The door to Marcus' cabin chimed. He opened the door without a second thought, expecting Ensign Kassem to be there to deliver some message or other, or even Chi-Young. Instead, and to his horror, there were two figures he recognised pointing their rifles at the door. It was the two Alliance officers that had boarded the Compound Interest, the bronze-skinned woman and the man introduced as Shaw. They were Karn's officers.

Marcus froze. This can't be good.

"Ensign Okoro," the woman introduced herself. "We're here to take you into custody."

"Custody? I'm already in custody?" Marcus left his hand on the door frame, near to the locking mechanism. He hoped it looked innocuous.

"We have orders to take you to the Phoenix Rises." She took a step forward, rifle pointed at his chest.

This is not good. Marcus was protected by Allison, but to be taken to another ship? It would be fatal--for him and for Allison's cause. "Does Admiral Allison know about this?"

"Admiral Allison doesn't have authority here," Shaw said. "Mediator Silas gave us these orders himself."

Marcus didn't have long. He keyed the door shut and engaged the lock before running to his console. Blood pounded in his ears as he tried to bring up a connection request to the bridge. Ensign Kassem answered.

"Can I help you?"

"Get the Admiral here now! It's--"

The sound of a muffled gunshot came through behind him and a split second later, vice-like hands grabbed him from behind. "Get off me!" He tried to fight--kicking and screaming--but it was no use. They dragged him out of the cabin, past a growing crowd of onlookers. There was nothing he could do to stop Shaw and Okoro hauling him further and further away from his quarters. They pulled him into a lift, and Okoro pressed the button to take them towards the hanger. She stood at the mouth of the lift, her weapon raised to deter any of the crew outside from considering helping Marcus.

Marcus was beside himself now. He screamed in frustration, anger, and he felt like he was nearly free from Shaw's grip. If he pushed a little more--

"Can we shut him up?" Shaw strained against him.

Okoro stepped up and punched Marcus in the gut. He gasped for breath, unable to double over because of the grip Shaw had on him.

"I warned you Marcus," she sounded apologetic. That only made him angrier.

The lift opened. There was a semi circle of security officers waiting for them, their weapons all trained on the doors. Relief flooded through Marcus.

"Move out of the way." Okoro raised her weapon.

"We can't let you leave," one officer said. "Admiral's orders. He's on his way down now."

Okoro took another step. The officers shifted nervously. The only sound was of Marcus' desperate breaths.

"We are here under the instructions of Mediator Silas. Believe me when I say you do not want to get on the wrong side of a mediator," Okoro said. There was some murmuring from the security officers. "I'm going to keep walking, and Mr Shaw here will carry the prisoner to our hopper. I can guarantee that if one of you shoots us, you will be killed and your family will disappear."

No one moved. Why aren't they doing anything? "Please!" Marcus shouted now. "Don't let them take me!" But none of them reacted.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Let's go," Okoro said. She started walking forward with Shaw following. None of the security officers tried to stop them. Instead, they parted around Okoro and followed them a few paces behind.

They're just letting it happen.

Allison didn't come.

They restrained Marcus with wrist cuffs and loaded him into a hopper. He just sat there, numb and unable to process what was happening. How could he survive on his own? What about Sophia and Lio? Why didn't Allison come?

The hopper, with Shaw at the controls, took off and left the Mandrake behind. Okoro sat in front of him, still holding her weapon. Marcus thought he saw tears in her eyes.

#

They took him straight from the hopper to the detention centre and dumped in a cell without another word from Okoro or Shaw. They hadn't uttered a word over the entire journey--not that he minded, though. He didn't want anyone to speak to him. He had nothing left. The floor of the cell was cold, the lights too bright to be comfortable even with his eyes closed, but none of that mattered. He would soon be dead, and Allison's conspiracy was dead too.

"Marcus," a familiar voice called out his name, shattering the sense of hopelessness that had drowned him.

"It can't be... Hamasa?"

"Glad you're still in the game, Marcus. Wondered where you'd end up after Caxis."

"How--I mean, what are you doing here? I don't understand, I--" His words dried up.

"Remember when I told you I had a plan? Believe it or not, me being here shows that it has gone to plan. Well... maybe not exactly to plan."

"What do you mean?" He didn't like the sound of that.

"We'll get to that. Aren't you going to ask me what my brilliant plan was?"

Marcus couldn't help but smile. She may be mad, but Hamasa was at least a familiar face, and an ally. "What did you do?"

"Let's just say we've had a nice tour of Alliance space trying to track down a ship that was of questionable relevance. I let them catch me in the Vale never would have caught me otherwise. The Alliance like to give it all that, but they're not the brightest."

"But why let them catch you? What about the caxeal? Those people on the Vale, that hospital--"

"They're fine, don't worry. My associates caught the freighter, I needed to embed myself in a ship to cause a distraction, you see. Lots going on in the Arm it would be better for the Alliance not to learn about--or at least that was true until today."

"Why--why today?" Marcus' head span.

"You're here, aren't you? If that Mediator has taken you of the Mandrake he must suspect something is going on."

"What is going on?" It had been a long day. He was struggling to follow all the threads of the conversation.

"Oh you'll see. You and me aren't finished yet, not by a long shot." Hamasa was silent for a moment. "How did you get here?"

"I got picked up around Caxis. Been on the Mandrake since then, spent more than enough time in brigs like this." He gestured around him by habit, not that she could see it. "Though today I got pulled into a hopper and brought here."

"Strange... I wonder why they did it now?"

This gave Marcus pause. He had been so caught up in the events of the kidnapping that he hadn't stopped to ask why it had happened.

Hamasa interrupted his thoughts. "Who picked you up? Who did they work for?"

"They were part of a crew who boarded my ship before the Vale. Headed up by a Commander Garrick Karn." Marcus suddenly remembered. "He barged in on me! That must be it. He said he was away from the Mandrake."

"I'm aware. He's been on this ship. I figured that might be who was behind it, he barged in on me too--I was having a little chat with Allison."

"Wait--you know him?"

Hamasa laughed. "Which 'him'?" Marcus' mouth moved without making a sound. Hamasa must have taken that as a sign to continue as she carried on. "I know them both. Garrick interrupted a little chat I was having with Allison. It didn't end well for him. I figured he was bound to do something stupid in retaliation. Sorry you got dragged into it. That Garrick, though." She whistled. "We need to be careful of him."

"I know."

"No, Marcus, you don't. He's capable of some extreme things. I don't think I even scratched the surface of what he's really like."

That was not what Marcus wanted to hear, not from someone like Hamasa. "Wait, how do you know that? What did you do?"

"He spent quite a lot of time talking to me, I can just get a sense of a person like that... OK fine, I gave him a little push. I thought it served our interests to have him sniffing around the wrong bit of the Alliance. I'll admit it hasn't quite gone to plan. You should have seen the chaos he caused though; he executed an Alliance captain on her own ship."

"I--what? That's--that's insane. Is that what you were talking to Allison about?"

"One of them. We were just having a little catch up. Quite a lot has happened since we were last together, Marcus."

You don't need to tell me that. "What happens now?"

"Now? We wait. Won't be long before they interrogate you, but I can get you ready for that. And then, well, we'll see. Better get some rest, Marcus. We've got a long week ahead."