Private Scarcity

[Rinea]

Rinea returned to the Fleet after her Talay excursion with Kaila Irons , a Sith Lord turned unlikely asset, and unwilling to betray her masters.

A deal had been struck among complicated emotions and a near-death experience. Such is the life of a spy. Rinea reached up to feel her throat, which had a faded bruise from her internal bleeding. She placed the corvette in autopilot and went to put on her uniform. Thankfully, the collar was high enough to hide the blemish.

The Chiss' corvette docked with the flagship, and to much alarm.

Error: Implant failure. Diagnosis incomplete. Priority: critical.

Her implant had failed on her, an emergency signal was sent, and as telemetry failed, it would be natural for her colleagues and superiors to assume her dead or compromised.

The airlock door opened, and Rinea was met by a gaggle of security personnel and medical staff, including one Sachi Maren whose expertise has been greatly relied upon in a fleet severely stretched to its limits.

"I wasn't expecting a welcome party," said the officer.

Her voice was a little hoarse, but she spoke with professional confidence and held the composure of a soldier returned.

 

[Sachi Maren]

Sachi stood at the front of the medical team, arms crossed, datapad glowing faint blue against her forearm. Her face didn't betray much but the tightness around her eyes, the extra second she took to confirm Rinea's identity, did.

Not that she had much to go off. The Intelligence officer was mostly a ghost in the machine. A masterful manipulator and someone who wore hats and faces as interchangeably as the situations demanded. But resources were scarce, and how many faces could the Director have to wear?

"And we weren't expecting an S.O.S at 04:16 local Talay standard. Signal encrypted, but telemetry flagged at ninety-three percent integrity loss with a report that looked like it came through a meat grinder and full of corrupted diagnostics."

She stepped forward, slowly, and lifted her scanner to ping once across Rinea's vitals and implant node. Her eyes dropped, consuming the information that scrawled across her screen. A frown found its way across her lips.

"Your biomonitor was moments from putting you in a medically induced coma. You're lucky your spinal interface didn't fry your motor cortex trying to 'help.'"

Another pause. Another scan. This time, she locked eyes with Rinea.

"And if this thing is still dirty, I need to know now. Because if you're about to seize, drop, or—" she flicked her gaze to security "—compromise the network, I'd prefer to catch it before your next sentence."

Only then did her tone drop, ever so slightly. "...In the past, when an alert like this comes through, it means death. And the only way you're walking back in here is a relay with your face and someone else's thoughts behind it."

Another scan. A slower exhale.

"You have no idea how close the system came to quarantining everything you've ever touched. If you're clean, then I'd like to see you in the medical bay. We can continue there. But we need to know what we're dealing with first. You might look fine but.."

---

Rinea

 

[Rinea]

"My implant was damaged," Rinea interjected.

However, the Outreacher was not to be dissuaded from taking her job seriously. The spy closed her mouth and didn't interrupt further, though she did tighten her jaw and wrinkle her nose at the verbal bombardment.

"You have no idea how close the system came to quarantining everything you've ever touched. If you're clean, then I'd like to see you in the medical bay. We can continue there. But we need to know what we're dealing with first. You might look fine but.."

The chiss stood with hands clasped behind her back, and eyed security as Sachi said it. "The broken monitor was surgically removed. The rest of the implant is intact and functioning." Rinea replied.

A medic with security approached, grabbed the Chiss' hand, and took a DNA sample. He placed it into a reader, and seconds later, the signature came back positive. "It's her alright, right down to the bone marrow." He turned to Sachi. "What about her brain patterns?"

There was certainly an amount of tension in the others, who stood there waiting for orders to go one way or another. Of course, precedence had conditioned them to expect the usual--all is safe, return to the barracks for chow or a shower. Yet, with the crisis as of late, there was a certain amount of anxiety towards the unlikely.

Rinea looked at Sachi with glowing red eyes and a tired brow. "Well?"

Sachi Maren