Barry stepped into the holding area and walked to one of the cells. Multiple gazes followed him from behind the doors this time, but he had a particular individual in mind.
When he stopped, the person in the cell looked up. Barry opened the door, but the man didn’t react.
“Please, come with me, Commander Zyn’vak.”
“You know my name?”
“I do. Adjunct Xing’che provided it to me.”
“Where is the adjunct?” the man demanded.
Barry considered keeping the information from the man, but his posture and attitude made it clear he would refuse to cooperate unless he gave him something. “Come with me, and you’ll find out.”
The man stood reluctantly, and Barry gestured not toward the door, but deeper into the holding area.
It didn’t take them long to reach Xing’che’s cell, which had been kept apart from the others. She was standing at the transparent partition, trying to see what was going on. When Barry came into view, followed by the Commander, her face showed a range of emotions.
Barry opened Xing’che’s cell. “If you two would follow me.”
“Adjunct, what is going on?” Zyn’vak asked.
The woman shook her head ever so slightly before falling in line behind Barry, who hadn’t bothered waiting for either of them.
They were both allowed to clean up, and Barry led them to the cafeteria. It wasn’t the same cafeteria that the other refugees were using, but Barry had set up a portable display for them, which showed Katherine’s efforts to sort those people out. Then he left without asking any questions.
Xing’che sat down, but the Commander looked confused.
***
“Sit down, Commander Zyn’vak,” Xing’che said quietly.
That got the man’s attention, and he sat across from her. “What is going on?” he hissed while scanning the room and the exits. “Who was that, and why did they release us just to leave us alone?”
“That was Barry. I’ll explain everything after we eat.” Without waiting for a response, she dug into the food, savoring every bite.
It wasn’t long until the commander joined her. He was hesitant at first, but once the smell hit him, he couldn’t hold back. Their meal was over far faster than she would have liked, but they had business to discuss.
“First off,” she said, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with a napkin. “I’m glad your mission was a success.”
“Thank you, Adjunct.”
“How many did we lose?”
The commander shook his head. “I don’t know. When the ship landed, I was forced to play distraction while my people scuttled the vessel. Captain Jacob arrested me and hauled me away before everyone cleared the ship.”
“I’m not surprised,” she said with a sigh. “He did the same to me.”
“Why?” Zyn asked in confusion.
“My aide turned out to be a spy for the Astryx. When Captain Jacob confronted me and inadvertently exposed your previous trip to the station, I was forced to kill her before she could tell anyone else. For that, I was locked up. We were wrong about them. Jacob and his people. They aren’t lost eiraxins.”
“How can that be? They are capable of merging, they speak old-eiraxin, and he commands a planetary conditioning vessel.”
“I don’t know all the answers, Commander. What I do know is that Jacob and his people are called human. They are not part of the Astryx council in any way, shape, or form. I suspect that they might be new to space, but don’t let that fool you. Their grasp on technology rivals and may even exceed ours.”
The commander glanced around, then lowered his voice. “Should we be speaking of this so openly?”
Xing’che laughed lightly at that. “There is no point in hiding our conversations; they record everything. Captain Jacob, Barry, and a third individual I haven’t met are digital constructs. A fourth named Franky’dee told me that, but he has since left the station.”
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“I don’t understand,” the Commander said in confusion.
Xing’che patted him gently on the hand, realizing it was the first time she had touched another individual in months. Despite wanting to hold onto the Commander for reassurance, she pulled her hand back. “Neither do I, Commander, but that’s what I’ve been able to gather so far.”
“And this?” he asked, gesturing to the food and the fact that they were released from their cells.
Xing’che smiled at that. “One of the most effective interrogation methods I’ve ever seen. Isn’t that right, Barry?”
The Commander whipped around to see Barry standing quietly behind him.
“It is indeed,” the man confirmed nonchalantly. “My people have a saying. You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.”
Some of the words didn’t quite translate, but she got the gist of what he was saying.
“So what now?” she asked.
***
Barry shrugged. “That’s entirely up to you, Adjunct. We could continue this song and dance, or we could work together.”
Jacob might see the arrival of the refugees as a nuisance, while Katherine dealt with them like a chore, but Barry saw them as a resource to be put to use. With so many of her people, he finally had the leverage he needed to earn her full cooperation.
She clearly understood, since the display showing the refugees was still off to the side, but she didn’t seem angry; instead, she started laughing with amusement.
“Here I thought I was good at planning long term,” she said, wiping away a tear, “but you, you planned this all out from the beginning, didn’t you. How did you know?”
“I didn’t,” Barry replied. “Not exactly, but it seemed likely that you had additional plans in motion. I just had to wait for those plans to come to fruition. And here we are.”
“And here we are,” Xing’che repeated.
“What about Captain Jacob?” she asked, ignoring the confusion on the Commander’s face as he looked between them. “Won’t he be angry, or was that all a ruse as well?”
“No, Jacob was definitely angry with both you and the commander, but I convinced him a long time ago that this was necessary.”
“Why would he agree to that?” she asked.
“Because someone helped bring down the Concord Imperium from within, and I am pretty certain they are still pulling strings within the Astryx, even now.”
“And you want to bring back the Imperium?” the commander bristled. “They were monstrous.”
“Why would I wish to bring them back?” Barry asked in confusion. “Even if my research leads me to believe they weren’t as monstrous as everyone is making them out to be, my goal is to figure out what happened so we can stop it from happening again. Your people will be instrumental with that.”
Xing’che put her hand on the commander’s arm to prevent another outburst as she looked at Barry.
“If what you say is true,” she said slowly, “then the only culprit I can think of is the t’uk, but I don’t know how we can help.”
Barry smiled internally. “All you needed was one comment from me to deduce it was the t’uk. It took me weeks to put that together. That alone makes your assistance valuable, but I need specifics, names, especially. I doubt the entire t’uk race is aware of this long-reaching plot, but you know some of the people involved, I guarantee it.”
“Because of the attack,” she said in understanding.
“Yes. Even if you were plotting something behind their back, sending a ship to hunt you down and kill you was excessive, unless someone feared you knew too much or would ruin their plans.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Xing’che mused. “Plenty of t’uk advisors despised me, but the one who hated me the most was Representative Naal. He would have had access to the security forces around our home world as well.”
“Hmm,” Barry said. “That is less than ideal. According to Judicator Ghrroaqq, Naal has vanished into the wind.”
Both eiraxins stiffened at that.
“You’re working with a judicator,” Zyn’vak demanded.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Barry asked. “The man’s methods are a bit heavy-handed, but we both want the same thing, which is to stop whatever plot is taking form.”
“I ask again, how are we to help?” Xing’che asked.
Barry turned to the woman. “How would you like to be the bait to draw out the conspirators behind your people’s downfall?”
***
Naal sat in his cramped cabin aboard the unnamed research station and sipped on his drink in misery. He had been stuck at the abandoned site, deep inside the dead zone, for months, his only companions other t’uk outcasts.
It was depressing to fall from such grace and be lumped in with the most pathetic individuals in his society. Getting stuck in prison amongst murderers would have been preferable to spending time with these unmotivated sacks of refuse.
In the entire time that he had been there, he had only received one update from his supervisor, which said the Judicator was still searching for him and that he should remain where he was. That was over a month ago, and he was starting to go stir crazy. His only form of entertainment was the endless news reports and ads on the interlink. Even now, his face took on the sallow glow from the display as he sat in the darkness, watching them. Most of the time, he didn’t even process what they were about, but an image of a familiar individual flashed up on the screen, drawing his attention.
“In other news, we’ve gotten reports that a large group of eiraxins has established a presence outside of Astryx space. This group is believed to have taken control of a station inside the dead zone, and is led by a missing Adjunct by the name of Xing’che. The same Xing’che who was wanted for questioning for her involvement in the eiraxin uprising that was quelled only a few short months ago. The public is demanding answers from the council, but they have yet to respond for comment. More on this story later.”
Naal sat up, his drink all but forgotten. “She survived?”
The knowledge that he was in this situation because he had ordered her eliminated and she was still free to walk around twisted his gut and made him growl like some beast. He could not accept that.
He got up and brushed the crumbs off his stained uniform. “AI, save any news stories about Xing’che and those eiraxins.”
“Yes,” the monotone voice of the AI replied.
With that set, Naal hurried to clean himself up and look presentable. He wouldn’t be able to contact Supervisor Sael, but he had other contacts. One of them would have information, although it would cost him to get it. What he would do with that information, he wasn’t sure quite yet, but he wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing while she was free to build her power.