IUSD5

==Chapter 5 - I used to Dream==
Ducal offices
Whyte Office Park
Kowloon system.
October, 3085
[perspective shift...3rd person]
"...Clan Diamond Shark sources say there are a few survivors on the surface of Haven, They made contact with great difficulty, but the survivors they found confirm there was an attempted Annihilation, and they confirm that the Adders thought at the time that we had a fleet out there."  Bianh Vu Dao was too old to helm a warship anymore, but not too old to be the boss of Kowloon's domestic intelligence service, the Coast Guard's euphemistically named 'Organized Crimes Bureau'.
"How hard was it to make contact?" Nathan Roshak was technically just a Baron and the husband of the planet's actual Noble.  Elizabeth's depression had gotten worse enough that he found himself doing her job, when he wasn't fretting over her condition.
"Difficult, sir." Bianh said, "The Star Adders still maintain a schedule of bombardments.  The people our friends contacted stated that someone organized a massive evacuation effort after interrupting the initial phases of the atrocity, but where they went?" she shrugged, "We don't know, and the Shark people didn't stick around for long."
"How do we know they were there?" Elizabeth looked up from her desk.
Bianh nodded to an aide and a cart was brought in.
"We've confirmed the flight data recorder was the bow mount of the Mila Weintraub." she said.  "She went down there, and the recorder survived re-entry.  We've gotten it back second-hand but, only the digital information was sifted-the Clanners don't seem to be much aware of the analog components or they didn't care to unspool it."
"We're analyzing it?" she asked.  It was more alertness than he'd seen in weeks.
"We're analyzing the spools that survived re-entry.  It confirms the misjump..."
"The bastards." she hissed.  She straightened, "Get everything off it you can."
"Aye, Mum."
"Bianh?"
"Mum?"
"Have Nikki Minh come down here, with a list of her best recommendations for a long-range effort.  If the Star Adders missed some of those Blood Spirit civilians on the planet this late, they may have missed them elsewhere. They're witnesses, they'll have answers."
"Ayeh, Mum."
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"We just finished a war, Liz." Adam Steiner insisted over the HPG link, 
"You want to poke the homeworlders?"
"They're already poked. We need to see if they're coming at us." Elizabeth Ngo said smoothly, "And we need to know what happened. One of our ships was over fifteen hundred light years from where it was supposed to be.  we need to find answers."
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