Abduction!

[lizor]

Jolynn "Lyzor" Moscardelli never knew what hit her. She was returning to her Jobe Luxury Apartment that she shared with Perin, in Jobe Plaza after another fruitless day of searching for the very rare symbiants she hunted so desperately. One moment she was placing her access card in the door lock, the next was totally black.

Jennifer had always warned her against getting an apartment in such a remote area of Jobe, and had advised her staying closer to the main line of traffic in Jobe Market, but Jolynn liked having some seclusion in her life. After all, she spent most of her waking hour’s right alongside the fighters and warriors of Rubi-Ka, healing, working and keeping them alive in skirmish after skirmish. Why would living a little bit apart to have some time alone be such a bad thing?

As she would soon find out, situations just like the one she had just stumbled into were the reason.

Jennifer “Lizor” McCovery stood in the expanse of her bedroom in her luxury apartment. The placement of the bed allowed her to stand completely behind it, and stare out over the fog covered void in front of her. She could clearly see the denizens of Jobe enter and leave the Shadowlands, through the portal created by the Jobe scientists, knowing that as squads entered the fray against the encroaching Hecklers, other squads were retiring from the fight. She absently reached her left hand under her Knight’s helm and twirled a strand of hair her fingers found. How long did she normally stand there, trying to sort out her feelings, working through the many thoughts and plans for the future she typically debated?

‘Why do I stand here day after day? I stare at the same spot in the fog, dreaming of a time when all the Jobe islands were whole and complete and what does it accomplish? Absolutely nothing. So why do I do it? I need to move forward, I need to get moving, I need…’ she sighed as she paused in her thoughts. “I need to do something about the Dust Brigade attacks,” she said out loud to no one in particular. The tall red-headed Enforcer, veteran of many battles and encounters, felt weary.

She had already spent a considerable sum of her accumulated wealth tracking down information, no matter how sketchy or irrelevant it seemed, on the movements and possible financial backing of that elusive group. Just as many others had surmised, it was as if they simply vanished into the very ground after each attack, but at least she had a location that the others didn’t know about.

What really disturbed her was the rumor and tiny tidbit she had located in a remote cave in the Perpetual Wastelands linking the Dust Brigade and the mostly recent alien invasion together. ‘This is disturbing in and of itself. If the DB and aliens are somehow working together that would mean they are aware of the incoming Vanguard fleets and have already prepared for them. The recent developments in Omni-Tek corporation are unsettling by themselves: Ross shot and in a coma, and Tarkhan Zora being announced as the new CEO here on Rubi-Ka,’ Jennifer sighed again, ‘None of this adds up to make any sense. The additional Unicorn Company troops have helped OT keep their cities free from aliens, but the Dust Brigade still hits their cities…’

Her thoughts were interrupted by the tiny buzzing jingle of her wrist comm. She unwound her fingers from her hair, and lifted her right wrist up to her face, flipping open the device and hitting the flashing private channel button. Perin “Anim” Waynolt’s face flickered to life on the small screen, and she spoke directly to Perin, “Hello Perin. This is highly unusual. You don’t typically contact me. What can I do for you?”

Perin was Jolynn’s girlfriend, and very significant other as she recalled. She snorted a moment at that thought, remembering exactly how much Jolynn gushes about Perin, and her absolutely intense feelings for this strange nanomage woman. She had to quickly block the flood of memories of the young Opifex doctor’s voice as she waited for Perin’s reply.

“Umm,” Perin obviously looked unsettled, and to Jennifer’s eye either worried or nervous, “Have you… I mean, did Jolynn contact you recently?” Perin pushed her glasses further up on her face, hiding her eyes. Jennifer still wasn’t used to not knowing the color of Perin’s eyes.

“No. I can’t say that I have. It’s been about three or four days since I’ve talked to her. That’s not unusual for us, though it’s normally only a day or so. Why? Have you given her my latest package?” Jennifer asked.

“I haven’t seen Jolynn in more than two days. And I haven’t talked to her in even longer,” Perin’s voice was strained, that much Jennifer could tell. “So, to answer you: No, I haven’t delivered your latest gift yet. How could I when I haven’t seen her to give it to her?” Perin seemed to snap.

That last statement made Jennifer pause for a moment. “Okay, wait a minute. Are you telling me that you and Jolynn haven’t spoken in over two days when you two are normally joined at the hip, completely inseparable?”

“Yes,” was Perin’s curt reply. “Please. Please, can you help me find her?”

Jennifer’s heart dropped when she heard the yes. She knew how close Jolynn and Perin were, and to hear Perin say she hadn’t heard *anything* did not make her feel any better. “Of course. Yes, yes I’ll help you find her. Now I want to find her, and if she’s just been out of contact I’ll make sure to give her a thorough tongue lashing for not keeping in better touch,” Jennifer purposely left off the words “…with you.” She didn’t know why, but it almost felt as if they were already unspoken.

“Thank you, Jennifer. It’s such a relief to me, now that I’ve told you,” Perin visibly sighed. “I don’t know why, but I have had a really bad feeling about this. Just so you don’t run around in circles, everyone she and I both know haven’t seen or heard from her lately either,” Perin offered. “She and I were last together in Penumbra West, at the Incarnator. We were trying to get her a couple of symbiants, and myself too. She headed back to the apartment in Jobe once we were done.”

Jennifer nodded to her wrist, directly in Perin’s direction. “Okay, thanks. That’s something to go on then. At least from my end. I’ll let you know what I find out, when I find out anything,” she said this last very emphatically. She was not about to let someone she loved as much as Jolynn vanish off the face of the planet without knowing why the hell she vanished! “I’ll contact you as soon as I know anything.”

“Thank you again for all this, and thank you in advance for the help. I… I just want to know she’s okay. I need to know she’s okay,” Perin definitely sounded worried now.

“Perin. Relax. I got this now. You’ve done all you can, so now it’s my turn,” Jennifer switched her wrist comm off, and flipped the cover closed. Quickly, she spun on her heel and walked away from the window, her thoughts totally forgotten. She crossed the room and sat down at the larger terminal she had put together for compiling all the information about the Dust Brigade, the various screens blank in front of her, hiding her work from any possible prying eyes. She unsnapped the comm from around her wrist, and placed it in the cradle she had gotten devised for it.

“Communication for Delisa Age,” she barked at the main monitor directly in front of her. It quickly brightened and showed the flashing symbol for an outgoing transmission. Within moments, the face of Delisa “Liezor” Age appeared and if it was at all possible, the young bureaucrat she had “rescued” from Omni-Tek seemed surprised by her call.

“Yes President Lizor? You require my services or do you require the information gathered to date?” Delisa had made it a habit to call her that, from the days when she ran the clan Vitae Covente. Even though those days were long behind them both, it was a habit she could not seem to get Delisa to break.

“Both Lisa. Jolynn seems to have gone missing. Perin’s worried and now I am too. Last known whereabouts are between Penumbra West and her luxury apartment in Plaza,” Jennifer repeated the information Perin had provided to her, knowing that any embellishments would just confuse Delisa.

“Actually, Madame President I was preparing to connect to your communication system when you initially contacted me. I already have information concerning the misplacement of Jolynn Moscardelli.”

‘So that’s why Lisa’s left eyebrow was 1/8th of an inch arched. Okay, I surprised her.’ Jennifer thought to herself, “Oooookaaaay… What do you have Delisa?”

“I have a copy of the surveillance cameras that occupy Jobe Plaza, along with the name of the technician assigned to that particular time and day, and the name of a passing nano-technician who may have some information as well,” Delisa curtly recited.

“So patch over the video feed already,” Jennifer did not like the sound of this. Her patience ended with an almost audible snap. She impatiently drummed her fingers on the countertop while Delisa sent her the data. Three of the screens hummed to life, as she started watching the events unfold in front of her. With her usual brisk efficiency, Lisa had cut hours of useless video down to just three minutes of important facts. Jennifer watched helplessly as Jolynn came strolling up the ramp from the Market area, stopped and chatted merrily with the passing technician, and then literally skipped over to the door of her apartment complex. Jolynn reached calmly around her side for the access card, and Jennifer saw it in her hands. Jennifer started clenching her hands in anticipation, hoping that Jolynn made it inside her apartment, hoping that whatever happened to her would be inside that door and not outside when the pictures of all the cameras started to get fuzzy and a little bit staticy. She saw that Jolynn never made it inside, but froze in place for a moment and then in a blink, she was gone.

“Is that sufficient information for you, Madame President?” Delisa’s voice broke through her shock.

Jennifer didn’t realize she was crying or that she had bent the arms of her chair until Delisa repeated herself again, growing slightly louder in volume each time she asked again. She shook her head, and turned her eyes away from the automatically replaying pictures. “Yes,” she whispered, “that is very sufficient… what was… do we know why the video starts to cut out yet?”

“It starts to cut out due to a passing vessel coming within range, Miss President. The engines or perhaps the technology of the spacecraft itself caused a temporary disturbance in the area,” Delisa answered.

“Spacecraft? You mean, an actual ship that can enter and leave the atmosphere was nearby?” Jennifer started to compose herself. She sadly looked at the damaged arms of her chair.

“Yes Ma’am. The technician we witnessed Jolynn speaking to reported that information in his log. He marked it as an ‘unusual occurrence’, and left many of the details out. Extremely inefficient way of reporting an incident, which I would never allow to happen should that employee report to me,” Delisa had such a way with details, that the 15 extra pages of information never seemed to fully accommodate the actual report. “I will be writing a full report for you, and I should be complete with my initial findings within the next 3.3 hours.”

Jennifer ignored the offer of a report, knowing that to tell Lisa it wasn’t needed would simply be a waste of her time. “Good. Looks like we have something to go on, and I have a technician to interview. What was his name?” Jennifer asked.

“Walter Brink, President Lizor. He is currently residing in Borealis #5, third complex,” the bureaucrat spoke swiftly. It seems that Jolynn’s disappearance did indeed affect the normally emotionless nanomage. “Presi… Jennifer, ma’am?”

Jennifer blinked for a minute as the typical speech of Delisa was markedly changed. “Yes, Lisa?”

“I would like to request to be present during any planned or future rescue attempt,” Delisa resumed her normal straight forward way of talking, “Please.”

“Granted,” Jennifer beamed at her friend. Yes, she was right Delisa did take this personally. “I would gladly have you at my side when we kick the teeth in of whoever has done this.”

“Thank you Madame President. I am ever ready,” Delisa replied.

“You’re welcome, Lisa. Do your usual thorough job on this. I want every last shred of information, knowledge, and factoid you can get your hands on. I want the name and serial number of that spacecraft too,” Jennifer sighed and stopped speaking for a moment. “Never mind all that. You’re too efficient to have me babbling instructions to you. I know you will find out everything that can be found out.”

“Yes Ma’am. Was there anything else you needed at the present moment?” she asked.

“No. Get on this now. Top Priority Alpha Seven. Contact…,” Jennifer paused as she thought through this next statement and decided it was needed, “Contact Kerrigan. Assemble the team Delisa. This is going to get ugly fast. I can just feel it.”

“As you command, President Lizor,” Delisa said as she disconnected the transmission.

Jennifer stood up from her battered seat, snapped her comm back on her wrist and headed towards the Grid terminal that came standard in these apartments. ‘Walter Brink. You and I have an appointment, and I haven’t even knocked yet.’ She pressed two buttons, one on her belt and the other on her left wrist and started the Augmentation Protocols as the nano-bots inside her whirred to life. She pressed her palm flat on the Grid terminal, and faded into digitization. Her destination: Borealis Backyard #5.

[lizor]

Jolynn opened her eyes to see… nothing. It was totally and completely pitch black. She couldn’t even tell if she was standing, sitting or laying down. She smelled nothing, felt nothing but she could hear... breathing? A slow rhythmic sound reached her ears and it was hard to tell where it was coming from. “Hello? Who’s there?” she spoke to the air boldly.

Wracking, throbbing all-encompassing pain shooting throughout her entire body was the near instant answer she received. Jolynn felt like she was on fire and being electrocuted at the same time. The pain lasted for a long time, but when she regained functionality Jolynn figured it had to have been less than a minute.

“Answers none. Questions us. You speak. We listen,” a very strange voice spoke. She couldn’t quite tell if she was hearing the words or feeling them or even having them echo directly in her brain. The breathing sound continued near her, and she tried turning her head to see what direction it was coming from. It seemed to sound closer when she turned to the left, so she kept her head in that direction.

“Understanding, you?” the voice seemed to ask her a direct question.

“No. I don’t understand. Where am I? Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?” Jolynn asked the questions quickly, hoping to get at least one of them answered. Within seconds of speaking, the fiery-electrical pain shot through her again and she screamed. Long moments passed again before it ended.

“Understanding, you?” she was asked again.

“Yes,” she panted, not wanting a return of that pain. She had been through many fights and battles but nothing equaled the sheer ferocity of that pain. “Yes, I understand. You… you want to ask me questions, and I answer them. Right?”

“Understanding,” was the only reply she got. The breathing sounded further away, and was replaced by something else. Footsteps? Jolynn couldn’t be sure, but a voice broke the silence and a single light lit a small area at her feet.

“You will have to excuse my friend. A bit over eager to cause pain and force the subjects to succumb. The subject in this case being you, of course,” this was a different voice, a male voice and not too deep in pitch.

“Yes, of course. I gathered that much,” Jolynn replied. With the single light, she was able to see that she was neither sitting, nor standing but was lying down. If you could call her current position lying that is. She was nearly three feet off the ground, and had no visible means of support. No wires, no ropes, nothing that she could see keeping gravity from working.

“Good. You catch on quick. It’s that quick wit we are hoping to utilize. Now, I know you probably have a lot of questions you would like answered. I’m here to tell you, that none of them are so save your breath. You will remain alive and pain free, as long as you tell us what we need to know. Have I made myself clear?” he spoke slowly, authoritatively, almost as if he never had to repeat himself and everyone was inferior to him.

“Not really. Could you go over the part where I get all of my questions answered again please? I seemed to have missed that part,” Jolynn quipped.

“No. It seems as if the first two lessons weren’t learned very well. Third time should be the…charm,” he spoke firmly and only paused on the word charm for a second. Jolynn filed this tidbit away, just before she was consumed by the absolute pain again. Her screams echoed in the room for long minutes even after the pain stopped.

When she was able to focus and control her eyes again, she looked down to her feet where the light shone. The man had stepped closer to it, and she could see him shifting and shuffling in place.

“Are you back with us?” he asked.

Out of breath, she replied, “I’m here you bastard. What do you want?”

He must have smiled because his voice changed subtly, “Good. Still feisty as ever I see, but you won’t keep that for very long. We just want some information, easy enough to give to us and then we’ll be on our way. Your fate though is much worse. Oh, I could let you keep some hope of escaping, of making it back home to see your friends and loved ones but I prefer to break my prisoners completely,” He stopped smiling and continued talking, “You are to be executed and dumped where no one will ever find you. The only control you have at this point in time is the nature of the execution. I haven’t fully figured out what your choices are going to be but I have chosen the categories: Quick and mostly painless, very excruciating and long or slow and painful.”

Jolynn stared at the lit area, and noticed she was seeing part of the man in the light. Left arm, left hand, hip and the top half of his thigh were well-lit, completely covered with a blue cloth that had white trim, and he liked to talk with his hands or at least with his left hand. She couldn’t even begin to guess what his right hand was doing or its placement. She saw him turn his left hand over, palm upward and his fingers curled inward like he was inspecting his fingernails.

“Which of those categories are left for you to choose from will depend entirely on the amount of cooperation you provide to us,’ He continued during her inspection of the man, “Who knows? I may even allow two of those categories to stay and give you a choice within them.” He seemed to shrug because his hand moved up and down in what could be interpreted as that motion. “So, let us see… You only know you have been taken away by us but you don’t know who we are. You probably aren’t aware of how long you have been unconscious and in our possession, and you definitely don’t know what our purpose is. All good things for us,” he started to laugh, “but very bad for you.”

Jolynn hated being toyed with, and having her emotions played with, “ENOUGH! Tell me what you want to know, ask me your questions so I can tell you to take a flying fecking leap and you can try to kill me already!” Jolynn yelled. “Whatever you want to know, whatever your purpose is here I’m not going to be a part of it. So FECK OFF!” she continued.

“Wow. That was almost impressive,” he sarcastically commented, “Just shows me how much,” he paused, “work I still have in front of me. Might as well get to it.” He turned so that the light was no longer shining on the left side of his body. “Since I’m such a forgiving soul, I’ll give you this tiny bit of information: We have had you in our possession for nearly a week now. It took some doing to go undetected but the surrounding alien armada provided us some much needed cover. While we were floating around Rubi-Ka like so much space garbage, the rest of us were able to locate and kill all of your friends, your loved ones and especially your girlfriend. I wanted to do her personally but I had you to focus on so that pleasure went to another.”

Jolynn thought she heard the footsteps again, like they were receding but the total lack of sound made it extremely difficult to tell. When he spoke again, the placement of the voice had not changed.

“Start thinking about the Dust Brigade, Miss Jolynn. That is the information we are going to be asking you about,” he calmly stated, “but not yet. For now, I will leave you to your own devices and to enjoy the ambience of your surroundings.” The single lamp then turned off and Jolynn was back in total darkness.

For the first time, in a long time, her heart was gripped with an icy coldness. She recognized this feeling. It was fear. The tears started to stream out of the corners of her eyes uncontrollably as the fear started to consume her. Just before the sobs completely took over, she was able to croak out one word in a soft whisper, “Perin.”

[lizor]

His gaze went spotty for a moment, flashing lights of pain blinding him temporarily as he hit the wall behind him very hard and crumpled down to the floor. He barely had the presence of mind to reach onto his belt and get out a first aid stim and inject his left shoulder with the healing pain-killer. He never imagined he would ever have been attacked or physically hurt in his own office. The corporation didn’t warn him about that possibility when he accepted this position. He whimpered to the woman towering over him, his left arm firmly held in her hands, “Please. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t hurt me anymore. I’ll tell you anything. I’ll give you anything…” he broke into tears as he pleaded.

Jennifer snarled at the Omni-Tek employee behind her helmet, flipping the man’s arm over and gripping it by the bicep. “Good. That’s what I wanted to hear. We are hear to get information from you. You are going to remain conscious as long as you provide that information. Do I make myself clear?” She had been motioning to the man with his own arm, the hand limply flapping as emphasis of her words.

“Perfectly,” he replied as he nodded. “But…but you have to know that most of the information I have is considered classified Omni-Tek knowledge and I can’t just let you into the files.”

Like lighting, Kerrigan “Lyetzor” Sabrewings lashed forward and pinned the man to the wall with her Die Nadel. She hissed into his face, “Wrong answer.”

“Kerri,” Jennifer spoke firmly.

With a snarl, Kerri removed her piercing weapon from his right collarbone and moved back to stand beside her friend.

A sliding click to her right made Jennifer turn her head. “I could just blow his head to mist, and then hack what we need,” Kali “Kaliach” Somani stated calmly.

“No Kali. That’s too much of a risk to take,” Jennifer shook her head. “While he goes off to reclaim, the sensors in the building will have detected that and we may not have enough time before two squads of Omni guards are busting in here. We *need* that information first. Pink mist his head later.”

Kali sighed and lowered her sub-machine gun. “If this wasn’t for Jolynn, I really wouldn’t care one way or the other. I can grid us out before any of those guards get off a shot.”

Jennifer turned back to the man, slumped on the floor and spoke, “As you can see you staying alive and in one piece is not a priority to any of us. We are all very tired, cranky and ready to find our friend. So here’s what we want you to do: Stand up, sit down at that terminal and track down all references to the spacecraft that broke Jobe airspace last week. I have a digi-pad with all the information I’ve collected on the incident so far that you can have,” she motioned to the small device attached to her belt. “Are you ready to cooperate, or do I have to take off any more appendages?” she waved the man’s arm in front of his face to poignantly make her point.

“Is…is that all you want? Just find that ship and you’ll go away? And you’ll give me my arm back?” the man asked a bit boldly.

“We don’t have time for this,” Kali sighed, raising her Kyr’Ozch’s and lining the laser sight between his eyes. “I can just hack the terminal and get the information we want in less time than this is taking.”

“Kali. You fried the last three remote terminals you tried to hack. This is the last one, and the only one with direct access to the data we are looking for,” Jennifer reminded her friend.

Kali pouted, and replied, “I wasn’t buffed when I tried those… but FINE! We’ll do it your way.”

“Good,” Jennifer turned back to the Omni-Tek employee. “Yes, you give me everything I need to find this ship and I’ll give you your arm back. Here’s the digi-pad I promised.” She unclipped the item from her belt and offered it in her left hand, all while holding the man’s arm in her right.

He stood shakily to his feet, and took the digi-pad from Jennifer. She reached her arm around his waist and helped to steady him, knowing exactly how painful having a limb ripped from its socket feels. She helped him sit at the terminal and laid his arm behind her on the desk.

“Okay, here’s what we have so far…” Jennifer started.

Kali crossed her arms, and leaned her back against the wall keeping a trained eye on the only door to the room, while Kerri simply kneeled in place with a hiss and closed her eyes, dropping into a meditative state. ‘Let this be what we need to rescue Jolynn. Jennifer is more on edge than I have ever seen her before’ Kali thought. She glanced over at her long time friend, a few memories of their exploits flashing through her mind. ‘Yes, finding Jolynn is definitely all that’s important right now’

[lizor]

The echoes of her pain were quickly swallowed in the darkness around her. Time had no meaning to her anymore. Only the nothing punctuated by periods of the torturous electrical fire they seared through her body, and the endless droning of questions.

After the man left the first time, Jolynn had taken the time to explore around her. She already knew she had not been struck blind because she had seen him. She was suspended in mid-air, with some sort of anti-gravity device but she wasn’t free floating since she couldn’t actually move. She surmised that it must have been some kind of stasis field instead. There was nothing around her to touch, except for herself. The air was completely devoid of any moisture or humidity and remained the exact same temperature around her. She felt absolutely no drafts, or even the slightest change especially since every nerve ending in her body screamed out for feedback. She only heard herself speak because of the vibrations in her skull, but otherwise there was no sound to hear. She was experiencing sensory deprivation.

Jolynn had done some research into torture, after being rescued by Jennifer from the Omni-Pol prison so long ago. Their techniques were a lot more brutish, with two of the OP officers playing the “good” cop, while 4 others played “bad” cop and physically abused her. Her crime: she had accidentally healed Jennifer, during a practice session while learning how to control the nano-bots her body was filled with while Jennifer ran through Omni-1, being chased and hunted down by Omni-Pol, of course.

She had been glad that Omni-Pol had not utilized any of the torture devices she had read about from Old Earth. That rack and being stretched until your joints popped out did not sound too appealing. Old Earth was actually very brutal, and at times while reading the history she was amazed that humanity had ever survived itself. She hadn’t become an expert on torture, but had simply wanted to have a better understanding. Jolynn didn’t know a lot about sensory deprivation but knew that it would eventually drive the subject insane and completely remove all traces of personality, leaving behind nothing but memories and information with a shell able to freely answer. She had read about one person able to survive the ordeal for 5 weeks, but the report was sketchy and only partly mentioned they had channeled their energy inward.

‘Inward. Okay, so that person must have tried to shut off all their senses and not worried about what they couldn’t feel. What can I do? What do I think about?’ Jolynn thought to herself. Her crying had stopped a couple hours before as she had worked through the fear that had gripped her. She had gone through a range of emotions, each one heightened by only being felt within her body. At least she was able to touch herself, which did provide some sensation but since she couldn’t sit up to get down any lower it wasn’t going to be much help and she didn’t dare move too much in case she was being constantly monitored. Jolynn broke out into a big smile, which she hoped confused her captors. ‘Yeah, figure that one out fecktards. I’m smiling as you’re torturing me.’

Her thoughts turned toward the one most important thing that she had in her life: Perin. She completely rejected the idea that all of her friends were dead. There was no way they could have gotten both her and Jennifer. None. ‘No, they are all still alive and well. It’s a common psychological trick: Break the subject by attempting to remove all hope from them. They are all alive and well,’ she thought to herself. ‘Especially Perin.’

Her smile remained as her mind turned to the first time she had approached Perin.

It had been a cool evening, and her stomach fluttered with utter nervousness. She stood on the roof of Reet’s Retreat, waiting for Perin to arrive. She had already sent her a private comm, asking for her to come out here. She glanced at the sky and for some reason the stars seemed unusually bright, and twinkly. It was almost as if they were speaking directly to her, telling her everything was going to be alright and this was the path she was supposed to walk.

She heard the whine of a Yalmaha engine behind her and knew that Perin was approaching. She smoothed the front of her dress, and waited for Perin to step out. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath, until Perin had stopped directly in front of her. Jolynn tried to keep her composure, as she gulped air. Instead she hid her nervousness behind a bright smile.

“Hi Perin. You look lovely tonight,” Jolynn complimented, “I really like that dress on you.”

Perin blushed a little bit, and looked down at the front of her dress, “Thank you, Jolynn. You are looking ravishing yourself.”

Long moments passed as Jolynn searched for the words she wanted to say. ‘Taiseiten had better be right about this, or I’m going to be both embarrassed and angry’ she thought. They stared at each other as the silence grew uneasy between them. Perin coughed once and looked at the sky.

“So, how did you know this was one of my favorite places? Who told you?” Perin asked.

“Well, no one really told me. It was just a suggestion a mutual friend made considering what I had been talking about with them,” Jolynn replied.

“Oh? Which one? Tai? Elli? Jeni?” Perin inquired.

“I’m not saying,” Jolynn retorted, putting her hands on her hips. “I asked you out here because I wanted to, and how I found out is my business.” Jolynn made a face at Perin which caused her to laugh. Jolynn laughed with her and her nervousness melted away. ‘It’s now or never, Jolynn. All she can say is no and reject you. That’s not such a bad thing to face is it?’ she thought, but she knew the answer was yes, it would be a hard thing for her to face rejection.

“Well fine! You just keep your little secrets, and I’ll have mine,” Perin stated with a smile.

Jolynn returned Perin’s smile warmly, and moved over towards the edge of the roof. She sat down and dangled her feet over the side and patted the spot next to her, inviting Perin to sit down next to her. Perin took the offered seat, and folded her hands in her lap while crossing her ankles. The absolute beauty of the picture took Jolynn’s breath away.

“Well… I did have a reason for asking you out here. Alone,” Jolynn started. “I have no idea what the future has in store for me. Or for you for that matter.” She paused a moment as she searched for the words, “But I do know that I do feel an attraction for you, and that somehow the attraction is mutual.”

Perin nodded as an answer to the unspoken question Jolynn posed. She kept her glasses pushed firmly to the top of her nose, and the warm smile sat beautifully on her lips.

“Umm… I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’d definitely like the opportunity to have us get to know each other better,” Jolynn continued. She had to gulp a few times and she realized her mouth was very dry and forming words was starting to get difficult. “Maybe we could even… I don’t know… I guess date some, and see where,” Jolynn hesitantly offered, “if anywhere, this attraction could lead.”

Perin never changed her position, her smile never left her face and her eyes never left Jolynn’s as she nodded only one time and she answered, “Yes. I would like that. I would like to get to know you better.”

Jolynn visibly deflated, and felt herself become unbalanced. If it hadn’t been for Perin’s hand softly on her shoulder, she would have tumbled headfirst off the Reet’s Retreat roof. She reached up and placed her own hand on top of Perin’s…

Her thoughts were broken by the pain shooting through her entire body. Jolynn screamed shamelessly, and didn’t hear a single one of them. The light didn’t turn on, but she heard his voice from very close to her left side.

“Good morning, sunshine. Time for you to start answering our questions.”

[lizor]

Jennifer unclasped her helmet and laid it casually on the table beside her. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She couldn’t even begin to think about sleep right now. Wearily, she looked around the table at those gathered. They were all looking at her expectantly. She was their leader. She would always be their leader, no matter where else each of them went to, and she felt the weight of their eyes on her shoulders firmly. She looked over her shoulder, and motioned for Coco to bring them all a round.

Lauryn “Usia” Sosnowski; Kerrigan “Lyetzor” Sabrewings; Kali “Kaliach” Somani; Denise “Jeanette” Sandine; and Zane “Tharkael” Conmy had all gathered in The Cup in West Athens. This small group made up the core team, individuals she could trust implicitly with the most minor and important of details. There was a great many others that she counted as friends, but these right here she could honestly state she loved. Coco served them all her newest flavor of cappuccino, and Jennifer smiled as warmly as she could to the famous waitress.

“What do I owe you for this, Coco?” Jennifer asked.

“Absolutely nothing, Miss Jennifer. Just find her,” was the answer Coco offered as she calmly wiped the drops she had spilled on the table with a damp cloth, carefully maneuvering around Jennifer’s helmet.

“Find who? Oh…” Jennifer stopped, “You know?”

“Hun, when you work in a coffee shop as long as I have, you quickly learn which rumors to listen to and which ones are false. Miss Jolynn has always been one of my favorite customers, and I miss her,” Coco stated to the gathered group. “Please find her and bring her back safely.” Coco walked away and kept herself busy behind the counter with her typical duties.

“Right,” Lauryn replied to the receding Coco, “We all want to get her back safely.”

Everyone there nodded in agreement, and Jennifer could see the resolve in their eyes. ‘How am I going to do this? I have no idea where to begin, and I’m at a complete loss as to what to do next. I know they want to hear some brilliant plan, and expect it to execute flawlessly and for us to rescue Jolynn and live happily ever after…’ Jennifer sighed, as she took a sip of her drink.

“Jennifer. This isn’t going to be easy, we all know that, and life is never a happily ever after,” Zane spoke up. Her former Vice President had always had the knack of knowing and understanding exactly what was going through her mind, even though he claimed to have absolutely no psychic powers. “We know something really bad has happened, and that Jolynn is in serious, serious trouble. Don’t carry the weight of the universe on your shoulders alone. All of us sitting here are just as worried about her as you are, and we all know that there are some risks ahead of us. So don’t sugarcoat it, don’t hold anything back and let’s get her back.”

Jennifer couldn’t hold back the tears that started flowing out of her eyes at that beautiful speech from Zane, and she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She looked down into her cappuccino, and set the cup down on the table. She pulled out a larger digi-pad then the one she had given to the Omni-Tek employee, and flipped open its lid.

“Okay, here’s what we have so far: Jolynn was taken by a completely unregistered spacecraft, capable of remote teleportation. It’s possible that it was constructed right here on Rubi-Ka, using salvaged and scavenged alien machine parts. Unfortunately for them, a vessel of that type can not enter and leave the atmosphere without leaving a very big, wide and easily traceable trail behind it,” Jennifer paused in her assessment before continuing, “We also know the exact time and date that Jolynn was taken, and that was over 10 days ago. It took my new…friend a couple days to compile all of the data, but he did come through.” Jennifer had smiled a little bit at the word ‘friend’ only because of the irony of the statement.

“Great,” Kali muttered, “I told you I could have hacked that terminal faster than he could…”

“Kali, knock it off!” Jennifer snapped, “Yes, you might have been able to crack that terminal open like a footlocker, but we would have been left with raw data and needing a system capable of not only decrypting it, but of deciphering it. John was more than happy to help once he realized we weren’t there to kill him, but simply find a friend.”

Kali crossed her arms and sat back in her seat, sufficiently upset and starting to feel the effects of helplessness.

“Right. So, to continue: The vessel did travel into orbit around Rubi-Ka, and due to the alien blockade did not try to make it any further. Either that, or their purpose was just to remain in orbit it’s unclear at this point. The trail ends there for the next four days. John surmises that they must have just shut off their engines and floated in high orbit around Rubi-Ka, to make sure that they weren’t being followed. Fortunately for them, that made them completely invisible and all the tracking stations were unable to find any trace of their engine signature,” Jennifer said.

“Okay, so that’s six days ago. Do we have any idea what has happened during that time?” Lauryn asked.

“Actually Lauryn, we have some very specific places that we can go check. John was able to find two dozen copies of that signature that re-entered Rubi-Ka airspace five days ago,” Jennifer hesitated at this point, and it took a hand on her shoulder from Zane for her to be able to continue. “Here’s where it gets ugly. All of those trails are out over the non-terra formed areas of the planet, and they all hit the ground pretty hard. This is the complete list of coordinates,” Jennifer spun the digi-pad around so the screen faced away from her.

“Wait a minute. How could they have created 23 other copies of that same ship?” Lauryn spoke up again.

“I don’t know. John wasn’t able to give me any answers about that, and I can only guess that maybe Jolynn’s captors did that to try and hide their trail even more. Maybe it’s an error in the telemetry readings, I really don’t know. John’s the expert in this field, and I have no idea,” Jennifer answered. “But at least it gives us somewhere to look, somewhere to start trying to find her, and something to do besides just sit around and sip cappuccino.”

Kerri opened her eyes, and looked out over the room before she opened her mouth to speak, “Cama sends greetings to us all. Jolynn still lives.”

Everyone snapped their heads in Kerri’s direction, and only Jennifer didn’t look confused. She already knew that the enigmatic shade spoke directly with the Redeemed.

“Gilthar has asked Belith to bring her home to us. Her road is going to be long and painful. Her choices will determine her survival,” Kerri finished and then blinked once and looked down at the cup in front of her.

“Huh. I’ve been pretty deep into the Shadowlands and this is the first time I’ve heard anyone besides an Ecclesiast speak of the Redeemed in that manner,” Jeanette said. “In fact, I’ve been pretty blessed by the Redeemed and have their favor but even I can’t speak directly to them.”

Kerri did nothing to answer Denise. She simply sat at the table and looked into the depths of the strange brewed beverage.

“Right. So now we at least have something to go on,” Denise stated. “We have coordinates out in the middle of nowhere, where no one goes and its dangerous as Inferno to travel to with no real possible way of knowing for sure which one is real, if any of them are.” She paused a moment as her brow furrowed, “I’m game. I’m in this for the long haul, and no *one* is going to stop me from trying to find Jolynn. I only have one thing I’m going to be sorry about,” Denise trailed off.

“What’s that, Denise?” Jennifer asked.

“This,” as she reached over and hit Jennifer in the neck with the prepared serum. “You need sleep, and I’m not in the mood to argue with you about it. Sleep tight.”

Jennifer only had time to look slightly surprised before her body started slumping forward, and Zane deftly snatched the half finished cappuccino out from her drooping head.

“This is going to be the adventure of a lifetime, isn’t it?” He asked Denise.

“Yes Zane, it certainly appears that way,” she replied.

“Good. I hate living a boring life,” was his only answer.

[lizor]

((Authors Note: I'm sorry that I didn't mention it earlier, but comments are welcomed on the story as its developing. Please don't feel that you will insult me or interrupt what is happening by saying something in the thread. Thank you, Layna.))

Jolynn woke up from a sleep to find herself on the floor. She sat upright with a start, looking around incredulously and was instantly rewarded with a head rush, as her body vehemently opposed the new position it had been put in. After the momentary daze passed, she turned her head to the right and then to the left, and leaned forward placing both hands firmly on the floor. It was there. She could actually feel the cold steel(?), metal of some kind underneath her tingling fingertips. She stroked the floor almost lovingly, relishing in the rush of awareness flowing through her mind. At first she wasn’t able to comprehend that she could see her hands but soon she realized that there was a light coming into the room from off to her right.

She had to blink and clear her eyes when she looked directly at the blinding whiteness, but yes she could actually see the outline of a door partly cracked open. She tried to stand and was rewarded by her legs refusing to support her weight. She cracked her head on the metal floor as her limbs crumbled beneath her. Her eyes were focused on that door. ‘Something must have happened. They must have given up on me, or someone has come to rescue me’ were the thoughts that occurred to her as she began the slow crawl towards the door.

The light grew closer and closer, and she didn’t see anything beyond the frame other than it was cracked open, and swung outward into the room she occupied. She carefully reached out and pulled it further open. She paused after moving it an inch and heard nothing beyond, no sounds of fighting, no sighs of the dead and dying, nothing. She moved closer to the opening, and pulled the door open more and peered inside. She saw a plain table, and a single chair sitting inside the chamber.

With the light from inside, she could see that the room was made of the same cold metal as the torture chamber she still crawled in, but then the smells of hot food slapped her in the face. Her stomach immediately answered the sense of smell, and urged her ever onward danger be damned. She started to crawl into the room, and forced her legs underneath her torso. With her hands, she pushed herself up into a kneeling/sitting position, resting her butt on her heels. Now she could see the top of the low table, that there was, in fact, two plates of steaming hot food and a pitcher of water with an empty glass sitting beside it.

The sight caused her to blink a few times, and made her stomach nearly mutiny on her in its desire to get to that food. She dared to move her feet under her knees and get into a low crouching position, and she took a couple steps forward until she was right next to the chair. She slowly pulled herself up to be able to sit on the seat, using the table top for support and stared at the beautiful sight. All of her favorite dishes were laid out neatly, with a fork and knife and a pile of napkins. The very cold pitcher of water, sweat running down its side, and already had a pool of condensation on the table called out silently to her.

Jolynn carefully reached for the fork, expecting at any moment for that agonizing pain to be her reward, but it never came. With a vengeance, she tore into the plates in front of her only pausing momentarily to take a sip of water when her mouth became too dry to process the bite.

For long minutes, the only sound she heard was fork hitting plate, and the crunchy sounds of her chewing. Her stomach soon protested and let her know that she was full. As she sat back to sip on the glorious water, she slowly became aware of the slight humming around her. Fearing that her legs would repeat their unwillingness to hold her upright, she only turned in her chair and reached out for the wall behind her. Holding the cup in her right hand, she placed her left palm flat on the metal and was rewarded by feeling it vibrate beneath the nerves that had been bereft of feeling for so long.

“What’s this?” she spoke outloud, completely unaware she did so. ‘There’s a vibration? Why would there be a vibration? Are we still inside something that would vibrate?’ her beleaguered mind could not find the words to describe the sensation or understand her surroundings.

She set the cup down on the table, and reached out her right foot. Keeping a firm grip on the table, she placed a little of her weight on it. It held and there was a moment where her right leg slightly buckled but a quick push on the table stopped her from falling over. She brought her left foot next to her right, and shifted some of her weight. She was standing.

She felt a lot stronger with sustenance in her, water in her mouth, and strength flowing through her limbs. She tried to send a communication to her nano-bots, but they were completely unresponsive. As she looked around the metal room, she noticed that it wasn’t completely polished but neither was it totally dull and that she could make out her reflection. She leaned closer to the wall that she had touched and looked into her face.

On her forehead she noticed two metal discs, and reached up to touch them lightly with her fingertips. There was a slight edge to them, and she couldn’t tell if it was some sort of adhesive that kept them in place, or if her captors had bored into her skull and directly tied into her nervous system. She stared at them for long moments, feeling all around and thought, ‘This must be how they control that pain. Or what if this is somehow transmitting my thoughts and words out to them to see? If that’s the case, they should know I’m telling the truth by now.’ That thought didn’t comfort her much, especially since he had told her that no matter what he was going to kill her.

Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!

She never heard the panels behind her open, nor did she feel the darts when they first entered her body but she soon felt the effects as the tranquilizer made her lose consciousness. ‘RUN! Jolynn!’ she heard herself think…

“RUN JOLYNN!!” Perin shouted at her.

Jolynn kept firing her bow at the horde of Hecklers. “You first!” she shouted back, “I’m not leaving your side!”

It had been an ambush. Perin, Jolynn and the rest of the squad had been following the routine patrol route, cleaning up the few Hecklers that had broken through the main lines of defense when they rounded a bend and got drawn in. They never suspected the others had been waiting for them to concentrate on their comrade until it was too late.

They had sent their position and situation back as soon as they realized what was happening, but reinforcements were minutes away. It was up to them to hold off the Hecklers until that help could arrive. Most of their team had already been wiped out, and only Jolynn, Perin and the soldier just newly assigned to their patrol were left standing.

Thwip! Thwip! Thwip! Three bolts in rapid succession kept the closest Heckler from lifting the soldier in the air, and cracking his back. The air was a red haze of swirling nano-bots as she kept the healing flowing around them.

“Jolynn, I’m serious. We’ll be fine,” Perin carefully aimed and brought another Heckler down with a shot to the soft underside of its chin. “You need to go get those reinforcements and lead them here.”

Thwip! Jolynn shot another Heckler in the elbow. “No. I’m not letting any more of this team die. I’ll run when you run.”

“GAH! You are so stubborn,” Perin groaned as she kept up the careful shots on the slowly depleting horde. “There’s too many for us to handle by ourselves. You have to go for help!” Perin shouted at her.

“NO! I’m not leaving you,” Jolynn argued. Thwip! Thwip! Thwip! Thwip! She tried firing a rapid succession but in arguing with Perin she had gotten distracted. She watched in horror as three Hecklers got a firm grip on the new soldier, and tore him limb from limb. ‘Belith protect him,’ she offered a quick prayer.

“It’s just us now,” Perin stated coldly.

“Yah. Lets do this,” Jolynn replied. “You and me darling. Until the end.”

The next several minutes were a flurry of activity. She healed Perin and herself until her vision blurred and her control on her nano-bots became spotty. Perin taking control of her own nano-bots and becoming an Enforcer temporarily. The Heckler bodies just piled up around them, and they kept climbing to the top of the pile. Jolynn lost count very fast of how many they had killed, when two of the Hecklers in front of them exploded into a million different pieces.

Two teams of reinforcements had arrived, and it was a timely execution by three of the Nano-Technicians that saved them. In less time than they had been out here, the rest of the horde was moped up. The other teams doctors came and saw to their wounds, since she had only been able to keep them mostly alive, and they were safely escorted back to Port Seven.

Jolynn smiled over at Perin, as she checked both of their dressings to ensure they would heal correctly and leaned over and kissed her softly just below her left eye. Perin’s sunglasses had been broken off at some point during the battle, and she stared unabashedly into those lovely greys. “I told you: You and me darling until the end,” Jolynn repeated.

“Yes baby. You and me until the end. You were amazing out there,” Perin said.

Jolynn blushed a deep red, and looked down at her hands the string of her bow having cut several deep gashes in her palms. “I had good incentive,” she told Perin, staring directly into her eyes…

Just before the darkness of unconsciousness completely took over, Jolynn thought she heard a very light airy voice speak to her: ‘I do protect you.’

[lizor]

As Jennifer dozed on the table, Zane replaced the cup of cappuccino on the far side. Denise, Lauryn, and Zane all adjusted their seats to give Jennifer room. Kerri never moved from her spot, but looked over at the other three from across the sleeping body.

“Yah, the adventure of a lifetime for sure,” Lauryn muttered. “So all we have to do now is figure out how we are going to get out to check out those coordinates.”

“Yup, and I already know there is no gear that is publicly available for such an endeavor or every planeteer that comes onworld would already have been out there, trying to find the newest and greatest secret to turn a fast cred,” Denise said.

“What about getting our hands on a spacecraft like what they used?” Zane asked.

“Not likely, Zane. Who knows how long Jolynn’s captors had been planning this abduction? And who knows if they hadn’t already had everything set in place months ahead of time? That could be how they got so many copies made, and were able to fire them off at a pre-determined time to throw any pursuit off their actual location,” Denise answered him.

Zane simply sighed, and took another sip of his cappuccino. “Well, the idea lady is fast asleep thanks to you. I know she needed it, but we also need to figure something out,” he mused.

Coco came over to collect Jennifer’s unused cup, and wiped at the spot it sat on with her cloth. “What about some of that Shadowlands gear?” she calmly asked. She returned Zane’s confused look with a hard stare. “Oh come off it. Yes, I’m listening. Who else am I going to listen to?” She motioned around the empty establishment. The team was the only patrons.

“Wait. What did you say?” Lauryn asked her.

“I said: What about some of that Shadowlands gear? You know, I hear people come in talking about how dangerous some of those places are, and that they don’t have something or other to keep them alive long enough,” Coco offered.

Denise snapped her fingers. “Like the Adonis scuba gear!”

“Yah, that’s one of the things I’ve heard mentioned,” Coco replied.

Lauryn immediately started to look thoughtful. “Denise, you have one of those don’t you?”

“Yah, of course I do. Why? Do you want to take a look at it?” she asked.

Lauryn nodded, and smiled at Coco, “Yes Denise, if you don’t mind. Thank you so much, Coco. This might not be what we need, but at least you gave us something to go on.”

“You’re welcome, hun. I’m just a simple coffee shop girl, and I know I’m not as smart as those of you out there on the front lines, but I do what I can,” Coco blushed and then moved back behind the bar to her usual place, carrying Jennifer’s cappuccino with her.

“Well, let me go get it. I left it in the Sol banking terminal since I don’t have a need to carry it around with me. Not sure what good it’s going to do since its designed to protect underwater…” Denise said, as she stood up. She ran out of The Cup, and through the door.

“What are you thinking, Lauryn?” Zane asked. “You have that crafty look in your eye again.”

“I’m not sure. But what if its possible to modify that gear? What if the filtration system can be engineered to work outside of the water? Maybe…” Lauryn trailed off as the possibilities started to come to her.

Kerrigan shifted in her seat, and reached her hands behind her. She then stood up and placed the item she had been wearing on her back on the table. “Here. What about this?” she inquired.

Lauryn looked down at the Jobe Suit Support System incredulously. She turned it over and started to look at the intake and exhaust systems. “Right. This is a marvelous piece of technology. It even won an interstellar award. The schematics are missing some of the key elements still, only because the design hasn’t been released into public domain,” she said as her mind started whirling. “But this might be possible now. Maybe modifying both this and the Adonis gear… it might be possible…”

She was interrupted by the sliding snickt of the door opening, and Denise came back in holding the often insulted Adonis gear. She laid it down on the table in front of Lauryn and looked curiously at the Jobe suit piece. “What’s that for?” she asked. Lauryn had already taken the helmet and had turned it around. She was poking around the hose harness, and where it attached.

“Kerri gave it to her, and I think Lauryn is considering what can be done to put the two pieces together,” Zane told Denise.

“Crazy,” she blurted out, “think it will work?”

Zane shrugged. “I don’t have the slightest clue, but anything is better than nothing,” he stated.

“Okay, I’m going to have to take these back to my shop. I don’t want to start cracking these things open here. Denise, you don’t mind if I mess around with the scuba gear, do you?’ Lauryn asked.

Denise shrugged herself. “Go for it. I can always bug Ergo to give me another one should I need it again,” she said.

“Great. I’ll be there if you guys find out anything,” Lauryn said as she picked up the helmet and Jobe back device. She hurried towards the door, and reached for her comm at the same time. “Delisa Age,” she said as she passed through the door.

The bureaucrats face appeared on the tiny screen, “Yes, General Usia? Do you require my assistance?” she asked, matter of factly.

Lauryn spoke quickly, “Lisa, I need you to get a hold of the best engineers we have. I have a huge project and I know I’m going to need help with this. No time to explain, so just have them contact me directly. Lauryn out.”

The automatic door closed behind her, and Lauryn was gone.

Zane turned back to Denise, and lifted up the remaining cappuccino towards her. “For luck, and to the safe return of Jolynn,” he offered.

Denise only half-smiled, and raised her own cup in answer, clinking the two together and taking the required sip. “For luck,” she muttered quietly. “Well, if Lauryn is able to do anything with those items, we are going to need more of them. Shall we go and gather what we can while she’s working?”

Zane drained what was left in his cup, and nodded emphatically. “Yes, at least this way you and I have something to do.” He looked down at the sleeping form, sprawled out on the table. “How long is she going to be out?”

Denise laughed and looked at Jennifer as well, “Another 4 hours at least. It was a small sedative I gave her. Kerri, can you watch over her while we get to work?”

Kerri only nodded once, having sat back down after handing over her Jobe support system. She had not touched a single drop of the cappuccino sitting in front of her.

“Okay then, we’re off,” Zane seemed almost enthusiastic. He leaned over and placed a kiss on the back of Jennifer’s head. “Sleep tight, sweety. We’ll see you soon.” With those words, he turned and they both left The Cup.

[lizor]

Jennifer woke about three hours later, and was in a foul mood. It had been a deep sleep, but she felt like she had wasted valuable time. She had awoken to Kerrigan guarding her, and The Cup completely devoid of anyone save Coco and the other bartender. ‘Okay, I’m definitely going to have to come up with a way to pay Denise back for that one,’ she fumed.

“What are the rest of them doing?” she asked Kerri.

“Lauryn is attempting to modify the Adonis scuba gear, and Jobe support unit. Zane and Denise are locating more of that gear, in case she is successful. Kali,” Kerri frowned and looked around. “Kali has seem to gone missing, and I did not notice her leave.” Kerri seemed very bothered by the disappearance.

“Oh? How did you miss Kali leaving? Another message from the Redeemed?” Jennifer inquired.

“No. I,” Kerri was at a total loss for words, “I did not see her leave.”

The sound of the door opening again distracted them both, and Kali walked in pushing a small nanomage male in front of her forcefully. “Go on, get in there,” she said with a shove that nearly sent him to the floor.

“What do you have here Kali?” Jennifer asked.

“Remember that passing Nano-Technician Delisa mentioned?” Kali said. Jennifer nodded once to reply to her. “Well, he went missing if you recall, and we could not locate him. So, I put the word out and while Denise hit you with the stim, I gridded out to follow the lead I had just been provided with,” she stated triumphantly.

“Oh, so this is him?” Jennifer asked.

“Yup. The one and only,” was her answer from Kali.

“Well, definitely good work there Kali. We should take him back to my apartment so we can have a chat,” Jennifer said.

“Whoa, hold on a minute. Who the heck are you two?” the nanomage asked. “I don’t know anything, so any chatting will be happening right now and without us going any further.” Since they were in a public place, he felt a lot bolder than a few minutes ago when he had a pair of sub-machine guns pointed between his eyes.

“All in good time, smiley,” Jennifer answered him, and pointed at the door. “After you, its not very far to my humble abode.” She motioned for him to proceed. “Or I could let my friend here have her way with you,” she said as she indicated Kerri.

Kerri had already drawn her very sharp piercing weapons, and stared at the man coldly.

He gulped once, and turned to the door. “No. I think I’ll come along peacefully now,” he said, with a sigh.

“Good thinking,” Jennifer answered. They all passed outside into the small road in West Athens, and turned towards the right to head into the backyard complex that held the apartments. Just as the small group was about to enter the door, she heard a yell behind her.

“JENNIFER!! JENNIFER!!” was the words she heard distinctly. “Jennifer, wait up!!” It was Perin.

She passed the access card to Kali, and motioned for them to continue on to her apartment. “I’ll be along in a moment,” she told them.

Perin came running up to her, and threw her arms around Jennifer’s waist giving her a very tight hug. The small nanomage agent’s head only came to the middle of her chest and Perin smiled at her for a moment.
“I’ve been sending you private comms for a week now. Did you get any of them?” Perin asked.

“Yes, Perin. I have,” Jennifer replied.

“So…” Perin started, “have you found out anything about Jolynn, yet?”

“No,” Jennifer stated, flatly.

“Nothing?” was the question from Perin. “Absolutely nothing?” She seemed disappointed.

‘No, that’s an understatement. The poor girl seems on the verge of tears’ Jennifer thought, as her heart went out to Perin. How could she lie to Jolynn’s love like this? ‘To save her further heartbreak, that’s how’ was the continuation in her mind. “Absolutely nothing,” Jennifer told her.

“Are you sure? I mean, I’ve been hearing rumors and there are… well, shady types been asking a lot of questions all over the place…” Perin trailed off, and just looked up into Jennifer’s eyes hopefully.

Jennifer sighed once, loudly and very melodramatically. ‘Gah. I’ll have to caution Delisa to have our agents use a lot more caution. I do not need anything getting back to Perin prematurely,’ she nodded, more to herself than to Perin but Perin still saw the head movement and sighed.

“Oh. Well, I’ve got my own friends and those I’ve dealt with in the past looking too,” Perin offered. “I hope that with… well, I just hope we find out something and soon. I really, really miss her.” She said, as she reached up and rubbed her right eye behind her sunglasses.

“Perin, I already told you: I would contact you *when* I found out anything,” she said, with emphasis on the word “when.” ‘And I know all about your informants, too. Why do you think I’ve made them divert all of their knowledge to me?’ Jennifer didn’t like having to keep things from Perin, but it was the only way she could think of to keep her from going crazy and doing something regrettable, like trying a solo rescue mission. “So far, we know nothing. There’s been no ransom demand, no note claiming responsibility and definitely no contact from Jolynn,” she told Perin.

“Oh. Umm…,” Perin muttered, “So, how have you been doing?”

Jennifer had to laugh, despite the foul mood she was in. “I really don’t have time to chit-chat Perin. Right now, my entire life is focused on trying to find Jolynn and what the hell happened to her.”

Perin just hung her head, and looked down at the ground. Jennifer felt her heart completely break at that exact moment, as she watched two tears drip off Perin’s chin. She quickly spun on her heel, and headed into the backyard complex. “I’ll let you know anything I find out Perin, okay?” she called out as she left Perin standing there.

“Okay,” was the ensuing whisper as Perin did her best to collect herself, standing in the middle of the street.

‘Jolynn. I swear to all that’s Divine, I’m going to reunite you with that woman. And I’m going to stand there and cry happily, and not even try to stop my tears of joy’ Jennifer vowed silently as she prepared herself to talk with the Nano-Technician Kali had let into her apartment.

[lizor]

((Authors Note: It is not my intention to rewrite the storyline for Anarchy Online, or any other attempt to influence the events as has been laid out by Funcom. This is a work of fiction, and hopefully the intention that due to the sensory deprivation my character is experiencing some things are becoming jumbled is clearly understood. If not, that is the purpose of this note. Thank you, Layna))

“Wake up darling. We’re back and we have some talking to do with you,” he said.

Jolynn kept her eyes firmly shut against the droning voice. After being able to eat, and drink some water time started to have some meaning to her, and she had spent the last six months helping to fight back the alien encroachment, clearing them from all the cities all over Rubi-Ka and eliminating most of their landing ships. Perin, Jennifer, Kerrigan and Delisa had all fought at her side, as she led the ever increasing assault on the mother ships. Tir had been cleared of the Sentinels, and was once again a thriving city, full of life and commerce. Simon Silverstone being shipped off-world as a special package on a captured landing vessel, the detonator glued to his battered and beaten hands, his uniform replaced with explosives. It took the cheering two days to die down after the flash of light was seen from the surface of the planet.

“Aww, off in dreamland she is,” he continued, as he watched her eyes flutter beneath her lids. “’For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?’ Well, its too bad for her,” he stated purposefully.

She instinctively screamed as the pain they used on her, ripped through her body again. Every limb stiffened against the torture, and every muscle in her body moved of its own accord. It took longer than she liked for her to gain control of her mouth, and eyes and she forced them to focus. She saw the light at her feet, and didn’t see him this time. He didn’t always turn the light on, nor did he always step close enough to be seen.

“Well, I’m a bit disappointed in you Jolynn. You have been most uncooperative lately. I’ve actually had to repeat my questions the last three times we have talked,” he stated with a note of mock sadness. “And my friend has had to turn up the “dosage” on your medicine. So I’m sorry to report that I’ve had to remove the category quick and painless from your choices of death.”

Jolynn just lay there, panting. The pain was very arduous and draining to her, and it took much of her strength just to retain control. “What… what are you doing here Simon? We watched… you… your ship exploded… we… we saw it explode,” Jolynn stammered out.

“Oh, this is rich! You think I’m Simon Silverstone?” he laughed for long moments. “Wow, I guess I just hadn’t been patient enough with you. That’s a mistake I intend to remedy right now.”

The footsteps echoed in the metallic room, but the sound dampener around Jolynn kept her from hearing them. He snapped his fingers and the light went out leaving her in complete darkness again. “We’ll talk again in a couple of days.”

Jolynn was left on her own, and she felt her breath on her chin. It was coming raggedly, and shallow. She concentrated for a minute on breathing, nice and steady. ‘Six months? It’s already been six months since I’ve been held captive? Why haven’t they killed me yet?’ she thought.

‘They are not going to kill you. You are considered too valuable to them right now,’ the ensuing reply echoed in her mind.

‘What? What did I just say?’ Jolynn’s thoughts were getting more and more jumbled now. ‘I’m too valuable to them? How? Why? I don’t know anything…’ Her mind trailed off and she closed her eyes, even though the darkness made that unnecessary. She had no idea if she had answered herself, or someone else had done it for her. Fragments of memories started to flash before her, and some of them had to do with the alien attacks and Tir.

It was another three months of fighting before all the gathered citizens of Rubi-Ka had forced the aliens into their only base in the Outzone. The victory had been such a great one that various factions around the planet decided to have a huge party in Newland City. It had already been going on for several days, when she could take it no longer. She had held back her feelings for Perin already, and didn’t feel like holding them back anymore. After seeking the sagely advice of “Fionnghal” Flowers, she waited for Perin to return to the party.

Nervously she paced the well worn dance floor, waiting for the familiar whine of Perin’s Yalmaha. Even over the din of the bounding bass beats she could tell whenever her heart came near. It was as if a part of her sang the best melody, and vibrated happily.

Perin came bounding into the party, and found Jolynn standing off. She wore a bright smile, and looked very concerned at Jolynn when she noticed that Jolynn only partly returned her smile. “What’s wrong? Everything okay? Did someone upset you?” Perin questioned.

“No, darling. I’m fine. I’d… I’d like to step away from the party with you. If you don’t mind, that is,” Jolynn stammered for a moment before finding her voice.

“Sure dear. Where to?” Perin looked around. There were party-goers all over Newland, and finding a quiet corner seemed near impossible.

“This way,” Jolynn said as she offered her hand. Perin took it from her, and gave it a gentle squeeze. They walked for a short distance, up a ramp and onto the landing in front of an apartment complex. No one else was around.

“Perin,” she started, “Honey, darling... my love. For far, far too long now, every minute seeming like an eternity I have been completely selfish. I have kept something very important from you, and I'm sorry that I felt that I had to do that. Please forgive me, but I have to share this with you now.”

Perin looked at her, confusion reflecting in the grey eyes, “What have you been hiding? Whatever it is, we can work through it together…” her mouth was covered by one finger from Jolynn and she stopped speaking.

“There's no soft easy way to come around this, I can't soften the blow and there is no way I can even try to make this safe. So here goes: I love you,” Jolynn confessed. “Why do I love you? How can I love you? You being who you are is what makes that possible. Every time you are away from me, I feel as if I am only half of a person. Worse actually. Breathing is hard for me, my heart barely beats, and the blood barely flows through my veins and I really don't want to do much,” she continued.

“But when I see you, when my eyes fall on you and I know that is you and you are so close, everything comes together and I feel buoyant, complete and like there is nothing in this world that can destroy me.” Jolynn smiled softly at Perin, and lowered her eyes for a moment before she raised them, and found her voice again. “I'm tired of you not knowing. I'm through hurting myself. You may have thought you knew, but now you know for sure. I love you,” she repeated. “You are the best thing that has happened to me, even better than Jennifer and I expect nothing to come of this. I want you to have all of me.” Jolynn pressed her hands to her chest, and tapped them once in emphasis.

“I want you to be the last thing I see before I close my eyes, I want you to be the first thing I see when I open them again. I don't know how long I will want that, but I know I want it now and I don't want it to change. Ever.” She firmly stated.

Jolynn gathered her breath, and pressed her hands into fists to stop the shaking. Her thumb was held by her fingers, and she bit her lip as she opened her mouth once to speak again, and then was able to finish what she had asked Perin up here to say, “So, I stand here knowing that I have laid my all out for you to see, I have opened myself up to you and with just a single word you can complete me or destroy me. I just won't stop being in love with you,” she said, and let out a sigh.

For what seemed like long moments they stood there, Jolynn biting her lip nervously and Perin looking at her. Perin leaned forward, took both of Jolynn’s hands in her own and kissed her softly on the cheek. Pressing her cheek into Jolynn’s, she whispered, “I love you.”

Perin had to jerk on her hands to keep her from falling over, and smiled at her. “Besides, I’ve been trying to get up the courage to ask you to marry me,” she said matter-of-factly.

Jolynn’s mouth literally dropped open. She flapped it open and closed a few times before leaping into Perin’s arms and yelling at the top of her lungs, “YES!! YES, I’LL MARRY YOU!”

The news traveled fast. The charismatic leader of the assault that had removed most of the alien menace from the planet was going to be getting hitched. It turned out to be a lovely ceremony. Tarkhan Zora could not allow the leader who had led her own troops into battle having her wedding anywhere else. Omni-1 was fully decorated, and a literal army of Unicorn Company troops provided the Honor Guard. Her life, at this point, was complete. She could think of nothing else she needed or wanted.

‘You need to remain you,’ the light, airy voice she had heard before spoke. ‘You are slipping, blood of My bloode. Come back to us.’

Jolynn turned from the altar to look down the aisle created by the Unicorn troops. She had to squint as a shimmering light appeared there, and slowly took on form. Curiosity got the better of her, and putting a hand on Perin’s arm to let her know she was okay she turned and walked back down the aisle towards the person taking shape.

As she stepped closer, she saw that it was a woman standing there. Then reality began to bend, and she was no longer in Omni-1. It was a flat dusty plain, with no noticeable terrain features that she could use to orient herself. She looked very carefully at the woman, and saw herself standing there. An Opifex woman, holding a bow and covered in sheer shimmering white cloth. Jolynn took a step back and gasped. That was a Bow of Belith! No, that *is* Belith’s Bow!!

“Belith. You… you are here?” Jolynn stuttered. “You know everything?”

“No, Jolynn. I do not, and I am not,” Belith told her. “I am very close, and I am here to guide you. You must walk this path, and I can only point you towards the door.”

“Am I going to live?” Jolynn asked her. “Am I ever going to see anyone I love…? Am I ever going to see Perin again?”

“That depends on the choices you will make,” Belith explained. “For now, simply endure please. We are watching, and we are close by.” She motioned behind her, and as Jolynn looked over Belith’s shoulder she could see several more shimmering auras of light.

“I… I shall. It’s not easy, Belith. They are torturing me, and the pain is nearly more than I can endure,” Jolynn started to cry, and shake uncontrollably.

“We know. You can do it,” Belith said to her, not making a motion to comfort her. Belith turned on her heels, and slowly floated back towards the other auras. She faded slowly from view as she got closer to them. Jolynn was left standing on the dusty plain, alone.

[lizor]

((Authors Note: First I wanted to apologize to all of the Anarchy Online purists out there. With this new section, I have stepped outside of my normal logic and moved into the realm of possibilities. I am only trying to take your suspension of disbelief and stretch it, by allowing there to be some sort of reasonable explanation instead of doing like some authors and forcing you to take a leap you may not be prepared for. As you, the reader have followed along I hope that our journey together has at least been interesting and that you can show a bit of faith in me to not totally destroy the illusion I've been building. Thank you, Layna))

“What?!? You?!?” Jennifer cried into the face of the Nano-Technician. “You’re the one that caused Jolynn to get taken?”

“I’m afraid so. I’m that one that has been doing the information drops in that area for a long time,” he replied, shifting uncomfortably. His eyes shifted to his right where Kerrigan stood, glaring at him, a hunger for his blood shining through.

Jennifer shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe this. So what would happen next? Where did the information go after you dropped it?” she asked.

“I don’t know where it would go, all I know is that there was another courier to take it to the next drop point and from there, still another courier would make the final drop to the destination,” he calmly explained.

“So, in your complete wisdom and with the intelligence you are supposed to possess, you decided that a drop in the middle of Jobe Plaza was a safe and secure location for the next courier to come along and move the information along to the next destination?” she snapped at him.

“Well yes. It was a fairly public location with many entrances and exits, and offered the ability to come after dark and still be able to locate the packages I delivered,” he offered.

“Okay, okay,” Jennifer paced around the small apartment. “Yes, if this didn’t involve Jolynn I can completely see that what you are saying makes good sense. It wasn’t a bad plan, and your employer is pretty crafty to keep the information moving along rather nicely. I have to admit: This sounds like something I may want Delisa to start doing, could cut down on the possibility of being traced,” she mused out loud.

“Hey Jennifer, so what now?” Kali asked, scratching her head. “Do we let smiley go? Do we beat him to a bloody pulp and then shoot him?”

He went completely white, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he passed out. Jennifer scoffed, and shrugged. “No, let’s just carry him outside and let him wake up on his own. Now we know another sad piece to this large and complicated puzzle.” She sighed, as she moved to grab the nanomage’s feet. Kerrigan automatically moved around and grabbed under his arms. They both lifted and carried the limp body outside.

A passing couple looked at them strangely, as they maneuvered the body down the ramp. Jennifer just smiled at them, “He got a little too drunk, and couldn’t handle two girls at once.” The man and woman just blinked for a minute, slowly turned around and tried to not make it obvious they were running away.

“Well, that’s done. I’m all out of ideas, Kerri. Do you have any?” Jennifer asked the normally silent shade.

“We wait three days for Lauryn to be done with her research, and then listen to her results,” Kerrigan said, flatly.

“Right, and then what?” Jennifer inquired.

“We follow the path that has been laid before us,” Kerrigan replied, turning her head side to side as if hearing something.

“Hmm… well I can’t sit around for three days doing nothing,” Jennifer told her. “I need to do something.”

Kerrigan said nothing, but simply started walking back to Jennifer’s West Athens apartment. After making sure that the Nano-Technician couldn’t roll over and hurt himself, Jennifer followed her back.


Almost a week later, Jennifer milled around the door to the backyard as the teams started gathering. She greeted each on of them individually, by name and thanked them for coming. It was nearly time, and she mentally prepared herself for explaining everything to the crowd.

She looked back over her shoulder and could see Zane, Denise and Kali mingling with everyone, chit-chatting about non-essentials, passing around smiles in an attempt to keep the tension low. She frowned because Lauryn hadn’t shown up yet, and still didn’t quite believe the breakthrough she had made. ‘Of course she only roughly tested the contraption but its better than nothing, which is what we started with,’ she thought to herself.

Just as Jennifer turned to chat with “Kanako”, she felt someone crash right into the middle of her back, and sent her sprawling into the dirt and grass. She growled and spun over to see who the interloper was, and pulled up short. She snorted a laugh at first, and then fell into peals of laughter as she dusted off her hands, pushing herself to her feet. Poorn “Schuyler” Star had arrived, carrying two great big handfuls of steaming hot pies.

“Schuyler got pie! Who wants?” he asked, looking around. The big Atrox only smiled down at Jennifer. “Hey Lizor. Stand up; Schuy has pie for you too.”

“Schu, you are a nut. Don’t ever change,” Jennifer laughed, as she took one of the pies and leaned over, kissing him lightly on the brow. She gratefully took a bite, and wiped her mouth as the gooey goodness tried to creep down her chin.

“Now Schuy make this a party,” he stated, hiding the blush from Jennifer’s kiss. “Everyone gets pie!”

Jennifer didn’t notice Lauryn had shown up until she was nearly done with her pie, and all merriment left her. Lauryn was already busy, setting up a table and laying everything out for everyone to see. She took a couple of deep breaths, and jumped to the top of the vent pipe, her boots grinding on the steel grating.

“Excuse me,” she called out. “Could I get everyone’s attention please?” She waited a minute for everyone to stop chatting amongst themselves, and turn their attention to her.

“First, I wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you for coming out here today. If nothing else, your presence here shows me how much love and devotion I truly owe you,” she started, in a slightly loud tone. “Five full teams, plus my hand-picked crew are what we have gathered at the moment. 30 individuals, ready to put their life on the line for someone they all know and love, and that thought brings a tear to my eye.”

She paused for a minute, while she gathered her composure and Zane coughed once, looking up at her and nodding his support.

“We all know why we are here. I’m not going to repeat it due to this being a public location. I just wanted to explain the plan, in detail and offer anyone that wants to back out the opportunity to do so,” she dropped silent for a moment, to allow her words time to be thought through. “Lauryn and a group of the best and brightest engineers have been hard at work over the last few days, trying to devise something we can use to survive in, what I’ve come to call The Wild. The breakthrough came four days ago,” she gave a knowing wink to Kerrigan, “and hopefully, if everything works as they expect we have gear we can use for a very short period of time.”

Jennifer motioned down to Lauryn, and the Adonis scuba helmet lying next to the Jobe Suit Support System, along with a box of Kyrz’Och Bio-Material. “What they devised, and remember I’m only going by the rough understanding I was given, is that the Adonis scuba helmet, plugged into the Jobe Support System will provide a temporary ability to breath through the toxicity of the un-terra formed atmosphere. They have heavily modified both pieces, and jury-rigged a few other devices into them as well. The alien poop is the filter, or powers the filtration system… or something like that,” she nervously looked down at Lauryn, who glanced up and nodded once.

“This gear is completely experimental. It may work, it may not. That’s why anyone who feels that the risk is too great can back out now, and no one!” she glared around at the crowd to emphasize her point, “will look down on you for doing just that. We are going to be far from the reclaim technology we have all grown accustomed to. I hope I won’t need to tell you what that means. You don’t have to leave now, and embarrass yourself. Wait until I’m done explaining and we move out,” she said

“Okay. That’s part one. Part two is a bit more complicated. We have 24 specific locations around the planet to go and physically check on. Now, I didn’t want all of us to risk our Yalms, with the knowledge that any rescue of the member could easily be longer than the life-support gear would last. We already know how dangerous some of the storms that happen here, in the terra-formed areas of the planet can get. I’ve been out there before, but luckily I never got caught in any of those storms. So, I can only imagine how bad they could get,” she continued, “So, with the many anonymous donations and with Schuy’s help and some of my former fellow Storm clan members help, we have three ICC dropships, at our disposal.” She waited for the wave of surprise to pass through the gathered Clanners. “But we only have them for exactly 48 hours, so that doesn’t give us a whole lot of time. I’ve tried to lay out the best routes to maximize our effectiveness, and for each location we are going to be limited to searching for only 30 minutes. Good news is that those dropships come standard with global communications, so staying in touch will not be an issue. The ICC is not going to let any of their precious equipment remain unaccounted for.”

She stopped and took a deep breath, “The engineers have said that the gear will only be useful for about 2 hours before a change or tweak of the filtration system is needed. That’s why it won’t be possible for us to just start running all over the planet, and why we have a stockpile of Bio-Material. Once that runs out, or too much of the gear breaks or anything like that happens we are done. The three ships will have two teams a piece on them. Each team is to alternate searching the eight locations they have been allocated, so effectively every team is going to search four places. If you want to break up your teams while on site so there is less risk of several pieces of gear breaking at the same time, go for it. Are there any questions on anything so far?”

Zane raised his hand, and Jennifer nodded to him to speak, “When do we leave?” Several enthusiastic murmurs from the group seem to echo Zane’s question.

“We leave in two hours. Delisa should be patching over all of the coordinates to the dropships that each team will be responsible for. If the ships ever lose contact with each other, attempt to establish communications with her. She is going to be communications central for this operation. You lose contact with your team, or the other teams; get in touch with her. Report all search results to her. Okay everyone, the gear and the dropships will be waiting for us in the northeast corner of Aegean.”

Jennifer looked out over the clanners, she was about to possibly permanently lay her life down with and smiled, “Now would be a good time to double check those final arrangements. I did with mine this morning. I’ll meet you all at the pick up location.”

There was no cheering, but everyone drifted slowly away to take care of their business for the next couple of hours. Jennifer climbed down, and started to glance around at the few left hanging around. The door from the street opened, and Perin came running in, her eyes searching around until she landed on Jennifer.

“JENNIFER!” Perin cried out, “There you are. Is something going on? Did you find out anything?” The expectant look in Perin’s eyes did nothing to make the next few words Jennifer had to speak any easier.

“Just a gear raid, Perin. Nothing special,” she replied to the young nanomage female. “Jolynn is still simply gone, and I have no idea who or what. I have a pile of arms in my apartment to show the efforts I’ve gone to, to find her.”

The hopeful look in Perin’s eyes did not die down. “But, the call for a special operation in some undisclosed area has been floating around for a couple of days now. It said to meet here, today,” she protested.

“That’s because it’s so hard to organize this raid. No other reason,” Jennifer reached out and cupped her left hand around the back of Perin’s head, and slowly caressed her neck. “I miss Jolynn just as much as you do, and I’m not going to give up trying to find her. There’s only so many arms I can rip off before all of my leads are gone. Okay?” she asked.

Perin sighed, and visibly deflated. “Oh. I thought this could possibly be a rescue attempt. Someone even mentioned something about dropships the other day…” she trailed off.

“No Perin. No dropships here,” Jennifer removed her hand, and smiled at Perin. “I’ve already promised you I would let you know the minute I know anything. I keep my word when it comes to that. You know that, don’t you?” Jennifer asked.

“Yah… its… its just so hard without her around…” Perin stuttered, in her despair.

“Look, I have to get going. The others are probably waiting for me at the gathering spot, so I have to hurry along. I’ll talk with you later,” she said.

“Yah, okay. I’ll… I’ll be around…” Perin kept her composure until after she left the backyard complex. Jennifer watched her leave with a heavy heart.

“JENNIFER MCCOVERY!” she visibly flinched, and winced at the tone that voice took.

[lizor]

She turned on her heels to stare into the flashing, angry eyes of Cathern “Vixentrox” Flowers. “You just flat out, and completely lied to that poor girl,” she admonished.

“Yes ma’am. I know I did,” Jennifer already felt bad about doing it, and didn’t need a guilt trip on top of it.

“Would you mind explaining exactly why I’ve spent the last four days, listening to a crying nanomage agent to have you blatantly lie to her face about the most important person in her life?” Oh yes, Cathern was a little bit angry with her.

“Only to keep her from doing something stupid,” Jennifer answered, weakly. It had been over two weeks of emotional turmoil for her, and she really needed some rest before they all left.

“Cath,” came a voice from in front of Jennifer, “Honey, I can see why Jennifer did it.” It was “Fionnghal” Flowers who had taken up her defense. “If Jolynn some how gets free, who is the first person she is going to try and contact? You? Me? Jennifer?” she asked her wife and partner.

Cathern thought about that for a moment, and then answered, “No, more than likely she will try to contact Perin first.”

“Right, and if Perin were involved with this search party and something happened to her out there?” Jennifer stuck up for herself. Fionn nodded her agreement.

“It doesn’t mean I have to like the idea that you lied,” Cathern stated, pointing directly up into Jennifer’s face. “Even to save her from herself.”

“Yes ma’am. Did you want to yell at me some more, or can I go have a few minutes to myself before we leave?” Jennifer asked her President.

“Yes, I want to yell at you some more but I know how important this operation is, and how much energy you’ve devoted to it. Go ahead, I’ll just fume in peace,” was Jennifer’s answer.

With a sigh of relief, Jennifer quickly made her way out of the backyard.

Two and a half hours later, everyone was aboard the dropships and they were already heading out to their first set of coordinates. Jennifer sat behind the pilot, as they kept busy pushing through the untamed terrain of Rubi-Ka. She leaned forward to the control panel, and pressed ‘Play’ on the holodisk she had loaded. Within seconds, all three ships were sharing the sounds of Guns -n- Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”. She sat back in her seat and thought, ‘Yah, this is a good start. Jolynn, we’re coming.’

[lizor]

Jolynn spent the next 2 years of her life in complete bliss. Her marriage to Perin was simply beautiful. They had grown ever closer, and she could not even remember a time in her life when she wasn’t happily bound to this wonderful person. They spent more and more time in Elysium, Scheol and Adonis running errands and helping to further the cause of the Redeemed. Jolynn was accepted into the Divinity and was able to learn directly from the feet of Belith. She just couldn’t quite grasp what Belith was telling her about the listening for the “right moment.”

With the explosive death of Simon Silverstone, the Council of Truth was able to move forward and begin the planning of the complete removal of Omni-Tek from Rubi-Ka. With her closest friends, Jolynn and Perin had scouted out all of the notum mining fields that Omni organizations held and brought the information to the war room of the CoT.

It had been decided that all sides of the political spectrum had been correct. Not only did they need several decisive strategic strikes, but that would give them the leverage needed to diplomatically force Omni-Tek Corporation to the negotiation table. The operation, simply codenamed: The Beast took several months to fully plan out and prepare for but it only took two weeks to fully execute. They had done it! The Clans, lead by the Council of Truth had secured all of the notum fields across the planet, and left Omni-Tek with a couple of their facilities that had been in existence for too long and were too heavily fortified to take over. Controlling 95% of the notum export, not only made them all very rich but forced the ICC to admit them as a rival corporation.

At the negotiation table, Tarkhan was expelled from Rubi-Ka and all Omni citizens were given the option of accepting a sizeable stipend and leave the planet peacefully or swear allegiance to freedom from oppression. Omni-1 was renamed Vanguard City, in honor of Alan Jacobi for providing much of the financial backing of Operation Beast. The month long celebration included parties not only in the streets but in every bar. A Roman styled tournament was held in the arena, with much of the fauna being released experiments from former Omni laboratories.

Jolynn felt herself being pulled from one party, and frowned. She was sitting on the cold metal floor once more, and the door to her right hung open. Once she made it into the tiny room, and sat down to eat she realized she was more thirsty than hungry. She poured a glass of the cold water and sipped on it slowly.

He stood at the bank of monitors, and watched Jolynn sip on the glass of water. His face was a blank mask of thoughts, and feelings.

“Feed her. Why, you?” the hunched and cloaked figure asked him.

“Because it amuses me,” he replied. “Besides, it helps to speed up the insanity process of the deprivation. What worse torture is there than to have all of your senses removed for long periods and then have them back for only a small amount of time?”

“Time much. Questions ask,” the figure stated to him.

“All in due time, my enigmatic friend. I know you get a thrill out of feeling her pain, but I have to make sure that I get the information I need out of her too,” he turned away from the bank of monitors and looked directly at the shadow. Before he had a chance to speak, the loud buzzing beep of the communications system interrupted him. “Its them. I have to find out what they need this time. Keep an eye on her,” He thrust a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Jolynn.

The figure didn’t acknowledge him, and remained in place, unmoving.

Slowly, as before Jolynn got to her feet and felt her legs shaking underneath her. She tried to pull the memories of being in this room to the front of her mind. She thought it felt too familiar, but just could not find what she needed to know. She looked at her reflection in the unpolished metal wall, as if seeing herself for the first time ever. ‘This can’t be real. This is a dream, and I need to get back to Perin. Why did I fall asleep in the middle of a party? Did I have too much to drink?’ the thoughts flowed around her, intermixing with memories and hallucinations.

‘The time is coming,’ she heard, in her mind. ‘The time is NOW!’

The voice in her head surprised and shocked her so much that she lost control of her legs, and they crumbled beneath her dropping her to the floor with a crash and a thud.
Thwip! Clink Thwip! Clink Thwip! Clink.

She felt something land on her thighs, after the soft metal sounds above her head. Jolynn reached down and wrapped her hand around a dart. They had hit the wall where she had just been standing.

‘Remain still. The time is still upon you,’ the thought echoed.

She heard the slow hiss of a panel opening, and then the metallic jingle of a handle being used. She kept her eyes focused in front of her, as the attendant came around the table. Just as he leaned over her, she reached out with her hand and thrust all three of the darts into his calf. He gave a small grunt of pain, and fell over on top of her. It took a lot of effort to roll him off of her, and she was able to focus on his clothing. He was completely covered in a blue stretch material that had white trim.

She crawled slowly over to the door, and peered inside from her position on the floor. It was darker out there, with some reddish lighting and the occasional patch of white. She was looking down a hallway that seemed to branch off at different points. Jolynn forced her legs up underneath her, and with a single glance behind her made her way slowly down the hallway. She felt the cold metal directly on the soles of her bare feet, and stopped every time the hallway opened up. Without even realizing it, she was being stealthy but to her mind she simply walked down the hall.

The hallway turned to the right and she followed it around. It was around this bend that she suddenly felt a wave of nausea hit her. Instinctively she willed her nano-bots to keep her in balance, and they answered her instructions running the program. She blinked a few times as she looked down at her hands, and then smiled. Her friends were back and she was in control again. She ran program after program, including a couple of healing programs and three augmentation ones. She felt a lot stronger and more herself now.

She kept up her slow approach, until she heard a voice that made her freeze in fear. It was HIM!

“Look, these things take time like I told you before,” he stated to the screen in front of him.

“It has been almost three weeks, and you have the same amount of information as when you started,” the sibilant sounding voice said.

“Yeah, I know. Do you have any idea how long sensory deprivation takes? I didn’t think so. You hired me because I’m the expert in this sort of torture,” he said, coldly. He didn’t like being second guessed, or told what to do and he especially didn’t like being told how to do what he loved. “So, you need to just back off and when I tell you I have nothing, better believe what I say.”

“We are not interested in your excuses, nor in the pittance that has been transferred to your accounts. We are interested in results only, and the investment we have put into this endeavor is starting to become more of a liability,” the voice said. “Are you certain that she even has the information we seek?”

“Yeah, I’m certain she has the information. For feck’s sake, we had her under surveillance for months,” He lied. “Whenever the drop went down, within the allotted time she would come skipping by to pick it up. Remember, it was you guys who let me know what an acceptable amount of time was. Otherwise, I would have thought she was just going back to her apartment.”

“We are well aware of the information we have already provided to you, and your band,” the voice stated. To Jolynn’s ears, it almost sounded as if it was talking to a precocious child.

“So there you have it then,” he spoke up, and cleared his throat. “You told me when the information was gone, you told me when it was delivered there and she’s the only one that came by before the time was up.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. They thought she was some kind of informant, and that she had stolen knowledge about the Dust Brigade. Jolynn crept forward, and tried to see who he was talking to. The fuzzy picture on the screen only let her see what could have been part of some kind of cloth draping the face on the other side. She took another step, and froze in her tracks. The face had looked directly at her!

“Hey, I don’t know what kind of game you think you are playing with but no one talks to me like that. You want your information, you’re just going to have to go tell your bosses or whoever you report to that I’ll get it to them all in due time,” He snapped at the figure on the screen. “And not a moment sooner. Got that?”

“Yes, we understand completely. It is unfortunate that we have had to come to this solution,” the figure almost sounded remorseful. “Your usefulness to us has come to an end. May your next life be more fruitful.”

“Feck you,” he spit at the screen, “my usefulness ends when I say it ends.” He didn’t get the chance to say anything else, because the screen went dark.

Jolynn wasn’t sure but she thought she heard the voice say, “Ashes to ashes…” before ending the transmission. She screamed loudly, and clapped her hands to her ears as the claxons and warning alarms started going off around her.

“What the…?” he said as he whirled around. “How did you get out?” He quickly grew from normal size to towering over her as he executed the nano-program.

Jolynn pointed her left hand at him, and ordered her nano-bots into action. Seconds later, the tremors ran through his body uncontrollably. He tried to force himself to get to her, but she only took a couple steps backwards. Another program, and the deadly toxins were flowing through his body, killing him slowly.

Whenever he took a step forward, forcing through the agony encompassing him she took a step back, staying just out of his reach. Coldly, she watched him collapse on the floor and kneeled down over his body. She pinched his nose close with her right hand, and used the palm to cover his mouth. Jolynn stared directly into his eyes, and watched as the life drained from them. Even after he had gone completely limp, she stayed in that position as her mind barely registered the alarms going off around her.

“Sir, we have incoming missiles. We’ve already fired up the engines, but it’s going to take time to get any speed up. What are your orders?” a loudspeaker located on the panel in front of her blared.

“Die with dignity,” she muttered.

‘Counter-measures and evasive action,’ the thought came to her.

Jolynn leaned forward and pushed buttons randomly until she heard a whine and hiss that let her know the microphone was working. “Deploy counter-measures, and take evasive maneuvers. Don’t try to outrun the missiles, but keep the blasts from destroying too much of the ship,” she spoke firmly into the mic.

“Who is this? Where is the Captain?” the female voice asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Do it, or die with dignity,” Jolynn replied.

“FECK! Okay, but you’ll…” the voice never finished because Jolynn had found the off button. She looked over at her captor’s body, lifelessly laid out to her and started to search him, and strip him. She dressed in his clothes. The nano-bots in two of the layers automatically fit the top and bottom to her. She found an alien blaster, and strapped it on. It wasn’t her bow, but it was a weapon. Sitting down in his chair, she found the belting mechanism and strapped herself in. Closing her eyes, she walked the dusty plain towards the door, and before she reached it, it swung open of its own accord.