Professor Friedrich strolled into the cafeteria and nodded to another scientist in a white lab-coat, who was a shorter, considerably wider gentleman. "How are you this fine morning, Doctor De Vries?"
"I wish I was still in bed," the squat researcher grumbled, as he cast a dubious eye over the food on offer for breakfast. "Haskins ordered us up at the butt-crack of dawn to work on Virus Z460. Apparently, we're running behind, but I keep telling him: you can't rush art!"
"You have my sympathies," Friedrich replied, grabbing a cup as he started to hum happily to himself.
De Vries turned to look at his colleague suspiciously; Friedrich's happiness invariably meant a great deal of pain for someone else. "You're in an awfully good mood, Xavier..."
"I'm beginning the first round of testing today... I can't remember ever being this excited before!" Friedrich confided, a broad smile on his face. "It's always such a thrill to experiment on new Xeno subjects and these are so rare!"
De Vries smirked and shook his head. "You Xeno-biologists are all alike when you get a new toy to play with, but all that testing is so... messy. Now virology, there's an exciting field!"
"If we're talking messy, what about the clean-up operation after your human trials of that Rogan's Rot strain?" Friedrich asked, giving his colleague a knowing smile.
"Hah! Alright, you got me there," De Vries conceded with a chuckle.
Friedrich fumbled for his security pass before managing to get his fingers under control, then swiped it across the front of the coffee machine. "Look at me, I'm as nervous as a virgin bride on her wedding night!"
"Have fun popping your cherry," De Vries chuckled, then grabbed a limp-looking wrap from the refrigerated shelf and took a big bite.
Friedrich picked up his steaming cup of coffee and took an experimental sip, then winced at the foul assault on his senses. "Ugh, the coffee here is rancid..." Smacking his lips to get rid of the bitter aftertaste, he tapped the comms interface on his wrist, a grim-faced man appearing as a projected hologram a few seconds later. "Sergeant Green, would you be so kind as to prepare our guests for me."
The special forces soldier nodded. "We'll get started right away, Professor."
"Excellent. As soon as the Xenos are prepped for exploratory surgery, you can begin your interrogation," Friedrich said with satisfaction. "We need to find out everything she knows about John Blake."
"Yes, Sir," Sergeant Green replied grimly, before snapping off a quick salute.
Friedrich ended the call and grinned at De Vries who was dabbing at a bit of ketchup on his shirt. "It's going to be a momentous day for breakthroughs, I just know it!" he said jubilantly.
"Let's hope some of your luck rubs off on Virus Z460," De Vries said with a weary sigh.
Giving his colleague a wave goodbye, Friedrich left the cafeteria and strolled out into the corridor beyond. There was a light coating of dust over the floor from all the particles in the air, stirred up with all the expansion to Tartarus base over the past several months. Friedrich frowned at the floor in irritation and silently thanked the inventor of force fields; if not for them, he'd never be able to maintain the sterile environments he needed.
***
Jade watched with narrowed eyes as the black shuttle made slow but steady progress towards the broken fragment of Ganymede. It was the second largest remaining piece of what had once been Jupiter's biggest moon. Ganymede had been obliterated centuries earlier during a rogue AI rebellion, the Terran Federation fleet bombarding the moon until it broke apart, causing untold devastation and shutting the AI down permanently.
That Weber had initially fled towards Jupiter had been an intriguing development, as the huge gas giant was uninhabitable, the planet's surface covered in raging storms. Jade had strongly suspected he would be running for Tartarus base, which couldn't possibly be located on Jupiter itself. That meant that his destination would be one of Jupiter's many other moons, but only Io, Europa, and Callisto were populated with conventional starbases. Jade had come to the conclusion that one of the other tiny moons was their most plausible destination, so it therefore came as quite a surprise when Weber's shuttle abruptly changed course for a remnant of Ganymede.
The Nymph was almost afraid to blink, as she knew that if she lost sight of the craft, it would be impossible for her to find with her own shuttle's sensors. Both vessels had been specifically designed to avoid detection, devices built into the hull dissipated energy from the ships, dropping their sensor profiles to almost nothing. There was a huge jutting section along the side of the shattered rock and she watched intently as the black shuttle swept around the protrusion, then coasted into a dark fissure in the side of the massive asteroid.
As much as Jade wanted to wait for John and the girls to join her, she couldn't take the risk that Weber would order her Lenarran sisters put to death to cover his tracks. She tilted the flightstick back slightly, lifting the nose of her shuttle and aiming for a small rocky shelf approximately fifty metres from the concealed hangar...
***
The Raptor's nose tilted upwards, retro-thrusters firing along the underbelly, and the engines blazed with an incandescent orange light as the gunship rocketed skyward. As they raced away from the Citadel and Terra's surface, John floated up in the blue anti-gravity field with Alyssa and Rachel following close behind. The brunette darted past, dropping her Reaper Cannon and Paragon helmet on the floor as she wrapped Dana up in a fierce hug.
"Alyssa told me what happened... are you alright, baby?" Rachel asked, with a look of concern on her beautiful face.
Dana gave her girlfriend a wan smile. "Yeah, I'm okay. Let's give Jade some backup, then we can talk later..."
John could see Dana was trying to be brave and his heart went out to her as she bit her lip and glanced his way. They made eye contact and she shook her head slightly, that look telling him everything he needed to know.
