Free Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten by Richard M. Heredia

the same time.  She had been sent to DeepCore Alpha, the ice-mining facility the Synod had helped fund on Neptune’s massive moon – Triton.
    It had been speculated, as far back as the twentieth century, that somewhere deep within the frozen ice sheets covering Neptune’s companion was a small layer of liquid water, provided the rocky core of the moon was warm.  After years of digging through the super-dense ice, the DeepCore team was approaching what they hoped was the discovery of that very water line.  If it proved fruitful and they found the existence of life, it could mean profits in the trillions for Estefan and his partners.
    Sandy had been sent to represent his interests there, to let the consortium that had built the DeepCore facility know, the Aegis Synod was watching…  The fact Sandy had been sent with a security detail consisting of three Phalanx Class Cruisers and seven Agave Class Frigates helped stress their point all the more emphatically.
    Sometimes carrying a big stick is all it takes…
    His fingers moved and Sandy’s smile faltered as she read the import of what he was telling her with them.  “How are things…?” he had signed.
    Her fingers told a succinct message in reply, “Very promising and under control.”
    He nodded his understanding when the seventh woman standing before him spoke.
    “When are you going to tell us what happened?  We heard about the chase on the highways of Angel Free Town and all of us are worried sick!” she demanded, her fists clenched at her sides, both of her knees locked.
    I was worried too, my dear.
    She was the tallest of the group, who looked eye to eye with the Keeper himself when barefoot.  When she wore her customary five inch heels, she towered over all of them.  She had dark smoldering eyes, long eyebrows stretching near the edge of her face.  Her hair was dyed red and came to her shoulders before ending with a bob.  Her thin lips were pulled taunt as she glared at him, accentuated by a dimple on her right cheek.  She was lanky with long arms and even longer, shapely legs to match with a tiny waist and narrow hips.  She wore a custom, skin-tight leather jumpsuit, dark red, almost the color of dried blood, with a strip of black running down each side.  She wore heeled boots completing the outfit and would’ve looked like some biker chick of an age passed, except for thick mechanics’ belt she had slung around her waist and the pair high-powered eco-Halogen lights perched upon each shoulder.  She had already turned them off.
    “How’s Saturn treating you, Ruby?” he answered , using misdirection instead of answering her question directly.
    She glowered.  “That’s not an adequate reply, Estefan…”  She left the threat unsaid.
    “We have seemed to have come to an impasse,” announced Flavia, cutting through the conversation.
    Everyone’s attention focused on the deadly vixen beside him.
    Flavia motioned with her hand.  “You should all find something to sit on, because this may take a while…,” she trailed off as they all moved to sit.
    Mena merely sat of the floor of whatever chamber she was within.
    Then, Flavia began to detail everything that had happened since their arrival upon Earth until they’d sent out the message for this meeting, including her and Estefan’s polarized views on the matter.  After fifteen minutes of explanation, the Keeper’s one-time step-sister posed the three-fold question.
    “What should the Aegis Synod do about Milandry tech being used against us, what should we do regarding the Shadow Spark and what should been done with this Destro-Mancer the good doctor seems to be so afraid of?”
    Ramona had been the first to answer, adding a fourth dimension to the issue.  “Do you think it’s real, the whole thing, I mean?”
    Estefan shrugged.
    “It seems real,” replied Flavia.  “The attack against us make it moreso.”
    “How do we know this isn’t some ploy to get Estefan out in the