Majgen Ch. 015

'I can't believe I remember this many of Weissme's tricks. Whichever conclusion the voice comes to is irrelevant to the lie, the fact that he spends a couple seconds pondering on it gives the distraction the lie truly needs.'

"So there is nothing further you can tell me, Interrogator?" The voice spoke sternly.

'That's right, focus on your own status. Focus on how I am not supposed to correct or berate you. Give them a clearly visible wrong, and they are less likely to get a suspicion that there are other wrongs,' thought Majgen.'Grief Weissme, none of us ever knew I got this from you, did we?'

"No, Surveillance," said Majgen, still sounding angry.

"Get back to the prisoner then, Interrogator," commanded the voice.

"Thank you," said Majgen, making sure to put sarcasm in her voice.

Purposefully, Majgen added a childish stomping to her march back to the interrogation chamber, like she imagined Ottearon Skent would have done, if anyone delayed the progress towards the point of torturing a yijejo.

'Apparently it's considered tolerable to flush Mentarion Dignity down the drain, when the undignified behaviour is in any way related to a prospect of torturing prisoners,' mused Majgen. She had to struggle hard to not break into a hysterical laughing fit.

All traces of humour left her once back in the interrogation room, again looking at Aejoa's chained, shivering body.

'There is no hope for us, Aejoa, we will die.'

The prisoner turned his head and looked at her, he recognised her empathically, but had never seen her with his eyes before. He couldn't sense much from her, had no clue what she was thinking; Majgen had a mind shield up, and Aejoa was tired and scared.

'I cannot save your life, Aejoa, but I will do my best to save you from torture. I will do my best to find a way to kill you.'

She went to her usual spot behind Aejoa.

'Hopefully, I can find a way to kill myself too, before they realise what I did.'

--=(o)=--

"One more day, Student Majgen, I will give you one more day. Tomorrow evening I will scan you and decide the best course of action for the rest of the interrogation, Student." Those had been Baglian's exact words, and those words were churning in Majgen's head.

'We are running out of time, Aejoa,' she thought while looking at the prisoner.'This is our last day, tonight the charade ends.'

This day was the fifth day of the interrogation, she had not expected to be able to maintain the deceit this long. She had been able to avoid the other mentarions whenever she left the interrogation room, apparently Baglian had been very thorough when explaining her need for privacy to maintain an 'unnaturally tolerant state of mind'. When other mentarions were in the room with her, Aejoa attacks kept them occupied. They had no suspicions.

Baglian had no suspicions either. Tonight he was planning to scan her, but not for signs of treason. With words, Majgen had tried to convince Baglian to allow her to do the full interrogation 'her way'. She had done this while he had been empathically drained from fighting the prisoner. Femaron Baglian had been practically non-empathic at the time, he had not suspected she was lying.

'But I could not convince him that my lie was correct, that I had come to understand my abilities as well as I tried to make it appear.' Majgen sighed.'It was an impossible lie, I am lucky it got me even a day, it wouldn't have bought me that much if Baglian hadn't needed a full day to regain his empathic strength.'

Majgen had been unable to figure out a way to kill Aejoa. To kill him with her bare hands, without the aid of some kind of weapon, would take far longer than she had. Yijejo's were less fragile than humans, larger and sturdier. It was impossible for her to bring a concealed weapon to the interrogation chamber. The door wouldn't open for her if she brought as much as a hairpin.

Scarfs or rope, she would have been able to bring, so she had thought of strangulation. But even if strangulation had not been too slow a death in itself, she had realised it would not be possible for her to strangle a yijejo. He breathed through his mouth, and his mouth was placed in his head, and he did have a throat. However a yijejo's throat was not as vulnerable a target, as a human's.

'I guess I knew all along my plan to kill us both was hopeless, Aejoa. Every possible safety precaution to prevent premature death of prisoners has been implemented and perfected for decades,' thought Majgen.'I figured out plenty ways to kill myself, I could do that before tonight, before Femaron Baglian scans me. It would buy you more time. If they believed I committed suicide over personal conflicts they might still believe I had told them the truth. They might believe I just couldn't handle the pressure of pretending not to hate you.'

Her feet were hurting. Majgen had been standing here next to Aejoa, almost every waking hour for days.

'There isn't much point though, is there? If you gain more time, without me around, it is just that. Time. A further delay before the inevitable.' She wanted to break down and cry, she wanted to rush to Aejoa and hug him, and beg his forgiveness for her failure to help him.

'There is no hope, but I mustn't give up. There are a few hours left. As long as there is life there is hope, they say. It's a strange saying for this situation though, when the only hope is to end our lives.'

Femaron Baglian entered the interrogation room. Majgen was facing Aejoa and hence had her back to Baglian. but she did not need to see the mentarion's face to know he was strongly alert and agitated. At first sensing his agitation caused her heart to beat faster with fear of discovery, but in few seconds she was certified his alert emotions was not caused by anything involving her. She knew it because there was no emotional spiking, while his mind perceived the scene in the interrogation room.

Majgen did not ask why he was agitated, instead she focused on memories in Aejoa's emanations, to hide her own emotions, and because it would be consistent with her lies about searching Aejoa's emanations for further information.

Femaron Baglian took position next to Majgen, on her left. He commenced a half-hearted series of attacks on the yijejo's mind. They stood like that for a while. Baglian attacking Aejoa, Majgen studying the yijejo's memories. After a few minutes Majgen decided enough time had passed to comment on Baglian's state of mind.

"May I know what is wrong, Femaron Baglian?"

"We are under attack, Student Majgen." He paused, to intensify his attacks on the prisoner. He did not want the yijejo to grasp what they were talking about. Then he elaborated, "The Ulballa is currently engaged in a tight battle with a yijejoan fleet. A battle we have good chances of winning as such. But sensory systems has reported that further yijejoan forces are approaching, from several directions. Our own reinforcements are too far away. The Ulballa has begun evasive manoeuvres and will attempt a retreat." Femaron Baglian paused again, his emotions were grim - they were emotions of combat.

"We are trying to flee, but we might not make it. Today could be the day we die for human kind, Student Majgen."

Majgen turned her face to glance at Baglian's. There was no trace of his usual dispassionate expression, his jaw was set, most of his facial muscles displayed some degree of tension. His eyes were directed at the prisoner, but it was obvious he wasn't truly looking at him. Baglian was looking at his duty, facing his very possible death, determined not to winch in front of it.

'He is holding something in his left hand,' she realised. She could not see what it was from where she stood, but she could feel he was clenching it hard.

"All the officers not needed for this battle, and all the other mentarions are currently moving to small high speed vessels. If we lose the battle and fail to escape, those still have a chance at survival. However, you must stay, Student. You have to stay because Ulballa's commanding officers hope you may gain crucial information from the prisoner, during the battle." There was a bitter tone in Baglian's voice.

'He tried to convince them to evacuate me,' Majgen perceived from her teacher's emanations.'He tried to explain I was too valuable to risk, but he was told that my unique abilities was just so much the more reason to keep me with the unique prisoner.'

"I will stay too," Baglian continued, "in order to kill the prisoner if the Ulballa fails to escape and fails to win the battle. The interrogation safety program-protocols will not allow the prisoner's life to be terminated remotely from a control room. Curse that security measure, there are plenty drugs in the containers connected to its drop to kill it three-hundred times over, but the program that makes sure it doesn't die during interrogation cannot be overwritten."

Majgen realised what was in Baglian's left hand, it was a handheld weapon. Strong enough to kill a yijejo.

"Someone has to stay to kill the prisoner if needed," explained Baglian. "We will not let them free him, and he is too important to kill before we are sure we can't keep him."

For the first time in days, Majgen felt calm. An end was approaching, a way for her and Aejoa to die without torture had presented itself. If she had foreseen this opportunity she would have expected herself to feel panic, from fear of losing it, and she would have been wrong. Baglian was calm in spite of facing his own death, because emotions of duty towards human kind had obtained domination in him.

Majgen's calm also came from emotions of duty, but in her those feelings were of duty towards Aejoa.

For a short while after Femaron Baglian was done talking, Majgen remained silent. Then she turned to face Baglian fully.

"Femaron Baglian," she said, and waited for him to give her his attention. His earlier speech had been as much aimed at himself as at her. Baglian moved his eyes from the prisoner to her.

"It has been an honour to be your student." Majgen was sincere; Baglian had many flaws, but she felt a strong respect for his willingness to sacrifice his life for human kind -- for duty. She knew he cherished his own life greatly.

Femaron Baglian nodded. Being as arrogant as he was he was not surprised at such an expression of reverence, and being as arrogant as he was he did not feel a need to reciprocate.

"Femaron Baglian," said Majgen again. She slowly raised her left hand, palm facing up, till it was between them. She did not speak again until her hand was floating where she wanted it - where it looked ready to accept something.

"If the Ulballa fails, we do not both need to die," she explained.

Baglian took a moment to consider her words and her pose. He had not considered giving this task to Majgen, letting her sacrifice her life alone, to give himself an improved chance of survival.

"Are you sure Student Majgen?" he asked.

Majgen respected that he restrained himself from grasping the chance instantly, respected that he gave her a chance to change her mind. She replied with a question, a more subtle way of making Femaron Baglian confident that he could leave.

"Do you consider me unable to bring myself to kill a yijejo, Femaron Baglian?"

"No," replied Baglian, and thought,'If the Ulballa fails she is going to die, the least I can do for her is to allow her the opportunity to personally kill a yijejo.'

He placed the weapon in her floating hand. Then he nodded to her once, turned, and walked out the room. He would get a seat on one of the fastest flyers; mentarions were a valuable resource.

Majgen inspected the weapon, it was a handheld electric pulse shooter. She checked its setting, with its current setting a direct hit would kill a yijejo even if the charge did not hit near a vital organ. A human would die even if the charge merely hit a peripheral limb, like a toe or a finger. Electric pulse weapons were only useful in face to face combat, their charges were almost entirely ineffective against mechanical devices. Machinery did not run on electrical energy and was not controlled by electrical systems. In this age electrical systems was unique to life forms, biological entities. Even in the technological history of humans it had been thousands of years since electricity had been replaced by far superior forms of energy for mechanics.

In her hand, she finally held the means to kill both the yijejo and herself. A way to ensure neither of them would be tortured. If feelings of duty had not made her calm and clear-minded, she would have killed them both the moment Baglian left the room.

'There is hope for Aejoa now,' she realised.'If the yijejos manage to win the battle without destroying the Ulballa, they will board and Aejoa can be rescued by his own kind. Now there is hope that his life can continue, that he can be happy again.'

Majgen turned her senses to Aejoa.

'Drugged, exhausted, tormented out of his wits by lack of sleep. He is in a state where he would not be able to understand the choice that needs to be made now.' The choice was simple. Majgen needed to decide if she should kill them both immediately, to make sure the option would not slip from her, or if she should await the outcome of the battle, and only kill the two of them if the Ulballa escaped.

'If the Ulballa is boarded, I will die at yiejoan hands, like my parents did so many years ago. Aejoa, however, will get to live and regain his freedom.'

The decision was hard to make, the odds were high. Majgen had been whipped and beaten on multiple occasions, she was well acquainted with pain. She was also aware that professional torture was far beyond anything she had ever been exposed to.

'Should I choose safety in death for us now, my Dear Enemy?' Majgen thought to herself, she still had a partial mind-shield up, she had decided not to involve Aejoa in the decision-making. He was beyond logical thinking.

'Or should I risk torture again -- for both of us -- for the chance that you might get to live?'

Not choosing fast, was in itself also to risk torture. Majgen easily discarded her own life, her life was forfeit it had been for days, but she did not consider Aejoa's life hers to squander easily.

'If you were your full self, what would you have chosen, Aejoa?'

She did not try to ask him, he would not have been able to realise the true answer to her question. Instead she contemplated everything she knew of him, to try to make the decision he would have made for himself. Within less than ten of her own breaths she came to a conclusion.

'You would have chosen a chance at life, Aejoa. You love life and you want to see your loved ones again.'

She moved closer to Aejoa and leaned over his body. Seemingly resting her right hand on his back in a variation of a scanning pose, holding the weapon ready in her left. The purpose of her new pose was not merely to present a visual illusion of her continuing attempts at gaining information. Rather that particular pose made her able to inconspicuously place her hand directly on the drug administering device, whose head had been surgically inserted in Aejoa's body.

In the possible outcome of the battle that could lead to Aejoa being freed there was a critical time frame. If a point came where the military personnel on the Ulballa should believe that a boarding could no longer be avoided, they would order all prisoners killed. From the time at which she would not comply with such an order, till the time boarding yijejos arrived to the interrogation room, Aejoa would be at risk to be killed by humans.

The tip of the drug administering device had sensors that informed ship computers of the prisoner's physical condition. If she pulled the device out of Aejoa's back and pretended to shoot him at the exact same moment, Surveillance might be fooled to believe the prisoner had been killed. If she succeeded in fooling the Ulballa's staff to think Aejoa was dead; his chances at life would be greatly increased.

'For this plan to work I need Aejoa to appear dead though,' thought Majgen, and studied the shivering, whining yijejo.

Yijejos and humans were extremely different biochemically. The sparks of life from which humans descended and the ones from which yijejos descended were not biologically connected. The genetic material of humans, were similar to the genetic material of all other life forms originated at the ancient home-planet which had been called Earth. Similarly the genetic material, and the biochemical design of the yijejos was largely shared by all other life forms with ancestry on their ancient planet of origin.

The home-planet of the yijejo species still existed. Although it was now primarily a protected natural habitat, a symbol of yijejoan unity. It was called Oa, a name it had been given prior to the yijejos' space-faring days. The word Oa, had back then been a synonym for 'good soil'. If that fact had not been lost in history, it might have acted as a small indicator to the two intelligent species that they were not as different from each other as they thought.

Like earth and good soil.

Majgen felt the warmth of the yijejo's skin on her fingers, the gathered wires and tubes of the drug administering device only filled a small portion of her palm. His skin felt smoother than human skin, and harder. A strange coincidence of nature struck her.

'We are so different, humans and yijejos, if I ate anything which was edible to you, Aejoa, anything other than pure water, I would most likely die from intoxication. But we are both comfortable breathing the same composition of gases, we function best at the same gravity, and we both hold our body temperature in nearly the same range.'

Majgen closed her eyes, and concentrated on adjusting her plan.

'I will need him to co-operate,' she realised, and lowered her mind shield.

'Aejoa,' she thought.'Aejoa, notice me. Enter my mind.'

The prisoner paid no attention to her, he was lost in his own suffering and despair. He didn't notice her shield was down.

'Aejoa please, I don't know how much time we have, please pay attention to me. You must; it is your only chance.' She began to probe his mind shield, knowing he would be able to feel that.

'What is it doing?' thought Aejoa.'That one is not supposed to try to enter my mind. It told me it wouldn't. Untrustable human. Evil being leave me alone!'

Majgen followed his simple thoughts easily.

'He might attack me rather than scan me, if I provoke him further. If he does that with my shield down, I'll faint and all will be lost.' Majgen withdrew from his mind.'What can I do to gain his trust if he won't scan me?'

Despair grew in Majgen.'So close, he has a chance now, and I am squandering it.' She wanted to curl into a ball and weep.'I am failing, I can't handle it, I can't manage.'

'It feels sad again,' sensed Aejoa.'Take your feelings some place else, Evil Thing, take it to someone who cares. I don't care about Evil Things. Go away and let me suffer alone.' His need to sleep tormented him more than ever.'Why is it even sad? It can go sleep anytime it likes.'

'I am sad because I care about you, Aejoa. You are one of my enemies but...' Majgen felt like shaking her head.'No, that is not right, you are not just an innocent version of my enemies, Aejoa. I really do care about you. I've learned so much about you from your memories. I know you so well now.'

A tear began to fight its way out of her closed eye-lids, and she let go off Aejoa pretending to cough, to wipe it away unnoticed.