Heyo!
No time for a long intro!
Cuz into the story we go!
(PS thanks Nightwish Watership's Rat, Superfan44, and Carlisle Fan 22 for reviewing)
(PPS disclaimer:IdonotownTreasurePlanet)
"Siri! It's that leopard from yesterday!" Jim exclaimed as he tried to push his wife behind him.
But Siria refused to budge. "You can drop the act now, Mademoiselle."
If a leopard could raise its eyebrows in surprise, this one did. However, the shocked expression did not last long before the feline seemed to chuckle. Suddenly, paws turned into hands and feet, fluffy limbs morphed into hairless arms and legs, the naked torso was covered with designer clothing, and the furry whiskered face transformed into a familar smug French face. Within seconds, the salivating wild cat was replaced by Christine Gaston in a sleek black dress, leopard-print scarf, and an oddly patterned belt with matching heeled boots.
"They warned me that you were smart, Officer," Christine purred, "but I did not expect you to be this smart."
"Yeah I get that a lot," Siria replied snarkily.
Christine chuckled in bemusement as she flicked her glossy high ponytail over her shoulder. "What gave me away?"
"Seriously? You're really asking that?" Siria questoned. "Hello?! A leopard blouse on the day we were attacked by a leopard, a limp on the same leg I roasted on the leopard, awareness that I was lying to you...take your pick because you weren't all that subtle in any of the options."
Christine scowled.
"What am I?! Invisible?! Can someone please explain to me how Siria knew that Christine was the leopard and how that was even possible in the first place?!" Jim cried out.
"The illustrious Madamoiselle Gaston is a skin-walker," Siria explained coldly without taking her eyes off Christine. "Basically, she's a witch who can turn into any animal as long as she is wearing that animal's skin. Silver and I, uh, got to know a few on a French colony planet. They are nothing more than common thieves, bounty hunters, and mercenaries. Looks like this one managed to get hired by a reputable archaeologist so she could pocket the treasures of the galaxy right out from under his nose."
Christine trembled with rage.
Jim could tell the two strong-willed women were about to start a fist fight, so he decided to end the situation. He undid his belt to use as impromptu handcuffs. "Christine Gaston, you are under arrest for assaulting officers of the Galactic Armada and suspicion of theft. Turn around and put your hands behind your back."
Christine slowly backed away from the two approaching adventurers. For a minute, the woman actually looked scared, but the fear was soon replaced by wickedness. "Or I could put my hands in the fountain," she proposed with an evil grin and a dark twinkle in her eyes.
"Stay away from that fountain!" Siria snapped. "This is my home and I'll defend it to the death! If you so much as dip one of your fake nails into that fountain, I swear I'll-"
In the blink of an eye, Christine turned back into the leopard and, with one swipe of her strong paw, flung Jim into the Fire column. The sick sound of a bone cracking echoed through the cave as Jim slid down the column and crashed to the floor. Christine shifted back to human form so she could properly express her emotions.
"You will what?" Christine asked maliciously.
Suddenly, as Siria looked at the fallen form of her husband and the satisfied smirk on Christine's face, her vision went red with anger. Siria launched herself at Christine and the two women started a full-on cat fight.
And when Christine turned into leopard once more, it was literally a cat fight. She lunged at Siria, fangs and claws going for the easy vital spots. Anyone else would have been cat food. Siria wasn't "anyone" though and, summoning a high pressure waterspout from her hands, she knocked Christine back, drenching the leopard woman in the process. Shapeshifting or otherwise, cats hated water, and Christine hissed as the Elemental soaked her to the bone.
"Bad kitty," Siria mocked.
Leopard-Christine gave a deep, menacing growl in response and began to slowly circle around the Elemental like a real cat would do with real prey. Siria refused to be prey, and she stood her ground and lit both hands on fire. And then they both attacked again.
Jim gulped audibly. These weren't just two strong-willed women fighting each other. These were alien women with alien powers. The forces of nature against the fury of the kingdom. It was not going to be pretty…he wished he had a camera.
Christine pounced, but Siria rolled out of the way at the last possible moment and with her flaming fists, she landed several punches along the leopard's exposed flank. The skin-walker roared in pain as fire scorched her precious fur coat. If a cat could swear, Siria was quite sure that drunken sailors two systems away would be learning new words right about now.
Unfortunately, Siria was trying to be nonlethal. Christine wasn't. It was very hard to subdue a giant cat. It was very easy for a giant cat to break every bone in Siria's body, especially when Siria was running out of energy faster than Christine. All the Elemental had managed to do so far was soak her, burn her, and tick her off. If this didn't end soon, it would end badly.
It almost did end badly when Christine faked left, went right as Siria shot fire orbs left, and then hit low, finally pinning her foe to the ground. Siria struggled, but with a several-hundred-pound cat on top of her, it didn't do much good. Christine gave a very apt Cheshire-style grin before opening her jaw wide.
Jim watched in despair from the side of the cave as he cradled his right arm. Christine was about to bite his wife's head off!
"Siria!" Jim cried, struggling to get up and do something, anything to save her.
The leopard snapped her head towards Jim. She'd almost forgotten he was there. Turning into a human, she laughed. "Oh, do not worry. You are next."
Christine's arrogance was her downfall, as her human form was much lighter and much less durable. Siria used both of these to her advantage. When Christine looked back down at her "prey" she realized her mistake too late. Siria's foot colliding with her face was the last thing Christine saw before she was knocked out cold. Pushing the unconscious shifter off of her, Siria wasted no time in ripping the leopard-print scarf from around Christine's neck. The blue-haired officer smirked as she held the piece of fabric in her hand and burned it to ashes.
"Oopsie," Siria added in a little girl voice with an innocent expression. "My bad."
"Um, Siri?" Jim muttered. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"Oh my gosh, babe, I'm so sorry!" Siria apologized as she rushed over to check on her husband. "Where does it hurt?" she inquired while helping Jim up to a full sitting position.
Jim groaned. "Ugh, everywhere. But it's mostly my right arm. I think it's broken."
Siria gingerly picked up Jim's arm. The pained look on Jim's face as Siria gently moved his arm proved their theory.
"Yep, that's definitely broken," Siria confirmed.
While Siria focused on inspecting the rest of her husband for injuries, Christine had come back to her senses. She slowly and quietly pulled herself off the ground and took a lunge position. Out of the corner of his eye, Jim caught sight of Christine...but what harm could she do? Siria had taken away the leopard fur and Christine didn't have any other weapons. Christine grinned at Jim and her eyes turned into snake slits. Jim suddenly realized what the odd pattern was on Christine's belt and boots...and what Christine was about to do.
Christine launched herself at Siria and simultaneously transformed into a giant blackish-green serpent with huge venomous fangs.
"NO!" Jim screamed as he forcefully shoved Siria off of him.
Siria rolled across the cave floor, getting covered in dirt, but she was out of harm's way. Jim ducked to the side, narrowly dodging the sharp fangs. Unfortunately, missing her target didn't mean Christine was going to surrender. Instead, Christine just wrapped herself around Jim.
"JIM!" Siria cried out. "LET GO OF HIM!" She summoned her fire powers, but her anger caused the fire to travel all the way up to Siria's elbows rather than stay in her hands. Siria's golden eye was shining so brightly that it looked like it was about to explode. Even her silver eye had a slight gold tint to it. Her white blouse was dirty, her black pants were ripped at the knees, half of her hair had fallen out of her low ponytail, her face was filthy, and her whole body was covered in a thin layer of blood and grime, but Siria had never looked more intimidating.
Christine, however, did not let go. In fact, she tightened her coils around Jim and lifted him off the ground. "SSSNUFF OUT THAT FLAME!" the snake hissed. "OR I WILL CRUSSSH HIM!"
"Am I the only one that finds this situation eerily familiar?" Jim questioned in a tight voice as he referred to that day on the Treasure Planet voyage when Scroop tried to suffocate Siria for defending Jim. (AN this quote comes from an episode of Castle called "The Final Frontier")
"SSSHUT UP!" Christine snapped. "DO WHAT I SSSAY!"
Siria looked at Jim for some idea of what to do, yet all he did was faintly nod at her. Siria's lips pressed into a thin line, but she retracted her fire.
"REMOVE YOUR WEAPONSSS!" the serpentine Christine commanded.
Siria pulled her old slingshot out from inside her boot and removed her laser pistol from its holster. She held them up and spun around so Christine could see she didn't have any more weapons on her. However, Siria never took her eyes off of Jim, who was straining as he tried to stretch his fingers far enough to reach his belt without attracting Christine's attention.
"PUT THEM ON THE GROUND AND KICK THEM AWAY!"
Siria slowly crouched down, placed her weapons on the ground, and stood up. Finally, Jim had managed to touch the top of his belt. He winked at Siria.
"NOW, SSSAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PRECIOUSSS-"
Suddenly, Christine wailed in agony as a laser blasted through her scaly skin. Her hold around Jim slackened enough for him to drop to the ground. Siria took that as her cue and her silver eye flashed mischievously. She flung her hands toward the waterfall at the mouth of the cave and then aimed the water straight at Christine. The water shot right into Christine's mouth, knocking her over and nearly drowning her in the process. Christine shifted back to human form and Siria tackled the French woman before she could try anything else. Luckily, Christine was in no condition to fight back this time. The wound in her left shoulder was a through-and-through and was bleeding profusely. Jim kneeled alongside his wife and removed Christine's snakeskin shoes and accessories.
"H-how?!" Christine croaked.
Jim tossed away the last animal skins and held up his still-smoking weapon. "Laser pistol...never leave home without it. You should've thought to remove my weapons."
"And you should've thought to forbid me from using my water powers," Siria added as she pulled out her hair-tie and fastened it around Christine's wrists.
Christine groaned and let her head drop to the ground.
As much as Siria wanted to let Christine bleed to death, her conscience was nagging at her to do something. She pulled off her vest and pressed it against Christine's shoulder. Siria pushed a little harder than necessary on purpose, causing Christine to hiss in pain.
"That's what you get when you mess with me and my husband!" Siria barked.
Siria then used a rope she brought along to secure the vest around Christine's wound. It would be better to use Jim's belt, but Siria didn't want to risk anything in case the leather belt counted as animal skin.
"Should we get her back to the ship?" Jim questioned as he pulled Christine to her feet with his good arm.
"No," Siria replied. "We're going to do what we came here for."
Siria walked over to the fountain and gazed at its glory. She took a deep breath and kneeled in front of the glass walls. Siria tentatively dipped her fingertips in the sparkly liquid. Her eyes immediately snapped up toward the ceiling, where the light was pouring in, and she entered a trance-like state before putting her face directly into the fountain.
Siria opened her eyes again, pulled her face out of the fountain, and saw that she was still in front of the fountain, but the cave was missing. She was sitting in a pristine open-air pavilion. Siria looked around and realized that the fountain was now sitting on the top of the cliff and the cave was right below her. The fountain was in the exact middle of where the boxes that held the knives of the four chiefs were hidden.
The young woman wiped the fountain residue off her face. When she realized how pristine her hands were, she looked down and gasped upon noticing her appearance. Her grimy skin was now clean enough to shine, her hair was pulled into a side braid and woven with gold and silver threads, and all of her cuts and bruises vanished. Her officer's uniform had been replaced with a pastel purple, one-shouldered, floor-length Greek chiton with nude-colored flats.
"Well done, my little star," a familiar male voice commented.
"Mama?! Papa?!" Siria exclaimed as she stood up from her position.
Suddenly, Clytie and Castor materialized in front of the water and fire columns.
"We're right here, baby girl," Clytie responded with a smile.
Siria raced right into their arms. After a minute of silent hugging, she pulled back just enough to look back and forth between her mother and father. "I thought that the darkness-" Siria started.
"The darkness consumed our spirits," Castor admitted. "But your burial ceremony and your activation of the fountain have freed us."
Siria couldn't bring herself to let go of her parents. "So I'm guessing I followed through on your directions."
"Perfectly," Clytie stated. "Now it's time for you to finish your part of the prophecy."
"My part?" Siria asked. "What do you mean?"
"When you released the fountain, you pushed the darkness back to the farthest side of the planet. You weakened it enough that it will never bother Elementia ever again. All that is left for you to do is drink from the fountain."
"Drink from the fountain?" Siria repeated as she looked at her father in surprise. "It's really that simple?"
Castor nodded.
"What about the whole 'the powers of the Four will reawaken in the One' part?" Siria inquired.
"The remainder of the prophecy will proceed over the course of time," Clytie assured her daughter. "The only part you need to worry about is drinking from the fountain and then you will be done with the prophecy forever."
Siria sighed. "Okay. If you say so." She went back to her kneeling position in front of the fountain, but looked back at her parents with sad eyes. "I wish I could stay here with you."
"We know, sweetheart. We wish that, too," Clytie replied.
"But you have a family out there who needs you, especially Jim," Castor added. "Besides, we'll visit you in your dreams."
"As long as you hold on to your memories of us, we will never leave your side," Clytie continued.
Siria nodded as she blinked back tears. She dipped her hands into the fountain, cupped them, and lifted them up. Siria stared at the twinkly solution as it pooled in her hands and, throwing caution to the wind, poured the liquid light into her mouth.
When Siria removed her face from the fountain again as she returned to reality, she felt the liquid trickling down her throat. Apparently Siria had drunk from the fountain in this world, too. Suddenly, the fountain began to glow. Siria looked down into the pool and saw four Elemental bands sitting at the bottom, one for each tribe. Siria furrowed her brow in confusion, but pulled the headgear out nonetheless. The four columns immediately started to circle around her. The fountain continued to shine brighter and brighter as the columns proceeded to spin faster and faster until the entire set-up looked like a blinding vortex before exploding in a cloud of sparkles.
"Siria?!" Jim called out when he couldn't see his wife.
The glittery fog settled until Jim could see Siria lying on her back where the fountain had been with the four knives positioned in their cracks and the corresponding Elemental band encircling them.
"Siria!" Jim exclaimed. He dropped Christine to the side and ran over to check on his unconscious wife. "Siri! Siri speak to me!" Jim insisted as he lifted her head off the ground and cradled her in his arm.
Siria made an incoherent sound before her eyelids snapped open. Jim gasped when he saw her eyes rapidly changing from silver to gold to bronze to black to blue to red to green and every color in between before finally settling on their usual colors.
"We did it," Siria whispered. "We saved Elementia from the darkness. And now I've finished my part of the prophecy. It's over."
Jim sighed in relief and leaned forward to hug Siria.
All of a sudden, Siria flung her right arm forward as her gold eye sparked. Jim whipped his head around to see Christine squeal in terror as a wall of flames lit up right in front of her. Apparently, Christine had waited for Jim to turn his back so she could sneak out.
"Going somewhere?" Siria questioned sarcastically.
Jim stared at his wife in shock. He knew she was powerful, but it seemed like the fountain had made her powers even stronger. She didn't even break a sweat conjuring that fiery wall. Siria and Jim quickly gathered the knives and bands. Siria holstered her weapons and Jim, still unsure of why Siria needed them, hid the four Elemental bands in one of his jacket pockets. The captain and the officer each grabbed one of Christine's arms, Siria extinguished her fire with a wave of her hand, and they strolled out of the cave.
"So what do we do now?" Jim asked as they walked back to the ship.
"First we're going to have the ship's medic take a good look at your arm," Siria answered, "and then we're going to see how much this kitty cat really knows."
0*0*0
The crew stared in shock as their disheveled captain and their bruised officer strode onto the RLS Fontaine with their abnormally filthy employer wounded and in custody.
"Back to work, everybody," Jim ordered. "Nothing to see here. Mademoiselle Gaston just got unlawfully greedy. Go about your regular business."
The members of the ship obeyed and returned to what they were doing.
Siria and Jim headed straight to the ship's infirmary, followed by Ben and Morph, who were both demanding an explanation. Siria refused to tell them anything, though, until one of them ran up to her room and grabbed her handcuffs. The medic widened his eyes at the sight as they all entered his workspace, but the look on Siria's face told the doctor not to ask questions.
"Um, uh, who do you want me to treat first?" the medic inquired nervously. Obviously his captain was injured, too, but Christine's injuries seemed more severe.
"Captain Hawkins only needs his arm checked," Siria replied. "Mademoiselle Gaston is from an alien race that heals more quickly so she can wait a few minutes. Oh, and whatever you do, make sure you give her some tranquilizer." Morph flew back into the room with two military-grade silver handcuffs, which Siria immediately snapped onto each Christine's wrists and the sides of the hospital bed so she couldn't escape. "She's got a habit of resisting arrest," Siria added with a smirk as she tightened the handcuffs for good measure.
Christine winced. "They are pinching my wrists!" she complained.
"That's the idea," Siria responded in a peppy but dangerous voice.
Jim pulled his wife away before she could do anything else that would warrant a brutality charge against her.
"So, uh, doc, could you take a look at my arm?" Jim requested as he held out his right arm to the short three-eyed medic. "I think I might've broken it out there."
"Of course, sir," the doctor insisted.
The medic unbuttoned the sleeves on Jim's jacket and carefully slid the sleeve up to the elbow. He did some various physical tests and even took an x-ray, but they all said the same thing.
"I'm afraid you were right," the medic replied as he pushed his glasses up on top of his head. "That arm is definitely broken. I can set it in a cast right now, if you would like, or I can just give you a sling for the time being."
Jim looked over at Siria for her opinion.
Siria crossed her arms over her chest and shrugged. "We've got the time. I can go handle the crew for now while he puts you in a cast and then we can finish our other business.
Jim nodded in agreement and turned back to the medic. "Just make sure it doesn't stand out from my uniform too much," Jim added.
The doctor agreed and got to work setting Jim's arm for a cast.
Siria started to walk up to the main deck. "I'll send somebody down to keep an eye on her," Siria proposed with a glare at Christine. "I'm not gonna let her pull another escape attempt while your head is turned."
*0*0*
After Siria sent the two toughest crewmembers to supervise the criminal in the infirmary and gave a few more orders, she grabbed Ben and Morph and snuck into Christine's cabin.
"So explain to me why we're in here invading Mademoiselle Gaston's privacy," Ben requested as he pulled out a short, hot pink negligee and stared at it in confusion.
Siria looked up from the trunk she was searching and rolled her eyes at the sight of Ben holding a lacy nightgown. "Because," Siria started as she stood up, strode over to Ben, snatched the frilly strip of fabric from his fingers, and flung it back into the dresser, "we're supposed to be finding out how Frenchy knew so much about Elementia, not going through her underwear drawer." Siria closed the drawer for emphasis. "Okay?"
"Okay."
The three of them continued to investigate the suite for anything suspicious, but the only thing that seemed out of place was the number of extravagant gowns in the closet. This was supposed to be an archaeological dig, not a red-carpet gala. Other than clothes, makeup, and accessories, all Christine had were a few papers on crew members and minor artifacts like jewelry, cooking ware, and weapons. In short, all they found was a whole lot of nothing.
"I thought you were gonna wait for me," Jim said with a pout as he stood in the doorway to Christine's room.
"I got bored," Siria dismissed with a shrug, not even bothering to look up from what she was doing. "Ben, you and Morph go stand guard outside."
The robot and the blob wanted to argue about feeling left out, but they realized that Siria's stress level was at a dangerous high and they did not want to be there when it shot from touchy to supernova.
"Have you learned anything?" Jim asked.
"Only that Archaeologist Barbie thought she was going to get lucky on this voyage...a lot," Siria replied in an annoyed voice as she continued to look through shoe boxes.
Jim looked away bashfully. "Okay then," he muttered awkwardly.
"How many pairs of shoes does one woman need?!" Siria exclaimed bitterly as she tossed aside the fifth pair of similar black heels.
"Hon, calm down," Jim insisted as he kneeled next to Siria and put his good arm on her shoulder. "Now take a deep breath, and then just let it out."
Siria did as her husband suggested. She inhaled, held it for a few seconds, and then exhaled. She immediately felt more relaxed.
"Now, what's the one thing you always told me about hiding things?"
Siria's eyes lit up. "Hide them where you would never think to look!"
The blue-haired woman flung open the doors to Christine's closet and began patting down all of those foo-foo dresses until she felt something flat and square in one of them. Siria flipped up the fluffy red skirt and found a manila envelope sewn into the lining of the dress. She tore open the envelope and dumped its contents on the bed. The envelope held five files, all of which appeared to be from an official source. Siria and Jim each picked up a file and flipped it open.
Siria gasped when she saw her husband's military identification picture right at her fingertips. "Jim, this is your file!" Sure enough, the side label on this file said 'Hawkins, James Pleides'.
"And this is yours!" Jim responded as he tilted the papers towards her so Siria could see a smiling woman with blue and red hair tied back in a bun, gold and silver eyes, and Elemental marks decorating the outside of her eyes and cheeks staring right back at her.
"Yep that's definitely me," Siria stated. "And that 'Silver-Hawkins, Siria Pyra Aquellia' confirms it if anyone had any doubts."
"Well it's not that unusual that she has our files. Her job was to run this expedition so she needed to know the members of the crew."
"Does that include the classified details of the Treasure Planet voyage?" Siria challenged as she held up the third folder in the pile.
"What?!"
"Read it yourself," Siria replied nonchalantly as she handed over the file.
Jim frantically flipped through the papers. "Even we don't have the security clearance to see the unedited report...and we were on the dang ship!"
While her husband panicked over how revealing the report was, Siria picked up the next file. It seemed innocent enough with its 'Elementia' label, but it wasn't until Siria reached the last few pages that her eyes widened in terror.
"J-Jim!" Siria stuttered, barely able to breathe let alone get words out. The file slipped from her fingertips and the papers scattered across the floor.
"Siri?! Siri what is it?!" Jim urged with his hands on his wife's shoulders. He abandoned the Treasure Planet folder to stop Siria from hyperventilating.
"I-It's th-the history of Ele-Elementia!" Siria choked out.
"What about it?"
"Inclu-Including its destruction!"
"WHAT?!"
Jim grabbed the end pages from the carpet while Siria sat on the bed and wept.
"But how could they know this?!" Jim exclaimed as he read over the report. "You were the only survivor that day!"
"Me and about one or two dozen pirates," Siria reminded him in a small voice as she lifted her face from her hands.
"You think one of those pirates was legit?!"
"I don't know what to think anymore," Siria murmured. "All I know is-"
Something on the ground caught Siria's eye. One of the papers from the Elementia file had flipped over to reveal a handwritten note on it. Siria leaned down and tentatively picked it up. Written on the back of the page, in clear cursive, was the full prophecy of Elementia...HER prophecy!
"Jim, give me that last file," Siria requested in a tight voice.
Jim laid the other papers aside and passed her the fifth folder on the bed, the one labeled 'Artifacts'.
Siria pored over every page. There were pictures of the knives of the chiefs and a description of the legendary fountain...but the last paper rattled her the most.
"What is that?" Jim inquired.
"Something that hasn't been seen on Elementia in hundreds of years and was only thought to be a myth."
"Um..."
Siria held up the page so Jim could see it fully. "This is the staff of the High Priest of Elementia. It was used to ward off the darkness in the early days. The High Priest was supposedly born with the powers of all four Elemental tribes. He then used his powers to forge the staff and save our people. The First Council was so grateful that they appointed him High Priest and he lived to be almost two hundred years old. But after he died, the staff disappeared and was never seen again. Eventually its existence was just a bedtime story."
"I guess Christine didn't agree," Jim added.
Siria shook her head. "This confirms it. We're not dealing with some amateur treasure hunter here. We're dealing with a professional. Christine is the thief, but someone else is pulling the strings."
0*0*0
"I cannot thank you two enough for taking Mademoiselle Gaston into custody. That would have been quite an embarrassment for the Galactic Armada," Admiral Marcus Jenkins admitted over the camera.
As soon as Jim an Siria realized how high Christine's connections reached in the food chain, they put in an emergency request for a video call with the man who gave them the assignment. Needless to say, the admiral was shocked to hear the news.
"So you had no doubts about her at all?" Jim questioned.
"No, none," the admiral denied. "She seemed completely credible. Her boss gave me nothing but glowing reviews."
"It seems that Christine had someone on the inside to make sure she came across that way," Siria proposed. "The information she had in her possession is not just something you can find online."
The admiral groaned as he rubbed his temples with his hand.
"Are you alright, sir?" Jim asked.
"Just imagining the PR disaster I'm facing. Once the press catches on that the leader of the Galactic Armada was fooled by a single treasure hunter into approving a journey whose purpose was to steal major historical artifacts and destroy a legendary sanctuary, they'll eat me alive. Ugh! This is going to be a nightmare!"
"Sir, I don't think that Christine is the only person behind this," Siria tried to explain.
"Considering how easily she duped me, I wouldn't underestimate her cleverness. It seems very likely that she arranged this whole con herself."
"Well she got these files from somewhere and I doubt she just stole them," Siria responded as she flopped the papers in front of her.
"I understand, Officer, but skin-walkers are known for theft and murder," the admiral argued. "It's very possible she just swiped them from Mister Gold. I did send him your profiles before the voyage when he requested more information about your careers.
"Skin-walkers are also known for not being smart enough to pull off something like this on their own. They're more like burglars-for-hire, guns-for-hire, you get the idea. If the price is right, they'll gladly break the law!"
"What I'm hearing, Officer, sounds a lot like an accusation that Edward Gold hired Mademoiselle Gaston for this exact reason."
"That's exactly what it is," Siria confirmed.
"Siri-" Jim warned in a quiet voice.
"Just think about it! Edward Gold has been seen a few times in public for museum openings of his artifacts, but never photographed or described. His facelessness is part of the reason he's famous! He makes a big deal about this expedition to Elementia but doesn't come along! Add all that to the detailed files I found in Christine's cabin and you get treasure hunter!"
"That is a very serious allegation," Admiral Jenkins replied. "Besides, I sent word to Mister Gold as soon as you notified me of his associate's betrayal and he was genuinely distraught at the very thought."
"But sir-"
"No buts, Officer!" the admiral cut in. "We will definitely arrest Mademoiselle Gaston for assaulting the two of you and for conspiracy to commit artifact trafficking. However, I do not want to hear any more accusations against Edward Gold from either of you, especially you, Officer Hawkins! Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," Jim immediately agreed.
"Officer Hawkins?" the admiral pressed.
Siria sighed stubbornly, but she eventually gave in. "Crystal clear...sir."
"Good. You are now free to return home. Consider this archaeological dig finished. Dismissed." With a click of a button, the admiral was gone and the screen went black.
Jim turned to the radio operator. "Go notify all crew members to disassemble the dig sites. We ship out at 0800 hours."
The alien nodded obediently and left the communications center.
As soon as they were alone, Siria slouched in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest and a pout on her face.
Jim let out a deep breath. "You're not giving up on this, are you?"
"Dang right I'm not."
*0*0*
That night, Christine was laying in her infirmary bed in a plain white hospital gown with fresh bandages on her shoulder and salve on her burns, shooting the occasional glare at her guards. How could everything have gone so wrong?! Her plan was flawless! But at least she had some solace. No matter how smart Officer Hawkins thought she was, she would never be able to figure out the depth of Christine's ties. Besides, Christine's employer would never abandon her. He valued her too much. He would have her out of this situation in no time and the officer would be forced to stand by as Christine walked off this ship free and clear.
"Ahem," somebody coughed from the entrance to the infirmary wing.
Christine slowly turned her head toward the door and gave the intruder an irritated look.
"I, um, have a message for Mademoiselle Gaston," the tall four-armed alien stammered.
Christine concealed her smirk when she recognized the alien as the ship's communications operator. She had paid him off from the very beginning to monitor the Hawkins, give her employer constant feeds from their cabin, and make sure Christine's correspondences were kept off the record.
One of the guards snatched the note from the radio operator. "This is just someone rambling about a pet cat!" he barked.
Talk about cats was the code that was used to hide Christine's employer's real message.
"My neighbor is watching over my kitten while I am out here," Christine lied smoothly. "The poor little thing was sick last week so my neighbor promised to keep me up to date on its status."
The guard frowned and dropped the paper in Christine's lap. She wanted to laugh at his stupidity. Talk about gullible. Christine picked up the piece of paper and connected the dark navy blue letters that were hidden between the plain black letters to decipher the message.
I heard about your failure.
Consider yourself fired.
Enjoy prison.
EG
So yeah that's it. Wow this is the longest chapter I've written in ages. Go me! And yes, go Blindluck92 for writing my fight scene for me and for being the BEST brother EVER! Don't hesitate to leave opinions, ideas, reviews, etc. PLEASE! I promise I'll update before I head off to college in a month and a half. Love y'all!