While mega-corporations vie for control of Andromeda's precious resources, the very anti-corporate Yseult, surreptitiously recruited into the heavily militarised MANTIS soon finds that the drawbacks of corporate life may be a small price next to the...
"It was dangerous..." the fuzzy holo-image of the hairy man said, his words only just discernable above the crackle and static of a signal that was being bounced and routed through countless locations and servers to avoid detection. "... Aiding the return of an Octan operative when you could have eliminated him... Treasonous, even." It was a suggestion Riddaeon had contemplated himself ever since leaving Vyken Tyros at the spaceport with his false identities and his tickets back to Octan. But in that time, he had also reasoned his answer. "If you're right..." He responded. "... And we cannot tackle this alone, MANTIS may not be enough, we need contacts in the other corporations and we need the measure of them." "And what is the measure of this one?" The holo-image asked. Riddaeon thought for a moment, recalling the Octan agent he had picked up in the clearing on Donwarr. Tyros had been careful about what he had said in their conversation. Riddaeon had gleamed no secrets, but he hadn't tried to. He wanted to know the man, not the corporation. "He's loyal..." He answered. "... But principled. It will be where those two separate that we will have leverage..." Riddaeon paused for a moment, considering. "His time on Donwarr has affected him. He's seen what the Quarrel did to the civilians. The kind of things employees don't get told." The holo-imaged crackled as the signal re-routed. It couldn't stay connected the same way for too long. "Do you think he will be able to convince her?" the hairy visage asked. Riddaeon thought for a moment. That would be a feat. She was not easy to convince of anything. She was an idealist, a believer. But so was Tyros. "Maybe" he finally replied. "But he wouldn't do it alone. He'd convince someone else first." "Who?" The image asked. Riddaeon's eyes gleamed with the knowing of a plan not yet fully formed. "Someone who trusts him." He said. "His student... and her aide". The hairy visage contemplated the revelation and the disapproval turned to near excitement. "Then we are ready?" it asked. Riddaeon nodded. "Good." The image continued. "I will send you the information retrieved with the cypher she acquired... She will find Upsilon for us. And then... So many questions will be answered."
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An hour later, Yseult entered the small makeshift office that Riddaeon had made for himself and sat down in a seat at the end of his desk, a sheen glass black desk with a built-in keyboard and transparent 3D holoscreen display. "So." Riddaeon opened with. "I hear you managed to crash another ship into yet another one and lose the new engine we built for it all in one mission. You're turning into a very expensive pilot." He let it hang there for a moment. Yseult wasn't sure if he was being humorous or if she should floor him for the comment. She just sat in silence which she immediately realised probably made her come across as cold. I hate when people aren't clear. She thought. I never know how to respond. Riddaeon sat back in his seat raising his hands to concede that his quip probably hadn't been as successful as he had hoped. "Anyway..." He started. "...We're glad you're back and I think you're ready for your real mission here."
That caught her attention. "Real mission?" She asked.
"You probably figured out that you joining MANTIS wasn't a coincidence... You were marked for recruitment to a specific task. A covert operation that no-one, even in MANTIS knows about. Except for Big Sal, Seyka and me, of course." Yseult recalled her uneasy conversation with Riddaeon in the depths below Uplink the day she nearly rode away from it all. He tried to tease her with information then too. He wanted her to want to know. She had a feeling he was just as eager to tell her anyway. "Lucky for you I chose to stay this long." She proposed. "Well... Quite." Riddaeon conceded.
