Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Fallout

     Vaughn pulled her eyes away from the drax, still in Teserin form, and back to the fighting.  It was now reduced to brief skirmishes as the O’thik, as Ixim named them, finished cleaning out the last pockets of Viseith resistance.  Then her attention was being dragged back to the drax with another tingling rush to find Brin’s wound being closed by the same power that healed her seemingly forever ago.

  “The rest of the team?”  She asked hoarsely, looking up into Ixim’s face.

     The drax grimaced.

  “Heavy casualties.”  He reported, leaning back from Brin’s unmoving form to run long fingers through his dense white hair.  “I tried to bring the O’thik back as quickly as I dared but I was too late.  Only a handful still remains alive, including you and the weapons master.  The Viseith had extraspacial defenses in place that I had to counter before I could reopen a portal into the archive, fatally delaying my return.”

     Vaughn’s lips thinned as she considered that.  According to Brin’s brief reports during battle, it also appeared as though the Viseith had easy access to the archive building, despite various security protocols in place, protocols even more stringent since the last encounter with the Praetors’ covert intelligence arm.  They circumnavigated security, penetrated the building and shut down Damatakrice with very little effort.  In all, a well-planned and well-executed penetration, which would’ve succeeded if Ixim hadn’t drawn on his powerful Drax abilities to thwart it.

     Apparently the drax was considering the same thing.

  “They must’ve had somebody on the inside.”  He hissed, a flare of anger burning away his fatigue.  “Somebody that gave them enough advance notice they were able to plan and execute this attack, already aware of our destination and the security here.”

  “Didn’t we receive our brief only this morning?”  Vaughn countered, earning her a tight look from the drax.  Which, oddly enough, faded to a curious look of respect.

  “Yes.”  Ixim confirmed with a nod, his face thoughtful.  “But Isivir Command has desired to bring you to the archive from the beginning, even before we made contact with the Directorate.”

  “Not the best kept secret, then.  Only the date was in question.”

     Ixim nodded again, folding his arms across his chest.

  “Which we determined last night, following the completion of your evaluation.”

  “So the Viseith had a team trained and a plan formulated and in place, waiting only for the exact day to strike.”  Vaughn finished the drax’s thought with a nod of her own, seeing the logic in it.  And feeling a cold twist in her belly as it confirmed both hers and Ixim’s suspicion.

     The team had a traitor in its midst, a sworn enemy of the Pax in the form of a Viseith deep cover operative, a sleeper or a mole of some sort.  Somebody deep enough, or protected enough to pass the extra-stringent protocols Isivir Command had put in place for team selection.  To think they could’ve carried that mole all the way to Earth in their search for the Crown of Oberon was enough to send a chill trickling down Vaughn’s spine.

     Apparently, however, the Praetors didn’t have the patience to wait that long, choosing instead to attempt to take the book they originally penetrated the archive to steal some time ago.  That meant one of two things: either the Praetors didn’t think the lone human recruited by the Pax to help them would be effective.  Or they were thoroughly convinced the talisman’s location was buried somewhere in the dense and highly allegorical language of the se’Benite text.