Daryl's news for Hershel set wheels in motion at levels neither of them even knew existed. By the time Daryl and Carol were to link up the next day to obtain the missing part of the Sunday guard rotation schedule, plans had been changed massively to an extent that was going to involve the two of them as well as their backup team. They had both been asked by Hershel to stand down from the mission for now and wait for further instructions.

Hershel and Ty were contacted through their links and spent almost two hours of the night following Daryl's alert about their plans being uncovered linked up with dozens of other supervisors from all over the world in a huge meld with the founder of TE, Dale Horvath, who briefed them on the worldwide mission that they had all been helping to prepare without being aware of it.

He started by thanking them all for making the time to meet in what for half of them was the middle of the night. „This meeting is unscheduled - or rather, we've pulled it forward because we have had to change our schedule in general." Hershel could feel the anticipation in the meld rising at this. „One of our guides has learned that the police in his city are on the verge of uncovering what they assume will be a local strike against the headquarters located there by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. As he informed his supervisor of this immediately, we have been able to change our plans accordingly. We can still consider the mission uncompromised."

Ty nudged Hershel to get his attention and then seemed to be whispering into his ear. „That would be your guide from the Fantastic Two?" he asked.

Hershel gave him a mental nod. „His brother's with the police, and they were in a pub together -„ He checked his timer. „Four hours ago. He contacted me as soon as he could - and here we are. They must have been at this continuously ever since I notified Theodore Douglas - he said he'd pass it on right away."

There were, Horvath went on, fifteen cities worldwide with national Feina headquarters. These were as elaborate as the one in New Atlanta that Daryl and Carol had been gathering intelligence on. According to Horvath, they had not only administrative offices and structures, but included housing and military quarters as well. In addition to that, national headquarters had spaceports located near them where the huge ships in which the Feina had originally arrived could land, take off, and get maintenance.

Ty whispered to Hershel that he'd once run a mission at the New Atlanta spaceport and that it was huge. „Wonder how they're gonna take the spaceports out - they can't very well blow those up, too." Hershel's eyes widened slightly at hearing this. Surely they were not going to blow up half of New Atlanta? He wondered briefly if he knew any of the people handling the New Atlanta spaceport tonight, but quickly concentrated on the meeting again.

In addition to these national headquarters, Horvath continued, there were several dozen local admin centers which consisted of administrative offices and housing for the Feina staff working there. At these locations there were smaller spaceports where the small atmospheric ships were stationed which were constantly patrolling cities all over the world - like the one that had passed over Hershel's head as he had left the bar after his meeting with Daryl just hours before.

The leadership of Terran Earth, they learned, had been setting up a joint, worldwide strike that was to take place simultaneously in all cities where Feina headquarters or a shipyard for their spaceships were located. Over the past few weeks, teams all over the world had collected data on the routines and procedures followed by the Feina while at the same time the teams responsible for supplies had already been shipping explosives to the respective cities.

Other teams not tied up in the ongoing huge data collection effort had distributed the explosives and started smuggling them into the compounds themselves as well as to the secluded sites where the Feina starships were hidden. Still different teams had spent the past weeks gathering the same data for the starship locations that teams like Hershel's had been gathering for the headquarters.

The aim of the ultimate mission was a simultaneous worldwide strike against all the Feina headquarters, the living quarters inside the compounds, and the shipyards, effectively crippling their respective national organizations, maybe even to the point of putting them entirely out of commission, as well as their local fleets.

„Additionally", Dale elaborated, „the weapons emplacements of the huge interstellar ships are to be taken out with small charges that only have a limited range and will leave the ships' hulls, drives and steering fins intact so they will still be able to take off and maneuver in deep space, but be left unable to carry out large-scale ground strikes against the human population left behind on Earth. We want them to leave, but not eradicate the human race while they're doing so."

Massive loss of Feina lives was accepted. In the case of the strike against the headquarters and living quarters it was, in fact, one main desired target effect, along with taking out all their data bases. The flight crews at the shipyards both for the small ships and the large generation ships in which the Feina had arrived decades ago were to be left alone – the Feina would need the crews to get their ships off the ground and take them somewhere else, after all.

„We're hoping", Horvath continued, „that, with their overall organization hamstrung by the loss of so many key people all over the world, and all retaliatory strikes rendered impossible with all of their small ships as well as the weaponry aboard the big ones destroyed -" he took a deep breath and paused for a second for effect, „- the Feina will decide to cut their losses – which would be massive as it was, if everything goes as planned – and leave Earth while they still can."

As they relied completely on their fleets of atmosphere capable ships for keeping humanity under their thumb, there were no standing, ground-based, Feina-only military or police forces with which they would be able to retaliate – and quite apart from that, nobody at TE wanted to commit genocide by slaughtering every last Feina on Earth.

Originally, this strike had been planned for the coming month. However, Daryl's news of the intermediary police force uncovering a possible insurgency strike at New Atlanta – not the big one, obviously, which was too far in the future for the time frame mentioned by Shane, but one of the intelligence runs either by Carol and Daryl themselves or by the team assigned to the New Atlanta shipyard – had prompted the leadership of TE to speed up their schedule.

Horvath continued by outlining the new schedule for the main attack itself. It had been moved up to the beginning of the coming week. All intelligence runs would have to be completed by 10 p.m. UTC on Monday night at the latest - 3 p.m. for New Atlanta, Hershel thought, converting the time reference automatically. All the teams charged with delivering explosives either to a headquarters and living quarters compound or a shipyard would have to complete their assignments five hours later the following Tuesday morning - or 8 p.m. for New Atlanta.

The teams selected to execute the main assault itself in each city were to be issued plans for the placement of the explosives charges for their assigned compounds and shipyards, based on the intelligence gathered until that very night, by early Tuesday morning and stand by to infiltrate their respective targets by 4 a.m. UTC - or 9 p.m. on Monday night for the New Atlanta team, whoever they were going to be. They would then have one hour to place their explosives in accordance with the plans they had received and set the central timer for each location to give them thirty minutes to get out. All teams involved had until then to vacate their target locations before the charges went off on Monday night or Tuesday morning, depending on their location.

In view of the tight schedule, TE leadership put the decision of reassigning the teams that had gathered intelligence on the respective sites to also place the charges at the discretion of the local team supervisors. The teams originally selected for placing and wiring the charges would have very little time to familiarize themselves with the layout of each location, leaving a wide margin of error. As they wanted to keep their teams safe while at the same time inflicting the maximum possible damage, having the intelligence teams who were already familiar with their locations also set the charges and light the fires might be a wise move at this point, Dale Horvath suggested.

It was all over within less than two hours. Horvath terminated the links, and Hershel and Tyreese sat in Tyreese's study in stunned silence, staring at each other.

After an eternity, Ty managed to work up the courage to speak. "Do you supervise the teams that will … set the charges?" The whites of his eyes formed a stark contrast to his dark skin in the dim light from his table lamp. He looked utterly shocked by the scale of the plan that had just been outlined to them.

Hershel shook his head in silence. "I had no idea", he whispered faintly. Realizing that the two operatives he felt closest to had been working on this huge project – and had apparently been a target for the local police force, and were in imminent danger of being uncovered – had turned him into a nervous wreck for the time being.

No attachment.

"I need to talk to Daryl about this –" He glanced at the timer set into the wall above the door. „I don't think he'll mind the time."

Ty rose from his chair and left the room, returning five minutes later with two steaming mugs. "My wife, may she rest in peace, left me a huge assortment of various teas for all kinds of emergencies", he announced as he set one of the mugs in front of Hershel along with a small bowl containing sweetener. "This one is supposed to have a calming effect, and I think we could both use that."

They sipped in silence for a few minutes until Tyreese started to speak again. "I know, of course, how much you care about those two that gathered the information on the headquarters compound", he began carefully. "But wouldn't you agree that what they suggested makes a lot of sense? Having these two, instead of a completely new team, infiltrate the compound to set, wire and detonate the charges?"

Hershel looked up at him through the steam rising from the tea curling in front of his face. "That's why I'm afraid", he whispered. "It's the only solution that makes any sense at this point." Just as he finished speaking, he felt T-Dog touching his mind.

.-.

Daryl stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. Hershel had only just closed down their three-way meld after announcing that his own supervisor had decided to follow the recommendation from someone still higher up and assign the New Atlanta part of the „big mission" for which they had been collecting intelligence to Carol and himself. He had more or less shut down while Hershel had explained the - no doubt perfectly sensible - reasons for this decision, and only tuned back in again for the schedule for the next two days.

Even now, his mind was reeling with the implications of what they had just learned. This was going way beyond his wildest dreams. If this mission succeeded, they would have directly contributed to freeing Earth of Feina occupation - but it also meant exposing Carol to infinitely more danger than he felt comfortable with. Did she trust him enough again to do this with him? Or would she request someone else to guide her for this one - in private, of course? Would he be able to rein in his excitement and keep this secret from Merle for another day, until they actually set out to do it?

And not least: Would he himself be up to it? He remembered all the times Hershel had asked him in the course of his mission with Carol if he would be able to keep his body and his trigger reactions under control. He had assured him that he would, every single time, yet he had already failed at it once. What if he lost it during this mission, in a critical situation, and ended up endangering, hurting or losing Carol? What if the mission itself, not only here but worldwide, failed because he was too stubborn to admit that not just his physical but his mental condition might become a problem under the "right" circumstances?

Daryl was all too aware of his issues. He was made aware of them all over again every time someone accidentally touched him, and even the careful touch of a friend could send him over the edge of the precipice he was constantly balancing on; thinking of Hershel's hands covering his own to calm him down during one of their last meetings still had him cringe with shame over his reaction.

His therapist with whom he had talked for weeks about losing the last agent he'd worked with before Carol had, of course, noticed that there was much more that needed resolving, but he had stalled whenever she had tried to bring up his more distant past. His shame over "allowing" his father to abuse him as a child the way he had, and over allowing Merle to distract him when he could to spare Daryl a beating, was still choking him every time his thoughts so much as vaguely strayed back to their childhood – he didn't even have to think about any particular incident.

Being abandoned by his guide and getting seriously injured in a direct encounter with a Feina during a mission hadn't excatly served to bolster his self-confidence, of which he had never had much to begin with. Dreaming about facing the Feina during that last mission, or even facing one indirectly through a meld with Carol, still made him lose his self-control to an extent that even he himself found frightening. How Carol had convinced herself to trust him enough again to go out with him as her guide once more still had him baffled. If anyone had asked him to cooperate with Rick again – provided he'd been in any physical condition to do so – he would probably have kicked their butt into next week. Even the mere thought of establishing a meld with Rick ever again made him gag.

And now Rick and his agent would be their backup team for a strike against the Feina that might succeed in getting them to leave the planet, and allow humanity to take control of its own fate once more – and Carol, whom he hated risking over anything, even this, would be the one to infiltrate the administrative compound, plant the charges, and set the timer.

He would be sitting at home, safe and warm, while Carol would be risking her life.

Daryl had never known how much he could despise himself.

.-.

Carol felt elated.

This mission just might be the very last step needed to get rid of the Feina forever, leaving her free to clear the last obstacle that would still keep her from being with her family again after this was over. Granted, Ed being free again and having found her here was a daunting obstacle all on its own, but she was confident that she would find a solution for this problem. And once Ed was out of the picture again, maybe for good, depending on the solution she came up with … She felt her heart beating faster with anticipation. Until now, she had consciously refrained from thinking about being reunited with her daughter and mother, but in this situation such restraint was all but impossible, and she found herself physically aching to hold Sophia in her arms again.

And if the Feina were to leave after this offensive, TE would be able to drop their strict rules, and maybe, just maybe …

Her heart soared.