The Naked Truth
The lights were too bright. They kept her awake when all she wanted was to sleep. Worse, the Medtechs never left her alone and were always prodding her, poking her with some needle or drawing blood or insisting she talk or eat.
She hurt everywhere. She didn’t want to talk to them, hadn’t expected to live long enough to have to tell them what she had gone through. She didn’t want to think about it. What was done was done, no use crying about it.
“Captain Branscombe, open your eyes!” The sharp bark of her commander had her snapping to alertness even as part of her willed him to go away. The nasty vomit-green walls of the medroom swam into focus, along with the blinking lights of her medical monitors and her commander’s concerned frown.
“Listen up, Branscombe, and pay attention. I know damn well you’re a good soldier and loyal to the Starforce Marines. Never mind what they’re saying. You stand tall and proud.” Commander John Davies leaned over her, his gray camouflage hat seeming to blend in with his hair. Steel-blue eyes stared into her own.
“The admiral has decided the Confederacy will be handling the investigation into the attack.” He turned away from her, looking at the humming machines that surrounded her medroom bed. “It’s not my choice, but you are to report to the Confederacy shuttle at o-nine-hundred today.”
“What?” She struggled to sit up, tried to understand through the haze of drugs she’d been given what he was trying to say. “Am I under investigation?”
“I’ll be frank, Branscombe. There are some who are certain you gave away the location of the base.”
To hell with this. She lifted her chin and stared into his eyes. “I did.”
“What?” He shook his head. “You were tortured. You didn’t know what you were doing.”
“I knew exactly what I was doing. I did tell them, but only because I fully expected our ships to defeat theirs. I knew if I didn’t give them a believable target, they’d attack somewhere else, maybe some place we couldn’t defend. We had three warships at the base, Commander. There was no chance we wouldn’t win. That was the part I didn’t tell them. It was the only thing I could do.” Spent and dizzy from the longest speech she’d made since her rescue, she dropped back against the bed pillow.
“Hmmph,” he huffed, his face unreadable.
A soft rustling noise at the doorway caught Sue’s attention. Her eyes flicked to a stranger at the entrance and back to her base commander as he opened his mouth to say more.
“Captain Susan Branscombe, you are requested to accompany me to the Confederacy ship Horneu.” The stranger spoke brusquely, interrupting Davies.
The base commander’s mouth snapped shut. He swallowed whatever he had been about to say, looking as if the taste of it hit a sour note.
Sue examined the figure in her doorway, her gaze caught by the startlingly intense expression in the stranger’s eyes. His mouth turned down at the corners, full lips pressed thin in a disapproving grimace. She shivered, her fingers nervously fisting in the soft folds of the medroom bedcovers. How long has he been listening?
He had to be an Inarrii. She’d seen pictures, read the descriptions of all the aliens in the Confederacy they were about to join. She’d even had personal contact with Alinna Gaerrii, the Inarrii spy who’d practically crash-landed in her backyard. She’d guessed the Inarrii were selected from among the Confederacy to discuss the Treaty because they would garner the most respect. They looked human, aside from their skin markings, which to her eye looked like henna tattoos.
What the pictures hadn’t shown, or perhaps she hadn’t noticed, was how patrician their features were, with their long, thin noses and well-defined cheekbones and jaws, sensual lips. She certainly hadn’t noticed Alinna that way. And the news vids hadn’t done justice to the gorgeous contrast of bronzed skin against long blond hair and eyebrows, either. Or how their bright green eyes could flash with anger. Discomfort sent a chill through her as curiosity morphed into anxiety.
“Commander Davies, we do not need your presence, nor was it indicated or even implied that you would brief Captain Branscombe. Please leave.” His voice was tight with controlled emotion, but she could see it reflected in his eyes.
Sue watched as her base commander drew himself up, his spine snapping stiffly to full attention. This was the man she’d come to consider as a friend, perhaps even a father, in light of her orphaned state. She’d served under him for nearly a dozen years, on one base or another until her recent transfer to the Mars Settlement Defense unit. And when that mission had been placed on hold with the Confederacy’s arrival, she’d returned to piloting the base scout shuttle at his request. Now he defended her again, even though she’d disappointed him and her career was likely over. She tasted bitterness at the realization. She’d never fly again, and her dream of visiting an alien world would be only that, an impossible dream.
“Examiner Kiis. Dragging this woman out of her sick bed is ridiculous. I can’t imagine what you hope to accomplish, but this kind of behavior won’t go unnoticed,” Davies said coldly.
The Inarrii stepped into the room, his shadow stretching over Sue as she lay on the medroom bed. Her heart pounded. He was taller than the commander. Not by much, but he seemed huge from her vulnerably prone position. She pressed backward against the pillow, but there was nowhere to go.
Her mouth dried as the stranger broke eye contact with the base commander and looked down at her. This was an Examiner, one of the Confederacy law enforcement officials.
What the hell does he want with me? What is he going to do with me? Interrogate me? Torture me some more?
A shudder rippled down her spine, despite her attempts to stay calm. She ground her teeth together. Get it together, Branscombe, tough it out.