MF Max Intel Ch. 01-05

They both froze as they heard the sound of a door opening and footsteps drawing near. "Hello, you two, nice to see you awake." a pleasant, soft voice said, "My name is Joon, I'm your doctor and I have a few questions if you're up for it?"

Nike responded with only a slight waver in her voice, "We need to pee."

Joon's bedside manner was emphasized. "Do you feel strong enough to get up or should I find you a bedpan?" Joon asked an edge of humor in her voice.

"I don't know." Nike responded as she turned her head and asked softly, "What do you think?"

"Our vision is blurry, if we lose our balance we could fall and get hurt." came the reply.

"Understood." Joon confirmed as the sound of several additional someones came into the room.

The twin's anxiety levels spiked hard.

"This is Agatha, she is my nurse, she is going to help you." Joon informed.

Nike felt her stress suddenly melt away. "Whoa..." Nike and Nemesis said together.

"It's okay, I'm here to help you in any way I can." Said another voice; also pleasant yet quite different from Joon's.

Two pairs of hands helped them sit up. Nike and Nemesis knew they were naked, but that wasn't surprising, they went into stasis that way. "Who else is here?" Nemesis asked, "I hear more than two people."

"That's still me," Agatha's voice replied, but from the left side. Again, they felt a calm wash over them.

"What was that?" Nemesis asked.

"This is so weird." Nike said.

"I can sympathize." Said Joon, "Agatha is pretty weird."

"I know, I am." said three voices in unison. "That was me, calming you both." A single Agatha explained.

The sisters were brought up to their feet and a third set of hands helped them with balance.

"Benzodiazepine? Agatha, are you an A.I.?" Nemesis inquired, sounding fascinated.

"Really Nem, now?" Asked Nike.

"It is a perfectly rational question, Nike... considering the evidence."

"Ugh." Nike reacted.

Agatha let the redirection stand, reasoning the twins were not ready for the full truth. They were carefully helped to a smaller room very near by and slowly sat on an open toilet.

"Mmmm." Nike hummed softly enjoying the odd pleasure of an emptying bladder. They urinated and Agatha, two of her, flanked them and were kneeling, ready to assist for any reason.

Joon remained in the first room. "Up for a question or two?" she inquired again, humor coloring her voice.

Nike bit her lip.

"What do we do?" Nemesis asked in a soft whisper.

"I wish Nanna was here." Nike muttered.

A wave of calm washed over them again and Agatha whispered, "You are safe, you will remain safe, we only desire a little information." Agatha's soft, reassuring voice continued, "We are assuming you were hidden in that crate on purpose and sent to us by your paternal grandmother, Naja Yolanie Xander.

Nike swallowed, "What's the date?"

Agatha told her.

"Six fucking months." Nike said, perturbed.

Nemesis clarified, "Five months eighteen days."

"Where are we?" Nike asked.

"The Minor Empires, specifically the Grand Slarmian Dynasty, Ixooli system." Agatha reported.

"Why the fuck would Nanna send us there?" Nike practically shouts.

"Probably to be with me," said a loud voice in the other room that sounded eerily like Nanna.

Nike and Nemesis turned to each other, "Who is that?" they both asked in a whisper.

"I'm pretty sure I'm your sister... Melinoe."

0o0

Sergeant Major Addams glared at her Lieutenant.

"I'm sorry, Zoe, but I disagree." The large Marine Officer stated softly, his words far quieter than they needed to be in the well-appointed office they both now occupied.

"Then let me remind you, Walter." She said in the equally hushed tone, "Your 'cover' is as my superior, but Boggs assigned me lead for a reason."

The Lieutenant nodded, "You're the senior agent and have the most experience in this sector, but seriously, Zoe, I think we are out of our depth, you saw that performance... You see all the little changes they've made to their bodies."

"Gold eyes, cat eyes, glowing eyes, elf ears!?!" His whispered voice threatening to break."

"Hill..." Zoe hissed, "At ease!"

She waited a moment for the large man to compose himself, then continued.

"We were instructed to support their mission unconditionally; I intend to continue with that protocol and reveal our agents to Lieutenant Commander Anders the moment she returns. Our mission is to assist Anders and Smith, not judge how they 'perform' the miracles that they have manifested: and I have it on the highest authority, that they have produced miraculous intelligence."

Addams saw a look of indecision on Hill's face.

"Listen," She whispered, "We almost lost our careers when G-S shut down the desks we worked at, I'm not fucking up this chance to stay in the game."

He blew out the breath he was holding and nodded; she continued. "This isn't a sprint, Walter, it's a marathon; so, buckle up buttercup, it's going to be a long ride." With that the normally grim-faced woman smirked crookedly and kissed his cheek.

She left the office, leaving the Marine Lieutenant with renewed resolve, but also conflicted feelings over the uncharacteristic smooch.

0o0

Joon had never given much thought to gemellology, only a passing interest when she initially began studying Agatha, but that direction didn't provide any insight into Oneiran physiology.

What Joon had known about conjoined twins couldn't fill a pipette. She was instantly hard pressed, imploring her family to connect to the T-Fed holo net via Deirdre's hyperlink. For almost six hours Jooniper and Agatha scoured the Terran holonet for everything they could find on the subject. Jooniper somehow managed to remain determined and optimistic despite the appalling dearth of comprehensive information.

She went over the scans of her patients and slowly pieced together queries for possible identifying cases. Her patients, as she understood, were adults... Barely. They were small compared to the average and petite, essentially Joon's size. Their biological age was approximately nineteen, but because they were in stasis there was really no way of determining their actual emotional or physical age.

So far Joon was able to determine some clear facts. Firstly, her patients had a familial match to Max's original DNA. They were in fact highly symmetric dicephalic parapagus twins, giving the appearance of having a single body without marked variation from typical proportions. Each has a heart, stomach, spine, pair of lungs, and spinal cord. Each twin controls one arm and one leg.

They in turn share a circulatory system, lower digestive tract, liver, spleen, bladder and reproductive organs. As astronomically rare as these particular conditions were, Joon could not find any trace of a record that matched within that past thirty years. This strongly suggested that private medical expertise was utilized exclusively which gave Joon little or no hope of finding a medical history.

Then Astrid and Samira brought something to Joon's attention.

She was so busy studying the conjoined torso... Joon somehow completely overlooked the wetware. Each twin was in possession of a MyZax-R33, top of the line, hi performance gaming rig, with enough data storage to easily contain all of their medical records, if they indeed had them.

Then Agatha discovered something else, so she followed a hunch on holonet gaming. Those particular gaming rigs were introduced only five years ago, and were designed specifically for player verses player content, narrowing the search even further.

She methodically seeded her internal algorithmic paradigm and searched for 2V2 PVP... Of Agatha's two-hundred forty-six thousand eight-hundred seventy-three results, she narrowed her search to teams that were exclusive, had a five-year history and used the afore mentioned MyZax-R33 gaming rig.

She got eight results, she carefully examined the eight... one of the teams was called Twix and up until five months eighteen days ago were extremely active in the 'POP-kill for credits' circuit, before they simply vanished.

They played Planes of Power: a fantasy based full immersion cybernet game that had a twelve-decade history that followed much of the accepted high fantasy lore found in the more pedestrian and pastoral games of the genre.

Agatha informed her family... Samira wanted to see their characters.

"Fuckmuffins, they are brutal!" Astrid commented as she and Samira reviewed portions of the many hours of game play footage Agatha found on Twix in the Planes of Power PVP competitions.

"Monsters." Samira watched in amazement. Samira was, in her own opinion, a fairly well-rounded gamer. Sami-Faun could do everything better than average, role play, questing and even... Player verses Player content. Maliri wetware gave her a substantial advantage, however, it would have disqualified her from any POP competitions or tournaments.

Astrid and Samira witnessed the sisters combat all manner of traditionally superior class combos... Paladin/Monk, Cleric/Rogue, Warrior/Bard even the deadly Wizard/Wizard.

Twix tore through all of them with contemptuous ease.

With almost a hundred-thousand player kills, Twix was a highly respected and feared duo in the Planes of Power gaming community. Twix was quite unique, they had chosen classes that were considered extreme, bordering on restricted.

Essentially, they were Mage pets... Specifically: A Necromancer's high level specialty pet and a Warlocks high level specialty pet.

It was the newest trend in player classes... Developers made those classes potentially powerful but equally demanding, difficult to learn and grueling to master. The kind of commitment needed to reach and maintain their level with these classes was a tribute to their tenacity.

Emma Rittergeist was a Frost Wraithknight, an unkillable elemental undead of frozen misery. Nikki Kage-no-honoo was a Shadow-Demon, a relentless whirlwind of shadowy claws bathed in fire.

Twix was on a different level... Because Nike and Nemesis were. They were elite combatants, celebrated veteran champions with nine tournament wins.

Samira got the overwhelming impression the sisters didn't just 'play' PvP... They ate, slept and breathed it. They fought with a tighter rhythm and employed deadlier tactics than anyone Samira had ever seen.

Twix casually utilized advanced moves that Samira had only heard of.

Samira marveled at the young women and thought them on par with any professional athlete she could name. She checked the 'POP-Kill for Credits' total Twix had scored... They impressively cleared a thousand on average every single day they played.

"Extremely impressive." The Security Chief stated without adulation.

"I like them." Astrid grinned, "They are viciously amazing."

Samira tapped her chin thoughtfully, "I wonder..."

Astrid raised an eyebrow, "Wonder what?"

Samira paused a few moments," If Agatha has already considered them for our Fantasy Class System..."

The Chief Engineer initially looked shocked, then intrigued.

"More importantly." Samira glanced suggestively at Astrid miming a blowjob, "Has Max?"

The Sorceress blinked, "Fuckmuffins... Do you think she would do that?"

Samira shrugged, "I have no Idea, but it's not my call... That would be entirely between Max and her sisters."

Astrid bit her lip, a rosy shade appeared on her cheeks.

"Are you into that?" Samira asked, a soft smile on her lips.

Astrid shrugged, "I was an only child."

Samira nodded, "Me too."

"Ever fantasize about that?" Astrid inquired.

Samira looked down... "A little."

Astrid smirked, "Me too."

"Brother or sister?" Samira raised an eyebrow.

Astrid bit her lip again, "Yes."

They both blushed and giggled.

0o0

"You're supposed to be dead." Nike said.

The towering woman nodded, "I've heard that before."

"Your voice is like Nanna's." Nemesis quietly commented.

Max helped her sisters back to the bed and stood in front of them.

Joon interjected, "So would either of you have your medical records?"

Nike just pushed out a lower lip, "Nanna said you were dead."

Max peered at them, with a raised eyebrow. *I don't think an intimidating glance is going to work, sweetheart, their vision is still pretty spotty at the moment.* Joon thought.

*The one on the left is a smart mouth.* Max replied.

*From the dialogue I have gathered, she is Nike and the other is Nemesis.* Agatha helpfully informed.

"Are you really Melinoe?" Nemesis inquired.

Max nodded, "I am, but I didn't find that out until very recently."

Nike scoffed, "Yea, okay."

"Nike... Don't be an asshole." Nemesis said softly.

Max blinked in surprise as Nike suddenly looked quite chastened.

"Melinoe..." Nemesis gathered herself, "I guess we should formally introduce ourselves... My name is Nemesis Xander, but sometimes I am Emma Rittergeist."

Nike continued, "Yea... My gamer tag is Nikki Kage-no-honoo, but Nike Xander is my real name."

"We are also collectively known as Twix." added Nemesis.

Max sat on the edge of the bed, "Well, let me introduce to you my wife, Jooniper Smith."

"Hi." Nemesis said softly, raising her hand still unable to clearly see Joon.

"Wait... Jooniper Smith? 'THE' Jooniper Smith?" Nike's sass returned tenfold, "No fucking way!"

Max cleared her throat, "Actually... Way."

Nike stopped dead in her sass, "Oh... Wow, blazers, nicely done then, big sister."

Joon giggled, "I will happily take that as the best compliment I've had all day!"

Nike giggled also.

"So..." Joon recaptured the focus, "Any medical records?"

"Yes." Nemesis responded politely, "If you have a data-fob, I can make you a copy."

"Are you..." Nike scowled. "Going to give us an examination?"

Joon walked around the very familiar bed and sat opposite of Max, reaching out to Nemesis' hand, putting a fob in it.

She then turned to Nike, "I already have."

Nike paled, "Oh..."

"Should we then consider ourselves your... Guests?" Nemesis inquired with a hopeful look into thin air.

Max shook her head, "Nope..."

Both Nike and Nemesis expressions dimmed.

"...You are family." Max announced, then reached over and pulled the petite conjoined twins into a gentle hug. Agatha noted a rapid decrease in anxiety and could feel a wave of affection emanate from the newest members of her family.

0o0

Narsil nodded in understanding, but Kymath blinked in confusion.

"I apologize, Prelate," Kymath began, "I do not understand why you are 'relocating' to Director Suomii's domicile?"

Narsil made a soft grating sound which was the Kintark equivalent of a chuckle. Mosira glanced at Narsil, then shifted her attention back to Kymath.

"Suomii believes it will greatly benefit Golamar and Freeport if we remain in close proximity."

Narsil put a clawed hand over his snout fighting to contain his mirth. Kymath peered curiously at Narsil, then it finally dawned on him. "Oh!" He said, then again but much softer, "Oh..."

Sub-prelate Kymath asked Mosira in a whisper, "Sso... It is sseriouss?"

Mosira was about to answer but Narsil cleared his throat loudly, "None of our concern, Kymath."

Kymath nodded to him, "You're right, however... I do not wish to ssee our honored Prelate ssuffer any distresss."

Mosira regarded her two Sub-prelates fondly, "I appreciate the interest, Kymath." She held Kymath's attention with narrowed eyes, "When I have departed, these quarters will be yours, if you want them."

Kymath blinked, "By Tamalaz the Fortunate... Do you require any assistance with transferring your belongings?" Both Mosira and Narsil broke out in laughter, barking hisses reverberating off the bulkheads inside the cruiser Urte'vol.

0o0

"So, you think we have enough to upload to TFNI?" Max inquired. Dame Captain Max Anders, a.k.a. Melinoe Xander was at her station on the bridge of the Terran corvette Deirdre, sitting on the large comfortable command couch. Her most exotic wife and one of her best friends occupied the helm, navigation, and stood in front of her.

Agatha nodded, "It's not as much raw data as collected from the Slarmians or the Dauzakai, but what we have on the Bract, beyond what we agreed to not share, is quite detailed."

Max brought a knuckle to her lip, "How much?"

"Seven hours." Agatha dutifully reported.

Max nodded, "Okay, let's get it in the queue then..." The towering Captain smirked, "I have a few choice things to discuss with my dear Uncle."

Agatha shared the smirk, "From what I've gathered about Naja Xander, he has his hands full."

"You don't think I should be a little pissed?" Max raised an eyebrow.

The Oneiran smiled, "I didn't say that, though I get the impression he might have met his match."

Max thought about that and chuckled, "Perhaps you're right... However, I still feel he and I need to have a little chat about our new additions."

Agatha grinned knowingly, "You're going to demand they become crew."

Max nodded, "Damn straight!"

Agatha giggled, "You know he's going to say they don't qualify; they aren't trained."

Max nodded, "Then, we'll just have to train them."

Agatha saluted. "Aye-aye, Captain."

With a smile on her face, Max logged into dark corners.

0o0

Agatha found herself sitting at an ornate holodesk in the very nicely furnished office of the suite she was currently staying in.

The temporary location for the Terran Federation Consulate of Dau was located in the Mazaka luxury resort of Udrill-za-Hedima, the cliff-city where Jooniper Smith had recently performed.

The Dau Council had agreed to allow development of Jherish-Milas for a more permanent Terran Consulate location. Agatha smiled as she scrolled through sites on the local holo-net. Her other two Hands on Dau were quite busy 'improving' and incorporating the Dauchazi and Daurazu individuals who were designated by their cultural authorities for diplomatic duty.

The improvement involved Dauzakai wetware, allowing them inclusion into the dream of Ambassador Zess, a unified Dau, which was quickly becoming a reality. Agatha was also instilling basic Dauzakai vocabulary and social norms in them.

Where the individual went from there was their choice, that concept alone made the effort very worthwhile to Agatha. The Dau Council had already agreed to accepting representation from the two native societies... in a limited capacity, to start.

A knock at Agatha's office door made her smile, Nomissa had been extremely involved in the Consulate development project. The elder Dauzakai was quite capable, not only was she knowledgeable about whom to contact, she was also adept at organizing.

"Come in, Nomissa!" Agatha projected. The erstwhile Caretaker came in and stood before the desk. Agatha looked up, "You know... I would prefer that our working relationship be 'not much' different than usual."

Nomissa blinked, "Indeed... You prefer a casually sarcastic and brutally honest office environment?"

"Yup!" Agatha giggled.

Nomissa smiled as she nodded, "I can live with that."

"So... Anything to report?" Agatha asked as she raised her eyebrow.

Nomissa nodded again and stood a little taller. "Jherish-Milas is being re-surveyed at this moment, I am certain it isn't necessary, but it is standard procedure." Nomissa sighed.

Agatha nodded and smiled.

"The Consulate will have to be constructed at a certain elevation, to assure any foul weather or tides do not damage the structure."

Nomissa paused then inquired, "Do you still wish to construct direct access from the depths for Daurazu and an aerie for Dauchazi?"

"If it is feasible, yes, I do." The First Secretary replied.

Nomissa nodded, "I will make sure it happens."

Agatha tilted her head, "I am under the impression you are not... enthusiastic with including the Dauchazi and Daurazu?