Dalshon
Chapter 5
The walls rolled up. The crowds of trapped people left the area, hurrying home or on whatever errands they still needed to complete.
Carla started sending her injured crewman back to the ship in shuttle pod loads. Everyone would have to be checked for radiation damage, eventually, but for now she assigned her unwounded crew to make a sweep of Untika looking for Lennier. She would rotate them all back to the ship to see the doctor and back out on patrol eventually. In the meantime, the merchanters who owned the room they had been using took it back, and Carla moved her station hq to a hotel room.
She chose one that catered to Minbari, so it was spare and rather dull in the way that Minbari considered elegant, and it had slanted sleeping platforms in the sleeping room. But it also had human style stuffed chairs in the sitting room of the suite, and that was where she planted herself.
She put her feet up on an ottoman with pilled, threadbare blue upholstery, and considered sending one of her crew out for a beer. Her stomach gurgled. Bleeah. Maybe the beer could wait.
"Captain?" Firuun boomed.
"What is it?"
"We haven't found Lennier, but someone found us."
A cloaked figure came into the room, and threw back his hood. He was a middle aged Minbari in civilian clothes, a little jowly and thick around the middle, and perfectly ordinary looking. He would blend in nicely on Untika. As long as he was not recognized.
He bowed stiffly. "Captain Punch."
"Comac?" Carla's feet hit the floor with a thud. She did not stand up, but gripped the arms of the overstuffed chair as if she wanted to spring out of it, either to run away or to fling herself on him and pummel him into slime.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Captain," Comac said, a little ironically. He was undoubtedly aware that could be taken on many levels. "But your crew are turning Untika upside down, and the natives are getting restless. It's making things difficult. I must ask you to be more discreet."
"What are you doing here?" Carla asked.
"The same thing you're doing. Collecting intelligence. I'm just being more subtle about it."
"Subtle was never your style," Carla said raggedly.
"Style adapts to the mission."
Carla looked around, just to avoid looking at Comac. This sitting room was her command center in the hunt for Lennier, a straightforward search mission that she and Khunnier planned and ran from here. Khunnier stood over a table on which a dozen sheets of printout had been arranged together to form a map of the station, with search areas marked off in color codes. He watched her and Comac from sunken eyes, still showing the effects of the concussion.
Finally Carla asked, "What is your mission?"
"Classified. Yours, however, is on the front page of the Teeknab Shout. A local human produces it, but nearly everyone here reads it. 'Rangers hunt deserter'. You're above the fold."
"Well, good. Maybe someone will turn him in."
"The bombing was below the fold. Apparently you're more of a novelty than the latest fusillade in the local gang wars."
"Why does that matter?" Carla snapped.
"It matters because you're stirring everyone up here. The gangs are buttoning up, the fences are lying low, and everyone is looking suspiciously at Minbari. I was halfway to getting inside when you started this ruckus."
"Inside what?"
"You don't need to know that."
"I thought you were assigned to a war cruiser."
"I was. I was needed for this. So I was assigned to field work for this mission."
Khunnier walked over. "You're here to infiltrate a pirate gang."
Comac's expression soured. "No one was supposed to be told that."
"I wasn't told," Khunnier said. "It's obvious. They needed you, and no one else had the required talents. But you are not a field officer. I think we are all aware what area of intelligence work you are an expert in. And it is not infiltration. So. They wanted you for some other quality you possess. Your accent. Your cultural knowledge of the dynamics of a pirate gang. Because you are a dalshon."
Comac sighed. He looked at Carla and said, "That boy is scary. Hang onto him."
"Don't act like we're colleagues," Carla bit out. "You are the enemy, Comac of Clan Itma. You always will be."
"It was war."
"War was war. Killing the enemy on the battlefield, that's not personal. Tifar prison was a whole different animal. Your own little hell, with you as demon in chief."
"Would you rather be dead?"
Carla did not have time to respond to that, before he rushed on. She only had time to think, if she had been asked that at any time up until she became Anla'shok, she would have said yes. But now she had a life.
Comac continued, "By preference the warrior caste do pick up shipwreck survivors, and the injured on the battlefield. But in the war we did not, because we had been given the command of No Mercy. We all knew who it came from; it was not the secret deliberations of the Grey Council but an order given in a public corridor. An order given by Satai Delenn as she stood over Dukhat's dead body. To take prisoners, we not only needed a reason, we needed permission. The loribond program was the reason, and permission was given at the highest levels. The highest levels, do you understand? What I did to you was a horror. But it was not my idea. I think it was Control's idea, originally, but the order came from Satai Delenn. From your precious Entilza. That is what you have sworn to live and die for, Anla'shok Captain."
Carla opened her mouth, but no words came out. She looked at Firuun, and at Khunnier. Both of them wore identical curdled expressions. She shook her head. Her voice came out small and querulous. "I don't believe you."
"I am Minbari. I am not lying."
"Get out. Just get out."
Comac put his hood up and left.
After a frozen moment, Firuun cleared his throat. "He couldn't know that for certain," Firuun said. "He's just guessing. Like Khunnier guessed about the pirate gang. We know Khunnier's guesses are usually right, but Comac could be wrong."
"Of course," Carla agreed. But she felt sick inside.
Khunnier asked, "Carla, um… are we going to ramp back on the hunt for Lennier?"
"No. Comac and his mission can both go shove themselves."
End of Chapter 5
