Chapter Five: Alliance
When the sun rose, Da'an had finished with the mandate and had pasted Link's picture on her FBI badge. Link checked the mandate, which was programmed into his global in his living room over a fresh cup of coffee.
"That looks real," Link said impressed with what he saw. "How did you forge thirteen different signatures that well?"
"Because we do not sign our names. We use symbols, and over a thousand years of looking at the signatures of the same individuals has left me with a photographic memory. If President Thompson was allowed to be in office longer, I could probably get his signature down to memory as well."
"You are scary," Link said.
"No, I am an alien."
"Oh. Well that justifies everything."
Da'an shook her head, but she jerked when she felt her global vibrating. "I do not like these things," she complained. She opened the global. "Yes?"
The picture was scrambled and shaking. Da'an had to look closer to find out that she was looking at a blue wall. "Da'an…help me, please!" an agonized voice cried. "You cannot let them take me!"
"Mi'en? Mi'en, is that you?"
"Da'an…please help me," Mi'en's voice moaned. "Please. I do not want to go. Do not let them take me."
"Mi'en, what is happening?" Da'an asked anxiously. Link's coffee mug began to shake violently.
"Please, Da'an! No! Let me go, please. I don't want to go," Mi'en cried in a waning voice. In the background, Da'an could hear footsteps and frantic voices.
"Mi'en. Where are you? Where are they taking you?"
All Da'an could hear was the faint moaning of her friend. Then, the screen went black.
"Mi'en!" The coffee mug exploded, and Da'an dropped the global and fell on the couch.
"What happened?" Link asked kneeling in front of her. "Da'an, look at me. What happened?"
Da'an suddenly hunched over and winced at the pain emanating from her head.
"Da'an. Talk to me," Link said firmly.
"Mi'en. My friend. Something is wrong with her," Da'an groaned still clinging to her forehead trying to fight the pain.
"Don't worry. We'll find out what's going on," Link said.
"G-Give me the global," Da'an said reaching for it.
Link picked it up and gave it to her. She began frantically dialing. Liam's face appeared.
"Da'an! Thank God you called. I was just trying to call you. I got a busy signal."
"Because I just got a call from Mi'en," Da'an said. "I think something terrible has happened to her."
"Did she say anything?"
"She was in pain. She kept begging me to help her—to not let them take her. Liam, was Mi'en at the Moonbase or the Mothership?"
"Not that I know of. I'll call Renee and see. She might know, but Da'an, if something has happened to Mi'en, then, I need to tell you this now. You have to stay away from the Moonbase. Don't go anywhere near there, and don't send anybody there either."
"Why?"
"Because the priests are there. I heard from a Taelon named Ta'lay that Taelon pilots and technicians have been falling mysterious ill and are being hauled to the Moonbase to be cured by the priests."
"Wait. Pilots and technicians?"
"Yeah."
"Oh no. Liam, they have taken Mi'en!"
"Aw shit," Liam muttered. "Da'an, stay there. I'm coming to get you. We'll go to the lair together and find out what's going on."
"It is all right, Liam. Rembrandt can take me there."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. He is right here. I will be fine."
"Okay, but be careful. I'll meet you there."
Da'an nodded and closed the global.
"Let me guess," Link said. "We're scrapping the mission."
"Not if I can help it," Da'an said. "Not with Mi'en captive. I have to return to Washington. You would not mind going with me, would you?"
"No problem. Let's go."
"Why in the hell didn't you protect her?" Liam demanded in the lair.
"She was afraid that taking a human would blow her cover, so she went alone," Hubble replied defensively.
"You could've sent me! I was on the Mothership when—I am not believing this. Do you know how much you've complicated the situation? And you don't even care!"
"You're damn right I don't," Hubble shot back. "You complicated things the moment you put that traitorous bitch in my hands, and now I'm suddenly supposed to take the blame for problems that you caused?"
"You son of a bitch! Don't you ever speak about her that way! She nearly died for us! She's risking her life just being on this planet every day for us!"
"Don't you ever speak to me that way!" Hubble shot back. "I can just as easily strip that pretty little rank you never earned as T'than, and this time, you don't have your guardian angel Taelon to protect you."
"Will you two put your dicks back in your pants and focus on the situation at hand?" Renee cried. "Mi'en is our friend and our ally, and she's been captured. Who in God's name cares how she got that way?"
"And in the meantime, he's going to sit in his big giant office drinking champagne with the president and getting richer and richer by the hour," Liam spat glaring at Hubble. "You sit there and play with people's lives, and you expect me to feel bad about it! You know, I didn't have everything handed to me on a silver platter even though you'd like to think so. I've dedicated my life to saving lives and helping people. Renee and I are out there busting our asses every night covering up or fixing messes that your president helped create."
"He's your president too."
"I didn't vote for him."
"You didn't vote period. You were too busy playing hero when you should've been serving your country by doing what every race, religion, and ethnicity had to fight to do—had to die to do. Don't blame me for trying to make the situation less worse than it already is, when you keep taking actions to make it this bad."
"Guys, I'm being serious now! Let this go right now!" Renee warned.
"How in God's name do I make it any worse than it already is?"
"Let's start with this 'special' relationship you have with Da'an. It makes you weak. After all that Taelon has done with the rest of her species, you still come crawling back to her. I know her kind. I work with them every day."
"Why don't you take the stick out of that misshaped gear you call an ego?"
"You've got quite a big one yourself."
"Am I interrupting something!"
Liam and Hubble turned to see Da'an standing in front of the elevator with Link.
Renee sighed. "What did I tell you?"
"We were…just discussing what to do about your friend," Hubble said after clearing his throat.
"Oh, really?" Da'an said walking up to face him. "Tell me then, what exactly do my position and my past have to do with that?"
"It was just frustration, Da'an."
"No, frustration is hitting a punching bag. Frustration is verbally abusing the television, and you still have not answered my question."
"I stand by everything I said," Hubble said firmly.
"Oh, I know you do, which is why I also know you will humbly explain to me why you accuse me of playing with human lives while you sit there and send my people to their deaths."
"An eye for an eye."
"A hypocrite's pitiful justification. I do not have to explain myself to the likes of you, and I certainly do not need your charity. The moment you have a problem with me, I can leave just as easily as anyone else in this room. Oh wait a minute. I forgot. You want me on your side to help you battle the Synod and the priests. Perhaps I should just leave because apparently my presence is making your lives just too easy. You want to know what I think of you, Mr. Urick? You are nothing more than a spoiled child. You cannot accept people's help even when they are staring at you right in the face. I may not be a saint. I will grant you that much, but I can at least say that I am not that foolish."
Hubble sighed and sat in his chair.
"I do not care how you put Mi'en in this situation. I do not care about the past anymore, and I certainly do not care about you," Da'an said firmly. "Right now, the only thing I care about is freeing Mi'en and anyone else who wants it. Now, I do not want to hear another word about used-to-be's and sins of the past, especially from you two."
"But Da'an, I was—" Liam tried to say.
"Not another word!" Da'an interrupted firmly. "Save it for whatever divine force you worship because that is where I take all my sins."
Everyone was quiet while Da'an stepped towards the computer.
"May I break the silence for a moment and ask how are we gonna save this Taelon?" Link asked.
"Who…?"
"Renee, this is Rembrandt. He is a private investigator hired by the Reyes family to ascertain the cause of his death," Da'an introduced before Renee could finish.
"I guess if you're looking for Reyes's killer, you were bound to come into contact with us," Renee said.
"Well, don't worry. Your secret's safe with me," Link promised. "I'm just here to help."
"Then, maybe you can help us figure out a way to get Mi'en back," Renee said.
"Already taken care of," Link said handing her his global.
Renee opened it and found the forged mandate. "This is…this is a perfect replica. How in the hell did you do this?"
"I didn't. She did," Link said pointing to Da'an.
Liam had already rushed to Da'an's side and was overlooking the latest schematics of the Moonbase. He pointed to a section at the very center of the pentagon structure. "That whole section's sealed off. That has to be where they took her."
"That is also where we will find Reyes's killer," Da'an said. "It is where we will find everything."
"I take it you know what the priests are doing," Renee said.
"I know exactly what they are doing, and I know why they are doing it. Link can use that mandate to get inside. Once we are inside, I will free Mi'en."
"It's too dangerous for you to go," Hubble protested.
"Is that genuine concern I hear?" Da'an asked harshly. "Mi'en will not respond to anyone but me."
"You talk about her like she's your dog," Hubble said.
"Instead of second-guessing my judgment, perhaps you should get to work forging more special agent badges for my colleagues."
"Fine then. I'm just glad I could be of some help to you," Hubble said cynically. He rose from his chair and marched out of the lair.
"You just trash-talked one of the president's key staff," Link told Da'an.
"And?"
"Uh, nothing," he replied timidly. "Just thought I'd point that out."
"He is never going to forgive you for that," Renee warned.
"What? Oh, I apologize. You must be confusing me with the Da'an who gives a damn."
Nobody even attempted to reply.
"Damn," Link commented under his breath.
"And she calls me hotheaded," Liam whispered to Link.
"Did she really say that?" Link whispered.
Liam nodded.
"This is awesome," Link laughed quietly.
A strange feeling interrupted T'than's sleep. Malley was working on a new firewall with a system maintenance employee on the graveyard shift. When Malley heard his companion bolt upright from his chair, he rushed to investigate.
"Is everything all right sir?" he asked.
"I doubt it. I sense the presence of someone close to me," T'than said. "Someone I have not seen in ten years. I am going to the Moonbase."
"But sir, I thought the priests had the Moonbase quarantined due to the illnesses."
"Indeed," T'than said aloofly activating the datastream.
Zo'or's face appeared. "What in the name of all that is good and holy could be so important that you interrupt my slumber?" he asked sharply.
"You are no doubt aware of the recent spread of illness in the Taelon community?"
"Who isn't? What do you care? The priests are handling it."
"My sibling has fallen ill."
"Mi'en?"
"Yes. I have felt it."
"Do you always call your family 'it'?"
"Only the para'shims."
Zo'or sighed. He was not in the mood to get involved in a family affair, especially concerning a family as bizarre as T'than's. "Is there some point to this conversation that obviously has absolutely nothing to do with me?"
"Surely you are not so naïve that you have forgotten about Mi'en's condition."
"Everyone knows about Mi'en's problem. It is why he left in the—oh."
"I know Mi'en. It is a submissive creature, my sibling. It would not have returned unless it has found a new master."
Zo'or chuckled. "So the priests are using Mi'en as bait to lure my parent into a trap. I guess Reyes was not a big enough incentive."
"Exactly."
"Then, what is it that you want? A front row seat to the death of two birds with one stone?"
"That would be nice, but you know just as well as I do that something foul is afoot. The priests have informed the Synod that their original plan was to lure Da'an to the Moonbase in order to expose her to the virus. The priests would cleanse her, and at the moment of her weakness convert her to our side again. However, now that my sibling has fallen ill, I am beginning to grow concerned about this virus. I find it interesting how…selective this new virus is in its victims."
"Elaborate."
"The virus, for the moment, only appears to be attacking the lower caste Taelons. Mechanics, pilots, lab aides."
"Are you a fool? That is all that makes up the Moonbase, and that was where the virus started."
"But Mi'en was nowhere near the Moonbase. How could it have contracted the virus?"
"How can you be sure?"
"Because the Moonbase is too fortified a facility for Mi'en to just walk in unnoticed, especially now."
"You are closer to the priests than I am. Why not just go up there and ask them yourselves?"
"Do not play me for an idiot, Zo'or. You know just as well as I do what is going on. Every Taelon knows, but they are afraid to say it. They fear that just thinking it will direct the 'virus' towards them. They simply sit and take the priests' word that we will be protected."
"Cleansed," Zo'or corrected.
"Yes."
"What do you propose?"
"I have grown tired of this game of cat and mouse that we have played ever since I first arrived. The Taelons face a much bigger menace now. I know of your plans, Zo'or, and I know of the priests'. There is no room to stand alone anymore, and, as a strategist, I must pick a side, the side that I truly believe is the lesser of two evils."
"You are suggesting a truce, then. Why should I even bother to accept? For cheats like you, truce only means time to reload your weapons so that you may shoot me in the back with full force when I least expect it."
"Because you and I both refuse to serve under anyone. We both seek the same thing: dominion—dominion over the Commonality. I am not a slave, and neither are you, but those who serve the Commonality will be slaves forever. In order to become masters, we must become the controllers. Oh, and might I add that stopping eight extremely powerful beings is not easily done. It requires support—unanimous support. Right now, my allies are keeping you from gaining that unanimity. Together, we will have enough consciousness on our side to tip the balance. Finally, what better way to vanquish your enemies and gain allies at the same time?"
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Zo'or thought to himself. "Hmm."