Welcome to the distant future, or something pretending to be it. :)
To get caught up: Check out Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V.
You wouldn't want to miss anything. :)
The Talon smiled; there would be backups for the Fury avatars loaded up in seconds, but it – or he, as the Talon had come to identify himself – would have plenty of time to finish a two thousand year-old mission.
To the casual eye, the Talon was the man who had been socked away in stasis for the past several millennia: Peter Havel, formerly of Chilliwack, British Columbia, screened and registered as a donor 2738 AD. In reality, the Talon was the ancient United States’ answer to the Furies.
Once, there had been a war, one of what would be many, between Brazil and the United States of America. This particular one had been over what sort of regime would rule over Canada. It was then that the Empress had revealed the Furies. Capable of moving freely in and out of cyberspace, and transporting small masses along with them, the Furies made superlative saboteurs, spies, assassins, and kidnappers.
Once, this particular Talon had been a man named Damon Calland, a man with a daughter, a daughter named Alyssa that had the misfortune of being a donor match for the Empress Mercada.
With a shudder, the Talon, wearing the body of the long-possessed Peter Havel, looked down on the prone form of the Empress, still draped in her peach bedsheet as the Furies had set her into stasis. “You’re in there somewhere, little angel,” his dry voice said aloud, breaking on the words. How many thousands, no, tens of thousands, had died to keep this monster moving through history?
The Talon assessed his energy reserves; dispatching the Furies, even if temporarily, had almost exhausted its power. Still, the Empress was only Human…mostly. And there were only moments left to finish his business.
She might have lived a hundred fifty years, the father once known as Damon thought of his long-dead daughter. Taken in the night, Alyssa had screamed as she was turned into a phantom and drawn into the wall by a visiting Fury. He had played the security monitor image over and over again, the Fury had actually laughed with delight at the cries of the hapless girl. Volunteering for the Talon program had been easy after hearing that callow sound.
The Talon roared, and thrust a phased fist into the stasis crèche. The stasis field gave slightly, then resisted. He drew his hand back; this was not going to work; the tau setting was too great to overcome.
And the Fury, Minerva, had just returned; her sisters would be joining her shortly.
And as swiftly as he had appeared, the cybernetic ghost of Damon Calland evacuated the body of Peter Havel, right before Minerva drew close and phased away his head, cast it through the nearest wall, and watched the rest of the body fall to her feet.
Plantagene materialized shortly thereafter, a few moments afterward Anima completed the trio.
All three gazed down at the body momentarily.
Anima was the first to speak. “Preserve the flesh; the Empress still requires rejuvenation.” The others set to work.
“What of the Talon?” Plantagene asked, as she and Minerva began to prepare Havel’s body for rendering. “To possess a donor, just for a shot at the Empress…” she wondered aloud.
“The simulations suggested it as a credible threat.” Anima replied. “We were caught off our guard. Now we have an enemy in our midst, in the very walls, capable of meddling with any system and, given the hardwiring of the Cyberne, almost any crew member of Osiris.” Anima paused, as she drew closer to her two sisters. “He could even compromise our core mnemonics.”
Plantagene nodded. “Minerva and I will treat the Empress, “ she offered, before the order even came.
Anima nodded. “And I will find our new friend, the Talon, before he causes much more of a fuss.” And as soon as she finished the words, Anima vanished into the circuitry of the starship.