"What you on about?"said the trash rummaging hyena. With drunken sway, he wrenched out half a chicken, half eaten and half rotten. "It's Earth, innit." He turned and jogged to the rim of the garbage pit, sitting at its edge and looking over the field of biodegrading F-plastic from broken computers.
Harold, the bear, sat in his office, eating a piece of meat like it was a cookie. On his table, plans sprawled, mixed with diagrams and thousands of notes. He chewed deep in thought. The door opened and Jason strolled in. Harold glanced up then back to his plans, holding up his hand to stop any speaking before he'd chewed. He swallowed the meat down.
"What happened?" He straightened, and looked down at Jason, who moved to speak. Harold cut him off. "You have tech designed to track Triffids, you have guns designed to kill Triffids, you have armour designed to stop Triffids killing you, and you have tactics that ensure victory. This is not back in the day when we were lambs to the slaughter, so what happened?" Harold stared, fierce and cold, into the eyes of the soldier.
"How?" Kateri asked, looking from one visitor to the other. Howl looked down at her interactive desk, indicating to it with his hands.
"There was an incident, a few days after the everflame was stolen, about two thirds of the way from Raven's Nest to Serra Draconis." Kateri watched him for a moment, then tapped on her desk corner, where the small light glowed. A window popped up, and she flicked through search directories, narrowing the criteria. A list of events appeared, all in the area between the two planets. Howl reached over, the guards pointed their guns, and the wolf froze.
"I was going to point to one," he said. Kateri nodded to the guards who returned to a ready position. Howl leaned further and pointed to a file about a destroyed merchant convoy. Kateri tapped it and it opened up. Images showed the convoy to be completely destroyed. There was just wreckage left. Notes hovered to the side of the images, showing a list of ship designations, cargo (of which nothing was missing,) and at the bottom, was a note typed in red. No evidence of weapons residue or explosive damage. The event was written of as a mystery, leaving scientists baffled. Kateri looked up at the visitors, and clenched her hands behind her back.
"So you think that whatever is coming to take the Everflame is what did this?" Howl nodded, while Seeker almost bowed.
"We are your only warning," she said. Kateri watched, and thought.
"How long does this warning last?" Howl winced and Seeker's smile faltered.
"We don't know," said the wolf. "Time doesn't work for us in the way it works for you. You could have five seconds or five hundred years, so you've got to act as soon as you can. You can't risk it." Kateri ran a hand through her blonde hair, then looked up at the timer above the door. Seeker turned to watch it as well, keeping her feelers in the air towards Kateri, who looked back down to the visitors.
"I'll have all this checked out, and if it turns out that you two are to be trusted, then I have to refer this to the politicians." Howl sighed, and made the smallest shake of his head, while Seeker turned to face her again. Her feelers curled back behind her like a crown, and she smiled, with a pleasant squint of her eyes. "It's my duty." The table lit up again, it was a communication from one of the soldiers, but the identity was scrambled. Kateri looked down at it and grumbled under her breath, before straightening herself and glancing over to the door. "Now unless you have anything else to tell me, I am busy." Seeker's colours dimmed flowing into her hair that danced like a flame as she bowed low, and then turned to leave. Howl looked from her to Kateri, becoming agitated.
"Wait, no we can't leave it like this," he said. Seeker looked back at him with deep soothing darkness in her eyes. She reached out her hand.
"We continue later, we tell others, okay?" she said, as she took his hand, and walked out with him in reluctant tow. He continuously shook his head.
"No, no this is dangerous."
The guards followed on behind, and the door closed, leaving Kateri alone in her office. She grabbed her chair and dropped herself into it, looking up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly for a moment, before reaching a hand forward and tapping her desk to answer her comms.
"Yes?"
On the ship Annie and Blaze were on, the man with a flashlight stifled a laugh. "Scavengers? Oh wait, nah, you're Explorator Mechanicusses, first class." He stepped out of the shadows, a rabbit in his mid-twenties wearing a slim space suit with an open helmet. He had his own pistol in one hand, aimed and ready, and the torch in the other. "You know, I don't think the people waiting for this ship, would like to know that you're nicking their stuff." He flicked the light to the ground, seeing the guns before lighting Annie and Blaze up again. "Kick them back to the door so my partner can take them off you, then follow me. We are going on a trip to the cargo bay." He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
Topic: Everflame 2 (FINISHED) (Read 54474 times)