Loyalty to the Cause (TCOTU, Book 4) (This Corner of the Universe) (2 page)

Brewer
casually poured himself a drink from a pitcher of water on the table.  Unlike
the first interview, only a single glass rested on the alloy counter.  “It is
possible you may face trial without the protection of the Laws of Armed
Conflict, Isabella,” Brewer stated gravely.  “Of course, I am doing everything
in my power to prevent that.  However, you must give me something I can work
with.  My political masters insist on an official, public statement from you
admitting Hollaran culpability in starting this war.”

Lombardi’s
melodic laugh filled the room.  “‘Vic optimism always delights me.  What could
you possibly offer me in exchange for that?”

“What
you campaigned so hard for during the last interview.  The status of your
surviving crew.”  Brewer let the statement settle in as he drank deeply from
his glass.

Lombardi
shook her head even as her heart wrenched.  “Not good enough.  I would not even
begin to consider such treason unless you returned all my remaining crew to the
Commonwealth.”  She contemplated her offer and added, “And then only
after
I have verified their return would I consider such a statement.”  Lombardi’s
eyes tracked Brewer’s glass as he drank, her lips curling upward involuntarily
at the memory of the refreshment offered to her during the first interrogation.

“Isabella,
you ask for too much,” Brewer confided solemnly.  “Between you and me, I am
being pressured to initiate trials against your crew for what they are calling the
murder of the innocent Brevic civilians.  Innocents who were invited to your
ship and then brutally slain by Hollaran treachery.”  He feigned fear before
giving an irritated look at the cameras behind him.  “You must give me
something to forestall this, Isabella,” he pleaded.  “Do it for the sake of
your crew!  I’m just a junior manager for the Navy; you have to give me
something that will make them listen to me.”  He sighed dramatically as a look
of remorse came over him and he slowly shook his head.  “There are those who
would see your crew treated horribly… I don’t wish to see more lives lost.”

The
display of false emotion impressed Lombardi. 
Does he believe his own lies? 
How else could he appear so sincere?

“How
did you know those shuttles carried armed troops, Isabella?”  Brewer evaluated her
intensely.  “Did Commander Heskan warn you during that brief communique?”

Lombardi’s
face flushed red and the blood vessels in her neck began to bulge as she angrily
spat, “Commander Heskan is a liar and I will kill him with my bare hands if I
see him again.  He lured my ship to your space under the deception that if we
cooperated with his squadron we would be treated fairly by his government.” 
She leaned forward with eyes flashing and said, “The only thought that sustains
me during these times is that if I survive, I might once again face him on a field
of battle to exact my revenge.”

Jaw
muscles clenched tightly and her unadulterated look of hatred threatened to
destroy her interrogator.  Inwardly, she hoped her outburst was convincing.  She
knew that unlike the man in front of her, she was no sociopath and had great
difficulty compartmentalizing her emotions.  Lombardi held no illusion that she
would ever see Heskan again but his final deed for Lombardi had given her the
ultimate power over her captors. 
Phoenix’s
destruction ensured her
beloved ship would not yield any secrets to the enemy.  Only Lombardi and her
crew remained as potential sources of information and propaganda for the
Republic.  That fact buoyed her. 
The only additional advantage the ‘Vics
can gain from this situation is what I give them.

Brewer
subconsciously rocked back from Lombardi’s vehemence and stated, “The next time
we meet, Isabella, you must give me what I need or I might be forced to employ
more aggressive forms of questioning.  I hope to avoid that, but there is only
so much I can do to protect you, unless you give me something.”  The man stared
deeply into her eyes to drive his chilling threat home.

Lombardi
exhaled wearily and nodded in fatal acceptance.  “Mr. Angelo, I want very much
to do so but you must convince your superiors that the key to everything they wish
from me rests in the safe return of my crew.  I would willingly stay in the
Republic and confess to whatever lies your government desires but not before my
crew is safely in the Commonwealth.”

Brewer
started shaking his head but Lombardi continued.  “Imagine the boons I could
give your Republic if I were to fully cooperate.”  She smiled as she dangled
the fruit in front of him.  “And you would be the man who delivered such gains. 
I would make it well known that you, Sebastian, were the key to my
cooperation.  With the information I might reveal, what doors could that open
for you?”

Lombardi
watched gears spin furiously behind the man’s eyes.  “Mr. Angelo” had never told
her his given name and she had just used his real identity. 
Careful,
Isabella, you cannot afford to play this man’s game.  He will rip you to shreds
if you fence with him.

After nearly a minute
of inscrutable silence, Brewer stood.  His voice was strained.  “Make no
mistake, Isabella, this is not a negotiation.  The next time, you must offer
something.”  He moved through the room to the door, crossed the threshold and
was swallowed by the closing portal.

*  *  *

“We’re
missing something,” Brewer declared angrily as he entered Interview Room Beta’s
observation chamber.  “That bitch knows who I am!  All this time she’s been toying
with me.”  He brought his hand down quickly as if he might slam his datapad onto
the table in front of him but recovered and placed it gently on the surface. 
“How does she know who I am?” he asked while looking expectantly to his
assistant.  “What have you uncovered?”

Assistant
Secretary Jackson Neal nervously shook his head.  “Nothing conclusive,” he
mumbled apologetically.  “Academy graduate at New Roma, top ten percent of her
class but we’re missing the majority of her records from there.  Her background
is in Support, what we call Operations, where she demonstrated strong command
aptitude.  She assumed command of
Phoenix
at the age of twenty-nine
after a two-year captaincy of a destroyer.  She also has an early line number
for promotion to komandor porucznik.  This won’t be her first below-the-zone
promotion.”

“She
took command of a destroyer in her mid-twenties?” Brewer repeated dubiously. 
“That’s too young.”  His eyes tilted toward the ceiling.  “If she commissioned
at twenty-two, that means she’d have made Grade O-5 in only nine years.  That’s
too fast to be normal.  She has leverage over someone up high, I can feel it.”

“It
would explain her arrogance,” Neal said in support while he subconsciously
swept the location on his shirt that Lombardi had drenched with the
“refreshment” he had offered her during her first interview.

Brewer
noticed the subtle gesture.  He grumbled, “She avoids the traps nearly as fast
as I can place them.”  His wrinkled, right hand found the scar on his chin.  “You
need to discover who she has influence over in the Hollaran command system and
then the dominos will start to fall.”

Neal’s
head dipped as he spoke.  “Our people inside the Commonwealth are working to
uncover all of her academy records.  They’ve been very difficult to obtain so
far but once we do, they’ll contain her academy recommendations.  We’ll also
have her childhood.”

Brewer
nodded in agreement.  “She has something incriminating; someone in a high place
is serving her.  It all fits and once that piece of information is mine, she
will serve me.”  Brewer removed the earbud from his right ear.  He cast the
tiny device onto the table beside his datapad.

“Some
good news,” Neal offered.  “The prisoner transport should arrive in a few
weeks.”

“It’s
about damn time. The interrogation facilities on Titan will speed things
along.”

Neal
arched an eyebrow and suggested, “You could always send her forward on Envoy-Three
and catch up to her via the transport.”

Brewer
shook his head fiercely.  “No, she is the key and she’s not leaving my sight. 
I won’t have Cromwell or Michaels steal my intelligence asset from underneath
me this time.  As long as I’m stuck in Anthe because of the Kite situation,
she’s not leaving this star system.”  He looked sharply at Neal.  “Now update
me on the escape of the pilots.  Who was responsible for that fiasco?”

The
Jewel
of the Night
was a twenty-five berth, luxury passenger schooner although no
one would know from her appearance.  A mere deck and a half in height with
twin, dorsal Boxer-11R drives, her patchwork hull gave her a rather ordinary,
even tired air.  No longer sleek nor young, the
Jewel
displayed her fifty-eight
years of service like a former beauty queen being ravaged by time.

The
sad story was retold in her interior.  Formerly lustrous oak and brass had been
dulled with each passenger’s caress.  The portals that seemed to struggle to
close, the hinting at frayed carpet, all accoutrements suggested a ship whose
number of years were greater behind her than ahead.

Lieutenant
Stacy Vernay stood in the most forward compartment of the liner, a large, open
room that spanned the entire width of the schooner on its top half-deck.  Called
The Star Lounge, the room served not only as named but as the focal point of
relaxation for the ship’s passengers.  While the
Jewel of the Night
also
boasted a restaurant, entertainment room and gymnasium, those compartments were
much smaller and located along the centerline of the ship.  Despite those three
rooms being adorned with spacious wall screens, a passenger’s innate sense of
location placed those facilities in the ship’s interior and ruined the
illusions the screens projected.  In The Star Lounge, one could easily believe
the wall screens lining the bulkheads were simple windows, revealing the
unfathomable grandness of space.

Tables
and couches, each well-worn and faded, were placed strategically around the
room to provide privacy for each party while still packing in enough furniture
to accommodate a full complement of passengers.  The
Jewel
was currently
at only eighty percent occupancy yet the lounge was crowded.  Every passenger aboard
the schooner now sat along the curve of couches that matched the arc of
Jewel’s
bow.  Also curved, the wall screens gave the impression of looking out over the
bow of the ripened ship.  The view was wasted though, as each person faced
inward, rather than looking out at the vistas displayed on the screens.

Twenty-one
pairs of eyes followed Vernay’s movement as she brought a hand up to cover her
mouth.  After clearing her throat and taking a final look over her shoulder at
Jack Truesworth to ensure that
Kite’s
renegades were the only souls present
in The Star Lounge, she began to speak.  “Ladies and gentlemen, now that we’ve
entered t-space, I can conduct this briefing and tell you the next steps of our
plan.”

“Where
is Captain Heskan?” Denise Gables interrupted.

“He
is not on board but we will meet up with him once we return to Anthe.”

“So
he
was
involved in our escape?” a second ensign wearing the occupational
badge of a Brevic pilot asked.

Vernay
nodded.  “Who do you think paid for your passage?  As I said, we’ll see him
again once we get back to Anthe.”

“Why
are we going back to Anthe?  I thought we were making a run for the eastern
border and the Federation?” Diane Selvaggio questioned.

“Because
we’re not done rescuing people, Diane,” Vernay answered patiently.

“Who’s
left to rescue?” another pilot inquired.  “It seems awfully dangerous to go
back to Anthe.”

Rumblings
of agreement rippled through the crowd.  Vernay began to answer but stopped as
the crowd’s discontent grew.

“Pipe
down, people!” Andrew Brown thundered.  “Maybe you oughta listen to the folks
who broke you outta Kite before you start goin’ on about what you
think
we
should do next.”  The senior chief petty officer cast a supportive glance at
Vernay.

“Thanks,
Chief,” Vernay muttered.  Order restored, she continued.  “I’ll answer
everyone’s questions after the briefing but for now, please, just listen.  As
you undoubtedly noticed when boarding, this ship’s destination is the frontier
system of Erriapius.  When we arrive at the small orbital over Baradis… that’s the
agricultural planet in the system, you’re free to do whatever you wish. 
Captain Heskan gave me sixteen cred-sticks with enough money on them to book
passage out of Erriapius.  If you decide to leave us, the captain suggests
traveling to the Federation.  He doesn’t think it’s going to be possible to
just hide in the Republic after we do what we’re planning to do.”

“What
exactly are we plannin’, L-T?” Brown asked.

“I
have a list of freighters that we believe are owned by the same pirates that ran,
well, run the drug facility in Skathi, Chief.”  She looked around the room. 
“When we get to the Erriapius orbital, the plan is to find one of those
freighters and ‘claim’ it.”

A
fourth pilot, Vivian May, raised her hand and asked, “How do you know those
freighters are going to be in Erriapius, ma’am?”