NOTE: I do not own SMAC/X and/or its characters. EDIT: so it apparently fucked up, that has been fixed

Genetics

As Zakharov decided to stayed in the Morganite territory, Deirdre had taken the trip back to Gaian territory, fully aware what could (and more then likely would) happen if she stayed. Assassination, among others, was her main concern.

Lucy had personally picked a Spartan trained team to escort Deirdre back to Gaia's Landing.

When they arrived at Gaia's Landing, Deirdre promptly zoned out with precautions and vehicle search were undertaken before they left.

"Lucy." She mumbled before taken off.

"Yes ma'am."

"Never mind."

I will remind myself later.

If Zakharov's report was correct, and the reports usually were, the added stress was causing the identified problems she was dealing with. The last genetic therapy session was hard on her, and she had not fully recovered. Without Dr. Scott in the picture, the genetic therapy team wouldn't be to par. She would have to see Zakharov's people.

Her thoughts tracked to 'Aceldama'. The people had called 'The Hole' the Morganites had left in the Planet. Mind worms and Spore Launchers had been seen in much larger numbers since the buster had hit. Reports had surfaced that Morganites had been having huge fungal growth which they were unable to control. It was almost funny.

Maybe planet is hurting.

Hours past; they arrived at Gaia's Landing in the morning. Deirdre didn't sleep. She haven't been able to for a while.

The vehicles and squad were thoroughly checked over before letting them into the capital. They found a Morganite communication jammer. Usually not a good sign.

"There could have been more tampering."

"Segnir, you can do a full body scan of myself and the squad and the ship and you will still have found only one thing. You'll also find that it is a tracker and 14 other different things at once. We found it before we left and managed to disable it. If you need to burn the jet, I don't care."

"Ma'am we just need to take extra precautions."

"Segnir, I don't think you quiet understand Morgan's process." Deirdre interjected, "the man never gets his hands dirty, you'll never trace it back to him, you'll never know who it's from and that's how you know it's from him. Once, and only once, have we managed to link back to him. It took us 8 weeks, a whole city and internal information shut down lasting about 9 days, where we lost 9 years' worth of information to catch him."

"I understand ma'am."

"You'll find the comm has a scramble link on it that's been outsourced to somewhere in the eastern oceans, my life is insignificant, the information is more important."

Segnir kept quiet.

"Increase the guards, do what you have to, but do not question my judgment."

PRIVATE MESSAGE/ SCRAMBLED SOURCE

TO:P. ZAKH

CC:D. SKYE

/PRIVATE/

D: ANY OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS.

/CHAT OPENED/

/CHANNEL SECURED/

Z: BETTER TEAM, BETTERFACILITIES, MONITORING

D: WHEN?

Z: RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE REPORT SUGGESTEDTHE NEXT WEEK

Z: PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS IS ASAP

"Eline" Deirdre called over the comm.

"Yes Lady Skye?"

"Need an off the books, gene therapy."

"10 weeks?"

"Offsite; everyone else will be told I'm at Gaian facilities."

"Oh, of cause ma'am, I will have everything organised as soon as possible."