Her sleep is interrupted

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."

-Lao Tzu

Laying there, Morginn suddenly felt herself developing a deep seated hatred for the communicator chiming loudly on her desk. After running various scenarios of how it could be smashed into silence with the least amount of actual effort or movement required, she resigned herself to hauling her tired ass over to answer it. Whoever was interrupting her beauty sleep better have a pretty amazing reason for waking her up.

Rubbing a fine coating of sleep from bleary eyes that was desperately trying to draw them shut again, she gazed down at who it was. Aww, c'mon. Clicking the answer button, the yawn she had been trying to hold back escaped down the line. "You promised me six hours downtime, I'm pausing it for this. Better be an emergency, and a big one at that. Did we run out of chocolate again?"

A voice chuckled back down the line. "Nothing as world ending as that Morginn, but nice to know what order emergencies rank for you."

The need for chocolate was a close second to the need for a soft pillow as far as she was concerned. "Then you owe me another," she said, shooting a glance down with half open eyes to check the watch on he wrist, "3 hours 10 minutes sleep. Yawn."

"Sorry, you're going to have to catch up on those 3 hours later. This is something you need to hear, and I don't want to do it over comms. I would have given you more shut eye, but I was down in the labs when you came in, and it's taken me this long to get out. Get dressed and come find me in my office."

"Give me half an hour and I'll be there." No way she was moving sooner than that.

"There might be chocolate." Damn. They knew her weaknesses far too well.

"I'll be there in ten."

"Though that might get you here quicker," the voice laughed. "I might even save you some."

Without even bothering to get changed, Morginn was ready to leave in a little under two. She debated pulling her boots back onto her bare feet, but decided it was too much effort. Swinging both legs down over the side of the bed, she sunk her toes into the soft floor with a scrunch. The scientists had engineered a thick moss to function as flooring down here. It helped recycle the oxygen, and to soften footsteps to stop sound reverberating in the tunnels. It felt like cotton under her feet as she walked.

This far down, ramps were used instead of stairways to go between floors. There used to be stairs originally, but the gaps in the steps ended up being filled with earth to plants seeds, and ramps functioned better for water to flow down. With the lingering promise of chocolate to drawn her along, she made her way to meet Alessia in her office.

You don't realise how many smells are missing when you're up top. Flowers, leaves, clean air. Down here the plants outnumbered the humans by a massive amount, and she wouldn't have had it any other way. They painted the air with a chorus of floral aromas that lingered everywhere you walked.

Deciding to cut through one of the large orchards as she made her way down to the office, she let the scents fill her nostrils as she walked. Apples, oranges, lemons, there were every kind of fruit you could possibly imagine growing down here. Even a few new ones that had been spliced together over the years. The bio cells meant they could have fresh crops all year round.

Plucking an apple off of one of the trees, she tore a chuck from it as she made her way under their branches. Juice ran sticky sweet down her chin. Taking another bite, she raised her sleeve to her mouth and wiped it off. It wasn't like these were clean clothes anyway, one more stain wasn't going to make any difference.

There were crops growing in every spare inch of space that could be found to plant them. Not just for food, the inhabitants grew cottons for making clothing, corn for bio oil, and more importantly for must of the majority of them, crops that could be fermented.

No matter far they've come as a race, mankind will always find a way to brew something into ****. Well, you need something to take the edge off sometimes. It didn't always taste great, but that was a bonus as long as it was combustible as far as she was concerned.

Approaching the ramp at the edge of the orchard, her ears picked up the low whir of the irrigation system beginning its start up cycle. It began to thrum deeply, and she really didn't fancy being caught out here when it did. Given the choice she would rather have a shower in her own room later on.

The ramp down flowed into another maze of corridors, which after a couple of meters opened into an area that had been dubbed 'The Honeycomb'. Interlinking walls that could slide in and out of position, they formed a six sided room in the centre, as large or small as the situation demanded. Those walls could be overlapped, providing thicker and thicker protection if the need arose. It was the most defensible place in the entirety of Mist'holme, and it was here that Alessia spent the majority of her time. If the rest of the inhabitants were the roots of Mist'holme, she was their trunk, their support.

Approaching the walls of the central hub, the regret of not freshening up before heading down here pressed away at her. Being in an enclosed space with only one's self for company wasn't that bad, but put her in the same room with another person that had a functioning sense of smell and well, it would become kind of hard to ignore the fact that the fumes rising from her smelt pretty ripe.

The door was already open, the cameras inside had seen her approaching, meaning that Alessia had known Morginn was on her own as soon as she had set foot on this level, so she slipped in without knocking.

Apart from the barely concealed wrinkling of her nose as she welcomed her visitor inside, that was the only sign the occupant gave confirming how bad the smell was. It was easy to forget what a damn good poker face Alessia had.

"Gimmie," Morginn said, eying the chocolate she could see laying unwrapped on the desk next to her.

"Hug first." Green eyes flecked with gold peered back at hers from across the desk, with just the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of the lips beneath.

"Deal." As Alessia stood and walked around the desk, Morginn shot past her and grabbed the chocolate off of the table and quickly broke a piece off, not quite managing to find her mouth on the first try. She ended up wearing half the chunk as lipstick, but the half that made it into her mouth started to melt instantly, tasting better than she had ever remembered. Trying to keep the chocolaty goodness in her mouth and talk at the same time, all that managed to come out as she spoke was, "Mish me?"

"Miss you a little less once you've had a shower," she said. "It's good to have you back. Now, hug."

Throwing her arms up in cocoa fuelled resignation, she almost lost the air in her lungs from being hugged so hard. "Hey Mom. Chocolate kisses come free," she said wiping a brown smudge off of her cheek and planting a kiss on her daughters lips.

"Hey baby. I know you're tired, and more than a little ripe," Alessia said finally letting go, "but you can have a shower later. I thought this would be something you'd want to hear sooner rather than later, and I thought it best you heard it from me."

Nothing rattled Alessia, she was the strongest, smartest person living down here, and seeing the look that was creeping across her face, it became obvious that this homecoming was threatening to become an unpleasant one. "What's going on Mom?"

Alessia sighed. "You're going to want to sit down for this. So am I thinking about it. Drink?"

Flipping into a chair facing the now one occupied one, Morginn listened intently. "Sure, sounds like I'm going to need one."

After being handed a large glass of oak coloured liquid, she drained half the contents on the first try. Mmm, Applejack. Strong enough to take the skin off your lips as you whet them, but it had a taste like honey and apples, and it spread a warmth through your body as you swallowed that tingled down to your toes. "So, what couldn't wait another couple of hours?" she asked.

"Dagaz." For a simple one word answer, it managed to carry unsaid thoughts, both women being able to read each other with an ease developed via their lifetimes worth of interaction. It left Morginn trying to swallow down the lump start to form in her throat.

"Is he . . ," she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, as if saying the words she was dreading would somehow make them manifest as reality.

"Honestly, we don't know. And that's the more worrying thing." The breath she had been unconsciously holding escaped from her lungs. The words hadn't been said aloud, and that meant she didn't believe what they both feared either.

"He's three days late getting back from his reci, and we haven't had any contact with him for over a week since he last checked in."

She felt her heart skipped a beat. "Who was up with him?"

That look on her mothers face answered the question for before her voice did. "He went off on his own, didn't he?"

"He was meant to be testing a new versions of some weapons for me. He had strict instructions not to wander off or engage. Until we made sure they were fully field ready I didn't want to take the chance."

Anger flared up as the news registered. "So you let him go up, alone, with what could very well turn out to be little better than a stick for defence! You're meant to be the smart one, the one who plans three steps ahead of the rest of us."

The blood rushing visibly up into her cheeks, leaving them just a shade shy of the red in her hair. Anger was better than dread though, so she embraced the feeling rather than bury it. She had more than earned her fiery redhead badge over the years, but usually the anger got directed where it was needed rather than lash out.

She reigned it in a little, but she was still pissed. He was out there, neither of them had a clue where he was now, and he didn't have her with him to watch his back.

"You could have waited until I got back. We work better together. Always have. Now I have to his rescue his sorry ass don't I!"

She pushed until she could see the glisten of tears that wouldn't be allowed to fall threaten to form in her eyes. "That's why I called you down here. I knew you wouldn't let me send anyone else on this."

"Damn right I won't. I know how he works, how he thinks. If his trail's been going cold for a week, I'm our best bet for finding him." Both of them knew it was the truth, but neither of them had to be pleased at the fact.

Hands on the table, Alessia pushed herself to her feet. "Let's go to the lab. I'll give you the new version of Mk VI's that he took out with him. Thanks to his last round of tests I at least know those work."

"Anything good?"

"I think you'll find a use for them," she smiled back. "Just make sure you use them to bring your brother home."