Secrets and Lies Part IV
26 May 2017Jellicoe
Kira Goméz slumped back in her chair her head swimming and looked at her interrogators, these men were good. She had sometimes wondered if the flow of first rate information that came from the Alioth Intelligence Service was always legitimately obtained or whether the official version of their methods hid a darker reality of torture and truth drugs, but there had not been even the slightest hint of torture here, just two interrogators who were extremely good at their job. For the past six hours they had systematically picked her world apart, first they had made her question her judgment, then they had made her doubt herself and finally they had made her feel utterly foolish. They had not done this by threatening or intimidating her, in fact they had hardly even raised their voices, they had simply homed in on her failures and mistakes both professional and personal, highlighted her errors of judgment and bad decisions, then raking over the details as though what may have proved a better course of action should have been obvious from the start to even the meanest of intellects. Kira was an intelligent, confident woman, and had she been able to collect her thoughts she would have been able to put her occasional failures into the context of a golden near fifty year career, but she was not given the chance, the questioning was quick fire and non stop, her head swam with a mixture of despair and self doubt."Then most recently and seriously you pass potentially significant information to a know terrorist. That goes beyond stupidity Miss Goméz." A nondescript man in an unremarkable grey suit said.
"He's not a terrorist."
"The Children of Raxxla are terrorists Miss Goméz."
"He knows them but he's not..."
"Did you not think to check just how involved with them he is?" The second man, equally unremarkable looking asked.
"No I, I."
The questioner worked his terminal and thehologram of a Majestic class Interdictor in orbit of a terraformed planet appeared between them.
"The INV Imperial Freedom, Denton Pateus' flagship at anchor in his home system." Kira felt her heart sink as she realised what was coming next. A wing of three ships led by a royal blue Corvette approached the capital ship from directly ahead.
"Do you recognise this ship?" The second interrogator asked, highlighting the Corvette. Kira nodded not trusting herself to speak, a sick feeling in her stomach. The Corvette, the very same ship that she and her son had so recently been shown around opened fire, a stream of laser and cannon fire slamming into the nose of the Imperial ship. More ships appeared, swarming about the Interdictor like angry wasps but Kira's eyes were fixed on a single vessel, one systematically pumping fire into a point close to the Interdictors bow.
"He's targeting the heat relays." The first man said. "When they're all gone the ship can no longer vent its heat into space. They saved the ship but there were a lot of casualties."
"People with husbands, wives, children." The second man completed the thought. The holo-film continued, the 'Imperial Freedom' was giving a good account of herself, stabbing a curtain of fire at her swarming cloud of antagonists, several of whom had succumbed, exploding in brief blooms of brilliant light, the blue Corvette though continued to work its way up the Interdictors hull apparently shrugging off the tirade of defensive fire.
"He wasn't just there." The first man said slowly as the Imperial Freedom made an emergency escape jump, fires blazing up the length of her superstructure. "He helped to plan and lead the attack." Kira shook her head, her mouth agape, She wanted to protest but no words would come.
"He is one of their Consuls." The second man took up the theme. "Their ruling council, answerable only to this Salomé herself, and this is the man you passed sensitive information to."
"It wasn't sensitive." Kira protested.
"It wasn't public either." The first man said firmly.
"He's a trusted partner. "Kira protested. "Eligible for information like that."
"And who granted him allied status?" The second man asked.
"Are you sure your personal feelings had nothing to do with it?" The first man again, looking directly into her eyes with a stare that seemed to go right through her.
"You wouldn't be the first bored older woman to be played by a ruthless young man." The second man added nastily.
"There was no reason not to, he met all the criteria." Kira replied, uncertain even what her name was by now.
"It can be turned down at the executives discretion." The second man cut her off. "Perhaps if you had any you wouldn't be in this mess."
"Your career is over Miss Goméz." The first man said in a voice as hard as steel. "If you want to keep your liberty you're going to help me."
"But I've not committed any crime! You can't just lock me up." Kira protested.
"You will have done anything we decide you've done Miss Goméz, and believe me there will be all the evidence we need." The second man replied in a voice oozing viciousness.
"I won't be able to help you catch him."
"I don't want him catching, not now anyway." The first man answered. "I want to know what these Children of Raxxla know about the Rift, Gap and Conflux and stop if being made public."
"And you're going to help us with that." The second man finished the thought and the questioning triggered something in Kira who for all her confusion, for all her mental exhaustion remembered another question that Stannis had asked her the night before, why is the Alliance interested in what's out in the Formidine Rift? Come to that why was the Alliance so keen to catch an alleged terrorist whose crimes had been committed against the Empire?
"The Children of Raxxla have proved very resistant to our attempts to infiltrate them, you will help us to do so. This Jellicoe you are so fond of is one of their most senior members, you will use your closeness to him to find out what we want to know." The first man said.
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you will go to prison for a very long time." The second man replied. "We will make sure that the crime is extremely serious and particularly humiliating, and if you ever do get out not only will you be lucky to get a single room flat in Trentham but your son will regard you with a mixture of embarrassment and loathing as the woman who ruined his life before it had even properly begum."
"You can't do that!" Kira replied, anger, desperation and panic welling up inside her. "This is the Alliance, we have rights. The second man smiled unpleasantly.
"I'm afraid you'll find that we can." The first man said in a matter of fact tone. "And we will. If you force us to." Kira looked at the men with utter hatred, for the first time in many, many years she felt helpless and out of control, and why? She had committed no crime, the worst she had done was be involved with the wrong man but even he had committed no crime in Alliance jurisdiction, what was going on? Whatever it was this was not the Alliance she had always believed in, of course she had long know it was not the pure shining beacon of freedom it claimed to be, but she had still thought it to stand for something more, something better than the two older powers, maybe these Children of Raxxla had a point.