Keeper Hunter

While we traveled Inkassi was rapidly typing things into his datapad. He straightened up and blinked. “I’ve encompassed the car in a holo should anyone come looking for us were a totally different vehicle.”

I couldn’t see a difference but I wasn’t going to rain on his parade, I knew what an Ezaran was capable of.

We drove for another fifteen minutes without any trouble. We reached another small town and slowed. We crossed several streets and entered a residential area. The ground car pulled up to a single storied house with an enclosed garage. We drove up to the garage it’s door opening before us. In we went and the door closed behind us.

“Ok everyone out!” Sindara commanded.

I climbed out of the ground car into the garage. It was neat and very empty, a door led out in to the house. On the wall beside the door was an old fashioned keypad. Sindara punched in a code and the door slid open. It revealed an open plan kitchen/ living room arrangement all the furniture seemed new compared with the house exterior. A large bay window looked out and the shutters were drawn. Another two doors led off from this room. One to the exterior the other to the rest of the house.

“First things first Gwen we can’t have you bleeding all over the floor.” She gestured to a red couch in front of a holo screen comms unit. “I’ll need to see your wound.”

I looked down at the plastic flooring was a pale grey and would show up dirt and other things like blood. I sat on the couch and rolled up my pants leg. There was a blood stained hole in it. Underneath was Sindara’s scarf covered in my blood. I hadn’t felt any pain since I’d got into the ground car. Slowly Sindara peeled back the scarf to reveal my leg. There was no sign it had even been clipped by a bullet. If hadn’t been for the bloodstained scarf you would have never believed I’d been shot.

Sindara stepped back in shock. “Ancients what happened to your wound?” she said shocked. “No Human heals that fast?”

“I’m not fully Human,” I reminded her. Had I been Human the Elders would have never placed their bracelet on me.

“Valkyrie bleed and wound the same way we do,” Sindara protested.

“I suggest you ask the Elders about that, they altered my DNA.” It was a lot more complicated than that but it was the only bit of information I was going to tell her.

“That’s not possible?” Sindara said.

“What’s not possible?” a new voice asked.

I glanced around to see a man standing at the door into the rest of the house. He was tall and handsome but not a handsome as Jervic. I felt the sting of his rejection on seeing this Human. I scanned the man’s face yes her was definitely a Human with short dark hair and blue eyes.

“L… this wound healed faster than it would have done in a Cell Stitcher?” Sindara stiffened her hand nearly going to her forehead in a salute.

“Did you do a scan?” Leo said.

I felt slighted by his statement. There was more going on here than I could see.

“No?” Sindara sounded puzzled.

“Look whoever Gwen is she wears a Valkyrie silver bangle,” Guy said he’d been silent up until now.

“Only an Initiate,” I said.

“Initiate or not you saved our butts twice!” Guy said coming to my defence.

It was at that moment Inkassi walked in. “Got it!” he announced.

“What?” Leo stared at Inkassi. “Will someone tell me what the Hell is going on here?”

Sindara swallowed hard. “Well L…” she glanced at me before continuing. “Well we went on the brewery tour as you asked?”

I knew a military mission when I saw one but didn’t comment. Sindara’s inadvertent near-admission that Leo was her commander.

“And?”

“Somehow what we did alerted Security there,” Guy said. “They trailed us for a while but we managed to lose them. We took shelter in a cantina.”

“We didn’t want them following us to the car,” Sindara added.

“Gwen was there and warned us about the rear exit,” Guy said.

“We took it unfortunately we forgot to make sure there was no one there. They caught us, Had it not been for Gwen leaping onto the Officers I don’t know what would have happened?” Sindara gave me a look. “Why exactly did you come flying out the exit like that?”

“They took exception to my accent.” I wasn’t going to try and hide that these people were suspicious of me and I wasn’t their enemy. “I’ve had run ins with their type before.”

“I did wonder about that?” Sindara commented.

“About what?” I replied unsure what she was talking about.

“Your accent is pure Terran but your Galactic is perfect?” Sindara said.

“It’s a long story,” I sighed.

“We’ve got time,” Leo growled. It was obvious he had trust issues.

“Its complicated,” I told him trying hard to keep my temper. My Valkyrie side was coming to the fore too often these days. I had to calm down and take a deep breath.

“I promised a friend that died…” Solstrid’s death still stung after all the time that had passed. “To return her bracelet to her clan on Alfheimir.” I shivered at the thought. “Somehow they found out that I had Valkyrie blood.”

“There must be more to it?” Leo sounded unconvinced.

“Well they did threaten to keep me on Alfheimir or train and go after the one that killed her. The choice was simple.”

“You chose the latter?” Sindara said flashing Leo a look. She was on my side even if Leo wasn’t. “Is that why you are here?”

“No I’m waiting for a Valkyrie ship to pick me up.”

From Sindara’s expression she had wanted me to be hunting Vanessa. I still was but things kept getting in my way. Valkyrie, Black Stripes, The Empire and Admiral Komana were all blocking my attempts to close that part of my history and lay Solstrid’s ghost to rest.

“So you aren’t here for the Three Lines?” Guy asked.

I instantly stiffened that sounded too much like the Black Stripes. I knew we hadn’t suppressed them all. I began to see a connection. “You mean the Black Stripes?”

“Black Stripes, I’ve heard that term before,” Leo said less aggressive than he had been.

“You heard of the Curator or the Director?” I asked him directly.

Leo looked confused for a second then his eyes widened. “Yes the 43rd dealt with them?”

It confirmed my suspicions that they were Confederacy military. “Add the Prophet from Alfheimir.” I wasn’t about to add the Separatists to the mix their leader was the Prophet. That was a Valkyrie/ Terran matter and not for anyone else to deal with.

“Prophet?” Leo’s eyes bored into me as if he was trying to find a lie in my words. “I heard they had a Prophetess?”

“It was a male Valkyrie disguised as a woman, Come on what Valkyrie would follow a male?”

“None,” Sindara said giving Leo a hard look.

“Well I was convinced it was a woman,” Guy stated. “That’s what the intel said.”

“The intel was wrong a blood test proved that,” I replied. This certainly wasn’t what I’d expected.

“And I was told the Valkyrie couldn’t get an agent close?” I noted Leo was looking at me his brow furrowed like he was thinking hard. “Come to think of it now, there is something familiar about you?”

“In what way?” I replied cautiously.

Suddenly Leo stiffened. “So stupid, why didn’t I figure it out before. You are that Gwen Hunter the one responsible for disrupting two Three Line plots here on Davenport.”

“Black Stripes,” I corrected him.

“Why do you keep referring to the Three Lines as Black Stripes?” Sindara asked.

“Because it is that what they are. Davenport isn’t the only planet they’ve caused trouble on.” I said. “They tried on Alfheimir and Saros. On Alfheimir the tried to use the Planetary Defence system to launch missiles at several cities including the Hall of Elders.” I glanced at Leo. On Saros they tried the same. This time it was supposed to be a simultaneous launch against the capital of Saros and the ‘Valorous Star’ a TCA ship in orbit. They wanted it to look like the ‘Star’ fired on the city and the defence system retaliated. It was stopped in time. Then they tried again and this time the objective was to blow up the hotel were a Thanksgiving Gala was being held. Again they failed.”

“Yes, yes,” Sindara said eagerly. “It was in the mission briefing.” Her eyes opened wide as the realisation hit her. “Ancients it’s you. Admiral Katares said to keep an eye out for you.”

I assumed Admiral Katares was a pal of Komana and I wasn’t about to head back to the Empire.

“Of course you’d be the best one to help our mission,” Guy said enthusiastically.

“Mission? Who are you actually?” I asked ready to defend myself if I got the wrong answer.

Leo walked to the shutters on the window then turned back to me. “We’re with Spec Ops.”

Jervic and the others were Spec ops but that was Alliance Special Operations. I wasn’t sure that they were the same. I remained silent about that.