Grimthorn lay back in his bunk, trying to get comfortable. The quick-stitch meds that were fixing his broken arm set up a deep ache that the pain meds didn't touch.
When had he gotten so soft? It was just pain. But it sapped his energy to a shocking degree.
He shifted, groaning slightly. To his supreme annoyance, his scanner beeped, indicating a priority message. With an exasperated sigh, he pulled his scanner out of his pocket to read the message. Then he sat bolt upright.
"A Cryptographer? Here?" he yelled. He gritted his teeth. Of course they wouldn't pick a better time. Or give him any advance notice.
He swore quietly to himself, and swallowed a moment of self-pity.
Well, one didn't keep a Cryptographer waiting. With a grunt, he swung his feet out of his bunk and stood. With great reluctance and no small amount of pain, he wrangled himself back into his uniform. He'd have to go to their ship. Cryptographers didn't board Navy ships. They were too disruptive to the crew.
He briefly thought about bringing Kinnit, but as an SS she wouldn't be allowed in the meeting. There was no sense subjecting her to the presence of the Cryptographers when all she'd be able to do was sit in a waiting room on a Cryptographer ship. With a sour frown, he sent her a quick message.
Kinnit, I've been requested for a meeting with a Cryptographer. I should be back early this evening. Stay out of trouble. -GS
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Kinnit marched down the hallway to the last place she'd seen Lieutenant Dol on the security videos. Her face was set, and her teeth were clenched. Her mind reeled in a fury. He was the only one not on the scrambled security videos.
How dare he? How dare he?
A small, rational corner of her mind warned her that the evidence was circumstantial, that she was acting outside her authority, but she needed to confront him, to see his face. To hear him try to deny it with his own voice.
She arrived in front of the door to one of the disused cargo areas. It didn't occur to her to wonder what he was doing here in a little-used part of the ship. She opened the door and marched right in.
The cargo area was dimly lit. It was spacious, but mismatched stacks of crates and the random scatterings of leftover equipment made the area feel cramped and abandoned.
Kinnit slowed. It was a large area, and she didn't know where in here he might be. There were no cameras inside this cargo area. The eerie dimness was making her nervous, and it occurred to her that she was alone, running to face a probable traitor, and nobody knew where she had gone.
She had just started to reconsider when a sound caught her ear. She tilted her head, trying to nail down the source. It was a scratching and a muttering sound. She crept closer, curious.
She rounded a pile of crates to an unexpected sight. Lieutenant Dol hunched over an access pad next to one of the external doors. The access pad was half-disassembled, and wires ran from a bare circuit board into the guts of the access pad. A bright light on the floor shone up onto his work as he muttered to himself.
"What are you doing?" she barked.
He jerked upright, dropping his tools. He immediately moved in front of the access pad to hide it, and turned to see Kinnit standing there.
"What? What?" he cried. "Oh. It's you. I'm... fixing this door."
"Repairs are for Maintenance," she growled. "Or techs, if they're broken enough. I'll ask you again: what are you doing?"
Lieutenant Dol's mouth opened and closed a couple times like a stunned fish. His eyes, wide with terror, darted around.
"Were you tampering with the access pad?" she asked, her voice rising. "To let someone on board without authorization?" She glared at him. "Someone like a Qhall assassin?"
The life drained from Lieutenant Dol's face, and he began hyperventilating.
"I... I..." His brain seemed stuck. "I didn't know! I didn't know!"
Fury suffused Kinnit's cheeks.
"Lieutenant Dol," she said, her voice quivering with rage, "I am placing you under arrest for the attempted assassination of a Naval Admiral, and for tampering with a security device."
"Y-you can't arrest me!" Dol yelled, getting a little spine back. "Who do you think you are?"
Kinnit drew the badge from her belt and flipped it open. The hologram of her smiling face shone forth from it, with her credentials alongside.
"I am a duly assigned enforcer of the Military Police on board this ship," she said, her voice ringing off the walls, "and you will be brought to justice."
Outrage and disbelief filled her by turns as she glared fiercely at the Lieutenant. Outrage that he'd be so treacherous and greedy, disbelief that he could be so selfish and incompetent. That he'd dare so much, and the pretend that she was the one who was out of line for arresting him! Frenzied rage coursed through her veins.
Was this what Grimthorn felt like all the time?
At the sight of the badge, Lieutenant Dol stepped back, his knees becoming watery.
"H-hey, you don't have to do this, you know? I mean, there are other solutions, right? I mean maybe I made a mistake, but, but look! This could be a big opportunity for you!"
"Opportunity?" she snarled.
"You're an SS, right? I, I have connections! I know someone in the court! I could get a filing for you as a permanent citizen of the Imperium!"
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Kinnit froze, unable to move, unable to speak, her mouth locked open in shock. Lieutenant Dol kept talking.
"Think about it! You could get rid of that collar! You could go anywhere! Do anything! Be anything! You'd have it in a month at most! I can promise you that! All I need is your signature on this document, and then we can both get what we want!"
He pulled a document open on his scanner and slid it across the bare steel floor to her. She glanced down at it, her badge still in her left hand. She made out the words "I, Admiral Stonefist, have assigned Lieutenant Dol to a secret task..."
"You want me to forge Admiral Stonefist's signature on this," she said quietly. "To give you coverage for what you've done."
"I'll never do anything like this again I swear. And you can have full citizenship! If you don't, I'll just get someone else to do it. I'll find someone sooner or later. Why shouldn't you be the one to benefit?"
She stared down at the scanner, at the document glowing on it.
"That could work," she said slowly. "If you had someone to authorize this, you could get away with it. Get away with all of it."
Sensing he had her interest, he nodded hopefully. She looked up at him, her eyes slitted with hate.
"Your selfishness is exactly what's wrong with the Imperium," she hissed. "Traitor!"
"No, wait, no! You misunderstand! I never meant to go against the Imperium! I just wanted to get back at Admiral Stonefist! It was never about the Imperium!"
In her fury, she fell back on Old Imperial, the first foreign language she'd learned.
"Proditor unus, omnibus proditor," she chanted. "A traitor to one is a traitor to all."
Her badge clattered to the floor.
"Haec pro proditoribus!" she screamed, bringing her gun up.
"No!" Dol cried.
The blaster rang out in the hollow, echoing cargo area, and Lieutenant Dol crumpled to the floor.
She stood over him, heaving, as he writhed in pain, a dark hole marring the center of his uniform.
"You will not hurt my Grimthorn again," she said.
The blaster fired a second time, and Lieutenant Dol lay still.
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Admiral Stonefist sat as still as he could in the transport shuttle. The pilot was quietly performing his duties in the cockpit, doing Grimthorn the favor of not trying to chat.
Grimthorn's face was still, giving away nothing. Certainly not giving away the waves of pain that surged through him from the medication. Not giving away his trepidation about being called to a meeting with a Cryptographer. Not giving away his deep anger at the conspiracy that threatened them all.
Stony and silent. Thinking.
What in the galaxy could a Cryptographer possibly want with him?
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to maintain his equanimity as the shuttle closed the distance to the Cryptographer's ship.
The hairs on Grimthorn's neck rose, standing straight out. An inexplicable feeling of dread filled him, a terror with no cause. Darkness filled his mind, his thoughts turning to his own destruction.
That sick, deadly feeling was-- well, it wasn't something you could ever get used to, but it was familiar.
"Nearly there, Admiral," called the pilot of the shuttle.
"I know," Admiral Stonefist said. He opened his eyes and watched the Cryptographer's ship appear on the portal.
The ship was long and black, ornate, looking like gothic architecture in space. Waves of ominous energy radiated from the vessel.
The shuttle slowed and turned, reversing to the Cryptographer's ship. It nestled among a clutch of pointed spires, settling into a docking bay.
The docking was completed swiftly, professionally, and the hatch at the back of the shuttle irised open, admitting Grimthorn into the ship. He strode steadily onto the forbidding vessel, his face perfectly still. A young officer waited for him.
"Broca Brangwin," the young man said, saluting. He looked nauseous. "I'll be facilitating your communication with the Cryptographers today. Welcome aboard."
The young man moved carefully, deliberately, as though we were only just barely holding together, as though too sudden a movement would cause limbs to drop off. He kept his back straight, outwardly firm, but his entire demeanor was battered and softened, as though all the sharpness had been scraped off of him.
"At ease," Admiral Stonefist said. The young man nodded, but didn't unstiffen at all. "How long have you been facilitating the Cryptographers, son?" he asked.
"Two months, one week, and three days, sir," Brangwin replied without hesitation.
Admiral Stonefist laid a fatherly hand on the young man's shoulder.
"You can request out of this duty," Grimthorn said.
"But... I signed up for it, sir. Voluntarily."
"Not everyone is suited for this," Grimthorn said solemnly. "Sometimes, the duty is too much to bear. Sometimes another needs to have it, so that it's done as it needs to be."
Brangwin swallowed heavily.
"Something to think about. There are many ways to serve the Imperium."
"Thank you, sir," Brangwin said, his eyes moist.
"But for today, lead the way," Grimthorn said.
Brangwin nodded and walked deeper into the ship.
They walked to a meeting chamber. "Chamber" was really the only right word for it, for all that it was on an interstellar ship. The lofty ceiling was criss-crossed with rib vaults and flying buttresses. The round conference table was uncomfortably low, made with pale marble that was ice-cold.
Admiral Stonefist stopped dead. There were two Cryptographers waiting for him. Creeping dread crawled up his back, threatening to unfreeze his features. He forced himself to the table and sat down rigidly.
Brangwin, looking miserable, sat between the two Cryptographers. The two aliens loomed over him, their face-tentacles dangling close to the sides of his head. He shuddered involuntarily.
Brangwin pulled out a small pad of paper with many notes, and began reading off of it.
"To facilitate communication," Brangwin read, "the Cryptographers of the Imperium employ a facilitator and copious notes. All possible conversational paths have been mapped out and documented. As our discussion progresses, the Cryptographers will guide me to the appropriate response in my notes, so that the words I speak are theirs, not mine."
"Yes, I know how Cryptographers hold meetings," Grimthorn said shortly. "Let's get on with it."
One of the Cryptographers leaned over, tentacles writhing, and chittered. Brangwin flipped a few pages and began reading again.
"We the Cryptographers have deduced that there is a conspiracy in the Imperium. This conspiracy has maintained utmost secrecy, but is believed to involved high-ranking members from various areas of society. Specifically deduced: the military, the media, and industry are certainly involved. Possibly there is corruption in the court as well."
"I understand. What are they after?"
The other Cryptographer skittered at Brangwin. He flipped over a page.
"It is unclear. Destabilization of the Imperium seems to be the primary motive at the moment."
"Right. We'd gathered as much. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but why do the Cryptographers care? Isn't the Imperium full of conspiracies?"
More chittering, and Brangwin read again.
"We the Cryptographers are loyal to the Emperor. We are loyal only to the Emperor and his desires. His desire is the continuation of the Imperium, so that which threatens the Imperium threatens him. We will stand against anything that threatens the Emperor and his desires."
Brangwin took a steadying breath.
"This conspiracy has great potential to harm both the Imperium and the Emperor. It is a credible threat. We the Cryptographers are known. We will not waver. We will stand against any threat to the Emperor. Therefore, this conspiracy will, of necessity, target us. We are not strong. We can be defeated. We can be destroyed. If we are removed, the Emperor will be left defenseless in many ways."
Grimthorn nodded.
"That makes sense. So why come to me?"
"You are at the center of this conspiracy. You have hindered their plans already. You are a complication to their goals."
The two Cryptographers stood unexpectedly, holding out out their left arms to Admiral Stonefist, their black talons spread wide. Their tentacles writhed with increased energy.
"We the Cryptographers propose an alliance with the Admiral Stonefist."