Chapter Six

TAYLOR JERKED FORWARD, HER heart battering frantically against her ribs as she tried to outrun the seekers. Something darted out from a dip in the canyon wall, blocking her way. They collided, and Taylor drew in a sharp breath as she realized it was the ikthian civilian. She stared at Taylor, blue eyes wide with fright, but wasn’t looking at her. Instead, the alien seemed to be looking through her. Through her at Jackson, who was trapped against a seeker's chest.

In less than a second, Taylor had her gun pressed against her captive's skull. "Let him go," she yelled. She pressed the gun harder against the civilian’s temple. The seekers stared back at her, guns leveled. "Let him go, or I’ll kill her."

The ikthians laughed. One caught her gaze and stared intently at her. Taylor panicked and tried to look away, but an invisible force gripped her head, holding her eyes in place. The seeker sneered. "You won’t shoot her. You can’t. You’re too soft. You won’t even trade a life for a life."

"Don’t listen to them, Lieutenant," Jackson called out to her. "You can’t listen to them." As he spoke, his body started to twitch, and his skin melted from his face, leaving only blackened bone behind.

She still couldn’t pull the trigger.

"You’re weak, human," the ikthian spat. They laughed as Taylor continued to stand with the civilian trapped against her chest, frozen in place.

 

Taylor shot up in bed, panting raggedly. Her heart hammered, and she brushed a sweaty lock of hair away from her damp forehead. She glanced at the clock, trying to catch her breath as her pulse returned to normal. Only one minute remained until her alarm went off. With a sigh, Taylor reached out and silenced it. She staggered out of bed, slouching over to the washroom and running herself a cold shower. Even though her bathroom was small, it was also private. She was relieved to have a shower all to herself, especially now. She needed a few minutes to herself after witnessing Jackson’s death a second time, even if it had only been a dream.

"That damn prisoner had better be worth it," Taylor muttered as she began scrubbing her skin with a cloth, wiping it free of sweat. But even as she said it, she knew that Jackson’s death had been her fault. She was the officer in charge. It had been her drop. Those soldiers had been her responsibility. She had failed them.

After vigorously washing her hair and scrubbing her skin, Taylor turned off the water and began to towel herself dry. She returned to the bedroom, kicking aside piles of used clothes in search of something to wear. Roberts was expecting her in his office at 0800, and from the tone he had taken with her yesterday, it was important. There would probably be at least a few of the upper brass in attendance. Taylor’s stomach lurched at the thought of explaining herself to them. She hoped they would be too interested in the prisoner she had brought home to interrogate her about the failed mission and her dead squadmates.

Once she had pulled a fresh pair of fatigues over her still-wet skin and cleaned most of her dirty laundry off the floor, Taylor made her bunk and headed out the door. Her meeting with Roberts started in fifteen minutes, and she wanted to get there early.

Fortunately, the walk over to the main building only took her ten. She ran into Roberts on her way to his office and gave him a crisp salute, straightening her spine. "Captain Roberts, Sir!"

"At ease, soldier," Roberts said, giving her a smile. "This debriefing is going to be fairly informal. The brass mostly want to congratulate you. What you did out there impressed them."

"What I did?" Taylor had considered her survival and capture of an ikthian dumb luck. Apparently, the story sounded better than that to the higher-ups, even if the rest of her squad had been butchered along the way. A darker part of her thought she should have died with Jackson and the others. Their deaths were certainly not worth a commendation.

"You're the sole survivor of an ikthian instigated act of aggression. Your quick thinking not only got you out alive with valuable intel, but with a wealth of untapped knowledge from your ikthian prisoner."

"Oh, did the interrogation turn up something?" Taylor asked as she and Roberts resumed the short walk to his office.

"Not much, but it has potential to be something big." They stopped right outside of the office door. "Things are changing for you, Taylor. Not all of it will be easy, but I think you've handed us a piece that might actually help us win the war."

Taylor swallowed. "Really, Sir?" She didn’t dare to hope.

"I'll let the brass tell you."

The door to the office slid open and they both walked inside. Taylor instinctively saluted when she noticed who was waiting for them. She had been expecting someone from the upper brass to show up, but not three out of the Coalition's five generals. General Joseph Hunt stood in the center of the group. He was an older man with several creases in his forehead. It gave his stare a certain severity. He nodded to them in acknowledgement, and they lowered their hands.

Once at ease, Taylor's eyes immediately darted to a familiar pale figure. They had brought the ikthian with them. She stood in the far corner, looking out a window that only provided a view of the building across from them. She still wore the torn, stained clothes that she had been found in, and Taylor scanned the pale skin for any markings or irregularities. It didn’t look like they had given her any rough treatment.

"Lieutenant Morgan," General Hunt said.

Taylor glanced back at the general and fought down a blush. Had they noticed her staring? "Yes, Sir?"

"We would like to extend our congratulations on your successful capture of Maia Kalanis."

Taylor's eyes widened, and she couldn’t help looking back at the ikthian again. I captured a Kalanis?

The ikthian looked over at her with the same blank expression from yesterday, and Taylor swallowed. What little intel the military had gathered showed that the Kalanis family was made up of powerful ikthians, equivalent to something like a dynasty or a corporation by human standards.

"Thank you, Sir," Taylor said crisply. It was somewhat disconcerting to put a name to the alien, but she ignored her discomfort.

"We've already read your report," General Hunt said, recapturing Taylor's attention. "But we wanted to hear what happened from you in person." Her detachment, led by Captain Roberts, was under General Hunt's command, so technically, he was her boss's boss. His presence alone let Taylor know just how serious the situation was.

"Yes, Sir. The mission parameters were simple: reconnaissance on a world called Amaren. Mostly unpopulated, some active volcanoes, but we had reports that the ikthians were using the mineral deposits there to fuel their fleets. We hoped to cut off their supply line. When we arrived, we ran into a group of seekers almost immediately. I managed to contact the evac crew, but they had already butchered most of my squad."

Taylor paused, trying not to replay Jackson’s death in her mind. She took a deep breath. "There was no possible way to salvage the mission. I retreated, and on my way to the rendezvous point, I captured the ikthian. When the seekers saw her, they stopped pursuit, and I was able to return to the ship." She glanced over at the ikthian, Maia, who was looking everywhere but at her. "I guess I know why they didn't fire on me now."

"The Kalanis family is very influential in Dominion controlled space," General Ines Moore said. She was one of only two female generals in the Coalition, and Taylor knew that she had taken the hard route to get there, serving plenty of combat time before taking a leadership position. "We think that we can use this one as a bargaining chip, perhaps even open negotiations. Taking her alive has given us an invaluable asset."

"And that asset needs to be guarded," another voice interrupted. Taylor hadn’t noticed a fourth figure slithering around behind the generals, but she recognized him immediately once he stepped in front of them. She had seen Chairman Bouchard's smarmy face on more than enough news broadcasts concerning his lead position on the Council of Defense. His self-important attitude was even more off-putting in real life. If her capture of the ikthian had politicians crawling out of the woodwork in addition to the generals, things were even more serious than she thought.

The third general in attendance, Lee, cleared his throat. "What the Chairman means to say is that the prisoner will need to be monitored. Unfortunately, this base doesn't have proper holding facilities."

It took a moment for Taylor to realize what the general was implying. "You want me to guard her, Sir?" she asked, a little skeptically.

"During the negotiations, yes,” said General Lee. “We can’t afford to lose such a valuable bargaining chip. It makes sense for you to guard her, since you were the one to bring her here, and your squad was killed in action. You will set up a guard rotation outside her quarters, provide for her basic needs, and go with her whenever she is outside of the room. Upon completion of this assignment, you will receive a promotion."

That caught Taylor's attention. She wondered for a moment if she had only imagined it. "I'm sorry. But did you say...?"

General Hunt nodded. "Assuming that Kalanis makes it through to the end of negotiations, you'll be promoted to Captain."

Bouchard interrupted once more. "We've decided to move the prisoner out of interrogation, since it isn't suitable for long-term imprisonment. She needs a humidified environment, or her health will be negatively impacted." He spoke with a diplomatic tone that only made him sound more insincere. It was obvious that he didn’t care what happened to Maia as long as she was still around to bargain with. "She will be confined to a recently vacated captain's quarters, since it has the necessary controls and the highest security clearance. It's a little...opulent for a prisoner of war, but it is the best we can do. At the very least, it will allow you to stay there in comfort as well." Bouchard paused and looked from Maia to Taylor.

"I cannot stress how important this task is," General Lee said. "I don't care what methods you use to restrain her or keep her in line. They are completely at your discretion. But if she dies or escapes and we are unable to make use of her in our negotiations, there will be serious personal consequences for you."

Taylor didn’t know what else to say. She looked once again at Maia, but the ikthian still showed no sign of a reaction to her fate. Taylor would have wondered if ikthians showed emotion at all, but she had seen several looks of pure anger directed at her on the battlefield, as well as the sick joy some ikthians got out of poisoning humans with their toxins or mowing them down with assault rifles. Taylor felt her nails biting into her palms and unclenched her fists. She hadn’t even realized she had tightened them.

"Do you have any questions, Lieutenant?" General Hunt asked.

Taylor looked over at the general and tried to think of what she could possibly ask that was appropriate. Hundreds of questions ran through her head, all of them centered on her confusion over the situation. She didn’t understand why she had been selected to look after an ikthian prisoner, but if she really could help them end the war, Taylor owed it to her squad to do her best and follow the generals’ orders.

"I have no questions, Sir."

General Hunt nodded. "Very well. Report to the top floor of the officer's barracks at 0900. Bring your gear and personal items. You'll be bunking there. The prisoner will be waiting for you when you arrive. At that time, she will be transferred to your custody."

"Yes, Sir."

"You're dismissed," Bouchard drawled, but Taylor remained in place until General Hunt gave her a nod of approval. With his permission and another salute, she turned and left the office, resisting the nearly overpowering temptation to look back over her shoulder at the ikthian on the way out.