"Thanks again for the help Keswick" Powers said to the little scientist. They were sitting over the protocol of the third interrogation attempt and tried to make sense of the delirious words of the captured lizard. She was just repeating her name for some reason and then some very specific word or name that the translator couldn't grasp.

Keswick also had a bad feeling about what she mumbled about a gathering storm, and he hoped that she was really just talking about the weather. Keswick looked up from the display and to Powers who looked less than satisfied with the progress of the interrogation.

But what could they do? Ryan had taken a look at the lizard and he said that there were several brain areas damaged, probably by her captors. So after he had applied some device to her empty eye socket it was just the waiting game they could play.

Powers used the time to play a favorite game of his which apparently was to enquire about the statuses of different people and projects in a 30-minute time interval. While he waited for answers, the captain read through the sparse protocols.

Keswick watched him work and sighed. He would have preferred spending the waiting time in the lab with Isaac but the captain needed someone to help him with the captive so Keswick was helping out here even if some had said that this work was beneath him. He was basically just a secretary keeping an eye that the protocols were in order and with a finger on the alarm button in case of an emergency.

"Don't m..m..mention it." Keswick stammered.
"No really, also in the name of Isaac, he probably is frugal with his words of thanks so let me handle this for him."
"Actually…" Keswick put the protocol away and looked up to the captain. "He is completely d..d..different when nobody else is alone… he also said that he values my c..c..contributions."

"Is that so?" Powers looked surprised.
"Well his actual w..w..words were my 'contribution attempts'"
"Ah, now that sounds more like him." Laughed Powers. "An attempt to a thank-you. Anyway, I really appreciate your help around here."

"Well, part of it is s..s..self-preservation drive. Without you guys, we would be just b..b..barely getting by." Keswick laughed and was radiant with confidence. The last time he was thanked that way was when he repaired the bunker's generators back in the early days. He could remember that the chief had patted him on the back a few times. Good old bad days.

"It's not only your drive. After all, we are in this together." Powers meant smiling and then his face formed a sterner look. "The news of our plan is out now… I remember that the message about your dying world yesterday wasn't taken so well by most. But what about the plan?"
Keswick made a face like he had just bitten into a lemon. "Let's say it was taken better than y..y..yesterday's news. They know well that this plan is…"

"A suicide operation."
"Exactly… I would suggest maybe giving them a little more i..i..insight."
"I'll hold a briefing later that day." He sighed and then chuckled. "If someone had said to me that this job is so many meetings I would have done something else probably. And speaking of which…"
They looked at a chair to which the lizard was shackled. She had started shifting slightly and for Keswick it just had seemed like she was about to wake up. But Powers didn't think so.

"I think we can end the charade." He sternly said. "How long have you been listening, Seema."
"How do you…" she groaned and looked up. "And why am I… thinking sssstraight?"
"You tell us, we weren't the ones d..d..doing this to you." Keswick meant.

"I know I know… sssaved me…" Seema was about to lose consciousness again but this time Powers walked to her and snapped his fingers in front of her face which was enough to at least make her sit up again. "Stay focused."

"I try I try…" She groaned and looked Powers in the face.
"Very good, I don't have time for long introductions. I need information about troop sizes, number of ships, weaponry everything." The captain again snapped his fingers and Seema moaned.
"I don't know anything… I wassss jussssst a scientisssst. My studiessss are of a medical nature. I don't know anything about troops."

"Ah, so you are a physician?" Powers inquired.
Seema kept silent for a moment before he realized she was just staring towards the ceiling with a look that was a sure indicator that her next words wouldn't be a simple yes. Keswick didn't like the stare at all. Something deeply regretful was in it. He knew that Seema was reluctant to answer and by now he also knew that he didn't want to hear what she would say.

"If that was just the casssse…"
"Dissections?" Powers baldly asked. It was a verbal hit that both Seema and Keswick took.
"Yessss…" She quietly hissed and closed her eyes.
"On the living object?" after the last remark Keswick thought that nothing could be worse, but Powers made it and surpassed himself.

"Y.. Yessss... I did." She said and tears welled up in her remaining eye.
"I see." The captain nodded. "For what purpose exactly?"
"Finding… weak spotssss…"
While the lizard was still fighting with her composure Powers waved his hands like an impatient teacher that was talking to a slow kid. "Come on, more details." He meant.

"We… radiation…" Her breathing quickened and Keswick could feel that the disgusting words that came out of her mouth were accompanied by a certain self-loathing. "Projectilessss… explossssives… biochemical attack vectorssss…"
"The whole bandwidth…" Powers nodded. "What were the results?"
"Nothing sssspecial… normal requirementssss for death... like any other speciessss in the galaxy."
Powers was visibly taken aback by these words for a moment, a feeling that he shook off as fast as he felt it. "Very well… this of course begs the question…"

"I never wanted thissss!" Seema exclaimed as she no longer could keep her temper. "I got into my field to help people! To make lives better and now I…"
Keswick knew snakes, some even were in his closer group of friends before the war. There was the common prejudice that they had something disgustingly manipulative in the way they behaved. He never was able to confirm this cliché.

Powers on the hand, at that moment, would have been a good clichéd snake. "But you can still do this." He stepped closer to her. "There is still a little community left, you can't take back what is done you can help us prevent a genocide."
"Oh Nineesh why…" she cursed towards the ceiling. "I just want home."

"Was that where you were heading?" Asked Powers in an attempt to focus the conversation back on something productive.
"I no… No!" She sat up as straight as her ties allowed it into the chair. "They wanted to bring me to the hangar! I wassss… they wanted to put me into the minessss as braindead assss I wassss. How can I even think again? How did you…"

"What was so important that a simple delinquent scientist…" Powers shoved his head into her field of view by more or less leaning over her. "…was mentally castrated, put on a train guarded by a small battalion, and to be extracted from the planet?"
"I wassss… more than jusssst a ssssimple delinquent scientisssst."
'You don't say' thought Keswick and rolled his eyes.

"I am the leading sssscientist for xeno-studiessss of the Varah-draki empire…" in her words a certain pride was audible.
"That still doesn't explain the things done to you." Powers said still looking down at her.
"I had planssss to leave…" She sighed and closed her eye. "But I failed to anticipate that my clossssest colleague and confidant wassss more loyal to the empire than to me." She paused for a moment before sounding even more devastated. "I am an idiot for believing I meant anything to him."

"You want to tell me that the punishment for abandoning a job is death?"
"Not abandonment, desertion. Also, not death. My mental abilitiessss were taken from me and I wassss meant to be brought to the minessss on the moon of this planet."
"You seem utterly calm about what was done to you." Powers mentioned and eyed her wounds.

"Do I look like I have been calm about it?" Seema asked and her eye now pinned Powers down. "I tried everything to flee but to no avail."
"I see…" Powers meant cold. "At least I can tell you that we won't torture you like done by your people. Even if we grant ourselves the option to reestablish prior conditions. I think you get me?"

Seema's look immediately changed from angry to afraid, a fact that was eerily satisfying for Keswick.
"I understand… if you may allow the question, how did you…"
"All in due time." Powers interjected patronizingly. "For now, tell me about this base on the moon of yours."

"It issss a mine, we are mining oressss there, an operation which we will continue on thissss planet assss soon assss…" She looked over to Keswick. "The resisssstance stopssss."
"Oh I bet that's w..w..what you are planning but listen to me…" Keswick wanted to walk up to the chair and just choke her screaming 'You won't get us all' but Powers blocked his way.

"And you are using prisoners instead of machines there?" he aske, shifting ever so slightly that Keswick couldn't pass to Seema.
"No, Androidssss are too expenssssive in the massessss we would need them, we are using slavessss." The lizard explained and her voice was so nonchalant that one could just speculate how deeply slavery was anchored in her culture. In this case, the speculations would sway between fundamental and abysmal.

Seema now said with a little of the self-loathing she already showed. "We haven't killed the whole civilization… a good 10,000 are still working there."
"A good 10,000 you say." Powers looked to Keswick who still tried to pass through him. "How many people lived here before the attack you said."

The short scientist stopped his attempts and his face went grim. Powers just asked for the people here, what about the eco systems? The bugs and fish? All these life forms which were wiped additionally by their terraforming attempt. "8 billion." He grimaced angrily.

"Maybe there are like 20,000 thousand. I don't know exactly." Seema tried to relativize her statement. "I mean it issss better than…" She finally fall silent as she saw Keswick foaming with anger.

"Very well… one last question." Powers said and his voice had dropped a few degrees on the temperature scale. "Why did you try to leave?"
"As I said I…" she began but Powers right before she could repeat the already spoken said. "Your personal reason."

Seema fell silent for a while. Keswick didn't keep trying to jump her but looked at her closely instead. Something inside her was working, like someone who tried verbalizing a feeling for the first time.
"It was different this time." She slowly started. "We have attacked a lot of worlds and ensssslaved many speciessss. But the majority we alwayssss tend to rule. We have never… done ssssomething like that on this sssscale. Committing masssss genocide... I don't know if thissss issss a trial for ssssomething the emperor planssss to do more often but… I do not want to take part in thissss."

"I see." Powers nodded without a hint of emotion in his voice. "Thank you for speaking plainly. I'll send someone in soon who will ask a few more questions. I expect you to continue your candor."
And that said he turned around, nodded to Keswick, and left the room. Keswick was alone with the lizard as their gazes met.

"You…" Keswick slowly raised his voice. "You d..d..destroyed everything I had, everything we had."
"I know." Seema said numbly.
"If there is something like j..j..justice you all would die like my people did." He said and followed Powers. The last thing he heard from the lizard before he closed the door was "I know" spoken with a clear note of self-loathing.

Outside of the little room Powers leaned against the bunker wall and seemed to stare pensively at the ground.
"What a disgusting product of indoctrination." Powers mumbled as Keswick stepped outside.
"These are more c..c..compassionate words than I would choose."

"But that's what she is, and also that's what our enemy is." Powers stated. "And besides the terrible display of her twisted morals, we gained a lot out of that interrogation."
"Do you believe what she told us?" Keswick crossed his arms skeptically.
"I try to mistrust in such situations but I think she has a reason to be disloyal to the empire that tried to use her for cheap labor."

"It is possible but as you said, she is i..i..indoctrinated head over heels."
"I'll send Ryan and Isaac in to her. Maybe Meliha too if she got the time." Powers said.
"And m..m..me?" Keswick asked.

"You too, gather the three and tell them they should squeeze everything relevant out of her. I'm interested in tactical, technical hell even in cultural details." The captain started pacing down the hallway and called to Keswick. "You are in command of this until Kate returns." And then he took a right turn and was gone.

"Wait, why I?" He called through the hallways. "S..s..seriously why I?"
Keswick was left in a state of utter confusion. He wasn't nearly qualified to do so. It was a small miracle that he could even talk to Seema, usually talking to women was a problem, to put it mildly.

Only his disdain for her made him utter the words he uttered. Was the stress getting to Powers or was he having a plan? Keswick didn't know but he also wouldn't dwell too long on that thought. He got his very own mission with his very own crew. Although he didn't know if the egos in his new crew would be easy to handle. No matter what, it was a chance to show his qualities even if he didn't know which ones exactly.

-Author's note: Hello there, a little more Keswick heavy chapter for you, hope you had fun with it. As always, see you soon, don't forget to review, and of course, stay tuned-