Lincoln added, “You’ll see, Commander. And I for one am so glad we are going to do more than the mandatory inquiry and incarceration. It’s time ‘we’ sent a message to ‘them.’ The usual routine… that won’t work with Kwelling! But, Prime, what about the court?”
“Officer DeKator,” Lorin answered. “My father had already spoken to them.”
“Yes,” the prime answered. “We have… let’s just say… allowed for some consolations in the usual mandatory edicts we have established. This information is not for everyone, commander, and you, Investigator.”
Commander Dowey nodded, “As in… acquiring a laser for the battlecruisers.” He let out a long and loud sigh and wiped his face with his old wrinkled hand.
“Yes,” Lorin answered. “Sir, I can see that you are very weary from all of this stress. Am I right about that?” He nodded and smirked. “His eyes. Squinting, perspiration. And I can see you’re having headaches. You need some time away, a short time, just to clear your mind. Am I right about that?”
“Yes, yes, you’re reading my mind! I get it! You women have your own way of prodding and well, if you think you can use your womanly ways on him, we’ve nothing to lose. Now, I have declared to him the first of the three edicts concerning detention.”
Lincoln laughed, “Yes. He said, ‘Lock me up!’ So, we did.”
“Yes,” Commander Dowey added. “That’s right. I’ll have him brought here but there will be a dozen guardsmen escorting him and he will be strapped with electronic inhibitors. He’ll only be able to walk and talk. His arms and hands will be disabled by the device. Understand?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
To his surprise, Kwelling was brought to the detention room. He was shocked to see it filled with people. He was made to sit down at a table across from the prime of O'bipherion and his daughter. He was astonished. Officers Lincoln and Tanner stood beside him. Five guardsmen stood behind them and five stood behind the prime and Lorin. Everyone was expecting Kwelling to be difficult and silent, for the most part.
“Jurias. May I call you Jurias?” Lorin asked as she studied his mouth, his eyes, and every part of him.
He chuckled, “Sure. It’s the most wonderful name I can think of. Isn’t it? Well, Lorin,” he added with much sarcasm in his voice, “is a beautiful name, also.” he smirked.
Lorin immediately recognized, “He likes me? I’ll use that.”
Lincoln grabbed his collar and was ready to shake him but Lorin stopped him. The reading was in progress and Kwelling was taking the bait. She had already ascertained a baseline in which to determine when he lies or tells her the truth.
“Tell me the truth, Jurias. Please don’t lie. Do you like me? You’re attracted to me?”
“Well,” he frowned and glared at her. “I have a few that are more beautiful than you but you are quite attractive.”
“He is speaking the truth.”
He leaned forward. “But all of this chit-chat will not get you any information. I know what you’re trying to do. It won’t work.”
She quickly replied, to catch him off Guard, “Sabin escaped.”
He sat back, stunned. Stunned that she even told him. He glared at her and the prime. The prime had to cover his mouth to hide his expectation of joy as he watched his daughter and her special ability interrogate the prisoner with ease.
“He is shocked that I gave him any information. He should be rejoicing that Sabin is free! He’s not? Nova is still alive!” she quickly uttered.
Kwelling, again, became stunned by the reminder. He was fuming inside and ready to burst.
“He has great hatred for Boone. I expected that. That’s not all,” she added. “The Sim-Sa Gale knows what you and your… your… leader are up to!” She wanted to know if he indeed was the leader of the evil network. “You ‘are’ the one who has been organizing all of this calamity. Right?” she said as she studied his eyes and lips. They immediately deceived him. “It’s not him? He has a leader! Your boss must not be too happy? Whoever he is?” He slightly quivered. “We’ve interrupted his plans. Haven’t we? ‘His’ plan… thwarted? Lorin became astounded, “There was something there when I said ‘his!’ She? As in the message? Play along.”
“He will not be baiting her in the corridor and attacking her today. Or any day,” she sarcastically argued as her tone tried to antagonize him.
“Soon!” he blared. “And we will have a battlecruiser just like yours! You will not be the only ones to dictate who does what in the corridors!”
“His anger is beyond belief… he… he hates the primes. How do we dictate who does what? We don’t put limitations on anyone!” she blared, intentionally trying to provoke a heated confrontation with him. “Those corridors don’t belong to you or us! They are free! Do you hear me? Free!” she yelled.
“If they were free,” he yelled back, “then why don’t you let the planets rule themselves! They were far better off than… than,” he glared at the prime with hatred and disgust, “before your idiotic unified… whatever you call it came along! And you, Ta’mian, are the instigator of it all. You’re first on my list! Uh, that is after Nova!”
Lorin calmly asked, “So, Jurias, you are not the ringleader of all of this debacle? I thought you were the one in charge of all of these insurrectionists. Pirates!” she blared. “This little network of spies and pirates, you’re not the pirate Lord?”
Kwelling glared at her. He scowled with an evil expression. His anger intensified.
Lorin read it all, “There is a network! Boone was right. He is not the lord of them and it’s not even a man.”
Kwelling violently stood. His chair squeaked backward until it forcefully hit one of the guardsmen. The guardsmen quickly stepped between Kwelling and the two investigation officers. Lorin and the prime quickly stood.
Lorin glanced at Lincoln and nodded to him. He reached into his pocket and took out a small device. Kwelling carefully watched. Lincoln set it on the table and Lorin pressed a tiny button. The recording said:
“I cannot establish a data burst now! And you should not contact me, I don’t care what she says! You also need to end this communication before you’re discovered! We can’t afford that right now. Reply to her and tell her I will contact her when I have the time. The device works. It’s been tested and Nova and the investigator are next! Now, get off the COM! And don’t call my COM again!”
Kwelling’s mouth opened wide as he glared.
“Jurias,” Lorin asked pleasantly and in a mocking tone. “You said, ‘she.’ Who is she?” Kwelling glared at the device again. His eyes filled with rage. He stared at Lorin with an agonizing expression on his face. “I suppose,” Lorin added as she laughingly gestured with a wave of her hand, “I can ask Luweena. I’m sure she would be happy to tell me who ‘she’ is.” Lorin watched him with a repulsive gaze.
“I’ll take my fifty days!” he yelled. “Then my one hundred and fifty days! Then my exile on your stupid little detention moon!”
The prime caught Investigator DeKator’s attention; he nodded to him. The investigator then nodded back and walked over to the COM panel. He spoke into the small COM panel then glanced at the prime and then glanced at Kwelling.
“Kwelling,” the chief investigator said. “You’re not going back to your cell.”
Kwelling studied the commander, the prime, and the chief investigator then gave them a snickering smirk, doubtful they could intimidate him. Moments later came a knock on the door. Investigator DeKator opened it and everyone saw an object floating above the floor. It had the shape of a casket with a glass cover and a host of small controls was glowing within a panel that ran down its length. Kwelling’s eyes glared; his mouth gaped.
“What?” he protested. “What is this?”
Lorin slowly stepped around the table and Commander Dowey. She gazed at him, still trying to read answers from him.
“Jurias,” she said in a soft and polite voice. “You will not be returning to your cell unles
s you tell all. You must tell all. Right now.”
Kwelling studied her to see if he could tell whether the stasis pod was just a prop to get him to divulge valuable information or if the bluff wasn’t a bluff at all.
“Jurias?” she asked. “Time is up. Either tell all, right now or” she turned and looked at the stasis pod then back at him, “or you will be put in stasis for the next eight hours. Eight hours is the time it will take to bring you to the detention center on… oh!” she mocked. “That information is only known by two of our most trusted High Guard officers. Jurias! No one will ever know where you will be taken!”
“And,” the prime added. “You will not be allowed to speak to anyone ever again.”
Commander Dowey added, “You will not have windows in your cell. You’ll never see the sun, moon or any stars ever again. It’s called isolation!”
Kwelling was in disbelief. “Your law says you can’t do that. I know that you…”
The prime interrupted, “We just changed some of those laws, Jurias. You should know this as well, we are mounting lasers on all of our battlecruisers.”
Lincoln added, “All six of our cruisers will be hunting the Ambulas. So, want to confess? Maybe you can prevent more deaths.”
“The death of your friends, Jurias,” Lorin answered. “Maybe even ‘she’ could survive it.”
Kwelling stepped back toward the chair and landed in it with a disbelieving thud. He sighed deeply and let out a long and disgusting grunt.
“No. Take me away. She will come for me.”
Jurias was forcibly put into the stasis pod, put to sleep for the next eight hours, and pushed down the hallway where two of the primes’ trusted guards were standing. Officer Gunner and Officer Colas. They were part of the prime’s personal royal guard commanded by Kola D’su. Gunner and Colas took the floating stasis pod, covered it with a black cloth – disguising it as a dead person, and left the Detention Center.
Commander Dowey asked Lorin, “What do you think you accomplished by your many questions, Lorin? Are you satisfied with antagonizing him?”
The prime was smiling, waiting to hear from his daughter. She looked at him, wondering if she should tell the three investigation officers standing in front of her.
“I suppose it is prudent and needful they know. I know now, from what Kwelling said, there is a network of spies.” Lorin watched her father, Commander Dowey, investigator Tanner and investigator DeKator to determine whether they believed her or not. Her father did, Commander Dowey and Tanner had their doubts. “That’s not all, Father, there is a pirate lord. Well, perhaps not a ‘pirate lord’ in the sense.”
“What do you mean?” Commander Dowey asked.
“I know he lied to me several times, Commander. There is not a ‘lord pirate’ or I should say, ‘king pirate.’ There is a queen pirate.”
Chapter 7
While Sabin sat in the diamond flyer, his two cohorts were supposed to be searching the hospital database for the whereabouts of Boone’s room. They only needed to find out what floor he was on and which section he was in. But, when Sabin told them he was willing to use the diamond flyer to destroy all the rooms on that floor by strafing it if need be, they could not muster the same hatred and brutality he could. They knew, full well, about the devastation and destruction he caused when he strafed the city of Copiannis only days ago.
They accessed the nearest unoccupied COM panel and sent a message to the High Guard Investigative Command Center. Meanwhile, Sabin was becoming more and more irritable each passing moment. Sabin accessed the COM panel inside the ship. He posed as a High Guardsman using the name etched on his upper left shoulder. It gave him access to the COM Center.
“Yeah,” he replied. “I’ve searched that area for Sabin. Nothing. But… I’m in the medical building now. I have a few questions for the investigator that just arrived yesterday.”
“You mean Investigator DeKator? I will connect…”
“I’d rather just report my suspicions to him… uh… directly. Where is he?”
“You’re in luck. Floor 39, room 28.”
Sabin hit the COM and shut him off. He pondered, “What section of the hospital is room 28 in? COM… map of Karkavon Medical.” A holographic image appeared. “Where is room 28?”
…
Boone, dressed in his unappealing hospital garb, and feeling much better, was walking the long hallways of the hospital while pushing Terra in her wheelchair. His strength returned, his appetite increased, and his arm felt whole again.
Terra, now without the head bandage she loathed, was feeling free and much stronger. Her long hair, which she adored, had been cut so that it now reached just below her shoulders. She stated that it would not prevent her from wearing a ponytail which she also adored. Some of her hair had been shaved off the left side of her scalp. Due to some burns that were still healing, she was very conscientious about having that part of her bare scalp exposed. The grafts on her left leg had begun to heal to the point where she no longer needed the pain medications.
They explored the massive medical center, paid a visit to Dr. Weimar and Dr. Vensin, found some snacks from a nutrition station, and enjoyed casual chatting.
“Boone?” came another question as she looked at her surroundings while Boone pushed. Her instincts had her checking every hidden corner and empty room looking for a would-be saboteur.
“Uh!” he grunted.
Terra just laughed. “Remember Ta’Jeon?”
“I remember it to be the first time you free-fell from 25,000 feet!”
“Yes. Not that. Please? That electronic device Pryce used to bypass the alarm system on the compound and that magnetic bypass to unlock the door. Where did you find that? I mean, not even the High Guard has seen those.”
“I know a guy,” he muttered.
“Boone, I’m not going to take you in or anything.”
“Terra, you can’t ‘take me in’ for my technology! Technology is not against the law. Is It? Because there are a lot of nifty inventions out there. We live in the most tech-savvy age. You’d be amazed beyond belief if you got to meet Jeo’dy. Uh, I mean…”
“Let something slip? Boone?” she turned around to face him, her bare neck and cheek dotted with tiny scars. Boone just smirked.
“I’d like to meet this Jeo’dy guy. Is that where you got that little device you carry in your pocket to control the Night Star?”
“You mean, Lila?”
“Oh! I forgot. Your ‘lady!’ Well? Is it?”
“Someday, Terra. Now, can we enjoy some peace and quiet?”
A moment passed.
“Boone? Do you think I should go back to my post?” Boone rolled his eyes and smirked. “Tanner is a good officer but as an investigator, he could never be as good as me because he… uh, I don’t know what I want to do.”
“You don’t want to be an investigator? I thought you were set about all of that. Is this about Pryce?”
“No,” she softly answered.
“What ‘do’ you want to do?”
She pondered the question for a moment and began to speak when a voice from behind startled them.
“Boone!” a voice echoed from a distance.
Boone turned the wheelchair around to see who was yelling. It was the chief investigator Lincoln DeKator and the prime’s personal guard, Officer Kola D’su. They quickly caught up to them.
“Sorry,” Kola said as he nodded to them instead of saying hello. “I need you to come with us! Immediately!”
“What’s going on?” Terra asked.
Lincoln gave Boone a concerned look. “The Court of Primes wants to talk to you. We’re here to escort you. We can do it in your room. OK?”
Boone looked at Terra and smirked. He suddenly felt very anxious. Besides the fact that Lieutenant Sa’vo had apprehended him and was waiting for him to be released so she could take him back to Kova, someone else was trying to entrap him – the Court of Primes. He understood how the court operated and d
uring his last encounter, no one believed him except Prime Ta’mian. Worse than that, the court was more interested in questioning and accusing him instead of thanking him for his service. He knew what they wanted. Kola and Lincoln quickly led them back to their room.
…
Mace was flying his black disc-shaped ship toward Karkavon. The red pin-striping underneath made the ship look more like a souped-up racing shuttle than the mining cruiser it was. He was chatting with Jona and Pryce as the towering buildings and a busy hive of ships came into view from a distance.
Gazing at the royal city of Karkavon was breath-taking, no matter how many times you approached it. They saw hundreds of towering buildings reaching toward the sky. Rows of massive colorful spires stretched upward, outlining the cities’ northern and southern perimeters while two wide rivers enclosed the innovative metropolis on its eastern and western borders. Massive cargo transports along with hundreds of small ships of various sizes were flying in and out of the city. It was a chaotic and enormous hive of activity.
Mace bellowed over the COM, “I’m landing on the designated dock for visitors, guys. How ‘bout you?”
Jona answered with a loud grunt. Pryce and Mace chuckled over the COM’s.
Pryce said, “I can’t wait to see Terra, she…”
“Yeah,” Mace interrupted. “I bet you can’t wait… it’s been… oh! My!” he sarcastically whined, mocking Pryce’s affection for the tall black-haired beauty. “I can’t wait… it’s been… it’s been… nine hours! Wah! Ah! Uh, uh.” Pryce just smiled as Mace made a crying sniffling sound.
“Mace!” Pryce blared. “I’m six-foot-three! Your five-foot-four!”
“Oh,” he quieted. “Sorry.”
They all chuckled again as Pryce temporarily shut him up. Their bantering was suddenly interrupted by an alert from Commander Jackey, O'bipherion’s COM commander. The COM squawked a deep blaring successive clang. It sounded seven times then repeated.
COM: All vessels! All vessels! Land immediately! Land immediately! Airborne Encounter Emergency. Airborne Encounter Emergency! All airborne vessels land immediately. This is Commander Jackey… COM Command…” the message repeated.
BOONE NOVA AND THEPIRATE QUEEN Page 6
