“Yes, Grand Master. What are our orders when we arrive?”

“Your work yielded an energy signature we’re now chasing across the galaxy. We’re attempting to track a device of unknown origin, possibly a bomb of some kind, but the bureaucracy I learned to loathe has returned with a vengeance, and they are stalling with the sensor logs we need to confirm where this thing is going. We may have to let them do their own searching, but that could cost valuable time.”

“By the time you reach here, we’ll have your clearance to see the Senator of the planet. Liaise with her and help track this device, reporting to me with any new developments. With any luck, you’ll find this is a false alarm, but we could be dealing with a very powerful weapon and we can’t afford to take chances. I’m sending a file containing everything we know about the device. Any questions?”

“What authority do we have in this matter?”

“Standard protocols only, Captain Badreau. However, I don’t want that device detonating in Republic space. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, I believe I do. Anything else?”

The Jedi sighed. "Just pray our intelligence is wrong. I don’t like where this is going.”

“Agreed. Negotiator out.” The display automatically shimmered back into the ceiling.

“Plot a new course, full speed.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla, standing just behind Badreau’s right shoulder at the weapons station, cleared her throat and asked, “Why divert now, Captain? Why not continue directly to our original mission objective?”

Badreau turned in her seat to face Lilla. “Speed. If this thing is real, then every extra minute may count.” She gave a half-smile.

“Do you think it will be a false alarm?”

She snorted. “I have learned to accept the galaxy at its worst. Prepare for the balloon to go up and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t - a reasonable philosophy.”

Lilla nodded. The Jedi had a similar philosophy – plan for success and then plan for failure. Always plan for success first, but never neglect to consider the worst.

They fell into silence for a few minutes, and Badreau stared ahead at the swirling clouds of hyperspace that coalesced and dissipated in the twinkling of an eye. Distance was very hard to gauge by eye in this otherworldly realm, but even so it was obvious the Negotiator was moving very quickly, virtually eating the distance. A thought occurred to her, and she turned back to Lilla.

“Your records say you were born on Tatooine, is that right?”

Lilla looked up from her station and paused. This was always a tough question to answer succinctly. But they had time on their hands after all. “I was raised on Tatooine – but there are no records of where I was born.”

Badreau raised an eyebrow, that told Lilla she was keen to hear more, if the Jedi was willing to share.

“I was found by the Jawa near the Jundland Wastes. I was maybe three or four years old. I was immediately sold into slavery. I have no recollection of time before Tatooine.” And she had plenty of reasons to want to forget the time between that Jawa encounter and the moment her Master found her.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No need,” said Lilla, her voice soft and calm, indicating she’d taken no offence.

“I ask, as this life means you have no home. The truth is, I have spent more time on board the Negotiator than anywhere else in recent years.” She ran a hand down the arm of her chair. “Still, you could not ask for a more capable home.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“I do not believe there is enough room for two in here,” the technician’s voice echoed. “I have almost finished.”

Once again, Lilla found herself staring up at the work being undertaken. It was interesting work, but her mind was intermittently drifting elsewhere. The young officer had her head and shoulders inside an inspection panel as she worked to detach an operations plate so they could both work on it in the open passageway. Wriggling out, she produced the thirty centimetre-square purple-tinted panel and sat back, cross-legged, so Lilla could see what she was doing. They had spent the morning doing maintenance work on the lasers as promised, but Lilla was not enjoying it as much as she had expected.

Manipulating an oval-shaped diagnostic tracker, the technician glanced up at Lilla. “You have been unusually quiet today. That was the first question you have asked me, and I thought you would be more interested in the task at hand. Might I enquire to the problem?”

Lilla looked into the young officer’s eyes and saw nothing but compassion. “Well…” she started. “It’s not really a problem. Just something that’s been bugging me.”

Not yet starting her diagnostic process, the technician prompted Lilla with a look.

“It’s just something that passed between the Captain and I. We were talking on the bridge, and she asked about my home.”

“Ah.” The officer interrupted. “I presume you did not wish to discuss the matter?”

“Not that. Or maybe a little. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to anyone about it – it’s more that I don’t want to think about it. Given I will never know where I came from, or who my parents were, or why I ended up at where I did – I’d rather not reflect on that aspect of my life. But it’s the first personal question anyone ever asks. Once you get beyond name, and what you do.”

“So I don’t begrudge anyone asking – but I don’t know how to deal with the answer.”

The technician cocked her head. “Start with honesty. You are a Jedi, no? I know a little of the Jedi Code, but if I were to add anything to your teachings, I would encourage you to Honour Yourself. Is your discomfort due to having to repeat an unsatisfactory answer, or the unsatisfactory answer itself.”

“And if you truly wanted to know where you came from, I’m sure advanced DNA profiling could at least give you a planet of origin – or rather your parent’s lineage.”

Lilla sat back. Maybe the young officer was right? Maybe her issue was her denial that her early years meant nothing to her. She resolved to meditate on the subject – to ask the Force to help her find the truth. Aware she was no longer part of the conversation here and now, Lilla’s train of thought was brought back to the job in hand by a strange noise.

The technician clicked her tongue again. “Now you are just distracting us from our task. Attend.” She gestured towards the panel on her lap. “This interfaces with the ship’s self-repair systems, tying them into the laser and allowing it to sustain firing even while operating at less than twenty-percent efficiency.”

Forcing her attention to technical matters, Lilla listened to the description of the inner workings of a weapon capable of shattering the hull of so many ships in service.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Senator Romu spent the morning as she often did; receiving visitors, reading reports from her staff, discussing and formulating policy with her best experts and generally ensuring the galaxy would be in the same shape tomorrow as it was today.

A quiet alarm sounded, indicating a visitor waiting in her secretary’s office next door, and Romu raised a hand to announce she was ready.

Sweeping past the aide who had opened the door for him, the military uniform starchily strode up to her desk and stood quietly until she acknowledged his presence. Tall with a dark moustache, he seemed to be the very archetype of a senior officer, ready to appear on any recruitment poster. Cancelling the report on her screen, she looked up.

“Yes?”

“Madam Senator, a ship has just jumped in system and is on course for landing,” he said.

“This is news?”

“The ship is named the Negotiator and they’ve given your name as relevant to their request to dock at our spaceport.”

“It has been given clearance?”

“Yes. Traffic control is routing it here. We are expecting it to land within half an hour.”

“Make sure the Captain and the Jedi on board are shown to me promptly. Let’s see just what ‘aid’ they can provide for us. You understand?”

“Yes, Madam Senator.”

“How is the search for this so-called bomb progressing?” Romu enquired.

“We do not believe we are a credible target. We’re not even the capital planet. However, the energy signature provided has been fed into our systems, and our top counter-terrorism team is monitoring the process. If it is anywhere on this world, we’ll find it.”

“Keep me informed,” she said, dismissing him with a nod of the head.

“Thank you, Madam Senator.” The officer turned and left as smartly as he had arrived.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Senator Romu was vaguely aware that her aide remained in the office, but that was a distraction she had learned to ignore while she had still been a senator. Get into this level of politics and you are never alone – one of the prices you had to pay to serve your fellow man.

Clean and easy is how it always appeared here in her office. However, Romu had seen the wreckage of the government that was once proud to be called the Republic. She was not prepared to allow history to repeat itself, not on her watch.

The alarm announcing another visitor bleated its subdued tone once more, but both the Senator and her aide were surprised as a high-ranking officer burst into the office, his bald head glistening with sweat.

Romu looked up in amazement – not out of irritation but surprise at a high-ranking officer breaking protocol like this. A slow feeling of dread percolated within her stomach as it dawned on her that no officer would act in this way unless something was very, very wrong.

“We found it,” he said, gasping.

Shocked, it took her a second to respond. “Where?”

“Here.”

“On this planet?”

“No, Madam Senator,” he said, a little steadier now. “It’s here. In this building.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

A jump point shimmered and the vortex briefly coalesced to allow the spearhead form of the Negotiator to enter real-space. With a brief course correction, it aimed straight for the planet’s surface, speeding towards its programmed destination. On board, the bridge crew were aware of the increased “chatter” throughout the system’s communications networks and the elevated level of security that interrogated the transponders of the Negotiator.

“It’s here,” said Badreau. “They’ve found it. Get me Senator Romu, quickly!”

The crew quickly sent out coded requests, negotiating a dozen communications protocols but even so, it took several minutes to receive a reply. Badreau spent the time agonising over the possible targets, and even Lilla felt concern for those in danger.

Eventually, the Negotiator’s main display was activated and, flowing from the ceiling once again, it produced the image of Senator Romu. Badreau immediately noticed her harrowed expression, then realised she was on her feet bent over her own display rather than seated, as would have been normal.

“Badreau,” Romu said, her voice fast and hard.

“Madam Senator,” said Badreau with a tip of her head. “You have found the weapon?”

“Yes, it is here in the Senate building, shipped in as part of a supply run. We have a bomb disposal team working on it now.”

“Have you ordered the evacuation?”

“Already started,” said Romu. “Though it will not be complete in time. Our people have never seen a device like this before, but they have already hacked into the first stage of the fuse. It will detonate in less than twenty minutes.”

Badreau quickly made a mental calculation. “We can be there in ten. Give us clearance to land. Do you know the potential damage yet?”

“No,” Romu shook her head. “We have a shuttle on standby though. Stay clear. We’ll talk again when this is over, one way or another.”

“Madam Senator,” Badreau said before Romu could end the link. “I don’t imagine you will leave until the very last moment, and there is no shuttle or ship at your disposal as fast as this one. I insist, for your own safety, that you allow us to evacuate you and your staff.”

Romu glanced beyond Badreau, apparently listening to someone out of view in her office, and then nodded. “Very well. We will prepare for your arrival.”

The communication ended and Badreau spoke quietly to her helmsmen. “All power to engines. Get us there fast.”