Several warships filled the space. A case involving the Root Group could always include unforeseen ambushes, so nothing had been overlooked. The liaison ship that landed the assault force on the station had been preceded by a team of robotic bomb disposal experts who had examined the carcass of the Xerinean stealth ship. It was unclear whether it had been mercilessly pounded by the Hogloo, or whether it had self-destructed after the Hogloo had tried to take it away.
In the station, the lounge had been converted into a temporary detention area where Xini, stripped of all her electronic gear, was moping around trying to find a way to free herself from her magnetic bracelets.
When the airlock opened, Parraligne was surprised to see three Xerineans disembark at the head of the group of soldiers. There was a woman with greenish skin, followed by two men with skin that varied between light gray and black. They had removed their helmets and were staring in amazement at the torn-off walls that revealed a series of partially dismantled but still functional generators.
“Congratulations,” the woman said, “I am Xzeonia of the Xolot clan!” (She glared at the prisoner, who glared back.) “My clan has not been made proud today, but rest assured that we will take care of the problem once and for all…”
“Wait a minute,” the Vermilion protested, “this traitor is a prisoner of the Administration…”
“Yes, and I am here as a representative of the Administration. I have no intention of shielding this criminal from justice. Quite the opposite: my clan has requested that all immunities protecting Xini be lifted. She is banished from the clan, by the way, but she is not worth the trouble of me stooping to telling her that directly. In the absence of extenuating circumstances, and in accordance with our laws and those of the Administration, she has already been judged according to the information you have transmitted to us.”
“Whether or not justice is applied is not my problem: have you caught up with this Hogloo?”
“No. This system being off-grid, we had no way of tracking his ship.”
“But he has a code capable of transforming SECURA-02 chips into bombs!”
At these words, Xzeonia burst out laughing. Raising her head towards the Vermilion, she began to giggle as she observed the confusion that marked his features.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Really, they are perfecting your models too much these days: you express your emotions too easily on your faces. they should go back a little on that programming.”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
“Of course... Do you think that such sabotage went unnoticed? Xini may believe that her nefarious algorithms wouldn’t be spotted, she forgot that it was members of our specie who made the final checks before the mass production of the chip: we have already deactivated her virus. All we had to do was catch her red-handed, in the middle of an illegal transaction. It would have been nice to capture the Hogloo too… but hey, it was optional: Roots agents are too dangerous to be captured alive and, in any case, we can’t get any information from them. Anyway, good job soldier.”
Roughly, the two males forced the prisoner to stand up and removed her bracelets. While they held her down, each by an arm, other soldiers, belonging to larger species, carried a secure stasis cell into the room. At this sight, Xini’s resigned expression turned alarmed and she began to beg her people:
“Please! You can’t sentence me to stasis for life!”
Xzeonia smiled cruelly while signaling the soldiers to proceed as planned.
“That’s a good guess,” she sneered, “but now you’re nothing more than a valuable object that the Administration might bring out one day, if deemed necessary. Come on, guys, rid us of this shame!”
In desperation, Xini turned to Vermilion as she was lifted and forced into the capsule. She tried to play with her feet to avoid her fate, but it was sealed.
“Leave me alone! I don’t want to end up like this! I have revelations to make! I’ll talk! I have accomplices!” (Seeing that it was no use, she became angry) “And besides, I had good reasons for doing this! Vermilion, I can tell you everything about their control programs! What you were looking for is much worse than that! The truth is…”
The capsule door slammed shut on the little woman’s face. A powerful blast of air from the ground propelled her to the middle of her cell and, abruptly, everything froze. Like an insect in amber, the prisoner remained suspended, her mouth open, her hair floating, in the middle of the void, out of time.
Suspicious, Parraligne turned to Xzeonia:
“What did she mean? This story about control programs?”
“Nothing you should worry about.”
“It's not a real negation...”
The Xerinean looked up at the Hom's face and had another amused smile.
“Very well,” she said, “we'll see if it works.”
“If what works?”
“
The Vermilion stood to attention and saluted the alpha-level representative of the Administration.
<” Vermilion! Servant of the Administration! Instruction received and executed. It is an honor to serve Liberty and Democracy within the Administration! “>
Xzéonia burst into a Machiavellian laugh.
“Mouah, ah, ah! What perfection! If the SECURA-01 gives such results, I can't wait to see what the new version will give...”