Juan was sleeping in his personal quarters on Crete when his datapad started beeping. Instinctively he quickly turned the beeping off and fell back asleep.
Some minutes later it started to beep again, this time the Elder rubbed the goo out of his eye and read the message.
"Wait a tic .... Carlos in the Council chambers? Ugghhh." Lucendez slumped back down on his bed and stared into the ceiling. He yawned heavily and and rolled off the end onto his feet. He attempted to flip the switch, but the light wouldn't turn on. Checking the news on his pad he realized there was an energy shortage caused by some sort of massive deployment.
"Well, now it makes sense." Lucendez said, leaving his pajamas on and wrapping his robe around himself. He was lucky in that the Council Chambers are just down the block, so he decided to leave his robe on and walk.
Juan entered the chamber, giving a nod to Sephardi, and threw an annoyed glance at the damaged door.
"I do one thing slightly insane and everyone copycats." Lucendez said, looking up at the two Elders seated next to one another. He walked into the Chambers and crouched next to the fireplace, rummaging around the area until he acquired his materials and lit a fire. Standing up, he moved his face into the light, the two seated Corsairs noticed rings around his eyes and a slightly gaunt look.
"O.K. gentlemen, what is it? A Benitez Coup? SCRA infiltrating again? Please do tell me how I'm going to die, because I neglected to bring a weapon. These Council Chambers are a neutral place, but your testing my patience, 'Don.'" The word "Don" melted into coughing as he collapsed on a chair and rested his head on his hand.
"Excuse the distractions, please. I'm feeling under the weather. I've had to cut most of my patrols and I won't be joining you in space for a week." Juan took some water from a pitcher nearby and poured himself a glass of water, sipping it regularly.
Juan looked around lazily. "Ah, Gentle probably doesn't know to come does he?" The others thought and shook their heads.
"Very well." The Corsair took out his datapad and began typing a message.
"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."
