Secunday, Rami 16th 067.M42

I woke up so exhausted and flat-feeling this morning, it left me worrying that I was starting to come down with something. For a moment I was even afraid that I was coming down with the weird illness that Arlean had been talking about before this all kicked off. Maddy tried to reassure me that that couldn't be, that this was something that there had to be actual contact with these creatures to contract, but… she looked worried.

She looked even more worried when I told her about the dream that I had during the night. She made me tell her everything I could remember. It was hard, it was starting to fade almost as soon as I woke up, but re-telling it seemed to cement it a bit in my mind.

I don't remember much of the context, except that I was with Arlean. I'm not sure where we were, it was somewhere dark, I couldn't see much around us - or if I could, it's passed from my memory. She was asking me where I was, she sounded so scared. I remember being terrified for her. I tried reassuring her, telling her I was there, right there with her. But she just kept asking me where I was, telling me to tell her where I was right now. It was confusing, and a little bit scary if I'm being totally honest. I remember wondering in the dream if she wanted me to tell her where I was in the real world, and even though I swear that I didn't say anything out loud, she seemed to pick up on it, wanted to coax me into saying that. I honestly wanted to tell her, but at the same time, I didn't. It felt like someone was standing just behind me, whispering in my ear that I should tell her, that if I didn't tell her then she couldn't help me.

I must have been making some noise in my sleep or something because I think it was about that point that Maddy woke me. I woke with the strangest urge that I shouldn't tell her what I was dreaming about, that it was secret and she just wouldn't understand. Which made me want to tell her even more. Nothing about that felt right or normal.

As much as she was worried, I think she was glad that I told her. I… don't know exactly what it all meant, but I got the distinct impression that she was relieved that… I didn't listen to the urges in my dream?

But it wasn't just the dream that had her worried. She told me that she'd gone out while I was sleeping (I asked her when she slept, she didn't answer me), trying to find a repeater that wasn't damaged so that she could get access to the Feed. Which was apparently much easier said than done. But she said that she managed to eventually find a node that she thinks nobody knew about, further toward the centre of the hive, where she could get a patchy signal and finally link up again. She didn't transmit anything, but she says she managed to download her own messages as well as get onto the newsnet and get some reports about what we've missed in the last few days.

On the one hand, she says that her colleagues have sent a message saying that they'll be arriving before the week end. So we only have to last and avoid them a few more days. But on the other hand it gives the… Them. Mutants. Xenos cultists, whatever they are more time to find both us, and also to move against my family. Which she thinks they're going to do now that their other attempts haven't worked. I asked her if we'd be able to make our way back up again, so I could try to warn them and get them away like we'd discussed. She said that we'd have to see, but it was her plan to do so. She says that they have much less… grasp… over the higher levels, so if we can break out and get away, get up a few levels, then they'll find it much harder to pin us in.

But that wasn't the only problem. I finally managed to get her to open up about what else - despite the imminent threat to our lives and the good of hive Minos if not the entire world of Asphodel - was possibly worrying her. She said that there was more news on the Feed… The Kai-Ten Conglomerate didn't just go to the Governor with their evidence against the Hadrigan Cartel. They've released it into the general streams, and it's damning. Evidence that allegedly shows Hadrigan operatives and forces dealing with pirates, documents that confirm their trading in Xeno goods and weapons, deliberately reneging on contracts with trade partners and letting them take the fall for it. Hadrigan have gone into lockdown and everyone's gunning for them. But the part that has Maddy most worried is that the Arbites can't ignore this. There are so many flagrant breaches of the Lex that they are required to get involved. And it's going to take a significant amount of their forces. To the point that they're bringing in Judges from precincts on all levels of the Hive… and leaving little to no forces with the ability to patrol and look down into cult activity.

I said that I found the timing of this to be oddly coincidental. Maddy isn't so sure that it was a coincidence. I asked her what she meant by that, and all that she would say is that these creatures came from off-world, somewhere in the void. Which means that someone had to deliver them here. Someone with off-world interests.

Like, say, a trading house.