MINDSPRING- I have figured out the direction of the plot! I had three different ways it could have gone, but after a long debate, this is the one. Sorry about the ridiculously long wait. I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review!
~Maureen~
I smiled to myself as I noticed the headline in the newspaper: RIOTS BREAK OUT OVER THE WORLD, and, in smaller print underneath, MYSTERIOUS 'LADY LIBERTY' NOTES ARE CAUSE. Technically, the papers weren't supposed to print anything that was biased towards the riots against the Separatists, but they have had lots of practice in discrete biases. Everywhere I looked, I saw a faint gleam of hope in everyone's eyes. All the papers, online and off, sang quiet praise of Lady Liberty.
Natalie had typed at least four letters since her first one, about one every week or so, but smaller Ladies were being found everywhere. Lords as well. I smiled and closed my eyes in happiness. Earth was about to change, and we were behind it!
Things were going well in every other aspect as well. Caitlin and I found new information almost everyday in the Separatist Center. I've found ten different strategies in the records department, while Caitlin has gotten a good majority of their future battle strategies. And we left no stone unturned. Whenever we had the chance, we would go through every little thing on every little computer in that place. And let me tell you, that was a lot of information to check.
No matter how hard she tried to hide it, Natalie and I both saw that Caitlin would climb out of bed at eleven, go out to the porch, and think wistfully about Rex until early in the morning. Well, that's what she told us. However, we knew better. A few nights after the men had left, she had received a message from the Republic. Thinking it was one of the men with a request of what to seek out, she answered it in her pajamas. She dropped her bowl of grapes when she saw that it was Rex. Who was definitely not acting on orders.
Ever since, they have talked all night, every night, about who knows what. But her happy little smile told Nat and me everything we needed to know.
I looked up from my computer cautiously. I grinned- now that I was close to the last one at the Separatist Center in downtown Kansas City, the real work began. I pressed a button on the side of the monitor and Caitlin's face popped up. I said, "So, how is it up there, miss high-and-mighty?"
She smiled, a tired but happy smile, and replied, "It's very quiet. Could you come up here and keep me company please?"
I rolled my eyes and sighed. This was all for show, for the cameras we knew were watching our every move. By now, we knew almost every location of the security devices on our two floors. Shutting down my computer, I walked past rows of dormant computers and headed for the elevator. Before the Seppies had moved in, you couldn't have even used the stairs. Now, the place looked like the set of a Star Trek movie.
Every night, this happens. Every night, we risk our lives and our families to get this precious cargo to the Republic. Every day, we hear more and more horror stories about people getting poisoned, shot before their family, beaten, or simply taken in the middle of the night with no clues as to where they went. No wonder I have no more fingernails.
Caitlin greeted me with a small smile and a hello. We marched like soldiers to her office, which was nothing more than a desk with a super-fancy computer on it and a rainforest's worth of paper.
While Caitlin worked away, I sat down at one of the computers next to her and started fiddling around, playing that I was bored. There was an extremely ill-placed camera right over her head, so I had to play this part like I cared what the hell happened to the Separatists.
I leaned over the low wall that separated her from the other workers, crossed my arms, and said, "So? Any news on the clones?"
She shook her head slowly, frowning at the screen. "Unfortunately, nothing. Last my scanners reported they were was somewhere in deep China. where of course we don't have any Centers. So we'll just have to wait until they show up at a town or... not." I smiled when I saw she was quickly encrypting the data coming in from the many satellites, which jumbled the data around.
Which, of course, they're not. Only the three of us knew that the last clones on this planet were the ones buried in the field at Caitlin's ranch.
An hour later, a message popped up on Caitlin's screen that said, The Center is closing for the night. Please shut your computer down and exit the building.
"Oh, darn," she mumbled. "No more work until Monday!" She slipped a small circular device into her pocket, and I leapt up and followed her out. We passed a man named Lee Rutherford, and we stopped walking and bowed our heads respectfully. He wasn't from Earth, and he was a decorated General in the Separatist Army. He was also Caitlin's boss. She said, "Good night, sir."
He merely grunted, and continued walking. I rolled my eyes and we left for the Jeep.
When we got back to the ranch, Natalie was sitting on the couch in her pj's, munching on popcorn and watching with avid attention, the news from the three new protests and riots that had broken out in the last hour.
"If it keeps up like this, the world will be Seppie-free by morning." She said as a greeting, smiling widely.
"Let's hope so. Otherwise I might never sleep again." I said. "Caitlin loves to work late, and quite frankly it is wearing me down."
Caitlin winked and went upstairs to change, handing me the device first. I sat down, took out the holoprojector, and clipped it into the port. Immediately, data started streaming from here to the Republic command ships. Once each ship successfully downloaded the data, the holoprojector would beep and a little light would appear. Over two hundred ships received the data each day.
I smiled to myself, proud of our little group. Earth will cleanse itself from the Separatists and the Republic just might win the war. Not to mention the fact that we're helping unite the world over one cause, with the majority of the citizens agreeing on the same thing.
From school, I've learned that once a country, city, or even political party unites over something they are passionate about, chances are they'll get what they want.
The projector beeped one last time and went blank. As I was taking the chip out, hurried banging came from the front door. I froze, Natalie froze, and Caitlin, who was coming down the stairs, froze.
Without another word, I slipped the projector and chip to Natalie, took a breath and opened the door. As soon as I saw who it was, my eyes widened and a numbing terror took over me. It was none other than Count Dooku himself, with a cloaked and hooded person standing behind him.
"Maureen Samuels, Natalie Koch, and Caitlin Monroe, you are under arrest for betraying the the Confederacy of Independent Systems." Before I could shriek, or even defend myself, he grabbed me by the throat, and threw me backwards. I hit the wall hard, and the last thing I saw was his apprentice draw two blood-red lightsabers from her cloak. Then everything went dark.
