Part 29: Interrogation

Tied down to a chair and paralyzed, Jade tried to relax, tried not to think about what could be coming. She was a pilot during the Liberation of Kilos. As a part of her training, she was what to do in the event that she’d been shot down over hostile territory and taken captive. There were rules to war, even amongst alien civilizations, but she was prepared for the worst. As a prisoner, she could be a valuable source of information, and her instructors laid out in gruesome detail and, occasionally, demonstration, what a captor might do to extract that information. She tried to remember the useful lessons she received during that training, while at the same time pushing back the possible tortures that would be employed on her. To her dismay, she seemed to failing at the task. It was only the distant wailing of a siren that pulled her mind from her own personal horror show.

*****

Alex took a deep sigh as he prepared to drop the Bucephalus from hyperspace. Kwame sat nervously next to him, ready to send out their prearranged signal to the waiting Byron and Brimstone Squadron, and manning the ship’s combat controls. In the docking bay, Michael patiently waited to launch his personal starship, built from the antiquated ship they’d found him floating in and upgraded with the best of modern starfighter technology. No matter what he saw when they reemerged in real space, Alex knew that all hell was going to break loose soon enough.

“Dropping back into real space on my mark… 3… 2… 1… mark,” Alex said. Outside the cockpit, the streaks of hyperspace disappeared and were replaced with a star field. Directly in front of them, behind a myriad assortment of ships and space stations, was the largest planet that Alex had ever seen. He didn’t have much time to think about that, however, as he had more pressing issues, namely trying to see if there was an attack imminent.  He scanned his sensors while Kwame waited to send their signal to Byron.

“It is too quiet,” Kwame said, his normally calm voice cut with tension. “Maybe we can just jump back to hyperspace.”

Alex was strongly considering that option himself when his scanners picked up something that made him furrow his brow. “Nope, that’s not gonna happen, signal Byron, we might not have another chance to.”

“What is it?” Kwame asked as he sent the signal. He just began to receive the confirmation when the communications console went silent.

“Gravity mines… they’re waiting for us… ready the weapons,” Alex said. An indicator light blinked on his control panel, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a white streak flying away from the Bucephalus.

 Michael called over the radio, “I’m going to see if I can take out a few of those mines, make a hole for us to sneak out of.”

“Sounds good,” Alex replied.

“What is our plan now?” Kwame asked.

“The way I see it, they might not know that we know that they know about us. So we make our way to the supply station and wait for Byron to get here with his fighter squadron.”

*****

The Head Kilon Security Officer hunched over a sensor console with a junior technician. “Is that our rogue cargo ship?”

“Yes sir, the ship has been identified as the Bucephalus, the same vessel that attacked the Patrol Ship at Miraxix.”

“Good. Sound the alarm, but let them proceed on course. We must not let them know that we are aware of their criminal activities and intent.” The officer left the console and walked to the view screen, making out a tiny white dot moving towards one of the outermost supply stations. He could not help but feel a small amount of accomplishment. He was about to quietly and easily stop the first threat the SPARK project had experienced, all while Broker Mertomco was on site, and under the watchful eye of Mertomco’s “extra security detail”.

That last element was something that did not sit right with him and most of the other Kilon officers on the project. The two frigates had just arrived, unannounced. Even before Mertomco called him to explain what was going on, the officer knew what those ships were. They were instantly familiar to anyone who’d fought in the Redipsilon War. But they shouldn’t be here. They were ghosts, rumors. And having seen the horrors of war, the Kilon officer knew they were harbingers of tragedy.

*****

Jade instantly hated that siren. No matter what caused it, it could not be good for her and John. Maybe that was the arrival of the Bucephalus, carrying Alex, Kwame, and Michael into a trap. What else could it be? Jade’s mind screamed, her body unable to even try to struggle against her restraints. The opening of the door only increased her panic.

Where she was sitting, Jade could not see who’d come in. Was it an interrogator? Guards come to take her and John someplace terrible. She calmed her mind, and braced herself for the worst. It was a mild surprise when the sirens went silent. Then she heard a familiar voice begin ask questions.

“I know that the entire story of your mutonium claim is a lie, but be honest with me, is it true that you’ve come to destroy the SPARK?” Dr Uitleg asked, her voice filled more with disappointment than menace.

Jade saw no reason to withhold the truth now. “No, we just wanted to steal some mutonium,” Jade answered. “We have a debt to repay, and this was the only option to cover it.”

Dr Uitleg walked around to where Jade could see her. She gave Jade an appraising look, then turned her gaze to John. She walked to his chair and crouched in front of him, gently placing her hand on his leg and looking him in the eye. “Is that true?”

“Yes, we had no intention of doing anything to the SPARK. Before we arrived, we didn’t even know what it was.”

Dr Uitleg stood up, and without taking her eyes off of John, paced back and forth for a moment. “The SPARK is the culmination of my entire life’s worth. It is a tool to spread life… it is good.”

Jade couldn’t understand why Dr Uitleg was here. If this was an interrogation, it was a poor one. Frustrated, she blurted out, “What do you want from us?”

Dr Uitleg stopped pacing, and looked Jade in the eye. “You aren’t here to blow up the SPARK, only to steal in order to repay a debt?”

“Yes,” Jade and John said in unison.

“Then I’ve come to get you out of here… and go with you.”

Jade’s jaw dropped. Dr Uitleg opened a hidden panel on the wall, accessing a console. Almost instantly, Jade could move her body again. In a few moments, she and John were both out of their restraints.

“Ok,” Dr Uitleg said cheerily, “What do we do now?”