Sac'a'rith (29 page)

“Your previous debt was all medical expenses. People don’t normally have any choice about those,” he said.

I said nothing in response. I had learned from previous interrogations that the secret was to say as little as possible. If they make statements, you don’t respond.

“Tell me about the explosion of the P
aradise,” he said.

“Sorry, I can’t. I wasn’t there for it and know nothing about it,” I lied. This was where I had to be particularly careful. When Raquel and Ragnar had asked me for a statement, I told them exactly what happened from the day that Purwryn was kidnapped until we joined their crew. They asked no questions about the explosion and I offered no information.

“Your father was on board. Correct?” he asked.

I was sure my father would have found a way off before the explosion. “I don’t know; I wasn’t there.”

“Do you have any reason to think he wasn’t there?” asked the agent.

“As I said, I wasn’t there. I can’t confirm or deny something which I know nothing about.”

He leaned back in the chair and said, “This will go a lot faster if you just tell me what you know.”

“You already have my statement,” I said, gesturing to the datapad on the table.

“Yes, but it tells me nothing about the explosion,” he replied.

I didn’t respond to that. I could see Raquel in the corner with a big smile on her face. She was enjoying the agent’s frustration with me and didn’t care if anyone noticed.

I also knew that the agent wouldn’t be happy and would persist. I kept a running log of all the questions he asked and every answer I gave, so when he tried to trip me up by asking the same question phrased differently I could repeat my original response. Just to be extra annoying, I pointed out when I had already answered a question and then told him my answer had not changed in the last few minutes.

The agent kept trying, hiding his frustration. He pressed questions about my medical history, previous money issues and so on, obviously trying to establish a motive for destroying the Paradise. No doubt he reasoned that if he could establish a motive he could then press for extradition.

After an hour, Raquel stepped forward and said, “I’ve heard enough. Marcus, you may go.”

I rose to leave and the agent started to protest. Zah’rak stepped between the agent and myself and opened the door to let me out. As I left I heard Raquel say, “You had your chance, but you haven’t convinced me you can establish a means or motive. Extradition is still denied.”

Purwryn was waiting for me outside the room. “How did it go?”

“With a little luck, he’ll be so angry and frustrated that he won’t get any sleep tonight,” I said.

He smiled and shook his head. “I wish I did know what happened. I mean, I was shot, kidnapped, drugged and interrogated by someone for some reason. It’d sure be nice to know why.”

“Yeah.” I sympathized with him but had no answers. As far as I knew, his introduction into the Paradise mission and the events surrounding it were a lucky coincidence for me.

“Any word from your father?” he asked.

I had told him I was sure my father had made it off the Paradise before it exploded, but I hadn’t told him how I knew that. I suspected he thought me in denial as a way to cope, and maybe I was. “No, but he’d have no idea where to send a message. The last he heard, we were heading to Phineary.”

“True,” he replied.

We walked quietly through the station towards patient registration, and I remembered I needed to talk with him about something personal and important. “Purwryn, when I check in, I have to assign someone full medical authority to make decisions on my behalf if I’m unable to do so. I would be honored if you’d allow me to appoint you.”

“Me? Wouldn’t it be wiser to appoint Raquel? She’s more or less your doctor,” he said.

“But you’re my friend. Besides, you can always ask her opinion; I’d just feel better if you had the final say.” There was wisdom in suggesting Raquel, but I knew I could trust Purwryn to do the best by me, and Raquel to do the best for the team and the mission. Normally those goals would line up, but I couldn’t count on that.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” he said quietly. “You just make sure you pull through this, you hear me?”

I thought that was an odd question. “Oh, my hearing implants are fine. They aren’t even on the list to be replaced.”

He shook his head and kept walking. When we got to the desk a nice primitive woman checked me in, her hands flying across the keyboard. It was such an inefficient means of entering data, but she was fast for a primitive. There was a time when no person was involved in the check-in process; patients just walked through a scanner and were automatically entered into the system, but it turned out to be surprisingly inefficient. Most patients had questions, special requests or other issues that an automated system couldn’t handle, so people were reintroduced into the process. It was almost paradoxical that a slower primitive interface like this was a faster process than a pure, automated interface. It was yet more proof that the best way forward was to combine the two and retain the advantages of both.

When everything had been entered, a nurse took me back to a changing room with a safe. I was instructed to put all my personal belongings in the safe and put on a gown that barely gave lip service to modesty. The room was predictably chilly, but my internal systems simply adjusted my bodily functions to generate more heat in compensation.

While I waited, I received a message on my internal communications network.

“Agent P2003, report
,” came the electronic-sounding voice. No one around me would be able to hear anything. It was all in my head.

“Operations progressing as planned,” I silently replied.

“
Current status?
” asked the voice.

“I was heavily damaged and am going in for repairs,” I replied.

“Dump mission report,”
said the voice.

“Initiating dump,” I said and started the operation from my internal memory net. When it was completed, I said, “Dump complete. Mission still on track. Will be offline for repairs for one to two days.”

“Acknowledged. Continue mission. Report back after repairs with new operational specifications,”
said the voice.

Two weeks had passed since we’d heard from the Phareon commander and several days since Marcus had come out of surgery. Master Mathorn had finally been able to get us a shipment of gold and diamonds.

It was exciting working on the new type of armor for which Master Spectra had given us the formula six months ago. It was taking a lot longer to craft, but it should be much tougher and repair itself faster. I wondered if it would still be green, like the other armor I’d made. Was that green because I’d made it or because of the materials I’d used? I must see if that was covered in the information they gave us. If I could make customized colors, that would be even better.

I had already begun a set of armor with the materials we’d been able to recover from Siden, but had run out of materials due to mistakes along the way. The new armor required a much greater degree of precision than that I had made previously. Thankfully this stop at the hospital had left me with a lot of down time, so I was able to focus on the armor. Even with the setbacks I should have Marcus’ armor ready soon, as well as the experimental design for my own armor.

I went down to the cargo bay to get the supplies I needed for the crafting when Shira stopped me.

“Zah’rak!” she said.

“Hi, Shira.” She had been seeing Dr. Leslie every other day since we docked. It seemed to be helping her, but she still stayed on the ship in hydroponics most of the time.

“I was wondering: can we use the gate and go back to that forest?” she asked.

“That forest wasn’t very safe,” I said.

“No, but if we go during the day, it’s safe enough,” she said. There was a wistful look in her eyes as she added, “I miss the trees.”

“I do too,” I said quietly. “Once we know something about our next mission, we’ll see if we can schedule a time to go. I wonder how we can tell when it’s daytime there?”

“I’m sure Raquel knows how to tell,” she said.

“True. I’ll check with her,” I said.

“Could we also visit the other forest?” she asked.

“Other forest?” I asked.

“Yeah. Raquel told me about another place we can use the gate to get to. She said it’s not in Vydoria or Korshalemia; it’s a whole different realm, not marred by technology. It’s sparsely populated with simple tribal people, living their lives in tune with nature.”

“That sounds wonderful,” I said. It sounded better than wonderful; it sounded like a place I could call home someday. “I’ll tell you what: after this mission, we’ll make it a point to go there. It’ll be a good vacation.”

She gave me the biggest hug her tiny frame would allow and ran off. It felt good to see her happy. As I watched her run, I wondered where her family was. I didn’t want to ask her just yet in case there was pain associated with those memories. That might interfere with her recovery, but I would like to let them know she was free and doing well. If she were my daughter or sister, I’d sure want to know.

With a great sigh, I turned back to my mission to reach the cargo bays and get the supplies I needed to make the armor. It would be nice to get back to crafting. I wondered at the delay in getting new orders, but it suited me; it allowed us to get a lot of important work done.

I hadn’t make it far when Purwryn crossed my path. He was just reboarding the Night Wisp. “Hey, Zah’rak!”

“Hey. How’s Marcus?” I asked.

“Doing well. The docs think the new implants will work well, and there are no signs of rejection. Of course, they still want to see him back in half a year or so, but he should be fit for duty if we ever get orders again.”

I chuckled. He was anxious to get back to work. “Great! And I’m sure we’ll hear soon.”

Continuing on my way towards the cargo bays, I had almost made it to the hatch when Ragnar’s voice came over the comm.

“Zah’rak, we have an incoming call from Phareon,” he said.

I looked longingly at the hatch, sighed and turned back towards the bridge. “Ask Raquel to meet me up there,” I said.

“Sure thing,” he said.

Well, at least Purwryn will be happy
, I thought to myself as I walked up to the bridge. When I arrived there, Ragnar was at the comm. station and Raquel was waiting for me near the command chair.

“Time to find out if Phareon still likes us,” I said.

“Hardly, but they need us,” said Raquel.

“Okay, Ragnar, put him on the screen,” I said.

The commander appeared on the screen, but there was someone with him for a change.

“Hello, Master Raquel, Zah’rak,” he said. “This is Ambassador Sarrin, and he will be joining us from now on.”

“Probably to make sure the good commander doesn’t start a war,”
sent Raquel. Though her face didn’t betray anything, her mental voice carried a chuckle with that statement.

She was probably right. The commander wasn’t known for his finesse and it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that every one of his superiors expected him to cause a war. I didn’t envy Sarrin’s task of keeping him in line, but I expected it would provide some enjoyment to watch.

“Fine. Pleased to meet you, Ambassador. Now, what do you have for us?” Despite the potential entertainment value, I was annoyed at the addition. I had hoped to make this our last mission for them, but if they had assigned an ambassador then they were probably expecting long-term cooperation.

“I’ll send the specifics in the data stream, but we need you to investigate a planet near your current location. We believe it to be the headquarters of whoever is behind the recent attacks,” said the commander.

“What makes you think that?” I asked. It seemed that Raquel had predicted their next move correctly. She’d said when she joined us that there were several stations and a planetary base that Phareon should concern themselves with. Foolishly, I hadn’t yet asked her for more information.

“We attempted to send infantry to reclaim a station, and found more of those creatures that your men fought on the previous station. That was all that was left of the crew of that station. Our casualties were very high, but we successfully reclaimed the station and were able to download the main database. That data, combined with the information you provided, leads us to believe that these stations are merely a distraction,” said the commander.

The ambassador piped up. “A second fleet is on its way to you now. We would like you to land ahead of the fleet, learn what you can and then assist in the destruction of the planetary base. We assume the sorcerers will be there and unwilling to die without a fight, so we’re grateful for any help that the Wizard Kingdom might be inclined to provide.”

With that last comment the ambassador looked directly at Raquel, and she took the cue and responded. “Don’t worry, Ambassador; if there are sorcerers there, we’ll handle them. We’ll need a copy of everything you got from that station, including all mission reports from the teams deployed to retake the station.”

The commander started to say something but the ambassador cut him off. “Of course. We’ll send that presently.” That annoyed the commander greatly, but he held his tongue. I suspected that when this call was over there would be words between them. I found myself hoping they’d forget to cut the channel when those words started.

“When can we expect the fleet?” I asked.

“In about three days,” said the commander.

“Excellent,” I said. That would give Crivreen enough time to put the ship back together, I estimated. After that, we wrapped up the conversation.

Once the comm was secured, I told Ragnar to contact Criveen and tell him to have the ship ready to launch.

I was about to ask Raquel for more information on the Phareon stations when she said, “We need to get Shira and head through the gate to the Sac’a’rith fortress.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it’s almost sunrise there,” she said and left the bridge.

I looked over at Ragnar who shrugged and said, “I guess that’s as good a reason as any.”