Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Consequence (17 page)

              The chair woman gave Loren a hooded glare.  "We have our own copies, plus there are markers we would detect.  If your recording is false or doctored, we will know."

              "Good," Loren replied.  "I'll skip right to it."  He reached into the pocket on his left arm and retrieved another data chip, passing it over to Velk just like the first.  "This is the first of the ring data from your old operative Ples Damar, Senator Dennix's first handler.  It shows what happened during our rescue attempt when the senator was retrieved from occupied Delos."

              The chair woman looked at the data chip Velk had placed in front of her, right next to the first.  She made no move to pick it up, though, and Loren decided she was giving it the same look that she'd be using if Velk had just dropped roadkill on the table.  It frightened her, and he could see she feared what it might represent.

              She looked at Loren, then Velk and finally Ravine, then picked it up and activated the tab on the side.  She set it down on the table as a holo field sprung to life, showing the interior of a shot-out building.  There was a firefight going on outside, the room occupied by a handful of people, including some soldiers and Senator Dennix with Ples Damar in the rear of the room.  The chair woman looked to her side at a Priman who had already pulled out some sort of tablet device.  His face tightened as he analyzed something or other before turning to her and nodding.

              "At first analysis, my tech feels the data is unaltered.  We will verify further."

              Loren only nodded, feeling himself grow warm.  If she reacted badly to this, he might not get the chance to continue.

              The video started.  The ring used all kinds of sensor abilities that were far over Loren's head and managed to form a relatively complete if somewhat indistinct video of everything happening within a few arm lengths of the wearer.  Ples Damar faced Senator Dennix, blaster fire in the background mixing with the whine of aircraft passing overhead and explosions beyond the field of view.

              "I am starting to wonder if this bargain needs to be altered," the Senator spoke, and a second later he raised a small holdout blaster and shot Ples Damar square in the chest.  The council room erupted as Loren expected it would, but the holo kept going.  It showed the senator coldly preparing the scene, calling over one of the Confed commandoes to verify his 'friend' had been killed, and then the telling evidence of taking Ples Damar's ring and putting it in his own pocket.  The video paused there, for while recording was continuous, the techs who'd put the thing together for Loren assumed that would be a suitable place to pause and reflect.  Was it ever.

              "Your Senator Dennix murdered his Priman advisor!" came the cry from the outspoken council member.

              "You're the ones who made the bargain with him," Loren countered evenly.  "It goes to character, members of the council.  My own people can't trust him, and neither should you.  We will have a new government soon minus this man, with or without your help.  That new government will bargain in good faith with you to end this war."

              Now Commander Tash stood up.  "Members of the council, I have had enough.  We see here evidence of the murder of one of our people in cold blood.  According to our customs and the articles of war, I am placing this Commander Stone under arrest for this injustice.  It is within my responsibility as the military commander and I will do so now."

              He turned to snap his fingers and four guards filed through the hatch he'd used earlier.  The council members looked shocked, some even standing up in protest. 

              Loren knew what was coming.  He turned to Ravine and stepped past Velk to do so.

              "Representative," Loren said urgently as he grabbed both of her hands in his, "you can't let this end.  They have to see the rest.  The Commander has to be exposed; your people need to see what he's done!"

              By  that point the guards had arrived and roughly grabbed Loren, pulling him away and standing him still in the middle of the gallery while he was fitted with stunner cuffs. 

              "If you arrest him, I will accompany," demanded Velk, standing tall and facing the Commander up on the council dais. 

              "As a Representative or his accomplice in detention?" countered Tash.

              "Whatever you require,
Commander
," Velk finished with a sneer.  "I fear for his safety without my supervision."

              Tash only nodded at his guards, and they slapped stunner cuffs on Velk too, much to the dismay of many on the council.

              "What is this?" the chair woman demanded as she stood up.  "You don't have the authority to make decisions of this nature!  Representative Velk is a respected leader among us, a former Commander.  You do not have the right to simply arrest him!"

              "If he is an accomplice of the Confed spy," Tash said, voice raised in a dangerous show of defiance to the council, "then he is guilty as well."  He spun to face Loren.  "Do you deny you sabotaged the military outpost where Representative Velk was captured?"

              "Of course not," Loren said without hesitation.  "First of all, it's no doubt among your own records.  Second, we're at war; that's my job.  I assumed you understood that."

              "Take them to my ship while we decide their future!" Tash yelled.  Loren and Velk were pushed ahead of the group of guards towards the exit and out of the chamber.

              "I will attend to their detention personally," Tash addressed the council with a look of disdain.  "Your fears about their treatment will no doubt be put at ease by my presence there, I assume?"

              Without waiting for a reply, Tash turned and stormed out of the chamber.  The members of the gallery were now in an open uproar over the entire turn of events, while the council by contrast was silent, completely at a loss for words.

              Representative Ravine stood there in shock, still in the same position she'd been when Loren was ripped from in front of her.  She clenched her fists in frustration, not knowing how this could get any worse.  Not only was there more doubt than ever about her Commander's corruption, but there was now no way to prove it.  Loren was gone, there was no evidence, and the council would probably never let her petition them again.  Perhaps her future as Commander was in doubt as well.

              She felt a small pain in her right hand as she flexed it.  She lifted her hand, palm up, and opened her fingers.  There, sitting in her grip, was another data chip.  Loren had palmed it to her when he'd grabbed her before his arrest.  What in the galaxy?

              Loren and Velk had both claimed the Confed officer had more evidence, something that would sway even the Priman council.  This had to be the evidence in question, was it not?  With both of them gone in the Commander's custody, no doubt already on their way up to the fleet, she had no guidance from them. 

              She watched the gallery, the council, trying to decide if she should take the leap of faith.  Then she caught the eye of the chair woman.  She was staring right into her eyes, perhaps trying to gauge Ravine.  She wanted to look away from the old woman but couldn't; now was not the time to appear indecisive.

              She held the device in her hand, rolled it around and around.  It was about the size of a multi sided game piece from one of the more popular children's games among her people.  It felt familiar in a way.  Maybe that was all the inspiration she was looking for.

              The council woman was still looking at her as she raised her hand, data chip in the middle of her palm.  Ravine was giving the chair woman one last chance to speak up, wave her off, do anything to give her a sign of what to do, but she received nothing.  Maybe this was a test of her own conviction.  Would she act without waiting to hear from the council?  Could she make the hard decision?  Ravine was still tinkering with the chip when she finally activated it.  It almost surprised her.

              A holographic image sprung to life in midair; by some stroke of fate the nanite recordings from SAR operatives looked incredibly similar to the ring data Priman technology captured.

              The council chambers hushed as people noticed the image hovering before them.  It was a residence, obviously the scene of a serious fight.  Bodies lie still on the floor, broken furniture scattered about, even a few cracks in the wall panels from what must have been recent violence.  The image resolved further and Ravine started to recognize faces; Velk, Loren, the Priman operative named Tana Starr whom Velk had mentioned and Ravine had learned about by reading mission debriefs about covert ops on Delos.  It was some sort of point-of-view device, as evidenced by the fact that they saw the face of the person making the recording as she briefly glanced at a broken mirror to inspect her own injuries.  The sound was muddled and accompanied by an odd pulsing in the volume.  Ravine thought it seemed much like a heartbeat; the thudding changes in volume decreased as time passed.

              Tana Starr was secured to a chair, Velk sitting on the floor just down the hallway from her and watching under the glare of Loren Stone and another Confed soldier.

              Ravine heard a voice, realized it was coming from the woman whose perspective they were seeing.  "It's an interrogation drug," she said.  "It's an effective, noninvasive and nondamaging way of extracting information."             

              Some members of the council started to object, wondering both where this was coming from and whether it was real or a Confed fabrication.  The chair woman motioned for them all to sit down and be silent.

              Tana Starr spoke some more to the camera's view point.  "He's the former Commander, and as a Representative holds a lot of valuable intel.  The Council virtually demanded a rescue mission."

              "And how were you going to get him off-planet?" the camera's voice asked.

              Tana said nothing, just looked away at anything other than the camera.  The woman's voice asked again and again, finally raising it sharply enough to startle the Priman operative.

              Tana Starr muttered something so softly the camera didn't hear.  The woman leaned in and told Tana to speak up.  Ravine risked a glance at the council and saw every last one of them leaning forward, riveted by the conversation.

              "He wasn't going to make it."

              Several of the council started glancing around, looking at each other as if seeking confirmation that they really heard what they thought they had.

              "You were going to kill him?" the heard the voice state softly, as surprised as the council itself was.  "Why kill him?"

              Tana Starr continued.  "We, the Primans, came back to this galaxy to take over, to restore order.  We also planned to return those lesser races that we'd helped back to their place below us.  Representative Velk was always of the more tolerant persuasion when it came to dealing with you.  He ordered the DNA research, but our current Commander, back when he was simply Representative Tash, was the one who weaponized it.  Representative Velk seemed fascinated by the ability you had developed to defend yourselves and the cultural identities you'd formed.  He almost admired you, as much as a patriot can admire a foe." She paused to take a breath before continuing.

              "The new Commander-"

              "Tash," the voice interjected, to which Tana nodded in an annoyed fashion.

              “The Commander has no place for disobedience amongst you.  We came to rule, and if you aren't going to be a part of that, you will be eliminated.  He wants swift and total domination; there is no place for compromise or amnesty.  You can join or be destroyed.  Representative Velk, however, was known to being willing to entertain all the options.  He was more open to an alternative beyond simple subjugation.  There are many on the Council who would have allowed that method to be explored, for while we are clear in purpose, there are already some who want the war over. 

              "This presented a problem for the Commander.  If Velk was allowed to return to Priman space, he would have been reinstated as Representative.  He would have had the ear of the Council and a great deal of influence.  His platform of tolerance and willingness to explore other options would have weakened the resolve of many and put the positions of the hard liners in jeopardy.  Remove Velk, however, and now the Commander is undisputed.  Nobody would speak against him, and with the alliances he's made, he will get his way.  And that is to scorch any planet that doesn't fall in line.  He couldn't have Representative Velk jeopardize his plans for success."

              The camera panned around the the others present at the interrogation, including Loren and Velk.  Their shocked glances said it all at they made eye contact with each other, two sides of a conflict realizing they had more in common than they'd ever thought possible.

              "Commander Tash would rather assassinate a respected warrior like Velk than risk the chance that he wouldn't get to annihilate us in his own way?" the voice summarized.

              Tana simply nodded.

              "Were you going to pull the trigger?"