by C. C. Ekeke
10.
“Recap this for me,” Habraum glared at Sam, annoyed and exhausted. “You secured the release of twenty-eight Korvenites from a Korvenite internment camp, without proper authorization, in an attempt to protect them from a possible kidnapping from the KIF which ended up happening anyway?”
“That’s right,” Sam nodded, wearing her navy-blue Commander uniform and a self-assured look.
The Cerc’s mood darkened. Right now he should be helping his son with schoolwork, instead of navigating this grudded mess. Habraum had prudently let Jeremy’s grandparents on Jen’s side care for him over the last two days. “You took these Korvenites assuming Maelstrom would target them?”
“There’s nothing to assume. They were targets of Maelstrom, as evident from today’s KIF attack.”
Habraum rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling the start of a pounding headache. Sam’s brazen calm over her actions made this all the more trying. “They would’ve been safer in the internment camps, since only high-ranking government and UComm officials know their locations.”
“Oh, fuck off. They weren’t safe anywhere with Maelstrom getting past memberworlds security so easily,” Sam folded her arms defiantly. “I’d have just taken them beyond Union borders—.”
“Beyond Union borders?” Habraum snapped. “Rogguts Sammie, have you gone skittery in the brain?!” The Cerc caught himself in mid-sentence as he saw his combat team standing nearby, all mildly surprised at his raised voice. Liliana, treating the Korvenites in the Medcenter, was the only CT-1 Brigadier not present. They had all heard Sam’s story on the trip back to Hollus, while Habraum debriefed the UComm PLADECO commanding officer on Kheldoroth about the KIF attack.
Now back onboard Hollus in the War Room, Khrome and Arcturus worriedly whispered among themselves. Marguliese and Honaa appeared rather indifferent, eyeing news stream updates on the War Room’s many viewscreens.
How the hazik do they expect me to react? But yelling at Sam wasn’t the best display in front of his subordinates. Habraum took a deep breath, steadying himself. “Do you know the trouble you’d get in if anyone outside of Star Brigade gets wind of it?” the Cerc questioned in a lower tone.
Sam snorted, “What’s the worst they can do? Take away my birthday?”
Habraum squeezed his eyes shut briefly, swallowing back unbidden laughter. This was what won him over years ago when they had been Brigade greenhorns who barely tolerated each other; Sam’s snide, bratty, rapid-fire wisecracking in the face of danger. “This isn’t a greybrick,” he stated firmly, opening his eyes again.
“I know that,” Sam continued just above a whisper. “Hollienurax knows what I’m doing and it didn’t bother him. Sides, I’m not the one cooperating with our Technoarchy buddy now am I, flyboy?”
She’s never letting that go, is she? Before Habraum could respond, Atom Greystone swept into the War Room, gormless sneer and all. The Cerc felt his stomach turn. The Ministry of Defense liaison rounded the room and walked right up to Habraum and Sam like they were all old friends. Habraum could think of few beings whose company he craved less.
“Captain Nwosu! Commander D’Urso! Fantastic job with the Korvies near Doro System today.”
“If it isn’t the crown prince of ass-kissing,” Sam grumbled.
Greystone stopped smiling, “I heard you.”
“That was the point,” Sam snarked back.
“Why are you here, Greystone?” Habraum tersely demanded.
Sam smirked. “To be ridiculed. Okay, I’ll stop,” she agreed after Habraum’s icy look.
Greystone raised his hands innocently. “Captain, your tone wounds me. I merely wanted to say that because of today’s mission, the Ministry of Defense is fully convinced of Star Brigade’s usefulness. Just keep up the great work and report to me weekly, then there should be no issues.”
“Report to you?” Sam snorted. “We don’t answer to MoD pen pushers.”
“You do answer to UComm, and ultimately the Ministry of Defense,” Greystone sharply reminded her. “Habraum, Sam. I can either make you look like a million sterlings or like yosk tattshǐ.”
Normally Habraum would have felt a rush of anger at Greystone’s posturing, but he recalled the tasks he’d ignored while dealing with Sam. “I’ve no time for your dreg, Greystone. Honaa!” Habraum shouldered Greystone aside rather forcefully. “Contact AeroFleet for records of their latest Mynar Sector sweeps. Any evidence of Korvenite activity, I want you to have it.”
Honaa uncoiled from his seat. “On it, Captain.” The door hissed open and closed upon his departure.
“Khrome, go with Tyris to the cargo bay with those vessels the Korvenites used. Find out about ordnance, tech and who was on the vessel. Homeworld Security’s already combing those ships over. Pool your efforts with theirs.”
“Aye sir,” Khrome and Tyris both said, exiting.
“Maggie.” Habraum turned at last to the Cybernarr. “Yank more info from that Korvenite ship.”
“Acknowledged.” Marguliese rose and walked out with her distinctive regal stride.
Greystone straightened out his suit and looked after the departing Cybernarr with a great deal of interest. “That cyborg seems pretty useful. What megaconglomerate did you pick her up from?”
“You’re still here,” Habraum growled, hazel-gold eyes glittering.
“I’m here for the Korvies. A military transport will come and send them to Alorum’s Light.”
Sam looked up sharply. “You’re not taking them anywhere.”
Greystone looked at her with an ear-to-ear sneer. “Since it’s an order from the Defense Ministry and UComm, yes I can. Korvenites are a threat to the general populace.”
Habraum could tell Greystone was clearly enjoying taunting Sam about this. Best that he cut this fight off at the pass. “The Korvenites will be relinquished to the designated internment camp. But we will be the military transport to deliver them,” Habraum said, as Sam began protesting.
“You don’t know how badly Korvenites are treated in these camps. We can’t send them back.”
The Cerc shrugged. “We can’t keep them here. Besides, other than research and hearsay, you’ve not been inside any internment camp.” He turned to Greystone before she could respond. “Greystone, just give us the access codes for one of them and we’ll be on our way.”
Greystone shook his head. “Only a few notable government and military officials have those codes.”
“I’m ballparking you’re not one of them,” Habraum decided. Greystone’s muted ire spoke volumes.
All talk, no clout. The Cerc wasn’t surprised. “Right. I’ll just get it myself from UComm—.”
“Don’t bother, flyboy. I already have access to five of the most covert camps.”
Both Habraum and Greystone wheeled around to gape at Sam. “What?” the Cerc spat out, genuinely shocked. “When—how did you get those?”
“How do you think? Spy shit,” Sam snapped, as if her answer explained away everything.
Greystone went from shocked to furious in a flash. “You don’t know tattshǐ!” His voice grew shrill with anger, though with almost no conviction backing it.
Sam ignored him. “Alorum’s Light is easily the worst. When can we go, Habraum?”
This was a bit much to digest. “Alorum has internment camps?” The Cerc had to see for himself. “0900 orvs on the morrow.” Habraum turned to Greystone. “Be a good lapdog and tell the Defense Ministry.” He moved for the War Room exit, utterly cross with Sam, yet still proud of her devotion to this cause. Eight years ago she had been a bitter and broken soul, barely believing in even Star Brigade.
Meanwhile, Greystone’s rage seemed to have rendered him speechless.
Sam articulated for him, pointing toward the War Room exit. “Please leave.”
That dismissal seemed to help the MoD liaison find his tongue. “You don’t tell me when to leave!”
“I said, ‘please’,” Sam snapped with all the courtesy of
a thunderstorm. This time Habraum didn’t stifle his laughter. Greystone opened his mouth to retort, only to grumble and leave in sullen silence.
“I’m seeing severe magnesium deficiency, and a hairline fracture along your spine,” Liliana read off her scancorder, reaching for the floating tray near the bed for a disc-shaped osteo-sealant.
The young doctor felt the Korvenite’s amber eyes boring into her, but she stayed focused on the scancorder and unwittingly knocked the osteo-sealant onto the ground in a loud clatter. Liliana’s cheeks warmed as she knelt down to retrieve it.
Stop acting so stupid. He has a restraining bolt! His hands were also magnecuffed. Liliana stood up to place the scancorder in the floating tray and forced herself to look right at her patient. She now regretted taking this Medcenter shift with all her heart. Childhood fears birthed from her parents’ hardline views about Korvenites blossomed anew in her mind, and the KIF only confirmed them. Liliana still dreamed about that first mission at the VanoTech mines, and that Retributionary’s hand around her throat, tightening until she couldn’t breathe, leaving her gasping when she woke with a start.
She wore her most impassive face while running the scancorder over the Korvenite’s back. He was such a pitiful thing to behold; patchy purple stubble on his head, cavernous eye sockets expressing only sorrow, no fat or muscle under the sallow white skin stretched so tightly over his rail-thin body. He looked like a walking skeleton! The way he hunched on the Medcenter bedding in geriatric posture, so quiet as Liliana examined him, she’d have guessed this Korvenite was three times her age. Yet, according to her scancorder, he was three years younger.
Seeing the state of these rescued Korvenites…Liliana’s heart ached more than she expected. No sentient being deserved such mistreatment. “Has to be a huge misunderstanding. The Galactic Union wouldn’t knowingly let this happen,” she muttered, deaf to any negative revelations about her Union.
“Dr. Cortés,” Dr. Rynaar Simony, chief of Hollus Maddrone’s Medcenters, called out across the space in his usual sing-song voice. Using his multiple arms, he was treating two other patients at once. “A youngster on the last bed has a nasty trachea infection. Can you get that?”
“I’ll get to her once I’m finished here, Dr. Simony,” Liliana said. Tall as she was, the doctor had to stand on the tips of her toes to see said patient through the throng. The girl dozed heavily on Bed 38, a sleek red medroid injecting drugs into her bony arm.
Never had she seen the Medcenter been so packed, most beds filled by Korvenite slaves.
A Korvenite male curled up on a bed, wrapping his bony arms around his even thinner mate. On another bed, a family of five huddled together. The youngest bawled at the top of her lungs for food. But the medroids and paramedics darting up and down the aisles could only do so much. Flanking two sides of the Medcenter were four SAMSON Mechs with rapid volley photon cannons for right arms. Lily had vaguely noticed the humanoid security robots around Hollus, but never up close. The goldenrod/gunmetal grey giants with thin multi-grid coverings for faces stood almost as tall as Captain Nwosu, armed and ready for any Korvenites aggression. Made sense to Liliana, as mechs couldn’t be mind-controlled.
“Nwosu to Medcenter,” the comms chirped.
“This is Dr. Simony, Captain,” the Xyobic doctor stood up from working on a teary-eyed toddler.
“Transfer those Korvenites to the cargo bay by 0830 orvs. And make sure Cortés comes with.”
“Understood Captain, Simony out,” he turned and gave Lily a grim look. Time flew by, and she made her way to the many patients needing aid. Most remained silent, as any spirit had obviously been trampled out of them. A few actually muttered, ‘thank you’, either in Sub-Standard or Korcei, to which Lily forced on a considerate smile.
Once 0830 orvs came, six more security guards accompanied the eight already in the Medcenter to escort the Korvenites to the hangar bay. Liliana joined them after a quick hydrobath and changing into army-green cargo pants, with a black long-sleeve tee. The Korvenites walked without any protest. Why would they? Hope had forsaken their race long ago. Looks like a death march, Liliana mused sadly.
As they reached one of the larger translifters, the young male she had helped in the Medcenter stumbled to his knees. Intuitively, Liliana moved to help him. A Samsomech got there first, jerking the Korvenite by the arm so roughly Liliana thought it would break off.
“That wasn’t necessary,” Lily stated, shocked by her own daring.
The robot turned to her, its grid-like face blank of any expression, and dragged the Korvenite onward without another word. Liliana silently thanked the Maker once they arrived at the cargo bay.
Captain Nwosu, in his grey and black Captain’s uniform, waited beside the Phaeton’s lowered cargo bay hatch. He nodded to the doctor in greeting. The towering Lt. Prydyri-Ravlek stood on the hatch’s other side watching the procession with a glower, of course. Lily, clueless why the Kintarian was even there, decided to ignore him. Meanwhile, Nwosu walked forward to direct where he wanted the Korvenites.
“Inside that bay, well away from the KIF, Macon,” Nwosu told the mech that Liliana had words with.
“Aye sir,” Macon acknowledged in a androgynously mechanical tenor. He turned to his counterparts. “Hustle them in.” The 13 other guard mechs tightened formation around the Korvenite group, using their pulse rifle butts to urge the Korvenites into the direction of the cargo bay hatch.
“We need to stop meeting like this, doctor,” Nwosu smirked, still watching the Korvenites.
“Sir, what’s going on?” Lily felt uncomfortable questioning him. But she had no clue why she needed to be here.
Captain Nwosu eyed her thoughtfully, before returning his gaze to the last of the Korvenites trudging into the Phaeton. “A little outing. To Alorum.” The words rolled off his tongue without a hint of humor. “Sam’s showing us the ‘facilities’ where these Korvenites live and I need your medical opinion on them.”
Lily stared at Nwosu. “Facilities…?” She remembered then, over a month ago, catching Sam and V’Korram leave Hollus discreetly on a shuttle loaded with supply containers. The same type of containers she’d seen V’Korram loading when they first met. “There’s an internment camp on Alorum?”
“Several,” growled a voice behind her. V’Korram padded up silently behind the end of the Korvenite procession, casting a surly look over his shoulder before disappearing into the Phaeton’s entry hatch.
“He’s seen a few of these camps as well.” Nwosu frowned as Liliana eyed the Kintarian with barely veiled anger. “Sam will explain once we push off.” Captain Nwosu turned and walked up toward the Phaeton’s. Lily followed without another word.
On the bridge, Sam, V’Korram and Honaa all stood near the helm discussing some report that V’Korram had on a large datapad. When Sam glanced her way, Lily gave a small wave. Sam winked and grinned before turning back to her conversation. Marguliese and Habraum sat at the bridge table in quiet discourse. “Record as much footage as you can,” he softly told her. A chilled stare from the Cybernarr quickly told Lily to mind her own business. The mood on the bridge felt somber and sour, a far cry from the taut and nervous anticipation Lily remembered during the Kheldoroth mission.
To her right, at the tech/ordnance station, sat Khrome and Tyris. Instead of their usual bit of back-and-forth joking, both stared at the viewscreen before them in dumbstruck fashion.
“Did you know about the handling of the Korvenites?” Lily asked, sitting down next to Khrome.
Both shook their heads. “News to us, too. Hit like a bomb. Ka-BLAM,” said Tyris, glancing at Liliana with slit cobalt eyes before looking back at the screen. With his lack of facial features, Lily generally had a hard time reading Tyris. But in his eyes she saw unmistakable confusion and anger.
“How was treating those Korvenites from the camps?” Khrome asked.
Lily leaned forward and rubbed at a throbbing kink in her neck. “Uncomfortable.”
Kh
rome stared at her. “What an animated portrait! Feels like I was right there.”
“No, it’s…” Lily straightened up. “I really had no idea Korvenites were being treated like…like animals…” She trailed off and stared awkwardly at the ground.
Khrome rubbed his chin as he observed her. “You’re shocked the Union’s capable of this?”
“It has to be a mistake,” Lily retorted. “Some unprofessional official abusing power. What I saw goes against everything this government stands for.”
Tyris and Khrome looked at each other uneasily. “That’s not the case from what Sam’s been saying. It wouldn’t be my first time seeing this,” the Thulican spat.
Lily had no response for that. She was well aware that Khrome had been part of a freedom fighter faction during his teenage years, taking on the tyrannical Cybernarr Technoarchy. She couldn’t imagine how he felt seeing the Union doing the same thing. But this had to be a slip-up, the doctor rationalized again. Khrome and Tyris had resumed their focus on an analysis of Alorum and its planetary defense grid.
She silently looked back down at the steel floor, lost in her own thoughts.
“Preparing for launch,” said Honaa’s voice over the comm systems.
The familiar hum of Phaeton’s stellar engine vibrated throughout the ship. Lily started in her seat. Everyone else was too immersed in their own thoughts to notice. Except V’Korram, of course, leveling a patronizing glare at her from across the bridge.
“Madre,” Lily whispered. A month ago her space sickness used to cause such fear. She hugged herself tightly, cold with dread, almost wishing that waning phobia was the cause of her worries now.
11.
Alorum orbited the same star as Zeid and Terra Sollus, the eleventh and farthest planet in the Rhyne System. Its revolution passed near the Merrivel Nebula, named after the legendary Cercidalean voyager who travelled through a large share of its expanse, Habraum Merrivel. Who I was named after, Habraum Nwosu recalled fondly as Sam began her tale about the internment camps. Or, as UComm liked calling them, Protectorate Bases.
