+++++++++++++++++To: Inquisitor Lord Grigori Maldor+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++Subject: Request for Inquisition Presence ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++Location: St. Abelard Relay Station, Chernobog System, Tenebra Sector+++++++
St. Abelard Relay Station
Secure Medicae Facility 12AlephSigma9
Everyone made way.
Guards, nurses, doctors, servitors. Everyone made space.
He walked through the ornate halls like the a grim specter. In form, he was human. He wore ornate armor and carried weapons even here in the heart of one of the largest space station that graced the Imperium holdings in the Chernobog system. He wore no helm, but his face was almost as expressive as a power armor face plate might have been. His shaved head bore intricate tattoos as well as arcane tech that no one dared to look at too closely. No one wanted to draw his attention. No matter how firm one might be in one's own sanctity or innocence, when confronted by such raw power? One tended to get a bit circumspect if one had any sense at all.
Innocence meant little to Inquisitors after all. Sanctity even less.
He ignored the looks as beneath him, his hands resting on his belt. No one missed that one hand was bare millimeters from the butt of his holstered bolt pistol. The other was folded not far form the hilt of his sword. Those was the least of his weapons but few knew the depths to which he had been forced to sink on occasion. Few would ever know just how far Ricardo Illusmar had gone and would go in defense of the Imperium of Man from all of its myriad enemies. That was his job, to do that which no one else could. To be a light to shine into the darkest of places. Not a very safe job, but one that he had wholeheartedly embraced a very long time ago.
The Imperium of Man had been beset from its earliest history by many different foes. Some of those enemies had given the Emperor himself pause as blasphemous as that thought was to most. The Imperium of today was a bleeding, dying shadow of its once great self. Even the almost totally implausible return of Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines, the all but impossible victories that the mighty primarch had achieved did little but stave off the endless horrors that lurked waiting to pounce on any unwary soul. Heretics, traitors, xenos, all of these assailed the Imperium daily and no one could count them all. It was madness to even try.
But even with all of its enemies, the Imperium did not lack for defenders. The Ultramarines were merely one of countless chapters of Adeptes Astartes. Each chapter a thousand strong brotherhood of Space Marines, genetically enhanced super soldiers whose sole purpose as to fight the battles that no one else could to defend the Imperium from horror unimaginable to most. The Astra Militarum, the various branches of the Imperial Guard served as a more numerous if less well equipped and trained defense to cover all of the places that the never numerous enough Space Marines could not be. The Adeptes Arbites, the Adeptas Sororitas,... The list of defenders went on and on.
Behind them all however, always in secret, always in silence there lurked the Inquisition.
The war in the shadows was just as deadly, if not more so, than the overt wars being fought across planetary systems. No one would ever know how many threats the Inquisition faced. How many times they succeeded. How many times they failed. No one could ever know.
He stalked towards the desk that was his goal and even the data savant installed in the gate that barred the way there seemed to wilt a little. The scribe beside the savant paled as Ricardo came to a stop in front of her. Her desk sat higher than any others in the area, so she was in charge of this section of the Administratum. Her uniform had more doodads than the others too, not that such meant much. He had been few place where the more dourly dressed a person had been, the higher their rank. The planetary governor had actually gone around clad only in a paint covered smock of all things! That memory almost had him smiling. That mission had gone well.
"Ah… sir?" The scribe actually squeaked.
Instead of answering, Ricardo held out a scroll that the scribe took gingerly. As if he would trap such a thing! Well, he had once, but that had been an extremely odd situation. An errant memory, quickly excised. He waited as she inserted the scroll into her reader and stared at the words that ran across her screen. He fought hard not to sigh. Moron. He could read her screen from this side in the reflections on her brightly polished buttons. If that scroll had been classified material, he would have had to shoot her here and now for failure to adhere to basic security concerns. Admittedly, this was a hospital, not a prison or a military facility, but sloppiness like that got people killed. Or worse, didn't get them killed.
"I see." The scribe said slowly. "All of the proper forms seem to be attached." Again, Ricardo had to fight not to sigh. He detested sloppiness and inefficiency and it seemed that was all he saw these days. He had done everything that the idiot bureaucrats had demanded as long as it did not violate security. But she was speaking again. "Um, sir. This is a 'no weapon' facility."
Ricardo just looked at her and the woman seemed to want to be anywhere but where she was. There was no way he would walk around unarmed. Simply no way. He was ordered to be here and he would not let this scribe dictate anything to him. He always had better results when he let others do the talking. It was amazing how much information the common folk would let slip if he simply played the silent type. The hand that was close to his sword reached up and flashed an ornate ring at her. She stared at the sigil of the Inquisition and paled even further. If she paled much more, she was going to faint. Not his problem, if mildly amusing.
"Sir." The scribe managed a squeak as Ricardo looked at her. "My Lord Inquisitor… I..."
"Exceptions can be made in extreme circumstances." Ricardo had worked hard to learn to keep his voice mild and calm in almost any situation. "This says I am authorized to carry weapons in any Imperial facility, does it not?"
"Ah." The scribe nodded so fast that he was amazed her head did not fly off her shoulders. He had actually seen… Another errant memory. He would have to get another mind scrub. He heaved a mental sigh. He hated those.
"I suggest you tell the Head Administrator that I am here." Ricardo was aware of a commotion to the side as a very large and pompous looking human strode into view, only to freeze at the sight of Ricardo bracing the scribe. Ricardo's eyes tracked onto the man like a pair of lance batteries and the man seemed ready to gibber. The he recovered and Ricardo had to admire the man's sudden change from moron to actual professional. There was more to the Administrator than met the eye. Then again there always was and Illusmar did not have time to ferret out the details here and now, nor the inclination. "Here he is now. Head Administrator Knoth, I presume?"
"Ah… Inquisitor?" The man recovered his poise at the shock of seeing Illusmar armed and armored on his doorstep. He nodded. "Exception 34, Z Bravo, Scribe Fairbanks."
"Yes sir!" The scribe all but fell over herself as she hit keys fast. The gate beside her desk rose and she nodded to the Inquisitor. Ricardo ignored her as he walked towards the fat man who nodded to him.
"You asked for Inquisition presence, Administrator Knoth." Ricardo said quietly as he came to a stop beside the man. "My time is limited."
"You know this is a secure facility." Knoth nodded and started off into hallway. Ricardo followed, his inertial tracking software would map his route, leaving him to focus on the man he was following. His data screens were picking up all kinds of chatter, most of it encrypted with far higher than normal for an Imperial space station. Ricardo did not reply and the Administrator continued. "We handle a lot of things that most of the citizens have no need to know about." Again, Ricardo felt no need to reply. "We had an incident in a secure ward eight days ago."
"What kind of incident?" Ricardo asked and the other man flushed.
"A classified one." The Administrator allowed and Ricardo's estimation of the man's intelligence rose again. The administrator might look like a buffoon, but he wasn't one. "I cannot go into details, but I can say a subject broke containment."
Again, a very smart man, if he had divulged classified information in public, even to an Inquisitor, Ricardo would have shot him on the spot.
"Is the subject loose?" That might be a good reason to call for an Inquisitor, if what Ricardo suspected was true. Common citizens, even Imperial Guard, had less than no chance against many of the more subtle forms of evil that lurked amongst the stars. Just the thought of a Genestealer or Tau mind control specialist loose on this station would give most Imperial citizens nightmares. There were far worse things too.
"No." The Administrator said with a nod. Not too quick, not too slow. He knew the dangers too. He held out a dataslate to the Inquisitor who took it. The encryption were current and Ricardo felt surprise as he perused it. It was a one use device, designed to flash itself into uselessness after use. He scanned the information quickly and then nodded.
The facility hadn't actually done anything wrong. They had followed procedures laid down for dealing with odd things. When a human crew member from a passing ship had fallen ill with a strange sickness, they had quarantined him quickly enough that no other humans on station showed signs of infection. Ricardo noted the ship's name in passing, he would check up on that as a matter of course. The Inquisition had entire armies of scribes dedicated to finding leads in the literally planet sized reams of data they collected. The subject had exhibited strange mutations including some psyker like abilities. He had slaughtered the doctors and nurses in the ward he had bee assigned, a depressingly familiar sight to the hardened Inquisitor. And some people actually wondered why mutants were to be feared? He fought hard not to sigh again.
The dataslate's information was sparse, but it ended with a date of termination and an order for cremation.
"So, what is the problem?" Ricardo absently crushed the dataslate as it sparked fitfully and started to smoke.
"The problem, Inquisitor..." The Administrator did sigh. "..is that we did not stop the subject." Ricardo looked at him and the fat human shook his head. "We sealed the ward as per procedure and called for a response team. They would have arrived next week." Ricardo made a 'get on with it' noise and the man continued. "The door was unsealed from the inside." At that, Ricardo suddenly tensed and the Administrator nodded. "We, justifiably, freaked."
"Hard to blame you." Ricardo allowed and the Administrator relaxed just a little. "But the subject was, is, dead?"
"We expanded the quarantine as per protocol and sent in servitors." The Administrator said quietly. "Gun bots and recon drones. They found the subject dead. What was left of him."
"And?" Ricardo prompted as the Administrator led him to another room. This one had a wall screen that was streaming data. A large monitor showed a room? Cell? In it, a black haired human woman was strapped to a bed, her face oddly calm despite several lethal looking machines aiming at her. "What is this?" He asked.
"That is the only other survivor of the ward." The administrator said quietly. "She was listed as Nurse K Aspirant." Ricardo stared at the woman. Was she familiar? No. But something about her was. Something in the Administrators' words struck a chord.
"Falsified?"
"Yes." Knoth blew out a deep breath. "It took three days of close perusal to determine that her records were fake."
"And?" Ricardo pressed.
"And no one knows who she is, how she got here, where she came from or how she smuggled a bolt pistol into the ward." Knoth said quietly. Ricardo stared at him and the Administrator nodded. "I was kind of hoping that she was one of yours."
"I cannot say." That was strictly pro forma. Ricardo wasn't about to divulge Inquisitorial secrets to this Administrator. Such would be hazardous to his health. "What do you want me to do? You have her in custody already."
"We have interrogated her." The Administrator's face showed distaste now. "She resisted."
Ricardo looked at the man and then at the screen. Now that he was looking, he could see the signs of crude interrogation on the woman's few exposed body parts. If she was Inquisition then such was to be expected. If she was not? No. If she was Inquisition, she would have identified herself as such unless… He shook his head. Such meandering was pointless She wasn't going anywhere. He could simply ask.
"Of course she did." Ricardo mused. "So, do you want information or something else?"
"She is a loose end." The Administrator said just as mildly as Ricardo worked so hard to manage. "I would appreciate it tidied up. If she is one of yours? All well and good, but her cover is well and truly blown along with the subject's brains. If she is not…?" He trailed off as Ricardo nodded slowly.
"If she is not, then she becomes my problem." Ricardo allowed. "Fair enough. I will take the mystery off your hands. I will need a secure room to talk to her." He paused. "Totally secure."
To his credit again, the Administrator did not quibble. "I cannot guarantee total security, Inquisitor." He wasn't making excuses, just stating fact. "We both know how many security holes exist." He paused. "Well, I know how many I think exist." Ricardo just looked at him and the administrator nodded. "We have a Void shield room for our more volatile experiments." At that, Ricardo's eyebrows shot up and the Administrator nodded. "We do some high energy experiments and ward the tests carefully."
"The kind of tests that might blow a hole in the side of the station from the middle of it?" The Inquisitor inquired. The Administrator did not respond and Ricardo shook his head. He didn't need to know. If such a room did exist, then such shield energies would be proof against almost anything, including outbound transmissions of any kind. No way to use high tech means to spy in there.
Just what he needed to have a chat with a mystery.
"I will talk to her."
A few minutes later
He followed the heavy duty cables that led from the power generators to the room. The multiple armed servitors around him ignored him as he stalked forward. Part of him was wondering if this was a trap of some kind. It was entirely possible. Anything could be a trap. But this didn't feel like a trap. He had walked into many in his career, including several that nearly ended his career. This felt more like a mystery than a trap. The door ahead of him opened and the Inquisitor stalked forward, only to pause as a pair of servitors pushing a bed moved out the door. He stared at them and then moved to the side. Arguing with servitors was foolishness. They didn't have the brainpower to reply generally. If they did? You had problems.
Ricardo moved to the door and peered inside. The young woman, almost a girl, was curled up in one corner, her eyes intent on the door. She had apparently been dropped on the floor and left there. She was wearing a thin gown and some wires, nothing more. She was praying as she lay curled up on the floor. And what she was saying...
That was it! He knew those prayers. And the familiarity suddenly clicked into place. He knew what she was. The answer to that question led to more questions. Lots more. He shook his head and stepped into the room. Her prayers cut off as if with a knife and her eyes went huge as he drew his bolt pistol, laid it on the floor and kicked it to skitter across the way to stop in front of her.
"Feel free." Ricardo said quietly. "I won't stop you." The girl looked at the pistol and then at Ricardo, her face unreadable. She didn't move. "Was he your target?"
"Inquisitor." The unknown woman said softly. Ricardo nodded. "What?"
"Are you done?" Ricardo asked. "Is your mission complete?"
"What do you want?" The girl didn't move to touch the weapon.
"Right now? I want an answer." Ricardo drew his backup weapon. The girl's eyes bulged as the small plasma pistol started to hum as he aimed it at her. "Am I your target?"
"What?" The girl wasn't feigning that confusion. There was simply no way.
"You know I could shoot you right now." Ricardo said quietly, his aim true. "No one will miss you." The girl met his eyes and the fire there had him almost smiling. This girl had spirit. "Everyone who was in that ward is dead. You are dead."
"I have been dead for a long time." The girl said with a growl. "Go ahead, shoot. I won't play your games."
She was going to go for the bolt pistol he had given her. He knew she was. It was only a matter of when. He was impressed when she did move. She was fast. Her gown was tossed as a distraction and she was scooping the pistol up before he could get a clear shot. He could have fired through the flying gown and nailed her easily, but there was no need. The electrical discharge unit built into the bolt pistol, like all Inquisition weapons, reacted to an unknown user attempting to handle it in its usual fashion. She didn't even have time to scream as the less than lethal energy knocked her instantly unconscious. He didn't want her dead after all.
"No?" Ricardo moved to toe the woman's still form. Then he bent to pick up his pistol before kneeling against to brush the woman's long black hair away from her face. He found what he thought. What he had taken for a mark from clumsy interrogation was actually old scar tissue where something on her face had been surgically excised. Add the prayers to that and you only had one possible explanation.
"The game is afoot, my dear Sororitas."