Pirra's leg still hurt, even after it had been treated.

The wound hadn't been that bad; the bullet had only nicked the bone, mostly just gouging an ugly canyon in the flesh of her leg.

One in a million shot, she thought. Dessei limbs were very thin, much thinner than Human, Sepht, or Greggan limbs. Humans often compared them to bird legs in that way, even if they didn't bend backwards like an Earth bird.

She glanced at the time in her HUD. It said that six hours had passed since the fight.

Fight, she thought bitterly. It had been more like a massacre.

Nine alive, and three dead. A quarter of her unit. With the three wounded, they were at half strength.

She'd been brought back up to the Craton with the rest of her unit, while Response Teams Two and Three continued their investigation on the surface.

They'd also brought up ten of the mercenaries, the survivors. There had been thirty-six of their company originally, but the Craton's bombardment had killed the majority. Her team had only accounted for a single enemy - the one Suon had picked off before their Guardian drones had fully deployed.

Response Team One would all be dead if not for that orbital support. They'd walked into a trap, and been cut down.

No, she corrected herself. Three people had paid for her mistake. Jack Lal, Niamha Mac Mordha, and Sabah Zivai.

She wasn't feeling sorrow yet. She was going to take more time than this to process what had happened, and for now she could still function on her training.

She glanced down at her cum of stimulant; it was still hot, steam rising from its surface. Her people had never had an equivalent to those human "miracle drinks" like coffee or tea. It held almost a religious, mystical power to them. But they'd shared the idea of stimulants, and her people had made their own.

She sipped hers. It was better than trying to sleep and failing.

The door opened, and an aide leaned in. "The Captain says that you can come in."

Pirra brushed past him, into the other room.

Jaya was standing there, surrounded by a handful of aides, all watching a man in a chair.

It was one of the prisoners. He was a tall, broad man, with tanned skin and reddish blonde hair that he had cut on the sides. A large, but neat beard covered the lower half of his face.

He was not shackled or otherwise restrained. He appeared mostly unhurt, save for the stump of his left leg, covered with a plastic cap. The medical unit was already preparing the stump for a new leg - either cloned or mechanical.

The man was not really present with them; he was a projection, a live feed from his cell.

This was much better than the face-to-face meetings that that madman on Gohhi had insisted on, Pirra thought. The prisoner's cell could be kept safely sealed, no need for a restraint suit. With no one present with him, there was no possibility of hostages - or even the idiotic attempt at taking them.

It also meant that she could come right up to his face and look at it, study the eyes of the bastard who had killed three of her people.

His insignia marked him as one of the squad commanders, the highest-ranking officer that had survived from the mercenary group.

Right now, he was talking to the interrogator AI, which was simply asking him basic questions. It was the only one he could see.

"What is your name?"

"Richard Amin," the mercenary said. His face looked completely calm.

Pirra knew he could not see her; she could dial into the call, with permission, and appear as a holographic image in his cell if she wanted.

She would ask. But not yet.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"You seem very calm about losing your leg," the AI asked him. It presented as a pure-white robot, similarly to Y. But the machine lacked personality, interests outside of its job, and any real qualities that made it more than a very, very smart machine - at least so far.

"Have we identified his group?" Jaya asked.

One of her aides answered.

"We've identified them as being members of Centauri PMC, a broad company that includes thousands of chapters across known space."

"I've heard of Centauri," Pirra said. "They're just an umbrella group."

"That's right," the aide said. "Centauri just sells their name and covers the legal and financial side of things; beyond that, each unit keeps its own standards on jobs and gear."

He nodded to the man. "This particular chapter call themselves the White Hands."

"White Hands," Jaya repeated. "They are famed for being unscrupulous, as I recall."

"Yes, Captain," the aide replied. Pirra looked at him, and his name popped up; Vittorino De Luca. The man seemed efficient.

"The White Hands are wanted for numerous crimes on Union borderspace, and even in Gohhi. They are among the seven groups accused of the Great Breaching of Station 12211, which caused over three hundred civilian deaths."

"Then we have enough to hang him with," Pirra said.

"Perhaps not," De Luca replied. "It's shady ground, as the White Hands have always denied involvement in the incident, and this one mentioned that he had only joined the outfit two years ago. That crime took place three years ago, and we have no access to the evidence. We can't tie him specifically to any crimes."

Pirra's crest rose.

"Prior to this event," De Luca hastily added.

"Calm, Pirra," Jaya said. She went back to looking at the man. "Has he said anything of use?"

"Not really. He's holding back for a real person, I think," De Luca said.

"Then let us play along," Jaya replied. "Pirra, dial in with me."

Pirra was surprised to be invited in. She was more than happy to be involved with the interrogation.

The appearance of the two women, even Jaya with her Captain's insignia, did not garner any fear in the man. His eyes flickered to Pirra's leg, and she realized that their injuries mirrored each other, though he'd come out poorer for it.

He still said nothing.

"Amin," Jaya said. "I am the Captain of this vessel."

"All right," the man replied. "I'm a Lieutenant."

"Not in a military force we recognize," Jaya replied calmly. "Tell me why you fired upon my people."

The man shrugged. "Self-defense. We saw a heavily-armed unit moving into our camp, and we defended it and ourselves. That's within interstellar law for unsettled systems."

Jaya ignored the 'education' of interstellar law. "Did you not see that they were wearing Union uniforms?" she asked dryly.

"People can wear any uniform they like. We didn't expect Union forces out here, so we just assumed they were scavenged."

"You didn't see the ships in orbit?" Pirra asked.

"No," the man said. "We didn't even have a long-range communicator or sensors that could pick up a ship."

A message appeared in Pirra's HUD, from De Luca. No transceiver was found. Could have been destroyed, or he could be telling the truth.

"How long were you there?"

"We were put on the planet eleven months ago. We were hired to hold this camp for a period of six months-"

"You've been there a year, but were just hired for six months?" Pirra asked.

"Initially, yes," the man admitted. "We were supposed to be brought out months ago, replaced with another team, but they never arrived. Supplies kept coming in, though. We were then told by our commander that the relief team had backed out last-minute, and our term was being extended with extremely generous bonuses. So we stayed."

There were buried caches of used supplies that would support the claim of a stay of one year, De Luca added.

"Who hired you?" Jaya asked.

"I don't know," the man replied. "And if I did I wouldn't be at liberty to say."

"You'll answer our questions," Pirra snapped. "You're a murderer in custody, you don't have any protection for your secrets."

"It was legal self-defense by interstellar law. Even your Union recognizes the right to self-defense!" the man interrupted. "What would you have done in our situation?"

Pirra fought back her urge to yell at the man. If she did not keep her cool, Jaya would have her taken out of the interrogation, and she didn't want that.

She just wanted to see these bastards burn.

He wasn't wrong that there were provisions for self-defense, especially in unclaimed space. It might even support their position, if they truly felt threatened.

"You did not even attempt to communicate," Jaya pointed out.

"Again, your people were armed. We didn't know how many you were." He shrugged again. "It's an unfortunate misunderstanding. But there's only ten of us left now, so I'd say you came out ahead."

Pirra kept quiet now.

Jaya leaned back. "So your defense is that you were simply hired to guard this camp, and when you saw people in Union uniforms come in, you executed that order."

"Yes," the man said.

"What is the camp for?" Jaya asked.

"I don't really know," the man said.

"We can extract the information if necessary," Jaya told him.

"Waste of effort. I wasn't privy to the important information, like our employer or what they wanted with the camp," Amin replied.

"Did you interact with the local !Xomyi population?" Jaya asked pointedly.

"We discouraged them from coming near," Amin replied evenly. "No more violence than was necessary. We're not monsters."

His eyes went to Pirra for a moment, then back to Jaya.

Jaya looked to her as well, then disconnected them both from the call.

Pirra watched the Captain expectantly, waiting for what the plan would be.

"Now we wait," Jaya said.

"For what?" Pirra asked.

"For the results of the investigation on the surface," Jaya replied. She turned, leaving the room, her aides trailing behind.

Pirra looked back to Richard Amin, who was now drinking water. He still looked calm, but there were beads of sweat on his forehead.

Good, she thought. Let him be afraid.