Transmission Lost (39 page)

-...Very well. We'll take her alive. But the security will be very tight. Collateral damage may not be preventable, and we may have to use force on her.-

-Then you may do so. But you worry too much. You know we have had someone close to her for quite a long time. I do not foresee much trouble in this matter.-

-Then I believe we shall succeed. Glory to the New Ascendancy.-

-To the New Ascendancy.-

- 10 -

Though Aria felt ready to leave the hospital the morning after her surgery, the doctors forced her to stay there for over a week and a half to give her time to recover her strength. She didn't like being kept a virtual prisoner, but she had little choice in the matter. Her body was weakened from the trauma she'd put herself through, after all, so she just had to deal with it for now. Her arms were far too damaged for her to be able to do much for herself in any case.

In a way, the hospital let her be far more free than she had been in weeks. While she was recovering from her suicide attempt, Li'ren made sure that her military superiors left her alone. For once, she didn't have to deal with going to the base every day for briefings on her case. Having someone with real legal experience working on her treason trial turned out to have its benefits. Now that she was out from under the constraints placed upon her by the regulations governing military council, the opportunities for her enemies to harass her were a lot less frequent than before. And the benefit of her lawyer being the mate of the Empress wasn't totally lost on her, either.

On the other hand, now that Aria was having regular meetings with Li'ren, she found that her case was even more complicated and worrisome than she'd previously thought. Li'ren, with all of her experience in dealing with law matters of various kinds, could make better sense of things than Major Tal'in had. This let Aria see just how well the law was arrayed against her. Even so, she felt better having someone as experienced as Lady Amani helping her out. The major was a great commanding officer but only a mediocre legal advocate. Li'ren had actual courtroom experience, litigating matters for the royal family and for the Lirnan government. She was able to pick out loopholes and exceptions in the laws that Aria hadn't thought of, though none of them was particularly revolutionary in aiding her cause.

While visits to Aria were restricted by her status, her family still was allowed to come to see her. On these occasions, either Sami or her father was able to find some plausible excuse to bring Jack along. Since he
was
still technically her slave, he did ostensibly have the duty to serve her. For the first few days, Aria's arms were too weak for her to even feed herself, so Jack took this duty upon himself as often as he could to save her the embarrassment of having the hospital staff do it. He also found himself acting as a sort of legal aid for Li'ren, bringing Aria communication from her whenever her official duties kept her away. Still deep in the throes of depression, Aria nevertheless felt better each time she got to see him, though she couldn't show it in such a public place as the hospital.

Her family was finally starting to forgive her for what she had done as well. Sami was the longest to come around. She still felt incredibly betrayed by her sister for what Aria had done, and a lot of the care that she was showing Aria during family visits still seemed forced. But, little by little, the damage was being undone just as surely as her body was healing itself.

******

The day that Aria returned home was a day of celebration for the family, even though her trial was less than ten days off. Sami helped the family's servants prepare a sumptuous feast with all of her eldest sister's favorite dishes, including many that had also become favorites of Jack since he'd come to live with them. The meal did a lot to lift Aria's spirits, owing to the fact that she'd had nothing but hospital food to eat for the last week and a half. Jack remarked to her that that was one thing humans and Ailians had in common, which earned him the first real laugh from her that he could remember hearing in quite a long time. The sound was worth more to him than anything else he'd ever considered valuable in his entire life.

With most of her family much more comfortable with their relationship now, Aria was less reticent about spending time with him during the day. A transformation had seemed to come over the feline during her ordeal. Though she was far from healed, mentally, she seemed to be at her best when she and Jack were together. Whenever she felt herself slipping into depression, the human was there to pull her back up. Any time that Aria had free when she wasn't meeting with Li'ren was usually spent in the estate's library, sitting in the sunlight streaming through the window with Jack seated in her lap. They talked, or Aria would read from Ailian books to him, or they would just remain in silence and enjoy each others' company. Both of them were aware that their remaining time together might be very short, but they did not bring it up in conversation. Aria had resolved to try to put the trial out of her mind as much as possible. While not very successful in this, just the effort was enough to distract her whenever the subject occupied her thoughts.

Once more they began spending their nights together, in Aria's bedroom this time instead of in Jack's guest quarters. The nights seemed long and lonely to Aria now, with the quiet and stillness offering the most opportunities for her traumatized mind to dwell on the gloomy thoughts of her possible execution. The lack of distractions when she relaxed in her bed allowed all of her fears to blossom to the front of her consciousness with full force. More than once Aria would come awake during the night in a state of panic, gasping for breath and shaking. At these times Jack would awaken as well and take her furred hands in his own, holding them tightly until she calmed down and was able to sleep again.

The best measure of progress in Aria's healing process was that she was allowing Jack to accompany her whenever she met with Li'ren in regards to her case. Aria seemed to have taken to heart Jack's advice to her that she couldn't go it alone when it came to this sort of thing. Even if he couldn't do much of anything to make the case any stronger, having him there made Jack feel as though he was involved, and made Aria feel as though she had a partner to share her struggle. Though Aria still did not wish to burden Jack with her troubles, she recognized that the burden was there regardless of what she desired. Letting him sit in on her meetings with Li'ren demonstrated to him that she was ready to trust him again, just as she had trusted him with helping her survive on their lost planet.

Li'ren seemed to be developing some optimism about the case, despite all the worries she'd had when she'd first taken over from Major Tal'in. Because Aria had been acting in her capacity as an officer of the Ascendancy when she had crash-landed on the planet, she explained to both Aria and Jack, then she
was
bound by the codes and legal structure that governed military operations. However, those same codes and legal structure assumed that the regular channels of service were open and reasonably functioning. Encased in military law was the caveat that officers had, in the absence of formal military structure, the rights and capabilities to make decisions on their own, and looser interpretations of military law were acceptable in these situations. Aria had been completely cut off from all communication channels during her time on the uncharted world, with no certain knowledge that she would ever regain those channels again. The argument could be made, Li'ren reasoned, that Aria had no reasonable way of knowing whether or not the war was even still going on. Any treasonous intent on Aria's part would have been unlikely when she couldn't know whether or not Jack was definitively still a member of an enemy species. Without intent, there was no crime, and it would be up to the court martial to prove the intent existed. The reasoning was rather flimsy, the noblewoman agreed, but it was a good sight better than anything they'd had before.

“I have negotiated many treaties and agreements on behalf of my government before, yes?” Li'ren said with a smile during one of their meetings. She had a cocky way of waving her tail that gave Aria the impression that she had met with little defeat before. “All of them carried much higher stakes than the issue before us now. I will take advantage of every loophole, legal precedent, and backdoor that is presented to us. I do not promise that this trial will be elegant or attractive. But I do promise that I will not give up on it. Her Majesty would be most displeased with me were I to promise otherwise.”

Aria told Li'ren that she believed her. However, deep down, she was more fearful than she was willing to show to anyone. The prospects looked better now than they ever had before. But that was far from the same as them looking good.

******

The night before the trial was to begin was finally at hand. Jack was undressed, lying in bed in Aria's room, staring at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. A single lamp was illuminating the room, casting shadows about the walls. Jack's mind was abuzz with thoughts, most of them worrisome. He was nearly sick with the anticipation of what was to come the next day. He wanted Aria to return so that he could finally go to sleep and have a rest from his thoughts, but at the same time he did not want to sleep, because that would make the morning come all the sooner.

Aria had spent nearly the whole day, from sunrise to sundown, in conference with Li'ren. On this day, Jack had been requested not to be present. All of the trial preparations as far as case building had been completed the day before. Today had been about running Aria through various scenarios. Jack had been made to understand that Li'ren wanted to make sure Aria could handle herself in the courtroom, and so the noblewoman was coaching Aria in how to behave. Li'ren wanted to be able to control the testimony as much as legally possible. To do this, she had insisted in having as few distractions as possible for Aria, so Jack was shut out of the day's meeting. Normally, Jack would have been upset at being excluded from the proceedings, but in this case he could see that Li'ren knew what she was doing. He didn't want to interfere in any way that would be detrimental to Aria's case. It was enough that he would be allowed to be in the courtroom tomorrow, a right that Li'ren had managed to win for him only a few days ago.

I hope Aria can keep it together tomorrow...,
he thought to himself, chewing on his lower lip. Jack crossed his legs, then uncrossed them again. He sat up, leaning against the headboard of the bed, and then he slumped back down again.
God, nevermind Aria...I hope I can keep
myself
together tomorrow!

The door to the bedroom opened, and Aria came inside. Jack sat back up once more, watching her as she closed and locked the door, then crossed the room towards him. She sat down in a chair near the bed, her back to him, looking into a mirror that hung from a wall. The Ailian's tail was hanging to the floor, looped loosely about her ankles, and her ears were standing normally. Her body language suggested unconcern, but Jack could see that her posture was stiff, as though her mood was a put on.

After a few minutes of waiting, Jack broke the silence. “So...How did it go?”

Aria's shoulders jerked a little, giving Jack the impression that she hadn't really been paying attention to her surroundings. Unusual for her, though less so these days. “Fine, I think,” she replied finally. “Well...I not know...” She stood up and moved closer to the mirror, clasping her hands in front of her.

“You don't know how well it went?”

“No...Yes...I...” Aria turned around, shaking her head slightly as she finally looked at Jack. “Worried...”

“Well, that's understandable,” Jack said. “If you weren't worried about tomorrow, I'd be worried about you. You're facing something pretty damned heavy. It's natural to be nervous about it. To say the least.” He turned halfway, rolling onto his side.

“Yes.” Aria turned back around. She loosened the wrap of her skirt, starting to unravel it from around her lower body. Her movements were slow and gradual, owing to residual weakness in her arms. When her legs were bare, she unwrapped her top as well, baring the rest of her body. Aria folded the long bolts of fabric carefully in her hands, placing them gently on her chair. The Ailian walked to her dresser and retrieved a brush from it, returning to the mirror and beginning to run the brush through her fur, smoothing the ruffles that had formed underneath her clothing. “Nervous...Is good word for it.” She managed a laugh that struck Jack as rather unconvincing.

When she finished with her grooming, Aria went and replaced the brush where she had gotten it. Then she moved to the bed, sitting on the edge near Jack. He rolled onto his back, looking back up at the ceiling. “How did it come to this?” he sighed, closing his eyes.

Aria glanced to the side. “Is strange question,” she murmured. “You know how this happen, yes? You there.”

“I don't mean your trial, or us, or anything like that,” Jack said. “I'm talking about...all of this. This war, this conflict...The whole thing. Why did our two species have to go to war? Why do some of your people want to start a new civil war? It's all so useless, isn't it?”

Aria looked away from Jack. “Useless...” She hadn't ever allowed herself to think in terms of the usefulness or uselessness of the war. To her it hadn't ever been a question of utility. Her people had been attacked, invaded without provocation, or so she had been taught. War had been the only answer to a situation such as that. But that had all been before she had met Jack, before she had ever been face to face with a human in anything other than battle. “I suppose is useless...Yes.”

Jack sighed again. “Anyway, I guess those questions don't really matter right now.” He smiled a little at Aria. “The only thing that matters is getting through tomorrow, right?”

“Right.” Aria turned her head to look back at him. “Lady Amani think good chance tomorrow. She give me...what you humans call it...'pep talk'?”