Stuck in the Middle. (Ep. 6) "Greeting the Menace"
25 Sep 2021Isabella Adair-Levine
Previous Ep.5
The room was near dead quiet with only the slightest muffled sound of a large ship's outside landing on their assigned pads and taking off. The window behind the solid metal work desk in front of Isabella only confirmed this as she watched a heavy Type 9 take off. This was the administrator's quarters. A small but brightly lit room with that simple desk in front of her that only held a transparent computer monitor in the center of it. She half expected the faction's administrator quarters to be this fancy room with nice furniture and decor. Not the inside of a cargo bay. There was nothing but 4 hard steel walls, a desk, a total of 3 chairs, and a window that looked out at the landing pads. She reminded herself that this was an Industrial system and it was the Federation. They always lacked taste in design.
Isabella adjusted herself on her chair. She was not only sore from being shot but her bottom started to hurt from how uncomfortable the chair she sat in was. It felt like she'd been waiting for 4 hours although it most likely has been 5-10 minutes now. Ugh, where was this woman? They always take this long? She started to shake her leg as her nerves began. Anticipation. She could feel that feathery feeling in her gut that she knew was anxiety. What was going to happen? Could what Violet had said be true?
Her thoughts were cut short when the doors behind her opened and in came a fairly short lady with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a gaunt-like face that gave her eyes a bit more of an intensity to them. She rounded the desk and sat in her chair turning on the transparent monitor with a simple touch. She began swiping and tapping without looking at Isabella for a second. This lasted for nearly 30 and she felt a tad insulted.
"Excuse me, ma'am but I'll just come back at another time if you're-"
"Stay. I'm done now."
She said with a final swipe that cleared whatever she was doing on the monitor.
"Jayden Sterling. Current sitting administrator of Styx Galactic Incorporated."
She offered a hand and Isabella awkwardly reached across the desk to shake it.
"Isabella Levine. Pilots Federation Commander. I just have something of importance to bring up to you. Something that you maybe might want to know."
She arched a brow at her.
"That so? Tell me, Commander Levine. What should I know?"
Isabella gave a nod and tried to think on where to start.
"Umm. Alright, so about thirteen or so hours ago I was approached by this man who wanted to hire me to investigate a Manufacturing plant that had gone silent and failed to respond to hails given to them. The plant was run by Bureau of Styx and by the time I arrived everyone was dead. I returned to my mission provider and updated him before I myself headed back to investigate further. When search-"
Jayden raised a hand to stop Isabella and she did.
"Not to be rude, Commander but I need the short version."
Isabella half smiled and nodded in understanding.
"Apologizes. I found a young teenage girl who bore witness to the military soldiers of Styx Galactic Incorp massacre an entire settlement of civilian workers, the security team, and...her father. She's emotionally traumatized by these events and from what I observed, I believe she's truthful in her statement and what she witnessed. I wanted to bring this to your attention since you're the...new administrator of this faction."
Jayden leaned back in her chair and rubbed her chin processing what was said for a moment.
"Where's this girl, Commander?"
"Secure at the moment. I...she's been through a lot and she really doesn't need to be here. It's tough on her."
Jayden raised both brows to that.
"So she's around but just not here?"
Isabella lightly scoffed.
"The girls secured, ma'am."
Isabella could tell she was digging. Red flags began to go up for her.
"Are you…hiding her? You understand she's a witness and as a witness, she must be here to validate her statement on what she saw. If I don't see her here then technically she doesn't exist and you're making a whole story up with only anecdotes, Commander."
"I'll bring her when she's ready. I'm not making up a story here...ma'am. I'm just protecting her."
Jayden sat up straight in her chair and her eyes became a little more intense.
"You seem to not trust me, Ms. Levine. Are you listening to those ridiculous conspiracy theories about me? They're wrong, you know. They're upset at how quickly I won in votes and now I'm the lead administrator of this faction."
"It's...not that. I already told you why she's not here. I just want her protected."
Jayden raised both hands at that.
"We could provide protection but regardless; you do understand that right now you have nothing. No girl or whatever and no evidence of what happened. What I have from Ren Manufacturing Plant is reconnaissance footage of you open firing on settlement grounds.
She tapped at the transparent monitor a few times finally bringing up a bird's eye view recording. She turned the screen halfway and taped the screen to play a 20-second clip of a purple ball of plasma hitting something then exploding. The remainder of the footage was of Isabella in the firefight from before. It ended and she turned her screen back towards her.
"They were scavengers. They attacked me when I originally was there. They chased me off. I came back and noticed half left. I took them out before they caused issues."
Jayden leaned back in her chair again and tapped her lip with her finger, staring off past Isabella.
"Where's the girl, Commander? What you claimed happened at this manufacturing settlement can be verified if she confesses on what she witnessed. If not then…"
She glanced at the monitor with a pained look. It was frozen on the video she played.
"What? You're...no. How do you have eyes on this location? You know exactly what happened there."
Jayden shrugged nonchalantly.
"I'll give you credit for taking initiative and digging deep into this shit show of a situation. I think it's best if you just hand over the girl and leave. Forget this ever happened."
Isabella couldn't hold back the scowl on her face.
"Are you...no. She's staying with me. I'm not handing her over to you and you know what. It is because I don't trust you. All this...the settlement. That was you wasn't it? Tell me, administrator. You killed all those people and that girl's father. Didn't you?"
She felt her blood boil and wondered for a split second if she raised her voice too high.
"Jeez. You think I gave the order to kill all those people? I wanted a secure location that could be of strategic value if something was to happen. It was a contingency plan. Above all else, it's rightfully ours. It was supposed to be a reoccupation of what was taken from us. You know the administrator before me? He gave up that Manufacturing settlement with a split-off growing faction that was once us to show good faith and fairness. He was going to give up more important location as well. Under a crappy little faction like Bureau of Styx? What of all those people who would be virtually trapped or have to find somewhere else?"
Isabella shook her head slowly. All this was because of a power-hungry bureaucrat that didn't like sharing with others.
"I don't care about why. You killed innocent people. You should be trialed for mass murder."
"I didn't kill those people!"
Jayden fired back.
"That thick-skulled idiot Tyrese Waters did. I told him occupation. Not to shoot everyone. But it's fine because from what I can see, there's only one person that has evidence of what happened at the manufacturing settlement and honey...it's not you."
Isabella stood up and slightly leaned over the desk to look Jayden straight in the eyes. She was fuming now and wanted to swing at her but didn't.
"You can't get away with this you bitch. You're sick, you know that? You're a murderer."
Jayden's arm moved underneath her table for a split second before it moved away again. Isabella noticed and glanced back as the set of doors behind her opened. 3 armed guards with their C-44 carbines entered and surrounded Isabella.
"Guards, take her away. She's admitted to the mass murder of the civilians at Ren Manufacturing Plant. I want her locked away for the time being before we figure out what to do with her."
Isabella didn't hesitate for a second and brought a fist straight into the nose of Jayden. The fleshy thwack gave her beautiful satisfaction as two guards grabbed her arms and the third landed a blow in her back with his carbine. The pain was so great from her wound, her legs went limp and the two guards caught her by holding her arms still. She seethed in pain as they pulled her out but she looked up to take a glance at Jayden who held a bloody nose. Isabella only smiled as the doors closed.
Sunset over McMillan Prospect. 20 mins prior to events
Next Ep. 7