There is nothing more tedious than reviewing reports.

The scientists are able to synthesize blood at 125% usage rate. A coven would like permission to cultivate a garden for enjoyment purposes. Another has proposed an ocean cleanup project they would like to begin work on.

I shift through the papers, and count out the reports. 506. The backlog of two months of reports is truly astounding, and utterly depressing. I would not wish being an elder on anyone… especially not myself. I set my pen and the reports down on the des, hold my head in my hands and sigh. I need a snack to get through this stack.

Just as I move to stand, the whole room gives a violent shake that pushes me back in my chair. Pictures fall off the walls, books tumble off the shelves, and the furniture slides from one side to the room, before returning almost to where it started from. Red strobe lights start flashing and the alert siren is blaring.

We have a breach.

I stand, brush the wrinkles out of my robes, and move gracefully to the command center in the center of New Eden. There is pandemonium in the halls. Newborns and children running around panicked. Engineering groups with seemingly random supplies all move away from the more protected core of the colony to the outside where the breach is.

Only minutes after the explosion, and I am already in command as the most senior vampire living. "Report" I order as I step into the command center.

"There has been a breach in sector three, room seventeen," a young vampire informs me, "containment has not breached the room. New Eden appears stable."

"If it is stable, then how did we have a breach in the first place," Remus asks as he walks in the room, "Where was the breach?"

I turn to him, "Your coven, room seventeen."

He pales, "room seventeen, are you sure?"

"Yes sir, sector three, room seventeen." the young vampire at the console confirms.

"Who is in room seventeen?" I ask, hoping it is not related to the conversation we had earlier about making sure Alyssa doesn't do anything stupid.

"He goes by Damian now. He was visiting with Alyssa earlier…"

"Tell me Alyssa was not also in that room."

There is furious typing coming from the young vampires at the monitoring consoles. The one who has been looking at the CCTV trying to ascertain the cause of the breach turns to me. "Alyssa was with Damian in his quarters."

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"This was not an accident," Remus whispers horrified.

"It was not," I confirm, "Send an extraction team to bring them home. I want them both executed upon arrival."

"I'm sorry Elder Isis, I'm afraid I can't do that at the moment."

I raise an eyebrow, the young one pales and backs up as much as he can against his console. "It seems we were locked out of the controls when the explosion happened," he squeaks out. "No airlocks are functional at this time."

"Can we open the room that was breached and get out that way?" Remus asks. He always did think outside the box. I turn to the room expectantly.

"Not without risking that whole section we can't." The young one replies, shrinking even further in on himself.

"What do you need to open the airlocks?" I ask.

Another young vampire replies, "It would help if Hesta could get through these firewalls and give us back our controls."

"Where is Hesta?"

The vampires at the consoles start a frantic search for our wayward code breaker. She is, rather unfortunately, stuck in an airlock between two doors that won't open. I send a team with blowtorches to get her out. It could be three days before they are through the inner door to free her and send her this way. Then another six to fix the airlock so it is functional again.

That is a three day head start at least for Alyssa and Damian.

I pull Remus out of the control center. We walk in tense silence to my quarters, I turn to him when my door is closed. "We have to build a team to stop them. The second they have control over the airlocks, we need to send a team to Vulcan's old workshop."

"Do you really think that is necessary? They surely aren't dumb enough to kickstart the war we are hoping to avoid by contacting our space faring brethren, are they?"

"In all my years, I have found one constant. The young ones do that which they should not more often than not. They don't understand the truth of humanity. How violent they are, how bad this could turn. They are full of ill-advised optimistic hope."

"Damian is older than that. He should know better than to bet on humanity." Remus counters.

"Clearly he doesn't. We need to be prepared. If they even approach Vulcan's old laboratory, they need to be taken, dead or alive."

Remus collapses onto my couch and holds his head in his hands. "They had so much promise. I'm sorry, I failed to raise them properly."

I sit gently next to him and place a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry old friend. We have all lost young ones to the stupidity of youth. This is not your fault."

He leans back on the couch looking miserable, "you are right of course. It has been an age since I've lost a young one to this kind of thing. With all of us here in New Eden, I had thought we would be finished killing our own to protect our species."

"As had I." I am too old to hope they will do the right thing and return. "I will call a meeting with the other elders and coven leaders. Tomorrow we build two teams: one to track them, and one to protect Vulcan's old laboratory."

Remus nods before looking me dead in the eye, "I volunteer to lead the tracking team. They are my mistake, I made them and it is my responsibility to unmake them."

I smile softly at him, "Of course. I understand completely." Remus is our best tracker. He will find them, and he will insure the secrets of our race are protected with their eradication. It is only a matter of time.