Friday Fiction is hosted
this week by Vonnie over on her blog, My Back Door. Vonnie writes wonderfully
imaginative stories for the young and the young-at-heart. Be sure to check out
her writings, especially if you have young children or grandchildren to entertain.
My 2013 NaNoWriMo story, “Draconian
Responses,” is now over 52,000 words, with several more chapters of events
needing to happen to bring the story to its conclusion. One of the themes of
the story is that a dictator has secured the position of “Adon” on Alsafi, a colonized
planet in the Sigma Draconis system, by orchestrating civil unrest and
controlling the Empties. He also smuggled Empties off Alsafi, and sent them to
the Terran Archipelago capitol in the Lunar city Earthrise, to secure
employment in potentially vital positions.
The Colonial Council
responded to the dictator’s actions by dispatching the Aggressor Voidship
Chesty Puller to Sigma Draconis, and in this scene, the commander of the Chesty
Puller speaks with two captured members of the Alsafi Ruling Council.
Chapter 28
Interrogation
From “Draconian Responses”
The woman sat in
a chair, secured into it by a strap locked behind her. One other chair was in
the room, and Ignatius entered and sat in it. She looked up at him with an
expression that seemed to mix regret and relief. “Commander Crane,” she said.
“I see that I
don’t need to introduce myself, then.” He scrolled through the file on his
datab. “I see you are Emilia Hendricks, and you have been on the Ruling Council
for about fifteen standard years. That would put you having served the previous
Adon as well as the current one.”
“That is
correct.”
“Did you support
the current Adon’s rise to power?”
“No.”
“But you
remained on the Council after his assumption of the position.”
“Yes.”
“Did you support
his methods or his programs?”
“No.”
“If you did not
support his rise to power, or his methods and programs, then why did you stay
on the Council?”
“Commander
Crane, have you found any former Council members?”
“I haven’t
looked.”
“Don’t bother.
You won’t find any. When Leonard first presented himself as the new Adon,
several members of the Council opposed him. He had one killed on the spot, and
those who chose to stand with the old Adon were taken to join him. Do you know
what they did to the former Adon, Commander?”
“Our files
indicate he was executed.”
“He was, and so
were all the Council members who chose to oppose Leonard. He didn’t stop there,
Commander. He didn’t just execute the Council members. He executed their
families. Beretti was the most vocal in that meeting. He had Beretti strapped
into a chair, and brought out both his mother, and his three year old daughter.
They were stripped naked, bound hand and feet, and both were placed on the
gallows with the nooses around their necks. As if that wasn’t enough, Leonard
had two twenty five kilogram weights tied to two ropes, through pulleys
attached to the ceiling above Beretti’s chair, and under the weights were the
triggers that would release the trapdoors under the gallows. Beretti had to
hold the ropes, knowing if he let either slip, a family member would die. He
had to watch them standing there for hours, until his hands could no longer
grip the ropes, and then he got to watch them die. The next day, they brought
out his son and his father and repeated the process. The third day, it was his
wife and his oldest daughter, only they forced him to watch a gang of men abuse
them first, and then they put them on the gallows.”
“How do you know
this?”
Tears were
running down her face. “Because we had to watch it as well, Commander. Leonard
told us that he would have no mercy on anyone who stood against him, and he
promised us that our families would suffer miserable deaths as well, if we
should ever think of betraying him.”
“How many
Council members did he subject to such torture?”
“Over half of
the former Council chose to side with the former Adon, and the torments were
different for each one, but each was forced to endure some painful process in
the vain hope of prolonging the lives of the people they loved. I have
children, Commander. Leonard reminded me of that fact often, and that his Empties were employed as my
children’s caretakers. He’d already demonstrated that all he needed to do was
speak the word, and the Empties would do his bidding, no matter how heinous.
What would you do, Commander, if there was always the implied threat, that all
he needed to do was make one transmission, and your child’s nanny would torture
them to death?”
“My job is not
to determine your guilt or innocence. My job is to try and determine which
council members may have been complicit in the attack against Earth and Luna,
and leave the rest to the Colonial Council.” He handed her a handkerchief.
“What do you know about those actions, Ms. Hendricks?”
“We knew nothing
of it until your transmission, Commander. The most we knew was that Leonard
implied that he had taken measures to sever Alsafi’s ties with the Archipelago.
None of us from the previous Council roster approved of the idea of Alsafi
Independence. The only Council members that truly agreed with it, were the
puppet members he installed to replace those he had executed. The rest of us
also suspected the new Council Members were there to keep an eye and ear on us,
should any of us start talking sedition.”
“Did any of
you?”
“I suspect
several of us would have, if we had thought we might get away with it, but
Leonard seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere. The Empties were his agents,
and we’ve figured out that he had Empties programmed that no one – not even
themselves – knew were Empties.”
“Tell me what
you know about the Empties.”
“Imagine a
world, Commander, where you learn that, all around you, were thousands upon
thousands of people who, with a command, would turn into sociopaths that could
be turned against anyone that Leonard chose?”
“Could he still
issue that command?”
“Do you have him
under guard? Is he dead?”
“Not yet.”
“With the
communications network down, it would be a lot slower for him to unleash them,
but all he needs to do is find one or two, give them the appropriate command to
go and repeat the command to others, and let it domino out from there.”
“Where are your
children, Ms. Hendricks?”
“We have an
estate outside of Eldorado.”
He held his
datab over to her. “Pinpoint it on the map.”
She placed a
spot on the display, and gave him a look. “Are you going to hold my children
hostage against me as well, Commander?”
“No, Madam
Council Member, I am going to send some of my troops to get them away from the
Empties, before your ‘Benevolent Adon,’ as he liked to call himself, has a
chance to get a message to anyone.” He stood up.
“Commander?”
“Yes?”
“How bad was it?
The attack on Earth and Luna, I mean? Just how many deaths did Leonard cause in
the name of Alsafi?”
“To be honest,
none.”
“But the
attacks? The files?”
“We were
fortunate. The Eridani Rover that escaped Alsafi with the Priestess, had been
given information by the Priestess’ husband, and dispatched a drone to the
Eridani Ambassador. She brought the information to the Colonial Council, and
the Council managed to identify and quarantine the Empties. The images you saw
of the Empties operating the consoles were real, but the consoles were in a
simulator. All the results were from the simulator. That does not change the
fact that your ‘Adon’ ordered the attack, knowing full well what he programmed
those Empties to do, would result in possibly millions of deaths.”
She released a
breath. “Don’t let him live, Commander. So long as Leonard is alive, he’s a danger.”
“My orders are,
if at all possible, to return him to Earthrise alive. The Council will decide
what to do with him, but the Colonial Charter does not contain a provision for
the death penalty, regardless of how much he might deserve it.”
“I never thought
I would say this about any person, but it really will be better if one of your
soldiers has to kill him.”
“I’m not
disagreeing, but my function is not to be the judge and executioner.” He opened
the door. “One of my people will be in shortly to escort you to a berth. I’m
afraid, for the time being, you will have to remain confined, but we will make
every effort to be sure you are comfortable. I will send word to you just as
soon as I know something about your children.”
“Thank you,
Commander. I don’t know if your soldiers know this, but just before they broke
into the Council Chambers, Leonard had given the order to kill all of us. I
won’t mind being confined up here. At least, I’m alive.”
He transmitted
the directive for the rescue to the Command Center, trusting Ivan on the
Console to route it to the squad best positioned to carry out the mission, and
went to the next room. This man had a defiant expression on his face.
“You have no
right,” the man said.
“You are Cassius
Applegate, one of the newest members of the Ruling Council. I assume that means
you were hand-picked by the current ‘Adon’ to fill one of the vacancies he
created in the Ruling Council.”
“I don’t have to
answer any of your questions. You have invaded a sovereign world, and violated
Alsafi space.”
“No, you don’t
have to answer any of my questions. The System has verified your identity, and
the files we have from Alsafi confirm the date of your appointment to the
Ruling Council. Since you appear to have been complicit with the attack against
Earth and Luna, my orders are to secure you in SusAn for transport back to Earthrise, where you can argue your
case before the Colonial Council.”
He sneered. “The
Colonial Council is dead. Their chambers were destroyed in the attack. You should
know, since you played the files on our media enough times.”
Ignatius stood
up and smiled at the man. “Well, then, maybe we’ll just plan on waking you from
SusAn where the Council Chambers once
stood, and let you decide whether to remain in your chamber until your air
finally runs out, or open your chamber and experience the explosive
decompression your attack subjected others to.”
“The Colonial
Charter forbids such actions.”
“If there is no
Colonial Council, then who is going to hold me to the Colonial Charter?” He
opened the door and gestured for the soldier waiting outside. “Take him to the
secure SusAn compartment, and put him
under.”
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