Chapter 16
Offer
If there was anything to be grateful about being a prisoner on a Terran military outpost, it was that the accommodations were slightly better than what the Seneecians had offered. The cell was still almost uncomfortably small, but there was a miniature yet usable toilet and sink in the corner of the room, and she had a thin pallet and a blanket for a bed.
Kelen sank onto the pallet. She’d guesstimated it would take maybe four or five days to have everyone questioned. Assuming she was being fed three meals a day—another big check mark in the plus column for this brig—she’d been escorted to the medical bay after two days. At that time she’d overheard her guard remark that she was the last one. She had no way of knowing whether she was the last Terran, or the last person overall. But clearly these people wanted to get to the bottom of this mess before the Seneecians arrived.
Getting back to her feet, she went over to the sink and drank two handfuls of water from the spigot. Her stomach was giving her fits, and she still felt lightheaded from the effects of the serum they’d used on her. She had no recollection of what she’d told them, or even what questions they’d asked of her. It didn’t matter. She knew she had nothing to hide, so she wasn’t worried about accidentally revealing anything. None of them were keeping anything secret. However, sadly, there was no guarantee that their testimonies would result in a lighter sentence, or stop Colonel Pfeiffer from handing Kyber and the other Seneecians back over to their planet.
“Lieutenant Chambliss.”
She glanced over at where an armed guard stood in front of her cell door. The man slapped the controls on his side, and the door went from transparent to opaque before opening. The guard motioned with his free hand. “Come with me, please.”
“Where to, if I may ask?”
“The colonel wants to see you.”
Already?
Her mind raced. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours since she’d been returned to her cell. They hadn’t fed her breakfast that morning when she’d been awakened, telling her the chemicals would not sit well on a full stomach. Those compounds didn’t sit well on an empty stomach, either, even though she was hungry.
She was led through the maze of corridors to the elevators, which took them up several floors. When they arrived at the colonel’s office, she was surprised to see Kyber there, along with his guard and a couple of the officers from that time in the auditorium. He glanced up to see her coming through the door, and he appeared equally stunned to see her. The colonel motioned toward the only empty chair in the room.
“Have a seat, Lieutenant.”
She wanted to ask him why she and Kyber had been sent for. Had the others already been here? Did this have something to do with their chemical interrogations? Or was it something else?
Her stomach clenched with apprehension. Had the Seneecians already arrived to take Kyber and his men back to Seneecia?
Her common sense kicked in. If the Seneecians had arrived, then why was she called in?
What was the purpose of this meeting?
Pfeiffer leaned back in his seat. His eyes traveled from Kyber to Kelen, to Kyber again, to his men standing off to the side, and finally to Kelen.
“Lieutenant Chambliss, Por D’har Kyber, I’ve brought you two here for a couple of reasons. Well, actually, for four reasons. First off, we’ve read the results of your interrogations. It appears the others consider you two as their spokespersons.” The colonel gave Kelen a questioning stare. She could only answer with a shrug.
“I can’t vouch for my importance, but I also think of Kyber as our leader.”
Pfeiffer continued. “Reason number two is this, and I’m going ahead and getting this out in the open. It was revealed that you two committed yourselves to each other, correct?”
“We have,” Kyber immediately responded.
The colonel hesitated, as if he hadn’t expected Kyber’s answer. “Let me get this straight. Seneecians don’t have laws granting the absolution of marriages, do they? In other words, there’s no such thing as divorce in your culture, is there?”
“You are correct. A Confirmation is for life.”
“And yet you married a Terran?”
Kelen watched as one corner of her husband’s mouth quirked upward. “It was not something I or Kellen planned or expected to do while we were fighting for our lives, Colonel.”
“How do you think your people will take the news of your…what do you call it?”
“Kelen and I are Confirmed.”
“How do you think your people will take the news of your Confirmation?”
“Colonel, in all seriousness, I doubt I and my men will make it back to Seneecia alive, if at all, once we are handed over to whomever arrives to pick us up. So your question is a moot issue.”
Pfeiffer appeared to chew over Kyber’s response. “Very well. Point taken. My third reason for bringing you two here is because of the answers you and the others provided while sedated. I’m sure this will come as no surprise to either of you, but every comment given was verified as truthful. Everything each of you said was exactly the same, right down to the odd details and descriptions. I must admit, in all the years I’ve overseen this interrogation technique on more than one person, there’ve always been a few replies that simply didn’t jive. Know what I mean?”
Kelen gave a shake of her head. “No, sir.”
“What I’m saying is, when two or more people get together and concoct a story, repeating it over and over to the point where they can recite it in their sleep, at some point there’s going to be a slip-up, an error. A tiny detail missed or misspoken. But none of you slipped up. None of you contradicted each other. When we asked for elaboration on a particular detail, we got the same information no matter who we were asking. Do you know what that tells us?”
“That we were speaking the truth,” Kyber offered.
“You damn right,” Pfeiffer concluded. “What makes this more intriguing is this. The more people you try to get to recite the same story, the greater the chance someone will forget a detail. This didn’t happen with you and your fellow crewmembers. The doctors, scientists, and computers all agree that there wasn’t one iota of insincerity or misdirection in anything you told us. And the only way that can happen, the only way all eleven of you could have accomplished that, is because everything you’ve told us is the truth. The flat, unvarnished truth.”
Hearing the man’s admission lifted some of the burden weighing down her shoulders, but there remained so much the colonel had yet to address. Clasping her hands tightly in her lap, Kelen forced herself to remain silent and to listen.
“Which brings me to reason number four,” Pfeiffer announced. “Lieutenant Colonel Williamsburg, Major Baffrey, and I have decided that we were guilty in rushing to judgment on all of you. Unfortunately, according to our laws, we cannot take back our initial sentences. However, we can commute those sentences to time served. So, as of fourteen hundred hours today, all of you, including you and your men, Por D’har, are free men. Furthermore, we are extending to you this offer. Outpost Delta Six will be your sanctuary as long as you remain at this station, but I cannot guarantee that protection once you leave. I want you to understand that.”
Kelen couldn't hold back her worry any longer. “What about the Seneecian ship that’s on its way here?”
“That is a matter for me to attend to,” Pfeiffer assured her.
“My men and I will not be handed over to them?” Kyber asked in partial disbelief.
“No. You have my word you may stay here for as long as you feel necessary, or until you decide your next plan of action.”
Kyber glanced over at her, and for the first time in a very long time she saw a glimmer of hope on his face. She quickly tore her gaze from his to look at the colonel.
“Thank you.” She barely managed to say the words before her throat closed up. Her face felt hot as she fought back the tears.
The colonel threw up his hands. “All right. I’ll send out word about my decision so that you and the others can roam this station without interference.” He paused to give Kyber a hard stare. “But if by some chance there is any sort of altercation…”
Kyber nodded. “My men know what to do, Colonel. You do not have anything to worry about.”
“I have your word on that?”
“Yes. You have my word.”
Pfeiffer flashed a quick smile that faded just as quickly. “All right. With that taken care of, I want to talk about a mission I’d like to plan.”
“Colonel?”
The man jerked his attention over to Kelen. She fingered the stained neckline of her jumpsuit.
“Sir, begging your pardon, but can we postpone this discussion for a little later? Give us a chance to take a decent bath and put on a clean uniform, and have a bite to eat first. It’s been weeks since—”
“I know. Forgive me,” Pfeiffer hurriedly replied. Hitting the communications button on his desk, he called for a couple more guards. After which he addressed the ones standing at the rear of the room. “Show these people to available accommodations on Level F.” He turned to Kyber. “The others in your party will be shown to rooms in the same area. Rest a little. Get cleaned up and have something to eat, and be back here by…” He checked the readout on his monitor. “Eighteen hundred hours. Will that give you enough time?”
“More than enough, Colonel,” Kyber answered. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Kelen added, getting to her feet.
As she turned to follow the guard out of the office, she mused over the miracle that had taken place within the past few minutes. And as they turned to continue down the hallway toward the elevators, she felt her husband place his hand on the small of her back as he liked to do whenever they walked together.
Feeling its warmth spreading through her, she smiled. And the tears that rose in her eyes were happy ones.