It’d been quiet now for quite some time and Ed was thoroughly miserable. He couldn’t see or hear anything, his broken ribs hurt like hell every time he breathed and he was lying in a pool of his own urine. He was worrying about the others too.
Were they getting the same treatment? he thought, as he flexed the numb muscles in his legs and arms. For all I know, they could be lying somewhere close by.
He tried shuffling around a bit to see if anyone was lying near him, but cried out in pain as all he managed to do was agitate his ribs.
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ he shouted, through gritted teeth. ‘Someone is going to fucking pay for this shit.’
He was suddenly grabbed off the floor and dumped into what felt like a chair. The pain was excruciating, but at least it was a change of position. The hood and ear plugs were ripped off his head and he squinted as the lighting, dull as it was, pierced his eyes like lasers. Someone was shouting and it took a moment for his internal translator to adjust to the Ellinika language the annoyed voice was conversing in.
‘––fucking prisoner not an animal,’ bellowed the voice. ‘Get him washed and for ancients’ sake some fresh clothes too. He’s in a GDA detention centre, not a Klatt mining prison.’
Ed’s eyes focused on a smartly dressed man, with salt and pepper hair and a scowl.
‘Thank you,’ he mumbled, through short gasps of air so as not to annoy his ribs further.
One of the guards the smartly dressed man had been admonishing curled his lip at Ed and spoke in a low hiss.
‘My brother was on the 28. If it was my decision you’d be out an airlock already.’
Ed stared back, a look of complete confusion on his face.
‘Out,’ said Smartly Dressed, pointing at the cell door. ‘From now on, I’m the only one who will address the prisoner and you will be reassigned.’
The guard sneered and stomped out, the rage evident in his face.
‘Sorry about that,’ said Smartly Dressed. ‘Some of them can be such neanderthals.’
Ed stared at the man more closely and swore he recognised him from somewhere. His hair was a little greyer and perhaps a few more lines on his face, but he was sure they’d met before.
‘I know you from somewhere, don’t I?’ he croaked, as Smartly Dressed produced a small penknife and sliced through Ed’s bonds.
Ed rubbed his sore wrists and ankles as a sly grin came over Mr Smartly Dressed’s face.
‘I represented some Earther friends of yours a few years ago,’ he said. ‘You saved the case for me right at the last minute with some new evidence.’
‘Commander Cien’dra,’ said Ed, raising his eyebrows in recognition. ‘You represented Xavier Lake.’
‘Correct, Captain Virr,’ said Cien’dra. ‘As soon as I heard it was you, I came straight here. I owe you one – and you can afford my fees. They would’ve just given you some mediocre on-duty defence councillor and you wouldn’t want one of those on a parking charge, let alone mass murder.’
‘Mass murder?’ choked Ed, then coughed and wished he hadn’t, as his chest raged its disapproval. ‘Is that what that guard was on about when he mentioned the 28?’
Cien’dra nodded slowly.
‘They’re charging you with the wilful destruction of the 28 and murder of the crew, the murders of Ambassador Xantian and Admiral Geltz, along with the disappearance of ex-President Xutan and his security detail.’
‘And a partridge in a fucking pear tree,’ said Ed, rolling his eyes and sighing.
‘What?’
‘Never mind. Do they have even a scrap of evidence to back up this crap?’ Ed asked.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Cien’dra. ‘I saw the video and log evidence that was handed in with you. I have it on here.’ He waved his tablet and nodded. ‘I must admit it’s quite compelling too.’
‘You do realise I was being held prisoner on a Klatt warship when the 28 was destroyed?’
‘Not according to the prosecution’s evidence, you weren’t.’
‘Someone with a lot of political clout and funds has gone to a lot of trouble to orchestrate this coup.’
‘Coup? What coup?’
Ed started at the beginning and gave Cien’dra the full story, from being snatched from his own home on Earth, to ending up in a pool of piss and broken ribs on a Vasi Stathmos Space Station cell floor.
‘Ancients help us,’ said Cien’dra, leaning back against the cell wall once Ed had finished. ‘Proving any of this is going to be difficult.’
‘You need to watch your back too,’ said Ed. ‘If they’re prepared to murder admirals, ambassadors and even ex-presidents, then your disappearance would barely register.’
Cien’dra sucked on his bottom lip and stared at the floor for a moment.
‘We need to let them think they’ve got away with all this and tied up all the loose ends,’ he said. ‘Then hope they get sloppy.’
‘What? With me found guilty and executed?’
‘No,’ said Cien’dra. ‘We immediately appeal your conviction, that’ll hold everything up for weeks and give us time to hopefully flush out the true conspirators.’
‘What do you mean, us?’ asked Ed. ‘What bloody good am I going to be able to do, stuck on death row in a GDA high security prison?’
‘You saw the reaction of that guard?’
Ed glanced at the door and nodded.
‘There’s going to be a lot more of that. I saw the hatred for Lake and Herez last time a ship lost its crew. We’ll get you placed in protective custody in a safe house somewhere and work from there.’
‘You’d better be right about this,’ said Ed. ‘I’ll come back and haunt you if they find me guilty, take me out the back and shoot me.’
‘Won’t happen,’ said Chen’dra confidently.
‘Just on the off chance it does,’ said Ed, ‘can you make sure my intact body is taken back to my ship and placed in an auto nurse?’
‘Yeah okay, whatever that is. Why?’
‘Erm – it’s just custom to be buried back on my home planet before the body begins decomposing.’
‘Ah – right,’ he said, giving Ed a sideways glance. One thing Cien’dra had always been good at was knowing when he was being lied to. He had a suspicion that the last bit wasn’t entirely true. ‘I’ll go and make sure you get a shower and—’
A shout and the unmistakable pulse from a discharged energy weapon coming from out in the security office stopped him mid-sentence.
‘What the—’ was all Cien’dra got out as two scruffy men appeared in the cell doorway, both firing powerful laser rifles at the two men in the cell from point blank range.