Chapter 82: Interrogation
Location: Deep Space; VS Maxima
When we reappear on the Maxima, things happen very quickly. While I’m still getting my bearings, Adrian rushes to a console on the wall and starts talking with someone. Seconds later, his magic surges, envelopes the ship, and we are somewhere else. I notice that he used the Magitech to enhance his magic this time. He slumps down after the jump and leans against the wall for support. Looks like he really is exhausted.
Then I take a look at our infiltration squad. The two men carrying Miss Baker have laid her on a floating stretcher and are panting heavily as well. Then I notice Commander Schmidt with a big frown on his face. I follow his gaze and take in a sharp breath. Three people from our squad are bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. How did I miss this? When were they hit?
Just at this moment, a sliding door opens and three people in white clothes enter the room. They carry medical bags and immediately get to work. Schmidt looks at me. “Are you alright?”
I look myself up and down but don’t notice anything wrong. Well, besides the still tight-as-hell infiltrator suit. “Yeah, I’m good. The suit’s shields worked perfectly.”
He nods. “Good. Follow me, we have to take care of the target before she wakes up.” He waves a hand while moving to the sliding doors that lead out of the room and the stretcher starts to follow him.
I’m a step behind him. He’s right, Miss Baker is a Space Mage. I don’t know if she has an AI, but even without it, she can still teleport line of sight. “Where are we bringing her?” I ask him after we walked for about five minutes.
“We’re heading for the brig. There are anti-magic fields to contain her. It’s still about ten minutes away.”
That brings the enormous size of the Maxima back to my mind. This ship truly is insane. I mean I jumped us into the same room we exited the ship from which is a few decks below the bridge. I guess it’s something like the meeting or staging room for the infiltrator squad. Now we’re walking toward the back of the ship, and a fifteen-minute walk means we have about one kilometer to go. Crazy. “Is there a reason why the brig is so far away?”
“Yes, there is. You see, those anti-magic rooms interfere with the magical power grid around them. If we had the brig here, close to the bow, it would mess up a lot of systems. So, it’s located in the back of the ship before our engines. They have their own power grid and only need to be connected to the bridge with a few conduits that can be shielded. Don’t ask me for any more details… I’m not a Valterion,” he grins at me. “I guess you have better chances of learning about everything ship-related in the future.”
Hmm, this does make sense. While it’s a logistical nightmare to take prisoners from the front to the back of the ship, there is still one answer: Magic. “Thanks, Commander Schmidt. I could teleport us to the back if you want by the way.”
“No, let’s walk. You can tell me a bit more about your instructor here along the way. It’s better if you save your power in case, we have to do another quick jump. Oh, and when your brother’s not there, you can call me Frank.”
“Well, we’d need a wormhole for me to do a jump… I’m still struggling with the Starship Jump spell, but I guess we can walk a bit more.”
Frank laughs. “Don’t be sad. Learning a new spell in just two weeks would be ridiculous anyway. So, what can you tell me about Mary Baker here?”
I shrug. “Not much more… She always looked at me a bit weird, as if she recognized me somehow, but we now know that this is true. Other than that, is that she is a Senior Space Mage, and always dreamt of reaching Master rank. From what Doctor Philipps told me, she probably wanted to get a second core then, as it’s better if you are already a Master with your primary core…”
Franks chuckling interrupts me and I look at him with a raised eyebrow. “What?”
“It’s just… Adrian told me a bit about how you didn’t learn much about magic before reuniting with your parents a few weeks ago and now you’re already reciting advanced core theories like it’s nothing. I think you’re going to have a lot of fun in college. Which one are you going to join by the way?”
I stare at him. “Adrian spilled all that? I’m going to have a word with him!”
Now Frank is almost doubling over with laughter. “Oh yes, he spilled a lot. He can’t hold his liquor. But don’t worry, your secrets are literally safe with us. Your mother took care of that. So Earth still exists, huh?”
Holy smokes, Adrian really told him everything! Good thing I kept the Worldender Ship for myself… “Yeah, It’s pretty cool there. An empty planet, full of ruins of the past. Maybe you can go there sometimes. As for college? I’m probably going to FBC.”
Frank composes himself and stops laughing but there is still a big grin on his face. I always thought he was as stiff as Adrain, but he clearly is a funnier person. “Lucky you. I had to endure RMA, and it was hell with all those other Nobles. I was so happy when I graduated and could join the Peacekeepers.”
Well, that at least confirms that he belongs to The Schmidt family of Armortec. It also reassures me of my decision not to join the Royal Academy for college. I really don’t want to waste my time navigating the Noble landscape. This sounds stressful.
We continue to walk and talk until we finally reach a big, reinforced door. When we step through, I stumble. My magic is just cut off! This must be the anti-magic field Frank talked about. Left and right of the hallway are different cells and one of them is currently in the process of opening. Frank lets the stretcher float in, and it stops in the middle of the room. For a prison cell, it looks quite nice. Just like any other cabin on the ship. A bed, a desk, an adjoining bathroom, and even a small wardrobe. I imagined bare-bone metal furniture but not this… It’s probably my own prison experience speaking. Is it weird if I wish I was imprisoned here instead?
Anyway, the door closes, and we walk back out of the anti-magic field. Frank leads me another few steps away and we end up in a mid-sized room with chairs and tables. At the side is a counter with spread-out food. My stomach rumbles and I’m reminded, that I am really hungry. We grab some food, sit down, and dig in. “What happens now?” I ask between bites.
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“Ardian should join us in a few. Then we’ll wake her up and ask a few questions. Adrian probably wants to lead the interrogation, so if you want to do it yourself, you have to speak up.”
“Don’t we have to escape further before we can do an interrogation? The republic should be hot on our heels, right?” Just as I ask, I feel another bubble of Space Magic enveloping the ship and we jump again.
Frank laughs. “You were saying?”
Just my luck… I sigh. “Where are we anyway?
This time it’s Clara who has the information. “We did two unconventional jumps. Instead of jumping to another system, Adrian jumped us almost straight up. So we’re in deep space currently. Far off from any civilizations. Lieutenant Lopes just jumped us further along. We’ll stay for a few more jumps out here, then we return to more established routes. This way, there is almost no chance of anyone following us. We’re pretty sure the republic doesn’t teach any Tracking spells to its Mages.”
Tracking spells? And deep space? That’s two new things I’ve never heard of. Well, deep space is self-explaining, but tracking? “Are you saying there are spells that allow one to track a ship even if it jumps without a wormhole?”
“There sure are. You’ll probably learn them in college. It’s an advanced spell, but as a Master, you should be good.”
Guess there is no way around college now. Good thing I already made my decision to go there. When we finish eating, we walk back to the big, reinforced door of the brig and find a waiting Adrian. “What took you so long?” He asks.
Frank points at me. “Your sister’s stomach is a black hole.”
I glare at him. I didn’t eat that much!
“Anyway, let’s get this over with. I very much like to ask the woman a few questions,” Adrian says and steps through the door.
“Uhh, Adrian, I’d like to start the interrogation myself.”
He stops. “Are you sure? She did kidnap you as a child…”
I wave him off. “Yeah, I’m sure. I mean I spent two years with her as a teacher and I’d very much like to see her face when she realizes just who took her out of the academy.”
He chuckles. Fine, fine. I get it. But you won’t talk to her alone. Commander Schmidt will join you and I’ll join you a bit later as well.”
I give him a thumbs-up. “Sounds good, let’s go!”
When we reach the now-closed cell door, a screen shows what’s inside. Looks like Miss Baker woke up. She’s currently sitting on the bed and looks around in confusion. One hand is at her neck, where the collar was previously. While I’m looking, the back wall slides open and shows a single table with a single chair on one side and two on the other. An interrogation room. A computerized voice tells her to sit down at the table and she complies with a shrug.
Frank and I in turn walk up to the next intersection and take a right turn. Another turn later, Frank stops at a door. “That’s the interrogation room. Are you ready?”
I take a deep breath and nod. Then I grab the handle and open it. We enter the room from Miss Baker's back, so we have to circle her first. When she hears the door opening, she starts to turn. She looks at me, then her gaze moves over to Frank. Suddenly it snaps back at me, and her eyes widen. I’m reminded of the first time I met her. It was exactly the same.
“Hello Miss Baker,” I say and sit down opposite her. Frank ignores the chair and stands to my right with crossed arms.
“You… You’re Sara Nelson,” she says, and I lift my hand to stop her.
“We both know that this is not my name.”
She blanches. “You know!”
I offer her a slight smile. “I do.”
“Well, shit,” she says, “now that attack on the station makes sense… The Peacekeepers are known for such operations.” She glances at Frank who nods in confirmation.
“Now that you know the situation, you can probably guess why we’ve rescued you from the republic.” I guess being collared and forced to work for the republic is a worse sentence than she would have gotten if she was caught in The Empire, but who knows? “In case you don’t, I give you a hint: Why?” I can’t suppress a small glare that I send her way and she flinches.
She takes a deep breath. “The simple answer is money… The Black Tiger Mercenary Company had a few bad runs, and we were slowly running out of money to keep our ship operational. Frank, that was our Commander started to take on more and more dubious contracts until we got our final one. The one that would have solved all our financial problems: Kidnap the unknown youngest child of Aidan and Jasmine Valterion.”
I just stare at her. All this just because of money? Is that really it? But then there is the question of just who put out the contract. Frank must have noticed my struggles, as he asks the next question with a gruff voice.
“And the not so simple answer?”
She sighs. “It’s not that different… We still did it mostly because of the money, but there is also the reason that something like this has never been done before. This would have brought us a lot of renown and more and more lucrative contracts in the future.”
It was still all about money in the end! Anger enters my voice. “You blocked my magic just because of money! Why? What’s wrong with you? What was your plan? Why did I end up in the Estriduros Republic?”
She tries to move back because of my outburst but suddenly the chair she’s sitting on sprouts restraints and holds her in place. “I’m really sorry,” she says instead while wincing. “Implanting the Artifact was the only way, as it’s well known that powerful Mage parents have established a magical connection with their children. The Artifact came with the contract, and we had to use it to be able to escape.”
Suddenly, the door opens, and a furious Adrian enters. Miss Baker blanches even more upon seeing him. “Shove your justifications up your ass!” He half screams. “I don’t fucking care. You kidnapped my sister when she was just a baby. Do you even know what she’s been through?”
He slams his hands on the table and Miss Baker jumps. “And for what? For money? There are countless open contracts for mercenaries. Don’t come up with this bullshit of not having any other options. The Empire takes care of its citizens! You just wanted to be the first people to kidnap someone of the Big Five.”
She already admitted that, but I guess Adrian is too angry to notice. I put a hand on his shoulder. “Adrian, this doesn’t help.”
He sighs. “You’re right, sorry. But how can you be so calm?”
I can just shrug. “I don’t know… She’s guilty without question. But still, I’d never met my friends or Maja without this, not to speak of the other things. I honestly don’t know how to feel about this…” I purposely don’t mention Earth, as Miss Baker absolutely doesn’t need to know of that.
Adrian takes a deep breath and puts his hands on the backrest of the second chair. Then he looks back at Miss Baker. I should probably stop calling her Miss Baker in my head… Anyway, Adrian starts speaking again. This time he sounds a lot calmer.
“From what you told us, you were only contracted middlemen…” Mary nods. “This means you had a destination to bring my sister to. Where was it and who contracted you? I know you didn’t intend to end up in the Estriduros Republic like this.”
Mary’s face is still white when she clears her throat. “That’s right. We didn’t even intend to come close to the Estriduros Republic… It was an unlucky encounter with pirates that got half of the crew killed and the other half captured. I know you won’t believe me, but we didn’t like what we had to do to Sara at all.” She looks at me with an apologetic gaze and I just shake my head. Like Adrian said so nicely… She can shove her apologies where the sun never shines.
“That’s why I took an escape pod with her when our ship was about to be destroyed, and why we never told the Estriduros’ military who Sara really is after we noticed that we are in an anti-Mage nation.”
Adrian gets impatient again. “That’s all nice and good, but you still haven’t answered my question.”
“Our goal was Terthia, but I think our contractor only intended to use that small nation as a neutral hub to do the exchange. I’ve never met him, but from what Frank told me, that guy was very powerful probably an Archmage. We got the Artifact from him, and he told Frank that it was completely foolproof. That’s why I didn’t believe Sara was The Sara back at the academy. What further intentions the man had with young Sara, I don’t know…”
Nothing good I suppose, and a shudder runs down my spine. Adrian looks uncomfortable as well and when I look to the side at Commander Schmidt, I see him glaring daggers at Mary. Maybe the fact that he shares the name of the mercenary Commander fuels his anger further.
Adrian shoves the chair back under the table. “That’s enough for now. Enjoy your stay, you’re going to see a judge as soon as we arrive back at The Empire.” He turns around to leave and we follow him. Mary just nods in resignation.
When we exit the interrogation room, Adrian looks at me. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think she’s lying… And somehow I have the feeling that we haven’t seen the last of this mysterious guy.”