Duty, Honour, Love

The cup few across the room and smashed against the wall in a spray of shattered ceramics and coffee. Jane stared at it her face red. She glanced at Cloiytie other woman in the room leaning over a holo map of Hawthorn.

“Sorry,” Jane apologised. It was her wonky telepathy in action. She hadn’t even been anywhere near the cup. Hers was at her side it had been Cloiytie’s. In the background of her mind she felt Dareia sigh. She had visions of her working with a group of militia, soldiers and Security.

“Be more careful,” Dareia admonished her through their mind link. “Your frustrations are filtering through to me.

“Sorry,” Jane apologised again both to Dareia and Cloiytie who she was working with.

“Nothing to apologise for,” Cloiytie replied. “I just feel the same.” She smiled. “I’m glad I didn’t vent it in the same way you did.”

“Look I’ll clean it up.”

“No don’t worry about it we’re both stressed.”

Jane sighed aware of Dareia in her mind listening to her words. “I just can’t see a way around it.” She indicated the holo map of the city.

“It’s not as if we’re short of volunteers we’re up to at least a thousand by now. It’s the lack of resources. We’ve only managed to scrape up four hundred and fifty weapons and even less in body armour,” Cloiytie said despondently. “And of those we’ve had to supply the other settlements. Those raiders could strike anywhere?” Cloiytie glanced at Jane. “My money would be on Hawthorn. We’re almost a city in size and there are at least twenty thousand people here.”

Jane shivered at the thought of all those people at the mercy of the raiders.

“We’ve even had to strip the base of their MARs for the larger settlements.”

Jane did understand what Cloiytie was saying. She studied the map again for the umpteenth time it was a tactical nightmare. With a dense forest to the west and a tall barrier wall interspersed with turbine stations. The prevailing winter storms always swept in from the west the trees and the barriers was supposed to defuse the force of the wind before it reached Hawthorn. To the west were a fusion power station and the spaceport. In between lay the city in a tear drop shape again to disperse the strength of the winter storms. Jane leaned over the holo map idly playing with the settings. Sudden the map showed a number of straight blue lines.

“Sorry,” she apologised to Cloiytie. “I’ve messed up the map?” She pointed to the lines on the holo.

Cloiytie regarded the lines with speculative eyes. “Oh those they’re mag-lev tunnels. A former Mayor had them dug.”

“Wait a minute you’ve got a mag-lev system.”

“No we have the tunnels the cost of the trains and running of it was far too expensive and the plans were dropped.” Cloiytie touched a line on the map making it enlarge and expand. “That’s better. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about them. We used them in the early days as shelters.”

“What’s to stop us using them as shelters again?” Jane felt better than she had done earlier.

“Nothing at all.” Cloiytie touched the image again expanding the holo. “There are stations. We have exits to the surface from these. They can be blocked once we’ve got the civilians inside.”

Jane considered this seeing a problem. “What’s there to stop the raiders for utilising the tunnels?”

“Nothing at all.” Cloiytie repeated then smiled. “Nothing but the tunnel sweepers.”

“Tunnel sweepers?”

Cloiytie tapped on the console for the holo and a new image appeared. It showed what looked like a spiral of brushes on a cradle that ran on a rail, a rail that powered the mag-lev system. “Now if I remember rightly it we used to send the sweepers down the tunnels when we knew teenagers were using the tunnels for illegal activities. It always scared the shit out of them.”

Jane felt relieved that was one problem solved but there were others.

Eloise was nervous normally when she entered Security Central it was in restraints. She’d seen the back of the building where they processed criminals too many times to count. It was her job to report and damn Security kept interfering. Her camera drone floated behind her like an obedient puppy. She reached up and pressed her fingers behind her ear. She splashed out and got herself a computer implant, which linked her to her camera drone so it could be directed with her very thoughts. It had been extraordinarily expensive but it was worth it. She bought on a whim after she’d seen her idol Sheila Poe use one. Like her idol she’d dressed in a dark red business suit consisting of a red jacket and knee length skirt and a pale rose blouse. She had a large satchel hung over her shoulder carrying her back up gear. Inside the satchel was a hand held camera, recording devices, a make up set a reporter had to look good all the time even when being arrested. What she did draw the line at was to copy her idol’s red hair.

“Drone,” she said with her fingers pressed to the back of her ears. It often frustrated her that she had to do this to activate the drone. Then she couldn’t afford the set Sheila had she had the best money could buy or if the rumours were true the best the Prince of Nithus could buy. But now wasn’t the time to be petty her reporter instinct was hungry to know why the Chief of Security had asked to see her. Normally he refused her requests for an interview and that had her worried. “Recording mode.” She heard the drone bleep it acknowledgement that it was active and recording.

The Security office was a squat block building with only one storey. It had the curved lines all Hawthorn building sported but it walls were a lot thicker and more bunker like. Not that Hawthorn had ever had that type of insurrection that needed a fortified bunker. It made it look all the more forbidding. She hesitated at the steps up to the front door. Normally she’d be going the other way exiting the building after her lawyer had sprung her. She raised her arm to expose her comms bracelet.

“Benny, I’m going in,” she said to it. Benny was the name of her lawyer and she had him on call twenty-four seven.

“I’ll be waiting,” Benny answered.

Bolstered by that fact her lawyer was only a comms away she climbed the steps to the front door.

Inside was no different from the other times she’d been here. With its benches flanking the front door. The armoured glass fronted reception desk the same, as was the holo posters on the wall the changed every few minutes. Two doors flanked the reception desk, one blue one green. She walked out through the blue door way too many times. Hesitantly she walked up to the T’Arni Security officer behind the glass. He was a male his blonde hair in a ponytail behind his head. He glanced up as she approached.

“Miss Jenner,” the T’Arni said without any emotion. “The drone will have to be deactivated.”

Eloise felt uncomfortable without her drone it felt like an extension of herself.

“If it gets me my interview I guess I have to.” She powered down her drone feeling like part of her was missing. Still she had the contents of her satchel.

“Thank you the drone will be safe with us,” the T’Arni said pressing a button. The green door slid open. “Just follow the green line to the conference room.”

Inside the door on the floor were three lines blue, red and green. As much as she yearned to know where the red and blue lines went she have to follow the green to the conference room in hopes she’d get her longed for interview.