Once moving again, Catherine brought Eshel a cold canteen and ran a medical scanner over him. “How do you feel?”
“I am fine.”
“Then why do you keep putting your hand on your shoulder like it hurts?”
Eshel gave a tiny frown. “It has ached since the Sunai detained me.”
“Let me look.” She felt around until he flinched, and then scanned his arm. “Your rotator is torn. Take this,” she said, rummaging through the medical kit and retrieving a painkiller. “Be still.” She made some adjustments to her device and ran it over Eshel’s shoulder while Eshel grimaced in pain. “When we return, go to sick bay to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
“How do you know this?” he asked, puzzled.
“I learned a few things after working a few extra sick bay shifts, thanks to someone beating me in poker.”
Eshel gave a tiny smile.
They reached Cornelia several minutes before their ETA. Tom docked the craft and woke Eshel, who’d slept most of the way home. The three of them gathered their things as the bay door shut.
Eshel approached Catherine and Tom. “Before they question us, I want to speak,” he said. “On Korvalis, before Catherine found me, I believed I would not see either of you again. It was an unpleasant feeling.” He paused. “I am grateful to you both.”
“We love you, buddy,” Tom said, slapping Eshel on the back. “We’d do it a thousand times over. With me taking the lead, of course,” he added with a grin.
Catherine elbowed Tom. “You’re welcome, Esh.”
They heard knocking, so Tom opened the hatch. Ferguson and Yamamoto stood with pleased expressions, and Koni and Snow stood behind them. Catherine, Eshel, and Tom saluted.
“At ease,” Ferguson said with satisfaction, the gleam returned to her eye. “Welcome back, Eshel. And good work, you two,” she said to Catherine and Tom.
“Thank you, Captain,” they replied.
Snow slapped hands with Tom and gave him and Catherine a hug. He hesitated with Eshel, until Eshel held out his hand for Snow to shake.
As Snow talked with Eshel and Tom, Koni approached her, his eyeshades protecting him from the bright light of the hangar bay. He placed his hands on her shoulders. “I am happy to see you safe. How are you, nonaii?”
“Relieved. And tired.”
“When you are rested, I have much to tell you.” He looked over at her friends, his gaze settling upon Snow. “Your comrade listened to your warning, yes? He has not consorted with our females.”
Catherine nodded. “Glad to hear it.”
Snow had done plenty of consorting with one particular Sunai female, in secret. On their long journey back to Cornelia, Tom told her that Snow finally confessed his feelings to him. Envy aside, Tom had not only managed to keep his mouth shut, but he helped Snow continue the liaison by offering up creative ideas for sneaking around.
She disliked lying to Koni, especially when he’d done so much for her. But she’d done things for him as well, and would continue to. And she now understood what the old Space Corps adage meant about choosing your long-term mission companions carefully. She knew who her close friends were, who would always have her loyalty.
“Listen up,” Yamamoto said. They quieted down. “Snow, remove the Mosca’s modifications.”
“Yes, Sir,” Snow said.
“Eshel, Tom, Catherine… head to the bridge ready room for debriefing.”
“Yes, Sir,” they replied.
Eshel sat in Ferguson’s office, finishing up his debriefing.
“Visiting your mother,” Yamamoto went on. “And gathering evidence of your father’s murder… why did you take such risks, considering the consequences of detection?”
“They stole my father’s life, Commander. It was important that I attempt to remove my mother from danger. As I told Catherine, I believed the risk of detection was low, and that is the only reason I made such a choice.”
Yamamoto nodded. “I believe I speak on behalf of the entire command when I say you showed tremendous prudence in planning your own rescue in advance, and foresight in developing a plan that avoided unnecessary mess.”
“Thank you, Commander. I am… grateful… that you and the Captain were willing to adopt the plan,” Eshel replied, hoping they would appreciate his use of that word.
“You told us the information you revealed to Elisan about our organization and our weapons systems. Do you recall anything else you told them that we need to prepare for, such as our store of bioweapons or our information systems?”
“I revealed that you have bioweapons. I told them the weapons were very simple in nature, using only non-engineered microbial agents.”
Ferguson frowned. “How do you know anything about our bioweapons?”
“I don’t. But with Elisan, it is better to confabulate an interesting lie than to reveal a dull truth.” Eshel didn’t mention that he’d seen their bioweapons stores before, thanks to Tom, and that his visual memory allowed him to recall many specifics. He knew the weapons were more sophisticated than he’d let on to Elisan. Eshel hoped that Elisan would come to underestimate the resources he had access to with the Space Corps.
“And the information systems?”
“We had not fully discussed that topic before Catherine arrived. They know nothing of concern.”
“And I assume they questioned you about how you survived your escape?” Ferguson said.
“Yes. I said I had killed the other escapees with a bioweapon so I could survive on the little remaining water left, a deception I would prefer to remain secret.”
“You would have them think of you as a murderer?”
“In order to hide my scientific innovations, yes.”
“But didn’t they detect your genetic changes, like Dr. Vargas did?” she said.
“It was Catherine who discovered the changes, Captain, not Dr. Vargas. They detected them. I lied about what they were for.”
“And they believed that lie?”
“Probably not,” Eshel said. “But they have too little information with which to prove me wrong.”
Ferguson nodded in understanding. “What would’ve happened if Lieutenant Finnegan hadn’t found you? Would Elisan have kept you as prisoner indefinitely?”
“No, Captain. Once they believed I had run out of useful information, they would have killed me, assuming I did not escape first.”
“Escape? Where would you go?”
“There are places one can hide on Korvalis, Captain.”
“And Elisan… he admitted to orchestrating both gumiia attacks on Derovia, and that more attempts to kidnap you never took place because you stayed onboard the ship to avoid the heat?”
“Yes.”
Ferguson glanced at Yamamoto. She sighed and sat back in her chair. “Well, Eshel, it appears your suspicions were correct.”
Yes, they were. Perhaps you will listen to me in the future, Captain.
“Grono Amsala was able to ferret out the two Sunai who abducted you,” she went on. “They’re dissidents from another province, in cahoots with Elisan. They stole the uniform and decorations of a Grono and infiltrated the party.” She gave a half smile. “Perhaps now Gronoi Okooii will consider your debt paid to the Sunai.”
“Perhaps.”
Ferguson took a swig from her canteen. “Knowing that anything you say here is classified, do you believe that Lieutenant Finnegan competently carried out your plan as you laid it out?”
“Yes, Captain,” Eshel replied without hesitation.
Ferguson got up and walked around to the front of her desk, standing closer to where Eshel was seated. “Do you still believe she was the best choice for taking point in your rescue, considering that she’s not a soldier and not trained for such operations?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Because the operation was successful?”
“No. It is due only to her exceptional inventiveness that Catherine was able to find me.”
“Except
ional inventiveness,” she said, glancing at Yamamoto. “That’s high praise for someone whose methods included a paperboard sign.”
“She would never have found me without it. None of your soldiers, with their combat training, could have achieved such a result. Nor could they have infiltrated Fallal Hall without detection.”
“Is that why you chose her?” Ferguson said. “Because she’s not a soldier?”
“I chose her because I trust her, Captain. I won’t have my people pay for the evils of Elisan and the malkaris by revealing weaknesses in Korvalis’s defenses.”
Ferguson said nothing for a moment. Then, she nodded. “We’re glad to have you back safely. You’re dismissed.”
Eshel saluted, and left.
Yamamoto sat down in the Captain’s office. “Anything yet from the Korvali?”
“No. I’m sure they’ll contact us through some mysterious means, sometime between tomorrow and three months from now,” Ferguson said, rolling her eyes. “Has Grono Amsala reported any progress with the investigation?”
“A little,” Yamamoto replied. “The two men who abducted Eshel have provided more information about their scheme, in exchange for leniency in their punishment. They claim the Korvali approached them and offered them technological information they could sell to Sunai scientists. It seems the two men hadn’t yet sold the information.”
“If the Grono gets his hands on that information, let’s have Eshel look at it. And make sure Tom and Finnegan don’t let Eshel out of their sight. If the Korvali are still hunting him, we need to make sure he isn’t dangled out like a piece of meat.”
“We cannot hide him forever.”
“I know. But until we leave Suna, we can’t take any chances.” Ferguson leaned on her chair’s arm, chin resting in her hand. “Were you as confident as you let on that this would succeed?”
“I was confident in Catherine’s ability to handle the task. However, I admit I didn’t have high hopes that they would find Eshel.”
“She got lucky, finding him.”
“Luck favors the prepared, Janice. Tom admitted he was pretty impressed with her.”
She stood up and looked out her window. “I didn’t think a scientist could impress me. Now two of them have.” She turned back toward him. “Tom did a great job, as usual. He prefers taking point, but I’m glad he was forced to only oversee this one. It’s good training for when he takes command someday.”
Yamamoto shook his head. “I don’t know if he’s command material.”
She smiled. “He will be. When he grows up a little.” She paused. “Looks like Eshel got to him, too. I hoped he’d have more intelligence for us.”
“Me too. I think it’s safe to assume the devices altered their EM emissions to something the Korvali eye cannot detect.”
Ferguson nodded. “Tom said Eshel made him destroy the evidence before they returned. Probably figured we’d try to confiscate it.”
“Can you blame him? If such information got out, Korvalis would become vulnerable to invasion.”
She sat back down. “These people aren’t stupid. Once they realize Eshel’s back with us, they’ll put two and two together. Whatever Eshel’s trick, it’ll only work once.” She paused. “Hopefully once is enough.”
Two days later, Yamamoto received a message. The message was from the Korvali, relayed through the Alliance. He sat down to read it. Once finished, he immediately stood up and left his office.
A short while later, Yamamoto went to Ferguson’s office. He waited for her reaction, but she merely sat down and looked at him.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“Did you not receive the message from the Alliance?”
Her eyes narrowed as she scanned her mail again. “I don’t see it. It must be delayed again.” She sighed. “What does it say?”
“They’ve heard from the Korvali. They’re angry. They claim that Eshel’s removal without their permission was an act of war, and that we must return him immediately. They view him, or claim to view him, as one of their citizens, thus making his retrieval illegal and in defiance of the Alliance’s promise to leave them be.”
“How do they know we retrieved him?”
“They know our F-6 was sighted at Station 10, twice,” he said. “And they have the paperboard sign.” He paused. “Most damning, they claim that Catherine appeared briefly on their palace’s surveillance. Eshel mentioned that was a possibility.”
Ferguson grimaced. “They’d assume it was us with or without that evidence.” She tapped her fingers on her desk. “We’ve tried to accommodate these people, Suko. We’ve banned Eshel from even discussing genetics, we’ve given them what they’ve asked for, and Eshel’s gone out of his way to protect them. Yet they still engaged in this sneaky plot to snatch him! There’s nothing else we can do.” She shook her head. “Let’s set up a meeting with Admiral Scott. Then we’ll talk to the Alliance.” She stood up to leave.
“There’s another issue,” Yamamoto told her. “And you won’t like it.”
Ferguson turned to look at him.
“The malkaris’s firstborn has been murdered. He was found dead on the very day Eshel escaped Korvalis. The Korvali have formally accused Eshel of the murder, and—”
“They’ll say anything,” she said, waving her hand at him. “They accused him of divulging their genetic secrets too, and he hasn’t.”
“This time it seems they’re correct. I asked Eshel about it. He admitted to the murder.”
Ferguson slowly sat down, silent for a moment. “There’s going to be another murder, Suko. I’m going to throw that Korvali idiot into space.”
Yamamoto didn’t reply.
“Get him in here,” she said.
Eshel glanced at the empty chair after he saluted the Captain and XO.
“Do not sit down, Private,” Ferguson said. Eshel remained standing. “Did you murder your monarch’s eldest son?”
“She is not my monarch—”
“Answer the question!” she shouted.
“I did, Captain.”
Ferguson gave him a stony look. “I hope you enjoyed your time with us, Eshel.”
CHAPTER 27
As Eshel took his seat in the softly lit, cave-like room, everyone grew silent as they turned their attention to him. He sat alone, separated from the others, watched by those who listened from one side of the room, and those who would decide his fate on the other.
He saw new faces, as well as those he’d met previously. Gronoi Sansuai stood speaking with Tallyn, and Ov’Raa gestured in sign language to an unfamiliar person—an earless, black-eyed Calyyt called Toq. Another Sunai stood with them—an interpreter, offering aid to Ov’Raa’s limited skills with the Calyyt language. Finally, an older human male stood aside: Admiral Scott. Each delegate wore a sash with the Alliance insignia.
“Let us now begin,” Gronoi Sansuai said, his gruff voice echoing in the large stone meeting room. The Alliance delegates took their seats, but the Gronoi remained standing. “This hearing will determine whether Eshel, of the planet Korvalis, who is a refugee under our Orion Interplanetary Alliance, shall suffer punishment for the murder of his malkaris’s primary son.” He gestured to Admiral Scott, his decorations clinking together. “The Space Corps will allow the Alliance to decide on this case, and on Eshel’s punishment. The delegates have reviewed the complaint from the Korvali, Eshel’s report of the killing on Korvalis, and other information pertaining to this case. I will now question the refugee.” He turned to Eshel. “You freely admit to killing this Elan, this Prince of Korvalis. Tell us why you performed this act.”
“He murdered my father, Gronoi Sansuai. I gathered scientific evidence to prove his guilt. Then, as allowed by the sher keltar, I killed him.”
“What is this ‘sher keltar’?”
“It is an ancient rite, older than the Age of Industry, and even older than the Age of Agriculture. When murder transpires, Korvali Doctrine permits a genetic relative of the murdered o
ne to reclaim his or her lost years by stealing those of the murderer.”
“It is for revenge, yes?”
“No, Gronoi. The sher keltar is my right, and my duty, as a Korvali.”
“If that is so,” Gronoi Sansuai said, “why does this Elisan seek punishment?”
“Not all clans observe the rite. Some prefer more… modern methods of justice. The family of the malkaris believes it is above Doctrine. It is one of many ways they are corrupt. But Doctrine says nobody, even the malkaris herself, is beyond the sher keltar.”
“Your former clan, this Shereb clan… they do not observe this rite?”
“They do not.”
“Then how did you learn of it?”
“From my father. He is of unique heritage, a descendent of the Shemal, a primitive clan that resides in the remote territories. Like all primitive clans, the Shemal adhere to old traditions.”
Gronoi Sansuai glanced at the interpreter, who rapidly communicated the proceedings to Toq. “Tell us, Eshel, about your father’s death.”
Eshel hesitated, preparing himself. He shouldn’t share such information. But he knew the consequences of not sharing would be worse than the discomfort he felt at that moment. “After being invited to dinner with the malkaris and her family, my father was found dead in the gardens of Fallal Hall. A bioweapon killed him. A friend had discovered my father’s body and contacted my mother, rather than the Hall Guard. My mother, in the cover of darkness, performed a thorough search of the body, including genetic scans. Such efforts are often futile; Shereb assassins rarely touch their victims—it is considered beneath them to do so—and they make sure to avoid shedding DNA. Once finished, my mother’s friend contacted the Hall Guard. The authorities completed their investigation; upon finding no useful evidence, they closed the case.
“In her search, my mother found a hidden device. The device, which my father had secretly developed, allowed him to surreptitiously scan the DNA of any person who attacked him. However, the device, while small enough to easily hide, also has reduced power and storage capacity—the scanner saves only one image at a time, and the person whose sample is collected must stand very close to the scanner.
The Refugee (The Korvali Chronicles Book 1) Page 30
