The Sixth Movement

The Sixth Movement

Book Two of the Forgotten Children Series

By Shiva Winters

Copyright 2014 Shiva Winters

Smashwords Edition

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter One: Skeletons in the Closets

Herm.. Not quite a word, not quite the usual sound, Shiva nevertheless marked it 'dutifully' on tally sheet present on her computer pad with an unseen telekinetic movement. This was her 'math' class as it was somewhat laughably called, which basically consisted of her as its' only 'student', with a dozen teachers and government scientists filling the remaining slots. Shiva was fairly certain that no more than two hundred whole, actual words had been spoken in her presence since that class had started two months ago. Basically each week began with one of the teachers putting some high-level mathematical formula up on the board, Shiva studying it for about a half an hour, before scrawling out her answer. The remainder of that following week was spent in virtual silence as twelve people tried to pick apart the math, somewhat unwisely, of someone half their age and nearly half their size. She found the whole thing supremely annoying, a touch insulting, and altogether a waste of her time when she could very well spend that hour and change somewhere else, doing something else, and at Vala's side, whom was the only reason she put up with half the facades and farces that permeated her days at the Academy. If it hadn't been the ardent, insistent 'request' of the Fleet leadership and the government that pulled its' strings that she attend the Fleet Academy, Shiva would likely have cast off the whole thing as she wanted too so badly right from the beginning. It was all but completely impossible for that 'class' to achieve its' stated goal of 'Increasing scientific understanding for the betterment of all mankind', to the point those words had become a mockery in its' purest form. Most of the formulas being put up on those boards were far fetched theory at best, and would require billions of credits of funding and decades of research, just to prove if Shiva was right or not.

All things considered that class was a waste of her time, especially since mathematically Shiva wasn't even the most skilled in her family, she was merely the known quantity who had been evaluated more than the others. In addition to that, she was only one compelled, by more than one force, to offer her cooperation in that ongoing farce, along with so many others like it. The rest of her brothers and sisters were more or less free from any kind of restraint and could pick and choose what they wanted to do with their lives. And most wouldn't choose a life being confined to a transparent prison cell of any kind, just so they could perform a mathematical circus act that might take a century before they could be proven right or wrong. Shiva, however, was more or less stuck on that path now, the most dangerous of the Series 6 children yet identified, and the one who was most feared. Not because she choose to lay waste to vast swaths of civilization, as her annoyed thoughts had her doing often enough, but because she had committed violent acts, both sanctioned and unsanctioned. The military was scared of her, and because the military couldn't promise the government that they could keep her contained, the government was terrified. Therefore this was in effect her lot in life, to hide her glares and unkind thoughts behind a fictional smile, while others paraded her along like a puppet on invisible strings. If it wasn't for one all important thing, Shiva might well have washed her hands of all of it and decided it was kinder for her to be put back into a freezer for a few centuries longer, and that thing was her shared love with Vala. Even on Shiva's worst days, Shiva found every motivation she might need to keep going with just one smile from that beloved presence, and that was often enough all it would take to keep her from slipping her leash.

Life at the Aerisa branch of the Fleet Academy, was in truth just the kind of life the military and government should not have encouraged for someone with Shiva's many trust issues, much less her serious need to cast off the military rules and authority that had dictated the course of so much of her life. But whether or not they had said it outright in some piece of paperwork obscured in top secret classifications and hidden from ever seeing the light of day, they wanted and felt it was needed to keep an eye on Shiva. It was a given fact that anyone of her siblings could reek havoc on a massive scale given the motivation to do so, after all each and everyone of them had been created gene by gene to be living, breathing weapons of vast potential force for a war that had never come. However, Shiva was the one who cast off the metaphorical shackles and caused large scale destruction and chaos to save her own life, Vala's, and her mother's by turning against the corrupt ranks within the military. The Series 5 disaster had calmed considerably in the months since that dark day when Vala's father had been killed, but it was a fiasco that was by no means over. More than an armies worth of Series 5's members were still out there in the hands of gangsters, fringe political groups, and perhaps even rogue forces of the military to have survived the recent purge. And until all those ultra-violent, altered humans were accounted for, either as dead or recaptured, it remained an unmitigated disaster and an unprecedented scandal simply waiting to happen. Even though they had been instrumental in uncovering that widespread conspiracy within the military's ranks, and in retaking the Series 5 storage facility, Shiva and her family weren't being told anything about those ongoing efforts. This was despite the high chance that sooner or later they would be needed to prevent some minor disaster in the making, and by doing so saving lives. There were rumors, there were of course always rumors, that the branches of the military had been tracking down the rogue elements of Series 5 and recapturing small groups. And in general these rumors came with the additional comments that some people had been killed in those clandestine events.

But whatever else was still stirring in the background of things, the military and the government had at least been good to their word and were continuing forward, somewhat cautiously, with the reclamation efforts for Series 6. About 300 of her brothers and sisters had since left Anslaw to be scattered across the stars, taken in by members of the military and their family, or having gone off to boarding schools and educational programs more or less ready to try and keep up with people as wholly intelligent and quick witted as their lot tended to be. Perhaps because the original such 'program' that had first taken Shiva out into the world had intentionally proven what were all the wrong things to do, there had as of yet been no incidents from any of those family members now part of that outside world. And there were none more committed to keeping things that way than her family and those who had earned their trust. Shiva wasn't the only one who hoped things would stay that way, and that the unpleasant facts of their existence would remain far from a being a matter of public record. At least until that time when all of them could prove they were more than just thinking weapons, and that they had as much potential to be a force of good rather than merely a potential danger to everyone around them. But there was any number or problems, situations, troubles, worries, and not to mention the simplest burdens of time and history to be crossed before they could reach that point down the path of the future, much less prove themselves to be that force of potential good.

It was that concept that more or less lead Shiva into letting her thoughts wander from the text she was reading as she contemplated her own attempts to prove even she could do some good without violence. Her 'after school' projects were moving along quickly and had been showing considerable progress since her daughters, Isis and Athena, had convinced her to peel back the absolute wall of secrecy her own efforts had hidden behind for nearly a century. It wasn't exactly an easy thing to do since she was very much afraid of the implications both in the military and government, but also where her siblings were concerned since the facts she had tried so hard to hide were certain to come out. But it was a balancing act that even she could not tip the scales on, because the greatest good she could do for her family was to give them the ability to separate themselves from the military that had ruled their lives until then. And the best way to do that was to find the means to achieve a financial independence from both the military and the government, one where they did not need their funding to support the family. The logic of this was undeniable, but the facts of the matter were both difficult and hard to achieve simply because many billions of credits didn't simply trickle down out of sky simply because the need was great. However if they could pave their own path into the future, one that didn't rely on the military or government to pay for the construction of said path, they might actually be able to achieve an independence from both. As it was, and obscured as it was in legal-ease and black-line budget items, they were independent in name only, a self regulating organization that was still at the end of the day a military and government asset.

It was only through taking the huge risk of revealing what she knew that Shiva could help them, all of them, to make sure they weren't simply a more risky version of the 'Lilith experiments' and the scandals those projects had been when they were made public. If Series 6 could achieve financial independence and could prove they could benefit all of humanity with everything they were, besides merely living weapons, maybe the scandal of their existence, that was in some small ways inevitable, would be a scandal in name only. However it was entirely an unpleasant thought that by revealing there were things that could be achieved, perhaps, only through their family, she might well be dooming the very efforts she was trying to achieve. If the military got into their heads that the proverbial golden goose might well only stay that way by making Series 6 be always one of their assets, it would take a bloody and destructive war to prove to everyone that Series 6 was not some 'thing' to be ruled and controlled. It was altogether a series of troubles that was enough to make her head ache and her heart clench in fear and worry, because that set of rapidly evolving problems was in truth not the only one that was weighing heavily in her thoughts just then. The truth was that there was a scandal and a problem laying just beneath the quiet veneer, something she knew was going to be uncovered sooner or later, and it was likely something that may well re-write the recent cooperative attitudes her family had benefited from in those recent months.

Umm.. This next sound almost seemed like a response from the first noise to break the silence which had held for fifteen minutes previous to these two most recent interruptions. Shiva rolled her head back as she lay on the surface of the desk along the foremost tier of that empty lecture hall, looking towards the electronic boards that dominated the front of the room. One of the scientists had the prop 'eraser' that served to obliterate those digitally scrawled lines in one hand, hovering over a segment of that equation, but all but dejected he dropped his hand away sometime after that. She made note of that sound and glanced at the small clock working in the background of her until then mostly unused computer, wishing time would move a little faster.

All things considered this was nearly the last thing Shiva would have been doing given any kind of choice in the matter, she would even have preferred it if these people choose to argue with her about why she was wrong, at least that would be something. Sitting in some other class, curled up against Vala's side while she pretended to listen to whatever lecture or lesson was being given that day was far more preferable to her senses. But the truth was she'd rather just skip all her classes, take all the tests to pass those basic lessons in Fleet technology, protocol and procedure, and then spend the rest of that school year back at Anslaw working to solve the mountainous pile of troubles that lay just ahead for her and her family. This hour especially was one wasted where she could have been doing something useful for the near future, and instead she was stuck in that room waiting for the clock to tick down until she could return to Vala's side. But for all that the military was by design regimented, intractable, and generally convinced they had right on their side, almost exclusively, life could have been far worse for her attending the Fleet academy, even though the years ahead were really just a prelude to her court martial. Somewhat in deference to the fact that she held an honorary army rank of Lt. Colonel, and somewhat to acknowledge that Shiva had long ago cast aside the efforts of others to lord their authority over her, most of the rules that were absolutes for all other cadets, save her and Vala, had been altered or rejected in their entirety. This of course stood out rather profoundly since Shiva more or less didn't even pretend follow the guidelines for cadet behavior, unlike Vala who at least made the effort to do so, and it was something most of their year-mates had already noticed.

But for all that it was something that set her and Vala noticeably apart from the rest of the student body, Vala had declared, in private, that she was sick of pretending to be someone she wasn't. Vala had gotten more than her fill of such a thing during all the years now behind her, and she merely wanted to be who she truly was on the inside rather than some made up mask meant to make people accept her. Vala who had been demure, polite, and altogether to her core like an any empath, who one and all needed some level of emotional acceptance from those around them to be comfortable, was finally standing up and standing out from being just another face in the crowd. Perhaps it was something of Shiva's natural personality leaking out through the connection they now shared, or a natural result of having strived to be like everyone else for much of her life, and having failed in that goal. But whatever the cause Vala had argued somewhat reasonably that even if they were to try and conform to the rules, eventually one of their fellow cadets would notice something. After all these people were selected for their intelligence, their curiosity, their ability to deal with the military hierarchy, as well as a slew of other traits all of which would make them well able to notice when two among them stood apart. For Shiva who, by her very nature, was someone who did have and would have the need to keep secrets, it was far from an easy decision not to at least appear to be just one of many among the masses of the student body. However her love for Vala was and always would be something that transcended that need for secrecy and she had never been so ashamed or worried that she felt any need to hide that part of herself. And while that relationship was not a direct violation of the military code of conduct it was something that would raise questions from their teachers and surprised concern from their class mates. So for that reason alone Shiva had gone along with Vala's plan to not hide that they two were being held to a different standard.

With a sigh that was almost entirely relief, Shiva kicked her legs up and over her head, rolling backwards off the surface of the desk to land with a sharp strike of her shoes against the plating of the floor. She really didn't care that she was wearing a skirt, or that she was wearing black lace panties beneath, nor that there was half a chance one of them could have been looking in her direction, these considerations were hardly worth the time spent thinking about such things, as her bag floated up and settled around her. Right then all she really cared about was that she was allowed to escape that room and that it marked the nearly the end of another school day. One more class with Vala's calming presence by her side and she'd be allowed to race back to Anslaw for a few hours of work before she would return to bring Vala home. Vala had wanted to come to the Fleet academy because she was deeply committed to doing what she could to help Shiva's strange sort of family. She had been interested in being a psychiatrist long before Shiva had met her, a career where her own empathic gift would be a great asset to have. But after what had happened and realizing the kind of torments Shiva and her siblings had endured, Vala had changed that dream as it had given her a group she very much wanted to help. So in addition to all her regular classes Vala was also working on her doctorate in that field with one of the therapist assigned to Aerisa military base, which consisted of several extra hours after school several days a week. Vala of course insisted she could make her own way home so her beloved could keep working on her own after school projects, but Shiva would not let that happen and made a point of being there each night to bring her home. Without much more than half-hearted over the shoulder wave to the rest of her 'class', Shiva stepped towards the door just an instant before the bells would ring to announce the end of the class period.

Hey there, kitten. Whether she was stepping into Vala's embrace or Vala was stepping in hers hardly mattered at all as Shiva crossed the hall almost to the second Vala emerged from her own math class. It was just too hard not to hug herself to that beautiful restful presence tucking herself in close and letting her eyes drift close as that aura that could just push everything else far away, washed over her.

Hey. Shiva whispered back to her as she all but curled against Vala's warmth and let her guide Shiva through the suddenly crowded hallways towards their next shared class.

What was the tally? Marda asked from close at hand, no doubt being echoed eagerly by Selena who almost seemed like her shadows most days. What had begun many weeks earlier after Shiva had been unusually vocal about her complaints about her math class, had evolved in a strange form of entertainment for Vala and her friends.

Six 'Hmms', seven 'Umms', and four almost words. Shiva murmured back to that question. All three of them laughed as the now traditional exchange of paper credits was passed between them after whatever wagers were confirmed in their prediction pool. If Marda and Selena knew why Shiva's math class was very much unlike their own, they had never given any clues to those facts, much less indicated they had been given any insights to what made Shiva unique among their classmates. As much as Shiva would have preferred to have that information kept secret, she'd hardly blame Vala for anything, much less that, since Selena and Marda had long since proven themselves good for Vala. Vala, who had a strong tendency to lock herself within her own private world, and having two generally outgoing people eager and willing to be her friends had been wonderful for her. While Vala might and probably had at some point thought or said at least that much about Shiva, if not a whole lot more, since Shiva had always been socially isolated and felt little need to change that about herself. It was enough for her that Vala had a social life, and somewhat vicariously through her, Shiva shared in that strange kind of state.

Selena and Marda both were both self professed 'military brats' whose families were part of the military ranks and whom had both joined out of some odd kind of familial obligation or some such. And like Vala, who came from the same kind of background, they knew the risks and the kind of life it involved, and all of them found great ease in the familiar gestures and rigid structure of the military ranks. Shiva wasn't entirely sure why they had been drawn to becoming Vala's friends, perhaps it was only because that sort of upbringing would ring true to one another, but it might be for reasons less obvious and more likely. Though they never 'technically' admitted it to Shiva directly, both had admitted to Vala in private of being in the possession of more than mere five 'normal' senses. This likely meant that one or both of both those girl's parents had been part of the earlier Series experiments, be it one 1, 2, or 3, since there had been, as of yet, no evidence that normal human evolution had brought about any provable psychic gifts. That was in truth a far more likely explanation why they had chosen one another to be friends, and why they had come to include Vala, and through her Shiva, into their friendship. Shiva could only acknowledge that she herself had been drawn to Vala, and could easily see why other gifted people might be the same. Even among her siblings who were often enough overly gifted, Vala had a way about her that seemed to just draw people in and make them want to be her friend. This was perhaps why the Fleet was willing to forgo some normally iron clad steps that forced cadets to take before begin a doctoral program, because Vala had gained acceptance where most officially licensed therapists were avoided like a plague.

It wasn't long after that they arrived in their last class of the day, this one was the beginner's course of battle tactics in three dimensional space, in other words one of those things Shiva could sleep through and not miss much that was important. All she ever really did, most classes and most days, was curl up close to Vala's side while her beloved took furious notes and Shiva waited for the bell to ring declaring the day at the end. Most of the teacher's had been informed before or shortly after Shiva had joined their classes to expect nothing more than that from her, and pretty much why. Most of the teachers were middle to high ranked officers and therefore knew enough about Series 6 to know not to mess with her unless they were just itching for trouble from both her and their superior officers. So for the most part, while they might glare or try to catch Shiva not knowing the material, they simply left her alone with one of the few things that made her happy. Shiva, of course, had made a point in knowing more than what was to be taught that year and could easily score a passing grade in any test they might give her. And for the most part Shiva attending her classes was about spending time with Vala and, in some small way, about escaping the corridors of Anslaw for a few hours at a time. Even though she really only spent that time wishing she was back there working on that heaping mound of problems waiting for her back in the north.

It was about half way through the class when that state of calm ended with the electronic chimes of Shiva's communicator, and most of the class jerked from their half awake state at that sound since all cadets were informed in the strictest of terms that such devices were forbidden from the classrooms. No few broke those rules, but all, including Shiva, turned their devices to silent, so most of the class eagerly swiveled about searching for the source of the noise believing someone was about to get into trouble. However the very fact that device had rang out audibly was clear evidence that trouble had already arrived and Shiva hurriedly pulled it out and looked at the screen, and what she saw made her blood run cold and heart start to race. Shiva didn't even truly hear the professor's sharp tongued rebuke for her and his promise to put Shiva on report for the incident, because what the message had said took absolute priority. She barely even acknowledged the suddenly worried expression Vala gave her as she thrust up out of her chair and lunged urgently towards the door, ignoring completely the Lieutenant's order for her to stop right there. The only reason she didn't simply launch herself from the room rather than wasting the seconds to walk quickly to the hallway door was the need to hide her talent. But as soon as was out of direct line of sight from the class she shoved away telekinetically and raced down the hall with all possible speed, positively bouncing off the floors wall and ceiling in defiance to the augmented lunar gravity as she sped along the corridor. At the far end she utterly shocked a mixture of officers waiting for the elevator, most of whom had turned towards the sound of running feet and telekinetic pops as she propelled herself along. Caring not at all for appearances Shiva yanked open the outer doors of the elevator from the near distance and exposing the empty shaft beyond, setting off the alarm bells in the process. She dove through their group and lunged into the empty shaft beyond, not having the time nor the need to wait properly for the elevator to descend to that level. The empty shaft dropped nearly a mile straight down into the levels of the base below them, Shiva caught herself on the far wall and telekinetically catapulted into abyss below her. She only just barely managed to stop herself from permanently breaking those doors at the bottom in the urgency of those moments.

The message was one of the handful she truly feared was coming, because nothing good could come from it, for any of them, and it was indeed a serious emergency. The message had read 'Access to Sector X-7 has been authorized' and had come to her from one of her siblings who had taken on the duty of monitoring all activity inside Anslaw. Sector X-7 was a region of Anslaw in the northeast quadrant that jutted out sharply from the mostly circular underground footprint of the base, extending out from the mid-levels for quite some distance well past those mostly regular borders. And like an abnormal tumor, that lesion on a mostly orderly organism, Sector X-7 was the place she and her siblings rightly feared like no other place within those borders. Many had rightly called that region 'The Gates of Hell', and spoke only of it in fearful whispers, this was because Sector X-7 was the Advanced Weapons Testing Facility. Nearly a hundred of their brothers and sisters had been lead off into that region and had never returned, and even after decades since it had been mothballed the mere mention of that place was enough to make some of the children burst out into tears. Shiva was one of the few who had been inside there and had walked back out still alive, and she was nearly the only one to have done it on multiple occasions. But she was now set in a race against time since someone had gone inside that dark and terrible place, not knowing there was something even more terrible waiting beyond that facility, a place that could spell disaster for her family and anyone on or near the lunar surface.

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Admiral Nathan Cronin realized he was an important man, one whose opinions and words carried weight with a great many both inside and outside the military hierarchy of the Alliance. But lately he had begun to wonder if he should give up the illusion that he was in fact in charge of the Alliance Seventh Fleet, because almost as soon as he got back to his official post aboard his flagship, he was more often than not being called back to Earth and a certain region of the Moon. He didn't mind terribly much in some few ways, since it was that part of his extensive command where some of his most entertaining diversions could be found, not to mention no few amusements, but he'd rather not have his annual travel expenses be triple his own salary. He had understood why the Senate had seen fit to put Anslaw and that unusual group under his command and authority, since he was one of the few high ranked officers who had avoided even the black mark of suspicion during the recent scandal with Series 5. No few of the Admirals with commands near Earth and the close in colonies had either been implicated in those events or had been suspected because ships inside their fleets had been involved in transporting the stolen units of Series 5. It almost went without saying that someone above reproach needed to be in charge of Series 6 and someone completely mindful of how none of them could afford any mistakes where that group was concerned. All that aside, at least this time he hadn't managed to cross all the way back to his fleet before he had been called back, instead had been just two sectors away supervising a war game between elements of his fleet and the 2nd fleet.

What is it this time, young man? Lt. Colonel Alexander Ishmere was a good sort, perhaps a touch single minded about what his place was in the universe should be, but he had proven himself a cautious and conscientious administrator and care taker for both Anslaw and for the children of Series 6. While there was some who might question whether he could truly serve in that role and remain objective since he had married one of the members of that group, and would soon see his child born from that legacy, Cronin had never once doubted that man after he had gotten Alexander's measure. It just as well that he was fully capable and unquestionably dedicated to helping Series 6 since the children of that strange sort of family would unlikely accept any other as their caretaker. And having earned those children's trust was an accomplishment Nathan was certain few others could have achieved, himself notwithstanding. Though Nathan suspected his own special status had much more to do with the good will of a certain troubling young lady more than his own talent.

The structural engineers are done evaluating sector X-7, sir. Nathan could tell just by the look on that young man's face that the news was far from good, and might well be bordering on disastrous. And the computer engineers were able to break through one of the security firewalls..

As bad as we feared? Nathan asked as he tried to brace himself for that coming answer.

Worse. As he so rarely did, Nathan unleashed a string of expletives that might well strip the paint from the nearby shuttles whole, focusing those curses and unkind comments on the slew of people who had once used Anslaw as their own private empire, and for their victims, a special kind of hell. With the paranoia and fear that the corporate war could go from cold to hot in the years following that indecisive victory still running high, Anslaw and their crack team of crack-pot scientist and sociopathic leadership had basically been given a blank check and free reign to create Series 6 as the weapons of the next war that never came. And without any real kind oversight much less any rules, they had gone ahead with those goals without humanity, compassion, nor a lick of good sense. Those children had suffered because of that, but even though most of the terrible things had since been uncovered and the truth become a known, but well guarded secret, there had been hints early on that they hadn't yet seen the bottom of the rabbit hole. Within the vast storehouses of data left behind, all of which were locked up by heavy layers of encryption, there had been databases even the topmost security authorizations couldn't unlock. For all the months to pass since the efforts to uncover that glossed over truth had began, the best cryptologists in the Alliance had been trying to crack open those digital vaults. The Prime Minister's shuttle is set to arrive soon. Nathan nodded back to him with a grimace, since that made it even more clear just how bad things truly were, since nothing less than a true disaster would bring that personage there to hear the facts.

I hereby authorize access into Sector X-7, if things are as bad as I am guessing than it would be better for all involved if we see what exactly billions of credits are going to be used on. Alexander nodded back to him and stepped away to have that quiet conversation with the head of his security teams, so they could start flipping the switches and unsealing the locks preventing anyone from entering that area. And true to his warning words two more shuttles arrived just about the time Alexander was finishing that conversation, sweeping in from two of the eight landing platforms that connected by tunnels to the rocky lunar surface above them. The first bore the marks of the admiralty, the leaders of the Alliance military, and the highest ranking officers there was to be found, and the second bore the official markings of the Alliance senate. At his nod Alexander guided him away from his own shuttle and across the massive floor space of Anslaw's shuttle bay three, that massive man mad cavern nearly the size of a small city. By design the second and third recent arrivals were brought down to rest close by his own shuttle's resting spot so they didn't have far to walk. The other generals and admirals were emerging from their shuttle as the two of them swept by, Nathan gestured them towards the next pad over. As men and women of more or less equal rank they all knew each other and respected one another, so they all knew that standing on ceremony was not often the priority inside Anslaw.

They all hurried along to greet the Prime Minister who was in many ways the unknown factor in those uncertain times, and the person Nathan most worried about as yet more bad news was about to drop on all of them. She had only taken office a month earlier, the hand picked successor of the former Prime Minister who had been the trusted and respected leader of the ruling party for much of the past twenty years, he had retired for health reasons just a short time before. While the new Prime Minister had thus far been supportive of the Series 6 reclamation projects and the military in general, there was no telling how she would react to the knowledge that Anslaw would require billions of dollars to repair, and that there was a potentially even bigger problem that had been unknown until that point. What made matters worse was that this came at a time when the economy was in a downward turn and the government was talking somewhat wisely of budget cuts. If Alexander was not merely jumping at shadows about that known problems, this might well be an unmitigated disaster where Series 6 was concerned since it might make her rethink the whole situation. Nathan didn't even want think of what might happen if she decided to end the reclamation efforts because the children of Series 6 might not choose to follow that decision quietly, and he wasn't entirely certain if he would blame them if they didn't. And the thing was he was not entirely certain there was anything to contain them any longer if they decided to throw off any hint of the remaining shackles. They had been controlled before being kept contained and separate by security measures and forces that were no longer present, and held under that control by lethal security measures that no longer existed.

Lt. Colonel Ishmere, Madam Prime Minister, welcome to Anslaw. Alexander's voice shook Nathan from his fearful revelry in time to offer his own salute as the Prime Minister appeared at the top of the shuttle ramp, lead by her security team and followed by a handful of advisers.

"I would say it was good to be here but since I get the feeling you are