Liz tapped the sterile white countertop with increasing anxiety as she waited at the visitor reception desk for the nurse to return. The overhead lights buzzed alarm in the tense silence while a fan spun lazily overhead. An electronic display flashed colorful health and welfare notices featuring a cartoon of the SMCAF eagle. She glanced at Taylor who had taken a seat in the small reception room. He met her gaze with a worried frown. Something was not right. They had suspected as much when they had been repeatedly denied entry to see Jakob over the past few days. Liz slumped against the counter with a frustrated groan. At that moment the door to the ward swung open and an elderly nurse shuffled in with their eyes glued to the data tablet on their wrist.

  “Excuse me,” Liz said managing a polite voice. “We would like to see our friend, but the attendant we first talked too seems to have disappeared.”

  “I’m so sorry about that. Let me get you checked in,” The nurse said as she logged into the desk terminal with a swipe of her hand to transfer the login. Liz watched her work with relief as she shot another hopeful glance at Taylor.

  “Their name dear?”

  “Jakob S Miller,” Liz replied as clearly as she could. The nurse hummed acknowledgment as she swiped through rows of text. Her expression dropped at something she read.

  “I’m so sorry dear but it says here that your friend is deceased.”

  “When?” Liz roared as she nearly leapt over the counter. Taylor stepped in before she did. The Nurse recoiled in shock as Liz struggled against his grasp like a chained animal.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” The nurse apologized with a startled whimper. She quickly swiped through panes of text on her data pad with a trembling hand. “I-I’m afraid I can’t say much more on the matter if you’re not next of kin.”

  “Bullshit,” Liz roared as she tore the monitor from the nurses grasp to read the display herself. “He has no next of kin!”

  “As you can see the records have been sealed,” The nurse stammered as she fought for the screen. Liz held fast as she rapidly read through the sparse redacted document.

  “None of this makes any sense and you know it” she exclaimed as she prodded the terminal. “Why would SMCAF High Command order the records sealed?”

  Liz clamped her mouth shut as she glowered at the nurse.

  “Thank you for your time,” she abruptly hissed through gritted teeth. Liz then pushed Taylor through the door and into the empty corridor. She immediately broke into a stride.

  “Liz what the hell is going on?” he pleaded as he ran to keep pace with her. “Is Jakob really dead?”

  “I don’t know,” She answered curtly as she pulled something up on her wrist pad. She cursed aloud as she found Jakob's name unceremoniously listed among the weeks obituaries. “Someone sure wants us to think he did.”

  “Why?”

  “I can think of several reasons,” Liz said in a hushed voice as she grabbed Taylor by the shoulder and redirected him down another hallway and out of sight of a group of soldiers. “SMCAF may want to cover-up evidence of a Syn borne contagion.”

  “The infection,” Taylor agreed with a nervous nod. Liz silently agreed with a nod of her own then once again quickened her pace.

  “But we were all together!” Taylor added after a moment of thought. “You and I were medically cleared fit for duty. That whole ward is full of people bitten and mauled by Syn.”

  “By our Syn,” Liz stressed as she waved Taylor into an unoccupied observation module. Outside the tinted skylight sailed the long gray shape of a long overdue SMCAF Cruiser trailing wisps of smoke from its blackened and pock marked hull. The arrival of the ravaged ship that morning had raised moral considerably on top of news that the rescue mission on Meridian Prime was proceeding smoothly. Liz continued.

  “Agra and Quintek represent a totally different population of the Syncline race. It’s completely possible that Jakob was exposed to the first documented Syncline pathogen while we were on Altaire IV. Elements of SMCAF would happily exploit something like that for the war effort. A certain vocal minority have been lobbying for the use of chemical and biological weapons for years. They must be the ones who faked his death and took him as a test subject."

  “How would we know for sure? If SMCAF High command as a whole is responsible then what might they do to us if we start asking questions.”

  Liz thought on that as she leaned against the wall.

  “We need to find some way to unseal his case file. Maybe we can track him down ourselves and blow the lid off this thing. We need to find a high level medical officer with the credential codes willing to help us.”

  “Patricia Anson,” Taylor suggested quickly. They had briefly run into Greg Anson's widow a few days before. They needed to find her.

  The Navigator languished on the hard floor of his cell with his eyes shut to block out the harsh constant light of the overhead illumination panels. His red feathers bristled as he rolled restlessly onto his side to curl up with his arms over his head. He bemoaned his predicament with low clicking curses in the Sacred Tongue. The indignity of his situation would have been bearable if he had silence. Instead the human in the cell across from his had a visitor and their inane unintelligible mumbling had gone on for what seemed like hours.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Marco is trying his best to get you out of here,” the one outside the cell offered.

  “Marco shouldn’t be risking his job to get me out of here. What’s the point?” the one in the cell said softly. Their voice accompanied the steady rhythm of a head tapping against the glass.

  “Don’t say that,” The one outside the cell begged. “Please Adelaide don’t think like that. I may not have always been there for you, but I’m here for you now.

  “Mom its ok,” the one called Adelaide insisted. There was an uncertain pause. “Honest.”

  The Navigator groaned despair as he retreated further into his mind to seek comfort in familiar dogma. The edicts explicitly condemned all races untouched by the shining grace of the Divine One as barely civilized animals and the humans were no exception. They were violent brutish creatures undeserving of the Mistress’s Sympathies. Though separated by glass he was sickened to be so near to the one who dared to lay a hand on his Matriarch’s heir. He had not seen Mistress Agra since the humans had taken her bloodied lifeless body away. The sight of her tainted red blood only had chilled him to his core. Agra was exactly as the edicts foretold

  “Recognize her poisoned body and corrupted mind. Fear her divine wraith, for she is the instrument of our destruction.” The Navigator murmured to himself with rote despair. Perhaps Agra was better off dead a part of him wondered. Agra would never get the opportunity to destroy his people even if he was doomed regardless. That would at least comfort the part of him devastated by her loss.

  “Enough about me, how is Agra?” The voice of the human occupying the cell across from him said in her warbly mumbling voice. Perhaps her name was Adelaide he decided. The other human outside the cell had used it enough. The Navigator certainly understood the name of the Mistress and shot up in response. Was she alive?

  “I don’t know if I can face her again after what I did,” Adelaide asked with a sniffle as she continued to lay with her slim fleshy human face pressed against the glass. She took in a breath with a defeated expression, her morose brown eyed gaze drifting up towards the Navigator. The Navigator withdrew from her sympathetic stare.

  “Look at them,” she said. “I have fallen so low to repulse even a Syn.”

  “Agra will forgive you, has forgiven you,” the other human soothed by placing her had on the glass as if too cup Adelaide’s face. “She knew you’d hate her but she came here anyways.”

  “I’ve spent my whole life fighting to avenge father.” Adelaide said with a croak of despair. “Agra was the one who did it, but she wouldn’t have had too if we didn’t abandon him. I nearly killed her anyway. Why should she forgive me?”

  “Because that is what your Father would have wanted. I’ve seen his logs. All he ever wanted was for his precious daughters to meet.”

  “Then what have I been fighting for all this time?” she cried with a defeated sob as she once again pounded her head against the glass. “What do I fight for now?”

  “The same thing Agra’s fighting for, a future.”

  The silence that followed was calming even for the Navigator who had understood none of it.

  “Thank goodness you’re here,” A familiar voice cried out abruptly. The Navigator turned as another pair of humans rounded the corner and in an obvious hurry. The other Syn startled in surprise clustering together to stare at the new arrivals with obvious recognition. They were the same humans who had accompanied Agra before. Like all humans they had names which the Navigator struggled to remember.

  “You two!” Adelaide exclaimed with a growl of annoyance as she bolted to her feet. She quickly wiped her face and took on a stone faced expression. The other human stood up to greet them as well.

  “I’m Elizabeth and this is Taylor,” one of the pair said as they reintroduced themselves. The Navigator listened intently making sure to commit their names to memory. They obviously had Agra’s favor and only through them could he hope to find her.

  “You’re the ones who arrived with Agra.”

  “Yes, us and our friend Jakob,” Taylor said breathlessly. “That’s why we’ve been looking for you Dr Anson. We need your help finding him.”

  “Something’s wrong,” Liz sharply explained before Dr Anson had a chance to speak. “Someone in SMCAF High Command marked him deceased and sealed his file. You’re the only one we know who could access his records and tell us what’s going on.”

  “I advised on his case,” Dr Anson pondered aloud incredulously. “I should have been notified about any change in his condition let alone death. Are you sure you’re not mistaken.”

  “Yes,” Liz shouted with an exasperated plea. “Please I don’t know who else to turn to.”

  Dr Anson pursed her lips and raised her wrist and began swiping her finger against the data pad there. The Navigator watched with the others as Dr Anson paused to look up at the others. She obscured her wrist and tapped several times then rapidly read what she found.

  “Yes this is very odd,” she agreed after a long moment of anticipation. “No signature by any attending physician I know or proper record of what happened to the body if there even is one. Whoever did this was in a hurry. Oh, that’s interesting.”

  “What is?” Taylor asked.

  “I can view the reported weight of whatever was brought into and removed from his room by the transport robots. Something was brought into the room then removed shortly thereafter. The final reported weight was roughly that of your average human male plus a medical stasis pod. Those pods are valuable and not one would be allowed to go unaccounted for.”

  “Can you check the inventory?” Liz urged.

  “I’m way ahead of you miss.” Dr Anson said as she rapidly swiped again through pages of text. She hummed intrigue as her attention fixed on something.

  “Says here a Commander Audrey Sparks signed for and took possession of a medical stasis pod shortly after your friend’s apparent time of death.”

  “That Czarist bitch,” Adelaide grumbled under her breath. The others stared at her

  “I take it you know her then?” Liz asked.

  “She’s a real hardliner to the core. Reports directly to General Ramsey too. The commander visited me a few days ago, said some strange things about winning at all costs and that she’d been reassigned. I got a real bad vibe from her. She was absolutely dedicated to protecting this facility and only something of incredible importance could compel her to step away without complaint.

  “Jakob,” Taylor said.

  “Whatever it is cannot be good if a Czarist like her is involved,” Adelaide offered with a low growling voice.

  “Does it say where she went with him?”Liz asked through gritted teeth.

  “I don’t have access to that kind of information. I’m sorry”

  “Damn it!” Liz yelled with a fist slammed against the glass. “They took him.”

  “I’ll speak to Crozier about this at once,” Dr Anson offered with some urgency.

  “That’s not good enough,” Liz spat. “He’s been taken somewhere outside the redoubt. “SMCAF took him. They won’t help us.”

  Dr Anson nodded somber understanding. Liz pulled away from the others with shoulders slumped in defeat. Her fiery gaze drifted up towards the Navigator with wide eyed realization. The Navigator pulled back from the glass as Liz strode up to him. Whatever the humans were talking about now featured him. What could they possibly want?

  “You on the other hand have a ship,” She told the Syncline with a smile as she formulated a plan. “You can help us get out of here and the find where the bastards took him.”

  “Liz he’s in a cell,” Taylor frowned.

  “I may be able to help in that regard,” Dr Anson said in a barely audible voice as she bowed her head and placed a hand on Adelaide’s cell. Adelaide looked at the woman in shock.

  “Mother?” she asked with worry plainly on her face.

  “Promise me that you’ll never come back,” Dr Anson pleaded. She looked at the others.

  “The war is lost. Join Agra and leave when you still can. Maybe together you can find a future worth fighting for.”