Kaeldryn paced the width of her tiny office, habitually keeping count of the iterations. Outside the portal, the stars sailed past the host vessel at a rate that indicated hetch two or three. Every few microts, she would glance at the portal, liking the sense of momentum it gave her. She needed to feel she was moving on after today's lapse in judgment.
Even so, she felt compelled to remain in her office. Until she received a comm about the prisoner's escape, she didn't trust herself to be seen by either her reports or her superiors. Her present demeanor bore no resemblance to the prescribed comportment for an officer of the Tranquility Guard. Her hair had fallen from its neat updo, and she kept making it worse by fussing with it, tucking it behind her ears one macrot and then twirling it in her fingers the next. Her hands felt cold, yet sweat profusely, and she alternated between rubbing them together and sticking them in her pants pockets for warmth.
It was as if her interrogation of Chiana had somehow erased ten cycles of training. Readings, lectures, conformity exercises, vows of singularity of purpose-- all rendered meaningless. When Kaeldryn had willingly given Chiana her identity chip and the knife, she had betrayed everything she had worked so hard to become.
Even as a child, Chiana had been a generous thief, stealing sweets from the school kitchens and passing them out capriciously to her classmates. Now Kaeldryn wondered exactly what her old friend had done to her. By compelling Kaeldryn to help free her, had Chiana taken something from her or given her a gift? Perhaps both.
Her comm chirped, shattering her thoughts and causing her to jump.
"Officer Kaeldryn? I'm outside your door with information you may prefer to hear in person." Candra's voice gave no clue as to her mental state, but the words themselves boded well.
Kaeldryn's heart jumped and an unstoppable grin spread across her face. News that necessitated private, personal delivery from her most trusted subordinate could only be bad news, like that of a moderate-priority prisoner having disappeared. Chiana's escape would be a humiliating failure for Kaeldryn, but in this instance, failure was what she craved. Feeling dizzy with hope, she pushed her hair back behind her ears, smoothed the front of the blouse, and forced her features into an expression of impassive serenity.
She tapped her comm. "Come in, Candra."
Responding to Kaeldryn's voice, the door slid open to reveal a diminutive Nebari woman with straight, jaw-length hair, high cheekbones and a statuesque figure. Normally, Kaeldryn would take the opportunity to admire Candra as she made her report-- and why not? She was like a work of art-- but now she stood at the portal window, using the stars as an excuse to avoid her subordinate's eyes.
"You must have been concentrating very hard," Candra remarked. "I hit the door chime several times."
"Yes. Concentrating." She glanced at Candra and saw the woman shrug.
"Well, while you were so intensely occupied, the prisoner you interrogated today escaped."
"That is ... regrettable and disturbing news. Thank you for bringing it to my attention." She turned and favored Candra with her best vague, Tranquility Guard smile.
"Specifically," Candra continued, her lips twitching with the hint of an ironic grin, "the prisoner who escaped is Chiana."
"You anticipate the question before I ask, as usual. Very good." Involuntarily, one of her hands went to her head, smoothing her hair in a habitual nervous gesture.
"I thought you might also like to be informed that there was an unfortunate data loss related to the prisoner interrogation recordings."
Kaeldryn winced as she mentally replayed Candra's last statement. You might also like to be informed... Not you might also like to know, because she already knew, but you might like to be informed. She needed Candra, or at least someone, to inform her so she could have a plausible explanation as to why she knew. And Candra was aware of that. Or perhaps she was seeing layers of meaning that weren't there.
"It is not a great loss," Kaeldryn assured her subordinate. "Chiana's story gave no answers. It only raised questions."
Candra nodded slowly, her eyes locked with Kaeldryn's. "I see. And these questions are something you want answered?"
An offer? Kaeldryn hardly dared hope. A solar day ago, she would have said she trusted Candra implicitly, with anything, but that was before her meeting with Chiana. Now, she chose her words as carefully as she would choose her movements when cornering a feral, rabid drannit. Even if Candra's loyalty truly was to Kaeldryn and not the Establishment, a wrong move could have them both being sent off for adjustment. After all, the host vessel's cameras recorded everything, and another convenient "data loss" would be too hard to blame on coincidence.
"Chiana blamed the Establishment for infecting her and her brother with an illness she called the contagion. She had a conspiracy theory about it being a biological warfare agent. Supposedly, the dissidents from the exodus ten cycles ago were used as carriers." Kaeldryn watched Candra's face for any hint of feeling, but like a good Tranquility Guard, the woman gave nothing away.
"Ah. And you wish to find the source." After a pause, Candra added, "Of these wild accusations against the Establishment."
"I wish to know the truth. Will you help me?"
Candra shrugged, a gesture that did impressive things to her torso and made Kaeldryn wish she didn't have to send her away. "You don't have to ask. I took the oath of singularity of purpose and you are my commanding officer."
Kaeldryn nodded. "Very well. I want you to retrace Nerri and Chiana's footsteps and find out with whom they had extended contact. I believe the contagion may be a real phenomenon."
"Perhaps a resistance effort to discredit the Establishment?" Candra wondered out loud. "Creating a threat and obfuscating its source is not unprecedented."
"Perhaps. I need you to be discrete in your operations and report your findings confidentially to me. I believe Chiana's journey would have started on Morlon."
"Morlon," Candra repeated. "I'll prepare a transport."
"Very good." Kaeldryn wanted to say so much more, but she kept her tone cold and dismissive, her smile empty.
Candra tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "One more point of discussion, Officer Kaeldryn... Chiana must be very clever to have stolen your identity chip and escaped from the host vessel."
The smile twisted her lips before she could stop it. "She is that."
"And is that why you... value her?" Candra raised both eyebrows and folded her arms across her chest. She tilted her chin upward as if daring Kaeldryn to lie to her.
Kaeldryn met the other woman's eyes and then shook her head. "No."
"I see." Those two syllables were like twin shafts of ice. She might as well have said, you're lying.
Kaeldryn shook her head again, racking her brain for a way to convince Candra she was still playing by the rules of this ridiculous game, telling the literal truth without saying anything to implicate herself. Her answer had been honest; though she had always admired Chi's cleverness, it had never been the reason Kaeldryn loved her. She had loved Chiana for being the person she herself wanted to be, doing the things she wanted to do and usually getting away with them.
Candra shrugged. "Never mind. However, I must ask... if I run across the escaped prisoner, Chiana, what are my orders?"
"That you will attempt to apprehend her."
"That I can promise." Candra flashed a genuine smile and then turned toward the door.
"Wait!" Kaeldryn stuffed her hands into her pockets to hide their trembling. When Candra had turned back to face her, she continued, "The recordings of the interrogation... they... may not be a total loss. Is it possible that someone else had already watched them before the unfortunate data corruption error? I... could... cross-check my memory with whoever did..."
Candra shook her head. "No. To the best of my knowledge, no one outside this room has seen those recordings."
And you won't admit you have. It would destroy your plausible deniability, frell you!
"That answers my question. You may go." Kaeldryn nodded dismissively and gestured to the door.
Once Candra had left, Kaeldryn slumped into her desk chair, exhausted. In all likelihood, she had just sent her most valued report on a wild chik chase. She probably didn't have to worry about dealing with the truth, because the chances of Candra finding any useful information from ten cycles ago were negligible to nonexistent. Still-- if she did learn that the Establishment had used Nebari people as carriers, had used Chiana as a living weapon, what would she do about it?