<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-684e0cd7-7fff-f350-fa2d-3908a596e9b3"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Mission: Andromeda's Chain</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Day: 1</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Stardate: 2446.01.03</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:10pt 0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(USS Exeter – Bridge – aCO Cmdr Ailynn Bracken – 0432)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ailynn heard the doors open, and her internal alarm bells rand early, the sound was wrong. Not a quiet entrance; noise, jostling. Not ordered precision, but a smattering of noise. Ailynn immediately hit an unused combination, a real throwback. Deathline was the the most powerful example of it’s type in existence. She had found it by accident as she had been trawling the deepweb one time when she had been utterly utterly out of it. It was, at its heart, a personal tether. A secure line would be held for a certain time, but on a failure to interphace after a certain time then a command would initiate, and all kinds of initiatives could be run.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ailynn sighed gently and shook her head as the Bridge exploded into action. She herself didn’t move. Only tapping a combination that would lock down Command level access to all stations.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"I beg your apologies Captain but we appear to have a situation. It seems that whoever Maxine was, she wasn't the empress after all. The Emperess is still here and she is making her move."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ailynn sighed. “Formidable...I’m sure…” Ailynn spoke slowly, carefully and concisely.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">A lesson osmosed into her mind, “Take every moment, make it for what it could be, extend a second...into...an...aeon.” The lesson had taught her much, not only as a potential Officer, but also as a player of chess.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Billy... Should…. I be not surprised?” She spoke again slowly. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Billy then nodded to Cade and in an instant he and his men fired on everyone on the Bridge stunning them, all except Ailynn, Fuller,Greta, and Trinity.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Lieutenant William Alexandre Junior, it shames me to say this...You disgrace your clan.” It was an open verbal slap but she continued. “I know not what has caused this, but know this...</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Lieutenant</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">...her tone of voice made it clear that his time wearing that was limited. She leant forward and whispered on a deep level that she hoped would resonate on some level.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“I will never forgive you...you are dead to me.” Ailynn’s voice was ice...ice cold. Even on her deathbed, she remembered her tone, and still felt that flash of fury that even then raised her biometrics enough to further lengthen her life.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"Sorry Ailynn but its not my will that must be done,  but the will of my empress that sets me free."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Your Empress…? WHat about your duty you insufferable putrid little pubic lou….” Ailynn channeled her inner Ronnie on her admittedly floral vocabulary of curse words.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"Now then," Billy said addressing those still standing. "Back away from your stations and gather in the middle. Your empress has need of you."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">A book came to her mind..a passage therein, and a lesson, no, numerous lessons that had followed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Annunciate...Bracken.. You of Federation borne...ye of honour on your merest namesake…”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The lesson...was going to be one of those….Ailynn sighed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Regarding what thusly, O Captain my Captain…?”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">It was early, and Ailynn had a monstrous hangover, coupled with residual multiple chem withdrawal.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“On Fear….”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">It was early….her coffee stood going cold and her tutor was in a floral, fencing mood.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“One quote...It’s bloody early you arse.” She didn’t wait for agreement. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">She’d spoke. </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;color:rgb(24,24,24);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;color:rgb(24,24,24);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;color:rgb(24,24,24);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;color:rgb(24,24,24);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Touche...top marks Bracken…”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Billy then turned to Trinity and smiled. "Set a course that keeps us in range of both away teams. Our empress doesn't want to lose any of her subjects."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">~knight to queens bish four...check…~</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">As the security team locked down the turbolifts to the bridge and began positioning themselves around the Jeffrey's tube access points, Cade helped a lone figure from one of the tubes onto the bridge. As soon as the figure was safely on the Bridge Billy took a knee in reverence. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">He then spoke to his empress, his empress who none other than the medical intern Lana. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"My empress, welcome to the bridge. Any words of wisdom you wish to impart?"</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">~Knight Queen bish x King’s pawn...did...not see that coming….~ Ailynn thought.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">~You haven’t lost...just change the rules….~ her brain supplied.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply Lana)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Spectral,serif;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(POsted by Mark)</span></p></span><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div>