Ted quickly learned that waiting was a worse hell than even the terror of combat. When he’d been in the middle of that firefight back on Earth, the fear of death had been imminent, his heart had been throbbing wildly in his chest, and he’d been unable to even draw breath. Waiting in fear was more like a dull ache in his gut, and a dull, continuous, throbbing pain was much worse.
They had been left alone for more than eight hours, and poor Trell was getting more and more nervous by the minute. Ted could tell from the Kolean man’s increasingly erratic behavior and racing breath.
Ted, on the other hand, was utterly exhausted but couldn’t sleep. He sat on one of the beds, too nervous and tense to do much of anything but sit there and stare at the walls.
“I hope Vandoraa pulls through for us,” Juiya confessed to Ted, “otherwise, I don’t think we can get out of here on our own.”
“I’m just glad he decided to come over to our side,” Ted replied. “It seems I made a pretty good call.” He was only half joking.
Juiya nodded. “I think Alana is going to owe you a big apology once we’re safe and sound.” The “if” was left unspoken.
Just then, the doors to the prison block opened again, sending Ted scrambling to his feet. Much to their disappointment, it wasn’t Gavton returning Alana to them. It was the nameless chief of security.
“Commander Gavton would like to question you once he’s done with the Kolean woman,” the chief of security said, looking directly at Ted.
“Of course he does,” Ted said tensely, though his words were to hide his fear.
The security chief used his key to open the door, and Ted hesitated for a brief moment, challenging him, but once the guard fingered his gun Ted left the cell obediently. The last thing he wanted was to put the others in danger just because he was being stubborn jackass.
Going a different way than he’d come in, Ted got to see more of the Drevi ship. He shouldn’t have been so fascinated, but he found himself comparing every detail on this ship to the December, and each and every time this ship came up short. Everything just seemed so dull and lifeless.
“Can I at least know the name of the guy leading me to my doom?”
“Not that it matters to you, but it’s Sullig,” the security chief responded.
“Sullig,” Ted said, testing out the name. There had been several Drevi in and out of Dr. Hio’s labs with that name, so from what he could gather, it was a rather common one.
They went down corridor after identical corridor before reaching a closed door. “Step inside,” ordered Sullig.
Ted took a step forward and the door slid open. Inside there was nothing but a chair, though it didn’t look like anything Ted would have expected in an interrogation chamber. Instead of a hard, spartan thing, it looked... downright comfy.
Ted glanced at Sullig, looking for direction, and in response, the Drevi simply nodded towards the chair. His heart thundering in his chest, as if expecting spikes to shoot out of it when he sat down, Ted lowered himself into the chair.
It wasn’t just comfortable, it was competing with the weird Kolean mats for the most comfortable thing Ted had ever sat in. Just as Ted began wondering what kind of odd interrogation technique this might be, Sullig spoke up again.
“Commander Gavton will be here in a moment. In the meantime, please make yourself comfortable.” With those words, Sullig left, leaving Ted all alone in the dark room.
December Page 31
