The Evacuation

[Lord Caedus]

As his eyes roamed over the tightly packed room in front of him, the Captain took in as much as he could with the limited time he had. The former cruise liner had been almost completely stripped of any of the creature comforts one would expect to see on a Lucullus-class vessel, even walls that weren’t needed for structural purposes had been stripped out to provide more room for the mass of refugees that now filled the ship. Looking over the huddled, desperate people that had been practically stuffed into his ship, he lets out a sigh and turns to the Marine next to him, speaking with a deep baritone voice.

“Keep an eye on them Lieutenant, I don’t expect any trouble from them, but we didn’t have time to do thorough weapons checks, and these people are desperate. Make sure no rioting starts and keep an eye on the less reputable looking ones, I won’t have any of them taking liberties with the other refugees that are easily exploited.”

Having received his orders, the Lieutenant snaps off a crisp salute and distributes his men around the ship to watch the passengers. The Captain turns away, muttering to himself as he does. ”Some of these people aren’t even going to make it through the trip.” Making his way to the bridge, he takes his seat, nodding at the Helm Officer once he’s seated. “Take us out once the mooring fixtures are retracted, then make best speed for Quillan.”

Following a tense but mostly uneventful journey through the Taus to Languedoc, the Captain looks down as the ship starts to offload the huddled refugees to the shuttles that had been waiting at Quillan’s orbital mooring station. “So Agent, what is meant to be done with these people now that we’re here?” Turning to the man in a crisp Intelligence uniform that had walked up to him, he gives the tall, thin man a moment to respond.

The Agent clasps his hands behind his back, looking out over the mass of people. “The Directorate has decided that we need to keep a control group so we can compare with those that we take for testing purposes. Orders are to have those control groups be made up of the families, and to pick test subjects from those who are alone and won’t be missed.”

The Agent turns his head to look at the Captain again. “Fortunately our contacts in the underworld have been able to acquire a decent supply of Cardamine, so we can keep most of these people alive for at least the rest of the year without any issue. Sadly some of them are already too sick to help, but that will be a small amount and we can keep anyone else from getting sick now that we can quarantine them properly.” The Agent returns his attention to the crowd of people, now almost all of them having transferred to the shuttles at this point, and the Captain takes that moment to voice his own thoughts on the matter. “I understand the need to perform these experiments, but these people need our help too, hopefully we can keep most of them alive.”

---