*Log-in: Starnet Link #096-B31-098-K232—Michael Sorenson*
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*Link #078-N33-311-V221*
Link number 078-N33-311-V221: Cmdr. Milo Gupta. To initiate this link, please confirm now.
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[Visual feed: Milo Gupta, a slim man, early forties, close-cropped black hair, brown eyes]
Gupta: This is Commander Gupta of the CE Navy.
Sorenson: Commander, my name is Team Leader Michael Sorenson, late of Military Support Base Epsilon-065.
Gupta: What can I do for you, Team Leader?
Sorenson: Sir, I’m looking for information about what happened on Iolanthe. I understand that you were one of the officers in charge during the quarantine.
[Silence: 13 seconds]
Gupta: Iolanthe? I’m not sure how you found out I was there, but you’re correct. I was at Iolanthe for that operation, for what little we were able to do. I’m not sure what sort of information you’re looking for, but most of the details that aren’t already public knowledge are classified. As a military man yourself, you must understand what classified means.
Sorenson: I’m not asking for classified information. I just need to know if my sister is alive. Please, she’s only sixteen!
Gupta: [sighs] I’m not sure I can help you. The enemy hit hard and fast. By the time we arrived, there was little left to do but lay the planetary net.
Sorenson: There were no evacuees at all?
Gupta: None that we picked up. A few cargo ships made it off before we arrived, but all the passengers have been accounted for and added to the official lists. If your sister isn’t on them, she didn’t make it off.
Sorenson: [long pause] Thank you for your candor. I won’t take up any more of your time, Commander.
Gupta: Again, my sincere condolences. It’s never easy to lose the ones we love. [Starts to cut the link and pauses] There was—
Sorenson: Sir?
Gupta: [hesitates] Off the record? There was a group of students. They’d made it all the way into the Rainforest outside of town and used one of the emergency channels to call for help. I sent a shuttle to evacuate them, but at the last minute, we received new orders. As far as I know, they were still there when the planetary net was laid.
Sorenson: [jaw drops] You . . . you left them?
Gupta: [bristles] Don’t look at me that way! It killed me to leave those kids out there in the jungle, but I had orders. I couldn’t disobey a superior officer.
Sorenson: Do you know any of the students’ names?
Gupta: I’m sorry, I never received that information. Although . . .
Sorenson: Yes?
Gupta: There was one girl, the one calling for pickup. She told me her name. I remember because it was an uncommon name—a color, in fact. She told me her name was—
Sorenson: Teal.
Gupta: [slack-jawed] She’s your sister?
Sorenson: Then she is alive.
Gupta: [starts to nod, then shakes his head] No, no, I’m sorry, son. She may have been alive then, but that was months ago. If the enemy hasn’t gotten her, the jungle has.
Sorenson: No, you’re wrong. You don’t know my sister. She’s alive; I just have to get to her.
Gupta: No chance. The planet’s been quarantined. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.
Sorenson: There has to be a way! Who was the superior officer who called off the evac?
Gupta: I really can’t—
Sorenson: Just a name. Please, she’s my little sister!
[Silence: 37 seconds]
Gupta: [sighs] It was Captain Nye-Tang who gave the order, but I beg you, don’t get involved with him. He’s dangerous.
Sorenson: Dangerous? What do you mean?
Gupta: [hesitates] Captain Nye-Tang was never meant to be at the evacuation of Iolanthe. It was I who was placed in charge, but halfway through the mission, he swooped in out of nowhere, pulled rank, and started giving orders. It was he who ordered us to abandon your sister and those kids at the last minute, all to pick up some sort of cargo shipment.
Sorenson: A shipment? Of what?
Gupta: I never saw the cargo—Nye-Tang had it off-loaded to another ship shortly after the quarantine—but I’ve heard things, rumors.
Sorenson: What kinds of rumors?
Gupta: People say he has friends in high places, that even though he’s only a captain, he’s damn near untouchable. [hesitates] I’ve even heard it whispered that he’s the Chairman’s creature, that his first loyalty is to the head of TruCon and not the Expanse.
Sorenson: Do you believe them?
Gupta: [long pause] After two and a half years of war, I’m not sure what I believe anymore.
[Silence: 19 seconds]
Gupta: Look, I admire your determination, but Nye-Tang’s not going to help you. He’s not even going to take your link. He’ll refuse it the moment he sees it.
Sorenson: [thinks a moment] Then I guess I’ll have to make sure I’m someone he can’t refuse.