Primoday, Rami 15th 067.M42

Maddy was gone for most of the day yesterday, which I'm not too proud to admit, was bloody terrifying. I didn't know where she'd gone or what she was doing, and although I know that she can handle herself (which was pretty damned obvious after she dragged me away from that ambush or whatever it was), I couldn't stop imagining the worst things happening.

Thankfully she showed up again later in the evening, and she seemed to be intact. I'd been able to charge my slate, so at least I had something to read while I was waiting, though I still don't have a connection to the feed, so I haven't been able to check the news or send any messages. Not that I would anyway. Maddy had already warned me that for now, we're hiding and I can't send any messages or try to call anyone until she says so.

She was really very upset when she returned, and it took some time for her to calm down enough to actually want to talk to me about what was going on. That was after she'd told me that it wasn't my business and that I needed to shut up and sit down to let her think. She's never snapped at me like that before, but then… The girl I thought that I knew, who I thought was my girlfriend - that's not her, is it?

It must have been obvious that she'd upset me, because she did actually stop and apologise after a while. I told her she didn't have to tell me everything, but… I think she wanted to talk. And I understood why after she did.

She told me that there was a lot of history behind who she was and that it wasn't important right now, but that I could keep calling her Maddy - it's not her real name, but it's the name she's used for a while apparently, and it's what most of her friends refer to her by.

She says that she's from Scintilla, and that she's an agent of the Inquisition. She was so matter-of-fact about it, like you would be introducing yourself at a party - "Hi, I'm Maddy and I work for the Inquisition…" But she says that she was sent here to look into the rumours that one of the major trade operations on Asphodel had fallen to Xeno influence and was operating contrary to Imperial interests. And that's why she ended up in the Office of Tithing and Export Management. She told me that she'd infiltrated the Office in order to just get as much information as she could about the Kai-Ten Conglomerate and their dealings on Asphodel, so that she could try and find a way to insinuate herself into their operation, but that once she'd actually joined us she realised that we didn't just take publicly-available information. Apparently the upper ranks of the Office somehow have managed to set up operatives and systems in order to spy on nearly every single trade organisation on the planet. It made sense to me then why she'd been curious about the way that that data came into the office.

It was when I told her about Daisy's disappearance and she started putting things together with other missing persons reports that she'd seen that she realised that there was more than just the possibility of the corrupted Conglomerate, and that there was possibly a much bigger problem actually here in Hive Minos, and that what we'd seen on the pict footage we got from Daisy's case confirmed it.

She called them Genestealers. Some kind of… Monstrous parasite species that apparently infiltrates worlds, beguiling and corrupting the population in secret, gradually building up a powerbase of both brainwashed slaves as well as mutated half-creatures, until they finally build up enough influence to topple the power structure of the world and take over completely. Every time she'd disappeared and told me that she'd been off taking care of her mum, she's actually been down here, trying to investigate and gather evidence without being caught by them. Hence the bruises that time. They'd set up a trap and very nearly managed to capture her, but she managed to fight them off and flee without being identified, but not before they injured her a bit.

And now that they know who I am, she says that they're not going to stop until they find me again. They know I'm down here so they're going to focus their efforts down here, but if I go home I'm just going to draw their attention up there, to everyone up there - Mum and Dad and Me. So I need to stay down, stay in hiding with her for now. She says that if we can properly give them the slip, I might be able to do something to try and convince the rest of my family to get out of here, get away from Minos - possibly off of Asphodel all together. I have no idea how I'd even do something like that, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

I asked her what her plan was, what we could or should do. To my surprise, and somewhat to my relief, her answer was hide. Apparently a little bit ago she sent a message to her masters, letting them know of the threat here and how bad it was shaping up to be, and now she's waiting for their response. She thinks it should be any day now, that she'd sent the missive long enough ago that they should be on their way, if not just about here.

But when I asked her what they'd do when they got here, she got cagey again. She said it was probably for the best if I just didn't think about that right now, if I focus on following her instructions and trying to keep my head down so that we can get through this until they do. I wasn't at all reassured by her expression when she said that.

The conversation kind of faltered after that point. I got the feeling that there was more that she wanted to tell me, but by the same token that she was worried about doing so. I tried to get a bit more out of her, but she told me that we'd have plenty of time to talk in the coming days.

I get the feeling we might be down here for a while.