"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE ELEVEN: "POSSESSIVE NECESSITIES"
(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ACT FOUR>>
The lower levels of the Alidiae redoubt -- July 15th, 2267.
They'd taken her weapon, her cloak and tunic from her, and of *course* it did no good to struggle, what with metal bonds holding her securely at ankles, waist, wrist and neck... never *mind* the horrible brace they'd put around her jaw -- Julia breathed as deeply as she could, and tried not to squirm as hundreds of silvery sensor probes wriggled under and pierced her shirt and trousers -- she had her part to play -- she just hoped that everyone else remembered *theirs*.
"Any last words before we begin, *Ranger*?" the blonde-haired Brakiri smugly asked her. "Come now -- not even a cry of defiance?"
Julia gave the girl her most withering glance. "For a cousin of one of my finest friends, your manners leave a great deal to be desired."
"And therein lies her greatest flaw!" Kareina Alidiae explained, her voice now full of anger. "Polluted by the Minbari and your kind, twisted away from what should have been her destiny! Even after she was returned to us, you were not content to let the natural order of our lives resume -- no, instead you walk into our innermost halls, and made *demands* you had no right to make!
And now," the Brakiri concluded, as the nervous scientists lowered the helmet over Julia's head, "Now, you must be punished for your crimes against my people and, more importantly, our family. The Nei-Leidrei was right in what she said -- you *will* service us, Ranger. No, let me be more specific -- you will service *me*."
"I think *not*."
A laugh. "She said the same thing in your place, human -- but enough. Have you loaded the new program into your system files?" Kariena suddenly asked of her assistants.
"We have, Nei-lahl -- and stand ready to inject the Verfahrin into her bloodstream." Julia winced, then, as a sharp pain on her arm announced the entry of an intravenous needle -- and the Brakri girl's smile widened as she saw her distress. "Stand by."
At which point, the visor of the helmet lowered over her eyes -- and Julia waited, her heart beating just a little faster, to see what would happen next.
"Begin n..." <<swish-thump>>. The technicians cried out, and Kariena Alidiae's voice faltered, and then became alarmed as the sound of several bodies hitting the floor was heard. "What? How did, what are..."
<<Swish-swish thump>>. The hateful voice fell silent, and then a moment later she heard furtive footsteps approaching -- a hand briefly touched her face... and then the helmet was yanked back... revealing the familiar face of Moreil above her, looking down in concern. Julia let out a deep breath, as the Z'Shailyl carefully extracted the needle from her arm, and freed her head from the brace. "In Valen's Name, Moreil -- if you'd left it even a *moment* longer..."
"Not poss-ss-ible." the former Shadow servant assured her, as her bonds all popped open at once -- she frowned, now *that* had been a neat trick, she hadn't even seen him touch them -- "Almost from the moment they captured you, Huntleader, I have been following you. Was not my ss-tealth sufficient for our needs?"
"Absolutely!" she managed, as she quickly looked down at the three Brakiri lying on the floor. "How long do you think they're going to be out like that?"
Moreil shrugged. "I did not hit them that hard, Huntleader, nor was the kerlaaq' crystal set at full power. Perhaps two thirds of a merazzh'..." Julia gave him a look, and the Z'Shailyl grinned toothily. "Thirty or forty of your kind's minutes, if all goes as expected."
"Tikopai, are you okay?" Julia turned to face the door, and finally smiled -- as Dechene and Klairika, Sheynell and Fenric just behind them, came into the room. "Oh," Dechene muttered, as she saw Moreil, "So *that's* where he got to."
"You're okay?" Julia asked, as she and Klairika came together.
"I think so... yes!"
"Come now!" Fenric reminded them, his voice tense, "There will be time for talking and reunions when we are safely back onboard the *Shard of Night* -- for now, we must still escape from this fortress-of-rock."
"And destroy the machine, of course..." Dechene reminded them, as she began rummaging through her pack for charges. "Before her crazy mother tries to reprogram any more of her enemies."
"And what about the other one they used on me?" Klairika reminded them.
"Your captain suggested we focus on one thing at a time, and she's right, of course -- we send a covert team in to destroy it later... that's if one of their rivals doesn't beat us to it."
"Fine!" Julia allowed, as she finishing dressing and bent down to retrieve her warrior pike from the still-unconscious Kariena Alidiae. "But Fenric's right -- let's not waste any more time -- we've still got to get to the top of this place to get out."
"You mean the side, don't you?" Klairika inquired with a frown. "There is no way of escaping from the top levels to the surrounding area."
"That's," Julia sweetly replied, as she made her way to the door with Fenric at her side, "Exactly what I want the enemy to think, as a matter of fact."
"Oh." Everyone watched Klairika's train of thought abruptly change tracks, and then the Brakiri smiled. "It's going to be one of *those* escapes, is it?"
"Exactly."
"Okay!" Dechene barked, as the intelligence officer rose to her feet, shouldered her pack and backed away from the machine at a run, while the rest of the Rangers dragged the unconscious Brakiri into a storage room, before closing and locking the door. "We've got maybe ninety seconds to preform a getting-the-hell-out-of-here maneuver, people! -- after that, this whole *room* is going to go boom!"
"Then I guess we should go." Julia replied. "Klairika -- how many guards does your mother have here?"
"Enough to give us trouble..." her first officer replied, as they burst out of the 'dungeon' and headed off down the corridor, while Moreil shimmered back out of sight as he re-engaged the stealth bio-circuits in his armor. "But knowing my mother, she's divided them between guarding all the exits and hunting for the rest of us -- and as far as she *knows*, there's only Fenric and Dechene here still at large."
<thud> -- there went one little problem. "That"s exactly what I want her to think," Julia told Klairika, as they moved furtively up to a corner in the passage -- and then, after Fenric gave the all-clear, headed for the nearby stairwell -- out of which came a party of *very* surprised Brakiri guards. "Oh *damn*," she whispered, as she and Dechene extended their pikes and ran forward, "Here we go!"
The Brakiri, of course, *never* stood a chance, so surprised were they -- and after a time, Klairika turned to face her friends. "Azhahk -- I have a favour to ask of you."
"Anything, Na'lai." the Arabian Ranger replied.
"I must borrow your denn'bok -- I have a... bone to pick with na raen-shahn Berane."
"He has your pike, doesn't he?" Sheynell asked, as the party drew near to a window carved in the side of the mountain.
"He does indeed."
"All *right*, then!" Julia suddenly exclaimed, as the comm-status on her wristlink suddenly went from amber to green as the Rangers paused beside the window. "We're in business! Val'na Tikopai to *Shard of Night*, is anybody out there?"
"And very relieved to hear your voice they are." Larieken replied, a moment later. "Your orders, Val'na?"
"Plan A, Larieken -- just like we discussed earlier on."
"Ah. Excellent -- we will be joining you shortly. *Shard of Night*, out." Julia began counting up -- one, two, three...
"Okay!" Dechene exploded, "Now *how* are you going to hide a 600 and more meter long warship from the Brakiri? It's a damn fine warship, I will admit, but aren't they going to detect the bowshock from its passage through the atmosphere?"
"Not... exactly. Nicholas and Larieken have been wanting to try this for a while, you see..."
"Try *what*?"
Julia explained.
* * *
Brakos orbital space.
"Well, well, well." Dawson gloated, as he all but *bounced* his way over to the first officer's station. "I was kinda hoping she'd give me the chance to play with the atmospheric mods -- this is going to be a lot of fun, actually."
"As you say." Larieken replied. "Stand by to transfer power to secondary propulsion system."
Dawson input a series of commands, and the familiar sound of the *Shard*'s main engines faltered -- and then faded completely away, to be replaced a moment later by a smoother, resonant vibration. The 'secondary' propulsion system in question was an experimental gravimetric drive that Varsak had ordered installed even before his people had finished preliminary tests on it. The Minbari engineer had not been one to worry too much about 'tests', of course, so sure was he of his designs. Nicholas, of course, had been fascinated by the concept -- one thing the *Shard*'s White Star predecessors hadn't possessed was a drive like those in the Sharlin class cruisers -- the battlecruiser, on the other hand... did. Although they couldn't use the damn thing for very long, of course, because it drank up so much power.
"Reactionless drive on-line." he reported. "Standing by on pressure-wave dampers."
"Excellent, Mr. Dawson. Dasouri, take us down into the atmosphere -- we have a team to retrieve."
His eyes bright, the Drazi immediately complied with that order -- and after a moment, the *Shard* slashed down out of its parking orbit at almost thirty standard gravities -- and courtesy of the drive, there were no heat sources to betray their movements. Only moments later, they began encountering the atmosphere, and Dasouri immediately began to dampen their forward momentum, which was where the pressure-wave dampers came in. Nicholas tapped in a series of commands -- and a moment later the battlecruiser's tiny whisker-probes began sampling the atmospheric state around their mothership, and tiny conal beams of force began to emerge from the hull, as the projectors began their job of *smoothing* the air towards something resembling normality. The process wasn't perfect, of course -- but more than sufficient to hide the Rangers and their ship from plain view as they descended ever lower into the atmosphere of Brakos.
Finally, the *Shard leveled off at an altitude of about two kilometers, and canted off towards local southwest across the icy polar oceans of Brakos, and began to close on the Heiljamar coastline and their target, slightly more then a thousand kilometers away. It would, Dawson reflected, not take them long to get there, of course. He fervently hoped that Julia and the rest of the team would be ready for pickup when they arrived.
* * *
"What, in the name of Kaz'h the Holy, is going on here?" Sionaya furiously exclaimed, as reports began drifting up the redoubt chain of command that something -- unusual was going on. A team had reached the lowest level only a short time before to learn that the room the re-education machine had been installed in had been firebombed... while the guards in question had shortly thereafter retrieved a quite unconscious Kareina, as well as the two technicians who'd accompanied her to the redoubt, from a nearby storage area. At the same time, reports had also reached her of the destruction of the main facility in Heiljamar. She ground her teeth irritably -- Bahkmein and the rest of his people were no doubt dead, as Kariena had darkly suggested might occur. As a result, this project was quite possibly also... dead.
This felt like the work of the Chadi...
"Nei-leidrei Alidiae." she turned, to find Taklaeih standing in the entrance of her office. "Word has come of a massed force of Chadi brotherhood troops approaching this position. The Krona syndicate forces have attempted to intercept them, but the crime lords appear to be... quite persistent. Our allies estimate they will be here in less than thirty standard minutes, and that the attack body will be sufficiently strong to enter this place, and kill all within."
"I will not leave without my daughter!" she snarled, as she stalked up her business rival. "There are Anla'shok within my walls -- and given the technology store in the lowest levels was destroyed a short time ago..."
"Oh... you must mean the second re-education machine." She drew in a harsh breath, and Taklaeih smiled thinly. "Do you seriously believe I wasn't aware of what you were doing? You must have been insane to believe the Chadi would not respond to this threat in force -- as they now have. While as for the Anla'shok, it appears that you have managed to enrage them, as well, by capturing your daughter and forcing her to return to this place."
"But... he assured me that the procedure would be without flaw!" she whispered, as her enemy listened to every word she spoke... and continued to smile his mirthless smile. "The programming -- it was supposed to be unbreakable!"
"An interesting claim -- if inaccurate." Taklaeih observed. "The most powerful telepaths in the Interstellar Alliance, for instance, are quite capable of restoring most if not all minds to normality under the right circumstances -- especially if the mind in question was not *truly* broken. You did not break her, Sionaya..." the magnate concluded, his tone cruel. "You only saw what she wanted you to see."
"You lie!"
"I do not believe you are in a position to cast insults at this juncture -- the Chadi draw nearer with each passing breath. I can save you and yours... for a price, that is."
She couldn't, she musn't! -- Sionaya Alidiae closed her eyes, and felt the darkness close in around her. "Name your price."
A terrifyingly predatory smile appeared on Taklaeih's face. Which was, of course, when a raen-shahn appeared in the door. "Nei-leidrei!"
"Yes?"
"The Anla'shok -- we have them trapped at the peak of the redoubt. Will you come?"
At last! Sionaya began to laugh, while Taklaeih backed aside, his face creased with disgust. "I will -- if only to witness their final defeat!"
If she could not have her... then no one would.
* * *
The fighting had become more fierce the higher they'd climbed -- but finally, Klairika had lead them to the stairwell that lead up to the overlook on the very peak of the redoubt -- a wide ledge, twenty feet wide and more then a hundred feet long, upon which she'd played many games in her youth. This, however, was no game -- but where was Berane? She'd been surprised that he hadn't been leading any of the guards they'd fought with during the climb...
They rounded a corner -- and for a moment, her heart stopped. Berane was standing at the base of the stairwell, his expression haughty -- her pike extended in his grasp. "Klairika, Klairika." the hunter muttered as he shook his head sadly, "My darling little zei-leina -- do you really believe I will let you go, now that I have fought so long and so hard to bring you home? I do not know what it is that you plan, nor why you and your *friends* are so insistent on climbing to the peak of this dwelling -- but you shall not pass, Klairika.
This, I *swear*."
"Uh," Sheynell observed, "Isn't that supposed to be *our* line?"
"I will deal with this." she replied, her voice quiet and even -- "I must regain the honour I have lost -- you understand why this must be, of course." As one, the other Rangers nodded, and even Moreil, his tall black staff in hand, did the same. And a moment later, she stepped forward, and extended the pike Fenric had given her, the silvery sound welcome in the darkness. "Berane -- the weapon you hold in your hands does not belong to you. You will return it to its rightful owner."
"Which would, of course, be you." the hunter rightly observed, as they began to circle... and then he laughed a cruel laugh. "You were never able to beat me in combat trials before you left -- what makes you think this encounter will be any different?"
"People change." <clack> -- their pikes came together, high against low. "I have changed." <clack> -- and low against high, the blows coming faster now. Klairika ducked under Berane's sudden thrust, and whirled around to strike at him from behind, a blow he only barely evaded. "I am not the girl I was when I left this place -- I am not the lost soul you remember so well." <clack-clack> "And I am *not* my mother's plaything -- I belong to... no... one... but myself!"
The contest paused for a moment. "Brave words." Berane mocked, as they stared at each other through an 'x' of forged Minbari metal. "But actions speak louder then words!" the hunter suddenly snarled, as he disengaged and struck at her hard and low.
"They do... *indeed*!" And even as Jennifer and Durhan had taught her, Klairika watched the gap in her enemy's defence open up... as she twisted her pike rapidly beneath Berane's, and swung... up. The hunter grunted in surprise as his weapon suddenly flew out of his hands, and then a moment later, she followed through with the inevitable concluding move.
"I am Anla'shok." she whispered, as Berane sagged to the floor, and then collapsed. "Remember this day, my mother's servant -- and understand."
"You fought well, for one who wears a dress." Fenric observed, his usual laconic self as he retrieved Klairika's pike. "But I think it's time we...
Left?" At which point, the corridors behind them suddenly began to fill with Brakiri troops. "The Makers preserve us -- they come!"
"Time for an exit, stage right, I think." Julia observed, and as one, the Rangers rushed up the stairs and onto the ledge. "Now where the *Hell*'s Larieken?"
"That's a... very good question!" Dechene cried out, as she, Fenric and Moreil dispatched the first few guards to emerge. "But I think we're... running out of time, here!"
"An accurate observation, my dear." a poisonous whisper emerged from below, and as one, Julia and her friends took one step backwards as Sionaya Alidiae emerged out of the stairwell to face them, her expression one of triumph. "And it quite escapes me why your darling leader chose to bring you up here. There is no escape from this place save into the abyss -- and what choice is that?"
"I'm afraid, Nei-leidrei..." Julia replied with a small and *very* knowing smile, as a deep subsonic rumble began to shake the mountainside, "That there's something you've forgotten."
As one, all the Brakiri, Sionaya included, looked.. upwards -- and the guards cried out in fear as a seemingly *immense* black shape began to blot out the stars above them. "Valen watches over us -- and in his name and within his light, we fight a war against you and your darkness. We *are* the Anla'shok -- remember us -- watch for us.
And be afraid." she concluded, raising her left arm high. "Be *very* afraid."
That, of course, was the signal Larieken had been waiting for -- and a moment later, a brilliant violet beam of light stabbed down from the belly of the black shadow hanging over the mountaintop, and all the Rangers, as well as an all too pleased Z'Shailyl, flashed up that beam of force and into the waiting arms of Dawson and his people.
"Mr. Dawson..." she managed, as she stepped out from beneath the emitter. "*Well* done."
The engineer shrugged, his grin broad as he caught sight of Klairika. "And for an encore," he suggested, "Are you going to walk on water?"
"I think," Julia replied, her eyes dancing, "That one miracle a day's my limit, actually. Larieken?"
A hologram popped into being. "You called?"
"Take us home."
* * *
To be concluded...
* * *
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