Allison hadn’t moved from her spot behind the bar for several hours. She found out the hard way being still was the only sure way to keep herself from throwing up. She’d never suffered vertigo before, and she was pretty sure it was the worst thing ever. Tyler had long ago been moved into the infirmary. They had a med tech from the Yorleer at the embassy. Allison hoped the fact they were part plant wouldn’t hinder Tyler getting medical attention but there was nothing she could do, and she wasn’t sure if she should be anywhere near him after nearly killing him. Ezeen had stayed with her the whole time. Allison still had her eyes closed. It didn’t stop the spinning, but it helped with the nausea.

“Ma’am, you can go, I’m fine just a bit dizzy.”

“Exactly what my son would say after he hit his head in a Bator.”

Allison had no idea what that word meant, neither did her translator.

“Bator?”

Ezeen searched for the words.

“Hover racers? Very fast. Very dangerous.”

“Oh, I understand.”

Ezeen continued.

“He would get into accidents, hit his head then say, mom, I’m fine. Three times he cracked his skull. Mom, I’m fine. Stay awake, Battlelord.”

“If you think I can fall asleep after nearly killing one of my best friends… I wish I could. I don’t want to deal with it. Aren’t you plants? Do you have bones?”

Ezeen spoke quietly.

“I saw it, you didn’t have a choice, Battlelord. I can guess why you’re protecting him, and I won’t say anything. You’re lucky he missed, or we would not be talking. And no, we do not have bones like you would have, my son is adopted, he is Silwrath.”

“Yeah, lucky.”

“This is not your fault, Battlelord.”

Allison sighed.

“Actually, it is, I taught him how to shoot. I should have assumed that was going to bite me in the ass one day with my luck. Tell me about your home world?”

Ezeen smiled and adjusted herself, so she was leaning against the outer wall of the ballroom. The pair talked long into the night. Comms started working at 0400. Allison advised command of her situation. They must have told her mother who called her immediately and told her she was sending help as soon as possible. The promised help arrived at 0430 in the form of a Silwrath medical evacuation shuttle which took Tyler, Allison and the terrorists to the battlecruiser they had in orbit.

Allison refused the hover-gurney and made her way to the medical bay on her own. The Silwrath medical staff were apparently used to soldiers being morons and didn’t argue the point. When she arrived, she saw Tyler was still unconscious and had been put into some sort of regenerative device. She could see the repairs being performed to his ribs in real time. Andy was awake and surrounded by four armed Silwrath guards. All of them seemed eager for him to make a move. They saw Allison and slammed their fists to their chests.

“Battlelord!”

Allison returned their salute and she looked around. Before she could ask for help a familiar-looking, blue-scaled medical tech approached her. Allison saw her name on her white coat. Futara.

“Battlelord, please, come with me.”

Allison let herself be helped to a bed. While the tech ran a scanner over Allison, the teenager blushed.

“Sorry about uh, well you know, ma’am.”

Futara nodded, she spoke as she reached up to check under Allison’s blood-matted hair.

“A misunderstanding, Battlelord, warrior blood runs hot. Your wound is healed. Strangely it does not seem it was done by the Synthlin super soldier nanites you injected during your encounter. I did not realize humans utilized that technology.”

Allison went pale.

“We don’t, they’re illegal and uh, if my people find out about them, they’ll disintegrate me so could we just leave those out of any umm reports?”

Futara blinked and her wings twitched.

“That is a remarkably strong reaction to a simple nanite injection. If they are so illegal, why would you inject them?”

Allison lowered her voice.

“I didn’t. My body produces them naturally. My biological mother had them in her system.”

The blue-scaled Silwrath nodded. She kept her voice low.

“Intriguing, that would explain the high concentration. I had assumed you injected them to heal your injury and give you an edge in the fight. Our soldiers use them in extreme situations. They put a large strain on non-Synthlin. You show no signs of damage to your heart, brain or lungs.”

Allison kept her eyes focused on Futara.

“Then why is the ship still spinning ma’am?”

Futara smiled and picked up an injector. She pressed it against Allison’s neck. There was a hiss.

“Calcium particles in your inner ear were agitated by a quick movement of your head. Likely when your head was hit by the projectile. I gave you an anti-nausea med, mixed with a sleeping aid, and a nerve deadener. Now turn your head to the left quickly please.”

Allison blinked at Futara.

“Are we trying to make me throw up?”

Futara chuckled.

“No, it’s part of the treatment. We’re trying to cause an acute episode. Then we’re going to try and get those naughty little crystals somewhere they cause less harm. The anti-nausea meds will hopefully stop you from throwing up.”

Allison did was she was told, and the room started spinning so bad she grabbed on to the bed because her mind told her she was going to go flying off. Futara then walked Allison through some head movements. When they’d finished Allison still felt off, but the room was not spinning.

“You’re a miracle worker, ma’am.”

Futara patted Allison’s shoulder.

“No, human medical files are very comprehensive. The VI I contacted when I was told of your symptoms was very precise with treatments. Unfortunately, your nanites cannot heal this particular problem. Off you go, Battlelord. You’ve been assigned the same quarters as before. Do not eat anything. Go get some sleep keep your body at a thirty-degree angle. I’ll have someone drop off an appropriate uniform. I’ll inform your mother you’re doing fine and that I gave you a sedative. She seems rather, how do you humans say, excitable and you need rest.”

Allison hopped off the bed.

“I am not sure about medical privacy… or umm… is my friend Tyler going to be alright?”

Futara looked at Tyler.

“I do not have any information to provide, Battlelord. We are repairing the damage to his ribs. His brain has suffered oxygen deprivation and that is not good for any species. We can repair the damage, but in many cases, it is up to them to wake up.”

Allison bit her lower lip and then nodded.

“Thank you for helping me, and him.”

Futara waved her hand dismissively.

“It was my honor, Battlelord. We were the closest ship and your medical facilities were overwhelmed and not equipped for such traumatic damage. He must have been very brave to have suffered such catastrophic damage to his chest.”

Allison blushed.

“That was me, his heart stopped. We’re told if you don’t break the ribs you’re probably not pressing hard enough.”

Futara raised a claw.

“Ah, that would explain the nature of the fracture. Manual compressions. You likely saved his life in that case. Why did his heart stop?”

Allison patted her Qual’sa pistol.

“He was caught in the crossfire. I didn’t realize it would do more than knock him out or I wouldn’t have fired.”

Futara tapped her chin.

“That would indicate a congenital heart defect. We shall repair that. His eyes are also defective. A child with such a defect would have had it corrected shortly after birth in the League, why has he not had the procedure done?”

“His family couldn’t afford it. Medical treatment is not free in the System’s Alliance.”

Futara’s wings and tail twitched.

“What an obscene concept, charging for medical treatment. Barbaric even.”

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“Credits make the System’s Alliance turn or the saying goes. I’m sure he’d appreciate anything you can do for him. What about the woman that was brought up unconscious?”

Futara motioned to a surgical room.

“She requires a little more manual work by a doctor. Someone fractured several of her facial bones. We were able to pull an image of her from her data device and are reconstructing her bones.”

Allison felt sick to her stomach.

“I did that much damage?”

Futara nodded.

“Considering if it were Silwrath guards they would have killed her, I’d say you showed restraint, Battlelord. She will be as good as new for her trial. You should go get some rest. My scans indicate you are suffering from exhaustion.”

Allison made her way through the ship. She realized this was the first time she’d been allowed to roam the battlecruiser without an escort. None of the Silwrath challenged her. A few greeted her by her title, mostly they were going about their duties. She didn’t waste any time getting herself out of her armor. After setting her pillows up to try and sleep how Futara asked her she fell into a fit sleep.

When she woke up it was late afternoon, nearly early evening. She sat up slowly and looked around. The room was not spinning. She sighed with relief and pulled herself up. Her first order of business was to get cleaned up. When she moved into the outer room of the quarters, she found an ADF uniform with a lot of pips on it along with fresh underclothes. She shrugged and pulled it on. She sighed. They’d given her the skirt again. Her battlelord armor was crafted in such a way that she could hook the various pieces together to form a carrying case. She sorted that out. Her uniform had come with a sheath, and three holsters. She equipped her weapons. The wall panel flashed, indicating she had a message. She spoke.

“Computer, what is the message?”

The angry voice of the Silwrath VI gave her a start as it spoke.

“Battlelord! Investigator Kuvarn requests your presence! Follow the indicated path!”

Allison was really glad she wasn’t hungover. She still did not understand why the Silwrath VI shouted everything. She followed the path indicated. She heard the VI announce her presence loudly and the door opened. Inside was a silver scaled Silwrath he had images of all the accused on a video screen and a list of charges he was adding. Allison was glad to see Tyler wasn’t on the board. He turned to her. She was surprised when he spoke. He was the softest spoken Silwrath she’d ever run into.

“Greetings Battlelord. Thank you for coming. I am Investigator Kuvarn, as the assigned investigator to the Rampart, I have been instructed to investigate the attack on the Embassy last night. We are lucky you were there to stop them. Your government was very eager to provide all the information they could on these criminals. They are very dangerous.”

Allison folded her hands behind her back.

“How may I help you, sir?”

He smiled, showing his teeth.

“As Battlelord, you may refer to me as Kuvarn. You are my superior. Even the Eminence is expected to show you deference. Now then, ma’am, I believe I was able to piece together all of the events with the data your government provided me with from your recording device. It seems we’re missing a five-minute period of video. They were unable to tell me what happened to it. I was hoping you could explain the gap and provide me with your recollection of events.”

Allison frowned. A silver scale would be able to detect a lie easily. She hadn’t thought the League would be taking them into custody but then again, she should have the embassy as per human tradition was sovereign league territory. Therefore, they were attacked. Allison bit her lower lip.

“So, what is the… say someone shot me but didn’t do anything else in the Embassy and weren’t with the group attacking, would they be charged?”

He frowned.

“You were injured Battlelord? I did not know; We can wait for these questions.”

Allison held up her hand.

“No, I’m fine. It was a graze, your med bay already fixed it all up. Please, would you be charging them?”

He pondered her question.

“What was the nature of your conflict with the individual?”

Allison shrugged.

“Personal disagreement.”

He nodded along.

“And were you both armed?”

Allison nodded.

“Yes.”

He motioned with his claws to the board.

“And they’re not on this board?”

Allison nodded again.

“Well, if it was an honorable duel then Silwrath law states no charges.”

“Yep, okay, it was just a misunderstanding, they thought I killed their sister, and they wanted satisfaction.”

He grinned.

“It is a fool that chooses to cross blades or pistols with a Battlelord.”

Allison rubbed the back of her neck.

“So, uh, I’ll tell you what happened, but leave the duel out of the report, as a personal favor would you? My government wouldn’t be too happy with it.”

“Of course, it happened in League territory, I see no reason to inform them of anything beyond the charges we are filing.”

Allison let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay, well, I lured them into an open area where I could get cover. Someone got the power turned back on and it turned into what we’d call a Mexican standoff. Sort of. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea. I had them both sighted, they had their weapons on me. I had armor, they didn’t. Should have been a forgone conclusion but then my date… friend showed up and they had a hostage. A gun fight ensued. I was on the back foot. I took one out with my knife and I shot the other with my pistol. The uh… duel happened, and I knocked him out too after he grazed my head with a bullet. I disintegrated a barstool and told the one calling himself Andy if he didn’t answer me truthfully, I’d disintegrate him, I asked him if there were more.”

Kuvarn nodded.

“All true. You hesitated because of your friend then?”

Allison nodded.

“Hmm. Unexpected Battlelord, but understandable. This is the friend who is in our med bay?”

“Yes, is he awake?”

“No, unfortunately not. I was hoping to question him. Well, that is it then. Commendable work bringing these six to justice Battlelord. It would seem you continue to prove your right to wear the title.”

“I’m unfamiliar with League laws surrounding the crimes they committed. What sort of penalty will they be facing?”

Kuvarn looked at his wall screen.

“Well, I am still reviewing possible crimes, based on the evidence provided by yourself and verified by me, attempted unlawful killing is the biggest, they could face five to ten standard years on a prison station. Of course, your government will be eager to take them into custody from us once they have served their sentences. We still do not know their objective, which could provide more charges.”

“Why does the System’s Alliance want them?”

“Oh, they are suspected in the bombing of some habitation dome, they killed a lot of people. I suspect as with us; Such a crime would lead to the death penalty. I am surprised your government isn’t demanding we turn them over.”

Allison shook her head.

“I’m not. Trial like that would open some fresh wounds. They’re probably hoping they will die in prison. I’m surprised Keira would be involved. Her record says she’s twenty. That happened four years ago. She’d have been sixteen. She’s not even an adult yet by our law.”

He tapped Keira’s picture.

“This one is considered a minor still?”

Allison nodded.

“Until we’re twenty-one.”

“Hmm. Well, that will be taken into account.”

Allison walked up and looked at the board.

“I might be able to… get more information out of them if you’d like me to try?”

Kuvarn turned to Allison.

“Oh, you’re an experienced interrogator?”

Allison laughed at the thought.

“Uh, no, I’m not experienced at anything. I did do an interrogation course recently though, but umm, my Babu, my grandfather, uh, he wiped out their families in retaliation for the Mar’s dome attack. They hate my whole family. They hate my family a lot. My training said, angry people are dumb people. They might say something helpful if I poke them.”

Kuvarn nodded.

“Yes, any assistance you think you can provide Battlelord. They are in holding, as Battlelord your clearance will allow you entry.”

“Cool. Keep an eye on the vid feed.”

Allison made her way to the holding cells. Everyone was in their own cell. Even Keira was here, though her face was still one big bruise with several visible cuts. Allison recalled a time not so long ago she was in Keira’s cell.

“So, you’re Tyler’s sister.”

Keira didn’t look up.

“Butcher.”

Allison spoke loudly, recalling Andy’s eagerness to distance himself from their movement. She wondered if anyone else would be happy to turn on the organization.

“I’m a butcher? You’re the ones who killed five hundred thousand humans. I killed bugs. Giant insects’ intent on devouring everything and everyone. You killed innocents. There were children in that dome. How do you justify that? You caused everything that followed. I cannot wait to tell Tyler his sister he worshipped killed children…”

That got her to look at Allison.

“I didn’t, we didn’t.”

Allison motioned to Will’s cell.

“Oh, they have your father all over it, and you running off with him just afterwards, it doesn’t look good. Your mother and your brother had to move here, to the edge of the System’s Alliance to escape what you all did. He was getting beat up. She couldn’t find work. Once you go to trial, the new lives they built will be all over. Then they both get to hear about all those people you killed. Your mom is such a good woman. It is going to destroy her. It is going to destroy Tyler and I can’t do anything to stop it. Believe it or not I care about him a lot and he cares about me. This is going to destroy him.”

Keira, through her messed up face, seemed genuinely afraid.

“No, you don’t understand, we’re being framed, you can’t tell them.”

Allison shrugged.

“I wish I could believe you, but you attacked a bunch of innocent diplomats and staff. All I know is that the lead investigator here saw the evidence against all of you from System’s Alliance and he is leaning towards just handing you over. By morning you’ll be all over the Alliance-Net. Even if I don’t say anything. You will be the six most hated people across five galaxies. They’ll be protestors in the streets demanding your public executions.”

Keira touched the barrier.

“Please, you need to listen.”

Allison shrugged.

“I’m sorry, I have no say in this. I protected your brother, but this is League legal stuff. It’s the Investigator you need to convince. Maybe he can review the evidence with you, make sure those of you who talk can get a fair chance.”

Will punched his barrier.

“Keira don’t listen to her lies, she’s the granddaughter of the Butcher of Tritan! She killed your whole family.”

Allison shook her head then shifted her AR HUD into a full hologram and showed pictures of her and Tyler dressed for the Gala. An image of them with their mothers.

“Tyler and your mother seem pretty alive to me. Your father convinced Tyler to shoot at me. So, I had to defend myself. I was using non-lethal means, but your brother has a heart condition he couldn’t get fixed because your father was too busy fighting a war that has already been lost. A heart condition that my friends, the Silwrath have corrected free of charge. Because we’re the monsters.”

Will pounded on his barrier.

“Keira, you don’t need to see those lies. They killed your grandparents, your aunts.”

Allison pointed at Will.

“Sounds like there is something your dad doesn’t want you to see. I don’t know about you, but that would make me want to see it all the more… I’m sure the investigator would be happy to arrange a visit with your mother and Tyler, once Tyler feels up to it. He just has some questions about why you were at the embassy.”

Will shouted.

“Keira don’t listen to her!”

“It’s up to you Keira, right now, if what you’re saying is true, all you’re guilty of is breaking and entering, along with some weapons charges. Maybe you can find out some secrets your father doesn’t want you to know. Maybe because he is the monster.”

Allison moved on.

“That goes for all of you, whoever talks first, gets to stay in a nice comfortable League prison, the rest, well, the System’s Alliance is eager to get you on trial. Oh and, we all know how those courts work. You’re guilty. They just need to decide how horrific they want to make you look while getting there.”

Allison paused by Keira’s cell as she was leaving. She spoke quietly.

“I would want to know the truth. Please don’t break your brother’s heart.”

She left and went back to the Investigator’s office. He had a toothy grin when she walked in.

“They’re already arguing, except the girl. Wonderful. You seem very experienced to me. Though I’m unsure of the lying. It is not allowed by investigators.”

Allison shrugged.

“Honestly, I just watched a bunch of cop shows, and I’m not a League investigator, lying is perfectly allowed and encouraged in System’s Alliance interrogations. That might just be Military Intelligence though. I didn’t take the Military Police training. I think Keira will tell you whatever you want to know, if you can get her mother up here to see her. Trust me as the daughter of an African mom, if anyone could make me talk, it would be her.”

Allison glanced at the time.

“Speaking of which I should see if I can get a ride to the surface.”

Kuvarn slammed his fist to his chest.

“Thank you for your assistance Battlelord. Glory to you and your house.”

Allison saluted him back before heading out. She opened a comm link to her mom. Her mother was actually in C&C at the base.

“Mom, I’m about to find a way home.”

Her mother nodded.

“I’ll be here for a while yet, you and Aryna will be on your own. You’ll have to find your own way down here though; We’re all spread thin.”

“I’ll just get a ride from Bit.”

Her mother looked a bit sheepish.

“She’s flying Search and Rescue. Sorry.”

Allison sighed and shrugged.

“Okay mom, I’ll figure something out if I can’t I’ll be home when I can be.”

Her mother nodded and disconnected the call.