Avernus part 9

A single figure sat in a darkened room, the only illumination coming from the surrounding monitors and a giant multi-coloured orb. Somewhere behind him a pair of automatic doors opened with a swish of air and the sound of booted feet confidently clanking against the polished floor drew closer to him before terminating on his right.

"They got away, the plan was a failure," said a woman's voice clipped with annoyance. "I told you that this would happen." The seated man gave a low chuckle. "My dear Lora, you flatter my skills as an actor far too much. Did you honestly believe that I thought I could trap them in Transit of all places?" The woman turned her head away and gave an embarrassed cough, it could clearly be seen that neither of her hands were missing any digits. "No, the real trap has yet to be sprung and if they think, like you did, that they are out of the fire then so much the better for me."

"I still feel that this is a bad idea, Damien, we both know how dangerous Erik is. Misguided and half-insane he may be but still dangerous. We should have killed them when we had the chance." The man named Damien began to shake his head before she even finished talking. "What makes you think that we were ever in a position to fulfil so onerous a task? Regardless, I still believe there is far more to be gained from letting them live. While the risks may be high the boons of my plan are immeasurable." Damien reached out his hand, placing it on the orb and a ripple seemed to go through the room. "Look at what they gave us already. Three thousand years ago humanity was dying and it was only through the discovery of their species that we were able to stabilise transporter technology to a usable level. It was only through transporter technology that galactic colonisation became feasible and it was only through galactic colonisation that we were able to drag our race from the dregs of civilisation."

"And look at what they took away," said Lora bitterly. "More people dead than there are stars in the sky. I would do anything – anything! - to put an end to this madness."

"Like kill your own sister?" asked Damien with humour in his voice.

"You mean my clone?" she spat back and Damien couldn't help but chuckle once more. "Father of Science or no, I won't have you mock me," said Lora in her chilliest voice. "I'm sorry," the laughter  was immediately gone from his face. "Ah, but it is refreshing to be called that again. It happens so rarely now that I've been dead for the last few thousand years."

The apology seemed to do it for Lora and her aura changed from that of anger to calm professionalism. She reached out with a stylus towards one of the nearest monitors and enlarged it so that it dominated above everything else. From the thin, angular lines and annotations it appeared to be a schematic of some sort.

"So," she commented. "They're already on the Avernus."

Two dots blinked on the image; one labelled Gwen Milton and the other Erik Menx.