Page 39 of Neverwylde 6
Chapter 18
Treason
They were eating when a guard approached them and asked if they would accompany him to the colonel’s office. Grabbing the dinner roll off her tray, Kelen joined her husband, and they followed the man through the maze of corridors to the bank of elevators.
“Do you ever get lost in this place?” she offhandedly asked.
The guard snorted and grinned. “I’ve been assigned here for thirty-nine months, and Istillhave to use the ship’s computers to map me a location.”
“Would you happen to have any word as to how our crewmembers are adapting?” Kyber inquired.
The man shook his head. “Sorry, but the colonel might.”
They had no further conversation, which allowed Kelen to reminisce over the past few hours. She’d spent nearly an hour in the bathing booth, alone, as it was too small to hold both her and Kyber. It had taken her almost half an hour to get her hair to where it felt clean again. While Kyber took his bath, she’d dialed up a fresh, new uniform. It didn’t have her insignia on it, or bear the markings of theManta,which would let others know which ship she was stationed on, but it didn’t matter.
Afterwards, they had the monitor in the room show them the route to the nearest mess hall. Along the way, Kelen had kept close to him in the event anyone tried to challenge or attack him. They’d received curious stares, and more than one disgusted sneer. Clearly many resented having the Seneecians on board, but nobody tried to stop them or spoke a derogatory word where they could hear it.
Initially she thought they would gorge themselves on their favorite foods. For some odd reason, the food replicators were surprisingly adept at recreating Seneecian dishes. She was about to load up her tray with several dishes when Kyber stopped her and wisely remarked that maybe they should start off slow.
“If we are still hungry after our first course, we can always go back for another.”
His suggestion proved to be prophetic. She’d barely made it halfway through her plate of spaghetti when she realized her stomach had shrunk during their ordeal.
“Iamgoing to finish that…at some point,” she’d promised, pointing to the bowl of peach cobbler she’d dialed up for dessert.
Kelen glanced behind her. Unfortunately she’d not gotten to that cobbler.Next time,she promised herself.
Colonel Pfeiffer was seated behind his desk, looking exactly the way they’d left him earlier. Seeing him there, Kelen wondered if the man had moved at all, or even gone to pee. As she and Kyber entered the room, the lieutenant colonel and major weren’t present. But as soon as they sat down, the two men arrived. Two additional chairs had been brought in during their absence, allowing for all of them to sit.
Pfeiffer gave Kelen and Kyber a good once-over. “May I remark, Lieutenant, that you clean up very well. You hardly resemble the person who sat in that chair not too long ago.”
Kelen gave him a quick smile. “Thank you, sir. It’s amazing what a scrub down and some decent chow will do to improve a person’s appearance, as well as their disposition.”
Pfeiffer chuckled and straightened. He made a few notations on his monitor. “Before I continue with our previous discussion, I need to let you know a couple of other things first. We’ve heard back from Central Command. They haven’t yet received our second transmission stating our revised sentencing, but they have requested you be kept in custody until they send a ship to retrieve you. I should be getting another answer within a few more hours. In addition, we’ve heard from the Seneecian ship.”
“Which one?” Kyber asked.
“TheDen Tirim.”
Kelen glanced at her husband in time to see his grimace, as did the colonel.
“That is my brother’s ship,” Kyber explained before the officer could ask.
Pfeiffer gave a nod. “He identified himself as D’har Duruk.”
“How was he able to track us here?” Kelen remarked.
“I would say by way of the shuttle. But in doing so, he has left Seneecian space,” Kyber reminded her.
“Technically he’s in neutral space,” Pfeiffer informed them. “However, if he should accost another ship in what is perceived to be a threatening manner, or fire upon it, he’ll invalidate the Bakkite truce agreement. At that point, all bets are off, and he’ll be blown out of space.”
“I have a question,” Williamsburg said, then turned to Kyber. “You testified under chemical questioning that their shuttle bay was severely damaged, and that your men had triggered the automatic evacuation of all their lifepods.”
Kyber gave a nod. “That is true. We fired two aknite warheads into the ship, which blew out one of the main bay doors. It would force them to use spacesuits to reach the remaining shuttles until repairs are completed.”
“If you blew out the bay door, that’s major damage, isn’t it?”
“It is. With the lifepods also being ejected, the ship would be fighting to maintain balance with oxygen and gravity.”
