Mo'Emori typed feverishly on
the keyboard of her laptop in one of the empty offices. Dr. Yuma had postponed all
of his appointments for the current week so that they could work on the
multitude of projects they had. Yuma had spent the majority of the given free
time coordinating with a large group of Federation refugees that sought aid in
finding a new home within the CoU territories. Many of the civilians were
concerned parents with young mage children or even mages themselves seeking
asylum. There had been whispers in both the CoU and the Eskarii Intelligence
forces that the Federation had been pushing hard against all opposition. That
meant there were increased conscriptions throughout the Federation galactic
territory, supposedly the conscription of every mage that was deemed old enough
to be taught including young children. Mo'Emori frowned deeply at the thought,
though she had little time to confirm such stories. She hated the idea of
children being taken from their parents to be thrown into war and she had no
doubt in her mind that the Federation would stoop that low. The Federation had
gone to great lengths to suppress all of those they felt below them. It was not
even just the Eskarii or the very few Saurian that they came across, but the
Federation was known to mistreat Terrans as poorly as her people. Mo’Emori
hated the Federation before she truly witnessed their treacherous ways.

When first contact was made
with the Terrans, it had been on a trading world on the outer fringes of the
Cardassia Prime cluster in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. The
trading world was Federation occupied and they fired the first shot against her
world’s ambassadors. The Eskarii meant no harm to the Terrans, they had their
own quarrels with the Saurian at the time without the need to incite more
conflict. Yet, the Federation shot first and had not bothered to ask questions
later.

To her surprise, a
large populace of the Terrans went into an uproar over the Federation’s
actions. This had given birth to the Coalition of Unity, the Terrans who saw an
opportunity to share friendship among the Eskarii and even strove for peace
with the Saurian. The Federation's hostilities had died down and Earth had been
opened up to the Eskarii while negotiations were had to open Gelia, the fake
Eskarii home world, up to the Terrans. Gelia was not so much fake as it was
lusher and more vibrant than Escostia, her real home however, before an
agreement could be made the Federation turned face on both the Eskarii and the
CoU. That was the birth of the war everyone had currently lived and it was all
because the Federation felt their superiority deserved the knee rather than the
respect of shaken hands.

Mo’Emori shook her head of
the memories, all they did was make her miss her special Terran who gave her
hope for the Terran species. Morrigan had always been kind to her often doing
her best to make her smile, and after releasing from his care, Mr. Yuma had
told her how much the young girl loved the Eskarii race. Mo’Emori could gleam
that before being told; Morrigan’s eyes held a great amount of admiration and
wonderment whenever she saw her. Mo’Emori loved that about her, and though she never
considered the implications of that admiration whenever Morrigan saw her, the
young Terran held a special little spot in Mo’Emori’s heart. Now she spent
weeks tirelessly searching and digging to find Morrigan’s whereabouts. On top
of that, the young Terran’s mother had requested she find Morrigan’s young
partner Taylor who had been forced into the service of the Federation as well
as her father, who had been arrested in aiding Morrigan as well her brother
Torvil escape from the city of Denver, labelled a traitor and stripped of all
humane rights.

The tasks were exhausting
and she was well past her limit as she pushed her fingers to keep typing
accurately. Currently Mo’Emori waited on a message from a fellow Eskarii who
had been tasked with following Morrigan’s father through the prison system
while she sifted through CoU data packets for even the slightest glimpse of
Morrigan or Taylor’s locations. Her attention was pulled away by the ding of
her laptop. As she watched the download start, she recognized the file name as
the one she had been waiting for revolving around James Clarke. Her heart
skipped a beat as she watched the progress bar climb past 50 percent before an
error message popped up on the screen. Mo’Emori’s yellow eyes widened in
frustration and surprise as she slammed her finger into the enter key
repeatedly. “No, no, no, no!” she exclaimed.

The error message bode more
ill omen than suspected as the system on her laptop seized due to her
connection to the CoU database being severed. “Pah’sk!” she swore as the
connection refused to connect. Mo’Emori tried to open the partially downloaded
file only to find that the severed connection had corrupted the file entirely.
“Goddess damn it!” she shouted as she threw her hand towards her laptop. A
burst of kinetic energy blasted the laptop into the far wall of the empty
office, shattering the device into oblivion.

The heavy, rushed thump of
foot falls echoed closer to her room before the door opened. Dr. Hiroshi Yuma
stood in the doorway to find his Eskarii receptionist sitting on the floor in
sullen defeat. He spied the shattered laptop across the room and let out an
amused chuckle. “I see Ms. Clarke isn’t the only one with an anger issue,” he
commented as he leaned against the door frame with his hands in his pockets.
Mo’Emori turned to face her boss with a look of embarrassment, her long pointed
ears gave a subtle curve downwards in shame. Yuma had made the observation long
ago that despite looking nearly human, the Eskarii were certainly aliens,
though it can often be easily forgotten once someone spends enough time around
them. Aside from invisible genetic differences, the limited articulation of
their long ears, vibrant colored irises and often naturally vibrant colored hair
had been a simple give away that they were very much different from the human
race. “I take it you lost your connection to our database?” he asked.

Mo'Emori nodded, her
expression turning sad and beyond the scope of being tired, “I’m sorry Mr.
Yuma. I was about to hopefully discover the location of Mr. Clarke when the
download was interrupted which corrupted the data transfer…” she stated as she
took an emotional glance at the laptop. “I may have overreacted…” she
admittedly bashfully.

Yuma chuckled amusedly, “no,
its been a long week so far. The issue we have now is that it seems the
Federation has destroyed one of the main communication relays in the middle
east.” Mo’Emori’s eyes widened with a sense of despair as she watched her boss
take a place next to her. Yuma let out a grunt of relief when he finally sat
down. He noticed her look and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t fret child,
it will take a good amount of time to adjust the other relays but they will get
back up and running. In the meantime we should worry about what we can handle
without the network,” he said with practiced wisdom.

The Eskarii frowned, “but I
don’t have anything…” The tone in her voice reflected the sense of uselessness
as she picked at the undersides of her nails. Dr. Yuma only smiled at that,
knowing the young alien girl knew better than to think herself useless.

“Why don’t you give your
brother a call?” he asked.

Mo’Emori watched him smile
out of the corner of her eye as she fidgeted. “Torvil is in Denver, he would be
of little help,” she said pointedly, her ears taking an even more subtle
downward curve. His gentle chuckle snapped her head up in surprise, confused as
to what could be so amusing at such a frustrating time.

“I believe he would be more
of a help than you think Mo’Emori. Just trust me on this one.” The smile on his
face was the smile of a man who knew something which caused her to frown
deeply.

With a disheartened sigh she
relented and begrudgingly dragged her purse into her lap, all the while eyeing
Dr. Yuma suspiciously, trying to find a tell in the older man’s guarded smile.
As she grabbed her phone she grunted in annoyance, “fine. I will call my brawder.”
Dr. Yuma merely smiled wider before giving her a respectful bow of his head,
getting up and stepping out of the office.

As much as she enjoyed
working with Dr. Yuma, she also found it quite annoying to work with a
legitimate psychologist. Being around each other everyday meant his insight and
psychoanalysis skills have evolved enough to pick up on her mental cues as well
as being able to find solutions for her despite never actually giving her a
straight answer. So, if she knew any better, his insistence for her to call
Torvil was much more a benefit to her mental health than to their predicament.

Mo’Emori let out a resigned
sigh. She knew she appreciated the doctor’s insight and care, but it also
frustrated her that she succumbs to such negative emotions when she was
supposed to be one of the best operatives the Eskarii have to offer. Eskarii
are naturally a deeply emotional species, but she had spent most of her life
training to suppress her emotions much like Torvil and their other siblings,
yet she found herself as much of an emotional spitfire as Morrigan was.

The thought of the 19 year
old Terran girl brought a small smile to her face, though at the same time it
made her heart hurt as she stared down at the dark screen of her phone. The
glass reflected her torn expression back at her; a stray tear slipped out from
beneath Mo’Emori’s bright yellow eye.

She wiped her cheek with a
sniff as she fought back the immense weight of anxiety that threatened to have
her break. “Mr. Yuma is right, I need to speak with my brawder,” she thought to
herself. She coughed back more tears as she unlocked her phone and pulled up
the number Torvil called her from last, the secret phone of Helen Clarke.
Mo’Emori pushed the dial button and wiped her nose as she listened to the dial
tone.

ΩΩΩ

Helen tipped back a glass of
red wine draining the remaining contents into her mouth as the expected
knocking noise came from her front door. She had hidden Jen and Torvil in a
secret room underneath the stairs in lieu of her expected visit. The room was
another idea her husband had come up with in case the world went topsy-turvy.
“I don’t know if you knew this would happen James… but damn you for being
prepared…” She muttered to herself as she stared into the empty glass.

The polite knocking became
rude pounding as Helen took her time answering the door. They expected her to
rush to the door like a dog but she had no real reason to do that. Helen let
out a heavy breath before rolling the stress out of her shoulders and making
her way across the open living room towards the door. As she grabbed the door
handle, a fist slammed on the door once more, missing the second time as she
swung the door open wide.

There stood three mildly
surprised agents of the Federation Intelligence Division as they looked upon
the middle aged Helen in a open leg, low cut dress and a look of pure hatred on
her face. The lead agent straightened himself as he cleared his throat, “it’s a
bit suspicious to keep us waiting Mrs. Clarke.” The tone in his words were more
of annoyance than suspicion. However, Helen was in no mood to deal with them.

“Well pardon a lady for
needing to take a piss,” she challenged, crossing her arms and cocking her head
to the side obstinately. The agent scrutinized her, reading every inch of her
body language that told him that she was not happy and in no mood to be toyed
with. He was not happy with the circumstances either for that matter.

With a tired sigh he
gestured into the house, “we should just get this over with.” Helen ignored his
reproachful attitude and merely shrugged before stepping back through the
living room. She let the agents enter the house as she poured herself another
glass of wine.

As the three men entered the
kitchen she thumbed behind her at her office door while taking a deep drink
from her glass. “Right in there,” she stated dismissively. The lead agent
nodded silently, stepping around the kitchen island and entering an override
code into the security panel next to the door. With fluid motion upon the door
unlocking, the other two agents began emptying out her office of any essential
and sensitive equipment owned by the Federation.