Shadows

[GSgt Mike Hefner 0]

Shadows

 

He'd had the feeling too many times before. Of being watched. But this time it was different and he almost missed it.

 

Soon after Veras left, Mike found himself engrossed in padd work. Again. Duty reports, readiness assessments, drill logs, personnel reviews. Time off or play catch-up? Hard choice, considering the consequences of facing down and explaining the delay to one willful Cait.

 

The desk in his personal quarters smacked of real work, so Mike hunched over the coffee table in team central, a glass of mineral water by his side, pencil-pushing through the mess that had accumulated since god knows when. He did his best to ignore jibes from passing rivals and tossed out a well-placed counter attack when the occasion warranted, only stopping to swat at a fly that was determined to buzz his left ear.

 

Avaros? Damn, that was three missions ago. He paged down. Sitrep signed, sealed, and delivered. File accordingly. Giving a sub-audible sigh of relief, Mike tapped the padd to slip the report into its appropriate computer folder. 'Course there was an automatic delivery system, but force of habit - and a lot of Marine hardheadedness - made him skeptical of such things. He wanted to know where, when, who, how, how much, and whatever there was. Give him input and he was happy.

 

Until his padd went dead.

 

" 'S matta, Gunny?" SSgt Jigger Grafton dropped into the seat opposite, tossing his padd and stylus onto the coffee table before sprawling his six-foot frame against the back pillows. Mike figured Dan was up to the same thing he was and, knowing Dan, he was probably farther behind. "Padd's dead," he replied to Mike's questioning look. He kicked the padd aside as he popped a foot onto the coffee table. "Third one today. Damned thing won't keep a charge."

 

As quickly as Dan's foot hit the table, Mike swatted it off and grabbed Dan's padd for a look, offering a puzzled, "Mine, too."

 

"Yeah, well, what can I say. Fleet issue," Dan's casual reply was accompanied by a look of annoyance as he swatted his right ear. "Funny thing, though. It was fully charged a half hour ago. Can't say I've had one go that fast... ever. Damn, it's cold in here." He glanced around and shrugged.

 

Mike was busy pulling the padds apart, checking the power supplies, fiddling with both of 'em, but nothing seemed to work. "Kyster!"

 

"Yo, Gunny!" The blond head of a young Talarian private poked around the door frame of the locker room.

 

"Get your brain over here and see what you can do with these."

 

She was already at his side when he looked up to hand her the padd. With great enthusiasm she fingered the board, flipped a few switches, checked the power supply, everything Mike had done already. "Wow. That's just... weird, Gunny."

 

"Define weird, Private." He had a pile of work to do and little time to finish it. Kyster was the best fixer slash hacker in the company - maybe even in the Corps - but she tended to skirt the issue and zone into her own world when technology was placed in front of her - which wasn't often since she was combat infantry. She could field-strip a console faster than she could a phaser rifle and put it all back together before you could fire one.

 

"Well, uh..." she knelt on the deck, strewing the various parts of Mike's padd across the tabletop. Mike ran a hand over the stubble on his head, fighting the urge to groan. "It's weird because this is like the fifth or sixth that's fritzed in the last hour." Kyster also had a tendency to pick up jargon. Took to it like a Gorn to rodents. She sat back on her heels and shrugged. "It's dead."

 

"Dead." She also had a tendency to state the obvious. Mike leaned forward, ignoring Dan's smirk. "Can you fix it, or do I have to get an engineer?" Dan's smirk changed as he grabbed his gut in mock below the belt pain.

 

It took a minute for Kyster to get the point, evidenced by a double-take from Mike to the scattered pieces of padd. "I'll put it back together and get it all charged up for you, Gunny..." she scooped up the pieces and rocked back to a stand "...so you can finish your reports." Before Mike could respond she was at the work table in the locker room.

 

Reports. Right. Not only could she strip 'em but she could read 'em faster than the computer. Then again, all the senior non-coms were doing reports, so.... He shrugged and leaned against the pillows.

 

Dan swatted at his left ear. "Fifth or sixth in the last hour? That is weird. We need to add an enviro control ticket to the tab when we report it, see if we can warm it up in here.... What?"

 

Mike had straightened. His eyes glanced around the room, his face taught. "We're being watched."

 

"Watched?" Dan mirrored Mike's visual, but the normal commotion of team central and locker access hadn't changed since they'd arrived. Everyone seemed to be about their normal business, no one even looking their way.

 

Mike's eyes stopped sweeping and locked on. "The padds are draining. No explanation. This morning I checked power consumption in our quarters. Off the scale. You're cold. I'm cold. No one else is." His hand flicked around the room. "And..." he swatted his ear "...we're not planetside."

 

"Right," said Dan, finally getting the point. "No flies."

 

A tick of Mike's head indicated an adjacent meeting room where, behind the privacy of a closed door, Mike put the pieces together. "Shadow?"

 

Over a period of a few minutes a dark form materialized and hovered briefly, then disappeared.

 

"Shadow, You okay?"

 

No response.

 

"Shadow?"

 

A sound like someone talking into a jar came from the area next to Mike's ear. The back of his neck prickled. "I hear ya, but I can't read ya, Buddy. Ping my ear if you're okay."

 

The fly buzz returned between Mike and Dan bringing a broad grin to both of them. After a while they had pulled together enough information to pass on to JoNs and Harper and to let engineering know that power drains weren't necessarily something gone awry. Unless you had Shadow in that category.

 

Shadow was back. Weak, but back.

[Kairi 0]

Yay! Shadow! ^_^

[Kansas 0]

Oooo Rah! The Shadow is back!

 

At least now I know what really happened to my data PADD....

[C.T. Caine 0]

Yay!

 

Shadow iz back! ^_^