New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!
“When did this come in?” Brooks asked.
“Two minutes ago, sir,” Commander Eboh said over the link. “I knew you were waiting on a message from the team and notified you immediately.”
“After I finish the message, put all of the data under the highest secrecy. Don’t tell anyone that it came in.”
“Yes, sir,” Eboh said, and clicked off the comm.
Brooks put the message back on.
“I’ve included what data and images we have of the intruders,” Pirra continued. “We have little of Nalen Kress so I cannot confirm his identity. However, the corpse of the unknown gunman is still present and we will be bringing it back with us with your permission.”
She saluted. “We await your command for our return home. Pirra out.”
The transmission was ended, and Brooks brought up the data she’d included. The mission had not gone like he had expected, but that was oddly expected.
Potentially, he’d lost his best field commander, for intel that at least ruled out the most dire of possibilities. There was no reason to believe, based on the lack of activity there, that the Leviathan in Terris Prime was awakening.
He looked at the intel. It had been carefully scrubbed, but still he was cautious, looking through the text descriptions first.
He moved on.
The image of the dead man came on screen, and Brooks felt his heart skip a beat.
He was staring into the face of Michal Denso.
Most of Response Team One were asleep, save for those on watch.
That included Iago, who Pirra given some tranquilizers after he complained of strange dreams.
Now that everyone else was settled in, she too had begun settling in for a rest, gratefully.
Tred watched her with concern.
“Are you really going to try to sleep?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she replied, not harshly. “It might be best if you did, too, Tred. Sky knows you’ve earned it.”
Her large eyes opened again, turning slightly to look at him. She smiled slightly, and he found it odd. He knew that Dessei did not smile to each other.
But he was too nervous about something else to bring that up.
“Aren’t you . . . afraid that you’ll wake back up on Monitor One?” he asked quietly.
She was still a moment. “Yes,” she admitted. “But I think I’d rather know sooner, rather than later.”
“I want to put it off as long as possible,” he said. “Just pretend it’s all okay for a while still.”
Pirra continued to study him for a time, before finally sitting back up.
“I’ll stay up with you, then,” she said.
Other Terrestrial 