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Elenia was still leery. The specter had talked to her for some time and then it had left. Granum apparently knew that he had confused her. If that was the plan, it was working. If not? She didn't know.
She knew one thing, however. She was getting annoyed.
"I am not hungry." Elenia said for the sixth time when the nurse asked her.
The human woman was clearly out of her depth, but she was trying. In more than one way. She had eaten, but Elenia hadn't and Connie N-12 was now determined that Elenia would eat. She didn't know much about Tenno, but even as Corpus she was a kind soul if Elenia was any judge of such things. Oddly, Jasmina and the mass mind agreed. It had to be a trick or plant of some kind, but the woman was a good person. Deep in the recesses of her soul, Elenia hoped she wouldn't have to kill the human.
"That body is not the one you are used to." Connie was a professional nurse. Nothing else could make such an annoying repetition seem so calm. "It will need nourishment as well as the sanitary facilities shortly afterwards."
"I do know human body structure." Elenia glared at the human but her heart wasn't in it. "And for the record, Tenno can eat. We can even eat things that humans can. But only when we are hungry." That was more than a bit petulant, but Connie was annoying her.
"I…" Connie seemed to wilt a little. "I apologize. I had no idea what I was volunteering for even after they explained. All I knew of your kind were stories. Scary tales told when Security wasn't listening. The official records are vague at best."
Elenia was out of the bed now and in the chair that Granum had occupied. The Caretaker had always been an active person and this enforced idleness was disturbing on any number of levels. The Corpus had given her a nondescript ship suit that covered her from ankles to neck. It didn't seem to have any tech built in and the only attachment was a medical monitor armband around her left arm. Careful scrutiny had seen no abnormalities that Elenia could define on the body she now inhabited. Its skin was not her own, of course, darker tones than the pale brown that she had known all her life, but there was literally no way the Corpus could have duplicated her own body. If, of course, this wasn't a trick of some kind.
"A lot of information was lost when Orokin fell." Elenia replied, trying very hard to tamp down her annoyance. Getting angry here would not help things. "What the Corpus is taught is bare bones, but not entirely inaccurate."
"How do you know about what we are taught?" Connie had tensed.
"As your boss said, we try to stay apprised on what is happening around the system." Elenia replied. "I know what the Corpus are and what they do. Granum is new. We don't have a lot of information on what he is doing so this is going to make for a very long debriefing when I get out of here."
"I though Tenno only fought, but it seems my information is incomplete as he said." Connie said with a frown. "Is there any way I could learn more?"
"Be very careful what you ask for, Connie N-12." Elenia said softly. "You just might get it." Connie froze.
"That bad?" The nurse had paled.
"Worse in some ways." Elenia allowed. "Most of the Tenno I know were given no choice but to be what they are. Just like humans, we are a mix, as Granum said. Good and bad. Virtuous and evil. I like being nice, but it doesn't end well when I deal with people who see such as weakness. I learned that lesson the hard way in dealing with people who used and abused me."
"People like the Corpus." Connie said flatly. "I see." Something in her tone had Elenia looking at her.
"You too." Elenia's voice was very quiet.
"It wasn't as bad as some I have heard of." Connie was just as quiet. "But yeah. I learned too. If not for Captain Glarios, I would be dead." Elenia looked at her and Connie flushed. "I was young and dumb."
"So was I, once upon a time." Elenia relaxed little and Connie did as well. "Your secrets are yours. I have far too many of my own to want anyone else's." Connie stared at her, shock warring with fear, but Elenia was quick to reassure. "My secrets are not things that could profit anyone. They would cause far more harm than any conceivable good. Add to that? I know how to guard my mind from Corpus probes. You could destroy me, but reading me? No. Your people learned about such things. I believe you called her 'The darkness that walked like a woman'?" Connie actually backpedaled even though Elenia hadn't moved.
"Neptune." Connie was so pale now that Elenia was sure she was going to faint. "I heard… some…"
"Whatever you may have heard cannot have done what happened there justice. I am not the one who destroyed that base." Elenia said quietly. "But I know what she did and why. Do you?"
"Just that a Tenno was cloned and the clone was made into a MOA of some kind?" Connie asked. "But that makes no sense!"
"No, it doesn't." Elenia agreed. "What happened was insane. The Tenno ran afoul of a trap. That can happen to anyone, Tenno, human, Grineer, anyone." Connie nodded and Elenia sighed. "Long story short? She got away but just like this body you made, she had a body that the Orokin had made. It looked human in most ways, but it wasn't." Connie's eyes went huge at that and Elenia nodded again. "They took DNA samples of course, during her captivity and then…" She broke off as Connie hissed.
"I heard that." Connie whispered. "Cloning Tenno! Idiots!"
"Yeah." Elenia shrugged. "There are people that you simply should not anger. I try very hard not to get angry these days. It never helps with what I have to do. She had cause to get angry."
Monumental understatement!
"And Neptune was her losing her temper?" Connie asked, clearly upset by this revelation.
"No." Elenia looked at the floor. "Neptune was her finding out that they had cloned her again, killed the girl who they had flash grown and installed the girl's brain in a new kind of MOA." When the Tenno looked up, Connie's face was hard. Before the nurse could speak, Elenia did again. "And then that poor tormented soul died saving her mother's life." At that, Connie backed up again, this time all the way to the corner of the room where it seemed the walls were all that were holding her up. "Yes, what Serene did was excessive. Yes, she was terrifying even for my kind. But oh yes, she had cause." Quiet words, but they might have made a hole clean through a diamond.
"I agree." Connie said flatly. "I know that horrible things happen daily among the Corpus."
Elenia was only partly surprised when a hidden door on another wall hissed open and Granum's specter floated into the room. This was clearly some form of information gathering. They couldn't drug her or read her mind, so, this made sense. A bit. Of course, Elenia wasn't alone in her mind and a healthy fear of what had been the Tenno known as Serene was smart for anyone who knew anything about that situation. If Granum wanted information? She would give it on that, gladly. Cleaning up the messes Serene had left in her wake was still ongoing in some places even now, years later!
"The Tenno clone's name was Sara." Granum floated down and then, his specter sat on the bed! "The same name as the girl that the moron Nef Anyo just had a war declared on him over. The Reverend Mother's daughter that he had kidnapped."
"Technically, he was already at war with the Clergy even before that monumental gaff." Elenia retorted. "Do not push this." She warned. "You will not like what happens. The Clergy are not to be trifled with, even for my kind."
For so many reasons!
"The Clergy are odd." Granum seemed confused. "I get that the whole Corpus are all about making money to the exclusion of all else. But they are not. All I can find on their goals are noble platitudes. Add to that, their data security puts everyone else's to shame. I can't get into their systems and I can get in anywhere else Corpus have computers."
"I am not going to betray them." Elenia said with a shrug. "It wouldn't be good for my health. They know how to kill my kind."
"And anyone else it seems." Granum sighed deeply. "Considering the mess they made in the recent fracas, it is a good thing I stayed out of it. I would be surprised if any of their people got caught or killed. They are just that good."
"Probably." Elenia replied even as the mass mind tried to size up this development. If Granum was moving on the Clergy, 'Oh shit' was pretty much the proper phrase. Every Tenno knew who the new Reverend Mother was. Who she had been. Who her daughter was. Even without the massive resources and allies the Clergy commanded. With them? Ouch. Add to that? The Reverend Mother still had many acquaintances who called her, if not 'friend' then 'ally' among the Tenno. Elenia stilled as a possibility came through for her connection to Janas of all people. Then again, the male Caretaker had been Royal Guard and had been exposed to politics far more than Elenia or Jasmina had been. "You want to see if you can ally with them." It wasn't really a question. "With the Clergy."
She wasn't sure if awe, fear or maniacal laughter was appropriate, so she worked to simply keep her mouth shut.
"So I hope. Their reputation among the Corpus leads me to believe that they are not like the rest of them. I don't know enough about them and every attempt to find out more hits a wall." Granum admitted. "I have learned more about them in the last few minutes than in all the time I have been looking. Any advice, Tenno?" That was half snide, half begging.
"One piece of advice I will give freely, Parvos Granum: Leave the Reverend Mother's daughter Sara alone." Elenia's tone was frosty and Connie stared from the Tenno to Granum and back, her face a study. Did she know what he had been doing? "Anyo's attack succeeded because she was hidden instead of protected. Said attack came far too close to killing the girl and her mother will not let it happen again. Sara is now protected. Attack her and you face the wrath of many, not just her mother."
"I am not a soldier. I never was. And even at my worst? I and those I led did not attack children." Granum said firmly. "Far too many may think war is good for business, but they are all shortsighted fools like the current Corpus Board. Collateral damage happens in war and that is never good for business. My battles were fought with money and influence. And even then, yes, innocents got caught in the crossfire sometimes, but nothing like what the Corpus today advocates. Stealing people to turn into mindless followers is not the way to do things if you want your world to last. Even the Orokin did not do that on the scale that the Corpus of today feel is 'normal'."
"As I understand it, it was a fairly desperate time. I didn't see all of it though. I was gone by then." Elenia admitted. "I had, have, my own duty. A duty you will not keep me from."
"If I may ask bluntly, what is your duty?" Granum inquired.
"I was en-route to study the Technocyte outbreaks on the moon Deimos when I was pulled away by the mess in the volcano." At the Tenno's words both the human and the specter stared at her, wide eyed. "Research in such situations was and is my job."
"That moon is a hellhole by all accounts." Granum's specter shook its head. "Even Tenno have difficulty there. Any who crash there do not live long."
"I know my duty." Elenia replied, still calm even as Connie shook her head swiftly. "You will not keep me from it."
"You would go there as you are, wouldn't you?" Granum asked, his tone almost hushed. Elenia just looked at him and he sighed. "No warframe, no weapons. Just you." Elenia did not look away and he sighed deeper. "I have see that kind of look before. May I ask why Deimos?"
"You may." Elenia replied.
"Why Deimos?" Granum inquired.
"The world is different from other known Infestation hotspots." Elenia laid her hands in her lap. "There are things happening there that have been seen nowhere else. We need more information on what is happening and why. The last thing anyone wants is a moon sized font of Infestation. Eris is bad enough, but it is remote. Deimos is not."
"And… A planetary sized mass of Infestation is what Deimos is. It is also close to Mars and Phobos, inhabited worlds." Granum said slowly. Elenia nodded. "So… How would you deal with something... that... big…?" He trailed off and then hissed as Elenia nodded. When he spoke again, his tone held horror! He knew! "No! No, no, no, nonononono!"
"Master?" Connie asked as Granum's specter all but flew away from Elenia who hadn't moved a muscle!
"You cannot do that!" Granum said freely. "You must not do that!"
"You think we want to?" Elenia was sad now. "There is life there that is not Infested. Not lost to the feral." The specter was shaking its head as Connie stared at the seated Tenno in human form, her mouth falling open.
"Tenno could deal with such a huge mass? How?" Connie said weakly. Elenia did not react and Granum spoke up.
"Do not ask that." Granum commanded and Connie retreated back to her corner. "She likely cannot say and you do not want to know."
"That doesn't make any sense, sir." Connie pleaded. "If they could stop infestation-"
"Stop it by obliterating the moon and likely the next closest stellar neighbors! Mars and Phobos." Granum snapped and Connie froze in place, her mouth falling open. "At the very lest it would cause massive tectonic upheavals on both the planet and the other moon! And no, you do not say that to anyone!"
"Weapons of mass destruction." Connie said weakly as she sank down to the floor, face even paler than it had been. "Oh crap."
"Well said. We don't want to deploy such." Elenia shrugged just a little. "As I say, there is life on Deimos that is not Infested and there would be large scale disruptions across the systems. That said? Deimos is a very large surface area. If we used conventional weapons, even energy based and even in mass quantities, even then, the residue would be dangerous. There will be no residue if we do it that other way."
"And nothing else, either." Granum relaxed just a little. "At least you show far more restraint with such than some did with such in my time."
"I have seen such munitions deployed three times in my existence." Elenia was still quiet. "All three times, there was no other recourse. All three times, the loss of life was horrific, but the chance for Infestation getting loose and sweeping the entire solar system was far too great for lesser measures. The only good thing about this whole mess is that the masses on Deimos are not looking up. They are focused on the moon. But if they leave that moon, we have serious problems."
"Agreed." Granum said as his specter hovered down to sit on the bed again. "What can we do to help?" Connie and Elenia both stared at him with equally blank looks. "Even the idiots on the Board won't want this going that far. What Profit do they make if so many of their holdings are atomized?"
"They won't care, sir." Connie said flatly. "They don't think about quaint notions like 'foresight'. For them, it is all about their Profit. They couldn't care less about anything else."
"They will care if Mars vanishes or goes flying off its axis to Void only knows where." Granum snapped. "Just the market upheavals from the time that I know of were significant enough to put several of my companies utterly out of business."
"Would you rather be Infested?" Elenia inquired.
"No." Granum heaved a sigh. "Money comes and goes. Lives? Not so much. I know that now, but it took a long time of contemplating my own failures in the Void to understand that."
"You know trust won't happen, Parvos Granum." Elenia was still quiet and calm. "I have no way to contact the Clergy and even if I did? They won't trust me either."
Not the entire truth, but she wasn't about to spill any secrets if she could help it. Certainly not the First's Secrets!
"There is that." Granum allowed. "I am looking for options at the moment. As things stand, the Corpus is due for a massive shakeup. No matter how well they indoctrinate the masses, they cannot control human nature. Hell, the Orokin couldn't. I don't want a civil war, Tenno. They are a waste of time and resources. However, it is looking more and more as if I am going to have to fight one. Reforming any institution is hard. Reforming this one is going to get messy if it is possible at all."
"Well, speaking for myself, for what it is worth? I wish you luck." Elenia gave him a nod and both Corpus stared at her. "The status quo will change. The one absolute truth in life is change. I would hope that whatever plans you come up with are slightly less evil than what the Corpus today do, but as I say; I have my own duty and I must get back to it."
"For what it worth? Thank you." Granum gave her a nod and then paused. "What was that?"
Connie opened her mouth to query even as Elenia tensed. Something had touched her mind. Something bad!
"..."
"NO!" Granum screamed as the door blew in and Alad V's Zanuka charged in. It ignored Granum and Connie to stare at Elenia. The four legged monstrosity made a noise of confusion and then crouched to attack her even as she slid from the chair to meet its attack. No warframe, no chance. She didn't care.
That was when a dark brown Volt warframe sped into the room and slammed full tilt into Zanuka, blade flashing.