"Excuse me, yeah, this is Rita from down in systems management, and my password doesn't seem to be working."

"Alright hold on, let me share your screen for a minute."

"No problem."

"What is your access ID number."

"2224201AX."

"Thank you."

"Well it doesn't look to me like we are having any issues with the password host. Do you wat to try resetting your password."

"That should be fine, thank you."

"here let me give you access to that screen, and there we go, why don't you try that."

"Ah, got it, looks like I am in, thank you very much for your help."

"No problem, have a nice day."

Paula Ramirez turned off her headset, eyes glowing brightly with light from her computer monitors. She had six of them all together, all arrayed in front of her in a collage of color and light, Behind her ambient sunlight filtered through the window and onto her keyboard shed as reflective light from the Lunar surface. Paula did her best not to look at the beautiful blue-green orb that stretched beneath her. It made her sad to think what earth had become, but it also made her homesick.

Behind the earth, blocked by its bulk earth's sun or Sol hung in the sky like it had done for thousands of years, burning away thousands of tons of hydrogen to produce the radioactive heat that kept earth alive. She missed Sol, missed its burning heat, and its light. She missed the water, and the tide of the ocean. She missed the hot desert sand.

She missed Earth.

As good as Arcadia was, it was a manufactured utopia, a paradise for those who wished to live in a waking dream.

Not her.

She missed Earth, but did her best to ignore it as she flipped through her computer screens, the entirety of the orbital defense Nexus arrayed before her, like a whole new world to explore and exploit. Earth's defense Nexus had a multitude of components, the most obvious of which was the grid of Anti Air energy cannons, tidally locked to the rotation of the earth, following that was the shielding system, a bright blue/purple sphere that was only visible when impacted by space debris. The Nexus was generated by fusion reactors which powered the orbital defense cannons, and it took two cannons to create one triangular sections of the nexus shield.

Nothing was allowed through that wasn't permitted.

The only legitimate way through the Nexus was through the shipping lanes. These shipping lanes appeared in a tight formation between earth and the Lunar surface (Which as a side note was almost as heavily guarded as earth. She had already hacked their orbital defense system some minutes ago, and had it up on her top right screen. The moon was a very important part of the earth's Ecosystem, controlling the tides, and keeping Earth's rotation consistently stable and tilted at the correct angle. If the moon were to be destroyed, earth would experience apocalyptic flooding, volcanic eruptions, and likely more untold devastation, so Earth was eager to keep her as well protected.

The shipping lanes were less, lanes, and more like a minutely controlled system of openings in the nexus field. Three of the Gun's would divert power away from three sides of a triangle, turning off the shielding to allow ships to pass through in either direction.

That was all fine and good, however, their biggest problem was the Bioscans.

The bioscans were not a new technology, they had been introduced to earth shortly after they joined the GA in accordance with interstellar law against the movement and transportation of unwanted alien life from one planet to another. Basically it was an advanced version of customs, except the orbital defense system was equipped with a scanner array that could read and detect all biological life aboard a ship in one sweep. Anything that wasn't supposed to be there would be immediately terminated.

This was the GA's way of avoiding the issue of invasive species. The black plague could have been prevented through this system, as each of the ships traveling to Europe would have been scanned for biological life, and both the rats and the plague lice which they carried would have been vaporized accordingly. IN truth there were very few species of Earth-born animal that were allowed off earth to begin with. Herd animals were the big exception, and included horses, cattle, and sheep. The birthing rates are easy to control , they are domesticated, and they have a herd instinct.

The only half exception to the rule happened to be dogs, but that , as really ONLY because of their use as seeing eye dogs, drug sniffing, etc etc.

Anything else would be terminated.

And that included unwanted human life.

The bioscan could be programed as a type of weapon, acting as a secondary shield if the original shielding went down, and was in fact, their real problem.

That was where Paula came in.

She navigated her way through both Lunar and Terran systems before she managed to find the authorization list of all people who were given Visa's on and off the planet. These were the people who would be ignored by the Bioscans. Incidentally, there was another part of the system that gave an extensive list of people who were NOT allowed trough the bioscan.

This included most alien lifeforms, and people on the most wanted list.

Adam Vir was at the top of that list.

It wasn't difficult to change his status to accepted, though the hard part was to make sure no one noticed.

This was the only time that day that Paula actually had to go into the code. As she had stated before, hacking wasn't generally about the code, but about the people that you were conning. However, in this case, she was going to have to use some of her computing skill. Inside the code she found the line that would allow her to change his acceptance status.

To simplify the explanation, a computer speaks in a language of absolutes, it either is or it isn't: one or zero, nothing more. IN this case, all she had to do was flip a switch from a one to a zero and she would be good. However, she wanted it to LOOK like he was still denied access despite the change that she had made in the code, so she wrote a quick what if function, and applied it with only a few second looks.

She did that to the rest of the team before moving on to do the same for the Earth Nexus.

She waited for a while, listening over her radio to make sure no one had noticed her, and was pleased to find that no one had.

That was good,

Inside her little shuttle, cloaked with Celzex technology she leaned back in her seat and made the call, "You are ready for go."

"Copy that, Smileman."

She smiled lips pressed tightly together.

"""

"Good luck and be safe."

"Yes Abuela, we will." Adam said turning once to look at his fellows crouched in the cargo bay of a small supplies ship.

With him stood Sunny, Ramirez, Maverick, and Desmond. It was a small team, but that was part of the plan. The more people there were the higher likelihood there was of getting caught. The small team would be more mobile and easier to conceal.

"Alright everyone, we ready?"

"Maverick, Ramirez, and Sunny all gave nods, but Desmond was frowning, shifting rather nervously from one foot to the other."

"Just like that huh? She managed to turn off the bioscans which WILL vaporize us if we are detected."

Adam's face mirrored the bemusement of the others as he looked Demons over, "Detective." He said, rather teasingly, You haven't spend much time with Paula Ramirez, so I'll cut you some slack, but know this." He motioned around the small group before circling back to himself, "I would gladly stake my life and the life of my son, on that woman's abilities, and I would do it without a second thought.'

He didn't know if that made Desmond feel much better, because he didn't much have a choice. Now was the time to get moving

"Alright everyone, you know the plan."

Maverick reached down with one hand, and with a light tug cracked the lid to the container.

Ramirez stood next to her.

"This is rather morbid now isn't it."

Adam gave a half smile and cracked the lid to another container, "Maybe a little, but if it works...."

Maverick stepped inside the box with one foot, followed by the other sitting down and lying back, shimmying herself down against the cool gel interior, "I can think of at least one person who would be delighted to see you in a coffin ." She said

"Technically these are caskets not coffins." Adam corrected, being intentionally obtuse

"What's the difference." Ramirez wondered as he stepped into his own.

"Coffins are the funky shaped ones, caskets are just rectangles."

"Potato Potato." Maverick said.

Off to the side Desmond was nervously stepping into his. Adam stood over the group of them as they stepped inside their own caskets, gel lined for comfort. Each one of them had been supplied with a rebreather and a cooling system to mitigate the effects of being closed off in a confined space during transportation. It was an odd way to sneak in, but it certainly made the most sense.

Bodies were shipped back to Earth all the time, and sneaking their bodies in this way would be easier than trying to disguise themselves. With the bioscans out of the way, they should get through without any issue. Of course, dead bodies have been used to smuggle drugs for thousands of years. At this point it was almost a human tradition. Back when the western countries were waging war on the east, bodies, shipped back to the west were often cut open and stuffed with packages of heroine before being sealed back up.

Generally if the illegal substance was plant based, the bioscans could read and terminated it, however there were still problems with smuggling chemicals through the bioscan using bodies. For this reason there was a secondary chemical scan which caskets were put through, though the only thing that would show up on the scans would be biological material.

It was a pretty good idea, and he was smug with the knowledge it had totally been his idea.

He went around their little group, helping his team get comfortable, and helping to adjust the masks over their faces.

Maverick grinned at him her breath fogging up the breathing mask over her nose and mouth, "I knew you would put me in an early grave."

He snorted and adjusted some of her tubes, "Technically I haven't, this is just your casket. You good?"

Maverick nodded.

"Sure you don't have issues with confined spaces. You will be here for a while."

Maverick shook her head."

Ramirez laughed, "Did you know, she has a secret fort under her bed with pillows and blankets and shit. She loves small spaces.

Maverick shrugged, "If you're a small person, its important to learn to capitalize on it early."

Adam shook his head and laughed, before reaching up to close her lid. She gave him one last thumbs up before the lid hissed and snicked into place. He opened his comm to her.

"You good?'

"Yep stop worrying so much."

He finally dropped I and walked over to Ramirez, who clasped his hand once before letting Adam adjust the mask over his face, "You nervous?" Adam asked.

"I was sort of planning to just take a nap." Ramirez said with a wink, "I'll be dream of you."

Adam rolled his eyes, "You cand Conn, I swear."

Ramirez laughed and Adam shut the lid unceremoniously, listening to Ramirez laugh as he checked in with him over the radio.

He visited Desmond next, and the man showed no more signs of misgivings as he lowered the mask over his face. Adam adjusted his tubes and gave the man a look, resting a hand on his arm, "Just think, when this is all over, your ex and daughter are going to be save."

Desmond took a deep breath and nodded as the lid closed over him.

Sunny was already lying comfortable and adjusted when he made it to her, and he knelt next to her casket for a moment, "This is not an image that I find particularly pleasing." He said, "My wife in her casket."

She hummed softly, "Well, it's a good thing that my people don't believe in ground burials."

Adam frowned, "Well, I will have you know that I can't just leave your body out to rot for the animals to eat."

Sunny tilted her head thoughtfully, "I would like a pyre please."

Adam snorted, "What morbid conversation." He leaned down and kissed her forehead once , lingering for a moment before pulling away, "I'd rather not think about you dead."

A wry expression crossed her face, "Well, you will have plenty of time to think about me in other ways." She gave him a meaningful look that had him blushing like a school girl.

"Alright, I'm closing the lid now." She laughed at him as he did, and for a moment he stood alone on the deck, surrounded by caskets full of his friends, before shaking off the thought and walking over to his own casket. It was a surprisingly sobering moment alone to himself, before he stepped into the gel lined interior and lay down feeling as the gel conformed to his shape. He quickly adjusted the breathing mask over his face, shimmying in place to get more comfortable before reaching up, and tugging the lid closed with a hiss.

All went dark, and he was left silent and alone listening to nothing but the gentle beat of his own heart