Rachel stepped out of the Air Route into a long narrow corridor with thousands of tiny white dots along its walls where natural light was piped in from outside. She walked until she reached the Operations Room and then stepped inside.
General Markov and Commander Drefnig stood on each side of Commander Beth Pain's chair at the front of the room. They glanced towards her when she entered.
'Why did you go to the city,' Markov said with a blank expression.
She knew he wasn't happy about her leaving the towers. 'I went to investigate a disturbance in the Old Quarter. I told you about it. I just came back in a Wasp Drone.'
'You'd be safer in the towers.'
'I have a duty to protect the people.'
Markov folded his arms, regarding her with steely grey eyes. 'Your duty is to me, first and foremost.'
'And to the people of Cinnamon City.'
'We all serve the city but we must never forget the chain of command.'
'Of course, General.'
Markov held her gaze for a moment longer than necessary. Was she pushing him too far?
'Is he here?' Markov said.
Rachel nodded.
Drefnig glanced back and forth between them. 'Am I missing something?'
Markov shifted his square jaw from side to side. 'We have a new guest in Tower Four's detention cells.'
'Okay. Who is it this time?'
'Lord Goran,' Rachel said.
Drefnig stood with his hands in his trouser pockets. His long brown hair was swept back over his head, stopping just short of his shoulders, and his blue eyes sparkled with curiosity. 'This place gets stranger by the day,' he said.
'And more dangerous,' Markov said.
The three of them stood in silence, lost in their own thoughts while Commander Beth Pain tapped at her console between them. Her eyes were closed, and she hadn't spoken since Rachel had entered the room, but that wasn't at all unusual for an Implant. They seldom saw the need for polite small talk because their minds never experienced any silence that needed filling. Beth would be constantly engaged with hundreds of different systems, communicating with them through her implants, acting as the eyes and ears of Central Command.
Melanie Rocker walked into the room a few seconds later, sounding a little out of breath. Her freckles were prominent today, giving her a slightly mischievous appearance, but her sharp green eyes and muscular physique left no doubt about her abilities as an officer.
'That was quick,' Rachel said. 'Did he give you any trouble?'
'No. He didn't wake up. He had a few nasty looking lumps on his head. I suspect he'll be out for a while. Did you two have a fight?'
Rachel laughed. 'Not guilty on that one. He was unconscious when I found him. Some merchants were throwing rocks at him before I got there. He must have made quite an impression on them.'
Melanie nodded. 'The people can be unforgiving at times.'
'Okay,' Drefnig said, turning to face General Markov. 'We've got Lord Goran in the detention cells. I wasn't expecting that, but what else has happened? I have a feeling you didn't call this meeting to talk about wayward lords.'
'You're right,' Markov said. 'There is a reason I asked you all to come. I wanted to speak to you about something. I've just received some very disturbing news from the South.'
'What news?' Rachel said.
'I received a comms call from Alma Station.'
Drefnig rubbed his jaw with one hand. 'I thought they were offline?'
'They were. I've been trying to call them for days. I was hoping they would get back to me soon but this latest report confirms all of my worst fears.'
'You sent me something?' Rachel said. 'Glancing down at her console.'
'I've forwarded a copy of Harg's comms call to all commanders, and I've included his full report.'
Melanie's gaze slid up towards the ceiling as she engaged her neural implants. 'I've received the report,' she said.
Rachel and Drefnig exchanged sheepish glances. Melanie was no doubt already reading the report through her neural implants. Rachel didn't have such options. She would have to review the report on her console later. She couldn't read anywhere near as fast as the Implants even if she opened the file now.
'So what's the situation?' Drefnig said, his eyes glancing between Markov and Melanie.
'As some of you may know, Commander Harg has been running Alma Station since I left. He's a good soldier, and he's not the type to make a fuss unless it's required. So when he tells me something like this, I'm inclined to take him seriously.'
'What happened?' Rachel said. 'What is the report about?'
Melanie was still staring up at the ceiling with her pupils darting back and forth. Her face was an uncharacteristic mixture of strange emotions, but when she spoke, her voice was loud and clear. 'It says the fless have come back.'
Drefnig blinked. 'I thought General Wolfhammer wiped them all out a long time ago?'
Markov's grey eyes held no clue as to what he was thinking, but there was something different about him whenever he spoke about the Southern Territories.
'He didn't wipe them out,' Markov said. 'Destroying the fless was always going to be an impossible task. The Fless Wars were never about outright victory. They were about damage control. It was the most that anyone could ever hope to achieve against such an aggressive and dangerous species. General Wolfhammer wanted to force the fless back underground, to contain them behind powerful long term force fields that became known as the seals. It took him many years to get the fless under control. The casualties during that time were appalling.'
'You seem to know a lot about him,' Rachel said.
'I've read all of Wolfhammer's notes. I read his personal diaries too. He was probably the finest General that ever lived.'
'How did Wolfhammer defeat the fless last time?' Drefnig said. 'Maybe there is something we can learn from him.'
'He built up vast swarms of flying drones. They were a precursor of what we now call Wasp Drones but they weren't anywhere near as capable as ours. They were simpler in design and more numerous. He herded the fless from above while attacking them from ground-based gun emplacements to control their flight paths. It took him many years to learn how to control their movements effectively.'
Rachel stared down at the floor, lost in her own thoughts. She wondered what it was like to see flocks of fless casting shadows across the sky. It must have been frightening for the people of that time.
'The fless are smart.' Markov said. 'They adapt to whatever strategies are used against them. You have to keep trying new things until you hit on something that works, and even then it will only work for a short time before they adapt again. In the end, Wolfhammer managed to trap them deep underground, using elaborate layers of shields to push them progressively deeper into the cave systems where they could be more easily contained. Not all of them were trapped inside. Some evaded him even then, but they returned to the caves frequently, maybe to be closer to the others. Wolfhammer had the upper caves treated with special poisons to prevent the fless from breeding. In their sterile condition, he knew that the last free fless would die within a few decades, even if he failed to hunt them all down.'
'It sounds like his plan didn't work,' Drefnig said.'
'It was a brilliant plan but extremely difficult to execute. General Anault Wolfhammer was a great man in every respect. He knew what was possible and he knew what sacrifices would have to be made to achieve his goals. His foresight and determination kept us safe from the fless for over three hundred years but the men under his command paid a heavy price. Like all great leaders, he was unpopular in his time.'
'So why are the fless free now?' Rachel said. 'What happened to his seals?'
'That's what I'm trying to work out. Alma Station had a great responsibility. They performed regular patrols to spray the cave systems with fresh poison.'
'You tried to kill them?' Drefnig said.
'You can't kill the fless with poison - at least none of the ones we tried were fatal to them. They have very different physiology to ours. It's difficult to know what will affect them and what won't. We had to make sure that any fless still living outside the seals wouldn't be able to breed. We put together some nasty compounds that made them too sick to think about breeding. It worked too. The number of free fless has dwindled since Wolfhammer's time. It's very rare to see any fless at all in the caves beneath the Skybreaker Mountains, but they do exist. We never kidded ourselves that they were all gone. Alma Station's soldiers worked hard to suppress them. I always hoped that one day their duties might come to an end.'
'So the poison failed?' Rachel said.
'No. At least, I don't think it did. Harg said he'd seen hundreds of fless in the caves. There have never been that many in the upper caves since the seals were put in place. If there really are so many fless in the upper caves now, it can mean only one thing. The seals must be down.'
'What if they adapted to the poisons?' Drefnig said. 'Maybe they were able to evolve beyond it and continue to breed somehow? Their numbers could have grown over time?'
'They're sterile,' Markov said. 'The sprays have kept them that way for centuries. Even if a handful of fless had evolved beyond the poisons and hidden away somewhere, they wouldn't have been able to breed so much without us noticing them. That's what Alma Station is there for. It patrols that whole area all the time.'
Rachel didn't know anything about the fless. Markov had always looked disturbed when he talked about them. 'Then what happened to the seals?' she said, chewing her lower lip.
Markov shook his head. 'I don't know. Harg thinks the seals have been broken but I don't see how that can be possible. General Wolfhammer designed them to last for thousands of years. He installed multiple redundancy systems to ensure that if one shield failed another would take its place.'
'Maybe someone tampered with them?' Rachel said. 'Could the Kamari do something like that?'
Markov frowned. 'The seals are deep underground. Nobody can get to them anymore. The mazerals would pick off anyone who tried.'
'Mazerals?'
'You don't want to know.'
Melanie's eyes came back into focus as though she was returning from a long dream. She regarded Markov with a determined expression and folded her arms beneath her breasts. 'So what do we do now?' she said. 'How do we contain this situation?'
'I'm not sure we can,' Markov said. 'It depends how many fless there are, and how far they have spread. The Mech Enforcers could do some damage but we don't have enough manpower to launch a sizeable assault on the fless caves right now. We need to stay focussed on the towers in case the Kamari attack us.'
'What will the fless do if they have escaped?' Melanie said.
Markov rubbed a hand across his face. 'The fless can fly great distances. If they reach populated areas we'll be in big trouble. Thousands of civilians died during the fless wars. It was one of Wolfhammer's greatest regrets. He tried to force the people to stay inside but they wouldn't listen to him. They complained that he was trying to put them under house arrest.'
'Are the fless really so dangerous?' Rachel said.
Markov nodded. 'This is the last thing we need right now.'
'Then we should hold a meeting in the Orange Room,' Melanie said, 'with all of the commanders.'
'No,' Markov said. 'We need to keep everyone focussed on the here and now. We can't let everyone get distracted by what is happening at Alma Station. This is something that needs to be contained. If the situation escalates, then we'll call a meeting. All the commanders have the report. They know what's going on.'
'Is this the Second Black Day?' Drefnig said, turning to Rachel. 'Is this what Lord Hades was trying to warn us about?'
Rachel glanced around the room. Everyone was looking at her, waiting for answers. She was Markov's advisor but she knew no more about what was happening than anyone else. She hadn't seen Lord Hades for days and her knowledge of visions and portents was all but non existent.
'I don't know, she said. 'The Second Black Day could be anything. We can't afford to rule this out, but we shouldn't leave the towers exposed either. We should send a squad to investigate Alma Station but retain our greatest force here.'
'That's all Harg is requesting,' Markov said. 'But any help we send would be going on a suicide mission.'
'Is it really that bad?' Melanie said with a frown. She looked as though she was ready to face the fless in unarmed combat if Markov ordered it.
Markov glanced towards her. 'It took General Wolfhammer many years to contain the fless, and he had far more resources than we do. He didn't have the Kamari to contend with at the same time either. Even with all his resources, he was never able to destroy the fless. He could only contain them. By the end of the Fless Wars, ninety percent of the security forces had been wiped out.'
Rachel brushed a hand through her hair. Things had been hard in Wolfhammer's time.
Drefnig turned towards her with an odd look in his eyes. 'What do we do now, Rachel? What's your take on this?'
'We have to act on the information that is available to us. We know that Alma Station needs our help so we must help them in whatever small way we can. If we don't keep this contained, things will get a lot worse by the sounds of it. We can't let the fless move north towards the city. We should set up a continuous surveillance plan with a lot of reconnaissance drones. We need to know what the fless are doing as soon as it happens.'
Markov nodded. 'We can spare one squad. Harg deserves that much. But we need to be prepared for any eventuality. We cannot afford to over commit ourselves in defense of any one danger, leaving ourselves exposed elsewhere. We should expect any number of demands on our resources in the coming days. We need to be able to react quickly to all of them.'
'We could send four squads with full combat gear,' Drefnig said.
Markov considered Drefnig's words. 'We can't spare that many soldiers right now. We don't know what forces we'll need in the towers. Every trooper could make a difference.' Turning to Melanie, he added. 'What's our total Mech Enforcer inventory right now?'
'We have one hundred and twelve Mech Enforcers,' Melanie said, 'but some of those have maintenance issues. They're not all available for active duty.'
'Okay. Here's what we're going to do,' Markov said, looking at each of them in turn. 'We'll send three squads and twenty Mech Enforcers. Maybe it'll be enough to stop the fless spreading until we have more information about their numbers.'
Drefnig rubbed a hand through his hair. 'Which commanders do we send on this operation? It sounds dangerous.'
'Susan Kemp and Alice Penning.'
Drefnig's face turned pale. He seemed to be struggling for words.
'Alice should stay here,' Rachel said, covering for him.
Markov turned towards her. 'Why?'
'I need her help with the solar arrays.'
'Can't someone else help with that?'
'She's been helping me and Parker with various projects. I've been thinking about how we can better use the solar arrays and she knows them better than anyone now that Jake is... Well it makes sense for her to carry on with what she started.'
'Very well,' Markov said. 'Susan Kemp and Beth Pain can go to Alma Station.'
Pain glanced over her shoulder from her wide chair but she didn't add any comment.
Drefnig's shoulders visibly relaxed. 'I'll start the preparations at once.'