Six days later. September 6th, 2267. 12:05 New Xenuian Headquarters – Dining Room
Lunch was being served now, and not a moment too soon. It was Elias’ turn to choose and prepare the meal. He opted for the local delicacy, pun very much intended, of spicy chicken wings. Elias made one sauce and used two others, much hotter local sauces, and gave the team choices of how hot or painful their lunch could be.
He was absolutely flummoxed by how quickly the serving tray emptied housing the hottest sauced wings. The sweet and savory sauce that he made, which was quite enjoyable in its own right, was the last to be touched. The few wings that he had that weren’t sauced were greedily taken and dropped into the hottest tray.
“Castor, what’s the most recent poll figures for the election?” Elias asked before biting into a drummy.
“Margin of error has shrunk to three percent. Dale is up to forty-four percent, but William has a comfortable lead at fifty-three percent,” Castor exhaled as he picked up his napkin and wiped his forehead, “Some voters switched back to Dale after the debate of contrition, but most of the former supporters that did bail on him would rather not vote at all than cast a vote for him.”
Viviana then spoke, “The projections think Dale could get another one percent of the vote, but barring a revelation at the thirteenth hour it doesn’t appear there is anything we can do to get the necessary number of voters for him.”
“What did our voter registration drive cost us?”
Draco grinned, “Thankfully we were less successful than we had hoped, it ended up costing us around five million credits with only about one hundred and fifteen thousand voters registered.”
“We polled them too,” Katherina shook he head in disgust, “Sixty-five percent have since switched their votes to William.”
Elias couldn’t help but chortle at that, “What awful timing we had coming up with that plan.”
Ellie then walked into the room with her plate of food and sat down next to Castor at the end of the table, “One of the local television channels interviewed William during their morning show. They asked if he would offer Dale a seat on his cabinet.”
Several shrugs occurred at the table. Elias thought it was a ‘better than nothing’ kind of realization. He finished the drummy that he was working on and looked at Ellie.
“What was his answer?”
“Dale would need to go through the same background check as all cabinet members do, but presuming he passes he’d offer him a position. Immoral behavior, unlike unethical behavior, does not disqualify one from service,” Ellie paused to take a drink of milk before looking down the table at Elias, “He said that it wasn’t within him to hold grudges nor change historical precedents.”
Elias nodded, “So our voice will still end up at the table. That is good.”
“How’s the industrial output going?” Castor asked, “Are we still on track?”
“Better than that in fact,” Elias said with a smile, “Parts are being ferried to the build point in the L2 Lagrange point. Construction should begin next week with the factories wrapping up their side of the process by the end of the month.”
Viviana smiled, “How’d the messaging go?”
Draco finished another hot wing and exhaled loudly, “Great, so great in fact we’ve already sent it. The outgoing government rubber-stamped the approval to begin construction. Kinda helps that the void construction crews were getting paid to do nothing, this means they are getting paid to work now, and the colony will supposedly get made whole when the Senate finishes their tasks.”
Katherina snorted, “They are going to be waiting for a long time for that repayment.”
“Just out of curiosity, what impact to the colony have we made by coopting their industrial sector?” Ellia asked innocently.
“We delayed a long-planned, although previously delayed, space station around the fifth planet. It keeps getting delayed because no one wants to emigrate there to build both the station and the colony on the surface,” Elias said.
“Yeah, it’s rather difficult to convince people to move to an irradiated moon with minimal atmosphere and no chance of being outside without an environmental suit.”
“Why would they want to colonize that world?” Ellie again sounded innocent, “What’s there that’s worth so much effort?”
“The world contains substantial cobalt, titanium, gold, and platinum reserves. Getting people to purchase mineral rights on the world was easy, convincing people to colonize the planet is proving to be quite the endeavor,” Draco said.
“There were also plans for two more space stations, these were directly delayed by our actions, in the outer solar system,” Elias said, “Though those plans will be permanently delayed until our government decides whether or not we need them there or not.”
“Have we thought about contingency plans where we fail?” Castor asked, “Or if the super gate doesn’t work as intended?”
“My understanding is that the military leaders have made contingency plans, which likely would result in delaying the invasion,” Elias said, “Those plans were not shared with me. As for our team, we didn’t think it was possible for us to fail, but in the event, that something happened we would go dark for a year or more or barring the worst-case scenario head home.”
Draco then looked at Elias, “I’m sorry to sound disrespectful, but how have we not looked at those contingencies in our situation.”
“Because the mission was still achievable, despite the loss of life,” Elias said, “If the mission was deemed a failure from the get-go or impossible to achieve then we would have left before spending too much time here. But the simple fact of the matter is this, the mission is ahead of schedule and is likely to succeed without much more intervention on our part.”
Castor grinned, “Does that mean we are going to be free to leave this facility more often?”
“Perhaps, but for now we need to maintain an elevated alert level,” Elias still couldn’t shake his gut feeling, “Whether it feels like this or not, we are in hostile territory.”
The good feelings in the room, little as they may be, were gone as soon as they were formed. Elias’ paranoia about the colony and loss of life kept him at odds with the team. A paranoia not shared by anyone else.
The rest of the lunch was unremarkable. The discussion shifted from work to personal matters and even some joking around. Of course, the topic of being able to go out again came up but was once again shot down by Elias. Eventually, after much complaining, he did allow them to attend a high school football game on Friday.
Once lunch was concluded the group dispersed. Some retired to their rooms to rest before starting their shifts. Elias headed back to his office and continued to dig into the industrial output. He desperately wanted something good to report. What he had kept to himself was a planned call back home with Legatos Sorano.
That call was causing him to lose sleep. Their deep space network usually only allowed text-based messages and instructions to be sent. The tides within slip space were fickle things and getting each beacon to connect with one another was difficult. Communication with the home world would be much improved with the slip gate too, another critical reason for getting it constructed and operational.
The Legatus was extremely interested in their status. Elias was reluctant to give him an update, true the mission was proceeding ahead of schedule, but the loss of life was catastrophic, to Elias. Though by the standards of the Xenuian intelligence community, they were well within expectations. Elias set aside such thoughts and continued to work.
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17:45 Third Floor Office
Elias walked out into the office and looked around. Katherina, Castor, and Alberic were chatting with one another at their desks. None looked busy or interested in being productive. Not that there was much work for them to do because of their cessation of efforts to get Dale elected.
“Where the hell is the subterfuge team? I haven’t seen them in three days,” Elias asked.
“Constantine popped in earlier today, like an hour ago or so. Daphne caught him and suckered him into a shopping trip,” Alberic said.
“Yeah, the others came back in, cleaned up, got a change of clothes, then all left again,” Castor said, “Something about investigating a murder last month.”
“What about this murder?” Elias asked.
“A weird double homicide. Constantine thinks it’s linked to Kaius’ murder, or at least potentially. Supposedly happened around or after his murder,” Katherina said, “The evidence Heva and Aella have uncovered doesn’t make it seem to be linked in any way though.”
“Linus thought they were on a wild goose chase,” Alberic said, “So this may be another case of trying to find connections where they don’t exist.”
“Yeah, kinda like you do with this mystery intelligence agent,” Castor went still as he realized what he had said.
Elias just looked at the junior office and nodded, “You think there isn’t an operation moving against us?”
“Apologies for the disrespectful tone, sir, but with respect,” Castor took in a deep breath, “I don’t blame you for trying to find justification or reasoning behind our peer’s deaths. I totally get it. But it’s a case of the wrong place, wrong time. The Confederacy is anything but a safe place.”
“Which is why we’re here, to kick start the very, very necessary cleansing,” Katherina added, “But I agree with him. We would have found something about an operation. And there’s no way one person could be responsible for all the ills that have happened to us.”
Elias then looked at Alberic, “Do you have an opinion on this?”
Alberic nodded, “Yes, but unlike my peers I’m not dumb enough to share them openly with anyone.”
“Touché,” Elias said chuckling to himself, “Why not share since we’re being open and honest with one another? And I can assure you I will not hold anything against you, or your peers for that matter.”
Alberic sighed as he closed his eyes, “I think keeping us locked in our previous base caused the issues where we lost four people in a single night. I know I was there, but if we could have gone out from time to time, I would not have gone to a nightclub that evening.”
“So, it’s my fault then?”
“Your home confinement order pushed us over the ledge. Bad or questionable suggestions became quite appealing,” Alberic cleared his throat, “I mentioned to Kaius that I believed your order to be unlawful and that it was doing more harm than good. While he agreed he wasn’t keen on pushing the subject.”
“I had a duty to protect…”
Alberic interrupted Elias, “Not to the degree you went. And you didn’t have any evidence that we were actually being attacked. The confinement for the first couple days after the first deaths were reasonable, after that though,” Alberic paused, “It was wrong, and you were wrong for doing that. I don’t believe our leaders will discipline you, because most would likely do the same thing you did. In fact, I’d probably do the same thing.”
“A fair and nuanced take. For the record, the last message I got was a response to my report on that night. Our senior leaders agreed with you in part that the home confinement was in place for too long. But they also couldn’t ignore the reasons for doing so, and while our operational guideless say otherwise, the operation’s leader can extend beyond the recommendations.”
“With respect again,” Alberic said, “You didn’t just extend them, you said no one was leaving and ignored anything and everything to do with leaving. Your paranoia fed that belief. I understand why you did what you did, but I don’t agree with it. And I don’t agree with our senior leaders not holding you accountable for your actions.”
“Well said, but I hope that in the future when you are sitting in my chair you remember this mission and gain wisdom from the actions we’ve taken here.”
Alberic nodded, “It will most definitely have been a learning experience in many ways.”
“Well, why don’t you all end your shifts early? I am not sure any more work can be done at this point,” Elias said.
“Yay,” Castor said sarcastically.
“Dinners in an hour,” Katherina said, “I am going to see what Draco is up to.
23:15 Second Floor – Living Room
The group was up late watching a movie on the local movie channel. It was objectively bad and they understood precious little of the humor, but they couldn’t turn it off. Linus equated the movie to watching a maglev crash in slow motion.
It was then that Elias realized that Daphne wasn’t in the room. Draco and Katherina weren’t either, but those two opted to watch a movie together in the small recreational space on the first floor. Linus, Aella, and Heva came home two hours ago and immediately crashed into their rooms. What was going on?
Elias then stood up and made for the bathroom at the end of the hallway. He shook his head as he thought he was overreacting. After using the bathroom Elias stopped at the wall terminal keyed in his access command and checked the security system.
“Where is everyone?” Elias said quietly to himself.
The first floor showed Draco and Katherina where they should be. Ellie was downstairs in the kitchen on a snack run for the group. Constantine’s team were in their quarters, presumably sound asleep, on the third floor. Elias saw everyone else on the second floor. But there were two dots on the roof.
“Why…” Elias stopped his sentence when he realized what was happening.
He calmly logged out of the screen walked down the hallway and took a right to go up the stairs. Once on the third floor he turned and headed straight for his room. His walking pace sped up with every step, as did his heart rate. Elias was desperately hoping his presumption was wrong.
But if he wasn’t? What then?
Once in his room, he walked over to the wall safe and hastily opened it. He pulled out his sidearm and a spare magazine. Elias slammed the magazine in and racked the slide. To his right was another terminal, he logged into that and went to the security screen. If he was wrong, he’d apologize to Constantine, but if he was right, then he wanted to neuter Constantine’s ability to react to him. With a couple of quick commands, he locked the firing pin on all firearms used by the Xenuians in this world, except the gun he was holding in his own hand.
Elias hurriedly walked out of his room and walked down the other hallway towards the roof access. He slowly walked up the stairs as he held the pistol in front of him at the ready. Once he got to the door to the roof, he slowly pushed it open so he could barely see a crack between the door and frame. But the angle he was looking for wasn’t where it was on the roof.
He slowly opened the door and slipped out silently. Neither Constantine nor Daphne heard him open the door, they were too busy focusing on the carnal pleasures of the flesh. Constantine never noticed Elias, but Daphne did while her paramour was mid-thrust.
“OH MY GOD!” Daphne said.
“Yeah, I bet you like that you slut,” Constantine grinned back in her ear before hearing a family sound.
Elias flicked the safety of his pistol off. The sights were set square on his back. Rage built within Elias, a rage he had never felt before. At the supreme betrayal of his one-time fiancé and peer and de facto second-in-command. He felt a bloodlust that cried out for murder this evening.
“Whore, I expect you in your room in two minutes. If you aren’t, then I will be executing you in front of your friends. You will not leave your room until I figure out what to do with you,” Elias said through gritted teeth, “Prefect, if you so much as flinch I am putting you down like the rabid dog that you are.”
Daphne pushed Constantine off of her hastily pulled up her garments and ran towards the door. Constantine stood there, with his bare ass pointed at Elias, with his hands up. He chuckled before he spoke.
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
“I thought you to be more intelligent than that.”
Constantine then pulled up his pants, but as he was pulling them up, he drew his gun and spun around. He pointed the gun at Elias and grinned. He flicked the safety off and tried to fire. The hammer fell on the gun, but to his shock and horror, the round didn’t fire. His eyes grew wide when he realized what had happened.
“I disabled every gun we have except this one. Toss the gun to the floor and pull up your pants you degenerate asshole,” Elias spat out, “I don’t want your dick pointing at me.”
“Look, I can explain…”
“There is nothing to explain Prefect Cento,” Elias said in a disturbingly calm manner, “You cheated on your wife with someone within your chain of command. She thought to use you and your connections to avoid reeducation back home. Oddly enough, you just booked yourself a trip to that. Assuming of course I don’t kill you right here and now.”
“You aren’t a murderer; you aren’t like what we’ve been trained to do. You are a soldier, soldiers don’t kill in cold blood.”
Elias could literally feel the anger and hatred grow within his body, “You know so very little of me. Like so many others you thought I was beneath you because of my lack of social stature within our society. I know not why my family rejected me, but I will make it my life’s work to sully your formerly good name to all. I will destroy your family because of your actions here.”
In the moon’s glow, Constantine could see Elias tense up. He was moments away from ending his life. There was but one chance to survive this night.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done it, but I can make things right. You don’t have…”
Constantine’s eyes bulged as he felt paint spread everywhere. It was a pain he had never felt before. He fell to his knees and instinctively grasped at his chest. Then he heard the distinct crackle of a large caliber rifle being fired. When he looked down the pain morphed into shock. He was looking at an exit wound, but Elias was in front of him.
Elias was equally shocked at what had just happened. But he ran back to the door. He flicked the safety on the pistol back on as he ran. Once he got inside, he slammed the red security button sending the facility into a lockdown of sorts.
Elias watched the now lifeless corpse before the door closed in front of him, “I don’t know who murdered you, but I must thank them for doing my dirty business. Constantine, mark my words, I will let everyone know what you did. Everything you built up will come crashing down. Rest in hell you sonofabitch!”