Page 30 of Neverwylde 6
Chapter 14
Proof
The officers declared a short break and left the auditorium. Kelen resumed her seat next to her husband as they waited for the men to return.
“Look at it this way,” she heard him murmur. “We have made them unsure about their previous decision.”
“How can you tell?”
“They did not dismiss my claim outright, and I am the enemy.”
She glanced up at him. His dark green eyes bore into hers, and his expression softened until his love for her was unmistakable. Never did she want anything so badly as to draw his face down to hers and kiss him. Instead, she settled for reaching over to place her hand over his. That simple touch, and his reaction by grasping her fingers, gave her renewed hope for them.
“What do you think will happen?” she whispered.
“Of that, I have no idea. They have already condemned us.”
She squeezed his hand. “What will happen to you if they send you back to Seneecia?”
The partial smile he gave her held no warmth. “Ifwe manage to make it all the way home.”
She’d suspected as much, but to hear him suggest it made her stomach clench. “I’m beginning to think that staying on Neverwylde would have been the lesser of two evils.”
This time there was a shadow of humor in his smile. “I concur. What is this Orboros that was mentioned? I am assuming it is a prison facility.”
“It’s a prison moon located in the Deca Hydronis system. It’s for low-level offenders.”
“Low level?”
Fullgrath leaned over in their direction. “People who are considered more of a threat to their government than to the people. Listen, if I’d known for a split second that we’d be treated like pariahs once we got off that godforsaken planet, I’d have suggested we stay and take our chances with the clickers and eyeworms.”
“That is exactly what Kelen and I were thinking,” Kyber admitted.
They were interrupted by the return of the officers. The men resumed their chairs, but it was the lieutenant colonel who spoke. “Lieutenant Fullgrath.”
The weapons master stood. “Sir.”
“Are you and your crewmates willing to undergo a serum evaluation?”
Fullgrath didn’t check with them before replying because he didn’t need to. He already knew what they would say. “Yes, sir.”
“Por D’har, we would ask the same of you and your men. Are you willing to undergo a serum evaluation?”
He stood to answer. “Yes.”
It was a reprieve, albeit a small temporary stay of execution. But the outcome of them being grilled with questions while under a medically-induced trance could have serious ramifications.
“You do realize that whatever we uncover during the course of your interrogations will not have any effect on you and your men eventually being released into the custody of your people?”
“We understand.”
“It’s just that we have a huge problem with your story,” the third officer commented. “We did a thorough search of all available databanks, including those we’ve managed to obtain in the course of our dealings with the Seneecians, and nowhere is there a mention of a neverwylde, a half planet, or anything remotely resembling such an anomaly.”
“We did not make it up,” Kyber insisted.
“That remains to be seen,” Pfeiffer remarked.
Once more, the officers rose from their seats, but this time Kelen and the others were signaled by the guards to stand. From here they would be ushered into separate holding cells until it was their turn to be escorted into the medical bay where the questioning would take place.
