Knights of Daybreak, part 6 by J. T. MacLeod

OK, folks, we start right where 5 left off!

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Espy's reaction had been unsurprising, but it still wasn't the easiest thing
I could deal with.  I kneeled down, held her hands, and looked her in the eyes.

"Espy, you said you didn't want a mind wipe, even if it was only these
few memories."

"I didn't...  and I still don't."

"Espy, this is the only way, then.  If you do this...  and I know you
can--you will...  then you'll be free to go back to the way things were,
or even more if you want.  It will take some time, but it will happen."

"I understand." she spoke, but barely.

It certainly wasn't easy to accept...  even if she could go straight back
to her old life while keeping the knowledge that she had now, it was in
incredible amount of shock for a normal person.

"What do you want to do right now?" I asked.

"I think..." she said, "I want to sleep."  She looked very tired...  she had
been awake now for over 36 hours, and with everything on top of it, she must
have felt like she'd been awake for weeks.

"Alright," I said as I stood.  "I have some things I need to take care of...
the omniverse doesn't run itself.  You can sleep here."  Truth be told,
I'd been up at least two days, myself, but I didn't have time to sleep.
I'd gotten used to it, and I wasn't going to share a room with her, as much
as I wanted to stay and comfort her.  I thought I might eventually be able
to catch a nap in the barracks since I was sacrificing my room.

Espy didn't bother to wait until we had left the room to lay down and close
her eyes.  Immediately, she was asleep.

Shane and I exited together.  As the doors closed behind us, Shane spoke,
apparantly not wanting to waste time, but refusing to get to the heart of
matters immediately.

"What did you do in your 24 hours off?" he asked.

"I talked with her...  Explained a bit about the omniverse she never knew
existed...  Mostly, I just watched her cry, with nothing I could do about it."
It hadn't been time enjoyed, but I wasn't allowing myself to be depressed
for it.  I had some hope.

"I wanted time to look through DGF law," I continued, " but I had to be
there for her...  and I knew you'd come up with something.  Thanks."

Shane stared at me a bit slackjawed as we walked on.  "You mean you're not
mister laser-eyes anymore?"

"I was angry.  I don't think I handled things as well as I should have, and I
am sorry."  Shane brightened somewhat as I said that.  "But you didn't research
or consider any alternatives to begin with, and you had no tact as you told her
the consequences.  For the most part, anyway, my reactions were calculated."

Shane stopped looking so serious and gave a half grin.

"I'm sorry for making Espy cry," he said, totally sincere, but with a hint
of humor in his voice.

I matched his half grin.  "But not sorry for anything else?"

"Nope."

Classic Shane.  If there was one thing the young leader of the omniverse
had going for him, it was moxy.

"Shane, Espy isn't cut out to be a guardian...  Certainly not a soldier,
but she wasn't made, so to speak, for the academy.  However, I don't think
I'm taking a risk by sponsoring her entrance.  She has the capacity, she
just has to find it."

"I understand.  We all learned like that, especially Ray...  Mac, look."
Shane stopped cold and looked me in the eye.  This was serious, "Brin said
that the point of him going to earth alpha was to cause friction between us.
Do we have to worry about that?  He said it was working, and for a bit there
I almost believed him."

"No, we don't have any reason to worry on that point, and I think he had
other motives.  Let's keep low on details in either direction, though.
I have some ideas on how to follow up on Brin's deeper ties.  If we knew
that we weren't acting as though we were on the best of terms, though,
we might have a security leak."  Shane nodded, having already considered this.

"I don't believe," I continued, "we have reason to suspect any of the supremem
guardians.  Maybe it's a force sensitive person staying in the base, or even
just a lucky guess."

"Don't worry, I'm keeping an eye out."

"I'm going to speak with some of the young guardians.  Could you avoid making
any public appearances or announcements for the next 24 hours or so?"

"Sure."

"And, if you could do a personal favor for me?"

"What is it?" Shane asked without hesitation.

"If Katrina or Shandra have time, I'd like them to spend some time with Espy.
Especially Katrina...  Espy needs a female around to talk with."

Shane smiled wide.  "I'll see what I can do, but I thought that I was
your boss."

I smiled back as I began to turn to a door in the corridor, but I stopped
before I opened it.

"One more thing.  I'm going to get an infiltration agent to go into Brintech
from the bottom and see if we can get any information.  I don't trust anyone
currently working for Brintech, even if we paid them."

"Alright, good." said Shane, but he pointed a finger and continued.  "But...
I'm sure this thing with Brin is getting personal for you, but I know it's
getting personal for me.  I want to meet the agent before you dispatch him."

"You've got it, friend."

"Thanks."

I opened the door and headed out to work.

**

I had been keeping up with some of what had been going on in the past 24 hours
on viewscreens when I could find the time.  Now I had something of a plan.
I would be winging it, but maybe someone who was already there could help.

I walked at a brisk pace, but liesurely, for a half hour to my destination.
In all honesty, I could have been there in an instant, but things weren't
pressing yet, and I needed the time to relax a bit and clear my mind.

I stopped at an average looking door in the coridor I was in and opened it
to a sea of young men and women in blue suits, all looking much the same:
a mess hall for young reserve soldier guardians just out of the academy.
Some stood, some sat, but everyone was engaged in heated conversation,
and I could feel in the air that it was all on one issue:  Shane and myself.

Some of them noticed me.  Of those, a few stopped their discussion.  A few
others stopped for a moment and continued in their conversations.

There was one in particular who seemed to be instigating much of it, as was
apparant by his beligerant, raised voice.  From the other side of the room
I singled out his voice.

He spoke in a deep, gruff voice with an angry tone of the new leaders, asking
of the others if they felt the same way, but he never had any specifics.
He was apparantly just attempting to badger others into discussing their
views of the situation.

I walked into a corner and motioned torward him.  He caught my signal
immediately and walked in my direction.  No one paid him any attention as
he moved, hinting that he had been at this for a while.

As we stood in a corner away from the mass of people, I observed that no
one was monitoring our conversation and chose to speak openly, albeit in
hushed tones.

"Good work, Cratin.  Now I'm going to do some talking, and take some questions
from the crowd.  If they're not eager to talk, help them out a bit."

The brown eyes of the young guardian in front of me turned to a dull silver
speckled with hazel for a split second before he smirked and turned around,
walking with his shoulders pushed forward and his hands in his pockets.

"Right," he said haughtily, giving no indication of what he might have
just heard.

I walked to the front of the room, raising my power as I went to draw attention
to myself.  As I came closer to the empty gray wall I lifted a finger on a
raised hand and a platform two meters high extended a good length from the
dull plane.  I hopped up and put my hands behind my back.

As I gazed over the crowd, I estimated that there must be approxomately 400
people in the room.  A crowd large enough to begin to spread word of the
conclusions they came to after this ruckus, but small enough in the relative
population of the NCC that they could all be dismissed or slapped with an
insubordination charge by me and no one would think anything of it.

The entire communion of guardians fresh out of the academy fell silent,
and the sea of people split in two, reminding me somewhat of the Red Sea
parting.  It was obvious that they had split based on their discussions of
the new leaders.

"I understand that many of you have issues with the new leadership," I said
in a Vulcan manner.  I wouldn't let anyone see emotion play into my decisions
or discussions, as it rarely did.  I was especially determined on this point
after my previous outburst.

On my right hand side stood many people who looked eager to listen, with
approving looks, or at least hope of being able to approve of me.

On my left hand side stood a group of people who looked, for the most part,
disillusioned.  A few of them appeared to have comments lodged in their
throats, ready for escape.

I nodded at one of the men on my left who spoke with a small amount of
defiance.

"How could we not have 'issues'?  You saw the way McInnis came in here!
He essentially dissolved the greatest corporate forces in the omniverse
in a few seconds!  Look at what he did to the Supreme Guardians--a bunch
of two-bit unheard-ofs who replaced one of the greatest Supreme Guardian
boards we've ever seen!  I really haven't been very happy with him since,
he's been operating behind closed doors a--"

A raised eyebrow from me caused him to shut his mouth immediately.  He was
obviously angred, and had every right to be after Shane introduced himself
the way he did, but was grasping at straws for reasons to continue to think
that way.  A few people shuffled their feet nervously, knowing what the
young man hadn't thought of as he shot his mouth off:  that I was one of
the Supreme Guardians he was speaking of.

"I haven't approved of all of Guardian McInnis's decisions or actions,
but let's not forget that he was appointed by Ray Doss, with good reason,
although I'm sure most of you aren't privy to any of former-Guardian Doss's
reasonings.  I haven't the time to expound on them now, you can research
them yourselves, as you all very well should have already done.  As for the
Supreme Guardians...  How many Goku's, Lion-Os, Skywalkers or Bobs are there?
Shane chose, as Ray had wished, I might add, that the Supreme Guardians no
longer be figureheads chosen for their sheer power and went to work only in
desparate times, but a cohesive team that worked all the time, just as you do.
Together we chose this team, and I have utmost confidence in them."

Someone else on the same side of the room spoke up.

"Aren't you having some problems with Guardian McInnis, yourself?"

Word traveled fast, but a quick look at the disguised Cratin told me that
he hadn't delivered it.  I set my jaw, determined that I would find how
information was escaping.

"No, I'm not.  As I said, I haven't approved of everything he's done, but
I don't have any problems, professional or personal.  I also would like to
assure you that even if we had personal problems, it would not reflect on
our responsibility to you."

A young woman on my right side spoke up objectively with some authority over
her peers.

"What do you think about the job Guardian McInnis is doing?"

It struck me as odd that I had gone from being the outcast that Shane had
worked to gain approval for to the one lobbying for approval for Shane,
since he had slowly become the outcast.

"He made deep inroads to begin with, but he's been on tiptoes ever since.
He feels deeply responsible for this institution, which is why he is so
adamant about fixing the problems...  especially the haughty beaurocrats,
which I'm sure most of you are tired of leading the NCC down a path of
stagnation and corruption through false authority.  We want to improve the
system, not replace it.  Personally, I think he's done a fine job."

I had intended to speak for a while, but at this the room erupted in speech,
none of it directed at me.  Shane had done a good job, and by some of
the persons moving across the room, more of them were beginning to agree.
A few from my right side had moved to the left, but the left side was now
substantially smaller, and the people were beginning to meet in the middle.

I nodded to Cratin and headed back to the corridor through a portal.
I started walking.

"Kyuusai," I called.  Immediately, Kyuusai was beside me in human form,
keeping pace with me by hovering slightly above the ground.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"How is Espy?"

"Sleeping soundly.  I believe she will be sleeping for a long while."

"Good...  when you have a moment, I'd like you to deliver some basic NCC
history books to my room as well as profiles and holos of all of my associates
and friends in the recent wars so she will have them when she wakes."

"Gladly," she said as she presented me with a small stack of papers.  "I also
have the profiles of the NCC's top infiltration agents you asked for...
the Jurai interface to the NCC data system works quite well."

"Thank you, Espy," I said as I looked at the top of the stack.  The number one
agent was listed as Shane.  I held back a groan, realizing that he probably
did deserve the title, but I knew he had entered all the data here himself.
I smiled a bit thinking about it

"Well, he's out." I said.  I looked at the second sheet and didn't believe
my eyes.  It was a man I had only heard about, but what I had heard was
incredible, and it had nothing to do with his very impressive list of
accomplishments that were set before me, although his current position was
not indicative of them--he had certainly made a great name for himself in
promotions recently in his low class.  If I could at least present this man
for the position...  it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up, if only to
say I had.

"This is the guy," I stated definitively.

"Are you aware of his criminal background?" Kyuusai asked me.

"I am...  it's irrelevant.  Tell Shane that I want to show him his agent
immediately.  See you soon!"

Kyuusai bowed as I jumped into a portal with a huge grin on my face.

**

I came out of a portal in thin atmosphere, an artificial station in the
middle of nowhere.  Before me stood a large man with mean eyes and an angry
jaw who looked very bored.

He turned around, surprised to see me, and appeared to be about to reprimand
me when I flashd my Supreme Guardian ring--not one of the originals since
Shane had the Sword of Light, but clearly a higher rank than his.

"What is this?" he asked, taken aback but completely respectful.

"You're coming with me."

"Y, Yes, sir."

**

In another moment I was knocking on Shane's door.

Shane opened the door remotely.  He and Katrina sat arm in arm in a loveseat
behind a desk.  The looked very content.  That wasn't going to be so for long.

"Mac, before you start," he began, "Katrina and I have been talking.  We want
to give Espy Ray's old room."

If I hadn't been so excited about my own news, my jaw would have hit the floor.
Ray's room had been held privately by Shane and myself, out of respect,
with all of his memoribelia intact.  It was quite a gesture, and I couldn't
express how much I appreciated, but I was too eager to share my own news.

"Shane, that means more to me than I can tell you, but I have something
pressing...  I've found our agent.  You're going to either love me or hate me."

Shane would have bolted out of his seat had Katrina not been holding him.

"Bring him in."

"Come in!" I shouted.

The large man I had just spoken to minutes before walked in the door.

On Shane's face and his one word was silently etched in looks of disgust
and repugnance:  "No."

Now Shane stood up as Katrina looked up at him in confusion.

I couldn't hide the smile on my face as I said my next words.

"Head Guardian McInnis, I'd like to introduce Dimensional Crossing Guard Raven."

--

Hahahahaha!!  Weird Bob brings KOD7 next!!