CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

EPILOGUE
C O G I T O E R G O S UM
UEO Atlantis DSV-8100, ONI ‘Lazarus’ Base, the Polynesian Trench. April 17 th ,
2043…
Aquarius had made her moorings at the ONI facility less than an hour after she had
arrived, moving in to position alongside a massive, makeshift pier that had been suspended
from the canyon walls. The enormous base, dubbed „Lazarus‟ by its Naval Intelligence staff,
spanned two square miles of seafloor, half embedded in to the rock face, and half sprawled
across the trench precipice along with the Atlantis herself. Aquarius, as if a faithful, loving
sister, hung over the salvage site proudly, her bows casting a long, protective shadow over
her wounded sister below - her ventral flood lamps occasionally tracking maintenance subs
and heavy lifting craft that moved through the gloom below that dared to approach without
stated intention.
Aquarius‟s return to the site came almost with a sort of fanfare. Docking procedures
were straightforward, but the feeling of anticipation amongst her senior staff – most notably
Ainsley and his own entourage – was reaching a fever pitch by the time the final umbilical
gantries and airlocks were extende. Much of the afternoon of the 16 th of April was spent in
briefings and updates as Ainsley, Callaghan and Roderick met with members of the UEO
Office of Naval Intelligence and the NSIS where the true scope of the operation was finally
explained. Much as Callaghan had expected, and although she was not present, it became
clear to them that Schrader was very much involved, and even if he had no direct control
over the operation, Jason Hargreaves was at least aware of its existence.
That so much was so brazenly and so comprehensively being kept from the highest
offices of the UEO military command rocked Corinn Roderick and Ryan Callaghan to their
cores, but for Ainsley, there was only the foreboding and jaded realisation of that which had
suspected for a very long time. After thirty six years in the military, he had come to hold a
very unique and very well-founded mistrust of the fleet‟s intelligence services. There was at
some level a truth to the idea that they would only answer to their own self serving sense of
ideology. By Ainsley‟s estimation, intelligence services the world over were filled with two
types of people: those who were naive, stupid or ignorant enough to simply accept a given
scenario or proposition without question, and those who understood that the service came
with an expectation and understanding that some of their ideals would have to be sacrificed
on occasion for the betterment of the whole.
That was, simply put, the personal cost of a life in the intelligence service, and the
UEO was founded on concepts that made their secretive creeds and mandates the very
objects of sensational public political scrutiny.
Ainsley reminded himself that it was that very special and select group who could live
with that understanding and carry on regardless that included some of his oldest friends, and
bitterest of separations. Schrader had used his known, often vocal idealisms and played him
accordingly.
And, for better or worse, he could live with it.
It took Aquarius several hours to finally secure the watch. Ammunition, fuel and
maintenance stores began to arrive aboard small transports from the ONI base, marines
were assigned to sentry duties and a good number of the crew were rotated to the base for
what could only barely begin to be described as „shore leave‟. The few ONI staff that had
come aboard when the DSV secured her moorings appeared to have a keen interest in
watching virtually everyone as they moved to and from the base, whether their business was
official or not.
By 0800 the following morning, Aquarius‟s own minor repair duties were well in hand,
and there had been few reports of note for any of her senior staff to contend with. Admiral
Ainsley disembarked the ship without ceremony or much formal notice a little after ten-past,
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