(no subject)

[k_in_black]

 
It took the assault teams 38 days just to establish a beachhead near the Rimiran colony. It’s been another 78 days since then with barely a word from the Regula Cluster.

There are a lot more empty bottles of Eli Lockhart’s finest bourbon since then.

If he could, Zed would have demanded regular reports from O and the other Special Tasks Agents. But that isn’t how they roll, and since Zed trained them to be that way, he doesn’t have any room to complain about it. So he’s been waiting. And waiting.

Now the Agents back at MiB HQ are assembled again, standing before the Egg Display in the main hall, B’s hand poised once more above the comm channel. Zed nods. B’s hand drops.

The Egg Display remains dark for another long moment.

There isn’t supposed to be a delay.

The display flickers, and Special Agent O appears. One of his eyes is heavily bandaged. Quiet gasps echo in the hall. Every Agent there knows a Special Agent has somehow lost one of his eyes. Special agents do not get touched in a fight. Ever.

The fact that the bio-techs will have a new, vat-grown eye ready for O before he even gets back to Earth is entirely beside the point.

“I guess I don’t have to ask how it went,” Zed growls.

“I guess you don’t, Chief,” O replies. He sounds tired.

“Control of the colony tentatively established as of 0900 Approximate Terran Chronology. We’re--,” O looks down, checking to see how much time has passed since that morning, even though he must have known when he was supposed to report to Zed. It was a sign of how exhausted the man must be.

“--Four hours into a 72-hour alert. If it ends quiet, I’ll confirm the colony a secure site.”

“What about the their root systems, O?” K asks.

O nods wearily. “That structure you pointed out when you were here, K. We secured it three days ago, mostly intact. Turned out it was their backup command-and-control, just like you thought.”

“You’ve got access?” K asks, surprised.

O shakes his head. “Completely locked down. But we don’t need access to know what it is. We’ve got the system in stasis now. Whatever’s left, the techs can come out here and try to recover it.”

“Good,” Zed nods, his voice finally sounding a little closer to normal. “This whole thing’s been a massive kick in the balls, but if that works out, we’re still ahead. Agents F and N will be on their way out there within the hour. With escort.”

Zed is looking at K. K looks back. Then nods.

“Sorry, old friend.”

K shakes his head. “Has to be done, and I’m the right choice.”

“...But I think I’ll be having a drink first.”


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