Randoms (29 page)

“She is a random selection,” he said.

“Yes.”

“As are you.”

“Yes.”

“And to the best of your knowledge, you have no particular skills that would qualify you to be here.”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Do you think you are worthy of being here with the rest of the delegates from your world? Do you believe yourself a strong representative of your planet?” Vusio-om asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Unable to confirm veracity of response.”

“Those are all the questions I have for you.”

•   •   •

I turned to head back to my seat, but then shot back. In the confusion that had naturally sprung from my public humiliation, I'd
almost forgotten about my ace in the hole. I had better use it now, before it was too late.

“May I ask you a question?” I said to the Phand.

“No,” answered Vusio-om. “I will not be made to answer anything put forth by my brother's killer.”

“Counterquestioning is permitted,” said the clownish Darth Maul.

“I do not choose to permit it,” answered Vusio-om.

“Chief Justice,” I said to Junup, “on my world, failure to grant the accused their rights disqualifies the findings of any judicial proceeding. How do you guys do things here?”

“The applicant is correct,” said the quadruped to the Phand. “You must answer, or this hearing is not valid.”

“That is an insult,” the Phand said in his low voice. Then he worked his jaw side to side for a moment and glared at me. “You may ask what you will.”

I took a deep breath. I knew in my heart that I had saved the
Dependable
that day. If I had been better trained, perhaps I wouldn't have destroyed the Phandic ship, but at the time I did the best I could with the little knowledge I had. I didn't have a lot of great moments in my life, but that was one of them. Even so, I believed the hearing was not going my way. Vusio-om was doing a pretty good job of making my actions look rash and my character appear shady. I had one play remaining, and it was time I made it.

My heart pounded in my chest as I began to speak. “When the Phandic ship attacked the
Dependable
, it cut through the shields much more quickly than the bridge crew expected. I later learned that it was using new weapons technology, which the Confederation would be able to learn how to counter.
So my question is this: If the Phandic ship did not intend to destroy the
Dependable
, why waste a one-time advantage on the attack?”

The Phand slammed his hands down on his table. “I have no idea!” he shouted.

“Unable to verify veracity of response.”

Vusio-om snorted. “Then I shall say that information is classified, and I need not reveal more than that.”

“That is true,” Junup said. “He need not be made to provide information regarding military secrets.”

He didn't have to answer. The facts were now out. “That's all I wanted to ask,” I said, and I sat down, knowing I had done what I could, and hoping it would be enough.

I returned to my seat, and Vusio-om called his final witness: Nora Price.

She stood and stepped forward to face the council.

“How well do you know Zeke Reynolds?” asked Vusio-om.

“I met him only when his name was provided to my government,” she said.

“Other than the day he destroyed a Phandic cruiser, have you ever seen him engage in criminal activity?”

“I have not witnessed such activity.”

“What about morally dubious activity?”

“The day I met him, he attempted to extort special favors from the leader of my nation in exchange for his listening to the proposal from the Confederation representative.”

She was talking about my asking the president to help my mother with her insurance.

“Are you saying,” Vusio-om asked, “that Ezekiel Reynolds would not entertain the possibility of helping his world advance
into a technologically superior civilization unless special favors were granted to his family?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“And did this surprise you?”

“I thought it lamentable that he did not appreciate the opportunity presented to him.”

I looked at Dr. Roop, who was busy rubbing his horns nervously. Ms. Price had sold me out, just as I thought she would, just as Tamret had warned me. The woman from my own world, my own country, who was supposed to be looking out for me, was trying to make certain I was delivered over to the enemy.

“You participated in a debriefing session immediately after the destruction of that ship?”

“Yes.”

“Did he say he regretted his actions?”

“No. Quite the opposite. He said he was glad he had destroyed the ship.”

“Did Ezekiel Reynolds inquire how many beings were aboard the ship he destroyed?”

“No. He was mainly interested in defending what he had done.”

“And as far as his associating with the criminal delegates from other species, did you have any objections to that?”

“I did,” Ms. Price said. “In fact, I told him to stop spending time with those beings, but Zeke would not follow my instructions. He refused to listen to me.”

“Even though you are in a position of authority?”

“Correct,” Ms. Price said.

“Thank you, Nora Price. I have no further questions or witnesses.”

She returned to her seat and smiled at me and Dr. Roop as though we could not have objected to anything she said. Dr. Roop would not meet her gaze, but I felt myself trying to bore a hole in her face with my eyes.

Vusio-om now told the council he wished to make a summary statement, and he was given permission to do so.

“Members of the council, I believe what has been made clear here today is that Ezekiel Reynolds had an understanding of the destructive power of dark-matter missiles, was familiar with your rules of engagement, and in spite of this knowledge, fired ten of the most terrible weapons you possess . . . at a single ship. There is no possible interpretation of this act but a clear desire to kill. Given that he has expressed pride at what he did, a willingness to do it again, and has shown no regret for his actions, I believe we must conclude that Ezekiel Reynolds is an unrepentant killer.

“His species, the humans, are guilty on their home world of the most monstrous atrocities: murder, slavery, genocide, the deployment of weapons of mass destruction against civilian populations. The same is true of the Rarels, the Ish-hi, and the Ganari. I believe that the deaths of my comrades are the direct result of the selection committee's deliberately choosing to recruit barbarian species out of recognition of the Confederation's fading power.”

“With all due respect,” said the quadruped, “you have no idea what the selection committee intended. None of us do.”

“That is where you are wrong,” said Vusio-om. “As is known to your chief justice, as well as to other high-ranking members of your government, the ship carrying your selection committee was detained when entering Phandic space illegally. Your
leaders have been briefed as to their location and condition. We have had the leisure to learn much from your selection committee about this group of initiates.”

The data collectors, in their tight little cluster, began to speak excitedly among themselves. Three bombshells had been dropped: first, that the selection committee had been intentionally recruiting species with a tendency toward violence; second, that the members of the committee were alive and held prisoner by the Phands; and third, that members of the government knew all this and had kept the whole debacle a secret.

“I cannot comment on classified information,” said an embarrassed-looking Junup, “but if you are holding our citizens hostage, then I ask you to release them.”

“They are not hostages; they are criminals,” said Vusio-om. “However, should we find ourselves in a situation in which relations between our two cultures are more amicable, I believe we would be inclined to free those prisoners as an act of goodwill.”

And there was bombshell number four. If the council voted to hand me over, the Phandic Empire would free the committee members. Great. These guys were all politicians. They were probably friends, ate at one another's houses. Who would the judicial council want to protect more—their colleagues or an alien troublemaker?

Junup looked flustered, but once he had returned the room to order, he announced that it was time to call for a vote.

Dr. Roop had explained to me that the council would cast their votes using their bracelets, and that once all votes were in, the results would be displayed on the screen behind the bench.

I watched as each member appeared to lose focus and then nod to him- or her- or itself. The entire process took less than
thirty seconds. No one seemed to take much time to deliberate, and yet I think I felt every heartbeat in those seconds. Dr. Roop whispered something in my ear, and I was unable to concentrate enough to listen, but I nodded. What happened now would seal my fate on this station, maybe the fate of my entire planet.

Finally the insignia of the Confederation broke apart, and the screen began to assemble the tally. Letters and numbers presented themselves, and though my nanites translated them, they were still nothing but gibberish. I couldn't make myself see them. Then, all at once, they snapped into place.

Six members of the council had voted to refuse extradition; four had voted to approve. I slumped in my chair as the meaning of this information hit me. I was safe.

Vusio-om launched himself to his feet. “I was promised justice, not a farce!”

Dr. Roop was hugging me, and then he was shaking my hand, Earth-style. The data collectors were busy talking and recording and typing excitedly. Somewhere in all this, Ms. Price had excused herself, and she was nowhere to be seen.

Junup, for his part, looked furious. Had he expected things to go the other way? Had he been sure they would? I had no idea, but in that moment I felt absolutely certain that Junup had wanted me to be sent to the Phands.

Vusio-om rose from his chair and stormed down the aisle. He then turned to face the council, dropped his jaw, and vomited prodigiously once again. Once again it was disgusting, and once again no one needed to tell me that this was a gesture of contempt.

“I see now I was wrong to place my faith in Confederation
justice
,” he said, slurring the last word. “You ask me to prance about for your amusement, but you never intended this to be a fair hearing. I now say, for all to hear, that Zeke Reynolds is a criminal, and his very world is an abomination. We shall take steps to cleanse the galaxy of its contagion. As for you of the Confederation, you claim you seek peace, but you offer up insult. Understand me when I say that there will be no peace while Ezekiel Reynolds lives.”

So saying, he left the court.

Vusio-om's words stung me because I understood them for the threat they were. The Phandic Empire did not consider this matter resolved, and their beef was not with the Confederation, but with
me
. More than that, Vusio-om had uttered almost the exact words used by the Klingon ambassador about James Kirk in
Star Trek IV
. That was bad news, because if the parallels continued, I would find myself living in
Star Trek V
, without doubt the worst
Star Trek
movie of them all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

T
he data collectors swarmed around me as I left the hearing room, but Dr. Roop made a serviceable bodyguard, and soon we were past the press of cameras and camera things and hovering recording devices and shouted questions. A secure area had been set off to the side, and Dr. Roop took my arm and gently steered me in there to wait out the chaos.

Tamret was waiting for me, and the instant I stepped through the doors she ran over and threw her arms around me. I knew she had been watching on the news outputs, and that meant she'd seen that I'd been forced to talk about the things she'd done. I only hoped she didn't hate me for it.

“I'm sorry I gave you up,” I said softly, feeling dizzy in the wake of all that had happened.

“You tried not to,” she said. “You did everything you could to protect me.”

“I'm glad you know that.”

I saw her face grow dark with rage, and I thought my inexperience with females of any species had led me to make a huge error. Then I realized Tamret was reacting to something else entirely. Charles, Nayana, and Mi Sun had just walked into the room.

Tamret walked toward them, fast and steady, swaggering like a predator. One of her fingers jabbed the air, her claws out. Her expression was dark, and her mouth was open, exposing her sharp canines. “You have a lot of nerve coming here.”

“I know,” Mi Sun said, holding up her hands. “Dr. Roop messaged us when he found out the data collectors were going to broadcast the hearing, and we saw the whole thing. I'm really sorry, okay? I'm so sorry to both of you. I didn't know she was going to use it against you.”

The apology seemed to confuse Tamret. “What, so now you care what happens to me? To Zeke?”

Charles was about to answer the question, but he was distracted by Ms. Price, who entered the room. Mi Sun strode up to her, looking every bit as dangerous as Tamret had looked just moments before.

“Before anyone gets angry, you need to understand something,” Ms. Price said.

“I understand you're a liar,” Mi Sun said, her voice cold and full of contempt, “and I'm sick of it! You told me you weren't going to do anything to hurt her, and then you used what you tricked me into telling you against Tamret
and
Zeke? A member of our own delegation? What is wrong with you?”

“I am doing everything I can to protect our
world
, which is a lot more important than any one person.” Ms. Price spoke slowly, her voice thick with constrained fury.

“That's what you tell us,” Charles said, “but I begin to wonder. I am through cooperating with you. We have discussed this, and we are all in agreement.”

“I don't think you know what you're saying,” Ms. Price told him.

“And I don't think you know what you're doing,” Mi Sun said. “You've been against Zeke from the beginning. You're the one who made us box him out.”

“I advised you how best to advance to eighty levels,” Ms. Price clarified. “I'll remind you that the Rarels and Ish-hi have ostracized their randoms as well.”

“The Ish-hi and Rarels don't have a random who saved an entire starship,” Charles said. “After that, you still ordered us to turn our backs on Zeke.”

“Wait, what?” I said, but they were not listening to my insightful commentary.

“It is a historically valid practice,” she told them. “I knew he would bring down the team scores. Look at him. He's level nine.”

“You don't really believe that, do you?” Mi Sun was now shouting. “He logs every possible hour in the flight sims. He destroyed a Phandic cruiser. He's constantly playing and winning those stupid Former games. Do you honestly think he's only level nine? He's holding back on his leveling to fly under the radar—for all the good it's done him.”

Ms. Price stared at me, her expression dark and murderous. “Is this true?”

“Initiates are under no obligation to use skill points as they achieve them,” Dr. Roop told her. “Frankly, I wonder why this possibility upsets you so much.”

“Quiet, Skippy,” Ms. Price said. “No one's talking to you.”

“Skippy,” I informed her, “was a kangaroo. Not a giraffe.” Someone had to take a stand for pop-culture justice.

Mi Sun turned to me. “Zeke, while we were watching the hearing, we all agreed that we were wrong in how we treated you. It would have ended a long time ago if Ms. Price hadn't told us that Earth's future depended on us not being friends with you. We're all really sorry.”

Tamret took my hand and glared at Mi Sun. “He doesn't accept your apology.”

I appreciated her coming to my defense, even if I would have phrased things differently.

“Thank you,” I offered Mi Sun.

“Don't thank her,” Tamret said coolly. “I hate her, and so do you.”

Ms. Price balled up her fists and let out a groan of frustration. “You all need to grow up!” she shouted. “You think this is a game? The Phandic Empire, the most dangerous collection of beings in the known galaxy, wants Zeke dead, and you are treating this like it's a Taylor Swift song in space. Don't you understand that you are all in danger? Our entire planet is in danger. Did you not hear the ambassador just threaten the Earth? You want to think I'm the villain, but I am trying to keep as many humans alive as I can.”

“Would they really attack Earth?” I asked Dr. Roop.

“I don't know,” he said. “They haven't done anything like that in the past, but they're angry, and, uh, they may be willing to take more drastic steps than they have in the past.”

I knew what he meant. Maybe in days gone by the Phands never would have dared to attack a planet the Confederation was evaluating, but now things might be different. Had I endangered my world by refusing to face Phandic justice?

“Do I turn myself over to them?” I asked Dr. Roop.

“Don't be an idiot!” Tamret shouted. “Dr. Roop, tell him not to be an idiot.”

“Do not be an idiot,” Dr. Roop said.

“But Earth might be in danger.”

“The Confederation has a vast fleet,” he said. “Command
understands the situation. Earth will be protected.”

“Were the Ganari protected?” Ms. Price asked. “You are kidding yourself if you think the Confederation is going to inconvenience itself for our little planet. I hate the idea of having to hand Zeke over, but my duty is to my country and my world, and that will always come first. It should come first for all of you, too.”

She turned around and marched out of the room. No one said anything for a long time. Every time I began to think I understood a person or a situation, it seemed the rules changed around me. I felt like I needed to get away, not least because I suddenly realized what was so familiar about the appearance of the Phandic ambassador. The shape of his head was exactly like that of the artificial fighters in the sparring room.

All this time, the Confederation had been training us to fight Phands.

•   •   •

A couple of minutes later, Captain Qwlessl and Urch walked into the room. I greeted them both. The captain hugged me and Urch slapped my back until I begged him to stop. Then the captain took me aside.

“I can't stay long,” she said. “This hearing diverted me from an ongoing assignment, but I wanted to stop by and see you before I left.”

“Dr. Roop told me what you were prepared to do,” I said quietly.

“It doesn't matter now because it wasn't necessary.”

“It matters to me.” I looked over at Dr. Roop, who was looking at us and pretending not to. “It matters to him, too. I think he still likes you, by the way. If you're wondering.”

“That was a long time ago,” she assured me. “Back then, I actually considered converting for him.”

“You two are from different religions?”

“No, nothing like that. It's what we call it when we change our outward appearance. Sometimes when members of two different species want to be together, it's easier if one of them changes his or her exterior.”

“You can do that?”

“To a degree,” she said. “You can't make yourself into an Ish-hi and have your friend's abilities, if that's what you're thinking. It's all cosmetic, but it can make for a happier relationship. But our lives got in the way, and here we are now.”

There was an unmistakable tone of sadness in her voice. “I'm glad you didn't have to give up being a captain to help me,” I said.

“Being a captain of a Confederation ship means it was my duty to help you,” she told me. “Everyone else may forget what we're doing here, but I won't.”

She gave me another hug, and I said good-bye to her and Urch, and they headed out. Then we were just standing there, recovering, and no one had anything to say.

“I'm going back to my room,” I announced.

“I want to talk to you alone,” Tamret said. “Come to my room.”

•   •   •

When we got to her room, Tamret said, “Hold on. I've worked out a system so Thiel won't disturb us.” She then proceeded to affix a note to the door that read
Stay out, or I'll punch you in your stupid face.
Nice system.

Once we were alone, I felt it all catch up to me. My legs grew wobbly, and I sat down on Tamret's bed and put my head
in my hands. All along I had been aware of the stakes, but now I felt how close I had come to losing everything—my life, my mother, my world. It could have gone either way, all too easily. At this moment, I thought, I might be on board a Phandic ship, bracing myself to suffer torments and punishments I could only guess at. Or, if I was lucky, I'd be spirited off with Captain Qwlessl, who would have sacrificed her career to save my life. Even in that best-case scenario my mother and my planet lost out, and I would probably never see Tamret again.

“I almost lost everything,” I said.

“But we had a plan, didn't we?” she said, her eyes wide. “We were going to escape together. Right?”

“Tamret,” I began, and I knew uncertainty was written all over my face.

She pushed my shoulder. “You lied to me? You wouldn't want me to go with you?”

“They want to
kill
me,” I told her. “I couldn't ask you to die or be imprisoned or be tortured. I couldn't ask you to give up everything, including your world's chance to join the Confederation, just so you could die on the run with me.”

“That's my decision,” she said. “And nothing would have happened to me. The point is that you have to do what I tell you to do because as long as you're with me, nothing is going to happen to you.”

“You don't know that.”

“Yes, I do. I told you. I can do anything.”

I felt my muscles tense with frustration. “You say that, but saying it won't save you.”

She rolled her eyes at my evident stupidity. “I saved you today.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

She stood up, took in a long breath, and began to pace around the room. “Zeke, that hearing was not going to go your way. Everyone could see it was a big joke, which was why I decided I needed to sort of keep an eye on things.”

Now I was standing too. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. “You hacked into the system?”

“Calm down,” she said. “I did what I had to do. I saw the vote before anyone else. And then I changed it.”

I sat down again, terror replacing my irritation with Tamret. “What was the vote? What was it really?”

She turned away. “Zeke.”

“All of them?”

She nodded. “It was unanimous against you.”

“They're going to find out,” I said. “Tamret, they are going to catch you.”

“I know how to cover my tracks.” She came over and sat next to me. “They may eventually figure out the final count was hacked, especially if they talk to each other about how they voted, but they won't be able to trace it back to me.”

I looked at her. “You really can do anything.”

She grinned. “I keep telling you.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I wish you wouldn't put yourself in danger, but thank you.”

“I will always help you, Zeke. You have to believe that. But I also need you to be honest with me about your plans. Can you do that?”

“Yes.” It was all I could manage. Her fierce loyalty was almost more than I could bear.

“Do you believe you'll be safer if you tell me everything?” she asked.

“I think I'll either be a whole lot safer,” I said, “or in a whole lot more danger.”

She thought about that for a moment. “That sounds about right.”

•   •   •

About a week after the hearing Steve, Tamret and I were walking through the commons when I was approached by a humanoid with onyx-black skin and an explosion of brilliantly white hair, all of which made her look like a drow.

“You're him, aren't you?” she said, full of bubbly enthusiasm. “You're Zeke Reynolds.”

“Beat it,” Tamret said. This was pretty much how she addressed most beings who came up to me, especially the female ones.

The girl turned to her and was about to say something when a collective gasp filled the space. I looked around. Everyone, for as far as the eye could see, was now turned toward their nearest video monitor or looking at a video feed on a data bracelet. We were about twenty feet from a projected public holographic screen, but people stood in the way. Steve and I muscled our way forward, and I pulled Tamret along by her hand.

When I got close enough to see, I felt a wave of nausea sweep over me. I suddenly grew cold. Tamret must have sensed it, because she wrapped her arms around me before looking at the screen. When she saw what was there, her arms went limp.

The screens were tuned to different news outputs, but they were all showing the same thing. It was shaky footage of a battle in space between a single, small Confederation ship and three massive Phandic saucers like the one I'd destroyed. The text at the bottom of the screen identified the images as having been
picked up from Phandic media broadcasts. They identified the ship as the
Dependable
.