June 1, 2361 AIA

Supremacy Military Base 049478

They hadn’t done any overt torture, but they had withheld food and given Reyer only a meager allowance of water. Worse for her, they had allowed no painkillers. When she’d swallowed enough of her pride to look up at the camera in the corner of her cell and ask for them, she’d been ignored.

Alix was no stranger to deprivation, but even though she did her best to ease her back, the dull pain wore away at her until her bones felt tired. There was nothing to distract her from its constant presence.

She was in no shape to fight when they finally came for her. They still used three armed men and two bots to transfer her to the interrogation room.

It looked like the one back on Home Base, minus the mirror and with more cameras. She would have laughed if she had any energy.

Major Tennama was there. After he made sure she was securely cuffed to the chair, he dismissed the guards. The bots were put into the corners of the room. He sat down in the chair opposite her and poured a cup of water from a pitcher nearby.

“Shall I be honest with you, Sergeant?” he said.

“I’m not a sergeant anymore,” Reyer said.

Tennama raised an eyebrow. “Does it bother you to be called Sergeant?”

“Yes, it does.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not one.”

“You were one, once.”

“I’m not now.”

Alix would never admit it and never allow it to show on her face, but the truth was she still felt a pang each time she heard the title—a small part of her mourning for what she used to be.

“If you prefer, I’ll call you Miss. Shall I be honest with you, Miss Reyer?”

“Are you asking if I want you to be honest, or if you will be honest? Because, honestly, I think we both know the answer to those questions.”

Tennama smirked. It fit his face well. The deep lines around his cheek twitched to fit it with his features. “I know you would like me to be honest. But you probably won’t believe me even if I am. That’s my conundrum. We want information from you, and we’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get it. Shall I be honest? I’d rather be. I’m not good at deceiving people, and I feel like it would be a waste of time.”

Reyer leaned as far forward as her shackles allowed. “Major, you’ve never done this before, have you?”

“No, I haven’t, Miss Reyer.”

“I’m your prisoner. We can sit here chatting all day, or you can ask me the questions.”

“But would you answer them?”

“That depends on what they are and why you want to know.”

“And how much we torture you?”

Reyer leaned back.

“Oh, yes, Miss Reyer. That’s an option we’re considering. It’s not one I like, but you don’t know how badly we want these answers.”

“Oh, I really, really don’t, Major. Why do you want the information so badly? And if you don’t tell me what the information is soon, I’m going to die of curiosity before I die of dehydration.”

He pushed the glass of water toward her—a useless gesture considering how she was cuffed. Reyer only glanced at it.

“I’ll be honest with you. I hope you’ll believe me.” Tennama put his interlaced hands on the table. “We want to know about a planet.”

“What planet? There are a lot of them.”

“This would be one that the Rising explored. We don’t know why. Perhaps they were looking for a base or a place to hide resources and materials.”

Alix shrugged. It was one of the few gestures she could manage. “Major, I hope you haven’t chased me halfway across the galaxy thinking that I would know about planetary exploration. If you did, you wasted your time. The Supremacy knows about every planet I’ve been on. They have records of the battles and missions I did on them.” She allowed herself a smile, if only to irritate her interrogator. “They should at least have damage reports and causality lists. Wasn’t that all in the file you read about me?”

“Oh, yes. But that’s not the kind of thing I’m interested in.”

“Then I don’t know how you think I can help you.”

“You were a very unusual sergeant, weren’t you? Born on a contested planet. Both of your parents sympathized with the Rising, which is why, when they were both killed during the war, you were taken in by them. They thought it was too dangerous to raise you on a battlefield, so General Ito took charge as your guardian. You were raised among generals and officers, and yet you decided to never become one. Why is that? Heaven knows they would have given you the rank the moment you asked for it.”

“I was also raised by the grunts. Maybe I wanted to work for a living.”

The major smiled. “You don’t have to posture here, Miss Reyer. There’s a real reason you chose to stay a sergeant, and it has nothing to do with any of your quips.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Alix tried to imagine how the answer could be useful to them but came up with nothing. Her first instinct was to be contrary, but she knew she’d last longer and learn more if she cooperated where she could.

“The work is different,” she said. “The officers have to scheme, plan, and arrange things. They gave orders. As a sergeant, I made them happen. I fought, I worked, and I got things done. I was good at it.”

“But you had a lot of privilege and access to information that others of your rank didn’t.”

“That’s what happens when you color on the back of classified documents while playing in the central war room.”

“Indeed. But you maintained the privilege long past your childhood.”

“I stayed in barracks and worked like anyone else—”

“You misunderstand me, Miss Reyer. I was not accusing you of taking advantage. I rather think the generals took advantage of you and your amazing adaptability. They came up with the orders—whatever orders—then they handed them to you and trusted that you would make them happen.”

Alix said nothing.

“You do understand, that means that your experience in the Rising is uniquely broad and varied. The only people who know as much as you are probably the top three generals and, possibly, their immediate staff.”

“What is all this about?”

“I’d like you to stop pretending that you’re nothing more than a simple sergeant. I have a record of your exploits, but we both know that your knowledge extends far beyond what’s represented in your file. Unless we’re very mistaken, you’ve never been to the plant we want to know about, but you’re more likely to know about it than any other living person.”

Tennama saw Reyer’s expression and paused. “What is it?” he asked.

“I’m surprised,” she said. “I can’t imagine that the Supremacy would need to go to the Rising for information about a planet. I would have thought—”

“The Supremacy has different reasons for seeking out new planetary bodies, so they keep different records. They look at different worlds than you do, and you purposefully seek out places that we’re not interested in. It’s natural we wouldn’t know the same planets as you. And while finding you wasn’t easy, it was easier than searching a hundred billion different star systems, looking for one planet. Although,” he said with a wry smile, “for a while I was beginning to wonder about that.”

Alix couldn’t help smiling.

The major motioned to one of the bots. “Undo one of her handcuffs.” As the bot obeyed his instructions, Tennama moved the heavy pitcher of water off the table, out of Reyer’s reach. He motioned to the glass still in front of them.

Reyer looked from the glass, back to the major. “I’d feel better if you’d drink from it first.”

Tennama took a sip. “Purified. Bland. Recycled. Normal.” He pushed the cup toward her. “Certainly not poisoned. The last thing we want is you dead.”

It was bland but also welcome. Reyer drank it slowly so her empty stomach wouldn’t heave.

“Will you answer our questions now?” Tennama asked.

“I won’t make any promises.” Reyer put the glass down in front of her.

“No, that’s my job.” The major leaned forward. “I promise that if you cooperate with us, we’ll take care of you. We’ll get you food and put you in better quarters. I’ll make sure you have a supply of Tranomine or something stronger, if you’d like.”

There was a long silence.

Reyer said, “At some point, Major, you’ll actually have to start asking me questions about this planet you want me to help you find. If you don’t, neither of us will be going anywhere.”

Tennama shook his head. “That’s not my role. I was only ever going to be a mediator. But if you’re ready, I’ll bring in the man who’ll be talking to you.”

Reyer didn’t answer. Their brief staring contest ended when Tennama stood up from the table and walked over to the door. He opened it and spoke to an unseen figure behind the wall. Another man entered the room.

Reyer’s heart stopped. When it began to beat again, its lethargic pace was replaced with a horrible pounding that seemed to push all the way into her ears. Her face flushed, and her whole body began to tremble. Her jaw seemed to want to both open and clamp shut at the same time—she didn’t know if she would vomit or yell, or if she could do either of those things. She’d forgotten how to breathe and only did so in ragged starts and stops.

“Alix, it’s been a long time.”

Ivan Rurik sat down in front of her. He was wearing a Supremacy military uniform with the insignia of a colonel.

“How are you?” he asked.

Her trembling grew worse. She started to laugh. It grew louder. Then she said, almost hiccupping, “Oh, Major, you would have been a much better choice.” She lunged to the front of her chair. “You want to know how I’ve been?” she snarled. “Fuck off, Ivan. Fuck off and go to hell.” Tears streamed down her face. When she wasn’t yelling, her teeth ground against each other so hard it made them ache. “I hate you. You left us all for dead! You killed us! Ward…Brinkerhoff…Bentley, Hautum, Owen, Roy…”

Reyer knew each of the forty-seven names. The ghostly roll call would have continued, but she was weeping so much she couldn’t talk. Her head dropped to her chest. A second passed, then she began to scream. It was completely inarticulate—the howl of an animal.

Ivan Rurik stood up and left the room. The major followed.

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Reyer’s emotions were too much for her weakened body to handle. She wore herself out long before the hour was gone and Rurik and Tennama returned. When they entered the room this time, all she could feel was numb.

Rurik sat across from her again. He said nothing.

Minutes passed.

Reyer spat out, “A colonel?”

“A new name, a new life, and yes, a new rank.”

There was another silence.

“Was it worth it?” Reyer demanded.

“I hope it will be.”

Another wave of fury welled up inside her, but she only had enough energy to sneer. In the stillness, she gathered her strength to sit up and look at him.

“I won’t help you,” she said. “Not you. Not ever.”

“You didn’t used to feel that way about me.”

Stunned disbelief flooded her body. “How dare you?” she whispered.

“Alix, I know you. We used to talk together. Any moment when we were alone. At night, in bed together.”

She tried to speak, but she could only mouth the words. She forced herself to repeat it louder: “Shut up, Ivan.”

“I’m the only one you really talked to.”

Reyer shook her head. She would have thought there was no more water to be wrung out of her body, but two tears dropped onto her legs.

“And I told you everything,” Ivan said.

It was his voice, exactly as she remembered it; deep, sincere intonation shaped each word. It raked through her. She wouldn’t have been surprised if she started bleeding.

“I told you everything,” he repeated. “I told you about what I was thinking, how I felt, what was happening. I told you about every mission I went on.”

“What do you want?” Reyer mumbled.

Rurik put his hands on the table. “There was a planet I went to about a year and a half after I was assigned to planetary exploration. I described it to you. The plants were tinted blue, as if everything was under moonlight. Ropes of fungus hung from the trees. It took me forever to find a place to land because everything was swamp. There were beasts—huge wild animals. There was so much life there. I thought it was beautiful.”

Reyer watched him, motionless.

“We joked about it,” he said. “It could never be used as a base, but we joked that it would be the perfect hiding spot—that we could go there to be alone. Do you remember?”

Reyer slowly nodded.

“Alix,” Rurik leaned forward, “where is that planet?”

Reyer didn’t move or make any noise. She only stared at him.

“Do you remember the planet?” he said. “Do you remember where it was?”

The room became deathly quiet. Her eyes never left his.

“Who are you?” she said.

Silence.

She raised her voice. “You’re not Ivan Rurik—who are you?”

The colonel stood up and addressed the two bots. “Take her back to her cell.”

As he and the major left the room, Reyer shouted after them, “What are you?”