The day after we completed the transfer of our wounded to the station medical facility, a small group of Navy officers approached the docking lock and requested entry. Of course, when they arrived, Anne and I immediately headed down to meet them. When we arrived, I found Admiral Hanadon with a party of other officers accompanying him. After I welcomed him aboard we made our way to a conference room where he told me FNS Destiny was to be moved to the shipyard for some repairs. Some of his companions were to take over command and move her to the yard as soon as I, and the remaining crew were able to vacate. He’d already arranged a suitable skeleton crew to move her so I suggested to him I would let the crew know they should gather their things while he arranged to bring the replacements aboard. The Admiral agreed so I told the crew to gather their possessions and report to the lock in thirty minutes.
Accommodation for the crew on the station was already arranged and they would be reporting to some of the station officers while they were there. Ensign Fraser was told she was to report to Lady Conti for now while I was to accompany the Admiral. He told me I would need to be debriefed before a final decision could be made about my ultimate future. I still didn’t realise that wheels were already turning in the background to make sure I was not punished. We waited at the lock for FNS Destiny’s crew to make their way off the ship. The new crew were filtering on board but I still hadn’t seen any of the ship’s crew exit yet when I heard the tramp of marching feet. Soon, FNS Destiny’s entire crew came marching in and as each one passed, he, or she, locked eyes with me then snapped me a perfect salute before continuing on out through the lock and into the station.
The last one to come by was a senior rating who stopped when he reached me before facing me and saluting me. He then said, “All crew have now departed FNS Destiny as ordered Sir. I have been asked to tell you that this ship’s crew consider it both an honour and a privilege to have served with you. We wish you the best for the future and hope you live a long and happy life.” He then saluted me again, spun on his heal and departed before I could say thank you or do anything else beyond returning his salute.
In confusion, I looked toward the Admiral who had a rather bemused expression on his face. He said, “That, Colin, is why even I consider you to have been a legitimate commanding officer for this ship. Even though you had no bond to us, you bought this ship home, back to the Federation. You did that expecting to be imprisoned or perhaps executed. This ship’s crew would never have done something like that for someone who did not deserve it.”
All I could say in reply to his comment was, “I understand Sir. I think.”
Anne arrived then with both her and my duffels, not that I had much, only the few things I’d collected since waking on Destiny, the clothes I was wearing when I had my accident were ruined and were discarded before I woke. Someone, a rating from the Admiral’s party I think, took my duffel from Anne before we all departed FNS Destiny. I’d now effectively relinquished my command, though I still didn’t feel as if the command was something I deserved. When we exited the ship, the Troopers who remained on board after Conti and her party departed formed up as an armed escort around us as we moved forward into the station.
When we moved into the station, I noticed how different the air smelled. The air on the ship had a faint musky odour caused by the environmental system being overloaded at a time when it was compromised. Of course, till I left the ship, my nose had become acclimatised to the odour and I didn’t really notice it. The station air on the other hand had a sweet fresh smell of flowers. Once again the smell was very faint but it was both noticeable and pleasant. The station corridors were brightly lit with a white light that seemed to be emitted from the ceiling panels. The decks soon transitioned from a hard substance looking a little like concrete at the dock to carpeting. I noticed a slight change of colour in the walls as we made our way further into the station. I was later told the variation helped people psychologically when they lived on the station for long periods.
We went first to the Admirals office where Ensign Fraser was given her orders before she departed. After she left, the Admiral sat me down to explain what would be happening to me over the next few days. He told me that because I was technically a pirate under Federation law, he could not just let me go free, at least, not yet. At the same time, he did not see a need to place me in a cell though he did warn me I would most likely be spending at least a little time in one before things improved. In the short term though, I was to be held under house arrest, billeted in reasonable officer’s accommodation but constantly under guard and not permitted to wander freely around the station. He explained the guard was both to protect me from others and everyone else from the perceived pirate. Of course, this was all quite a bit better than I’d dared hope for and a lot better than could have happened so I had no complaints.
After Admiral Hanadon finished briefing me, two officers from Naval Intelligence led me from his office and escorted me to my accommodation for the coming days. As he’d told me, it was a reasonably comfortable space and I felt he was being more than fair to me. They allowed me about twenty minutes to settle in, then took me off to a room where they began the interrogation. They were in no way harsh with me, just persistent. Over the next few days, I’m not sure how many, these Naval Intelligence people kept at me mercilessly, often coming back to something I’d answered previously, looking for any inconsistencies in what I’d told them. I felt I was fairly safe from this tactic simply because I was not deliberately lying. Any inconsistencies in what I told them were simply the normal mistakes anyone could make in these kinds of circumstances. They spent quite a lot of time dissecting the incident when we were attacked on Zafar.
“How,” they wondered, “could a completely untrained person achieve what you did? Surely that person must have had some military service. Surely a much more sensible course of action would have been for you to just dive for cover and leave it to the professionals.”
My simple answer to that was, “I was not completely untrained, not when we went to Zafar. FNS Destiny’s Troopers were teaching me a few things as part of helping me in my recovery. In addition to that, at my age, death is not something I fear as much as I did during my youth. Besides, when I first started running, I had no conscious thought of why I was doing so, in hindsight, I was simply trying to reach the nearest cover. It was only when I realised someone was shooting at me, me personally, that a cold rage began to settle over my mind. It is only after I succumbed to this rage that most of the things everyone seems to be so impressed with took place.
As for my leadership skills, they were something I’ve developed over my entire life, starting when I was a member of the scouting movement then continuing into school, university, courses I took as a professional, and many of the roles I filled as a professional."
They moved on from that subject and onto something else before returning to the time when I forgot to return my weapons to the Troopers. I told them the same thing I told Captain Carlon, it was simply a case of me being too tired to think clearly and forgetting at the time. I told them I was very embarrassed about it then and still was, and it was something I wished had never happened. Then they moved onto yet another thing.
This time, they asked why I decided to board the pirate ship near the jump point. They rightly pointed out that if we’d not done so, we would have been long gone before the fourth pirate turned up and would have simply been able to make our way quietly back to the Federation without the fuss we ended up creating in this system.
I answered that our sensors picked up life signs on the ship and some of our prisoners told us there were people there who’d been taken captive by the pirates. I pointed out, perhaps a little acidly that Lady Conti seemed to be quite pleased we rescued her. I then admitted to them that after we rescued Lady Conti and her party and took the remaining pirates who were still on the ship prisoner, we salvaged quite a lot of materiel from the ship, some of it because we desperately needed it and some, for exam
ple the mines because we thought the Federation should have an opportunity to look at them.
Once again they moved on to something else. By this stage, I was beginning to feel very tired and very hungry so I consequently became a little cranky. I fully understood what they were doing, and why, but by now, I’d reached the point where I could barely understand the questions I was being asked let alone be able to formulate a rational response so some of my answers were starting to not make any sense, even to me.
Eventually, I reached the point where they asked me a question and I simply replied I would not answer any more questions till I’d had an opportunity to eat and sleep. They tried some half-hearted bully boy tactics but these had the exact opposite effect on me to the one they’d expected, I simply dug my heels in and refused to answer. After about fifteen minutes of these tactics they both left the room, perhaps to simply let me worry or perhaps to take instruction from someone higher up. Immediately after they left, I simply leant forward and put my head in my hands with my elbows on my knees. I closed my eyes and waited, slumped forward like that, my head swimming with exhaustion. In hindsight, these people had not treated me too badly till now so beyond being tired and hungry I was still in pretty good shape.
Not too long after my interrogators left, a couple of Troopers came in and hauled me to my feet. They guided me down to the quarters I’d been assigned and helped me inside. The treatment they meted out to me was not brutal, just very efficient. Once I was inside the door, they released me and left, shutting the door behind themselves and locking me in. My quarters had a small table with a single chair in one corner. On the table was a selection of foods, and drinks, not too different from the food I was eating while on FNS Destiny. I looked around the compartment then sat at the table and started to eat. I ate the food reasonably slowly, stopping once I no longer felt hungry but before I started to feel bloated. I sat quietly for a while then, thinking about what was happening and why. My interrogators were not being brutal at all, actually, up till this point, their treatment of me had really been quite benign but they were relentless. It occurred to me they probably didn’t want me giving up hope because they would have known I’d bought Destiny here willingly. I think it must have been obvious to them throughout this interrogation, I really was trying to cooperate with them as fully as possible. After a few minutes of these musings, I decided to climb onto my bunk and catch a little sleep while I still had the opportunity.
The next morning, the guards woke me with breakfast on the table. They told me I had forty minutes to eat and get myself ready for the day. I climbed out of bed then walked over to the table which now held a different selection of food. I ate as much as I could, again slowly, till I felt I’d eaten enough before going to clean myself up as best I could before I dressed for the day. I was just finishing dressing when the Troopers came in, ushered me out of the compartment and marched me down to continue my interrogation. This day was pretty much a repeat of the previous one. My interrogators went over FNS Destiny’s recent cruise, one point at a time, dissecting my actions and my decisions, asking why I acted in a particular way, or why I made a particular decision. They kept coming back to specific topics, trying to catch me in a lie or even a simple inconsistency. Once again, during the day, there was almost no let up. In the end, I knew all I could do was to endure.
This pattern was repeated for a few more days before they left me alone for about four days. By the end of those four days, I was becoming thoroughly bored and found myself wishing the interrogations would restart. My quarters had nothing of interest in it and I could not come and go as I pleased. At the end of those four days, I was taken back down to the interrogation room and the questions started all over again. This round of questioning went on for a few more days but these interrogators were quite a bit more aggressive than the previous ones were, stopping just short of physically hurting me. They did find one chink in my armour though, suggesting that I only bought FNS Destiny back to Federation space because the crew made me. At that point, I simply shut down completely, ignoring their questions, not looking at them or responding to them, refusing to even speak to them any longer. I’d simply had enough. I’d answered every question they asked me truthfully, I had cooperated to the best of my ability but I simply could not allow things to continue the way they were going.
By this time, I quite simply wanted nothing more to do with them. I knew I might be making a mistake, but sheer bloody mindedness is one-character flaw I have never been able to get past. When I get myself into this state, I cannot be budged, not even with a gun to my head. It is a trait that can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on the situation. Eventually they realised they’d pushed me too hard so they simply gave up and marched me back to my quarters. Once again, I ate and slept. Not long after I woke the next day, Eri came to visit me. She gave me a thorough physical examination to make sure my physical health was holding up under the stresses of the interrogation I was being subjected to. After she completed the physical, she spoke to me about random subjects, asking questions here and there, I think assessing my mental state. Finally, she rose to leave, and as she did so she whispered that it would all be over soon. I must confess, her visit was a huge boost to my morale, as by this time, I was starting to feel quite down. I realised I felt so much better after she left than I had before. When I give it any thought, I am sure Eri’s visit was intended to do exactly that, it was intended to improve my state of mind. The next day, I was gathered up by the Troopers to be taken for a visit to the Admiral.
I was ushered into a Grey walled room, completely unadorned except for a couple of low, comfortable looking lounge chairs and something resembling a coffee table. I was told to sit and wait so I did what I was told. A short while later, Admiral Hanadon entered along with a couple of other officers who I didn’t know, Anne, Ani and Lady Conti. When they entered, I rose as a sign of respect for Admiral Hanadon who simply waved me back to my seat. The others all had very serious expressions on their faces as they took the remaining seats in the room.
The Admiral said, “I would like to thank you Colin. I would like to thank you for everything you have done up till now, and for your cooperation during your debriefing. I know the debriefing was grueling, it was after all, meant to be. The interrogators needed to make sure there were no hidden agendas and nothing that is going to be a problem for the Federation in the future. For what it’s worth, the interrogators found nothing at all and I expect this fact will open up opportunities for you in the future. Short term though, we have a favour to ask of you, a favour I already know we have no right to ask of you.”
As he paused, I broke in with a smile, “But you’re going to ask me anyway though, aren’t you Admiral?”
He smiled back before answering, “Yes Colin, you are of course right, I am indeed going to ask you anyway.”
Lady Conti spoke then, “Colin, we need your help to uncover some traitors within the ranks of the station security forces. Our sources tell us there is already a price on your head but they need to find out what you have told Naval Intelligence before they will be able to kill you.”
I interrupted then and asked, “Before this goes any further, who in this room already knows the plan you are about to propose to me? Also, who in this room knows all of your security measures to protect me as I am sure you are about to assure me that you do in fact, already have them in place?”
Conti, Anne, Admiral Hanadon, and one other officer indicated they knew the entire story so I asked one more question, this time directly to the Admiral. “Admiral,” I asked, “of the people who are not currently briefed into the entire plan, which of them is absolutely essential for you to make it work?”
Admiral Hanadon replied, “Only two of the additional people are indispensable for the plan to work. The rest would make it easier but could be removed if we needed to.”
“OK,” I said, “I would request that for now at least, we cut it back to just the ones who already know or who
are absolutely essential to make your plan work. We can then discuss it and if it seems someone else is needed, we can bring that person in. After all, a secret ceases to be a secret too easily if too many people know about it. The more who know about this, the more likely it is we might have a leak.”
As I said this, I could see a few of the people who would’ve been excluded nodding, agreeing with me. They all looked at Admiral Hanadon expectantly until he finally dismissed all those who were not immediately required except for Shasi and one other officer, both of whom were essential co-conspirators.
After the others left, and the door closed behind them, one of the remaining people pulled a device out before beginning to scan the room for bugs or other surveillance devices. He found one bug had been planted under one of the seats. When this bug was located, he immediately disabled it before calling someone outside the room and giving orders for a particular officer to be quietly taken into custody till she could be interrogated. This done, he shut off his com unit before removing its power supply, then placed both the com unit itself, and the power supply on the table. About then, I noticed my implant was strangely silent, unable to pick up any signal at all. I saw Shasi look carefully around the room before looking in my direction and nodding. I relaxed and leaned back in the chair before turning my attention back towards Admiral Hanadon.
I said, “Admiral, I am sorry if it seemed I was being difficult there, but I’m assuming you are about to ask me to do something that is likely to be hazardous to my health if things don’t work out in accordance with the plan. That being the case, I would like to absolutely minimise the number of people who know the entire story. If the wrong people know what is happening they can find a way to circumvent any precautions we could take.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 43
