Two days later. September 10th, 2267. 07:00 Daphne’s Room
Elias walked into Daphne’s room. The figure on the bottom bed of the bunk bed pulled the blanket over her head. The top bed was undisturbed, not surprising given that it was Viviana’s bed. She had been displaced from her room the night after the affair became public knowledge.
Daphne was awake but refused to acknowledge her visitor. She knew who it was. Being in bed was preferable for her personal space to be invaded by this man.
“I know you are awake,” Elias said calmly, “Get up, it’s time we have a heart-to-heart.”
“Why?” Daphne spats back from her bed.
“It wasn’t a request, we’re having this long overdue conversation,” Elias said more firmly.
Daphne threw her covers to the side and rolled out of bed. Her hair was a mess. She pulled down her shirt to not expose her midriff then looked at Elias with nothing but sheer contempt. It was as if she stopped caring about outward appearances.
“What did I ever do to garner this much hate from you?” Elias asked, “Before our betrothal you were on track to be sent to the re-education facilities and my family gave you and yours an out. You’ve never once thanked me for sparing you from that fate. Why?”
“I fucking hate you, that’s why. It was never up to my family or yours to determine who I was to marry. It was…” Daphne grits her teeth and stares at Elias.
“It was never your decision, that is not the way of things in our society. Maybe in the future but now, that is not how works. Do you think I was happy that my family didn’t bother trying to get me a partner when I was younger? That they exerted no effort to help me?” Elias asked, “Did you ever wonder why they did so?”
Daphne shook her head.
“I was the family's embarrassment. I didn’t do as well in school as my brother and sister. I wasn’t as physically attractive or as physically gifted as they were. Ironically, look at them both now. My younger sister quit her studies at university because she couldn’t handle the stress. My brother works a menial job with no hope of a future. Yet the black sheep of the family was the only one that became successful,” Elias pounded his chest, “I rose up. I became something. I created a future for myself. No one ever bothered to help me to do that. Not my parents, not my siblings, and not even you.”
“I hated you when I met you the first time. I loathe your existence. You carry that chip on your shoulder with every interaction. It’s repulsive really, but the simple truth is that both of our families failed us. They never supported either one of us in achieving our dreams.”
“No, mine did not. Your family tried so hard with you, but you rejected them at every avenue. You were given so many opportunities to get back on the right path, but you failed at every turn. Every single time you were presented with the option to do the right thing, you chose poorly. It’s surprising but upon reflection, you chose the wrong decision every time it was presented to you,” Elias sighed, “When the mission is completed you will be remanded into the custody of the Civil Education department for a full personality rewrite.”
Daphne’s face contorted with rage before she stepped forward and slapped Elias. He stood and accepted the slap. Elias however, would not accept any more physical abuse from her though. Daphne found that out the hard way when she tried to slap him again, but a punch to the stomach caused her to fall to the floor.
“Touch me again, and I will end your life. I am however merciful, I will allow you to leave the facility, but henceforth you are not allowed to interact with any of our compatriots outside of this facility. You’ll be working with Ellie and helping her out as she sees fit. If she doesn’t have any work for you then you’ll be free to do whatever it is that you want,” Elias said, “Your life will also be forfeit if you do anything to cause this mission to be endangered. You meet your friends outside of here and you will be killed.”
“Your petty threats don’t…”
Elias drew a gun and pointed it right at her head. He flicked the safety off and began squeezing the trigger. She saw the hammer pulling back slightly. It was then that she waived her hands and backed off from Elias.
“I understand.”
“Do you?” Elias asked, “Let me summarize it, if you fail one more time, at anything, then you will die.”
“I’m already dead, so what difference does it make?” Daphne spats back.
Elias holstered the pistol and then grabbed something in his pocket. He knew those conditions would be rejected so he tossed it at her. Daphne was surprised at the action. The little plastic device bounced off her left breast and fell to the floor. She bent over to pick up the now familiar device.
“A credit chit?”
“The choice is up to you, but you can accept exile. If you chose this then you have ten minutes to pack and get the hell out of here,” Elias sounded and looked conflicted, “Despite everything that you’ve done I still love you, or perhaps it’s the ideal of what you represented to me that I still love. If you are smart, you’ll adopt a new identity and hide from our brethren when they arrive.”
“I don’t understand…” Daphne began tearing up.
Elias shook his head, “Even now when a choice is given to you it is something you do not understand. I am giving you a choice my dimwitted dear. My word, you are blind to everything I have done for you.”
“I don’t want to go, I want to be free, don’t you understand?”
“What you want matters little to me. You either need to comply with what is asked of you here, or you can choose your freedom here. You cannot have both.”
Sniffles could be heard from Daphne, she was frozen in place unsure of what to do. The enormity of the situation was finally hitting her. She then turned to look at her room and scanned things. Then she quickly stripped her pajamas off and found some clean clothes. Exile was her choice.
She packed as many clothes as she could into her lone backpack. Her packing job was finished just under Elias’ deadline. Elias then nodded.
“Exile it is. Good luck,” Elias then said, “I won’t lie for you and say that you died. I will say that you absconded from your duties. This way only you will bear the shame, not your family.”
“If I want, will I be able to return…”
Elias interrupted Daphne, “If you take that credit chit and leave, there is no returning to us. And your ban on contacting our people will remain in place. I will hunt you down and kill you if you do interact with us.”
“Well then,” Daphne said as she flicked off Elias, “Fuck off and live a miserable life.”
Daphne brushed past Elias and stormed out of the building. Elias spent the next hour removing all of Daphne’s personal effects from the dorm room. They were unceremoniously thrown away. When he finished all he could wonder was what he had deserved to earn the treatment from her. He also wondered whether or not he had done the right thing allowing her exile.
14:22 Second Floor Living Room
Elias was taking a long break in the afternoon. He was emotionally spent. Virtually everyone had asked questions about the disappearance of Daphne. His throwing away her personal items was a step too far to keep their curiosity in check.
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A meeting was held, and the basics were covered surrounding her departure. She was exiled, specifically declared infamia, which came as no surprise given what everyone knew. Not to mention the new items that were disclosed during the meeting. Her closest friends looked somewhat embarrassed and downright uncomfortable when the full list of her crimes was declared, some of which they were accessories to.
The rest of the morning and through lunch there was a lot of hushed talking around him. Elias was tired of it all. As he was sitting there on the couch, he occasionally picked up the data slate and added a line of text or two to his official report. He was still conflicted if he did the right thing. She was a horrible person, and a worse fiancé, but a part of him still loved her.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Elias said as he looked up at the ceiling.
A moment later he sighed as he switched the screen on his data slate and switched over to the entertainment controls. The large screen flipped on. Elias changed to the news.
“In other news, the anarchic group Sons of Fury, are demanding the release of their patron saint who was recently arrested on suspicion of domestic battery,” the reporter said, “A judge denied bail due to their extensive criminal record. Further compounding things is the individual has been responsible for inciting one right at the local prison and assaulting a guard. Additional charges are expected to be filed after the adjudication of his domestic battery trial.”
Elias shook his head, “Jesus, what a bunch of caged animals.”
Draco then walked in, “Boss, I have some good news.”
“What do you know?”
“All media here is expecting William to win, that isn’t exactly new news,” Draco shrugged, “But William was interviewed this morning, and someone asked if he expects to include Dale in his cabinet.”
Elias nodded.
“William confirmed that he was open too, and likely would add Dale to his cabinet. He also stated that he assumed that he would have Dale be the government czar overseeing the blighted district reclamation project in addition to his cabinet duties.”
Elias leaned forward and rested his chin on his clasped hands, “That’s interesting. Now we don’t know what seat he’ll have, but he’ll have a seat in the government.”
“What’s going to happen if they reset the void forges?”
Elias grinned, “Already done. We got everything we needed produced, now we’re using some of their resources for the construction step. Which in the grand scheme of things less important since those resources are freed up because of how we forced the slip gate materials to be produced.”
“Also have an update on that, the current government has included that project as a high priority for completion for the incoming government,” Draco grinned, “So high in fact that an override control has been made. I’ll spare you the details, but the only way for William to stop it is to call the planetary senate together in a special session.”
“What is the likelihood of that happening?”
“Effectively nil, the last time they did that was shortly after the colony was founded. A special session immediately after the election has not occurred.”
Elias let out a deep sigh of relief, “That is good to hear.”
“Uhm, on another note, what if Daphne messages us or shows up where we are at?” Draco asked cautiously, “I’ll be honest, I’m not going to be surprised a bit if she shows up.”
“You are either to ignore her or to leave if that doesn’t work. She is persona non grata to us now.”
“Understood, thank you.”
Draco nodded and turned to walk up the stairs. He wore an uncertain look on his face. Elias continued to watch the news drone on about this anarchist group. He shrugged that off as this colony had no terroristic events in its history, and the likelihood of that happening in the frontier was unlikely at best.
Eventually, Elias made his way to the third floor and sat down in his office. He worked on some paperwork for an hour or so. To say that he felt listless was an understatement. An incoming call forced him out of that mode.
Elias reached down to press the green accept button to connect the call, “Good afternoon, Dale, how are you?”
A loud sigh could be heard, “My team had a meeting earlier today and I wanted to run by their suggestion to you. I feel it’s only fair given the money you’ve channeled into the campaign.”
“Am I correct in presuming that they recommended shutting the campaign down?” Elias asked.
Dale nodded meekly, “We’re down to thirty-eight percent approval. The possibility of being elected is non-existent. It makes sense to drop out now and put our support behind William. It would also benefit us in getting a cabinet position beyond the czar role he’s floated publicly.”
Elias sighed, “Do it. I know you are disappointed in the result, as are we, but I believe makes the most sense to ensure a cabinet role.”
“I’ll have them release a press release today.”
“When is the deadline to remove your name from the ballot?”
“Last Monday, so too late to do anything related to that,” Dale answered.
“What would happen if you won?”
Dale chuckled, “That is not an outcome that we are even thinking is a relevant possibility.”
Elias smiled, “What if I demanded an answer to that question?”
“I’d accept the governor’s role, likely make William the second strongest individual in my government.”
“That would be an acceptable outcome, though I agree with you regarding its unlikelihood.”
Dale then shifted in his seat, “Do you have any projects that you’d like covered or protected?”
“The only one is the Scientific Research Platform that was approved by the Confederate sub-committee. The outgoing government has already approved it and given it an appropriately high urgency to complete.”
Dale nodded, “Well given that assignment it’s unlikely to adjust the void industrial output any. In any case, I’ll monitor it and ensure the government isn’t doing anything to hold up that important work.”
“Excellent. To be frank, I’m not sure if there’s going to be much need to communicate going forward, but you do have my number. I wish you nothing but the best,” Elias said forcing a smile.
Dale nodded and ended the call. Elias shook his head, then spun his chair to face out his window. A loud sigh was let go by him.
“Of all the candidates we picked, the only one that we could influence with outside money was the most corrupt. Why in the heavens did we think that was appropriate to pick him,” Elias said to himself, “What a pack of idiots we must be.”
Elias ruminated on their fate for the next hour. Silence was his companion in that room. While the sun shined brightly on him, he couldn’t help but think back on all of the pitfalls that befell his team. And where they had made mistakes.
His gut still told him someone, or a group of people, was working against them. Well, at this point he was thinking it was a lone operative. There wasn’t a scenario where a group of people, no matter how small, could have been this quiet. A lone wolf operative, however improbable, seemed the most likely to be working.
Elias nodded to himself, “How has he hidden himself so well?”
He then spun around and logged into his terminal. He quickly pulled up their security systems and typed in a single name. Steven Hart.
“Computer, correlate each known death associated with those under my command and the location of one Steven Hart,” Elias said as he leaned back in his chair.
Moments later a pair of dots was plotted over a map of the colony. He frowned as he tabbed through each pair of dots. Try as he may tie these deaths to Steven, he wasn’t anywhere near the locations where his friends and teammates died. In fact, he hadn’t been in the blighted district even if this information was accurate.
“Fuck,” Elias cursed his luck, “Computer, is it possible for military personnel to not have their movements tracked?”
Elias looked down at the screen to see his answer. Retired military personnel who had aged out of the recall system were tracked no differently than regular citizens. Current duty veterans are not tracked during periods of leave but are when they are on duty. Further digging on Elias’ part uncovered what constituted current duty. Veterans who have been dishonorably discharged are not considered active or on current duty.
Steven was technically either absent without leave or considered to be a fugitive. He was being tracked like normal when in the city. Obviously, when he was outside of city limits there was minimal or no tracking on him. It was another dead end.
“Everywhere I turn I’m met with failure,” Elias said as he held his head and stared at his desk.
Elias then heard a knock at his door.
“Boss, uhm, sorry, but you may want to check the news. Channel one-twenty,” Castor said.
Elias continued to look at his desk, “What’s going on?”
“You want to watch this.”
Elias looked up and switched the tab he was working on. The entertainment console was selected and all three televisions in his room turned on. He switched it to the appropriate channel. Castor had stepped fully into his office at this point.
‘A bomb was detonated in the blighted district near the blocks that are being rebuilt. The anarchist group has accepted responsibility for the blast, which no injuries are reported, and they have said more are to come.’
Elias shook his head, “As if we don’t have enough problems…”
“How do you want to handle this, sir?”
“I’ll send a message, but no leaving here alone and keep your heads on swivels,” Elias said, “We need to be careful, but more than that we need to be smarter than we have been.”
“Understood. I’ll tell the others.”
“And I will send a message to everyone,” Elias said, “If it’s not one thing it’s another.”
“Funny how that works,” Castor said, “I’ll be getting back to work.”
“Castor, I tell you this not as your superior office, I tell you this because I worry about everyone here,” Elias said calmly, “Something or someone is out there working against us. I know this to be true, but I lack the evidence to prove it. This group is only adding to the danger we feel here.”
“I can only speak for myself, but I’ll make sure to watch out for myself and Ellie,” Castor spoke with surprising confidence.
Elias nodded as he watched his door close. He let out a sigh. This group was not a complication they needed. He knew deep down something awful was going to happen. His gut hadn’t been wrong yet, sadly no one besides himself trusted it.
“One member was exiled and no one else is concerned for their safety. How has it come so?”