Cairo knew that she couldn't maintain her focus indefinitely given the mental chaos surrounding her. There were too many people in the damn room and too many of them were stressing out, all of which had the cumulative effect of stressing her out. Yes, Cairo fully understood the need for a Central Command. She also understood that Resistance Leadership had to be nearby, even if the proximity of that many minds simultaneously working in overdrive drove her right up to the edge of what she could handle. The ETs in the room, Quintavius, and Melkaan both knew what she was going through and sympathized with her situation. On the opposite side of the understanding spectrum, none of the Humans had a clue. Moreover, given the fact that other Humans weren't able to harness their latent telepathic ability, the species often unknowingly projected raw and inappropriate thoughts out to anyone within "mental earshot". Unfortunately, when in mixed company with beings who could "hear" every thought, emotion, and insecurity you had, it could get rather uncomfortable in no time, especially under high-stress conditions similar to what they were all facing right now. Making matters worse, the mission was already underway and it was Cairo's primary job to relay in-field status updates that came in every 5-10 minutes from the embedded, telepathically-enabled Arcturian "Runners" to Resistance Leadership in Central Command. Under normal circumstances, Cairo could handle such a task with ease but the circumstances she was dealing with now were anything but normal. Besides the general mental chatter that was endlessly spinning around associated with ongoing operations, she also had to deal with more than a few undisciplined minds that were continually spewing out all sorts of unrelated thought processes that served no purpose other than to jam the mental airwaves Cairo was depending on to keep the mission running smoothly. At this point, she had had enough and decided to let everyone within earshot know exactly how she felt.

"Ok people. If you don't need to be here, I ask that you leave now. Furthermore, those who do need to be here, please try to exercise some mental restraint. I, along with my esteemed colleagues of non-Human heritage, are, unfortunately, very much aware of every naked thought you are unwittingly projecting throughout the ether. Please stop."

The room went dead silent as all eyes suddenly fixated on her. And for a moment, that silence also included the mental airwaves. Cairo had emphatically made her point. Perhaps a bit rudely, but it seemed to work, she thought to herself.

Well, maybe not quite to herself...Quintavius looked directly at her with a knowing smile.

"This brief respite won't last, my dear, he telepathically communicated. "We suggest that you use the room Melkaan has set up. From there, as needed, you will be able to verbally communicate with the Generals and others using the intercom and still be able to avoid the mental distractions. I'm afraid if you remain out here, it will only be a matter of time before the chaos returns."

Cairo knew he was right and nodded in agreement. Apparently, Melkaan felt the same. As she looked over in his direction he had his eyes shut and was simply nodding in the affirmative. She wasn't quite sure why, but the unexpected and slightly absurd visual made her laugh. It was exactly the stress breaker she needed. At that point, and without uttering a word, she left the Resistance Command Center (RCC) and headed directly into an adjacent room roughly 50 meters away. Even though the room was quite a bit smaller she could still easily utilize her impressive "passive" and "active" mentalic range to monitor the Troop's whereabouts and overall condition without any worry that the cacophony of thought overload that nearly engulfed her would return. Thanks to Sirran technology, any outward mental activity that originated within 100 meters of the room's perimeter in all directions, was quelched to zero. And to think she had told Quintavius operating from such a 'quiet room' was completely unnecessary.

Wisdom gained over several centuries certainly had its advantages. She smiled at the thought.

Unfortunately, the stress respite was short-lived as the next Troop update abruptly came to her. The communiqué, which was sent to her from the lead Arcturian Runner, Xiao, was much louder and clearer than before.

"3 km from Command Center...3.5 km from the Final Mission Deployment site... 21 all well and accounted for...no sign of external forces, visually or otherwise...over."

Well, that's good news, she thought. Short and to the point, which was also appreciated since she would finally have time to physically and mentally acclimate to her new surroundings before the next update came in.

Or maybe not...

Suddenly, General Asoban's voice blared over the intercom.

"Well?" he asked impatiently.

How could he have possibly known that a message just came through? Highly annoying. Before answering, Cairo adjusted the intercom volume down 3 or 4 levels.

"I'm sorry General, all our people are ok and they are currently 3 clicks in. No signs of any external forces in range."

Through a glass wall that separated them, she could see into the RCC. By the look on his face and exaggerated nature of his extended stare, Cairo was fairly certain that the man in charge wasn't overly thrilled with her decision to relocate. Cairo was perfectly fine with that. She knew full well that remaining in the RCC would have eventually jeopardized the entire mission.

Mild annoyance aside, she also knew that she had little time to get adjusted to her new surroundings. She needed to get a good handle on where the Troop was, how far they had to go, and most importantly, that the Runners remained within her passive (listening) and active (communication) ranges at all times. Her telepathic abilities were extraordinary by any measure but they were not magical or without bound. Even the "Mighty Cairo", as she was snarkily referred to by some of her less charitable classmates on Arcturus, had limits. Very specific limits, in fact. Cairo had been tested more than anyone...literally. Even the normally stoic Arcturans were continually astonished at how far she could "hear" (14.80km) or "talk" (6.66km) telepathically. "Normal" ETs, both on Sirrah and Arcturus, had ranges that were less than half that.

As she began holographically plotting the Troop position relative to the terrain and boundaries associated with the DC Zeta compound in real-time, she heard a tapping on the window coming from the RCC. It was Gus, with Maddy by her side.

Oh please, she thought. What could possibly be so important that they need to talk to me right now? Don't they know that they were part of the problem? And no, I really don't need to know, over and over, just how badly you feel about "abandoning" your baby who is "helplessly" sitting 1000's of light-years away. Despite all that, Cairo awkwardly smiled and politely agreed to activate the intercom after seeing Maddy's silent mouthing of the question "is it ok"? Actually, no, it wasn't ok but she figured it's better to just get this over with...quickly.

As soon as the system was live, Maddy spoke first.

"I, well, actually we are very sorry. We obviously don't share your skillset. Nevertheless, we want to apologize for polluting the airwaves with our insecurities about personal matters that have nothing to do with the critical mission on hand. Our actions were selfish and it won't happen again. As new parents, we are trying to do our best but sometimes that steep learning curve gets the better of us. We hope you'll give us a one time pass." Maddy said with a slightly contrite smile.

Wow, they get it. Most non-TPs just don't understand and/or care about how their unfiltered thoughts can impact TPers around them. Cairo appreciated their self-awareness. She also knew that there was absolutely no way she could stay irritated, especially at Maddy. She hadn't known either of them for very long but her respect for Maddy's self-sacrifice, while she served as Chancellor of the Underground, was the stuff of legends. In fact, after thinking about it in that context Cairo suddenly felt quite small for being irritated at all.

"That's ok, don't worry about it. I know this is a stressful situation for everyone and leaving a newborn behind has to be way up there on that list. You certainly weren't the only ones making a lot of mental chatter, so please don't beat yourselves up too much. I just had to get out of there. I would have never forgiven myself if I missed something that led to a disaster with the Troop because of my inability to concentrate. It's all good, really, no worries." She responded with a tired but genuine smile.

Even though they were not in the same room, Cairo could see their immediate relief through the glass.

"Ok, I'm certainly glad to hear that Cairo," said Gus.

"We made a promise to you, and it won't happen again. That promise also extends to everyone else in this room. They may think that they are indispensable but it's brutally clear to anyone with half a Human or extraterrestrial brain that you are the one who is key to this entire operation. "

"Yes", Maddy chimed in. "...Now as promised, we will leave you alone. We have already wasted enough of your time." She said with another smile as they both waved and walked away.

As Maddy and Gus walked away, Cairo once again began to feel the pressure of the situation. Gus was right. A lot was banking on her "unique skill set" coming through without issue. It was a lot to ask of a 17-year-old, but that's not how she thought of herself. How could she? Ever since she could remember, Quintavius was constantly telling her she was 'x' years going on 'y', where x was invariably a single or low 2 digit number while 'y' was at least three digits long. She chuckled at the thought. Unfortunately, that wistful moment was fleeting.

The Troop's Arcturian lead Runner, Xiao, began repeating her message from earlier. At this point, just over 7 minutes had elapsed.

"3.7 km from Command C-"

"MY GOD I forgot to acknowledge!" She blurted out audibly. Xiao's abrupt stop of her mental transmission also let Cairo know that she was still within transmit range of the entire Troop. Not a good look for me!

Embarrassed, she still managed to quickly regain her composure.

"My apologies. The previous Troop update was received and communicated. Over.

Xaio, realizing the awkward moment probably embarrassed Cairo, did her best to quickly begin retransmitting her field report to Cairo.

"3.7 km from Command Center...2.8 km from the Final Mission Deployment site... 21 souls all well and accounted for...no evidence of hostile forces within detectable range ...over.

Cairo was irritated with herself. These were the kind of senseless detractions she wanted to avoid.

"Unacceptable. Can't, no, it won't happen again," she told herself.

And with that, she relayed the Troop status over the intercom to General Asoban. The updates would be coming every 5 minutes from this point forward and there was zero percent chance she would not be on top of things from here on out. While she didn't always agree with the General's tactics she did like the amount of detail that he and the rest of the Resistance Leadership Team put into this operation. Originally she wanted to be embedded within the Troop, which she had to admit was partially because Jake was involved. However, and not surprisingly, that notion was swiftly (and correctly) shot down by the General himself due to Cairo's "unique strategic value".

Having her at the RCC would enable pseudo-two-way communications with the Troop as they advanced towards the Zeta DC compound. As with any good plan, however, the brilliance was in the details. In this case, having the RCC established exactly 6.5 km from the final mission deployment site, which in turn was 2.4 miles from the closest structure within the Zeta compound was tactically optimal. This way, having Cairo situated at the RCC would enable her to actively communicate with the Troop right up to the engagement location. Her extended passive range of nearly 15 km also allowed her to "see" any potential alien TP activity that would be on the base itself, well beyond the final engagement location. Adding to the genius of the plan, was the makeup and in-field distribution of the Troop itself which consisted of 21 members, 6 of which were embedded Arcturian "Runners". These individuals, like Cairo, were selected because they possessed TP abilities. Unlike Cairo, however, their communication range was much more pedestrian by comparison with 2.4 km for active "talking" and 6.6 km for passive "listening". Still, based on the very precise concept of operations (conop) laid out by the General and his cohorts, the numbers worked out perfectly. With this setup, Cairo could receive regularly scheduled Troop updates from the embedded Runners, and if need be, she could actively communicate with them right up to the final deployment location 6.5km from the RCC.

She made sure that the Runners themselves were also set up strategically. Four of the six runners were each positioned at the outer perimeter of the Troop in a N-S-E-W configuration. These individuals were tasked to monitor any physical or "mental threats" that could potentially impact the operation. The remaining two runners were responsible for monitoring navigation, exact Troop location, the bio status of all 21 field members, and providing timely TP updates to the RCC Leadership Team, through Cairo. The key advantage of this mission conop was that no electromagnetic signals were in play at any time. As such, the risk of inadvertent ET detection was effectively zero. This was important given the undeniable prowess of Zeta's artificial intelligence drone force. Her team was also equipped with camouflage outer-wear that included built-in infrared technology that served to mask the natural bio thermal signal radiated by all warm-blooded beings. This bit of tech was an absolute must given the fact that they could, at any time, encounter AI drone surveillance forces. Overall, there was no denying that it was a pretty impressive operation that required considerable pre-mission planning to make sure that all moving parts integrated seamlessly. Even with considerable mission forethought, she knew that success would still ultimately ride on their ability to effectively harness her "unique skill set".

What was that?

Cairo suddenly felt a deep chill that ran through her entire body. A brief but intense blip of excruciating anguish was transmitted to her. Within a few seconds, it ended as abruptly as it began.

"Report!" She immediately communicated to Xaio.

It was nothing like she had ever felt before and it was in no way good.

Xaio, who was embedded close to the center of the Troop did not immediately respond to Cairo. Cairo "felt" Xiao's confusion and disorientation.

"What's going on out there? Report!" she demanded.

At that point, Cairo sensed that the in-field situation worsened and became disorganized. The agreed-upon plan was always to have one Runner be the focal point of mental transmission. The other runners were trained and instructed to be "quiet' and to remain in listening mode at all times unless specifically requested to communicate to the Lead Runner during updates or, if extenuating circumstances dictated, they needed to initiate external communication. Xaio knew this, as did Cairo. Unfortunately, whatever just happened out there quickly broke that protocol into 1000 pieces. For the next few minutes, Cairo tapped into deep emotions ranging from fear, surprise, confusion, and mental anguish from at least a dozen Troop members nearly simultaneously.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Xiao attempted to regain control of the situation and communicated back to Cairo.

"Zyniche is dead." She reported.

"What?!" Cairo responded incredulously.

It was hard for her to "hear" Xiao with all the highly charged mental traffic going on in the field.

She knew Xiao's TP signature very well and she could tell that she was doing her best to keep it together but it simply wasn't working. How could it? Cairo thought. She just witnessed her best friend's death!

Somehow, Xiao soldiered on and mustered as much courage as she could.

"Zeta land mine..." she said. "She never saw it. Nobody saw it...."

Cairo could "feel" the tears streaming down Xiao's face, which of course made Cairo instantly well up as well. There was no doubt that Xiao felt Cairo's pain as well.

Cairo had never experienced death first hand or any emotional outpouring like this in her short life. Cairo swallowed hard and attempted to control her breathing which was increasing as a result of her racing heart rate. Her close friendship with Zyniche made that task exceeding difficult. Arcturian TPs had so many interactions of the years between training and other exercises that in many ways they became kindred spirits. Cairo knew that it was something that other Humans simply could not identify with. It was also a major reason why her bonds with other TPs were always much deeper than any relationship she had ever had with another Human. Her Troop had just lost someone they all deeply cared about in an instant. And the emotions emanating from everyone, including Cairo, were overwhelming.

Suddenly, she recognized Jake's mental signature emerge.

He was shaken but realized that they had to regroup. Yes, you must, and quickly! Cairo thought.

"Central formation!" he yelled to the Troop that was now largely in disarray. As the remaining 20 members began to coalesce around him, Jake followed with another verbal command.

"As painful as this is for me to say, we do not have time to mourn Zyniche. We will honor her memory soon, but right now we are in grave danger. The Zeta drones will be upon us within minutes, if not sooner. Activate your IR shielding immediately."

He was right, Cairo thought to herself as she closely monitored the situation from afar. It frustrated her knowing there was absolutely nothing she could do to help them. She felt her heart rate quickening.

Xiao sensed Cairo's anguish and attempted to comfort her. "We will be fine Cairo...we all love you and will see you soon."

Despite the sorrow she was feeling, Cairo somehow managed a small smile as she closed her eyes and reciprocated the feeling back to her friend. Realizing the danger they were now facing she added, "Now go, you don't have much time!"

Cairo was painfully aware that the lives of Jake, Xiao, and 18 others were hanging in the balance. She knew that those mines were there in direct retaliation for the so-called NYC compound debacle. Of course, from the Resistance's standpoint, the epic Zeta failure was characterized as a glorious success. Arguably, the biggest win Humans and like-minded hybrids had in decades. Still, Cairo knew that if this current mission turned out to be a failure, or even worse, a massacre, none of that earlier success would matter.

"Come on people, move it!" Jake said as he tried to quickly relocate everyone to an area that provided ground cover. "The drones are coming," he added, "and they will shoot first and never ask questions later."