Page 35 of Neverwylde 6
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.”
