The experience left Elenya very fatigued. Which was hardly a surprise, since Sean had worked like an emotional parasite and drawn from her enough energy to form three duplicates.
Sean thought everyone seemed the worse for wear, as he had pulled on the emotional force emanating from everyone. Except for himself. Despite being wearied by the experience, Sean felt great. Proving his theory left him feeling like he had swallowed about a gallon of galactic energy drink.
They returned to the loft, where Elenya stretched out on the sofa. Sean warned her that he couldn’t wait for her to wake up, but he wasn’t sure she even heard, she was gone that fast. Carey refused to leave Dillon’s side, even when it meant enduring Tatyana’s protest and the Ambassador’s glare. But by then all three of the officials had lost a good deal of their starch, such that when the professor said he deserved to be included as well, they hardly kicked up a fuss.
But no one expected Sean’s next step, which was to ask for a meeting with Tirian.
He explained what he thought might be the key, giving them enough to justify his request. Not saying what he really felt needed to be stated. That it was time to release an innocent man. They would have to come to that conclusion on their own.
At a word from the Ambassador, Carver and Tatyana left for the courts. Sean and Carey and Dillon and John returned to the house to make sandwiches. The Ambassador agreed to transit to Cyrius and inform the authorities that an attack might be incoming.
As they crossed the lawn, Sean said, “I guess I should be happier that things are finally in motion.”
“All I can think of right now is that we’re not getting wiped,” Dillon replied.
John said, “That’s some lady you’ve got there, Sean.”
“I don’t have any idea what Elenya told them,” Carey said. “But it was still as strong as a punch to the heart.”
The words warmed him through the impromptu meal and the planning and the return of the three officials. And the confirmation that a meeting had been arranged with Tirian. One that the Chief Justice assigned to the case would attend. Dillon left with Carey for the Cyrian clinic, this time with the Ambassador’s consent. When Sean asked whether Dillon could check things out when Sean wasn’t there to anchor him, his brother stated with absolute confidence that Carey’s grip would prove as solid as Sean’s.
The Ambassador had yet to speak a word directly to Sean.
Sean returned to the loft to find Elenya up and waiting for him. She listened to his summary of everything that was happening in silence, then asked, “Has my father behaved?”
A voice from the bottom of the stairs replied, “He most certainly has.”
Elenya stopped him in mid-climb by saying, “Stay there, Father. We’re coming down.”
Sean nodded his agreement. The man might not be his enemy, but Sean had no interest in the Ambassador entering his private space.
Elenya planted a hand on Sean’s chest, then kissed him. She must have liked the flavor, for she smiled and kissed him again. Then she took his hand and led him downstairs. “Father, I would like to introduce Sean. Sean, this is my father, Anyon.”
Sean was not going to lie and say it was nice to meet the guy. So he simply said, “How do you do.”
Anyon grimaced over everything unspoken yet revealed by his native Serenese. “Still coming to terms with your discovery, is how I am.”
“Start by accepting that Sean is an adept, Father.” Elenya squeezed Sean’s hand hard enough to halt his protest before it emerged. “That will make everything else much easier.”
Anyon mulled it over, his gaze on their entwined hands. “Shall we join the others?”
They returned to the home, where Elenya hummed her pleasure over John’s tomato and basil and mozzarella sandwich. Then they all transited together. John joined hands with Carver, who offered to serve as translator.
They arrived at a standard transit room, but one that smelled somewhat musty and held a symbol Sean recognized from class. “This is . . .”
“Serena,” Elenya confirmed. “Home to the planetary government and the main prison.”
Sean didn’t say anything. But what he thought was, this would definitely not count as his first visit to Elenya’s home world.
They exited the transit room into an unadorned prison chamber, where more security and several officers greeted them. Everyone gave Sean a good look as they went upstairs, through electronic doors, and met more officials, and then Sean was left in a room alone. Everyone else crowded into the chamber next door, watching through the blank mirrored surface to Sean’s right, and probably through unseen cameras as well. The silence was intense.
Tirian was led in by two security. The guards seated the former Examiner at the central table and hooked his wrist to a hold on the tabletop. Then they backed up and planted themselves by the rear wall.
Tirian’s attitude had not been improved by prison. “Come to gloat?”
“We don’t have time for that.” Sean seated himself and said, “The clock is ticking.”
“What do you want?”
“Confirmation,” Sean replied. “That this whole deal was a case of wrong place, wrong time.”
The room was a muted ivory, same as Tirian’s prison garb. The visitation room was impeccably clean, the air almost sterile, void of all sound and smell. But one look at the shrunken man across from him told Sean everything he ever needed to know about the interplanetary prison system. Tatyana’s cold voice echoed through the chamber. You’re under arrest.
Tirian drew him back by glaring at the mirror taking up much of the side wall and demanding, “Who is in the next room?”
“Carver. Tatyana. The Judge assigned to your case. The former emissary to Lothia.”
“Ambassador Anyon?” Tirian’s stark black features were made to sneer. “For an outworlder, you certainly haven’t wasted any time.”
Sean felt so disassociated from the man’s scorn he could easily brush aside the comment. “Let’s review what we now know. The Cyrians dislike us. They have done everything but ban our presence.”
“Our presence,” Tirian repeated. “So now you count yourself among us.”
“They resent authority being imposed from beyond their own world.” Sean found it remarkably easy to ignore the dark scowl, the suspicious gaze, the unseen observers beyond the one-way glass. “But the Cyrians need us to export their technology. They may also use us as a stick to keep their leaders in line. But they detest us for what we represent. The unspoken evidence that their strand of humanity is not unique. That they are not the sole human race. That they are not superior beings.”
“Who told you that?”
Sean chose to ignore the question. “Which brings us to the aliens. And we now enter into the realm of speculation. But this is necessary to understand why we are seated here. May I continue?”
Sean could see that Tirian wanted to refuse. The young man seated opposite him was stark evidence of his own failure as an Examiner. The fact that his freedom rested in Sean’s hands was almost too much to bear. He fluttered his cheeks with a harsh breath, one that almost shaped a word.
Sean took that as the only green light this constipated soul would offer. “The aliens have been defeated all but seven times. Now that they’ve missed cycles, many want to believe the threat is gone. That they won’t return at all. But you think differently. All you need to do is look at the legacy of your own world and the wasteland now used by the Academy. You knew the threat of war wouldn’t just fade away. You suspected it was only a matter of time. So you set up your school. You started choosing your students while they were still very young. You wanted to control them, guide them, shield them from the threat of being attacked in the next cycle like transiters had been three times in a row. And you remained certain another invasion was coming.”
Tirian did not meet his eye. But the man was listening intently now, his breath catching with each exhale.
Sean went on, “You figured the previous three attacks were just probes. Your concern was that the aliens might now be returning in a new guise. That they were readying a different method of assault. You had no idea what it was going to be. But you were determined to protect your students. The aliens were not ever going to have access to those placed in your care. Even if it meant turning your school into a windowless prison, one that only opened to the outside world on the solstice, when every door and window on Lothia was ordered to be opened.”
“Pure conjecture,” Tirian muttered.
Sean ignored the interruption. “You suspected the next attack would come on a world like mine. An outpost world. One where the empire had almost no presence. You had no idea that the Assembly feared the exact same thing. Or that Watchers and Counselors had been assigned to monitor any suspect activity.”
He snapped around. “How do you know this?”
“I told you. It’s all conjecture. But it makes sense, doesn’t it. There is no way a Counselor responsible for several outpost words would take such an interest in two raw recruits. Or planetary Watchers would be set on constant alert, or Praetorian Guards readied for attack. They wouldn’t do this for new recruits. They wouldn’t keep us in place. They would ship us off to a school like yours, where we could be monitored and protected. But they didn’t. And I can only think of one reason to keep us there, out in the open.”
Sean turned to the mirror. Glared beyond the glass. And finished, “They used us as bait.”
When he turned back, Tirian’s scowl was twisted by a fascination he no longer tried to hide. The former Examiner chewed on something, but all he said was, “The aliens.”
“Right. Once this is over I want to research how the three alien attacks that focused on transiters might be linked. But here’s what I think. The aliens almost succeeded. It was only by chance they were halted. It’s why the authorities let you make your school so confined. It’s why they don’t allow recruits to extend their abilities. It’s why the instruction is so boring. Because everyone is terrified the aliens will use any new experiments as a conduit to enter and take over and attack.”
“They’re right to be afraid,” Tirian said.
“This fear restricts our understanding of their tactics,” Sean shot back.
Tirian’s sneer took hold once more. “Forty centuries of fighting an unseen foe, and here you come. Less than two months of training and you have all the answers.”
“Just one,” Sean replied. “More like half an idea. Which is why I’m here. I need you to tell me what happened before you were taken.”