Mo'Emori typed feverishly on the keyboard of her laptop in one of the empty offices. Dr. Yuma had postponed all of his appointments for the current week so that they could work on the multitude of projects they had. Yuma had spent the majority of the given free time coordinating with a large group of Federation refugees that sought aid in finding a new home within the CoU territories. Many of the civilians were concerned parents with young mage children or even mages themselves seeking asylum. There had been whispers in both the CoU and the Eskarii intelligence forces that the Federation had been pushing hard against all opposition. That meant there were increased conscriptions throughout the Federation galactic territory, supposedly the conscription of every mage that was deemed old enough to be taught including young children. Mo'Emori frowned deeply at the thought, though she had little time to confirm such stories. She hated the idea of children being taken from their parents to be thrown into war and she had no doubt in her mind that the Federation would stoop that low. The Federation had gone to great lengths to suppress all of those they felt below them. It was not even just the Eskarii or the very few Saurian that they came across, but the Federation was known to mistreat Terrans as poorly as her people. Mo’Emori hated the Federation before she truly witnessed their treacherous ways. When first contact was made with the Terrans, it had been on a trading world on the outer fringes of the Cardassia Prime cluster in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. The trading world was Federation occupied and they fired the first shot against her world’s ambassadors. The Eskarii meant no harm to the Terrans, they had their own quarrels with the Saurian at the time without the need to incite more conflict. Yet, the Federation shot first and had not bothered to ask questions later.
To her surprise, a large populace of the Terrans went into an uproar over the Federation’s actions. This had given birth to the Coalition of Unity, the Terrans who saw an opportunity to share friendship among the Eskarii and even strove for peace with the Saurian. The Federation's hostilities had died down and Earth had been opened up to the Eskarii while negotiations were had to open Gelia, the fake Eskarii homeworld, up to the Terrans. Gelia was not so much fake as it was more lush and vibrant than Ecostia, her real home however, before an agreement could be made the Federation turned face on both the Eskarii and the CoU. That was the birth of the war everyone had currently lived and it was all because the Federation felt their superiority deserved the knee rather than the respect of shaken hands.
Mo’Emori shook her head of the memories, all they did was make her miss her special Terran who gave her hope for the Terran species. Morrigan had always been kind to her often doing her best to make her smile, and after releasing from his care, Mr. Yuma had told her how much the young girl loved the Eskarii race. Mo’Emori could see that before being told; Morrigan’s eyes held a great amount of admiration and wonderment whenever she saw her. Mo’Emori loved that about her, and though she was considered the implications of that admiration whenever Morrigan saw her, the young Terran held a special little spot in Mo’Emori’s heart. Now she spent weeks tirelessly searching and digging to find Morrigan’s whereabouts. On top of that, the young Terran’s mother had requested she find Morrigan’s young partner Taylor who had been forced into the service of the Federation as well as her father, who had been arrested in aiding Morrigan as well Mo'Emori’s brother Torvil escape from the city of Denver, labelled a traitor and stripped of all humane rights.
The tasks were exhausting and she was well past her limit as she pushed her fingers to keep typing accurately. Currently Mo’Emori waited on a message from a fellow Eskarii who had been tasked with following Morrigan’s father through the prison system while she shifted through CoU data packets for even the slightest glimpse of Morrigan or Taylor’s locations. Her attention was pulled away by the ding of her laptop. As she watched the download start, she recognized the file name as the one she had been waiting for revolving around James Clarke. Her heart skipped a beat as she watched the progress bar climb past 50 percent before an error message popped up on the screen. Mo’Emori’s yellow eyes widened in frustration and surprise as she slammed her finger into the enter key repeatedly. “No, no, no, no!” she exclaimed.
The error message bode more ill omen than suspected as the system on her laptop seized due to her connection to the CoU database had been severed. “Pah’sk!” she swore as the connection refused to connect. Mo’Emori tried to open the partially downloaded file only to find that the severed connection had corrupted the file entirely. “Goddess damn it!” she shouted as she threw her hand towards her laptop. A burst of kinetic energy blasted the laptop into the far wall of the empty office, shattering the device into oblivion.
The heavy, rushed thump of foot falls echoed closer to her room before the door opened. Dr. Hiroshi Yuma stood in the doorway to find his Eskarii receptionist sitting on the floor in sullen defeat. He spied the shattered laptop across the room and let out an amused chuckle. “I see Ms. Clarke isn’t the only one with an anger issue,” he commented as he leaned against the door frame with his hands in his pockets. Mo’Emori turned to face her boss with a look of embarrassment, her long pointed ears gave a subtle curve downwards in shame. Yuma had made the observation long ago that despite looking nearly human, the Eskarii were certainly aliens, though it can often be easily forgotten once someone spends enough time around them. Aside from invisible genetic differences, the limited articulation of their long ears, vibrant colored irises and often naturally vibrant colored hair had been a simple give away that they were very much different from the human race. “I take it you lost your connection to our database?” he asked.
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Mo'Emori nodded, her expression turning sad and beyond the scope of being tired, “I’m sorry Mr. Yuma. I was about to hopefully discover the location of Mr. Clarke when the download was interrupted which corrupted the data transfer…” she stated as she took an emotional glance at the laptop. “I may have overreacted…” she admittedly bashfully.
Yuma chuckled amusedly, “no, its been a long week so far. The issue we have now is that it seems the Federation has destroyed one of the main communication relays in the middle east.” Mo’Emori’s eyes widened with a sense of despair as she watched her boss take a place next to her. Yuma let out a grunt of relief when he finally sat down. He noticed her look and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t fret child, it will take a good amount of time to adjust the other relays but they will get back up and running. In the meantime we should worry about what we can handle without the network,” he said with practiced wisdom.
The Eskarii frowned, “but I don’t have anything…” The tone in her voice reflected the sense of uselessness as she picked at the undersides of her nails. Dr. Yuma only smiled at that knowing the young alien girl knew better than to think herself useless.
“Why don’t you give your brother a call?” he asked.
Mo’Emori watched him smile out of the corner of her eye as she fidgeted. “Torvil is in Denver, he would be of little help,” she said pointedly, her ears taking an even more subtle downward curve. His gentle chuckle snapped her head up in surprise, confused as to what could be so amusing at such a frustrating time.
“I believe he would be more of a help than you think Mo’Emori. Just trust me on this one.” The smile on his face was the smile of a man who knew something which caused her to frown deeply.
With a disheartened sigh she relented and begrudgingly dragged her purse into her lap, all the while eyeing Dr. Yuma suspiciously, trying to find a tell in the older man’s guarded smile. As she grabbed her phone she grunted in annoyance, “fine. I will call my brawder.” Dr. Yuma merely smiled wider before giving her a respectful bow of his head and stepping out of the office.
As much as she enjoyed working with Dr. Yuma, she also found it quite annoying to work with a legitimate psychologist. Being around each other everyday meant his insight and psychoanalysis skills have evolved enough to pick up on her mental cues as well as being able to find solutions for her despite never actually giving her a straight answer. So, if she knew any better, his insistence for her to call Torvil was much more a benefit to her mental health than to their predicament.
Mo’Emori let out a resigned sigh. She knew she appreciated the doctor’s insight and care, but it also frustrated her that she succumbs to such negative emotions when she was supposed to be one of the best operatives the Eskarii have to offer. Eskarii are naturally a deeply emotional species, but she had spent most of her life training to suppress her emotions much like Torvil and their other siblings, yet there she finds herself as an emotional spitfire as Morrigan was.
The thought of the 19 year old Terran girl brought a small smile to Mo’Emori. At the same time it made her heart hurt as she stared down at the dark screen of her phone. The glass reflected her torn expression back at her; a stray tear slipped out from beneath Mo’Emori’s bright yellow eye.
She wiped her cheek with a sniff as she fought back the immense weight of anxiety that threatened to have her break. “Mr. Yuma is right, I need to speak with my brawder,” she thought to herself. She coughed back more tears as she unlocked her phone and pulled up the number Torvil called her from last, the secret phone of Helen Clarke. Mo’Emori pushed the dial button and wiped her nose as she listened to the dial tone.
ΩΩΩ
Helen tipped back a glass of wine draining the remaining contents into her mouth as the expected knocking noise came from her front door. She had hidden Jen and Torvil in a secret room underneath the stairs in lieu of her expected visit. The room was another idea her husband had come up with in case the world went topsy-turvy. “I don’t know if you knew this would happen James… but damn you for being prepared…” She muttered to herself as she stared into the empty glass.
The polite knocking became rude pounding as Helen took her time answering the door. They expected her to rush to the door like a dog but she had no real reason to do that. Helen let out a heavy breath before rolling the stress out of her shoulders and making her way across the open living room towards the door. As she grabbed the door handle, a fist slammed on the door once more, missing the second time as she swung the door open wide.
There stood three mildly surprised agents of the Federation Intelligence Division as they looked upon the middle aged Helen in a open leg, low cut dress and a look of pure hatred on her face. The lead agent straightened himself as he cleared his throat, “it’s a bit suspicious to keep us waiting Mrs. Clarke.” The tone in his words were more of annoyance than suspicion. However, Helen was in no mood to deal with them.
“Well pardon a lady for needing to take a piss,” she challenged, crossing her arms and cocking her head to the side in obstinately. The agent scrutinized her, reading every inch of her body language that told him that she was not happy and in no mood to be toyed with. He was not happy with the circumstances either for that matter.
With a tired sigh he gestured into the house, “we should just get this over with.” Helen ignored his reproachful attitude and merely shrugged before stepping back through the living room. She let the agents enter the house as she poured herself another glass of wine.
As the three men entered the kitchen she thumbed behind her at her office door while taking a deep drink from her glass. “Right in there,” she stated dismissively. The lead agent nodded silently, stepping around the kitchen island and entering an override code into the security panel next to the door. With fluid motion upon the door unlocking, the other two agents began emptying out her office of any essential and sensitive equipment owned by the Federation.