DAY 10 – Insight
Chapter 12 – The Watchers
Something was wrong.
Halling could feel it.
On the surface, Oneakka appeared to be recovering well. It would be a long recovery, and he was still far from well, but Meiyo was pleased with his progress. Oneakka could now move around a little on the bed, albeit carefully and slowly, and could now feed himself. Rather than lying flat, the head of his bed could now be lifted and Oneakka spent his days in a reclined position against a small mountain of pillows. It meant he could now more easily interact with people and it was pleasing to be able to have proper conversations with him again. Oneakka had also started reading the Skerti research reports and updates, and always had questions ready when Halling arrived for his afternoons with his friend.
Oneakka also hadn't snapped at any of his visitors yet either, hadn't lost his temper with his progress, and, so far, was obeying all instructions from the Healers. The grump, it appeared, was late in arriving this time. That alone was a little unusual, but considering the extent of his injuries, even Oneakka had to understand the importance of being careful and patient in these early days of healing.
But that wasn't what had been niggling at Halling.
There was something else about Oneakka, something he wasn't talking about and seemed to be actively trying to hide. At first it had just been an intuitive sense, no doubt borne of long years of friendship that told Halling something was wrong with his friend. But as the days had progressed, Halling had started catching tiny glimpses in Oneakka's expression and mood that hinted at something being very wrong. At first Halling had thought perhaps he was misreading moments of physical pain as Oneakka struggled with his injury, but a moment yesterday had finally proven that he wasn't imagining things.
He'd left Oneakka alone for a few minutes while he went to refill the water jug, and, upon returning down the corridor, Halling had glanced through the window back into the room to see Oneakka sitting silently gazing off into the distance. It hadn't been a soft sleepy look though, instead Oneakka had had an expression that Halling had never seen before.
It had been a look of such depressed sadness that Halling had frozen in the hallway, watching his friend stare at the far wall of his healing room with glazed despondent eyes.
The only time Halling had seen something even close to that expression from Oneakka had been on that fateful horrific day when Oneakka had woken up from his long coma, his face newly scarred for life, long months of rehab ahead, and his heart broken. He'd woken up to a galaxy without his family, without a single other Ugun alive. Halling could not even conceive how he would react if that happened to every Athosian.
Since that young life-changing day, Oneakka had gone through numerous injuries and experienced grief and pain many times as an Elite, but never had Halling seen such deep hurt in his friend again...until now.
As he had stood in the corridor watching Oneakka stare across his room, his expression so sad and lost, a fearful thought had occurred to Halling: did Oneakka regret his survival?
Halling hated to even consider such a thing, and normally Oneakka would be the last person he would worry might feel that way, but... Halling had seen the look on Oneakka's face on the blood-soaked floor of that Hive ship. Oneakka's anguish and pain had turned into soft peace and relief as he had shifted his gaze up to the ceiling, his eyes closing. Halling had seen that expression too many times and Seeal had recognised it too as she begged and ordered Oneakka to stay with them.
Had Oneakka's look of relief meant he had wanted to go?
Was his survival now something that pained him?
Halling could not bear to think of his friend feeling something like that, and hoped that he was perhaps misinterpreting what he'd seen through that window. Perhaps it was just that Oneakka was dealing with the fact that he had essentially died for a few minutes before the Healers had restarted his heart? They were all growing older, far older than any of them had expected to live as an Elite, so perhaps it was just that Oneakka had finally been forced to deal with his own mortality? Halling had faced that dark demon himself recently and he would not falter in making sure he helped Oneakka deal with it too.
Halling had tried to subtly ask what was wrong yesterday and again today, but Oneakka had simply taken such questions to refer to his injury. That was perhaps understandable, or it might be that he was attempting to hide what was wrong. Either way, and whatever the true reason for Oneakka's sadness, it was becoming clear to Halling that he was going to have to ask directly.
As always, it was simply finding the right moment when Oneakka would be receptive to such a question and be willing to share what was bothering him so deeply.
And such a moment would have to be carefully judged.
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Everything was going to plan so far. It was the first official trip back to Athos since the Major – no, Lieutenant Colonel – had been taken by Kolya, and that fact felt like a literal weight on Laura's shoulders.
She would never forgive herself for having gone through that Gate ahead of him on M1K 177, even though he kept insisting she'd done nothing wrong. Colonel Carter and Colonel Sumner had agreed she'd not failed her in her duties, but she knew she had. She should have kept by his side, gone through the Gate alongside him despite his order for her to go through first.
Carson had told her she was beating herself up over it, but she knew she wasn't. She'd made a mistake and she was never going to let it happen again. It's what a good soldier did – never made the same mistake twice.
She was going to make damn sure that she didn't fail again during the three day stay here on Athos. Going with the whole Political Marriage contract, the Major – Colonel! – could bring his team with him to Athos, but only one of them when visiting Elite bases or ships. It meant that, on the fourth day of the trip, when the Colonel – good, she'd gotten his rank right this time – went to the big Elite Training Facility, it was only Ford who would be going with him. She didn't like that and didn't see why the Elite had such a tight restriction, but, for now, she was part of his limited protection detail and she wasn't going to let her guard down for the next three days.
The presence of the Honour Guard was reassuring though. She and Ford had gone out of their way to thank the five guards again for their rescuing the Colonel back on the Genii homeworld. The five Athosians also seemed more willing to incorporate her and Ford into their protection detail and she kind of got the feeling that Atlantis had gone up in their estimation. She wasn't sure why exactly, considering the Honour Guard had been the ones to do the real work in getting the Colonel out of Kolya's bunker of death, but she wasn't about to question it. The Colonel clearly appreciated the Honour Guard more than ever, not having made a single standard derogatory joke about not needing any babysitters. He seemed to have finally accepted that he needed them all watching out for him, which was something of a relief for her and Ford. She didn't need to worry about him trying to sneak off, not that Vakalis in particular would allow that.
The Lead Honour Guard was consistently within two feet of the Colonel's shoulder at all times, the Athosian's eyes moving constantly, but with a relaxed focus of someone who clearly had a long and experienced military career. In fact all of the Honour Guard apparently came from extensive military backgrounds, which didn't surprise Laura. Elite Emmagan clearly would have had her pick of any Athosian to help watch over her Political Husband.
Currently Vakalis was stood behind the Colonel's left shoulder, while Ford was just behind his right. The Colonel was stood with Elite Emmagan and Leader Torren pretty much in the centre of the large Athosian room speaking to various guests, the place full to the brim with visitors arriving for the big 'we're all still friends' banquet that Leader Torren was throwing for the first day of the visit. Laura was pretty sure that Torren had vetted all his guests today as friendlies, but she wasn't about to let her guard down.
Stood a few metres in front of the Colonel, keeping him in her twelve o'clock position, Laura kept her gaze moving across the crowd, paying particular attention to the area behind Vakalis and Ford's shoulders where they couldn't watch. To her far left stood Shemu of the Honour Guard, watching over that side of the room and Meroe, the third member of the Guard in sight, was at Laura's far three o'clock position. The other two members of the Honour Guard were not in sight, but they would be somewhere nearby. The Colonel was adequately watched from all angles and the guests would be left with little doubt that the Colonel was very well protected.
In fact, for this banquet at least, she had even more support. With Woolsey also invited to the banquet, Lorne and his team had accompanied them today. Glancing briefly away from the Colonel and the two friendlies he was talking with, Laura located all of Lorne's team in the same positions as before, all extra eyes watching. Woolsey was currently doing his cheerful political talk with various vaguely recognisable guests, Elite Emmagan's sister, Zabetha, and Zabetha's very handsome husband at his side. What was the man's name again? Rhak-something? Laura could certainly see why Zabetha had chosen him. He was tall, strong, and always smiling and was clearly a good catch. Zabetha certainly seemed to think so, for any time she looked up at Rhak-something, she got that soft dreamy look to her face.
Lorne spotted Laura looking his way and gave her a small nod. She returned the nod - all was okay – and then she returned her attention to the Colonel.
Speaking of dreamy looks...
The previous guests talking with the Colonel had now moved away and the Colonel was saying something to Elite Emmagan. Laura didn't know the details, and didn't want to know, but it was pretty obvious that something big had changed between the two following the Colonel's miraculous return to health after being fed on by that Wraith.
The Colonel and Elite Emmagan had always had some chemistry going on, but there had also been mostly polite smiles and, according to Ford, a few tensions too. Now though, it was pretty obvious to Laura that something had changed. Just the way the Colonel stood closer than usual to the petite warrior spoke of a new level of intimacy that Laura hadn't seen him share with anyone in the City. There were also the near constant smiles, which could be written off by most as just polite and for show, but it was obvious to her that the Colonel was actually enjoying himself today.
She watched as the Colonel whispered something down to his 'Political' wife and the woman smiled widely at whatever joke he'd made. Clearly Emmagan was enjoying his attention, and Laura had spotted that the woman touching the Colonel's arm a few times.
You didn't need to be a McKay-level genius to know what was going on. She just hoped that Woolsey, the Colonels, and the IOA remained unaware of it.
Still, it kind of reassured Laura a little, because clearly the Elite warrior was going to be watching the Colonel's back closely...including during the nights in their adjoining quarters.
In fact, when they had checked out the Colonel's quarters earlier, Laura had made sure to peer through the open adjoining doorway that led into Emmagan's bedroom so that she knew where Emmagan's bed stood. Just in case she and Ford needed to get to the Colonel in the middle of the night.
Laura had already talked though the nightshift cover with Vakalis and Ford. She and Ford had been assigned shared quarters as close as possible to the Colonel's quarters, which meant they were only a short corridor away. They would each cover half of the night, one of them sleeping and the other patrolling the hallways with one of the Honour Guard. The section of the Complex that made up the governing family's living quarters was probably the most protected and hardest to infiltrate within the Governing Complex, but Kolya had managed to send an assassin up the outside of Atlantis and into the Colonel's quarters via his balcony before so Laura wouldn't put anything past the guy.
Still, it was reassuring to know that Elite Emmagan would be there in the nights, essentially a twenty-four hour personal bodyguard for the Colonel during the stay.
In fact, as highly trained bodyguards went, an Elite warrior was probably the best you could get.
000000
The darkness of the Queen's escape craft was cut through with only one full light source, pouring in from the open doorway out into the Hive's corridor.
Si had set his low stool just to the left of that light source, letting its illumination fall over the fast and desperate action of the simulated recreation of Halling's battle with the Skerti alien. He had watched the re-enactment through several times already, so much so that he now knew the series of events by heart, but he kept replaying it.
Following his return from Atlantis, he had taken a couple days of rest on Athos with some healing female companionship, and had now set about studying all he could about the new enemy. At first he'd headed to the Mad Moon to see the dead Skerti for himself, then he had read through all of Halling's shared update reports, and taken the opportunity at Oneakka's bedside to question Halling personally about his battle with the Skerti. Then he had finally made his way here to watch the recreation.
As much as he could learn about the new enemy from the reports and intel, it was only in here, watching how the Skerti had moved and attacked, that he could learn how the creature fought.
He watched as the Skerti used her superior physical and psychic strength to dominate Halling. He had fought well, but it was clear that, had intervention not arrived, Halling would not have survived. The Skerti had clearly understood that she would win, and had pressed physical weight and strength on Halling, simply waiting for his body to fail. Halling had also described her psychic attack as almost overwhelming and nearly impossible to hold back, and Si had to wonder if a Seeker like himself would fare better.
Blasts of energy fire flared passed Si, striking the Skerti' side. The creature released her grip on Halling and turned quickly towards the new threat, presenting Halling with the chance to save himself.
Si watched as Seeal's second barrage of energy fire blasted into the Skerti, causing it to jerk and stagger from the impact, but the alien still stood firm.
Until Halling struck with his blade.
The Skerti' head dropped, bounced and rolled away across the craft's floor.
"Halling?!"Seeal's voice called as she stepped into the edge of Si' field of view.
Halling looked round at her, his expression dazed and lost in adrenaline and shock.
"Are you alright?" Seeal's replicated version asked and the simulation abruptly ended.
The pale silvery cells lining the Generator filled Si' view, so he reached for the control pad on his knee and triggered the simulation to replay again.
The Generator's silvery walls disappeared instantly into the thick darkness of the Queen's escape craft once more, the lone light once again streaming in from behind Si' right shoulder. Halling's shadow slid across the light as he started into the craft, his weapon raised and ready. Si didn't turn to watch this time, but kept his eyes on the deepest darkness of the impenetrable corners of the craft.
He could not see the Skerti Queen of course, as Halling had not been able to include her location in the simulation as he had not known where she had been. Si still watched, predicting where she might have hidden herself.
These craft were normally lit the same as any other part of a Hive, so the fact that this craft had been found to be in working order, more so than the rest of the disintegrating Hive, but had been so dark presented interesting interpretations. Had the Skerti done it because she preferred the darkness or simply to use it as camouflage from which to stalk and attack Halling? Had she done it in the knowledge that Humans instinctively feared things they couldn't see in the dark?
Halling's simulation shifted along the left wall of the craft, gradually moving into Si' view again, only to pause, the dead Wraith body blocking his path. Had the Skerti left it there on purpose to be found by Halling? The recovery teams had found further dead Wraith in the front pilot section of the escape craft, killed by the Skerti before Halling had reached the craft, which implied perhaps that she needed their blood to give her strength for the fight or had she just wanted them dead? Oneakka had said a Wraith had told him about the dangers of the Skerti, clearly fearful of them and angry that one had set herself up as a false Wraith Queen. So, the Skerti mind was clearly stronger than the Wraith's.
And a Human's it seemed.
With such psychic power, the Skerti should have easily gleaned the information she wanted from Halling's mind from across the escape craft, but she had instead taken her time in stalking him from the shadows and then attacking him. Gathering information on how he moved, how he fought, just as Si was doing about her now.
She had been a scout then. Sent to seek out the enemy, test Alliance planetary defences, and then confront an Elite. Test, record, and relay.
That she had been stopped from reporting back to her kind was very fortunate, and it had provided the Elite and Alliance with the vital opportunity to learn about the Skerti and the alien drive tech.
She had been a formidable enemy indeed. As well as the dangerously powerful mind, she had been stronger and more nimble than a Wraith. Though Seeal had hit the creature with at least four energy blasts, it had done little to stop the Skerti. The impacts had obviously hurt her, the burns on the body had been evident, but the Skerti had been able to withstand them far better than a Wraith could, and there had been evidence of her healing the burns in the short moments before her death. It had only been Halling severing her head from her body that had actually stopped her.
A dangerous enemy indeed.
The simulated Halling fired energy blasts across the darkness, lighting up the brief shadow of the Skerti moving across the far side of the craft, but she was almost immediately lost again into the darkness.
The Mad Moon believed she had superior night vision compared to Wraith.
Si lifted his eyes up to the domed ceiling of the craft, knowing where she would soon appear. And there she was, crawling upside down along the ceiling.
Wraith didn't do that.
The Iratus insect did though.
The simulated battle abruptly started, the Skerti dropping down on Halling violently and powerfully. The battle didn't last very long, though obviously Halling could not be overly accurate of the timing considering his heightened adrenaline at the time. As Si watched the battle's fast action, he knew each strike now, and, once again, he admired how well Halling had fought in the face of such unknown power.
Then the moment of frozen impasse held, the Skerti thrusting Halling's head round as she reached for his throat with her protruding fangs while Halling held her back with desperate force.
Seeal's energy blasts cut through the air and slammed into the Skerti, ending the stalemate and saving Halling's life. This time Si shifted his gaze round to Seeal's simulated shape. She was only a silhouette within the single bright light of the doorway into the craft.
She fired again and Si heard Halling grunt and the slice of the blade cutting through Skerti skin, flesh, and bone. Si kept his eyes on Seeal's silhouette though.
"Halling?!" She called, sounding worried and out-of-breath as she moved further into the craft.
She had run down through several Hive levels, the floors and ceilings dissolving and collapsing, to reach Halling in time, sent by Oneakka's dying plea.
"Are you alright?" Seeal's simulation asked worriedly.
The simulation ended and dissolved around him, leaving him in the silence of the Generator, surrounded by its silvery cells.
He considered the space where Seeal's simulation had stood.
Letting out a deep sigh, he pushed up from his stool and headed towards the faint outline among the wall cells that defined the exit out of the Generator. The door slid open for him and he stepped out of the metal box of the Generator and into the small Elite-only gym. It was noticeably cooler outside the Generator, but it was something of a relief. The gym was otherwise empty with it being just after midday meal in the Facility, so most other Elite here were on rotation, teaching Recruits, or busy helping Halling's team with research on the Skerti.
Si headed for the lone wall panel in the gym and tapped in his location request.
The canteen closest to the living quarters section.
He left the gym quietly, the hallways passing by around him without his interest.
The conflicts had been warring in him too long now.
He'd gone through all angles in his head, let himself dwell, forget, and attempt to logically consider things, but there was only so much he could do without going to the source he had been avoiding.
The information held within the Dreamstation database was available to him, as was anything that Toshka might have held on Saoka, but Si had not looked at them yet.
Part of him didn't want to know, but feared he knew already.
Too many days now he'd tried to avoid the conflicting emotions and sense of betrayal since he, Oneakka, and Seeal had confronted Saoka in his office on his prized marketing station. Since the day that Si had lost faith.
Saoka had sent him a links message every day since, declaring he had done nothing wrong. He had repeated that the military hardware moving through his stations had been on contract agreement with the High Council, and that, had he known stolen Elite hardware had been moved through his stations, he would have told Si. He had insisted that he kept to the law, that he would never betray Si, and that he had only given in to Seeal's threat about a backdoor into his computer systems because it threatened his business interests.
Seeal had handed over her supposed backdoor code to look into Saoka's computers, swearing it hadn't been a simple bluff to get Saoka to help them. It didn't matter to Si either way, as Saoka's own reaction and acquiescence to Seeal's threat to expose his computers to the Elite had been enough. That reaction was evidence enough of guilt.
How far and how deep that guilt extended was unknown and somehow Si had managed to avoid answering the question. He had ignored all of Saoka's daily messages up until the day he had left for Atlantis with Teyla. He had sent Saoka one message, saying simply that he was too busy to deal with the matter. That had turned out to be true with Kolya's actions and the new Skerti threat, but he had had several days now to reply to Saoka, but he hadn't. Saoka had still sent his daily messages of innocence though.
Si realised that he had reached the canteen. He paused inside the entrance and spotted his target easily.
She was sat alone on the far side of a table towards the back of the big canteen. She had several computer pads set up on the table's surface creating a workstation for herself and there was an empty food tray beside Seeal's elbow. She appeared to have camped out in here to work, probably on her project work or, possibly, helping with Halling's Skerti research.
With a bracing breath, Si headed towards her.
He had only seen her once since the Military celebration following the Nest System victory, and that had been at Oneakka's near deathbed. Si had focused on Oneakka during that emotional visit and had only glanced at Seeal once to see her head lowered with very obvious grief. He had then actively avoided seeing her since.
Though he had agreed with Oneakka and Nalla's previous assessment that Seeal was not a threat, he had remained a little unsure of her, worried faintly by Oneakka's reluctant attraction to her and the power that could give her. However, her efforts to help save Halling against the Skerti and her loyalty in sitting by Oneakka's bedside had made Si reluctantly admit that it was not her that he mistrusted. It was not her that he hadn't wanted to see, it was what she represented.
The more he grew to trust her, the greater the risk that he would need to believe what she might say about Saoka. So he had avoided her and the dangerous moment where he would have to confront the dubious nature of Saoka and what that meant about their past.
But now it was time for him to face it.
Seeal noticed him approaching and a look of worried concern struck her features. She sat up straight, glancing down at her computer pads and back up worriedly.
"What's happened?" She demanded while he was still several metres away.
"Nothing has happened," he assured her calmly. He was such an unexpected visitor that it was not overly surprising that she assumed he brought bad news, either of a new crisis or that perhaps that Oneakka's health had abruptly failed.
She visibly relaxed her shoulders and let out a breath, but her eyes stayed on him. With that sharp, dangerously alert gaze of hers, she watched him as he reached her table and drew out the chair directly opposite hers.
He sat down in the chair without comment and looked across the table at her.
She watched him back, clearly curious and possibly a little suspicious as well.
She looked healthier, her skin a warmer tone and her cheeks slightly fuller. She looked settled and comfortable here in the canteen, which suggested familiarity and a sense of safety.
She was a very beautiful woman. She was tall for a female, meaning that he only had to dip his chin slightly in order to look her in the eyes, which was unusual with his height. She held herself with strong confidence, holding his gaze directly without fear. She had tall and wide cheekbones, her forehead high, and her eyes dark brown under black eyebrows and long black hair. Her Glisi heritage was presumably responsible for such a dynamic bone structure, but added to the clear muscle definition across her shoulders and arms, she appeared very much a warrior. Her actions since her arrival in the Alliance had proven that assessment to be true enough.
He faced her with a level gaze, which she continued to hold without any appearance of intimidation or discomfort. He could definitely understand Oneakka's fascination.
But that was not why he was here.
"I want you to tell me about Saoka," he stated.
Seeal nodded as if she had predicted as much.
She settled back, relaxing into her seat, no doubt feeling more in control now. "I thought you'd told him that you would forget his past misgivings and trust he'll do better," she paraphrased what he'd told Saoka in that last fateful meeting.
"He has a complex past," Si replied, instantly disliking himself for making excuses already. "He has changed-"
"Has he?" Seeal interrupted doubtfully.
"How can you be so certain that he hasn't?" Si challenged her, aware of the rising defensive anger he had wanted to avoid. She had only met Saoka once, despite her long familiarity of his supposed escapades. She had not faced danger at Saoka's side, hadn't gone through things with him that could bond people beyond simple friendship.
Seeal's dark eyes studied him intently, one of her fingers tapping lightly against the top of the table. "Why do you think he has changed?" She asked. "His trading station empire is ridiculously successfully for a trader who started out with a tiny market stall on the side of a small street."
It would not be overly difficult to find out where and how Saoka had started his career, but Seeal had wielded the information with such casual ease that it was clearly very common knowledge to her. He suspected that perhaps she even knew which precise street Saoka had set up his first market stall. That level of research worried him, but also presented a strange mutual understanding of Saoka.
"He is very good at what he does," Si replied, a little annoyed with himself for arguing the point against a very valid logical question.
"Yes," she replied with weight. "He is very good at what he does."
Si made himself release the tense breath he was holding.
He prided himself on his ability to remain calm in the face of anything, but one of the very few subjects that could cause him to lose that calm was Saoka. Despite the many questions about Saoka's business over the years, Si had always felt compelled to believe in the true honourable heart in Saoka's chest.
Unfortunately, Seeal represented the very antithesis of that theory – living proof of perhaps Saoka's true darkness and Si' own foolishness in believing in him all these years.
"And you are very good at what you do," Seeal added, surprising Si a little. "So, I find it hard to believe that an experienced Elite warrior like you would be fooled by Saoka's play."
Si schooled his features, sensing she was seeking something from him.
"It makes me suspect that maybe he's had occasion to help the Elite? Maybe helped you specifically," Seeal considered, her voice lifting in a question as she watched him. "Maybe you feel indebted to him?"
He simply held her gaze, refusing to admit the truths out loud that could suggest he might have compromised himself and his loyalty to law and order.
Seeal narrowed her eyes slightly. "Maybe you feel the need to protect him?"
No, that was beyond a point for him. He would never knowingly betray his values, even for Saoka.
"No, I do not," he stated clearly to her. "If someone steps into something they know to be dangerous, it is only their own fault if it drags them to their death," he told her, paraphrasing a military poem that he had long associated with Saoka.
Seeal shifted her head to the side in thought. "Perhaps 'protect' is the wrong word then. Maybe 'save'?" She asked, her eyes sharp like a bird of prey staring at its intended meal.
Si felt the truth of her guess. All the years they had known each other how often had Si striven to repeat to Saoka about the importance to always redeem and rise above past actions that might have once been necessary.
"I imagine though," Seeal continued, "that if you were trying to save a person from being dragged down into a cold sea of danger, you'd still feel loss and maybe guilt that you couldn't save them."
Guilt? Did he feel guilty? Did he fear that, were Saoka still dealing in dangerous criminal acts, that he might be complicit by having turned a blind eye to them?
Did that make him rather like Seeal in her days on Dreamstation?
"I know he is not a pure man," Si told her honestly, "but very few of us are."
"That depends on how you define 'purity' surely," Seeal disagreed. "If you define it as good intentions, then I would argue that there are probably a lot of people who try to do well."
He was a little surprised at hearing such faith from her given her past associations and childhood or...had the words been intended to help him feel better about his complicity?
"But I don't think Saoka is one of them," she added.
And there was the confirmation that Si had not wanted to hear, nor the certainty with which she said it. Before that fateful confrontation in Saoka's office, Si would have fought to defend Saoka endlessly, believing in the better part of him. Now, had that been a foolish, misguided and even naive belief? Had he even been simply a tool for Saoka to manipulate and use all these years?
Si knew he was a man of many things, but naivety had never been characteristic he had associated with himself before. Just the thought of being used like that...
He looked away from Seeal, glancing away across the familiar and understandable Facility canteen around him. Here things had always been simple – a life that was indeed dangerous, powerful, and short-lived, but always clear. The life of an Elite was that of purity of profession and purpose, but far from a purity from aggression.
"I can't imagine that it would be all that difficult for you to find out about Saoka's dealings," Seeal's voice continued as Si looked across the Recruits sat alone at their tables studying. "You're an Elite, you could talk to Division and Enforcement, who I am almost certain have cabinets full of intel that links back to Saoka. You can even dig through everything I gathered on Saoka in the Dreamstation database," Seeal continued. "So, I think that you're here talking to me because you want very specific pieces of information about him."
Si glanced back at her.
"So, ask me, Honoured Elite," she stated. The invitation set out plain and simple for him to find out what he wanted, a filtered version of everything she had learnt about Saoka over no doubt many years.
But wasn't it also that it was her offering to be that filter. Someone who, more than anyone else he had met, could understand and assess the levels of purity found among those in the dirt?
Why not ask the questions he truly wanted to know?
"Is he a murderer?" Si asked one of his primary fears that he had not allowed himself to believe. He watched Seeal's face closely as she answered.
"Not as far as I'm aware," she replied. "That's not really how he works."
"Violence?" Si interpreted.
"In a very precise way," Seeal replied.
"Explain that to me," Si pushed.
Seeal glanced away, appearing to consider how best to answer him. "You remember Creass?" She asked.
"Of course," Si dismissed.
"I think of Saoka and Creass as being two versions of the same role. Both men started with nothing really and built up a trader's fortune in currency and trading dominance. Both men wanted to be a focal point around which all other traders have to turn and, of course, pay a fee."
Si frowned at the easy way she compared the two men, one a known violent criminal who had run Dreamstation like his own empire.
"Both men crave wealth and influence, and you don't get to that position of power without removing the competition, both to gain dominance and then to hold it," Seeal stated. "To become powerful you have to steal from others and then stop others stealing from you," she appeared to quote. "To do that, Creass worked rather like a heavy hammer. He has always been a blunt, violent weapon, but he could be very effective. If someone got in his way, he used the blunt force approach, hitting and crushing. In contrast, Saoka is more like a surgeon's scalpel. He can cause a deep sharp cut, but in a very precise calculated place that gets him exactly what he needs."
Si frowned at the picture she had painted. "A scalpel can kill just as quickly as a hammer," he noted, finding himself suddenly on the other side of the argument.
"True," Seeal nodded. "But his cuts are in severing trading links and relationships, then reforming them in the way he wants them, using his influence and ability to manipulate people to get what he wants. People might not be murdered, but, along the way, people still get hurt. He can cut off a family's wealth in an instant with the right move without physically harming them, but is it any less devastating for them to lose their currency, security and their home?" She asked. "In his mind, he no doubt just calls it the business of trade, but he is just another version of Creass, simply using a different weapon to reach the same ends."
Si sighed.
"That said," Seeal added a little thoughtfully, "when you consider that the Alliance's High Council can do exactly the same thing but on a wider scale," Seeal added, "you could argue that what Saoka does is simply the way powerful men and women now work in the Alliance."
"That does not make it right," Si stated.
"No, it doesn't," Seeal agreed. "But I'm a believer in balance."
Si frowned at her. "Balancing out one's good and bad actions in life?"
She smiled. It was an unexpectedly amused and attractive smile. "No, I mean those who keep going too far out on the ice will one day fall through."
"Is that Glisi religion?" He asked.
"No, it's experience," she replied. "On Dreamstation, those who gambled the most, always eventually ended up losing the most. Those who kept pushing security, one day eventually got their noses broken, and those who strive for power will one day have it all taken away from them."
Si considered her theory. "You believe that Saoka will one day lose everything he has built up?"
"Yes," she confirmed. "In some form or another."
He sighed faintly, unsure that the conversation had helped him a great deal. He had, at least, gained some insight. He could ask her for more specific detail, but she was right that he could easily find that in the Dreamstation database. No, for now, he had gained what he needed from her. Some of it, he rather wished he didn't have to think about further, but he would.
"Thank you for your information," he nodded to Seeal as he pushed up from his chair and turned to leave.
"Honoured Elite?" Seeal interrupted his departure though and he turned back to her.
"Maybe," she suggested, her eyes holding his meaningfully, "he's already losing what he values the most."
Si frowned at her implication: she meant him?
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TBC