NichosDufresne

  “You mean we almost lost them?” Cirrus asked darkly. Nessah kept calm as she faced the ire of the Tribunal. They were aware of the situation and the status report she was giving wasn’t being well received.

  “Yes,” Nessah forced out. “Every person remotely involved in the incident has been detained for questioning. The only exception being Irric, who’s still unconscious. The doctors estimate it will be several days until he wakes up. The dose of the sedative he was administered was quite strong.”

  “I want him questioned as well once he wakes up. I want to know why he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings when transporting something that important. For all we know, he could have deliberately allowed himself to get drugged to deflect suspicion.”

  “We can’t rule anything out, but how would he have alerted his accomplice? We can’t risk having somebody else check his data ste lest they see some of the information on it. The only person with the expertise that has that level of clearance is our other researcher who’s stationed on Verilia with Adrian.”

  “If they’ve been working together, how can we trust her?” Cirrus accused. “She could lie to us if she was in on it.”

  “Come now, Cirrus,” Orryn said. “I’m sure there’s a better expnation. We need to have some trust in our soldiers.”

  “That trust,” Cirrus spat, “is exactly how we got in this mess in the first pce. We’re lucky we managed to keep possession of the chemicals at all! At least now they’re secured, but this was almost a disaster of catastrophic proportions. What if they’d been stolen? We can’t have something that dangerous out there.”

  “I’m more curious in learning who the mole was working for and how they came into possession of the knowledge about this operation,” Maraz spoke up. “That sedative must have been prepared beforehand.” His gaze homed in on Nessah. “I thought we used trustworthy soldiers for this mission?”

  “So did we,” Nessah sighed. “The man who committed the attack wasn’t on any of our lists of suspected spies. For all intents and purposes, he was clean. Now that he’s dead, the only eyewitness left is Nadi. I’m not fond of the fact that she was left alone with the chemicals for so long. I’ve heard she’s been asking questions.”

  “Nadi,” Kaius interjected, “was the one who protected Irric. Her reaction time should be commended. It’s far more probable that the attacker was working alone.”

  Cirrus narrowed her eyes. “It’s suspicious that the attacker didn’t even attempt to shoot her, don’t you think?” She drummed her fingers on the desk. “Not to mention that she was left alone with the chemicals for an extended period of time. She might have opened the case and looked.”

  “There would be nothing gained, even if she did. At most, she would have seen a pair of colourful vials, with no indication as to their nature,” Kaius said. He cast a sidelong gnce towards Nessah. “If that’s all, General, you’re dismissed.”

  Nessah looked like she had more to say but kept silent when she spotted Cirrus nodding along. She gave Kaius a terse nod and her figure winked out of existence. A moment of silence passed before Orryn spoke up. “That was abrupt of you. We could have used her opinion. She knows the soldiers better than we do.”

  “I think it’s fine. She’s not supposed to listen in on our conversations anyway,” Cirrus said flippantly, making light of Orryn. “This is how it should be – how it should have been all along. She should have never been allowed to listen in at prior meetings as much as she has.”

  “How are we supposed to make informed decisions without the people closest to the problem weighing in?” Orryn remarked, shaking her head. She gave Cirrus a gre, but it was shrugged off without thought.

  “Right now we need a long-term solution to store those chemicals. We don’t have anywhere secure enough for them,” Kaius said before the quarreling Elders could continue. His voice was grim, and his look was sober as he spoke. The rest of the Elders sported simir expressions as they thought about the situation they’d found themselves in.

  “Why not keep them on the fgship? That way we don’t have to risk transferring them anywhere and having them get stolen?” Cirrus asked.

  “The fgship is an option, but I’m worried something might happen to them. Our soldiers know something is up now. Commander Cyrix personally retrieved an object from a murder scene and is actively suppressing information reting to it. That’s going to turn some heads. We can’t afford for people to become aware of the chemicals’ existence.”

  “So you want to hide them?” Orryn asked. “Won’t that raise more suspicion? Not only that, we don’t have any facilities we can securely store them in. Even our most draconian measures aren’t good enough for something so heinous.”

  “We simply build a new facility,” Kaius proposed. “One specifically designed to store something so dangerous. They won’t be leaving the fgship anytime soon. We should have ample time to design and build something adequate.”

  “That still doesn’t solve how we’ll get them back to Verilia,” Maraz pointed out. “Right now they’re safer where they are. The fgship is a fortress armed to the teeth. If we move them from their location, we run the risk of whoever’s transporting them escaping with them or taking some for themselves. We’d have no way of knowing.”

  “There’s a team we can trust for this,” Kaius said.

  Cirrus frowned. “The only team that has information on the situation is the one guarding Adrian. We can’t remove them from their post to transport the chemicals. If the ship Jyn’s team uses leaves for the mission, Adrian would be stranded at the house with no way to get any supplies and they can’t exactly bring him along.”

  “You’re forgetting Nadi’s team. They’ve proven to be trustworthy when dealing with the second person we found. Surely, they can be trusted again to carry out a transport mission following the same rules.”

  “I still think the chemicals are best off where they are,” Maraz insisted. “We’ve already got our hands full with the investigation into this incident. We don’t need more people noticing what’s going on. There’s no way to guarantee something like what happened today won’t happen again. We were lucky this time, all things considered.”

  “You’re asking us to trust the team of one of the people implicated in this mess. That’s a lot, Kaius,” Cirrus said ftly. “Especially when that person is currently under interrogation. I agree with Maraz on this one.”

  “The other team won’t know about their leader’s circumstances since they’ve been gone the whole time this happened. If they ask after her, we can tell them she’s occupied with a mission pnet-side. If we send them off right away with the chemicals when they return, they won’t learn anything about their captain.”

  “I’m not inclined to take such a risk either,” Orryn stated. “They’ll be safer where they are now.”

  “We’ll inevitably have to transport them elsewhere,” Kaius insisted. “We should prepare for that time now, while we still can.” Discussion broke out amongst the Elders on what their next course of action should be. Kaius was unusually persistent in his stance on the matter. His logic was enough to ultimately convince the other Elders to go with his pn. “I believe that brings us to majority,” he announced once it was clear that all parties had chosen a side. “We’ll build a new facility here – one that can properly house the chemicals.”

  Cirrus made a sour face. Along with Orryn and Maraz, they were the only ones opposed to Kaius’ pn. The others had refused to listen to their points against the proposal. Looking across the room, she saw that Orryn was making a simir expression, displeased at the outcome. “This is a mistake. We shouldn’t rush something this important.”

  “I thought you of all people would want those chemicals securely under our control,” one of the other Elders spoke up. Cirrus shot the man a withering look which he promptly ignored with a sly smile.

  “They’re already secured. This just adds unnecessary risk.”

  “Who’s going to take charge of building the facility?” Maraz asked, changing the topic. “It’s going to be a lot of work and with the experiments on pnts, I simply don’t have the time to dedicate to something this important.” The Elders exchanged unsure gnces, silently debating whether they would be able to take on the task.

  “I will,” Kaius announced when nobody spoke up. “Unless there are any problems with that. We can put the matter to a vote after more discussion.” Cirrus scowled at the thought of wasting even more of her time. Some of the others simply shrugged, not wanting to take on the additional work either.

  Maraz drummed his fingers in thought. “Since this is your idea, I suppose it’s fine if you’re in charge. What’s our budget for the project?”

  “Our budget is irrelevant. Something this important should be given the proper resources. Otherwise, what’s the point? Cutting corners is the best way to have somebody exploit our weaknesses in the future.”

  “I might not like the pn,” Orryn spoke up, “but that I can agree on. I want those chemicals locked up so tight they never see the light of day again.”

  “People might notice if we start spending massive amounts of money off the books,” Cirrus pointed out. “But in this case, I think it’s more than justified.”

  Debate broke out as everyone present weighed in on how best to transport the chemicals and when. It was ultimately decided to have the team that had transferred Stanley take on the mission, as they had proven themselves trustworthy in their eyes. Nadi was specifically barred from participating, regardless of the reason. On that point, everyone agreed.

  With less than three weeks left until the team would return to the fgship, the Elders had a scant six to put together their most secure facility yet. Orryn and Cirrus voiced their concerns about the timeframe but were reassured by Kaius that it would get done in time. Contingencies were put in pce on where to store the chemicals should their deadline fail to be met.

  A pn was hammered out in record time, each of the Elders giving the task their full attention. Possible locations to hide the chemicals in were discussed and one was finally selected after a tense debate. Very few people would wander up North to where the ice caps were, and it would be easy to hide the facility in an area known to have frequent storms.

  “If that is all, then I suggest we adjourn for the day,” Kaius announced. “We’ve done good work. I have no doubt such vile creations will never see the light of day.” The others nodded along, pleased that a swift yet thorough response had been determined while he suppressed the urge to smile.