Jess used his implants to speed his mind, letting him study their new visitor carefully. The man had scrapes and cuts over his hands and face. His uniform was torn and dirty, but still clearly that of an Imperial. At one time that would have made Jess incredibly distrustful but now he barely noticed. Many of those in Admiral North’s fleet still wore their old Imperial uniforms, as much because there were no practical alternatives as for any other reason. Hell, even Clay had been an Imperial pilot.
Lucien’s dark hair was longer than Jess would have expected, and now lay lankly over his head and his forehead. The captain looked to be in his early forties, still physically fit though at that moment he looked exhausted. His eyes were studying Jess, Ali and Clay intently.
Jess turned his attention to Lucien’s internal state. When the robot had leaned Lucien back against the wall the Wanderer had taken the chance to deliver medical assistance — without it Lucien wouldn’t even be lucid. As well as working to restore the Imperial captain’s health, the package gave Jess an insight into the man’s state.
Not that it was showing anything unexpected at that moment — there were signs of severe stress and exhaustion of course, the captain would have to be inhuman not to have those. The one vital confirmation from the package was that the captain had not been converted to one of the Limited.
Jess allowed his thoughts to return to a more normal speed and waited for the captain to respond to his welcome.
“You’re Captain Jess?” said Lucien, only a slight flicker of surprise showing on his face. “Did you know you’re number one on the Empire’s hit-list? You and your ship.”
Jess had to fight to keep from groaning. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. How were he and Ali supposed to slip away quietly if it turned out every Imperial everywhere was gunning for him?
Hey, sent Ali. It’s not all bad. He had no idea what you looked like or how young you’d be. That means all they have is our names, the Wanderer’s name and probably some images of the ship. We can use false names and the ship can change its shape. We can still get away!
Of course! he sent back. I didn’t think of that. Thanks!
Too busy being the brave martyr!
Her reply could have been hurtful if he’d just received the words, but he could feel the sense of play, of teasing, that went with it, and the words just reminded him how happy he was to have Ali back. He sent her a burst of emotion to let her know how he felt.
Easy! she sent back. We have a visitor to interrogate!
She was right… but he could also tell she was pleased. With a mental jerk Jess forced his attention back to their visitor.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m Jess. You said in your message that you’re Captain Lucien?”
“Yes. Well, ex-captain now. Thank you for saving me. I thought coming here was a smart move. I should have realised the Empire would have taken the station.”
“You’re an Imperial captain. Why were you running?”
“I wasn’t going to be a captain much longer. I as going to be… well, if I was lucky I was going to be killed.”
“Why? What had you done?”
“I… I disobeyed orders. There was a ship packed with refugees. Many of them children. I refused to destroy it. That didn’t go down well so I had to run.”
Lies! Jess almost called Lucien on it but managed to hold back. He didn’t want to give away the fact he could spot blatant lies, not yet. But how could he dig into that story without calling Lucien out?
“You said you’d be lucky if you were killed,” said Ali. “What would the other options be? Being tortured? Or being turned into one of the Limited?”
Jess fought to hold a smile in. Ali had nailed it perfectly, and the way Lucien had reacted to the word Limited showed that was what he’d feared.
“You know about the Limited then,” said Lucien. “Yes. That was the fate I was facing. That was what I needed to get away from.”
Jess checked the readings the Wanderer had taken. Interesting… Lucien was being completely honest in this case. So he had been running from being turned into one of the Limited. The question now was why had he been targeted.
“Why you?” Jess asked. “Why would they want to turn you into one of the Limited? You were a captain. Only slaves got turned into Limited.”
“To start with! It’s spread a lot further than that. It’s… look, I have information on the Limited. I’ll tell you if you can guarantee to keep me safe. I want sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary? When you were happy to have the Limited working for you as long you weren’t one of them?”
The Wanderer detected a sharp reaction to that. Jess had hit home. He held his hand up before Lucien could try to deny it.
“Don’t try to deny it. There’s no way you could still be an Imperial officer and not have Limited on your ship.”
“Besides,” said Clay. “Those fighters were definitely piloted by the Limited. They calmly offered themselves as bait to let the others get a chance to attack me. Time and again.”
“No more information until I get your word!” said Lucien.
“Fine,” said Jess. “Then we’ll drop you off where we found you.”
That really caused a reaction. The Wanderer saw adrenaline spike and other indications of Lucien preparing to fight. Lucien’s hand slipped to his belt.
“Don’t bother,” said Jess. “The robot took your gun. I’m not completely stupid. Now you’ve got a choice… give us the information or we drop you back where you started.”
“You wouldn’t do that!”
A small chuckle escaped from Jess.
“Oh you have no idea. You were clearly happy enough to see the humanity stripped from slaves to further your cause. Don’t test what I’m willing to do to you. I’m finding it hard to keep from letting the robot loose on you.”
Lucien glared at Jess, studying him. Jess just stared back, not letting anything show on his face. He doubted the captain knew anything they hadn’t already learnt. He was just bargaining for more than Jess would ever grant him.
Finally Lucien cursed and shook his head.
“So I have to throw myself on your mercy?” he snapped.
“Ours or the mercy of your friends back there.”
“Friends! I have no friends left. There’s no one left. Not on most of the ships, other than the captains and now they’ve come for us. Everyone will be converted. Everyone will be Limited.”
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense. How can everyone be converted?”
“He said most ships,” said Clay. “So I take it whoever’s in charge will be on the ship that hasn’t been converted.”
“Yes,” replied Lucien. “As best I can tell many of those aboard the Rulers’ ship are still human. For the moment, at least.”
“The Rulers? I’ve never heard of them.”
“Nor had we until the Taint started to overwhelm us. Before that the power structure above the level of Admiral or the planetary based equivalent was always shadowy. They were there and they let their desires be known, but even captains almost never got to interact with them.
“That’s changed now. The Rulers came out of the shadows. We still don’t have much to do with them, but they travel with the main fleet.”
“What’s that got to do with the Limited?” asked Jess.
“It ties into my main piece of information. I want a promise from you… if I tell you this then whatever happens you won’t send me back where I could be turned into a Limited.”
“If the information is worth it.”
“Oh it is. I know where the Limited are created, and I know… something else relevant.”
“Alright. If you really have that information then I’ll promise not to drop you off where we found you. I won’t promise we’ll give you safety, or even that we’ll let you live, but we won’t drop you back into that.”
Lucien paused, scanning Jess’s face for a few seconds, then nodded sharply.
“All right. I’ll tell you. The Limited are created on the Rulers’ ship. They have all the technology they need to do it there.”
“That’s useful. Not as much as I’d hoped for, but useful.”
“That’s only half of it. You see, the Limited are only created on that ship. All the technology not transferred to it was thoroughly destroyed.”
“So if we destroy the ship no one else can be converted to a Limited?”
“Yes! Not that destroying it will be easy, but if you can do it then you’ll stop the supply. Those that were already converted will remain of course, but they won’t be replaced and the numbers won’t be increased.”
Jess’s thoughts went into overdrive. If Lucien was telling the truth, and the Wanderer thought he was in this case, then the information was priceless. That was a big if, but he seemed like someone bearing a grudge. Jess decided to discuss it with Clay and Ali when they had a chance.
“That’s certainly valuable, if it’s true,” Jess said. “Is there anything else? What weaknesses do they have?”
“That I’ve seen? Only the obvious one, they aren’t human anymore. Anything that seems to be out of scope of their current orders gets ignored. That’s not so true for the most recent of them, the ones being given senior positions, but some of them you could walk right up to and wave in their face and they’d ignore you as long as you don’t block them from carrying out their orders.”
“Not a lot of use when their orders are to attack us.”
“How can they hand over control of entire ships to the Limited?” asked Ali.
“They’ve got better and better at cutting out the person while leaving their skills and judgement,” replied Lucien. “Don’t ask me how, I have no idea. I doubt very many people at all do. However they do it, it is effective. And damn unnerving. Converting a slave was one thing, they’re not far removed from…”
He suddenly stopped, which was just as well from Jess’s point of view. He’d been moments away from having the robot deliver a hard blow, or maybe having the Wanderer dial down on the painkillers it was pumping into him.
Silence fell as each of them considered Lucien’s words. Jess’s thoughts soon turned to another matter, what to do with Lucien. His information had been useful, not that Jess would really have dumped him back for the Empire to capture anyway.
But the thought of having the man on board the Wanderer made Jess’s skin crawl. Lucien clearly viewed slaves as no better than the Limited at best, and Jess was certain he’d been happily involved in the spread of the Limited. The fact that that had ended badly for him was hardly a reason for Jess to want him around.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Jess finally asked.
Lucien started slightly at the words, then blinked rapidly. Jess checked on the level of painkiller he was receiving and dialled it back a little.
Lucien shrugged, then his shoulders slumped again. “I can give you details of the ships the Empire has to call on, and where they are currently operating. I can remember some of the systems that have been taken recently or are due to be targeted. All useful information I’m sure, so there will be a cost.”
Jess fought to keep a scowl off his face. “How much?” he snapped out.
“Somehow I don’t think requesting to travel with you or be dropped off somewhere safe is going to fly. Hell, I don’t know if there’s such a place as somewhere safe now and the thought of the Rulers getting hold of me is terrifying. What they’d do to me now would probably make being turned into one of the Limited at the end a relief.”
“So what do you want?”
“I want to die on my own terms. Put me back in the escape pod, the right way round this time. Disable the distress beacon and the engines. Then throw it out in deep space where it’ll never be found.”
“I’m not sure that sounds like such a great way to die, slowly starving out there.”
“I’ll float until I’m ready, then I’ll get the pod to push me into deep sleep. It can keep me alive like that for a long time, and when it finally can’t I’ll just drift from deep sleep to death without knowing it. It’ll be peaceful.”
“You’ll just let yourself die?”
“I’ve nearly ended my life a few dozen times over the past couple of days. Part of the reason I kept going was to spite the Rulers, to strike back at them in some way no matter how small.
“When I got away on the Skater I thought I might have a chance, but the way they chased me down changed my mind on that. Then all I wanted to do was hurt the Rulers, to betray those who’d betrayed me, and now I’ve done it. I’ve managed to give some of their closest guarded secrets to Jess and the Wanderer, those the Rulers fear the most. I don’t think I could have done better if I’d planned it.”
Jess found himself at a loss. He had no doubt Lucien had an uncountable number of crimes to pay for and death would be one way to settle the score… but if it was what Lucien wanted then was it truly a punishment?
“You deserve worse,” snapped Ali. “The way you talk about the slaves… you deserve much worse.”
Lucien met her gaze solidly, but didn’t say anything. Then he turned back to Jess. Jess cold sense the anger boiling in Ali through his link to her.
Ali, he’s not worth your anger, Jess sent.
Did you hear what he said? Can’t you guess the things he’s done? He deserves to be punished! she replied.
Yes. Yes he does. But what could we possibly do that would be worthy of his crimes? And once we’d done it, what would that do to us?
Jess, are you being the voice of reason? That’s my job!
I know, and you’re much better at it than me. I’m half tempted to throw him out the airlock without the escape pod, or send it out with him and see if he can scramble into it in vacuum. But really, against everything else that has happened is it worth it?
If I say yes does that mean I get to make him suffer? she asked.
Do you really want to? He replied. Or would you rather spend the time going after that fleet and destroying the Empire’s ability to create more Limited?
Damn but I hate it when you’re being all reasonable. Alright, lets kick his arse back out into space. With the escape pod.
With it or in it?
I haven’t decided yet, she replied. It’ll be a surprise for everyone!
Hah!
“My vote is for letting him do it,” said Clay. “Just in case anyone was having a private discussion.”
“Sorry,” said Jess. “I think we’ve agreed the same thing, though there’s some discussion about whether he gets to be inside the escape pod or just near it.”
Clay chuckled at that, even as Lucien’s eyes widened.
“In the escape pod,” he said. “And with it in working order, or you don’t get my information.”
Jess glanced at Ali, who sighed then nodded.
“Alright,” Jess said. “I’ll have the Wanderer check the pod over, make any critical repairs, then disable the beacon and the engines. While it does that you can give us the information.”
Lucien frowned. “Can I trust you? What if I give you the information and you go back on what you said.”
“This is Jess, not some Imperial captain,” said Clay. “You can trust that he’ll do what he said.”
Lucien glanced at the robot, at Clay, then back at Jess. Then he leaned his head back against the wall tiredly.
“I guess there’s not much I could do now anyway. Alright… I’ll give you the information and hope that Captain Jess truly is a man of his word.”
Clay watched the screen showing the escape pod as it drifted away from the Wanderer. The information Lucien had provided was incredibly useful and he was glad that Jess had kept his word… but part of him wanted to jump in his fighter and go destroy the pod.
Jess stood with him watching the same screen, though Clay knew that was for his benefit. Jess could see, could feel, the same view through his implants. Ali had taken herself off before the pod launched, muttering about getting away from the stench.
Jess and Clay stood there watching for another minute. Clay was about to say something when the pod suddenly disappeared in a flash of energy.
“Goodbye Captain Lucien,” said Jess calmly. “I doubt anyone will mourn your passing.”
“You killed him?” asked Clay.
“Yes. It had to be done.”
“I know he deserved it, hell I wanted to get out there and blow the pod up, but you gave your word.”
“I gave my word that we’d set him safely adrift in the pod. I didn’t make any promises about what would happen next. If I’d given him what he deserved I’d have reprogrammed the pod to keep him alive and awake for as long as possible. This was quick and painless. He was dead before he knew anything was happening.”
Clay shook his head.
“You think I was wrong?” asked Jess.
“No. No, I think you were right. The odds of him being found were almost impossibly small but the thought he might escape still ate at me. This way we know he’s gone. It was just a surprise.”
“Leaving him alive just felt wrong. I know now that not everyone who was Imperial was evil, you’ve shown me that. I guess Admiral North and even Dash have in their ways, despite where they ended up.
“But Lucien… his hands were so dirty they’d never be clean again. You heard the way he spoke. If the Rulers hadn’t turned on him he’d have been quite happy to stay working for them I’m sure. Now there’s no chance of that happening.”
Clay studied Jess again before speaking.
“I sometimes forget just how much you’ve had to see and do, Jess. I forget how tough you’ve had to become to survive it.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“With the Universe the way it is now? I don’t know, Jess. I really don’t know.”