'Take care, damn it,' Raiven said quietly to himself as Valria left the ship. He wished he had tried a little harder to stop her, but it was too late for that. He simply wished her good luck, and turned to the others.
'Earth is still under threat from Blackbeard and the Kre'Iax forces. Whether they are under his command or not remains to be seen... however, our current priority is to do what we can to defend Earth whilsts attempting to find out what exactly Blackbeards motivations are.'
Isodor just pouted. 'Yeah, yeah. Can we just hurry up about it? All this computer talk is sending me nuts.' Of course, Isodor was still a little sour from not getting to fiddle around with the insides of the Athos. He was like a little kid trying to stick a fork in an outlet, often with the expected results... which is why Raiven got stuck with him in the first place.
No, he didn't actually try and stick a fork in an outlet...
Whisper lay beside Zoe for a while, just passing the time. It had become... quiet, oddly quiet infact. She decided to sit up, and lift herself off the bed. 'I'm going to check up on what's happening back in the cockpit, it's gotten awfully quiet... or at least, it seems so. God, I hope they haven't ejected Heron out a pod or something...'
She faced Zoe just before she left. 'And please... put your shirt back on.'
- - -
Barbary, senior officer in the police force... and manager of paperwork, sat in his office, writing furiously. All this invasion business had put the police on edge. it wasn't their job to manage that sort of thing, but it sure as hell was their job to manage all the panic that was caused in the wake of the attacks. If there was ever a time in Barbary's life when it felt justified to be stressed out... it was now.
There was a knock on the door, a rather loud one. He had locked the door to keep people out whilst he worked... Barbary was sick of people coming in and out as they pleased.
'Get lost,' he shouted from his desk. Shortly afterwards, there was a louder, harder knocking.
'Oh for...' Barbary got up from his chair, walked over to the door and opened it. He was about to shout into the mans face when he realised it was...
'Maynard?! What the hell are you doing here?'
The gray haired old man shook his head. 'Same old Barbary, I see.'
'You were kicked out of the force years ago. How the hell did you get past all the security-'
'Excuse me,' replied a female voice. A tall, blonde haired woman slipped past Maynard and into Barbary's office.
'Commisioner!' Barbary was stunned, saluting like some sort of robot as she passed him and seated herself on his desk.
'Just call me Lana, like most people do... please.' She crossed her legs and gestured Maynard in. 'Come, there is much to discuss.'
Barbary was still stunned, standing there dumbly. 'Wh... what's going on?'
'Business as usual,' Maynard said as he passed Barbary. 'We've come to you with an offer, as well as a request.'
'Offer? Request? What the hell is going on here?' He looked back and forth between the two. 'Maynard is supposed to be crazy and under supervision-'
'That's just a cover,' Lana said. She then approached Barbary, and leaned in. 'What I'm about to tell you does not leave this room, understood?'
Barbary just nodded, not knowing what to say.
'Maynard and myself are part of an organisation, a top secret organisation. Our offer to you is to join us.'
'Wh... what?'
'We need someone with your management skills, plus I feel awfully sorry about you being stuck behind a desk all the time. We need a man like you on our team.'
'Team? What the hell-'
'However,' Lana continued, 'our request to you is that we need help.'
Barbary just waited waited for her to continued.
Maynard stepped forward. 'We need to find Raiven and his crew,'
Barbary arched a brow. 'Him? Why?'
'Simple,' Lana said. 'They are to join us, as well.'
'We need to hurry,' Maynard said. 'Time is running short if our data is to be exact. We might have only a day in which to contact them.'
Barbary shook his head, confused. 'Can one of you please explain this, for gods sake!'
Lana chuckled. 'Join the Bureau, and I'll tell you everything we know.'
- - -
Just outside of the Sol system, it waited. In the blackness and unforgiving silence of the cold void of space, it waited for its time to act... and though it hungered so, it waited.
Waited for its master to give the command.