CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

approached and slowly started to circle. The girl didn‟t even register Ezard as her eyes
shifted with the visitor and slowly followed his path.
“You‟re different,” she said calmly. “You think you‟re like me, but you‟re not.”
“Am I supposed to be afraid, little girl?” Saed growled.
“You fear what you don‟t understand, just like them,” she continued. “But no, you
don‟t fear me. I know you... You‟re one of the Fives.”
Saed looked at Ezard. “You told her about me.”
“No, I did not,” he said. “She is intuitive, nothing more.”
Sanaa smiled at Ezard. “But I am something more.”
Ezard stepped forward, his hands clasped behind his back and slowly smiled in
return. “Yes, you are.”
Doctor Ballard came ahead of the gurney upon which lay Ryan Callaghan, tended to
by several corpsman. They all up short of the lab in shock to find the captain standing at the
guard rail, watching the marines dismantled the room, computer by computer, and console
by console. Ballard and her team gaped at the scene, disbelieving of the brutality at which
the soldiers went about the task and glowered at the man before her. “What the hell is going
on!?”
The nameless captain turned in surprise, checking over his shoulder again before
hurrying over to meet her. “Anne, you need to get out of here,” he whispered.
“What? What are you talking about! What are they doing!?”
“Endgame,” he glared at her before looking past at the gurney, and the unconscious
Lieutenant. “Get them out of here. All of them.”
“Endgame?” she repeated. “What is that supposed to...”
The captain‟s face, pale, told her everything she needed to know. Ballard spun on
her heel, her coat tails flying out behind her and was already hissing at the corpsman to
move. “Launch bay, now.”
“Captain, this is Ezard,” hissed the PAL from the man‟s belt as he watched them
leave. He unclipped it, eyeing the soldiers as they loaded up palettes of gear as others
herded the science staff in to one of the side officers.
“Go ahead.”
“Secure the bridge, I will meet you there.”
He took a sharp breath at the order and was already on his way back out the door
when he replied. “Understood.”
...Ezard returned to the main command centre with Saed close by his side. Looking
around the chamber, he called over a squad of marines.
“Progress, Sergeant?”
“Most records have been accounted for,” the soldier replied. “We have the science
staff in Doctor Gelding‟s office... they‟re refusing to cooperate.”
Ezard nodded. “No matter. We have what we came for.”
The two other Nycarian militiamen appeared from the corridor a moment later, the girl
walking quietly between them – offering no resistance as she kept good pace, her hands
clasped gently in front of her. Sanaa gazed around the command centre in fascination,
seemingly oblivious to the rampant dismantlement occurring around it. The sergeant was
astonished by this, his gaze drifting past Ezard for a moment to lock eyes with the girl.
“...Is there a problem, sergeant?” Ezard asked.
“No sir.”
“Good. Take these men to Cryo N-2. They will assist you once you arrive.”
The marine nervously looked up at the two Nycarians, and then back at the
unassuming woman between them who stared straight back at him intensely, her eyes
studying every facet of him as she cocked her head. “Yes sir.”
Ezard and Saed watched as Patient One and the two Nycarians were escorted away
by the marine, waiting until they had left the command wing before making their own way
over to the office that was being guarded by half a dozen of the sergeant‟s troops. One of
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