This time, her leg grew back completely as if she had actually undergone a genobiological operation to regrow a limb, which certainly continued to surprise us. The senior medic still refused to comment on this, but looked thoughtful. I'm sure Fred is thinking about how this is possible, which none of us doubted. I hope he finds out what her secret is before Yasmi herself tells us about it.

Often the machine gun crew changed shooters, holding the so-called Saint Yasmi at gunpoint, ready at any moment to tear her body into pieces with machine gun fire, but also, just in case, remote explosives were hidden in her jacket if she somehow breaks free and tries to inflict on us harm.

What is strange is that she did not eat anything, she only prayed in her language, which vaguely resembled either Spanish or Italian, which people have not spoken for fifteen hundred years. The machine gunners claimed that she even glowed in the dark while they were watching her, but now she looked quite normal with only emptiness in her snow-white eyes.

She was probably thinking about how it happened that she was being kept here. Time breaks her confidence in her views, which is exactly what I was counting on. After she finally breaks down, she will tell much more about herself than we can even afford. Now we need any information she can give us.

I walked up to Yasmi and sat down opposite her. She still frowned when she saw me. Well, I'll start, perhaps, with the main thing, namely greetings:

"Greetings again, I'm Boris Kipito, if you haven't forgotten."

Yasmi pursed her lips and decided to remain firmly silent. At that moment I turned my head towards the machine gunner and raised my palm. Yasmi, of course, noticed this, thinking that now her leg would be torn into pieces again.

"Wait!"

The girl screamed in fright, opening her eyes wide in horror.

"What do you want from me?"

"Answers."

I said briefly, returning my attention to her.

"You will answer my questions. Otherwise you will die."

"I'm not afraid of death."

Yasmi answered very boldly.

"The warm embrace of Sod awaits me, and only emptiness awaits you."

"I will not ask questions about Sod, but about your world."

Yasmi was clearly perplexed by my words. She remembered something from what I told her and wondered:

"You said that you are not from this world. How is this possible?"

"Everything has its time."

I answered the girl.

"First of all, I want to know how you know our language and, moreover, why you speak it so well."

"A stupid question, because I am the voice of God, His mouth."

Yasmi quickly answered.

"My path on mortal earth is to carry His voice, His instructions into this world, to guide people on the true path. It is my sacred mission to multiply His word in all languages of the universe."

"That is... Sod gave you the ability to understand and speak other languages?"

I became curious at her words.

"Do you even notice that you speak other languages?"

"No, I don't notice."

Yasmi lowered her head and spoke sadly, either to herself or to me.

"I haven't seen any other way since the world began. The path of faith is my only path, and if I had left it, I would have plunged into darkness, despair and would not have gotten out of it. But you dragged me there. Why did you do this?"

"Another question."

I interrupted her.

"Why does it always rain here?"

"I... I don't know."

Yasmi raised her head.

"This is my first time here, I don't know these lands."

"This is bad."

I sighed, seeing that she was not lying. It's trivial that there were no signs of this either in body movements, or in facial expressions, or in the intonation of the voice.

"Then what can you tell me about the Empire?"

"It's better to kill me, send me to Sod, than let your family bring malice and darkness to the sacred lands of the Empire."

Yasmi said with impudent confidence in her voice.

"We don't care about your Empire, we just want to return home, get off this planet and fly away from here. We need all the information we can to achieve this."

I told her honestly.

"Tch! Strangers."

Yasmi tsked with contempt in her voice.

"I thought you were exiles, plebeians who fell into the ruins of the dark, fleeing from pagan kingdoms, but I was wrong. You are much worse and more evil than anyone I have ever met in my life."

"Dark and pagans?"

I suddenly became interested in her words.

"At least tell us about them."

"You will never break my faith in Sod, you nonentity. Sod will protect us all. He will guide us."

«She pretends to be strong.»

I guessed and decided to grimly threaten her by waving at the machine gunner.

"You know, this time that guy might shoot off both your legs."

After hearing what she heard, Yasmi, in turn, shrank into her jacket, but continued to persist and stand her ground.

"You tell me that you are not afraid of death,"

I chuckled.

"But your actions say otherwise. You are very much afraid of death."

"My journey is not yet completed. I, a saint, must be crucified over the gates of Holley, and my blood must wash the locks of the virgin, the new saint who will step on my path. Tradition cannot be broken. Sod will be angry with the mortal world for such a monstrous blasphemy. I'm not afraid to die, but... but I'm afraid for my sisters, that they will suffer because of me, my death."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Do you have any sisters?"

I became interested.

"Tell about yourself."

"I won't say anything."

"If you don't answer questions, you will die."

"I'll be in Sod's arms."

"No. You, like us, are doomed to disappear and there is nothing wrong with that. You just won't understand it."

"WHAT IS THIS STUPIDITY?!"

Yasmi screamed indignantly.

"I WILL NOT LEAVE MY CHOSEN PATH! I WILL LIVE IN THE EMBRACE OF Sod FOREVER!!!... forever... *sob*... He will never leave me... never... *sob*"

Yasmi's strong confidence crumbled and was blown away by the wind, and the girl herself burst into tears after pouring out some of her emotions on me, and meanwhile I rose to my feet and, going out into another compartment through the earpiece, informed Uwon about the results of the interrogation.

"Uwon, this is Boris."

"I'm listening. What's happened?"

"The second stage of the interrogation was successful. Tomorrow will be the final one."

"Great. What were you able to find out?"

"Her knowledge of English is most likely also an anomaly. I think she immediately understands and speaks the languages of those she addresses."

"This is... hmm... strange."

Uwon said and I couldn't disagree with him.

"I'll write this down in the journal, and then you go and rest."

"Yes, sir."

After these words, Uwon passed out, and I went to join my guys in another compartment of the shuttle. I lay down on a makeshift bed and forcefully chewed dried meat, washing it all down with filtered water. I was feeling sleepy and was about to close my eyes and fall asleep when Sigrun sat down next to me.

"Are you going to sleep?"

The black girl responded cheerfully, as always.

"Will you tell me how she is?"

"Not yet."

I answered the black woman dissatisfied.

"It takes time to get Yasmi to loosen her tongue."

"Are you calling her by name already?"

Sigrun grinned, clearly thinking about the wrong thing. She was probably trying to tease me, but she suddenly decided to change her mind.

"Maybe I should talk to her?"

I opened my eyes and looked at the girl. Playful Sigrun, I don't know her well, but that's how she seems to me. She was a simple ship engineer, performing spot work on repairing ship equipment and troubleshooting system problems. I'm surprised that none of the guys open their hands, although perhaps this is due to her Alsian origin, which could simply turn off many people.

"If the third stage does not go according to plan, then you can talk to her."

I answered and for some reason became curious about something.

"Listen, Sigrun, how did you get on «Zeus»?"

The optimism suddenly disappeared from the girl's face, causing her to droop.

"You better not ask about it. It's... not something I can tell you."

«It's clear.»

I thought and thought about something.

Alsis is a rather remote planet, located on the border with the Ko'ofra sector occupied by the Kofistan Empire; at least in the republic, this alien civilization is called that way, but this is not what we will talk about.

Alsis is a whole desert world where the year lasts only three months. The people there live below the surface of the planet, and their skin color since the creation of the first colony some centuries later has become jet black due to the extremely hot conditions, and the Alsians themselves traditionally prefer white clothing, which contrasts sharply with their skin.

From all other people, Alsians became more distinctive in terms of appearance compared to other people. Because of this, the Alsians in the republic are treated with disdain, and the Alsians themselves prefer not to leave the confines of their world because of this.

It's strange to see Sigrun here as an engineer of one of the earth's armies, and not Alisis. I'm really curious to know how it happened that she became an engineer here, how she was able to move to the solar system, and then to Zeus, but since she doesn't want to talk about it, I probably won't insist.

"As you wish."

I answered, closing my eyes, about to finally fall asleep.

"Maybe I'm interfering in something that's not my business, but at least do you miss home?"

"No."

Sigrun answered quickly with a stern tone.

"I like Earth better."

"Seriously?"

Will intervened, appearing out of nowhere.

"Do you like the planet that restored its climate just a couple of centuries ago? Hah~! I thought you liked sand."

"You can't really enjoy the view of the desert on Alsis when Shams occupies a third of the sky."

Sigrun answered. Will grinned at the engineer's words, starting to start a conversation with her. A couple prevents me from falling asleep with their conversations, at least they don't bother me as much as the work of the ship's accelerators on the cruiser, which make a loud noise during the maneuver. And yet I could not stand them.

"Let me sleep."

"Well, sleep."

Will answered.

"We're not bothering you."

"You're still bothering me. Just shut up and let him sleep."

"How tired you are. Of course, you don't watch the hole every night,"

Will muttered displeasedly.

"But we have to."

I was filled with irritation from such words, but suddenly I realized something.

«Am I mad at Will?»

I had to swallow everything he just said. It was true on his part: officers like us don't have to follow orders, which is what we give. We are just providing guidance. And even though I so quickly rose to the rank of junior lieutenant, I still had little understanding of leading an entire platoon.

It seemed to me that this was an impossible task, even though I kept all the sternness and seriousness on my face, while in fact I was afraid of the responsibility that I bear for my people. Every decision I make can cost lives and I shouldn't pour out my emotions on my own people, because this could be the very decision that will destroy us all.

Ultimately, having resigned myself to the inconvenience, I finally fell asleep and the next morning I started eating breakfast. Eating dried meat is still unusual for me; however, there are no better alternatives in sight in the near future, so we endured.

I soon returned to the interrogation process. Yasmi was still sitting there, wrapped in a jacket and handcuffed. This is the first time I've seen her shivering from the cold. Seeing this, I even felt sorry for her, and this despite the fact that she killed John. I hope at least today, at least this time, she will give out more information.

«The third stage... I hope I don't have to resort to the fourth.»

I came closer to her, and she looked at me with a pleading face. It was the third day since she was captured by us, and she is already in such despair that even her fanatical faith cannot save her. She turned out to be much weaker inside than I imagined.

"Greetings."

I said, squatting down in front of her.

"What are you ready to tell me?"

She pursed her lips again, but her fear of me at gunpoint spoke for itself.

"All."

She said in a trembling voice. I smiled and said through the earphone.

"We need warm clothes and food. She split."

"It will be done, sir."

I heard the private's voice in the earphone. After some time, Yasmi was dressed in the uniform of a naval engineer, orange overalls. Of course, Sigrun dealt with this, and Yasmi looked at her with wide eyes.

"Why are you like this?"

Yasmi asked the engineer. I didn’t see the girls, but I heard them while I was standing at the special booth where Sigrun was changing Yasmi’s clothes.

"Are you talking about skin color?"

Sigrun grinned.

"I'm just not a earthling."

"Earthling? What it is?"

Yasmi was perplexed and I hastened to answer, crossing my arms over my chest.

"We are from the planet known as Earth, and Sigrun is from the planet Alsis. We may not be too similar to each other, but we are citizens of the republic and humans"

"Sigrun? Is that your name?"

Asked Yasmi.

"Yes. This is my name."

The black woman answered.

"Have you come from the sky?"

Yasmi asked while Sigrun buttoned up something for the saint.

"I think this is the first time for you to see guests from outer space."

Sigrun grinned.

"Ready. So how? Comfortable? Not cold?"

"Mmmm... good."

Yasmi answered, and then she and Sigrun left the booth. As soon as she appeared, the machine gunner at the other end of the compartment immediately took aim. Yasmi was scared, seemingly having forgotten that she was always at gunpoint and, in fact, was a prisoner. The conversation with Sigrun relaxed her too much. Meanwhile, I approached her to ask the first question.

"Are you ready to tell us everything?"

Yasmi lowered her head and was silent for a while, clenching her fists, but soon she relaxed and said with confidence in her voice:

"If you let me go, I'll tell you everything."

"Hmm~..."

I thought about this turn of events and I spun around for a while before hitting her in the stomach.

"Kha~!"

Yasmi bent over in pain. She didn't expect this. With pain in her eyes, she fell to the floor and moaned in pain, holding her stomach with her hands where I actually hit her. It was unpleasant for me to do this, but I had to show myself to her as an extremely harsh and ruthless person who was not going to tolerate non-cooperation.

I have to find out what is happening on this planet, where Ashwani went, what kind of Empire this is and why it actually speaks English and can regrow severed limbs. I have to find out.

"You're not in a position to set conditions for us."

I said sternly, towering over her.

"I asked you if you were ready to tell us everything, not whether you would or not. Either way, we're gonna get everything we want out of you. Do I make myself clear?"

Yasmi gritted her teeth angrily looking at me, rising to her feet, trembling with horror with her whole body.

"You barbarians will pay for everything. Sod will punish you! Kha~!"

Another blow, this time to the face. I broke her nose and let some blood flow from her nostrils. This time she moaned in pain much more painfully than before. She realized that further insolence would not improve the situation for her.

"You'll die if you don't tell us, but we'll decide whether we'll let you go or not only when you tell us everything."

At that moment I looked up at Sigrun. She was saddened by what she saw. Of course, she condemned such interrogation methods and yet I have a lot of information to find out about this planet, and I am not afraid to use violence when necessary. Because I'm a soldier.

This time Yasmi gave in, all the anger even disappeared from her face and fear came in its place.

"Just don't kill me... I beg you."