Noss’ eyes suddenly went very wide; his face, pale. He stumbled to his feet, but Tham held the multi-gun closer, and Goretta put a heavy tentacle on his shoulder and pushed him back into his chair.
“You stay seated.” Tham said as his tail lashed against the stone floor. “I mean it, I won’t hesitate to shoot you.”
“Please, hesitate until I’ve confirmed the codes he’s given me.” Vik said from where he sat typing away at his computer. “If this works, he might have more we can use later.”
“I-I told you the truth!” Noss said, leaning as far away from the group of Chilacians without leaving his chair. “Those are the codes for the main defensive systems! Get me off this planet and I’ll give you more codes!”
TO frowned and looked over at Pholi. “What’s he talking about?” TO asked.
“Well, You’ve met Minister Noss, right?” Pholi said, “Of course you have, he was introducing you at that party at the government building.” He brought over a cup of tea and set it in front of Noss before taking his own cup back to his own seat. “Noss wants to get off the planet. Apparently King Decon is irritated with the continued existence of the insurgency, and Noss seems to be in the crosshairs to take the punishment for this.”
TO frowned. “I thought killing the entire population of Arkane was his plan.” TO said, “How is he going to punish Noss if everyone here is dead?”
“I very much doubt that Noss has been updated on King Decon’s plans in that matter.” Pholi said.
“And even if everyone on Arkane dies, the insurgency is still well known throughout most of the galaxy.” Flit said, “Arkane is still known for being the home of the insurgency, so to speak. If everyone here dies, then blaming the deceased minister of security would be a decent idea. Noss isn’t appointed by King Decon, so it would be viewed as a civilian fault.”
“Wait. What do you mean, everyone dies?” Noss said, his voice getting higher in pitch. “N-Nobody’s going to die!”
“Oh, I didn’t tell him anything important.” Pholi said, as if to explain Pholi’s confusion, “I’m not dim. I also had him blindfolded as we came here.” He took a drink of his tea. “Just in case you decided not to work with him. Of course, I didn’t expect Tham to pull out the multi-gun right away.”
“How do you know that he’s trustworthy?” TO said as they glanced over at Noss. It was hard for them to be angry at the small human. TO didn’t like him particularly, but he seemed so ineffective at his job, so nervous all the time that TO almost felt sorry for him. Honestly, even if he was on the ship with them, TO didn’t think he could mess anything up too badly; he seemed too incompetent to hurt them.
It still didn’t mean they were willing to take the chance.
“Trustworthy is a stretch.” Pholi said, “But Noss, Much like me, isn’t particularly concerned with…” He paused, contemplating his words, “Following the letter of Arkane’s legal codes, so to speak.” He finally said. “Of course, He’s not involved in the resistance.” He frowned, considering, “not knowingly, anyway.”
“Care to explain?” TO said, eying Pholi. They wished they knew more about Pholi’s species, more about how they communicated, and their body language. Even without the use of their helmets, they were getting used to reading the body language of the Nagarajin, and some Cephaloids like Goretta. Pholi’s body language was still a mystery to TO.
“I-I’ve worked with smugglers before!” Pholi said, “Getting people off or on the planet, getting legally gray supplies, drugs, banned materials… All of it!” He looked between TO and Tham as though trying to decide if the synth was better to plead to over the Nagarajin with a multi-gun pointed at them. In the end, they turned to TO. “I have all the codes for the planet’s security systems.”
“Can you evacuate the planet?” TO demanded. Even as they asked, they didn’t know how effective a full planetary evacuation would be with a single day to organize it.
Noss winced and tried to shrink in the chair. “We don’t have a full planetary evacuation system.” He said, “There are private ones, of course-“
“Owned by the government, and the rich of Arkane.” Tham snapped, “It’s much like the evacuation system that was in place for the party in Thalassa, yes? It’s enough for the ‘important’ people, and enough poor people to do your dirty work, right?”
“Some planets have full evacuation plans in place.” Goretta said, “What, did you forget to do it?”
“That’s probably not his fault.” TO said, “Some planets have orders and funding provided to them to create a full population evacuation, but those are only planets that are considered at risk. It’s expensive in terms of money, materials, and supplies, so the focus is on helping planets with the most need to get them. Arkane would not be under order to have an evacuation order. They could have put it together themselves as a precaution, but clearly that was left as a private endeavor.”
Evacuating the planet was one idea that TO had for keeping King Decon from killing everyone. Flit, who was now suppressing a slight smirk, had informed TO why a planet like Arkane might not have one. TO had just recited their explanation nearly word for word.
“He’s still useful.” Pholi said, “That’s why I brought him here.” He smiled across the table at Noss. “See, Noss and I have done business together from time to time.”
“Shit.” Tham said, “This is your source, isn’t it? This is how you get shit smuggled in for us.”
Noss looked like he might faint. “Wait.” He said, “You.. the stuff I smuggled in, you used it to help the insurgents!?”
Pholi sighed at both of them, ignored their questions, and looked to TO, “now and then, there’s been something we needed here that we couldn’t get; tech or medicine. Or sometimes there’s a person we need to move, like when Snout first came here after we intercepted the ship they were on. When that needs to happen, I just give him the ID of the ship in question to Noss, and he’d slip it into the system and let it enter with no interference from security.”
“And what did he get in return?” Tham hissed, now glaring at Pholi, “Information? Names?” His eyes narrowed.
Pholi kept his gaze steady as he looked at Tham, “Money.” He said. “Just money.”
“Oh, look.” DH said, their own ears pinning back, “A civilian who is actually like they told us they are in training.”
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“Yes yes, I know. I heard it all already.” Tham snapped, “All civilians are selfish, self-interested assholes.”
“I-I had debts!” Noss protested. “The kind people take organs for!”
TO’s ears flicked out, twitching.
“Gambling debts.” Pholi said as they watched TO’s ears and picked up on the obvious confusion. “Illegal gambling debts. Gladiator battles, right?”
“Oh, you son of a bitch.” Tham said, holding the multi-gun up a little more.
“It’s not like I arranged them!” Noss said. “I didn’t even know it was happening the first time I saw it, I just went to see an old friend, and they had some indebetted brought in on their estate for ‘renovations’ but then…” They shrugged, “Well, next things I know, I’m in an underground stadium, the indebted are fighting each other!”
“Fighting to the death, right?” Tham hissed.
“NO! No no, you don’t fight to the death in this kind of thing!” He said, “People would notice that! Besides, if you have outstanding fighters who put on an interesting show, then you don’t want them to get hurt, right? The occasional injury or fatality might get overlooked, but-”
“Noss.” Pholi said, smiling gently at the round, sweaty minister, “Shut up.” He looked at TO, “ while Noss isn’t one of us, he doesn’t have his hands clean, and he’s more than willing to break the rules to save his own skin. He’s pretty sure King Decon has him on the chopping block, and he’d very much like to get off the planet before anything happens to him. I caught him trying to talk to another acquaintance of ours, trying to secure an escape from Arkane. Of course, with Gyrini around, even the more corrupt government officials are hesitant to break any laws.” He shrugged. “Can’t spend your money if you die, I guess.”
Noss looked around, his eyes wide, “Of course I want to save my skin.” He said, “Nobody wants to die! It only makes sense to save your own life!” He suddenly paused, and gave a strangled, panicked laugh, “Or.. do you not? If you’re working with the insurgency, and with synths, I’d think you’re dumb or have a death wish, and I know you’re not dumb!” He looked at TO again, “Are they really synths, or are you just trying to scare me?”
“We were synths.” TO said. They turned to Pholi. “And I don’t trust him. Look how much he’s sweating! He’s obviously nervous.” They glanced back at Noss, glaring at him, “I bet he wants to trip us up, to get us caught so he can avoid punishment.”
“I-I’m always sweaty!” Noss said, “I-I’m part Chordling!”
Thankfully, even without their helmet and without checking their chip, TO knew what a Chordling was. It was an amphibious species from the outskirts of this quadrant of the galaxy, short, rounded, hairless, and known for constantly secreting a substance to protect them from the colder water they lived in. Squinting, To realized that if they were to take a picture of Noss, and black out all the details except for the silhouette, then Noss would indeed have a rather Chordling appearance. Most everything else about Noss seemed human.
“Huh.” Vik said, never taking their eyes off their computer. “I thought you were just short and round. You don’t have Chordling eyes, Chordlings don’t have hair.”
“It’s a wig,” Pholi muttered.
“My great-great-great-grandfather was a Chordling.” He said as he dabbed his face with his soaked rag. “But everyone after that was human, so we only have a few traits. My brother has Chordling eyes, and my sister can swim like a Chordling-“
“And you got stuck hairless and secreting all the time.” Vik said, “Sucks to suck.” Something flashed up on his screen, and his ears and tail suddenly perked up. “Oh, look, your codes actually worked.”
“I told you they would!” Noss said, “I don’t know why you had such an issue-”
“It was an issue because I had to make it seem like I was accessing the security systems from inside the government center.” Vik said, “Otherwise, I’m pretty sure there would be some problems if Gyrini saw someone accessing this shit from the Outer Ring.”
Pholi sighed, “As I said, I blindfolded Noss, so he has no idea where exactly we are. Or at least, he had no idea.”
“So, we have security codes.” TO said, trying to ignore the unimportant chatter. “Does that mean we can end the lockdown?”
“Technically, yes.” Vik said, “But Gyrini would see that right away, reinstate it, and even if they can’t see where I’m accessing the systems from, they will see whose ID I’m using. They’d lock down Noss’ ID right away, and then we’d just get locked out again.” They frowned. “I might be able to make an exception list and hide it in the directories…”
“That won’t work.” Pholi said, “It takes at least fifty-six hours for the systems to upgrade. That’s why I’ve always told you I need a few days at least to arrange a shipment.”
“Alright.” Vik said, looking around at the new system he had access to, “Then when we take off, I’ll send the order to end the lockdown-“
“And Gyrini will have that reversed in less than a minute.” Pholi said, “She’s always got her communicator on her, and she responds to everything almost immediately. Unless you can get out of airspace before she can enter her code, that won’t work and the orbital defense system will just blow us up.”
Vik sighed and stopped typing. “Then what?” They said, “You said Noss had useful shit for me! Are these codes supposed to be a show of good faith or something? I’m not interested in helping this asshole if he can’t do anything for us.” He glared at Noss. “He’s the one who found Jason and his family, and sent the synths after them.”
“It was a pharmacist, actually.” Noss said, “Someone you lot were working with. Got caught for selling prescriptions and gave up a handful of insurgents so they wouldn’t get sent to a mining colony.”
“We’re aware of that.” Tham said, “But I also know you’re the one who made that deal with the pharmacist, you’re the one who told the synths where Jason was, and you escorted Jason and his family to King Decon.” His tail lashed against the stones, his eyes narrowed to slits. “And then we never heard from them again, but we can assume they’re dead, right?”
“T-The official statement is that-”
“You killed Jason.” Tham hissed. TO saw his finger tense on the trigger, heard the crack to Tham’s voice as they spoke. “Did you get to see it? Did you get to do it? Or did you just the satisfaction of knowing that his death was your fault?”
“…And Helen.” TO said, remembering the face of the young human girl among the faces of insurgents dead and alive. “She died too”
As TO spoke her name, Noss seemed to flinch, recoil, and pale. They clutched their damp handkerchief, holding it to their mouth as they shuddered.
“Well, answer me.” Tham said, his voice low and cold, shaking with rage. “Tell me why we should keep you around. Tell me why I shouldn’t shoot you and be done with you.”
“T-The codes. You can use them to redirect the defensive systems.” Noss said. “You can launch a security vessel on the other side of the planet, and set it as a threat level five. Then, you can change the threat level of whatever ship you’ll be using, so it’s at a threat level zero. Most of the defensive forces will focus on the empty ship, and we can just shut down the individual systems that come for us.”
There was a moment of silence in the room as everyone looked at Noss. Finally, Pholi broke it. “That’s kind of inspired… for you, I mean.” He said, “You don’t normally come up with clever ideas.”
Noss gave a bitter chuckle. “When my life is on the line, my brain works overtime.”
“Good for you.” Tham said, then pressed the multi-gun right to Noss’ head. TO saw him shudder, saw his face go pale as the minister went still. An acrid smell hit TO’s nose, and they realized the minister must have wet himself from fear.
“Can your brain work overtime and come up with a single reason I shouldn’t kill you?” Tham said, “We have your codes, we have your plan. What do you have that keeps me from shooting you?”
“Ph-Pholi told me… said if I h-helped, you’d spare me-“
“Pholi isn’t in charge of me,” Tham said. “Pholi has no say over what I do.”
“Tham… we really could use him later.” Pholi said, “Just… Just put the multi-gun-” He paused and fell silent as Tham’s long tail whipped behind him, striking an old crate and shattering it with a loud bang that echoed over the stone walls.
The way Pholi and Tham stared at one another made TO think that the destruction of the crates wasn’t an accident, wasn’t a side effect of the way a Nagarajin shows anger in their body language. That crate got shattered as a threat.
Pholi sat down, hands folded on the table before him as he watched Tham and Pholi.
“Now, tell me why I should let you live,” Tham said again.
“W-What do you want?” Noss said. “I’ll give it to you. I’ll do anything you tell me. Anything that I can. I’ll tell you anything I know.”
Tham’s finger twitched on the trigger again, but he paused. “Anything?”
“If you swear to spare me.” Noss said.
“And you’ll tell the truth?” Tham said.
“Absolutely!”
“How do we know you’ll tell the truth?”
“I’ll know.” Pholi said quietly, “I’ve known him for a long time. I know when he lies. I’m kind of an expert at body language as well as spoken and written languages. That’s half the reason I got him to work with me in the first place.”
The silence lingered for several more long minutes. TO couldn’t take their eyes off that multi-gun. It was shaking, and TO realized that Tham must have been holding the gun up for quite a while. Their eyes trailed up their shaking arm, over their shoulder muscles which were twitching, and along the tensed tendons in their neck. Tham’s face twisted with rage and anger, with such absolute hate that TO knew Tham wouldn’t regret killing Noss.
They remembered the execution in Thalassa, how the criminals had just died. The lack of blood had been fortunate, but even so TO didn’t want to see anyone else die.
They held their breath, listening. For the sound of the multi-gun charging, listening for the shot.
When he finally spoke, Tham’s shaking, whispering voice felt so much louder than anything else as he made his request, as he demanded of Noss the one thing that could apparently appease Tham enough to make him spare Noss’ life.
“Tell me what really happened to Jason.”