When one bares their face to another, someone is practically baring themselves to the other person. For their faces are not meant to be seen except by family, close friends, and their nesting partner. Though Shayera could see why her stepfather didn't wear the Commander's uniform.
Though it wasn't a lie to say that she was shocked. Even if he talked about the Downside, she never thought he be implicated in something illegal. Though she had a feeling that it would be better if Commander Hol explained himself here and now.
"Now, you better give me a good explanation as to what is going on here right now." Shayera climbs into the room. Not withdrawing her blaster gun. "If not, I doubt the Admiral would be happy that one of her Commanders got himself involved in some illegal operation."
It was evident that Commander Hol was weighing his options given his silence. Then he turns to the others in the room. "Klynt, Hommy, Beau. Out."
"But, sir –"
"Out. We'll be fine."
Shayera narrowed her eyes as she watched his accomplices warily leave the room as Commander Hol handed her the briefcase. As if he was certain that everything would turn out in his favor in the end. Though she hoped so for his sake.
For her mother's sake.
"Now, let's take a walk," he tells her. "Bring the case. I want to show you something."
"Show me what you have been hiding?" Shayera raised her eyebrow as they approached the lift. "You know full well that when one from Upside has a clandestine business in the Downside that nothing often good comes up."
"It's not illegal in the way you think, Lieutenant," he answers as the lift went down. Shayera trying not to think about her rapidly beating heart due to being in a enclosed space. "This isn't the same enterprise that Byth Rok ran during his time in the Armada."
Her head clears as the door opens. The two of them were greeted by two Off-Worlders armed with weapons they wouldn't have the permit to carry.
"Everything's alight," Commander Hol tells one of the guards in the hallway. "Keep everyone clear."
Following Commander Hol from the small corridor, Shayera couldn't help but widen her eyes at the sight before her as she looked into the rooms. Off-Worlders in lab coats as they fill syringes. Gazing at tablets as they read and type information as if reading and updating patient records.
"Great Polaris," she exclaims. "This is quite the operation you have here."
"These people already had things in place," he replied as if correcting her. "I just helped them with some business particulars."
"Of course, with all the resources available to you in the Upside," she conceded, as they passed into a giant room that resembled an infirmary. All of the beds almost filled. "Sweet Icthultu," she exclaimed.
"Now, you know what our operations are," he says.
The medical care she remembered getting as a young child wasn't good as the ones she received once she received military training. They were often given out of date equipment and expired medicine. Seeing how state of the art and updated this infirmary was, she knew that Commander Hol was taking an risk to the point where his wings would be clipped before he would be exhiled if it was discovered he was behind this operation.
As the pair walked, she could see the staff glance her way warily. One of them dropping a clipboard. Her uniform and helmet indicating that she would not be trusted here.
She follows him to a bed where a orange-skinned and purple haired woman lay with a baby on her chest. Her cheekbones prominent with emaciation and her onyx eyes glassy. She was vaguely familiar but Shayera couldn't put a name to her right now.
"Open the case," Commander Hol prompted.
Shayera was so immersed in her surroundings that she nearly forgotten about the briefcase she had confiscated. With what she was seeing, it was clear what was now in this briefcase.
Her thoughts confirmed as she opened the briefcase, and he takes out a vial.
"How's she D'Shar?" Commander Hol asked the doctor.
"The same", D'Shar answered. "We have to get rid of the infection."
"Maybe this will help." Commander Hol passes the doctor the vial. "I think it's the type you wanted."
D'Shar gazes at her over his shoulder. "Um, S'Ri Katar…"
Commander Hol raises his hand. "It is alright, D'Shar," he assured. "I am just showing Lieutenant Hol our operations."
"S'Ri Katar?" the bedridden woman rasps. "I – is you, S'Ri Katar?"
"Yes, Treska," he answers softly, rubbing the infant's back. "How is little Nightshade?"
"Treska milk still not come," she manages. "Doctor say you get something that help make sick thing in Treska be gone. Then Treska Baby Nightshade be happy?"
"We'll try, Treska," Commander Hol replies soothingly. "We'll try very hard."
Shayera couldn't take her eyes off the ailing mother with her baby on her chest the doctor worked on her. Only coming back to reality when Commander Hol touched her shoulder. "Come on, let's get some air."
She left the case behind as she followed him out of the building. Which he noted when they were at the doors. "You forgot your case."
"I wasn't going to take it after I found out what is was for," she clarified. "With a title like Shadowlord, people would think you'd be up to something more nefarious."
"No." Commander Hol shakes his head. "As ominous as it sounds, this uncertainty is to protect the patients at the clinic."
"Are you doing this because is something your father would have done?"
"My father has nothing to do with it," Commander Hol maintained, raising his eyebrow. "That woman in the bed was a princess on her world. The day our armadas "liberated" her planet, three of her children died. When they captured her father, they led him into his courtyard and blew his brains out. The execution was vid-cast across the entire planet via satellite. Treska didn't need to see the vids to get the message. She was there when they did it."
Now Shayera remembered what he was talking about. As the Gordanians hadn't given up enslaving world after world in spite of this bloody war, the Thanagarian Empire hadn't given up on their conquests either. After a planet was taken over, some of the citizens were shipped to Thanagar to provide labor while the planet's resources and wealth were used to fund the war.
She and Hro were on one of the two active battle sites; fighting the Gordanian fleets when Civ's, Tano's, and Corsar's fleets invaded Treska's homeworld. Not hearing about it and seeing the footage of it until a couple months later.
"They bought the princess to Thanagar as part of the usual "labor force"," Commander Hol continued. "She worked in the towers for awhile – until it became clear that she was unskilled as a maid. So she got rotated Downside with the rest of the cast-offs. Treska developed malnutrition. That turned into a parasitic infection. Who knows what she was eating out of the trash chutes.
"Happens to most people they send Downside," he finishes. "People can't eat. They get sick. When they do get medicine, it doesn't help like it should. And, well, I feel like I shouldn't explain the rest to you. Even if it has been years since your extraction from the Downside."
"You don't," Shayera answered. She swallows. "Commander Hol, had I been Lieutenant Kragger, those people would be forced out of that clinic. You'd be sent Upside for custody and probably arranged to have your wings clipped before exile. You're lucky that he is conducting a strike squad exercise and that I am here."
"And I trust you not to tell anybody about this," he says. "Not even to Hro. If anything, he'd make sure no one knew I was involved in these operations with the Off-Worlders being given the short end of the stick. So, what are going to tell me if you are not going to alert the Wingmen."
He was sending her away. Probably so he could be on his way to avoid any suspicion and for the sake of those in the clinic. Probably for her sake too. For all she said before flying off was, "Just be careful, Commander Hol. Also, next time use a decoy courier. You don't want Kragger coming through your window the next time Hommy might be spotted."
Shayera tells the Wingmen Captain that there was nothing to be seen. Even messaging the same thing to Kragger, though she had a feeling he might not buy it this time. As the vulture had a way of figuring out when one wasn't truthful.
The notice from the High Council's office had arrived in his inbox thirty minutes before he had to sign off for dinner break. He had spent the last half of the afternoon reading after-action reports, and was on his third cup of Illorian coffee to combat the migraine setting in.
In a way, reading the mission notice would be a temporary relief. For it was going to be one of those long nights. He was able to go for a week without sleep anyway. There were times in this war where sleep was a luxury, and this was one of them.
Due to recent intelligence, the only inhabited, terrestrial planet in the Sol star system is among the planets eyed by the Gordanians for future invasion. No time frame is given for when they will invade that planet, though it was thought that sending intelligence officers sooner than later to determine it's defenses is the prudent course of action.
Good old Earth. He should have known that they might have their eyes set on their planet someday. Katar and Yera might have a field day with this given their history on the planet.
You are instructed to inform the intelligence officers of their mission in less than three hours. Tomorrow morning, the agents listed will be informed of their cover story. Their prep time and what to do for prep will also be given. He drank a sip of his coffee.
Two more lines.
Corporal Fel Andar
First Lieutenant Commander Shayera Hol
He had to cover his mouth just so coffee wouldn't splatter the monitor and keyboard. An effort which resulted in him swallowing his drink down the wrong pipe. Hro was only able to breathe properly when he was done heaving and dry retching. Having to wipe his eyes to look at the screen again to see if he read it right.
Unfortunately, he was reading it right.
One could argue that Shayera was the best option for this sort of mission. Which wouldn't be a lie. She had a track record where ninety-nine percent of the time, recovery missions and strike squads benefitted from the information she gives. Her biological mother having a history on the planet was also an incentive. She wasn't the only one either. Corporal Andar's father was on Earth for four years for scientific research.
However, it was the timing of it all that stuck out to him. Hro would be an idiot to believe his grandfather hadn't had a hand in this. That this was his way of getting back at him because he didn't want a contract binding him with his ex. All decisions by the High Council are always unanimous, and there was no doubt how he convinced the other five High Councilors.
By law, Uniting Ceremonies occur six months after the Promise is established. Intelligence mission preps last from a couple days to two weeks depending on the urgency of it. And missions like this typically last from three to six years.
As if his grandfather had wanted his relationship to fail, with time and distance.
At that thought, Hro could feel the icy shock melt from the angry fire in his veins. No, his grandfather didn't have that power, and by Kalmoran, he wasn't going to get it.
No, he wasn't going to risk Shayera seeing him at dinner break like this. Even if he goes to the combat exercise rooms to spend his anger on training with Tri-Holos, she'll sense that something was a matter.
He knew who he was going to tell first. Even if part of him had wanted to tell Shayera first to get it over with, it was practical to tell her cousin about it first.
"…and not that I blame him," Fel's grandfather vocalized at the dining table. "Commander Talak is rather stubborn to a fault. To get a point across to him is the equivalent of hacking stone with a dull blade."
"A stubbornness that seems hereditary?" Fel's uncle vocalized. "Thal has done good work acclimating Lieutenant Hol to the Upside after her Academy training. He should be lucky his grandson chose her over some unrefined Downside-bred Private."
Fel sighs as he sits back in his chair. Of course, he should have known that his commanding officer becoming Promised to the espionage instructor would be the main topic of dinner tonight. He's heard enough gossip around the military complex that the next person to talk about it, he has to fight himself from bashing their head in with his mace.
If only his brother and sister-in-law were here to suffer with him. Though maybe they were hearing their share of it at the sector they work. There isn't typically this much gossip when a pair gets Promised. Except one like Commander Talak doesn't get Promised from a Downside-bred insect like Lieutenant Hol.
When he hears the ping from his scroll, he has no hesitation to check what it could be. Anything to distract him from the conversation at the table.
I require your presence in my office as soon as you see this message – Commander H. Talak.
Sweet Icthultu, you have got to be kidding me.
There was a urgency about it that he didn't ignore. Was it about this morning when he filled in for Corporal Sove? No, she was one who did her own battles rather then siccing her boyfriend as a attack dog. This had to be something else entirely.
"Where are you going, Fel?" his father asks as he departs from the dining area.
"My commanding officer wants to see me for something," Fel answers without looking back, not bothering to apologize to the Off-World attendant he nearly knocked over. "I should be back soon."
With each minute that brought him to his Commander's office, his pulse became more prominent in his throat. No one ever receives a summons from their commanders like this unless they were in trouble or if there was anything else of importance they needed to discuss. Fel was hoping it was the latter but with his heritage, it could easily be the former.
His nervousness not abating as he passed through security screenings to get to the green doors.
"Have a seat, Corporal Andar," Commander Talak prompted, his voice tight as he entered his office. As soon as he takes a seat in one of the metal chairs in front of his desk, Commander Talak begins. "Now, you oversee the cataloguing of information that makes its way to the espionage wing, Andar. Can you tell me any recent intelligence collected of where the Gordanians might invade next?"
"There is one," he answers. "It sticks out to me how ridiculous it is. The Gordanians hope to conquer seven planets sometime in the immediate to near future. I say it's ridiculous because one of the planets the Gordanians hope to target would have so little to offer from the information I read."
"You and I both know that the Gordanians don't care on what their targets have to offer," Commander Talak chides him. "They go after planets they deem to be weaker and softer than them. Ones they believe they can break with their crushing tyranny."
Fel hid a strangled snort in a cough. He knew that. Still, he didn't understand why those blasted amphibians would target such a lowly –
"The reason why you are here, Corporal Andar," he starts, interrupting his thoughts, "is that you were one of the two agents chosen by the High Council to infiltrate Earth to study it's defenses to see how it could respond in the face of a Gordanian attack."
Fel raised a eyebrow. The High Council was…wait a minute. Something else had to be at stake if the High Council had a say in this. That this wasn't just some mission to see whether these humans needed their protection or not. He'd worry about that later, though.
"Corporal Andar, this mission ensures that they stop spreading like the cancer they are," Commander Talak continues, when he didn't reply. "With each planet they take, the stronger they get. Part of the reason we are having trouble with them. If it wasn't that important to Thanagar, the High Council wouldn't have bothered making the decision. If you do well, more crucial missions could follow."
Something in Fel had stirred at the last sentence. That desire, to be seen as fully one of them. That this could be his chance. One that he was waiting for.
"When do I begin my prep for this mission?"
Shayera gazed on the monitor as she observed footage from the past week's espionage courses while simultaneously reviewing intelligence from recent recons and trying to coordinate upcoming intelligence missions. Even if she already seen the footage live during espionage sessions, she still manages to watch the footage again to see if there is anything she missed. To take note of the progress of her students – Cadets and seasoned soldiers alike.
Performance has improved since the last session, Shayera typed up on her tablet as she heard a message board ping. Might consider moving her up to the next level of training.
She minimizes the notepad on her tablet screen to see the notification.
Come see me in my office as soon as possible, Shayera – Commander H. Talak.
There was something foreboding and ominous about this short message that had made her insides curdle. More so with the casual informality. While it wasn't unusual for the two of them to not have dinner together at times, she had a feeling that it had to do whatever he wanted her in this office for.
When one gets a formal version of this message, either one is in trouble or there are to be serious, confidential matters at stake. She was in charge of intelligence operations after all. It couldn't have been about the recent Promise to each other, even if there was that fearful voice in her head telling her that maybe that was why.
That lump in her throat was not going away as she made her way to his office door. The blood pumping from the edges of her wings to the tips of her toes as she passed the security clearances to gain entry.
"There you are, darling," he greets with a smile at the sight of her, though she could see the apprehension in his gray eyes. As if he himself wasn't looking forward to this conversation. "Have a seat."
Shayera wipes her sweaty palms on the trousers of her uniform as she sits in one of the chairs. "You wanted to see me, Hro?" she asked.
At this, he hesitated. As if he was determined how to go about this. "The stakes have become high to the point where we can't let the Gordanians spread like the cancer they are, Lieutenant."
Cha'nas. If he had gone all formal with her now, this wouldn't be good.
She takes a deep breath. "I guess this has to do with the information we received a week ago?" she asked. "Recent intelligence uncovered that the Gordanians had planned to take over seven planets." What was more uncertain was that there was no established timeline for when they will strike these planets or which one they will strike first.
"Yes, and I see no need to remind you which intelligence report you received." He swallows, as if he had to force down something painful. "The High Council has chosen you to be among the two intelligence officers to be sent to Earth. To study their defenses if they are able to protect themselves from a Gordanian attack."
It was as if the bottom of her gut dropped at his words. "What?" she asked, trying to comprehend what he was saying.