Tatiana Zakhareva/The Corruption of Tatiana Zakhareva
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
"So, what your saying is that you have proof of a dangerous alien race... Not the Rikti, you say?"
Tatiana shook her head. "No, not the Rikti. Although they aren't unknown elsewhere, in systems with humanoid life. We're not the first to suffer their invasion, but from what I've seen, we've done the best of all of them."
"Oh?" The interviewer raised an eyebrow.
Tatiana nodded. "We suffered less than 1% loss of life to them, and in fact drove them back after less than a year. As I've already told some of your colleagues, that's due to the uniqueness of our world."
The interviewer smiled politely. "Which you would show proof of, if it hadn't been damaged or destroyed when getting away from... The Saggitar, you called them?"
Tatiana nodded, ignoring the hint of cynicism. "Yes, largely because their own name is unpronounceable with a human tongue. They're corewards, and cover much of the area where the stars are named Saggitarii. A huge empire that they're at the top of. And just the fact that they know about our world puts us in danger."
The interviewer nodded, looking at his notes. "And why do you think we should let everyone know?"
Tatiana shrugged. "If they don't come, another will, or the Rikti will resurge. Hell, they're already doing that in a small way. If you don't believe me, ask your heroes." Tatiana glanced at what they would have her believe was a mirror. She looked at both of the people behind the glass. Neither was very important, although one was a hero of some sort. She considered hitting the 'mirror' with a laser, to hear what they were saying, but decided against it. They'd notice that. She turned back to the interviewer. He had some boring American name, like Smith, or Jones, or something equally pointless or archaic. "Look, Mr..."
"Preston," supplied the interviewer, Tatiana nodded.
"Mr Preston. I have been given the runaround a dozen times. You have skilled psychics working in some bureau associated with yours. If you doubt my credibility, or my versacity, have them scan me."
Preston smiled. "Ah, but you could be very mistaken, yet still believe it strongly, or someone could have planted memories, yes?"
Tatiana rolled her eyes. "Any psychic who can do more than write horoscopes should be able to tell both are not the case."
Mr Preston shrugged. "Miss Zakhareva, may I be perfectly blunt?" Tatiana nodded. "We don't think your story warrants bothering our psi division. We don't have time to scan every crackpot who comes through here convinced they're the 2nd coming, or that aliens abducted them, or that they travelled through space and time. I've met a few people who do have spaceships. What you're describing sounds nothing like theirs."
[i]That's because they're still limited by atmospheric design, not designing based on the principles of zero-gravity and pressure construction! All they care is that it's airtight![/i] Tatiana smiled. "So I'm not going to get anywhere going through channels?" Mr Preston shook his head. "Very well. I'll go apply myself to more useful and fruitful pastimes, then."
After she left, the two men behind the mirror came around to talk to Preston. The 'hero' said, "Good. You get half now, the other half once she does something rash." He put down a computer. "This is the off-shore savings account you specified. Verify it for yourself, if you wish. Arachnos pays its debts." Preston smiled, looking at the numbers. He'd had more than enough dealing with the heroes in this city; with the other half deposited, he could retire somewhere expensive.
"Well, thank you very much. Which faction in Arachnos did you say you were in?"
"I didn't" Preston nodded. He wasn't being paid to look into it, so it was just fine by him.
There's always someone who you don't notice, who gets out in time to call some heroes, even when you're taking care to set up proper countermeasures. Or sometimes it's just bad luck, like a hero who travels by and notices their radio is being garbled. They pass it on, and soon someone's looking for a likely hero to help take care of what should be fairly cut and dried. Usually, you don't rate one of the big heroes, not unless you're incredibly unlucky.
Or they got a tip-off from their own little 'agent' in Arachnos, one who's fairly reliable, even if he's probably got his own agenda. A crime's a crime, right?
This one was for Positron. "You might want to check out WHRO's studios. I hear someone's attempting to hijack the signal to cause widespread panic, some sort of alien invasion hoax. They also have a number of robots working for them. A private operator."
Tatiana was faced with a problem. The few files she had uncorrupted were not immediately compatible with the station's feed. Nothing insurmountable, she could do it easy, it just takes time. She didn't realize how little time she had, though, until her sentries and first set of buffer guards were wiped out in 30 seconds. Quickly she changed orders on the rest of her robotic assistants, wishing she had one of her self-determined robots with her. Sadly, this took up some of her computing system's bandwidth, especially since she needed to see who it was. Armor of some kind, a containment system... Russian is not the best language to curse in. But it rates among the top ten. And, for any suitably innovative person, you can make any language one of profanity. The one staffperson, huddling in the corner, who spoke Russian, first looked at Tatiana with worry, then a mixture of surprise and admiration.
The door burst open, and Positron was hit 5 times with laser blasts of a differing frequency than the robots'. That, combined with a sudden warping of space, was enough to knock him off-balance while three robots, themselves far larger than the ones he had faced earlier, teleported in. It only took him a minute and a half to take them out, which wasn't enough time for Tatiana to finish the alteration. To compound her bad luck, Positron's first blast took out the part of her suit that held half of her comlinks and on-person processors, destroying the copies that she now had access to. With most of the use of her reticle gone, Tatiana attempted a half-formed warp, but realized that its aim was off, and was going to strike one of the staff. "STOI!" She yelled, but it was too late. The tech was knocked back onto a live wire that had been sheared in two by some stray blast. Not enough to kill him, but enough to cause a serious hospital stay.
With all the evidence that could support her gone, Tatiana was convicted. While in the Zig, she got a few messages passed to her, from someone in Arachnos. After getting the materials necessary to call up her orbiting ship, she was rescued in one of the fairly common prison breaks. All she ever found out about who had set her up for rescue was his name.
Arbiter Saka.
