Page 33 of Neverwylde 6
“What?” Williamsburg sat up.
Baffrey snickered. “File it under ‘as if things couldn’t get more complicated’.”
“Lieutenant Chambliss claims she and the Por D’har are married. The term she uses is…Confirmed.”
Williamsburg jumped to his feet, going over to peer at the colonel’s monitor as Baffrey laughed.
“Yes, sir. The woman and the Seneecian tied the knot. I double-checked with a couple of the others, and they verified it.”
Pfeiffer ran his hand over his head again. “What the hell were they thinking?”
“Maybe they love each other,” Williamsburg suggested.
“Or maybe they couldn’t fuck each other without the ring,” Baffrey tossed out.
Pfeiffer saw the look of disgust the lieutenant colonel gave to the major and decided he needed to change the subject. “Willem and I were discussing granting clemency to both parties, based on the results of their interrogations under chemical restraints.”
“The Seneecian Tribunal isn’t going to like that decision,” Baffrey commented. “In fact, you’d be sitting on a powder keg if you refuse to turn over their people.”
“How long before the Seneecians arrive?” Williamsburg queried.
Pfeiffer checked. “Eight hours.”
“What if we sent them away? That way we wouldn’t be challenged,” the lieutenant colonel suggested. “The Seneecians haven’t requested that we hold them until their arrival, have they?”
“No,” Pfeiffer acknowledged. “All they’ve said was that D’har Kyber and his men were escaped convicts, and basically we needed to shoot first and ask questions afterwards.” He tapped his fingertips on the desk. “All right. Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff. We know that Seneecians can’t be trusted. We have been lied to repeatedly in the past. But what if these Seneecians and the others have told us the truth?”
“Remember, the Por D’har said he believes they’re trying to keep knowledge of that neverwylde a secret. What if that’s the truth?” Williamsburg crossed his arms over his chest. “Want to know my two cents’ worth? I think this neverwylde is the key. Those Seneecians want us to killon sighttheir fellow Seneecians. Why? Because they’re dangerous criminals? Whatever happened to extraditing them and taking them back to Seneecia to serve out their sentences? And don’t overlook the fact that they also want us to kill our fellow Terrans, without us giving them due process.”
Pfeiffer glanced over at the major. The man may be a hardass, but he also had a keen mind. “What say you, Charles? Agree or disagree?”
The man appeared to pick imaginary lint off his perfectly creased trousers. “I think there’s one very crucial element you’re both overlooking.”
“And that is?”
The man looked up at them. “That furry creature. I’ll bet my oak leaf those Seneecians who are chasing down our guests have no idea it came with them. And if they do, when they do, they’re going to shit furballs.”
Williamsburg scratched his chin. “You can tell by looking at them that they’ve been through hell. They’ve lost weight. Their uniforms, or what’s left of their uniforms, are hanging off of them. Their medical readouts are typical of soldiers who’ve been through extreme survival training over a long period of time. And have you seen how they act around each other? There isn’t an atom of animosity between them. I can only guess how cohesive they are as a defensive force. Probably more than the tightest and most highly trained unit we’ve got.”
“Okay. Let’s address the elephant in the room here,” Pfeiffer suggested. “Let’s say Neverwylde is the real reason behind this whole kerfuffle.” He allowed himself a lopsided grin. “Why not send a team of scientists and a military detachment to this…what did they call that wormhole?”
“A tegris,” Williamsburg offered. “It refers to a wormhole that remains stationary in a particular sector of space, but appears at irregular intervals.”
“Why don’t we find this tegris, go in, land on that half planet, and do a thorough investigation of it?” Pfeiffer studied the two men to get their initial reactions. To his satisfaction, both men appeared conducive to the idea.
“If we do that, it’ll have to be done quickly,” Baffrey remarked.
“Why?” Pfeiffer asked, curious. “Even if we give those Seneecians the impression we don’t believe anything our prisoners have said, what can they do? They can’t hide the planet.”
“Depends on where it is,” Williamsburg observed. “If it’s in Seneecian space…”
Pfeiffer sat up and checked his monitor. “Did they give us any coordinates?”
“No. Once they went through that tegris, their sensors went on the fritz.”
“What’s the location of that tegris?” Baffrey questioned. “Is it in Seneecian space?”
After a quick search, Pfeiffer shook his head. “It doesn’t say.” He rubbed his chin. After a few moments of deliberation, he came up with an idea and hit the comm button. “Security, bring Lieutenant Chambliss and Por D’har Kyber to my office.”
