"It was your recommendation. The responsibility falls back on you for making it."
"We warned you she was stubborn and had a record of directly defying orders!"
"That should've stopped you from recommending her, and as you gave no other recommendation-"
"It was your decision! Why wasn't another crow sent in as backup?"
"That isn't any of your business. The Crows are separate from-"
"Yes, we're aware that your somewhat flawed program is outside of Armada jurisdiction. Might I remind you that we are outside of yours as well?"
"I was not making an accusation, simply warning you that should the Queen take notice of this incident, the blame may fall back on you."
"It was a CROW operation. I see no reason why-"
"And a CORSAIR failure! We aren't in charge of-"
"Enough!" Uldren snapped, cutting off the bickering between Paladin Zire and Jolyon. "There was no mission failure. Muv was rescued and the intel safely recovered and processed. I see no reason for such fuss. There will be no consequence to either yourself or the Crows overseeing the operation, Paladin."
"And the corsair?" Jolyon persisted.
"I will deal with her myself." Zire retorted. "Her reckless actions put your plans in peril, and such deserves a serious-"
"I disagree." Uldren held up a hand to stop both from protesting. "I disagree with the ordered course of action and in her position, would have made the same decision."
"And in your position, it would have been your decision to make. We all know you could have done it. But the corsair was incredibly lucky to have successfully preserved the mission without the-"
"Without the immense sacrifice of innocent lives?"
"More still could have been lost without that information."
"Depends on which lives the individual appreciates."
"Am I supposed to understand what that means?"
No, of course not. The paladins had it easy. Most of the influential Awoken had grown up in Distributary. In comfort. It allowed them to adjust to themselves so that they were ready when they faced torment instead of being thrown straight into the hurricane of life. Battered constantly so they could never find themself. The Awoken born on the Reef, those who understood this, were pushed aside for being too young to understand politics. Not even the surviving 891 remembered the days before, and most of them had grown up in "the golden age."
"No action is done without reason. I will talk to this corsair myself," Uldren decided. Because in other words, no one in power now understood the lives of the people whose lives they would have so carelessly tossed aside, or what it had cost to defend them. No one except himself and Mara. Such a perspective was rare. He wanted to assess it, determine whether or not it was truly so dangerous, or if it could be useful.
If such a will was not dangerous now, those who tried to stifle it would make it so.
"No," the young lieutenant sat straight and cold. "No, I don't regret my actions. I signed up to be a Corsair to fight for the Queen and her people, not slaughter them over a scrap of information, especially when there was clearly no need."
"Your competence is not in question here. I'm personally very glad that you were able to complete the mission without destroying 7 Eden. The problem is that you defied a direct order. Even though the end result was preferable, it would not always be in every case. Now they have no way to determine whether you would reliably follow important orders in other missions that could then have a worse outcome."
"I signed up to be a Corsair to protect the Queen and her people," She repeated, her blue eye flashing. "And perhaps I'm not entirely free to do that as I see fit, but I have quite enough on my conscience already. I'd rather not add mass eradication of innocent awoken lives."
"What made you think, then, that your superior's decision was not best for the Awoken people?"
"I… they don't… they don't know what it's like. To be those people."
"Fair." He studied her. "Do you know why you were selected for this mission?"
"Apparently it wasn't my business."
"We asked Paladin Zire to recommend a few Corsairs for the mission we described. You were her only recommendation. Before approving the suggestion, I personally inspected your record, and it was.. interesting."
"How so?"
He opened a laptop screen and found the record. " 'Corsair records for Lieutenant Petra Venj: started 7-1-34 under Paladin Zire, entered Seige of Pallas 7-14-34, assisted border control with partner Rix Nifla.' Some dates, kill reports, details. '7-9-37: no-engage scouting mission, observed wolf fleet over Fortuna with partner Rix Nifla, success. Same date: Emergency engage scouting mission with partner Rix Nifla, success.' And then.. 'Participated in the Hildean Campaign.' When? Where? With who? What kind of mission? Was it a success or failure?" He waited, but she didn't respond. "Why aren't there more details? Why aren't there any other active corsair records that say this? You weren't the only corsair to fight the Battle of False Tidings."
She was silent for a moment before, her tone filled with quiet anger, asking, "Is that what they're calling it?"
"The battle?"
"Wasn't much of a battle," she muttered. "I think 'The Silent Mass-Slaughter of False Tidings' would have been a better name."
There were scarce few reports on the Hildean Campaign, but over the two weeks that it lasted, over fifty corsair records were deactivated and marked as 'deceased,' with no explanation or alert given, like someone didn't want them to know. She glanced up at him as if deciding whether or not she could trust him. He waited for her to elaborate.
"We were supposed to be scouting," she blurted, gripping the armrests of her seat. "No engagement. Our orders were to look for Skolas and call in the Crows if he was sighted. Over seventy corsairs were dispersed throughout the Hildeans. Niff and I were sent to Rox-9. There was heavy rain. We spent a few days hiding in a cave waiting for the storm to pass." she took a deep breath before continuing. "Skolas himself ambushed us in the cave. Niff was killed. I fought him off and managed to escape through an emergency transmat I had set up. When I came out of the medical center, I found out that none of the other Corsairs had come back. They'd lost contact. None of them ever came back. They were probably all killed. I was given a nice promotion and then told to keep my mouth shut. Guess they didn't want anyone to know what a failure it was."
This was why she had been so angry. It was one thing for that many corsairs to die. It was another to cover it up and pretend it had never happened. What about the soldiers' friends and families?
"Thank you. I'll file an official report and make sure Mara sees it."
"Good. I want people to know the truth, even if I get punished for it."
"Oh. They'll know exactly who told, won't they?"
"I can take care of myself."
"Undoubtedly. You said you fought off Skolas? How, exactly?"
"I-" she looked down, muttering, "I jumped on his back…"
He laughed out loud at this idea. He could see it in his head; a reckless move, but undoubtedly there had been little room to strategize under the conditions. "What weapons did you have?"
"Just a sidearm and a knife. I managed to dislodge his rebreather under toxic conditions and escaped with Niff's body while he was recovering."
"I'll put all that in the report as well, and have you reassigned. I'm not sure how your recent behavior will affect your record, but you won't be working under Zire or the Armada anymore. How does that sound?"
"I- thanks. I just.. I wanted everyone to know the truth, so as long as that makes it out there… what I mean is, I'm not trying to get any glory out of this or anything. I just… survived. But thank you. Thank you for helping."
"You did the right thing. Expect to receive your new assignment within a week. Dismissed."
She nodded respectfully and left, standing a little straighter. When she'd first entered the room, her demeanor had been one of bitter frustration, even resentment. Tangled up in lies. Good perspective was lacking in power these days. Paired with potential, it was not something to be ignored. People like that, who were willing to speak out despite the consequences, were people who changed things. Mara had been similar, only she had used more cunning to achieve her ends, whereas this woman seemed more of the type to take a more obvious course without all the layers of manipulation behind every action. He liked the honesty behind that. He'd have her transferred to a more elite group of Corsairs focused on small operations and assassinations, a program that worked closely with the Crows. The times ahead would be dark, and the Awoken would need more voices like that to rise above the crowd. He'd spent thousands of years trying to find someone else that cared, but he'd started to think he and Mara were the only ones. If Mara hadn't lost herself in light of her new power, her new role. Perhaps he'd simply been looking in the wrong places.
But if he was right, and people like her with the right understanding and potential were that rare…
This corsair would be one to watch, that was for sure.