The medications were beginning to wear off when Natalia visited her injured brother.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked, stroking Shido’s soft, currently black hair.

  “Better, Kay knows her stuff. With the bones aligned I should have this healed within the next week.” He closed his eyes. “None of the others made it, did they.”

  “No, it…it is just You, me, Saki, Takada and Noriko.”

  “Shit.” The two sat silently together for a few minutes as they both tried to accept the number of people they would never see again.

  “Talia these guys need somewhere to go.”

  “I know. They’ve been having meetings about it all day. Not that we are invited.”

  “What about Diana.”

  “Diana? What about….oh.” Natalia’s brain steered away from being the grieving sister, and stepped back into its command role as she pondered Shido’s suggestion. “It’s risky, but anything these people do is going to be risky. No, it won’t work. We only have about three weeks to put everything together, and we have no intel on what security is like.”

  “Now that’s not quite true.” Shido gave her a half-guilty look. “I hacked the Army’s server for practice. I have full specs on everything, saved in a data-chip hidden in the war room. We are going to need to get that information from the tower though. I didn’t keep a backup of that on my comm-band.”

  Hope sparkled in Natalia’s eyes. “If we can get that info we may have a chance!” Natalia stood and began pacing. “I’ll need to talk to Rei. His people may not even accept Diana as a viable solution.”

  “If they don’t, their idiots.” said Shido as he watched Natalia stride out of the room, purpose in her gait.

  Natalia waited for Rei in his room, already planning on how she would infiltrate her own building to get the information they needed. When Rei came in he found her pacing furiously, but she stopped and looked at him. “Any headway?”

  “No, they are still arguing about if they can re-integrate into Undercity without getting caught.”

  “How much do you know about System politics?”

  “Um… you mean like the Moon and stuff?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not much.” He admitted.

  “You know that resources have been…lighter recently, chips haven’t been buying as much as they use too.”

  Rei nodded, “That’s why the Ferals have been getting worse recently.”

  “Well the reason there are less resources is the Moon. For the last twenty years or so a major chunk of our food has come from the lunar colony, and we paid for it in water and raw materials. Well, as I am sure you are aware good water is practically a luxury item anymore, and even using plasticine instead of wood or metal, we don’t have a lot of stuff.”

  “The government started cutting back on what it was paying the Moon, Luna, for food, and since the Lunars weren’t getting paid they cut back what they were sending.”

  “Makes sense. The government got cheap and the Moon said screw you.”

  “The government feels that Luna should show greater loyalty to Earth, since the Lunars came from here, but yeah basically. Luna’s decision to cut back shipments seriously pissed off the council, and they decided if the Lunars were not willing to support Earth, then Earth needed to take back the Moon.” Natalia sat on the edge of the desk.

  “To do this they started building a warship. The first built on Earth since the War. They named her Diana. She is about three weeks from completion. ”

  “The council is going to attack the Moon? That explains the recruitment posters.” Rei mused.

  “Yes, the Diana is supposed to be able to support ten thousand troops. She’s top secret. The only reason I know about it is they pulled all the ISF officers into a special meeting so that we could watch out for any danger to the project. If we can get our hands on the Diana we can get all of your people out of here. You could go any where. Start your own colony somewhere far away from here. “

  “We.”

  “What?”

  “We could go anywhere. I’m not leaving you behind, no matter what Alexander thinks. But how are we going to steal a multi-billion cred starship?”

  “I need to go back to the Tower. Shido hacked the army’s computer and has all of the security for Diana on a Data-chip in our headquarters.”

  “Are you crazy? You want to go back in there?” The male Kitsune yelled, staring at her in shock.

  “Yes.” Natalia answered calmly. “But I do have a plan.”

  The chaos that followed Rei, dragging Natalia behind him, re-entering the small side room where the meeting was being held and dropping the Diana option on the table was a sight to behold. All fifteen people, leaders of the different sub-groups within the small community of the Deep, spent the next ten minutes yelling at each other at the top of their lungs and ignoring what the others were saying. It only ended when the mind-numbing howl of a sonic stunner set on riot mode ripped through the room, sending more than a few of the crowd to their knees.

  Alexander, and Kay who was standing beside him, slid the sound canceling headsets used with the weapons off of their heads, the Siren holstering the stunner he’d just used. They looked around the room, waiting for everyone to regain their feet.

  “Are you all done now?” Alexander’s soft, gravelly voice somehow filled the entire room. He didn’t wait for a reply from anyone. “Good.”

  “How sure are you that we could even get to this thing?” Kay asked, looking at Natalia.

  The former InSec major shrugged. “It should be doable, in theory, if we have the right information on security procedures and the facility it’s in.” She paused, trying to remember the one briefing she had personally received on the project several months ago. “From what I remember the Magnetic Acceleration launch cradle, and the ship it’s self, was built in an otherwise unused Undercity in the expansion area of the Tasmania arcology. Actually, the recent construction and moving of civilian contractors out to those new communities was partially to cover up the construction, and the sudden disappearance of the crews working on it.”

  “This is where our biggest obstacle rests.” Alexander commented. “The security file is currently sitting in your team’s quarters at InSec Central. None of us have access to that building.”

  “I do.” Natalia stated.

  Rei frowned, as did most of the others around the scarred table. “Talia, you’re access codes are basically just a ‘kill me now’ request at this point. They’ll kill you the second you tried to use them.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “So, I won’t use mine.” Natalia smirked. “A crèche mate of mine is an InSec/Leo field liaison in D-2. She actually lives in an apartment down there, and she never takes all her personal identification anywhere. One of her cred-chips will be plenty to get me into the tower, and the personal quarters don’t have any additional checkpoints to clear.”

  Then she grinned. “As for getting into my apartment, Shido was… intimate with the maintenance woman for our floor, and got her access code for all the living quarters. He’ll give those to me once I tell him I knew all this time.”

  Alexander nodded. “What about flying this ship once we get it. We can’t really trust any pilots we kidnap.”

  “Shido and Saki are both certified pilots, and are checked out on the trans-atmospheric craft we use to resupply research stations around the world. Leaving the atmosphere is about the only way to avoid chem and nuke clouds.”

  “Those little flitters aren’t the same as a ten thousand man assault ship.” A Siren near Kay stated with a frown. “Would those skills really translate?”

  “Normally, I doubt it.” Natalia conceded. “However, the Diana is being equipped with an artificial intelligence computer that will take most piloting duties away from her crew. The simplified controls should be well within my people’s ability to handle.”

  “Assuming we trust InSec goons!” A man across from Rei and Natalia snarled.

  “We can!” Alexander growled out, before Rei could snap back himself. “I’ve been monitoring them since we got here, and I know all the Sirens in this room have been close enough to the InSec expatriates to confirm their sincerity with me.” He gestured at the three albinos around the table, all of whom nodded.

  “I don’t recall asking you to do that.” Kay growled at their former leader.

  “But I did, and I’m sure they are on our side.” Alexander stated, unrepentant.

  Kay frowned, as did several others around the table, but shrugged. “True enough. So who is going to go with Natalia to get the data?”

  “No one. I have to go alone.”

  That kicked off another shouting match from the gathered leaders, which only cut off when Alexander drew his pistol and set it on the table.

  “Why only you? It’s not safe!” Rei insisted. “Someone has to back you up!”

  “Up to the entering of the building, you’re right. I’ll take Saki. However, the security systems at Central only allow one entry per ID swipe, and will ping multiple swipes of the same ID.” Natalia explained. “Only one person can enter, and that has to me. Saki can’t fake my friend’s office face like I can.”

  “But I…” Rei started only to have Alexander interrupt him.

  “You have to lead some people to those stashes I had you hide, Rei. We’ll need assault weapons if her data is any good.”

  “But…”

  “And he’s right, Rei.” Natalia set her hand on the male Kitsune’s arm. “You have a job, and so do I. We have less then three weeks to prep any combatants we can get ready. I need to get the data now, and you need to get the weapons now, so we can be prepared.”

  Rei growled, but finally and reluctantly he nodded.

  Kay smiled sympathetically to her brother, before she turned and spoke to the crowd. “John, get your boy’s together and go with Rei. Natalia, good luck.”

  “Let’s get this together, people!”

  Getting what she needed from Celina’s home was as easy as Natalia had hoped. Once she had the chip, and a set of the woman’s dirty clothing, she and Saki made their way to the Sydney station bathroom, which was still being ignored. Natalia wondered how long it would be until people started using it again.

  Natalia took a deep breath and began shape shifting and re-tuning her body. She shifted her hair to an ultra short blonde bob and her eyes turned a soft grey green. She changed her face so that it looked softer and rounder and added extra fat to her breasts and buttocks. Sergeant Celina Yu liked her curves. Lastly, she deadened her pheromone glands, and wiped her body down with cleaning fluid from the bathroom sink. She did not need Kitsune still loyal to InSec to pick up her scent.

  “I don’t like you going in alone.” Said Saki as Natalia stripped and changed into the used uniform, which covered her in her friend’s scent.

  “The more people go in the more likely we are to get caught.” Natalia said, her voice changing as she spoke, modifying it to match Celina’s.

  Saki hugged her. “Be safe.”

  She smiled. “I can’t, but I will be careful.”

  Natalia got onto the tram and leaned against the tube-train’s wall concentrating on keeping her heart rate down. This is a mission, just like any other mission. She told herself. When the tube stopped, she sauntered out with the soft subtle twitching of her hips that Celina was known for. She looked at the InSec headquarters, gleaming white spires sparkling within a plasticine shell, looking like a haven against the muddy yellow brown of the sky. False promises she realized.

  She wished there was some way to let all the teams know what had happened, but she wasn’t sure how to do it.

  She scanned Celina’s chip and walked into the main building. People were milling around and there was an air of grief that hung over the place. Natalia’s heart pounded in rage as she saw a small memorial set up for her and her team, a small paper sign bore a funerary haiku:

  They stood for the City.

  Dead in the name of Duty.

  May Gaia hold them.

  There was a framed picture of her team’s graduation photo, as well as individual pictures. Surrounding it were dozens of small notes, messages for the dead left by grieving friends. She turned and walked away before she betrayed herself with either tears or rage. She picked up a file sitting on a desk as she walked past it and made her way to the elevator.

  It was hard to not break her cover, all around her she felt the ghosts of her team, whispering old memories to her. She took the elevator up to the twelfth floor, administrative offices, then snuck to the stairs that spiraled up and down the Tower. Shido used the stairs whenever he visited his lovers because they were not as heavily monitored.

  She made her way up the seven flights of stairs to her team’s floor, and punched in the code Shido had seduced out of the maid. The door popped open, and Natalia slid in. It was like a punch in her stomach as a lifetime of scents filled her nose. She trembled as she walked through to the main living area, imagining Miyuki painting her nails, and Haru and Regin holding animated telepathic arguments. She stopped as the sick sweet smell of blood worked its way into her nose. She followed it to Douglas’s room. She closed her eyes in pain as she saw a bloody smear on the computer. He was just a baby. He didn’t know anything. He shouldn’t even have been here!

  She turned and resolutely went into the old war room. The files had been ransacked. Shredded paper ankle deep covered the entire floor. And there were holes where the comp-pads had been ripped out of the table. She made her way to the chairs and began turning them over till she found Shido’s, where she unscrewed the wheel and a small data chip fell into her hand.

  Carefully she began to shape a tiny pocket in her flesh, a tiny pouch just under her navel. She slipped the chip into the pouch and shifted it closed. She ran her hand over the area, and nodded. She didn’t feel anything.

  She left the war-room, resisting the urge to go into her bedroom, or her office, although the stores of cred-chips she’d stock up on were tempting.

  As she slipped back into the stairwell, closing the door behind her became one of the hardest things she had ever done because she knew she was closing the door on everything she had loved and been taught for the last twenty years.

  She began to work her way back down when the alarms went off. She ran for the door to the level she was on, and heard the door his as the pressurized locks went off sealing her in the stairwell. She rushed down to a security terminal and saw Celina’s face flashing. Of course she would decide to come to central today. Why wouldn’t she? Damn it I just needed five more minutes and I would’ve been clear!

  Natalia heard boots thundering up the stairs, she spun around and raced up. When she heard more steps going down, pinning her, she saw only one chance. She ran down the stairs, hardening her skin, and leapt into the half dozen men scaling them to send them tumbling down the stairs. She landed on her feet and moved to run when a stun bolt slammed into her back.

  Natalia grunted as she rolled down a half dozen steps. Before she could blink she was in shackles and five minutes later she found herself being pulled in front of Colonel Trencher.

  She could not keep the rage out of her eyes as she looked at him. This was the man who had ordered her team killed, who had murdered her family. He grabbed a needle and pulled a syringe of blood out of her arm. Putting a drop of it into an identifier unit, he blinked as he read the name.

  “You killed them.” She hissed.

  “I did what I had to so that humanity would survive.” He moved over to his desk and typed a quick message.

  “If there had been any other way, I would have taken it. But for us to survive…sacrifices must be made.

  “How about named. Haru! Aaron! Miyuki! They served, they fought, they bled to protect this City and you killed them, and Gaia knows how many others to keep your damned secrets!” Natalia snarled.

  “Their sacrifices will be honored, and so will yours.” Trencher pulled a pistol out of his desk drawer and tuned it to lethal. Natalia glared at him, and raised her chin defiantly. His comm unit beeped and he glanced down. A sad look crossed his face as he holstered his weapon.

  “That was command. I would have preferred to give you a clean death. You deserve that much for all your service. But I am being ordered to hand you over to Osaka for breeding.”

  He turned to the men holding her. “Take her downstairs to the loading docks. I will arrange to have transport to meet you there. And gag her. She is not to speak to anyone.”

  One of the soldiers ripped the front out of her uniform and shoved it in her mouth before they half carried her down to the med bay and dragged her kicking body out to the bright green MRD van as she fought them with everything she had. They strapped her down then shoved another needle in her arm shooting something into her system that within moments had forced her into unconsciousness.