Page 22 of Infiltration

“Captain Kila, you nearly got yourself shot in the face. Of course, it might have been an improvement for your ugly mug.”

Laughter filled Kila’s rough voice. Nako could imagine the fiend’s usual mocking grin stretched from ear to ear. “Captain Nako, I figured if anyone could appreciate a joke, it would be you. Do you need a change of uniform, or shall we resume phase and discuss why Admiral Tranis sent me here?”

Nako and Terig exchanged grudging smirks. It had been a good trick. “Come on over. Bring your head engineer. He’ll want to verify our forensics team’s assessment that the recovered shuttle’s home ship blew up around it.”

* * * *

“I thought Imdiko Ulof cooked better than this.”

Nako grimaced as Kila’s chief engineer and clanmate Lokmi stared at the shuttle. “Ulof no longer works in the kitchen. He’s a terraformer now. It’s burnt to a crisp, isn’t it?”

“The scorch marks have scorch marks.” Lokmi rubbed his jaw. “The aft section is the worst. It’s a definite sign it was fleeing at the moment of explosion. Did your forensics guys confirm plasma burns?”

“We did.” One of Terig’s team stepped forward.

“Consult them and go over their findings, Chief. Captain, I want to see this survivor of yours, Nako.” Kila’s trademark sneer was in place, but it had a sickened quality. Maybe he imagined his own ship disintegrating with his clan on board.

“Ensign Ilid has been placed in a medical coma,” Nako said. “I may have to torture my head medic to convince him to wake the boy. He’s in bad shape.”

“Ilid? Dramok Ilid?” Kila’s interest sharpened.

“You know him?”

“I know of him. Has he spoken of what happened to him?”

“Nothing that makes any sense. Something about being afraid of the dark and the command staff becoming shadows. It was a lot of disconnected jabbering from a man on the brink of death.”

“Maybe.” Kila’s expression closed off. “Let’s go to medical, and I’ll tell you what I can on the way.”

Kila filled Nako and Terig in on the spyship orbiting Bi’is going silent. “I was on my way to check on it when Admiral Tranis contacted me and diverted me to your position. When Captain Abgi failed to report on schedule, we feared there was a problem.” There was no hint of his usual smile, worried or otherwise. “I served under Abgi early in my fleet career. He was a dedicated officer, committed to his crew. He refused promotion to admiral five times. If he died, the fleet has suffered a major loss.”

“We’re tracing the shuttle’s flight path to discover where it left its ship. It seems it must have drifted following the damage it took, so it’s taking us some time. All indications show it came from Bi’is’ general direction.” Nako preceded the group into Medical. “Dr. Zo!”

The physician came from behind a partition separating the main admittance area from prolonged care. His guarded expression was no doubt brought on by Nako’s don’t-fuck-with-me tone.

Nako respected Zo. He thought maybe the sentiment was returned. The jury was still out, even after decades of serving together, on whether they liked each other.

“It’s too dangerous to wake him, Captain. The slow bleed from his internal injuries damned near killed him, and he’s too weak for more than one surgery every few days to repair the damage and stop the bleeding.”

“Yes, I gave blood and ordered everyone in the crew compatible to do so as well to keep him from dropping dead, if you’ll remember.” Nako felt terrible to risk the young Dramok’s life when he’d barely survived long enough to be rescued. It made his temper flare, and he fought to not snarl at Zo. “This is Captain Kila, from the spyship fleet.”

“Doctor.” Kila nodded to him. “I appreciate your wishing to maintain Ensign Ilid on the road to recovery—”

“I’m trying to keep himalive, Captain. The stasis coma is my one sure way of doing so.” Zo’s growing anger was evident in his tone.

Kila’s brutal smile was nowhere in evidence. The man was capable of perfect diplomacy when it was called for. “I want nothing more than to let you do so. However, the situation is far beyond the suspicion of a ship’s mere destruction. The ship Ilid came from was orbiting Bi’is, making sure our old friends weren’t constructing weapons to use against the empire. Weapons we think they were developing, thanks to evidence my own crew uncovered.”

“My patient—”

“Is potentially the sole survivor of a phased spyship the Bi’isils supposedly had no idea was orbiting their planet. If they somehow discovered its presence, it puts the whole spy program in danger. If they turned a weapon on it capable of destroying it despite its being phased, it puts the Kalquorian Empire in danger.”

Nako sighed. “One man versus the empire’s welfare, Doctor. We have no choice but to allow Captain Kila to interview Ensign Ilid.”

Zo reddened. He could be as volatile as Nako’s clanmate Ulof when it came to his patients. Nako could sense him searching for a valid argument, but the doctor knew when he was beaten. He settled for, “Under protest.”

“Noted.”

“If his vital signs dip to a dangerous level, I’m putting him back under.”

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