Page 51 of Breaking Point
“The Captain,” David said.
“Really?”
“See for yourself.”He opened the door.
Luciana stepped into the room.The woman she recognized as Captain Travers from her Forum profile sat at the top of the table.She had two pads in front of her and looked up as Luciana entered.
“David always pushes people through that door,” Travers said.She waved.“Come and sit up here, so I don’t have to shout.”
“Maybe a smaller room would be better, then?”Luciana suggested, as she walked the long length of the table.“Captain,” she tacked on quickly.
Travers rose to her feet as Luciana reached the head of the table.“A smaller room might feel more comfortable, although none of them have the electronic shielding that this one does.It’s just a Faraday cage with doors.”
“I see,” Luciana said cautiously.She didn’t know what a Faraday cage was, but she would find out, later.Electronic shielding she understood though.This room was secure—more than other rooms nearby.
The door that was closest to the top of the table where they were standing slid open.
Devar stepped through.He looked pale, and all the life and energy that had once played in his eyes was gone.
A little exclamation squeezed out of Luciana’s mouth.She covered it.
“You’d better hug him and say hello, so this meeting can get started,” Travers said.
Devar frowned.
Luciana ignored his suspicion and hugged him.He was too thin beneath the baggy coveralls.
At the other end of the room, the back door opened, and an armed guard moved into the room and took up a position at the back of it.She kept her hands behind her back.
Luciana sighed.
“The guard is a formality,” Travers said.“I don’t feel that I am in immediate threat from you, Devar Todd.For right now, and for the next little while, we must be careful to follow every rule and formality.”
“One would only worry about being seen to do all the right things, if they were planning onnotdoing the right things,” Devar said.
Luciana turned to Travers to catch her reaction.
Travers waved toward the table.“Please.Sit.”
Luciana drew Devar over to the table, and pulled out a chair for him.She took the chair beside him.
They both looked at Travers expectantly.
Travers cleared her throat.“This meeting is being recorded.The record won’t be made public.It is…backup, shall we say?”
“Caution upon wariness,” Devar murmured.
Luciana agreed.This was extraordinary.
The captain pushed aside one of the pads and pulled the other in front of her.“I’ve had a busy few days.”She paused.“A satisfying few days,” she added.“I think I have found a way to have the mutiny charges dropped.”
Luciana gasped.
Devar swallowed.“What small miracle would that take?”His voice was calm, but Luciana could see the pulse throbbing in his neck.“No one on this ship will be happy about that unless you sell them on something even better.”
“You’ve not had access to the Forum since you came here,” Travers told him.“So you have not seen the wholesale shift of opinion, there.Few people are willing to see someone executed, no matter how many lives they ended.”
Luciana said, “He didn’t do it, Captain—”
