Chapter Two - Between the Storms

Chapter Two - Between the Storms

A chance to rest. By why am I still so tired?

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Idris opened his eyes, seeing the deck still under his face. There was dry blood underneath him and he realized his face felt demolished. He tried to roll onto his back and tried to sit up again. He felt a hand touch his shoulder from behind and lurched away in surprise. He caught himself and then tried to look behind him.

Brynn was standing there, her hand stretched out to help him up. She'd clearly been crying. He took the outstretched hand, and she pulled him to his feet. As soon as he was standing, she slapped him across the face. "What... did you do to me?!"

She was crying again, and he couldn't look at her. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I... I didn't know... "

"Didn't know?! You didn't know?! How could you not have known?!"

"Because. Because they told me... they assured me... that she was safe, that she was contained."

She was shaking her head angrily before he even finished. "No, Captain, I'm not talking about... her high and mightiness, whatever her name. I'm talking about stealing from me, stealing my... my... well whatever you want to call it!"

"Your gift," he offered, trying to help.

"YES! My... my gift." She made another angry nose and clenched her fists. "For so long, I... I was able to keep myself safe with it, but that's the last word I ever would have used to describe it." She shook her head again and turned away from him. "And now... I just never thought I'd ever know what it was like to miss it, to do anything... if I could just have it back." She leaned against the bulkhead, propping herself up with one arm as she tried to stay on her feet, but then he heard her sobbing silently again.

"I... " his hand came up and reached towards her, but he stopped, hesitating, paralyzed about what to do. "I'm... I'm sorry, Brynn. Please... I promise... it'll be alright. Not... not right away, but... eventually."

She spun around suddenly, yelling at him. "Alright?! It'll be alright?! How could you know what would be alright for me?! You don't even know me, Captain. I'm just... I'm just one more stray that you took in, who... who got hurt because she was with you!"

He shook his head, slowly at first, then faster and frantically. "No, no it's not like that! I swear!"

She stepped towards him, her fists clenched at her sides. "Isn't it though? Isn't it just like before?! When it came down to choices, you always seem to pick the one that does what's best for you. It's just like last time."

He was still shaking his head. "No. No, that's not true. This... this was nothing like-"

"She died because of you, didn't she? Because you made a choice. You chose... and then she died."

His eyes were wide with shock, and he felt himself step away from her as she got closer. "No. No, you... you don't know what you're talking about. How could you know? You weren't.... You weren't even-"

"I wasn't what, Captain? I wasn't there? I wasn't standing right next to you when she murdered me, because you chose to save yourself?"

Suddenly, Brynn's hair changed and then her face. Idris startled and tried to get away. He knew the face. It belonged to someone he'd tried to bury deep with his most horrible memories. "It was your fault, Idris. It is all your fault!"

Idris woke suddenly, gasping, his chest heaving and his heart pounding. He was drenched in his own sweat, and he felt consciousness suddenly crash down on him. His face was throbbing, and he felt like he was hurt in places he had never realized he had places. He tried to stand, cautiously pushing down against the deck with his hand as he pushed himself away from the floor. He staggered just as he got upright and crashed into the bulkhead, stretching his hands out in front of him to brace himself. His vision was blurry, and he tried to take in his surroundings. He saw Brynn, still unconscious, but also still breathing, lying on the floor where he had seen her last.

He sighed with relief and then felt like the floor was rushing towards him. He managed to stay on his feet and tried to grab the bulkhead with his hands, only managing to scrape his fingernails against the surface. He turned so his back was against the wall now, the cold metallic surface feeling like ice against his skin. He looked up, closing his eyes and tried to take a deep, shallow breath before he risked stepping away from his support.

He stumbled at first but recovered and managed to get his feet near where Brynn lay on the floor. He looked down at her for a long moment, trying to do a visual check. He found it difficult to believe what he saw, even now. Not one scrape, not a single burn, and no visual indication that anything had happened.

Then he felt his stomach drop. He had no idea what he was going to do when she woke up. What would he say to her? What could he say to her? Certainly not anything useful. He sighed again and then realized they were still on the landing ramp. It had been retracted and the only sounds he heard came from further inside the ship. The same, subtle sounds that filled his ship whenever he was off world.

He bent down next to Brynn but hesitated. He felt an aversion that he felt all the way to the deepest recesses of his body, an almost all-consuming desire to leave her there if only to delay the moment when she woke up again and flew into a rage at what he had allowed to happen to her. The fear and dread he felt left him petrified for a long moment, just squatting down next to her. Then he clenched the muscles of his arms, the shame and self-loathing he had felt for himself quickly changing, replaced with indignation and anger. Then he summoned the mental faculties to force himself to scoop her up off the deck to find a bed for her.

She was lighter than he would have guessed, and he hoped it would continue to feel that way until he could get something soft underneath her. He made sure to be slow in his movements, both to keep from waking her but also to keep from losing his balance and dumping her onto the deck. Once he reached the room that housed the spare racks, now long unused, he managed to stretch her out onto a bed without disturbing her. She was still breathing normally, and he could find no outward sign of distress on her face.

He shut his eyes and indulged in a long moment of relief that he did not immediately have to figure out what to do with her, or what to say to her. He backed out of the room and left. He was confident that she would sort herself out when she was ready, after she woke up, but now he needed to get to work on Atalanta.

When Brynn finally awoke, she felt as though she had been asleep for months. Her limbs were heavy, unresponsive, as if they weren't fully hers. A dull, aching weight settled over her entire body, pressing her deeper into the bed. The air felt thick in her lungs, dry and foreign, and even the effort of opening her eyes sent a wave of exhaustion rolling through her.

Her thoughts lagged behind reality, sluggish and muddled, like she was trying to push through water just to form a single coherent thought. She'd had her share of struggles getting a good night's rest in a place, but this was definitely different.

She started to try and roll over on her side, realizing she was in some strange bed without any memory of how she'd ended up in it. She surveyed her surroundings and tried to take comfort in the fact that at least she'd woken up in a strange bed... alone. She remembered more than one time in her life where she'd found herself in a strange bed that she couldn't remember getting in, but also with a stranger that she had no immediate recollection of. She felt the memory send a chill through her body as she thought of it.

She sat up cautiously and swung her legs off the side to place her feet on the floor. She still felt like she was trapped in a dream, but she didn't sense any other symptoms, at least not for the moment. She pulled herself to her feet, wrapping her fingers around one of the posts of the bed to steady herself, and started walking towards the only thing that looked like an exit.

The aperture expanded, the panels spinning away from the center and recessing into the wall as she approached. As she passed through, they closed again, contracting together. She looked left and right but saw no one. Then she heard a voice from the floor. Brynn jumped a little, surprised if nothing else, as she heard Ophelia talking to her, and the prominent sensation of disorientation and fatigue serving only to alarm her all the more by the surprise. The fact that she had to look down toward her ankles to see the image didn't help either, vertigo and dizziness swimming in her head.

"Mistress Phytrelia, I am relieved to see you on your feet. Please be careful as you may be more than a little groggy and thus struggling to stay on your feet."

Brynn's stomach was in her chest now, and she swallowed, nodding. "Noted."

"Oh, forgive me. I had not intended to alarm you."

Brynn nodded again, her breath still unsteady, but the pounding in her chest was finally beginning to ease. "No problem. I seem to be more than a little out of it." She felt another wave of lethargy break over her and she shut her eyes, breathing deeply in an effort to recover. "I appear to be turned around though. I am not sure where I was going. Maybe you can help me?"

"Oh, of course! I would be glad to. If you look behind you, you will find the way that leads to your bed."

Brynn glanced behind her for a moment, before turning back to Ophelia's image. "Right. Where I just came from. I know. I didn't need help with that." She thought for a moment as she looked both ways again. "How about you show me to wherever it is that the captain has wandered off to?"

Without saying anything else, the little image seemed to burst into a hundred pieces of light, scattering left and right into the bulkhead of the corridor. She noticed the wall glowed with yellow arrows, the light cycling between glowing bright and growing dim. "Thank you." She paused a moment as she realized she was now just talking to herself and closed her eyes, shaking her head in slight embarrassment.

With a steadier stride, she followed the bulkhead lights, the familiar path leading her back to the cockpit. She looked around a moment, hearing no one. She heard little of anything, she realized, and noticed she did not have any idea where to go. She sighed, moving into the cockpit, and sat in the chair she had slumped in before. As soon as her back leaned into the seat, she felt overcome with drowsiness again.

She tried to keep her eyes open, but just could not find the strength. Eyes still closed, she decided to see if Ophelia could help her again. When she called out, the next thing she heard was Ophelia's voice, sounding as though it was coming from the same place on the console as she had been last time.

"Yes, Mistress. What can I do for you?"

Brynn shook her head, protesting groggily. "No. Nuh uh. I do not need people mixing me up with that lady by you using that word for me."

"Understood. What alternative would you prefer?"

"Well, I do have a name. Can we try that?"

"Of course, Ms. Phytrelia."

Brynn scrunched up her nose in disgust. "How did you immediately manage to come up with something worse than what you started with?" She shook her head again, still feeling groggy, but managing to muster the strength to open her eyes long enough for her gaze to lock on the image on the console. "Just... Brynn. Brynn will do just fine."

"Very well. But do not expect me to address you that way in front of the captain. That degree of impertinence would not be tolerated."

"Uh huh. Well, we can deal with that issue later. Speaking of, do you know where he is? I thought you were leading me to him. How did you manage to send me to the wrong part of the ship even though I asked you to send me to him?"

The image was silent for a long moment and Brynn allowed the silence to pass between them before making a frustrated face. "Right. Are you not authorized to tell me or something?"

"To tell you what?"

Brynn sighed patiently and made another face. "To... tell me... where. He. Is."

"Of course."

Brynn's hand covered her face now. "Ophelia. Where is Captain Chariton... Right. Now?"

"Captain Chariton is currently endeavoring to complete repairs on the ship within one of the component tunnels. Specifically, junction 235-A-12."

Brynn let the back of her chair straighten up and looked over at the console, both eyes open wide. She shut her eyes for a long moment and opened them again. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?" She shook her head again, holding the sides of her head with her fingertips, her eyes closing again. "Actually, never mind, I'll just wait here patiently until he is done or decides to back down here." She tried to open her eyes again, but felt like her body was suspended in a body of water, the same swimming feeling consuming her before she resigned herself back to unconsciousness.

Idris hit the switch to trigger a circuit test on the latest repair he had been working on. Initially, it seemed to work, but he heard another piece burn out with a fresh, popping noise, indicative of a new problem. Before he could restrain himself, he had smashed the spanner against the bulkhead a few times, before regaining the presence of mind to rein himself in again. He sighed, wriggling out of the access tube he had been sprawled out in for the last hour. At this rate, they could get under way just before every glimpse of light or heat went out in the universe. He shut his eyes, steeling himself as he prepared to try the last option that he felt he still had left. He did not know if they would answer, but he also could not think of anything else he could do if they chose to ignore him.

He grumbled as he made his way back to the cockpit to try his communications array. He took a moment to be grateful that that component, and his life support, had not decided to abandon them. At least not yet. He turned down the last leg he had to walk to get back to his chair and almost jumped back in surprise when he found Brynn asleep. He assumed that she'd woken up and went to find him... and then realized that considering any other possibility, like that she moved here in her sleep, was too disconcerting for him to dwell on.

He rubbed his hand down his face and shook his head. A very big part of him seriously considering just waiting to see if someone surprised him with a rescue if it meant he could avoid having to face her right now.

He began punching up systems on the console, drafting a communique, and then hesitated, staring at the console a long moment before finally transmitting. He leaned back in his chair and caught himself sinking into the despair his circumstances brought him to. He knew it could always be worse, but he felt like it was about as bad as things had ever been. Then Brynn stirred a little and he realized that if he were forced to choose between spontaneously dropping dead before she woke up and having to face her once she regained consciousness, he'd have to consider the virtues of either option.

He did not doubt for a moment that Moranna was delighting in the anguish she had set him up for, or that she'd done this intentionally, making sure the situation with Brynn was indistinguishably similar to the mess she'd left him with last time she'd crossed his path.

A notification trilled from the console, breaking him out of his woolgathering. He arched one eyebrow, pleasantly surprised to the point of outright skepticism, and then learned forward to accept the incoming signal. The image came up on the view screen and Idris' felt his eyes go wide as he saw their face. The man seemed momentarily surprised to discover Idris was not alone. "Captain Chariton. Oh... Sorry. I didn't realize... " He shut his mouth for a moment, and then tried to recover. "Is this a good time?"

"Tiber, despite any evidence to the contrary, I would not describe what's going on as anything even resembling 'a good time.' I feel like the words 'unpleasant surprise' might be used if one was prone to understatement.

The other man nodded a little but decided to move on. "If I had known you were going to be in the area, I could have tried to help, but I had no reason to suspect my help with be wanted."

"Oh. Really. And just what would you have done?"

The other man sat patient for a moment, and then Idris spoke again. He waved a dismissive hand at the screen and shook his head. "Sorry. I'm afraid I'm not in the best mood at the moment, Admiral."

"I'm sure I'm not only one who would understand that. Are you at least safe for the moment? Do you have life support?"

"Yes. For the moment. But I feel like the clock is counting down on that. Any chance you can help me with a retrieval? I'm by no means asking for a new ship, but I most certainly do not seem able to complete the necessary repairs with the resources I have left."

The man considered for a moment and then nodded once. "Yes. We can figure something out. However, I must ask: what are your more long-term plans, especially given recent developments?"

Idris made a face. "I suppose I should be considering what my plans were going to be if I ever got under power again."

The admiral nodded slowly. "I understand. I just want to remind you that more than one option is available. Maybe use this time to mull it over."

"I already am. In the meantime... "

The admiral nodded. "Yes. For now, let's get you towed to safety. I can meet up with you to complete your debriefing."

"That's certainly acceptable to me."

"Thank you. However... "

Idris looked a question at him, but said nothing.

"Well, the things is: I'm afraid that Avenger is the only vessel even remotely close to your coordinates. And that's considering it might be as long as two days before you see them."

Idris stared back at him without making a sound and the admiral shrugged at him in response. Idris nodded once, and then nodded a little less hesitantly. "Alright. We'll just... wait here as fast as we can."

The admiral's expression seemed to relax a little and he nodded his head once in confirmation. "Good. I'm hoping to rendezvous in less than a week, hopefully as shortly after you're picked up as we can manage."

"Of course. And thank you, Tiber. The assistance you've offered is more than I feel I could have asked of you. I hope you know I appreciate it."

"Think nothing of it, my friend. I know there was a day when you would have done the same for me. Good luck. Admiral Durron clear."

Brynn was now in the last vestiges of sleep, and moved to sit up in the chair she occupied. She stretched a little and opened her eyes. When she saw him there, she smiled. "I didn't know what else to do when I woke up. I couldn't remember getting in that bed, or how I got there, and then I barely had the juice to get over here before I passed out again."

Idris' mouth hung open for a long moment. He had no idea what to say. She wrinkled her forehead at him, shaking her head in confusion before he spoke. "I... I am... very sorry... for what happened."

Her eyebrows climbed towards her hairline. She shook her head a little, her initial surprise now replaced with confusion.

His face fell a little, and he kind of shrugged. "I just... I hope you know that I deeply regret putting you in that situation."

She wrinkled her forehead and her nose, this time. "What in stars are you referring to? What situation? Are you saying you feel as though you are somehow culpable for what happened? What could you possibly have done differently?"

His mouth opened, but nothing came out. He shut it, then opened it again, as if willing the right words to form--but they didn't.

She flared her nostrils at him. "Captain, I do not pretend to have the faintest idea as to the sort of people you are used to dealing with, but let me be abundantly clear, as you seem to have some doubts. You absolutely cannot reasonably be held responsible for the choices I made. I'm a big enough girl that I am more than capable of making my own choices, but more importantly, I do not make it a habit to paint other people as the villain in my story when the choices I make don't turn out a way I like. Or that turn out in a way that metaphorically blow up in my pretty little face."

He was gawking at her now, completely gobsmacked. His mouth hung open in surprise, but she went on before he could say anything.

"And to be fair, I'm the one who wasn't honest with you. But why would I have? I just met you and after doing this for over twenty years, I still do not know how to start the conversation, 'oh, and, before I forget, I'm a freak, and not just your everyday freak, a freak that is potentially lethal. That's alright, right?' So let's not forget that any time soon. For now, I would like some answers because I definitely missed the preamble to that party." She tilted her head in the direction of where she'd spotted Admiral Durron's image a moment ago.

Idris finally closed his mouth. He pondered a moment, blowing out a gust of breath through his nose. "I'm not entirely sure where to begin."

Brynn pursed her lips and folded her arms. "Well, what are we doing next?"

Idris sat up and shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Well, I tried to... get us going again, but there's too much damage. So an old contact of mine is sending help."

"And how long until that help gets here?"

"About 40-50 hours."

"Right. So, do you think that's enough time to tell me... everything."

He tilted his face towards her and gave her an old-fashioned look. "I suspect it might be."

Brynn sat up straight in her chair and clapped her hands. "Well great! Go ahead and get started then!"

"Right." He sighed and nodded. "Well, for starters... "

A long time later, Brynn sipped a hot drink as she sat across the table from Idris in the galley. "So what will you do now?"

"Well, I feel like I'll just have to wait and see how things go after they get here to pick us up. If things go well, then I might be able to help, since everyone else Moranna has run into seems to have either decided to join her or wasn't left alive to talk about it."

Brynn looked a question at him. "What do you mean? Do you think things are going to go badly? I think I am missing something here."

Idris grimaced and shifted in his seat. "It's... complicated."

"Well, obviously, but why?"

"Avenger's captain is someone I have met before. And she may or may not have leveled a threat against my life the last time I saw her."

Brynn sat up a little straighter. "Oh? Against your life? That sounds serious. What seems to be her issue?"

"She blames me for the death of her sister."

"Her sister?! Do you have responsibility in her death? How did she die?"

"Yes. Moranna killed her."

Brynn gawked at him for a long moment and then shook her head. "That psychotic woman who tried to kill us, and broke your ship, killed someone... but it's your fault somehow?" She shook her head again. "That still doesn't make any sense to me."

Idris huffed out a sharp breath from his nose, shifting in his seat again. "Well, she killed her because of me. It was my fault."

Brynn rolled her eyes and looked at him incredulously. "Captain, are you prepared to force me to poke and prod every detail of this out of you, like I am trying to rip out your fingernails?"

I am afraid that Idris avoided eye contact, looking down at the table without saying a word. Ophelia's small image coalesced on the tabletop, tiny drops of light swirling into place until they formed a complete figure. "Captain Chariton does not discuss the circumstances and events of Commander Usid's demise very eloquently or freely."

Idris swatted at the table, his hand only managing to distort the image. "No one asked you, Ophelia!"

The image's head turned towards him as if to look over its shoulder. "No, she did not."

Brynn looked between them eagerly. "And do you have the same reservations about giving me the details of this story?"

"Not even a little." Ophelia's image crossed her arms, looking at Idris. "And it is worth mentioning that despite Captain Chariton's assertions to the contrary, his conclusions about what happened are totally devoid of any sort of scientific logic or objective reasoning." She stopped short of wagging her finger at him, then turned back to Brynn. "The preposterous, nonsensical gobbledygook he insists on parroting originates from the aggressive, psychological conditioning impressed upon him by the late lieutenant's surviving relatives. The two officers were so profoundly incapable of accepting the news of her passing that they decided to indulge in an irrational, zealous crusade to force Captain Chariton into destitution and humiliation. "

Brynn's eye grew ever wider as Ophelia went on. "Now I am beyond interested. Will you tell me anyway, even though it might be ridiculous?"

"I would be happy to."

Idris pushed back from the table and slammed a fist on the surface next to Ophelia. "No! Absolutely not!"

Brynn startled and then jumped a little when his fist hit the table. Her eyes went between Idris and Ophelia. "What? But why? Weren't you going to tell me anyway?"

Idris huffed out a blast of air and turned his back to them, folding his arms. "Ophelia doesn't remember it correctly."

Brynn wrinkled her forehead. "Ophelia, the computer, doesn't remember something correctly?"

Idris spun around, lifting his nose at her. "Yes. That is exactly what I am saying."

Ophelia cut in again. "Captain, I am sure you are already aware, but just in case you missed it, I feel obliged to inform you that you are exhibiting behavior that is virtually indistinguishable from textbook paranoia, or some other kind of schizotypal mental illness. The facts on this matter have not changed and they will remain consistent despite your attempts to question them or create doubts around them."

Idris scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Talk about whatever you want." He threw up his hands and stormed out of the galley.

Brynn rolled her eyes and shook her head a little, turning back to the table. "Very well, I'll just stay here and let you fill me in."

"I am confident it will make more sense after I have more thoroughly explained it."

Brynn sipped from her mug again and nodded. "Only one way to find out."

"Before I start, I must mention that this information was not obtained from Captain Chariton. I have diligently reviewed all records Atalanta could provide me with access to since the time of this incident."

Brynn looked confused, but nodded slowly, acknowledging Ophelia's statement.

"So, roughly one hundred thirty thousand standard hours ago..."

Brynn looked at Ophelia in disbelief, but Ophelia shook her head and held up her hands.

"... Approximately fifteen years, if you account time by Adrondonus' cycle."

Brynn nodded, smirking. "Of course."

"I apologize: every system measures days and years differently, but an hour is typically sixty minutes regardless of where you are in the galaxy."

Brynn nodded again. "Right. That makes sense."

"Anyway, Captain Chariton had never left the surface of his planet, much less been the captain of a space-worthy vessel. He met Lieutenant Usid when she was on shore leave. The captain was smitten, and Lieutenant Usid's interest in him matured rapidly. They met several times, but the time between her visits only increased in length and frequency.

"Add to this that Idris' employer grew jealous of the affair and took issue with the relationship she had with Idris. He eventually leveled an ultimatum that Idris terminate all contact or he would cancel his contract. Idris was living hand to mouth, so a cancelled contract would have left him destitute. When Idris told her, Lieutenant Usid was furious. She accused him of being selfish, but she eventually acknowledged that there was nothing he could do. For a while, she stayed away. But then one day she met him in secret and tried to convince him to join her."

"And did he?"

"No. Not initially, but Lieutenant Usid's efforts decreased in subtlety over time."

Brynn looked at her sideways. "Oh?"

"Yes. Obviously, I do not have a lot of reliable sources on this, but I was able to procure copies of the lieutenant's personal logs. She probably thought no one else would ever bother to view them, so they were fairly detailed."

Brynn gave her another sideways glance. "Oh? Detailed?"

Ophelia made a face, and Brynn burst out laughing as Ophelia expression was the most old-fashioned look someone had ever given her. Ophelia rolled her eyes but stopped short of groaning. "Yes. Detailed."

"And you think this is what motivated him to ditch his life and run away with her?"

"Exactly. I can think of very little in the way of possible alternatives. So eventually, or maybe even inevitably in this case, he followed her off the planet without anything more than the clothes he was wearing. He entered the service, perhaps to impress her, or maybe because he truly thought things would get better if he left. He weathered through the hazing and mistreatment new recruits are still forced to endure. Then he graduated they dropped into some remedial assignment."

"How long was he stranded there?"

"Longer than he should have been. Eventually, he'd accrued enough merit to receive a profitable contract and extricated himself. The new assignment helped him create a lot of connections and foster friendships with individuals in all ranks and roles of the service. This helped him rise through the ranks until he exceeded even the lieutenant's meager roles. I think she did something to intentionally sabotage him. My suspicions lean towards the likelihood that she could not cope with the fact that she had lifted him out of destitution but then he ascended -- on his own, no less - to a place in his life where he could survive without her.

"So somehow, the authorities caught him with some kind of classified information, and he was charged with conspiracy and sedition. They court marshaled him, dishonorably discharged him, before finally expelling him from all service roles. I suspect she set him up to take the blame for something one of her other associates was entangled in. Seemingly overnight, everyone he'd ever worked with suddenly forgot to return his calls or answer his faxes. With his otherwise spotless record now in ruins, he felt as though he had no other choice but to return to where the lieutenant had found him. His employer was gracious enough to let him come back, but only because of how much opportunity it provided him to humiliate Idris. He agreed to allow Idris to board there in exchange for his labor, but this meant he got to work for free."

Brynn held her hand up to her heart, recalling her own recent circumstances. "That's... terrible. I can't believe she did that to him. Did she know?"

"I am not sure if she was aware, but she eventually found out."

"What did she do?"

"Nothing. If she ever gave him another thought, it is not supported by my records. Fortunately for Idris, she eventually fell into problems of her own."

"Oh? She did?"

The image nodded. "Yes. She even ended up back on that planet. She encountered him through pure coincidence. The report taken of Idris' account is all I know of what happened next."

Brynn shifted in her seat, otherwise enraptured.

"The lieutenant ran into Idris outside of his work and when she recognized him, she begged for him to help her hide. It is not clear why she was so desperate or even what it was she was trying to hide herself from. Idris caved and helped her find a place to hide. After a few days of him tending to her every want and need, one day he allegedly failed to do a proper job of checking for someone following him. They were abducted and ruthlessly tortured."

Brynn gasped. "Tortured? What do you mean?"

"Tortured. They drove nails through the top of their hands into a wooden chair and shoved acid barbs under their fingernails. They used sedatives to bring them to the brink of unconsciousness and then gassed them with stim spice. They were methodical, creative, and ruthless. They told them that if the lieutenant didn't bring them to wherever she had stashed some kind of intelligence, they would kill both of them, forcing them to watch as the person across from them died slowly, knowing they were going to be next."

Brynn felt a tear stream down her face and wiped it away angrily.

Ophelia stopped suddenly and looked surprised. "Apologies. I probably should have been vague about that part. I sometimes struggle with how much detail I should share without appearing insensitive."

Brynn shook her head. "No. No, I'm sorry. Stuff like this does not usually bother me, but this is a new kind of dark, even for me."

Ophelia nodded. "Idris tried to inform their attackers that he did not have the slightest idea of what they were asking for, but they would not believe him. They followed through on their threat. The lieutenant and Idris were left in a hold and then they vacuumed the air out of it. Idris got to watch the lieutenant screaming for help, then look on helplessly as she struggled for air, until she eventually passed out. After Idris lost consciousness, the next thing he remembers was waking up in the hospital bed. Idris was interrogated relentlessly, again, this time about what had happened before they found him. Unfortunately, no one was ever able to find any evidence to corroborate his account."

"But they found her, didn't they? Whoever found him found her there too, right?"

"Apparently not. Eventually, her sisters showed up and took a run at him. They demanded he tell the truth because no one believed his story. I suspect that they eventually escalated to using methods that would not have been condoned by their superiors because one day they just disappeared. They both possessed the rank required to have the luxury of leaving their stations, even if only temporarily, especially given the circumstances that brought them to him. After that, the captain required weeks of assistance, even with the nannies helping him."

Brynn scrunched her forehead. "They had nannies in the hospital?"

Ophelia shook her head. "Sorry, that is just what they call them, but they don't tend to children, they are basically robots. They build them in batches to help patients recover and then drop them into the patient through the same delivery system they provide nutrients and hydration. So, after weeks of recovery, suddenly this officer showed up and offered him another contract. However, this time, it was under the arrangement of Idris working privately, not with the military. I suspect they were just using Idris to try to find the attackers in hopes of recovering the information they had been looking for. Idris was still young and naive enough to only see the opportunity as a gift. In his defense, part of it was. He was given this ship and that is when we met. And for a long time, things were just fine for the captain, until one day those attackers caught up to him.

"They caught him out on a run by himself. They disabled the ship, boarded, and then commandeered it. While onboard, they brutally interrogated him. They found a cache of data chips inside one of the smuggling compartments, one that the captain did not even know was there. That's when he learned this had been the ship the lieutenant had been using. After they found what they were looking for, they told him they were going to space him, after they tried to break every bone in his body, but something must have changed their minds.

"He sent out a call for assistance after they left, but when he recounted what had happened, no one from intelligence would believe him. It was like the same fresh hell, repeated all over again. He told them about the woman who was leading them, how her appearance looked gravely ill, on the brink of death, who treated her victims like play things..."

Brynn sat up straighter, her eyes wide. "No! Really?"

Ophelia nodded. "Unfortunately, the truth sounded too unbelievable for them. One individual had the ability to manipulate metal objects, as she had, and the ability to see into someone's mind? It was impossible to them. Both gifts are incredibly uncommon, and for anyone to have both was so unlikely that it was laughably ridiculous, at least in their eyes. When the officer that had given him this ship wouldn't believe him either, Idris disappeared with Atalanta and with me. We found a merchant commission and made a living moving materials - some standard, some not - and he managed to stay off the radar of the alliance and the Delethirians. He was forced to just keep his head down, so to speak. Then he met you. And then we discovered, quite unpleasantly, that Moranna was close behind him. It was just bad luck."

Brynn considered it for a moment and tilted her head, skeptically. "Yeah, but why would she show up now, after so long?"

She shrugged and shook her head. "I do not know. Perhaps she has contacts with instructions to fax her if the ship was spotted."

"Well, that would explain why Idris feels bad about it, but why does he think that it's his fault that this lieutenant was killed? He didn't do it."

"Yes, but her sisters are prominent, and they feel that he should have done more to prevent her demise."

Brynn nodded and then stood up. "I'm going to go find him."

As she crossed the doorway out of the galley, klaxons sounded. She ran down the hall towards the cockpit, groaning. Probably just another problem for them to deal with, as if they hadn't had enough.