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Enterprise

By Ariel Montine

Chapter Twelve ~ Boggie

What will Zephyr find following the lead to Hydra in Russia?

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Enterprise

Chapter Twelve ~ Boggie

By Ariel Montine

I looked around at my sisters in awe of the determination on each face.  We all together agreed that we would avenge Voyager by removing the scourge of Hydra from the planet.  'Dancer' (that is Beth) briefed us on our mission enroute just as Archangel had told us would occur.  Tina, Arista and Gail were flying in the other plane, codenamed Ramblin' Gold  with all our gear for a Georgia Tech Dance Team performance which was our cover going into Moscow.   I felt a little apprehension that they were separated from us in our plane codenamed Ramblin' White.  There was so much that I wanted to discuss with them but it would have to wait.  

Adella was in the copilot seat beside Beth up front.   Back in the passenger section I now had an assigned seat since I had become the flight engineer for our aircraft since we were traveling outside the US where the treat level to the craft would be increased.  I monitored all the aircrafts systems including the classified ones.  More important than that I also monitored the long distance scanning. 

We had an appointment to see the new Russian President as we had accepted the invitation that his predecessor had made on Alpha following our victory there.  As the Georgia Tech Dance team we really did not have much to worry about except overzealous fans.   The Atlantic crossing had been very boring and I wondered who was so paranoid that they had required us to use a flight engineer when Adella could have been co pilot and watched the scans as clear as they had been.

"'Tress, Run a code alpha scan!"

"Code Alpha Scan, in work, Dancer" I replied to Beth as I keyed in to my terminal the sequence to upgrade our long range scanning in a burst to light up any targets that might be out there.

"Incoming Boggie Max Range" Incredulous to what the screen indicated, nevertheless I proceeded as though it was real.   I wondered where it was going and why.

"Ident Boggie"

"Ident Boogie In work" I set the scanner in motion to identify the object and its target.   I did not like the results that the scan displayed.

"Boggie Identified as a SKUD EIGHT Missile on a collision course with us.  ETA Impact in two minutes"  I worked to get a better scan of the missile's capabilities.  The SKUD Eight identification meant only that it was a SKUD missile variation not listed on the databases yet.  It's guidance and armament was yet to be determined.

"Engage stealth at full IR Suppression"

"Stealth Mode engaged..."  I saw that with the settings requested that no radars would be able to detect us.  Unfortunately even with Beth's evasive turns the missile was still right with us. It was not radar guided.  "Evasive maneuvers ineffective.  SKUD Eight is not radar guided."

I looked on in horror as I found on the screen not one SKUD Eight missile but two!

"Second SKUD Eight detected, initially hidden but now separated due to collision course with Ramblin' Gold."

"Grav, Take the flight controls and continue evasive action.  Tress, take operational command of Ramblin' White.   I have a bad feeling about this, I'm porting over to Ramblin Gold so I can port them to the cavern if there is a catastrophic failure and you can do the same for Ramblin White, Tress"

"Acknowledged" both Adella and I answered in unison.  Beth began to chant and she disappeared from the pilot seat

"Deploy countermeasures!" ordered Adella and I popped a sunburst hoping that if not radar guided then it was a heat seeker.  I saw a sunburst being deployed from Ramblin' Gold at the same time ours left Ramblin' White. 

"SKUD Eight maintaining collision course and is not Infrared guided."

"Deploy ADF pod and give me a Hellfire missile"

"Deployed and loaded!"

"Away!"  Adella locked the Hellfire missile on the SKUD Eight and fired it  Beth had done the same thing to the SKUD Eight chasing Ramblin' Gold.  Before it reached the target, the SKUD Eight merved into thousands of individual projectiles.   By the time the Hellfire missiles reached the interception point  there was nothing left of the original SKUD Eight and the Hellfire missiles passed harmlessly thru and beyond their range to flame out and drop out of the sky.

"SKUD Eight Merved, Hellfire missed"

"Ident Boggie"

Another code alpha scan revealed that the thousand merved missiles which were still locked on us did not have warheads but were simply armor piercing harpoon missiles code named SKUD Lance

"Boggie Identified as SKUD Lance.  Armor piercing harpoons"

"Girls throw everything you have at them!" All of my sister's on the plane began trying to deflect the SKUD Lance harpoons with their powers as they came into range.  While they were able to momentarily deflect some, those that they deflected turned back on us.  

"Brace for Impact" Both Ramblin Gold and White looked like pin cushions as the harpoons pierced the outer hull and struck inside the aircraft

"Harpoon Composition?"

I ran a spectral analysis now that one had pierced the cabin and recoiled from the answer.

"It's Iron! We have to go!"  I began chanting to port myself and my sisters on Ramblin White.   Before I could complete the process one of the harpoons struck Atina in the leg and Andrina in the arm.   We vanished from the plane and emerged in our cavern hideout beneath the family home in Atlanta.   Beth, Gail, Tina and Arista appeared but Arista had one of the Iron harpoons sticking thru her shoulder.    Beth chanted placing Arista in a protective cocoon.  I chanted to do the same with Atina and our mother, Athena was present with us chanting to protect Andrina. 

"How?" "Why?" came from almost all of us before it was apparent that we did not have the time to answer that now.

I conjured up a three dimensional image of both aircraft as we saw them fill like a pin cushion with SKUD Lance missiles.   Out of nowhere, a pair of SKUD Seven missiles each struck one of the disabled aircraft blowing it up in a blossom of white smoke into billions of tiny pieces.

"Alana, I'm afraid we have just delayed the inevitable.  Iron kills a fairy soul and there is nothing to stop it.   It could only be replaced prior it taking it's course.  Only a new fairy / human fusion before the fairy soul took sole possession could be the source of the transplanted soul to save them."

"Athena, I offer my fairy soul to save one of your daughters" Beth called out

"Beth, while you would survive, the process is full of danger and your very being would be in flux to take on a different form, yet your human soul would survive."

"I choose the danger!"

Tina echoed," I choose the danger, also."

Gail succinctly said, "Me too!"

"After everything that Alana has done for us, it's the least we can do for our companions in this endeavor.  Please proceed Athena!"

Athena placed Gail in a cocoon thru chanting and as the chant continued, a beautiful red butterfly emerged from Gail's cocoon and entered Andrina's.   She continued and placed Tina in a cocoon and .a gorgeous golden butterfly emerged from her cocoon and entered Arista's cocoon.  Finally she turned her attention to Beth and placed her in a cocoon.   From Beth's cocoon flew a pretty chartreuse butterfly which entered  Atina's cocoon.  

"Mother, now what happens?"

"My child, now we wait to see if any are strong enough to emerge from their cocoons and resume their lives.   You can't do anything for them.   They must help themselves now.   When they do emerge then they will need our help.   Please get some sleep so you will be able to give that help."

"As you wish, Mother."  I led my sisters to our bedchambers.   While each of us would rather do anything else but sleep, we surrendered to our mother's greater understanding of the situation.   Somehow we managed to put those lingering questions on hold.  I  hoped to greet our fallen sisters in my  dreams as sleep took me..     

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I awoke from sleep, having communed with the spirits of Adella, Atina and Andrina (who was once a  Denver family triplet like me, before we combined with the then Akins family quadruplets to save the world).   I had been assured by both our mother Athena and by them as well that the Iron objects had been transmuted to something harmless within their stasis cocoon and their bodies were healing well and their new faerie spirits which had been given by Beth, Gail and Tina had taken hold.  When the process of rebirth had taken its course, they would rejoin us by breaking out of their cocoons which was the same for the reborn faerie as well as the reborn humans. 

I found that my sisters, Adella and Aquata had like experiences as they slept.   We soon turned our discussion away from the sisters and friends who we could not do any more to help and toward the problem at hand which had dealt Zephyr such a  serious blow, reducing our number from nine to three while the six in stasis recovered.

"We must discover the means by which Hydra discovered our flight path and how to kill us by learning our true nature!" Adella began the discussion with her normal exuberance.

"Were we to invoke logic, It is clear that there is only one place outside this sanctuary where our faerie nature was revealed.   At Archangel's training ground where we took SPY101" Aquata  reasonably assessed.

I said, "I agree with both of you.   We must discover how Hydra learned we are faerie.  The source must be a mole in Archangel's employ, who either witnessed us or learned from records about us."

Athena joined us along with our younger sister, Ariel.

"My daughters you speak well yet there is an omission."

"What is that mother?" I asked

"This threat is no longer just to the country in which we reside but to the realm of faerie as a whole.  Not only must the mole be discovered but the knowledge be removed from all both friend and foe.  Never again may you display your skill openly to mortals no matter how much you trust them."

"Forgive us Mother!  It is only now that we realize the true extent of our breach." I humbly spoke for both my sisters and myself.

"Past is past, Daughters!  Together we will right this wrong.   Your sister Ariel joins us for she now has received her Faerie gift.   She is an elemental as we guessed but now her talent is one which will serve well.   Her talent is alchemy and she can transmute one element into another. It is a powerful defense to this new threat."

"Mother, when will our sisters and friends awake from their sleep?"

"The reborn mortals will awake first and soon, your sisters however have a greater challenge in their recovery to be reborn as faerie which takes a great deal more time."

"Our cover is blown! We can't just fly in as the Georgia Tech Dance Team, now.  We'd be better off if Hydra believes they were successful!"

"Well said, Adella.  Logic dictates that we are the best able to go in stealth to Russia to follow up that lead before it disappears.   We can teleport in and use glamour to assume different appearances to blend in with the people there."

'I agree, Aquata.  Yet at the same time that we go after the lead to Hydra, we also need to seek out the mole.'

"Why don't you leave that to us?" said one of a trio of teenaged girls which we had never seen before.

"Beth? Is that you?  Are you other two girls, Tina and Gail?"

"It's me alright, Alana! The other two girls are Tina and Gail.  We'd like to get back into the action by going after the mole.   We still have our experience, skills  and  training.   Three top agents who others will only take as teenaged girls will have quite an advantage in discovering the mole.  We even look different from our younger selves so there is no way that the girls we are now could be connected to the women that we were."

"Welcome back Beth, Tina and Gail!  I never realized when Mother said you would be reborn that it would be so literal.   Beth, I agree that you three are best able to go after the mole.  However before that is possible, we somehow need to determine who in The Agency can be trusted."

"Daughters, the man you know as "Archangel" really is an angel.  As another magical non mortal, he can be trusted to not be capable of the treason which almost killed all of you.  I suggest that he be brought here and briefed. "

"Thank you, Mother!  As soon as he is alone and unobserved, I will bring him here and together we can formulate how to best to proceed."

I used my enchantment to observe 'Archangel' to find a time when I could whisk him away from there to here.   As I waited for the right moment, My mother, sisters and friends were well occupied discussing things among themselves.  Finally the moment came and 'Archangel' appeared before me.   I explained the reason for the sudden teleportation and the status of our previous mission and present status of our new team.

"Athena and Ariel, thank you for assisting in this crisis.   In this case, what is good for the faerie world is also good for our nation and for us personally which works out well.  I approve of your request to join Alana, Aquata and Adella to seek out the lead in Russia.  As for you, Beth, Gail and Tina, you will be invaluable in finding the mole.  You three will pose as my adopted daughters who are thru a bit of nepotism, hired as models in the Nirvana Agency.  For the duration, you will be living with me and I will act as your guardian.   I'll make sure all the relevant records reflect your new cover without using agency resources to do so.  Can you put me back at the same moment in time you snatched me from and deposit my new nieces at my home so they can sort out their new living situation?"

"Of course Archangel"

"Beth, Tina and Gail, until this matter is concluded, you form a new operational group separate from Zephyr, codenamed 'Little Angels' which is to be under my direct supervision and not make any record of its activities or any reports except verbally to me in secure conditions.  Zephyr plus two, you are directed to discard your Dance Team cover and covertly follow up on the Russian lead to discover the true leadership of Hydra and dispatch it with extreme prejudice.  We must cut off all the heads at one time so it truly dies.  Ladies, make it so!"

I teleported 'Archangel' back to where I snatched him from the second after I snatched him as well as transporting Beth, Gail and Tina to their new home.   When I had concluded transport, I alerted the new Zephyr to make ready.

"We can't wait for our sisters to recover, we must leave now.  We leave our sisters in your care Mother.  When they are able, we look forward to you joining us.  In the meantime we will take care of Ariel as she takes care of us."

"Go Daughters and cloak yourselves with glamour!  I will keep the home fires burning and bring your sisters to you for a wonderful reunion in due time."

Each of us, Ariel, Adella, Aquata and I cloaked ourselves in glamour and I chanted to teleport us from the friendly confines of our cavern into the heart of mother Russia..  .