Volunteers in his Refuge

by Loui

Earth: Final Conflict is copyright © Tribune Entertainment and Roddenberry/Kirschner. No infringement of that copyright is intended by this story.
"Volunteers in his Refuge" is copyright © Loui.

"Okay, people. Let's get to work," said Volunteer Lieutenant Marc Donaldson. At his words, the other three members of his squad dispersed and began to carry out their latest assignment.

They worked in efficient silence for about ten minutes before - surprise, surprise - Melanie Munroe, aka the M&M, chirped up with the first of what was sure to be many comments. She was renowned throughout the Volunteer Corps as a skilled operative, but the girl could not abide silence; consequently, she went out of her way to fill it whenever possible. Thankfully, she had a sense of humour zany enough to match her intelligence, one thing Melanie never was, was dull.

"Marc, why are we here? Really? Major Kincaid's one of the good guys. I don't feel right about snooping on him."

Marc - who had been running his scanner over the inside of the major's closet - straightened up and addressed his squad. Jonas Kim, the M&M and Anne Jackson were all staring at him with similar expressions of unease. Using the discretionary authority that Agent Sandoval had given him, he told his squad the real reason for their presence in the major's apartment.

"He's not in any trouble, guys. That's the truth. In fact, he's going to be promoted in the next few days."

Jonas rubbed his hand through his tangled black hair - as per usual, just the wrong side of regulation length and said, "Then why the hell are we snooping around his apartment, Marc?"

"This is strictly confidental. Nobody outside of Da'an, the Protectors and now us knows this."

Anne growled out "Knows what?!"

Marc looked at the former cheerleader whose classic looks belied her lethal abilities with a sniper rifle and said, "He'll be promoted if he survives. He's dying."

Three voices acting in concert said, "What?"

"Remember last week when the major had to take out that lab geek high on cocaine because he was holding three civilians and a Taelon scientist hostage at the Co-Ventures lab in Denver?"

Approving nods met that question. It had been a righteous shoot; the major had had no choice.

"So?" demanded Jonas.

"Apparently the geek's daddy has more money than sense. He put a hit out on the major. He was very specific in the method of death, though. Drugs.

"Somehow, somewhere, Major Kincaid was dosed with a cocktail of synthetic drugs. The docs at Bethesda are working round the clock to keep him stable, even with all the technology of the Taelons at their disposal; they're fighting a losing battle.

"Sandoval traced the assassin, but the scumbag had a cyanide capsule. He was dead before Sandoval had the chance to question him."

"And daddy?" asked Anne, her blue eyes burning with an ice cold fury.

Sourly, Marc replied, "Daddy has gone to ground. There are teams running him to ground as we speak, but we're running out of time.

"The docs say that the assassin probably coated something with the drug. Kincaid absorbed it through his skin. They need the delivery apparatus found. They need a pure sample of the drug to develop a cure.

"It could be on anything from a mug, to the page of a book, to an ornament. Our scanners have been calibrated to search out one of the components that they can identify. It fluoresces under UV light. Sweep everything, no matter how idiotic it seems.

"The major's got hours left, not days."


Grimly determined to succeed, Donaldson's squad ransacked the major's apartment from top to bottom. The longer and longer they searched without success, the more determined they got.

Near the window, the M&M threw down her scanner in frustration. Still nothing. Marc's voice calling "Mel..." was gently commanding. Work now, freak out later. Sighing she moved her hand to pick up the scanner from where she had dropped it. She paused - hand in mid air - something was registering. The toy?

Voice excited, she called out, "I think I've got it!"

The rest of her squad hurried over and glanced at her scanner as it hovered over the toy version of the mothership, readings clearly showing that they had found the needle in a haystack that they had been looking for.

"Good work, Mel."

Snapping into action, Marc retrieved the bag he had dropped near the door and pulled out a mini ID portal. Jonas quickly set it up, while Marc called Bethesda to let the doctors and Sandoval know that the source of the drug was on its way.

Once the flash of the portal had faded, Anne said, "Well, now what?"

"My dear, Anne," said Marc in an urbane voice. "That should be obvious. We put everything else back where we found it."

Surveying the mess they had made, Anne sighed and said, "Oh, joy!"


It took a great deal longer to put everything back than it had to pull it out, in large part this was due to the fact that the girls kept commenting on the things they were putting away.

Kincaid's reading tastes were eclectic to say the least. What had come as a great surprise, was the fact that half the library wasn't in English. There were books there in everything from Hebrew to what looked like Irish. Well actually, it looked like gibberish, but the title was just discernable enough to seem Irish. Obviously he was far more intelligent than he let on.

The model Spitfire drew Jonas' attention; then again, he was the squad's pilot. The sheer attention to detail was breathtaking.

The watercolour on the easel was also breathtaking. Whatever it was, it was beautiful, but it was undoubtedly alien. Imagination of the artist or something else?

The photographs dotted around the apartment - dubbed as the rogue's gallery by Mel - caused the most comment. There were several unexpected surprises. Captain Marquette was not a surprise; she and the major had been close. Her unveiling as a traitor may have hurt him, but obviously there were happy memories.

Nobody even wanted to hazard a guess at the reason for the picture of Agent Sandoval and the late Siobhan Beckett. There were several of the major and Renee Palmer. They obviously shared an 'understanding', but not even from these could the squad tell if the Volunteer rumour mill of a romantic entanglement was true.

Standing at the doorway of the apartment, the squad gave it one last visual sweep to see if they had missed anything. Its contents raised more questions about its owner than it answered, but they had done what they had set out to do. The major had a fighting chance now...


Five days later, at the major's request, Donaldson and his squad were present at the Embassy when, in the presence of Da'an, Hubble Urick, Renee Palmer & Ronald Sandoval, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs officially read the promotion order that granted him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.


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Last modified June 4th, 2002.
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