Divided Loyalties #1

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 4th September 2008. (commentary)

This is the first installment of the sixth Station Keeping episode “Divided Loyalties,” which will be presented in two parts. This episode develops the character Nan Gee, who first appeared in Diplomacy Maneuvers. Look for the second part, tomorrow.

Nan rolled over for the third time in as many minutes, and tried to ignore in incessant pinging from her communications panel. She was stuck in that twilight space where her grasp of reality and the limits of possibility were tenuous at best.

She relented and stood up. The comm was on the opposite wall and squinting, she stumbled across the room to activate it. “Maybe turning up the lights would help,” she thought, a bit late to do anything about it, and when the video system didn’t activate she was glad that she hadn’t. “Hello?” she asked, after a long moment. She wasn’t used to the audio comm, particularly when half asleep.

“Ms. Gee, I can’t tell you my name,” the voice on the other end spewed from the speaker with an astonishing speed. “But I’m with the Hanmist Resistance, and–” Nan would have cut him off sooner had she not been yawning.

“What do you want. It’s the middle of the damn night up here.” She wasn’t sure what time it was, or even if night was the right word to describe the time on the station. Hell, she didn’t even know if this call was legitimate: the voice wasn’t any that she recognized. Her caller knew more about her than she did him, if it was a him, and she wanted to even that playing field as soon as possible.

“We know your work, and we we’re building a network of supporters. You’re position on Hanm Centre will be very valuable to us when we come–”

“Come? I haven’t been notified of anything.” Nan thumbed up the lights and squared her shoulders, in a hopes of sounding more authoritative.

“We support you, we support Hanm. We just want you to be ready for us when we come…”

“Oh come on, no one actually talks like that,” Nan thought to herself. “How will I get in touch with you?” She changed strategies and hoped that the person on the other end couldn’t hear her eyes rolling: it was probably better to play along with this, even if it were a prank, but she didn’t have to like it. And hell, if there was a Hanmist movement around to talk to her, this couldn’t be a bad thing.

“You’ll know. Do we have your support?”

“I support anything that’s good for Hanm.” Just ambiguous enough, and ultimately true, she thought.

“Good, expect a package with more information soon. Hanm Will be free.” the words were uttered with a dispassionate murmur that sent a tremble down Nan’s spine.

“Ok, thank you.” Nan responded politely before she cut the connection. “Log last transmission and send the details to…” her command was punctuated by a brisk entry of a code for her terminal in her office. There was supposed to be a way for her to do this verbally, but she always felt that it was easier and more secure to just enter the code by hand.

Her command sequence was short, and she still hoped that she’d be able get back to sleep. She cut the lights and stumbled back to bed. The revolution would wait until morning at least.

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