A Dark And Hungry God Arises 32 - Min [3]

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A Dark And Hungry God Arises 32 - Min [3]

Post by Cord Hurn »

Min Donner is sitting in one of her offices in the UMCPHQ space station dealing with feeling shaken, shocked and partially numbed. After her close brush with an exploding kaze, she is burdened with still hearing a high-pitched whine, general body aches, and recurring nosebleeds.

As well, Min has another, more recent, reason to feel stunned. Her fellow UMCP director Godsen Frik has been killed from the explosion of another kaze that came to his office, twenty minutes earlier.

She was Min Donner, director, UMCP Enforcement Division. Her domain included UMCPHQ Security. She couldn't blame herself if a kaze got into the Members' wing of the GCES complex; but there was no one else to hold accountable for Godsen's murder.

And how many more of them were on station? Who or what would they destroy next?

Her people had already reconstructed the attack as well as they could. Godsen's secretary had been injured by flying debris, but she remained alive--still conscious. She'd been able to tell Min's Chief of Security that a communications tech had come to her and asked to see the PR director. The request was an odd one, so she'd checked both his id tag and his communications credentials. Both had looked good. More to the point, both had passed routine verification by the Security computer. So she'd chimed Godsen. The PR director had told her to admit the tech.

Five seconds after the door closed, the kaze had set himself off.

She did her job, the Chief of Security reported. Can't blame her.

I don't, Min snapped. I don't even blame you. I just want to know how it happened.

I want to know if it's going to happen again.

Her Chief of Security explained the kaze got onboard UMCPHQ because he had been subject of routine verification, involving checking the information (on identification, recent pass codes, recent orders) on his CMOS chip, and not subject to a full background check, which would have shown that no one was recorded as having put the information on the kaze's chip, and that the kaze had no record of existence.

Min demands to know why they aren't doing full background checks on EVERYBODY that sets foot aboard that space station, and the embarrassed Chief admits it's because he didn't think of it. Full background checks are done for everyone who comes aboard the station unless they come from GCES headquarters at Suka Bator on Earth, where it is assumed the travelers from there have already been fully checked out. Min eases up on criticizing her Chief to note that someone in GCES Security probably failed them and may have traitors among their ranks.

Min is now wondering just HOW MANY kazes have already gotten aboard the station. The Chief, while no doubt worried about that also, has an added concern.

Director, the Chief said hesitantly, I don't understand. If whoever did this has the resources to make kazes and equip them with legitimate id and send them here, why waste all that on Protocol? Why bother? What's so important about Godsen Frik? Why not you, or Director Dios? Why not Center, or Communications, or Data Storage--why not something vital, something that would really damage us?

Min had no idea. Unlike Captain Vertigus, Godsen would have done everything in his power to oppose a Bill of Severance.

What was Godsen doing? she asked.

He had a call from Holt Fasner about ten minutes before the kaze hit. That's all I know.

The Dragon, she thought bleakly. Gosden's mentor and nemesis. How had the PR director failed to understand that dragons always devoured their servants?

Everyone in UMCPHQ would be devoured if they didn't start defending their own better than this.

Chief, I want you to--

Trying to recover some of his self-esteem, the Chief of Security interrupted her.

I know. Full background on everyone who's arrived by shuttle, starting with the past twenty-four hours and working backward for at least a month. My people are already running it. And from now on no shuttle gets within twenty thousand k until we have full background on everyone aboard. Nobody gets into any sensitive part of the station without being absolutely checked.

It wasn't enough, but it would have to do. Min was too angry to say anything else, so she sent him back to work.
Min's angry because she's in pain from the kaze blast that was aimed at Captain Vertigus, she's fuming because she should have seen the need for full background checks to be implemented after that first kaze incident, and she's mad at herself because deep down she is glad that Godsen is dead. She feels that Goden did unfathomable harm to the UMCP by being more loyal to the Dragon than to Warden Dios.

Min's self-anger is strong enough that she would gladly vent it by pursuing the kaze investigation with everything she has.

But, she can't, because she has orders.

Orders from Warden on her desk that mandate that she leave UMCPHQ for an indefinite period of time as soon as possible, effectively barring her from participating in the kaze investigation. And she has no idea why Warden is doing this.

[synopsis will continue]
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ADAHGA 32 - Min [3]

Post by Cord Hurn »

Min is forced to leave the kaze investigation and any resulting fallout to her Chief of Security and Hashi's Data Aquisition assignee (an expert at tracing CMOS chips), thanks to Warden's orders. Min feels responsible for her subordinates on the case and doesn't totally trust Hashi's people and their motives. So, she doesn't want to leave the station right now. She wonders why Warden is doing this. Is it to protect her from being a kaze target or is it to keep her from finding out something about the kazes that he doesn't want her to know?
The orders themselves gave her no answer.

They were superficially simple. The stark hardcopy required her to take command of the first available UMCP warship and proceed immediately to the asteroid belt served by Com-Mine Station. Using the belt to cover her, she was instructed to watch for and respond to developments from the direction of Thanatos Minor.

In this case, the "first available UMCP warship" happened to be Punisher, a Scalpel-class cruiser which had just arrived in UMCPHQ's restricted gap range after nearly six months harrying pirates out beyond Valdor Industrial. Min's command would be a battle-scarred and ill-provisioned vessel with an exhausted crew.

She and Punisher were supposed to get as close as they could to Thanatos Minor without violating forbidden space and then just sit there, hoping that they could act appropriately when something happened.

No doubt subsequent communication would make clear what constituted an appropriate reaction. Nevertheless it galled her that these orders didn't spell out the answer. Was she being sent to rescue whoever survived Joshua's attack on Billingate? Or was she supposed to make sure there were no survivors?

Was Warden trying to protect her by wasting her in this way, or did he have some better use in mind?

The idea that his only purpose might be to spare her from sharing his doom made her want to howl with fury.

Is that all he thinks I'm good for? Picking up the pieces after he's gone?

Rubbing her sore, red eyes and her throbbing temples, she called him to demand an answer.
Min is taken aback when she reaches Warden on the line almost immediately. Some her anger at Warden dissipates when he asks in his firm voice how soon she can leave station. Min replies she can leave in fifteen minutes and catch up with Punisher two hours later.

Warden encourages Min to voice her concerns, and she wants to know why this plan for her to leave station didn't come up when they were crafting the "Joshua destroys Billingate" objective. She asks, what has changed? Warde replies nothing yet has changed involving Thanatos Minor, but that it will. He also informs Min that the UMCP is expanding it communications web in that part of space where she's going, on orders from Holt Fasner. Warden remarks that Holt is probably trying to distance himself from the things Warden told the GCES in that infamous video conference.

Min declares she's Wardens bodyguard, and should be around him when kazes are a threat, and demands to know what is so important about being ready to respond to events from Thanatos Minor, important enough to pull her away from doing her job as his bodyguard?

After a silence of some moments, Warden reveals that he thinks Morn Hyland may survive the destruction of Billingate, and if so, he needs Min there to make sure she continues surviving. He tells Min he believes he trusts her the most of anybody with such a mission.

He signs off, and Min realizes that she has been concentrating so hard on his explanation that her nose has been bleeding red drops on the paperwork containing her orders.

[end of synopsis]
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Post by Cord Hurn »

Min wants to trust Warden, and perhaps even has a deep-set NEED to trust Warden so that she can effectively do her job.

I think it's not just a matter of being sent away that makes it hard for her to totally trust him, but also his answers at the GCES video conference, in which it is implied that Morn was a bargaining chip continue to haunt her.

Which is why I think Warden struck just the right note with Min, letting her know he really cares about Morn's survival. Plus, his declaration of how deep he trusts her can inspire some reciprocity in her. I think he said as much as he could to get her to accept the mission, without exposing his deep game against the Dragon.
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