Outsider

[Laowai]

On the Fes, Ben sat before a terminal in the quarters he had taken up - He considered his options. He was extremely loath to use force to remove Zarita from Tangier, he did genuinely like the people there. However he knew that the longer he left her there the more dangerous it was, the truth of her nature could be discovered and that would only end in disaster.

He flipped on his comm device and spoke into it “Phillipe... “
A voice, his lieutenant Phillipe Alberto spoke through the device “Si Senor, what do you need?”

Ben sighed... in doing what he was considering doing he would be shattering the lives of the people on Tangier and robbing them of their isolation, he had grave misgivings about it, but he could not leave his wife as she was there now.
He spoke into the device again “Get yourself and 5 men, armed and ready for a ground mission, have them ready in the Outsider in half an hour”.
Alberto answered again, the man was nothing if not loyal and he knew Laowai's tone well enough to know that this was not a time where he should ask questions. “Will do Capitan....” he said, then he added “Oh... I was in the operations room on the bridge just now, it seems your sister just passed through the system.”
Ben sat up slightly... “What? Isabel is down here? How do you know?”

There was a pause on the line and then Alberto went on “Si Senor, her operations ID that we used for the mission to Alpha just came over the line and as I was there I cleared it, I hope I didnt do anything out of place?”
Ben shook his head... “no no... you know where she stands, Ill... look into this, Laowai out”

What was his sister doing in Omega 47? He had seen her some time before he had left on the mission to the Dyson sphere, but they had not arranged to meet again for some time, and there was no reason why she would be here... unless she had some business deal to follow up, and yet, if she were out in this part of Sirius on business.. She knew better than to use her operative id?
He hit the comm system again, and spoke to the comm officer on the Fes - “Put me through to Crete, on a secure transmission, Elder protocols, I want the Signals division outside Capital City”. He waited a moment until a voice answered, Crete had much more powerful transmission equipment capable of leeching off the Sirius wide networks that ran through trade lanes and communication satellites and he knew he would need that to get the range he wanted...
He was connected to a secure line and he punched in the code he used to locate his sister within Liberty space, there was a delay and then finally he received a code indicating that the line had been connected and he could transmit - “Isabel.. This is Ben, where are you?”

He waited, he had no idea if she would be in her ship, and if so, he would have to try her personal comms in her house, and yet, if she was in her ship..... and in this system.... then....
After a moment he heard a voice “Ben?” his sister's voice spoke out “Well... didn't think I would be hearing from you for a while, how are you?”
“Where are you?” he asked again bruskly, he was beginning to feel nervous, this wasn't adding up.
“Nice to hear from you too, im in New Tokyo if you must know.... Is everything all right?”

He fell back into the chair.. New Tokyo? Someone had used her ID somehow in this system, only a few hours ago. He answered quickly, “Im not sure, we may have a problem but I cannot talk about it now, ill contact you again soon, out”
He heard her trying to speak but he cut the transmission. Standing up he grabbed his jacket and was about to leave the room to head to the bridge when his comm system beeped again. He turned, looking at it Dammit... he thought, his sister was unbelievable, how had she managed to patch through to him here of all places that quickly... He hesitated, he did not have time to have an argument now and yet he felt a little rude for having cut her off, scowling he want back to the comm system, hit it on and spoke quickly “Isabel, I don't have time for this right now I have to.....”

A voice cut him off, “Er... Elder Laowai Sir, this is Tripoli security here, I hope I'm not interrupting but... we have a situation and I'm afraid we need to speak to you about it.”

Tripoli? Laowai sighed, this day was becoming more and more surreal by the minute, “What is it Tripoli, make it fast I have some business out here I need attending to quickly”
The speaker answered him “Yes, Elder, understood, its just... there is a woman here, we have no idea who she is and she isn't on any file that we can locate, Sir,...... she claims to be your wife?”

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