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31_days2007-02-07 10:32 pm
inaqui.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2007-02-07 10:32 pm
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Title: Fifth Column part 6
Day/Theme: Feb 7th/the white lady
Series: Original
Character(s)/Pairings: Original
Rating: G
Day/Theme: Feb 7th/the white lady
Series: Original
Character(s)/Pairings: Original
Rating: G
Admiral Juri’s lips pursed as she read the report on the damages to Valentine’s hangar deck. Irretrievable wreckage had been made of the three test ships, as well as of the infrastructure of the entire deck. Valentine had docked for repairs at Kalen, leaving her fleet one superdestroyer down at a tense moment. This was purely unacceptable, but she couldn’t seem to find the chink in the chain that had allowed it to happen. Thus far, it was no one’s fault that Branner had been allowed to slip through the net. There had been no indication of her dissention: two successful flight runs of the new Mako, and then what Juri could only write off as inexplicable madness. She was horrifically injured by her own plot, and wasn’t predicted to be fit to stand trial for months. Which posed a rather unique problem. The media needed a scapegoat now to blame all their troubles on; they were vicious like that, and she couldn’t afford to have them on her back. It would be weeks before the flight tests could be restarted, and realistically, she didn’t think that they had that kind of time.
Advance ships showed evidence of the Black fleet moving into position around a small planet only a few jumps away, for a reason she couldn’t figure out yet. But they were gathering, circling her and her people like vultures around a sick animal. Just waiting for her to lose focus and falter before they swarmed in and devoured everything she held dear.
Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she dearly wished that she were the drinking sort. She pressed the button for the link to her aide.
“Trina, send him in.”
“Yessir.”
The door to her office hissed open and a well-presented young man marched through in perfectly correct posture, about-facing and standing at full attention before her desk.
“Special Agent Hayes, I hardly need tell you why you’ve been summoned.”
He didn’t reply, staring at a point on the wall behind her. She didn’t think he’d even blinked since he’d come in.
“I believe the cruiser Valentine to be compromised, and you are to investigate, covertly, each of the crew. Send me reports every two days. I expect to remain fully informed. No action other than reconnaissance is to be undertaken without my strict permission. Is that clear?”
“Sir,” was his sparse reply.
“Good. My aide will arrange the details. Dismissed.”
He left with as much military snap as he had entered with. Juri rolled her eyes at his back and muttered under her breath about idiot fanatics. Oh well, she supposed he would do his job.
She wanted that spy’s blood. The entire future of the White fleet might depend on it. If he’d got to Branner, a model soldier, who else could they sway?
Advance ships showed evidence of the Black fleet moving into position around a small planet only a few jumps away, for a reason she couldn’t figure out yet. But they were gathering, circling her and her people like vultures around a sick animal. Just waiting for her to lose focus and falter before they swarmed in and devoured everything she held dear.
Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she dearly wished that she were the drinking sort. She pressed the button for the link to her aide.
“Trina, send him in.”
“Yessir.”
The door to her office hissed open and a well-presented young man marched through in perfectly correct posture, about-facing and standing at full attention before her desk.
“Special Agent Hayes, I hardly need tell you why you’ve been summoned.”
He didn’t reply, staring at a point on the wall behind her. She didn’t think he’d even blinked since he’d come in.
“I believe the cruiser Valentine to be compromised, and you are to investigate, covertly, each of the crew. Send me reports every two days. I expect to remain fully informed. No action other than reconnaissance is to be undertaken without my strict permission. Is that clear?”
“Sir,” was his sparse reply.
“Good. My aide will arrange the details. Dismissed.”
He left with as much military snap as he had entered with. Juri rolled her eyes at his back and muttered under her breath about idiot fanatics. Oh well, she supposed he would do his job.
She wanted that spy’s blood. The entire future of the White fleet might depend on it. If he’d got to Branner, a model soldier, who else could they sway?