Show of Talent

By Brenna

Part 1

Reading her panel, Northstar walked into the lounge where many CLHQ residents were sprawled around either prepping for their next mission or taking a break from the hustle and bustle of life in Section. This was just another one of the many areas that had been appropriated for use by residents of CLHQ while they waited for the investigation to be completed and construction to begin on their new home.

Muttering to herself, but loud enough to be heard by all Northstar asked perplexed, "Who's the best of the best?"

Without looking up, Rita and Sherry answered in unison, "Michael, of course." This started the whole room to giggling.

Nikita Fire, who was passing by the hallway, heard all the commotion and popped her head in asking, "What's so funny?"

Speaking up quickly to cut off anyone who might try to explain what just happened and confuse the issue further, Northstar said, "We just got word that there is supposed to be an event tomorrow that all cold ops not out in the field are required to attend."

Sly raised one eyebrow and questioned, "An event? What exactly does that mean?"

Northstar continued, "They are calling it a Show of Talent. Apparently it is contest where cold ops test their skills to see how they measure up against each other."

Brenna spoke up, "Then Sherry and Rita are right. Michael is the best of the best."

Sherry replied, "But he leaves tonight for Algiers. Provided nothing changes with the mission, he and Nikita will both be away for the contest."

Ayrelia murmured, "Now that does make things interesting, doesn't it?"

Avillion inquired, "Is there someplace where we can get more details on this "contest"?"

Northstar replied, "That intel should be uploaded to your panels now."

Curlly, seeing Brenna pull her panel out of her bag presumably to check the details of the contest, comes over to her and said, "Can I see, too?"

Brenna made her best attempt at giving Curlly a stern look, "Where's your panel young lady?"

Grinning Curlly responded, "In my room, I am just too lazy to go get it."

Laughing, Brenna replied, "Lazy butt. You will spend hours primping but you are too lazy now to go down the hall and get your own panel? Whatever will we do with you? Okay. You can review the details of the contest after I have. No reading over my shoulder though, you know how much I hate that."

Still grinning Curlly said, "Okay." And moved toward Avillion who she had also spotted reviewing her panel. With Avillion, Curlly was sneakier, instead of asking to see the material she just slowly moved to stand behind the chair Avillion is sitting on.

Without looking up, Avillion said, "I hate you reading over my shoulder too, Curlly. Go be lazy somewhere else until one of us is finished."

Ayrelia, always quick to even the odds, called out, "You can read over my shoulder, Curlly."

After the girls finished reading their panels, Avillion said, "So do you think they'll let us team up?"

Brenna answered, "I'd doubt it. Hard to judge who is the best of the best when you are not judging single individuals."

Ayrelia chimed in, "It's just another damn test."

Curlly commented, "Probably, but at least it is an interesting one. I wonder whom we are putting the show on for? It is unusual that they would test us all at once unless there was something to prove. And they even call it a Show of Talent."

Avillion replied, "Who knows? The Powers That Be are not to be understood by mere mortals like ourselves. Even Northstar seemed surprised by this one."

Curlly got up and said, "I'm going to head for training. There were a few anomalies in my last sim that I want to work out before tomorrow."

Trace piped up, "Want some help, Curlly? I could use a brush-up there too. This extended undercover mission to "real life" has left me at less than 100%"

Curlly turned to Trace and replied, "Sure, that would be great," as they headed out the door together.

Brenna reached over and docked her panel into the station on the wall. Ayrelia moved over to Brenna and started playing with Brenna's hair, as was her habit. She watched her input several requests and asked, "What you doing?"

Brenna replied, "Downloading some of Michael's old mission profiles. Since one of the tasks tomorrow is writing a mission profile I figure it can't hurt to review the work of the master."

Ayrelia laughed, "You know this isn't a test you can study for exactly. Sleep is going to your best path to superior performance."

Brenna grinned, "I know, but I am too wound up to sleep. You know how I get when I am prepping a mission and this sort of feels like that." She lowered her voice, pitching it so only Ayrelia could hear, "Besides, I have a strange feeling about tomorrow. I need to let my mind process it and see if I can put my finger on the source of my unease."

Ayrelia hmmed, "Probably just nerves. I still say sleep is your best bet. But I can see you do not believe me. I'll let you do your thing. I have reports to write myself. Madeleine is expecting the psyche work-ups on all those new recruits before morning."

Slowly, all the residents of CLHQ dispersed to prepare for the following day. Ayrelia went back to her station to finish her reports and to write some more of her romance novel before heading off to sleep. Sly reviewed various computer skills with Nabiki and Stacey. Sherry and Rita took turns saying goodbye to Michael. Avillion, who agreed with Ayrelia that the best preparation for this contest was relaxation and focus, headed out to the stables to check the horses and went for a long ride. Kathy went looking for Davenport only to spy in him in deep discussion with Kit, concerned but knowing she can't lose focus before tomorrow, Kathy headed to the workout room.

 

Part 2

The mainframe reported that the day of the contest dawned to clear skies and less than 10% humidity with an expected high of 76 degrees F. Regardless of the fact that no one in section proper would have an opportunity to appreciate the outside conditions, Ayrelia considered it a good sign.

Having been briefed that the final instructions regarding the "contest" would be disseminated from Comm at 10:00 operatives begun gathering around 9:30. They tended to stand in small groups conversing quietly. Heading down the stairs from the perch, having just finished yet another meeting with Operations regarding the construction schedule and plans for CLHQ, Northstar mused at how different Section was now from the way it was when she first started CLHQ. Before you would never have seen operatives grouped together and interacting like friends. The bonds made by the residents of CLHQ had changed people's perceptions of the possibilities for relationships in Section. Operations still expected very high standards of achievement and One was still premiere among the Sections, and people still died everyday, but in a small way it was easier because they were someone's friends and not just another of the unacknowledged masses.

Around 9:58 it started to get quiet as the gathered operatives noticed that Operations was making his way down from the perch. As the attention of the group was slowly directed toward Operations, Brenna's attention was caught by the arrival of an operative she had never seen before. He was of average build, about 6' tall with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He had short dark hair and steel grey eyes. What struck her most was the way he walked. He had a distinctive loping gait that was familiar to her though she couldn't place where she knew it from. It wasn't the arrogant strut that was characteristic of many operatives, or the hurried clip of a man on a mission, it was different. She was surprised to discover she found it comforting in a strange way. Like somehow it reminded her of home. As the unknown operative walked past Brenna to stand next to Davenport, Ayrelia whistled softly and remarked to Brenna, "He has a nice ass, too."

Curlly chimed in quietly, "Love those black jeans."

Brenna motioned for them to be silent. She heard Davenport greet the stranger, "Hey Xavier. You get settled in okay?"

"Xavier," she breathed quietly to herself, "I haven't heard that name in years."

Xavier responded, "Getting there." Taking a quick look around noticing the abundance of operatives gathered in one place Xavier questioned quietly, "Is this standard operating procedure around here?"

Davenport smiled, and said, "Nope this is a novel event for all of us."

Avillion whispered, "And he smells damn good too."

Ayrelia and Brenna glanced at each other and announced in unison, more loudly than they intended, "Drakkar," causing several operatives including Xavier to look over at them, which then caused all four of them to start giggling.

Before anyone could ask what was so funny, all the operatives silenced as Operations began to speak. "As you all know you have been brought here for an extended contest to see how you rank against your fellow operatives in various areas. This particular exercise is for cold ops only and will focus on three mission tasks. You will be given parameters for which you must write a mission profile. You will be subjected to a weapons simulation similar to the ones you all used for training but this one was specially designed for this exercise so will simulate a situation that is new to you all. You will be given a task to complete on the training computers that simulates the data recovery skills you might utilize in the field. While there are a wide variety of scenarios that you may be given there are many more of you than there are scenarios that were developed. In order to ensure that each person's score is a measure of their own abilities, talking between cold operatives will be strictly prohibited. You are allowed to talk to any member of section support personnel. You will need to in order to get your assignments and complete them but cold ops caught talking to each other will be moved to containment for the duration of the exercise and will suffer the loss of all downtime for three months." Operations stared at the operatives facing him for several seconds in silence to be sure they knew it was not idle threat, then he said, "Birkoff."

Birkoff stepped up and continued the briefing, "Each task has a specific time limit and all tasks must be completed by 18:00 today. You will pick up your tasks in systems and submit your results there as well. You are welcome to complete the three tasks in any order you wish and since there are a limited number of sim training stations available you may be redirected to another activity if there is not space available for you. You are welcome to use any of the resources of section when creating your mission profiles. However since all systems personnel will be tied up coordinating today's exercise and on-going missions, none of them will be available to help you as they normally would. You will need to go to data retrieval and either sort through the data yourself or convince someone there to help you. For your convenience, five minutes ago your panels were loaded with the details you need to start formulating your mission profiles. The clock starts on that task when you open the file signifying your intent to begin that activity. Good luck."

It was strangely silent after the dismissal of the operatives. All of the usual chatter that would normally accompany the operatives' preparations was strangled by Operations' directive against talking. Even Curlly managed to keep silent, though she opened her mouth to speak several times but was warned to silence by a look from Brenna. Brenna swatted Ayrelia on the butt and kissed Curlly and Avillion each on the cheek for luck and took off to her "thinking spot". Her "thinking spot" is just an alcove in a seldom-used corridor. It is the place she goes when she is restricted to Section for some reason but needs to get away from it all and put things into perspective. She decided it would be a perfect spot to take a minute to focus and to start prepping her mission profile.

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