Chapter 45: The Matters That Matter
He reclined back and let her think on it for a few minutes. She had a hard task ahead of her, made harder by the fact that she lacked the experience of politics. She was a soldier, though it helped that she fulfilled a supportive position in the rank-and-file.
Because of it, she was more prone to thinking while remaining detached from her circumstances--a necessary quality to own when she was about to face interrogation from a coalition of the most cutthroat people he ever had the displeasure of knowing. Getting flustered and panicked was the last thing she wanted.
His mind wandered over what the militarists would need to assist her with. On the surface, this meet was only a formal chance for the leadership of humanity to come together to hear of the most recent fort's downfall and determine how to proceed from there. It sounded and looked innocent, but that was the catch with the politics within the chamber.
Aside from the aides, assisting representatives, and headmen, very few who attended those meets knew the subtext in every string of dialogue between the two parties, and whatever the former neutral pact added in.
Re-5 would face the worst aspect of it all on the receiving end of the home interest's wrath. After he routed them so many times in the past, they would be hard-pressed to let this opportunity to make the First bleed go. Even if the consequences only fell on Re-5, they would take it with intrepidation
And there would be consequences if they had their way. Re-5 would face demotion…or worse. The former was already undesirable, given how hard she had worked to get to her position at her age. It was quite the accomplishment, on par with him becoming blessed with a Vigor at fifty. She was worthy of retaining her place. And he had to think of Pa-5 as well, who, among other things, would need to bear the weight of abandonment allegations, of desertion.
Under the desk, his fists clenched until they grew sore. How dare they? After everything she had done, every part of her sacrificed to ensure vital intelligence made it from Fort Io to the Nyx Breaker, they were going to try and prosecute her? Over his dead body. No, though. They'd have to go through him, dead or alive, first.
That line of thought had unstabled him more than he should've allowed it to, and he resumed the questioning, startling Re-5 from her thoughts. "The survivor. Tell me about the rescue process."
She was quick to recover, composing her face and posture and setting the now empty mug on the desk. He moved to refill it, but she waved him off, respectful. "We found her in one of the higher-elevated greater tunnels. She was in a small impact crater, so she either fell from a great height, or an Aud fell on her from one. Her WAV--of the light variety and modified--developed a compromised structure from the shock. Because of that, two Aud were able to remove her leg armor and…"
He waved her on. "Continue."
"...and consume her legs to the upper thighs. She didn't display signs of shock or pain--no frenzied struggling. When her blood was examined on the Nyx Breaker, there were high contents of various cocktails and individual drugs, Aclofen-B903 included."
He nodded, though he couldn't avoid his brow furrowing. That was an experimental drug. Was the sitesman desperate enough to force the engineers to add vials of the substance? He grunted. Of course he was. Destruction was coming to Io; the last thing he would care about would be the well-being of a few suicide runners.
"One of them had moved to sit on the WAV's chest plate when we first sighted them. After blowing it off with help from the targeting programs, we released the boarding ramp and deployed the WAVs in a protective encirclement around the Nyx Breaker and the survivor. My temporary aide assigned two to remove the armor. We couldn't bring her on board in it." He was familiar with the workings of a WAV garage, so that raised no confusion.
"After removing her from the suit, they attempted to bring her back. Along the way, an injured green-fur slipped through a gap in the lines and tried to ambush them. One remained to stall it until reinforcements came, and the other continued. While outside, she faced exposure to a carpet-bombing of flash cylinders." He frowned, imagining that. "She ascended the ramp and passed off to waiting medical personnel."
"How was she treated?"
"She wasn't." Out of sight, his tight fists tightened even more and shook. "I ordered the medical compartment to rank retrieving her chip before they administered treatment."
"Were there…adverse effects because of this choice?"
"Yes." Her eyes trailed downward. "They could've saved her arm. It was mangled for too long, and they chose to amputate."
"Was her life threatened by this choice?"
"Yes. She entered into cardiogenic shock twice, the first while the staff was attempting to retrieve her chip. They aborted and restarted the process to keep her alive. The second time, she lost a pulse and ceased regular breathing. They informed me she was resuscitated before she suffered irreversible damage to the brain."
He wanted to be sick. She was dead. She had matched all the preconditions for being dead, if only for a brief amount of time. And the woman he had to help, the one before him now, had given the order that ensured it. What in--!
He slapped himself, sure to do it hard enough to leave a mark. Re-5 was out of her seat faster than an electric beam, with as much energy embedded in her exclamation. "Sir! What--"
On instinct, she halted when he raised his hand. "Don't worry yourself with me. I troubled myself with the neglect of sleep yesterday." It wasn't enough to placate her, but he refused to let her approach. He needed to pull himself out of this mindset and set himself right. Yes, it filled his mouth with bitterness to know Re-5 was at least somewhat responsible for Pa-5 condition.
But she couldn't afford to place a gambit on Pa-5's survivability. He had a microchip in the base of his skull like her and Re-5, and knew all about it. Their goal was to gather information, and the way with the least risk was to secure Pa-5's before her brain activity ceased.
Re-5 had done nothing wrong. She had not gone astray in her choices. She was right in it. She had done nothing wrong, absolutely nothing. He repeated it in his head, a new mantra to upkeep. By the twentieth time, his hands had come up to rest on the desk, no longer clenching. He wanted to say more to her, but his HUD notified him of the time.
Damn. They were out of it. There would be enough to fetch for Pa-5 and meet with the militarists before the meet began, but little else. He looked up while massaging his cheek, quick to turn sore and betray him. Not unjustified, as he betrayed it first. Well deserved, he couldn't deny it. "That's everything we needed to peruse over. I'll have an assistant prepare you for the meet."
And no simple aide would do. He needed the best of the best with her, which was why he opened communication with Ni-6, somewhere else in the complex. After hearing what he had to say, the younger man promised he would appear in five minutes. He did so in three, and after exchanging hellos, led away the young acting sitesman. He watched them leave, then picked up the abandoned mug, twirling it by its handle.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone