A Soldier For All Seasons Ch. 10

Nate's charge was a serious one. If a Judge had gone rogue, started liaising with the bugs, it could spark disaster. Judges, the power behind the Council, the Council's military and intelligence force, individuals granted complete authority to maintain order and peace, including the license to kill.

He just hoped that this meeting wouldn't be the end of him.

Into the Starport, a nondescript harbor of twenty piers, probably one of the minor starports for traders and nobodies. Someone was there to greet him.

"Greetings, Captain Clancy."

"Good morning. I hope I'm not late."

"Not at all, my name is Alarius Four." She was a Revert, her head enclosed by a glass-bowl, though Nate knew it more than that. Underneath the pink gloopy liquid inside, swishing back and forth, were four twigs, bark brown, leaves black. The rest of her body was humanoid, though Nate knew that underneath her black military uniform was tree-bark and moss — he'd seen a weird strip-show once. Her voice emanated through a speaker on the front of the bowl, pronounced and loud but a little electronic. "I was asked as an aide to the Council to guide you to the hearing."

"Thanks, I need one." Nate gave her a self-deprecating smile, but it was odd to smile at someone who had no face. "I've only been here once."

"Yes, for your commendation."

"You've read my file?"

One of the four twigs shuddered. "Apologies, but my role is also one of security. I am an aide to the Revert representative on the Council, whose security is of utmost concern to us."

Nate held his hands up. "It's all good, I get it." He followed her to a hovering shuttle, painted in black and white stripes. Inside, the seats were plush leather and he sank his aching back into them with a muffled groan. Maybe he could see a masseuse after the hearing — he needed his back to be better with Ana the Insatiable around.

"Have you been on Duo long?" He asked. He rarely saw Reverts around.

Two of her twigs stood up straighter. "I have been honored to be an aide for two years now. In fullness of the truth, it is not easy to be so far from home...but the cause is a good one. The Council keeps the galaxy at peace."

"Except for the bugs." Nate grimaced.

Her twigs shook. All four of them. "Yes. Except for the bugs."

Silence fell, leaving Nate to stare out of the window as they swept over the quiet streets, towards the Council building, that which stood on a hill that must have been terraformed, standing tall over all the others.

Though it was on the highest hill, it was not grand. Instead, it was black. Black, but not stone, black but not shimmering or reflective or metallic. It was just four walls, high but not grandiose, and its roof, perfectly flat. A black void, an abyss, so that it stood out completely, like a little bit of night had fallen and never been picked back up.

Nate drew in a breath when he saw it.

"Yes," said the Revert. "Do not have the fullness of anxiety. The Council merely wishes to listen. With greatness of power and with the breadth of might, it is enough, often enough, to simply listen."

He grimaced, running lines through his head once more, trying to figure out what he was going to say. He looked up, past the bright moon, at the whites and lush greens of Sapenza. He hoped Ana was faring better.

###

Ana sipped on her mojito thirstily, noisily, her feet being massaged as she lay back in the comfy chair.

"Are you sure you want me to keep going, miss?" The attendant said, her knees pressed into the cushion she'd laid down. The rich Lunari had told she'd be there a while, after all.

"Yes," Ana peered down as she picked her notepad back up. "It's very important to me. What's your name?"

"Gloria, miss. As you wish, miss. After the oils, it's important to rub the arches on the underside of the foot. So I use one hand to hold the top of your foot and the other to rub from the heel—"

"How much pressure are you using?" Ana scribbled quickly.

"Quite intense, miss, particularly with my thumb."

"And is it important to make eye contact, do you think?"

"Uh, no, miss." The girl said, confused.

"Right, yes, never mind." Ana sniffed. "Carry on."

"Excuse me, ma'am," A well coiffed gentleman in a suit appeared and adjusted his tie, a silver suit to match his silver hair. "We wouldn't wish to be crude, of course, but having closed our shop and with the, ah, irregular instructions to our attendants, and," The man frowned as he saw the girl doing the foot massage. "Do you actually work here, miss?"

"No, I'm from next door." Gloria coughed. "The spa."

"I see. Well, ma'am—"

Ana branded her credstick lazily. The credstick was black and striped with gold. "I'm here to spend a lot of credit, sir, you needn't worry about that."

The manager smiled and withdrew. "Very good, Ma'am, I'll get another cocktail from the local bar. The girls will be out in just a—"

Some giggles tittered out as the curtain opened. Several women emerged wearing a variety of dresses, from sultry-short to ankle-length classy, from fuck-me boots to high heels and thin-strapped evening shoes.

Ana sat up with wide-eyed interest. "Oh, yes. What do we think, girls?"

The shop exploded into a mass of voices, advice and compliments and gossip.

***

An odd man met him inside the Council building, smiling too wide, shaking his hand too hard. A politician.

"Lionel Peters, sonny. Don't mind me, just here for the support. Federation ambassador to the Council. They say ambassador, I'm really a liaison." He brushed something off Nate's shoulder. "Don't worry, my boy, it's over before you know it. Just go in there, say what you have to say, try not to show your nerves."

A good hour of waiting later and he was swept into the central chamber.

Alone.

Nate stared into the darkness, controlling the shiver before it came. Pure black but for the white misty vapors that swept through for a moment whenever one of the Council spoke, their voice booming, modulated a little as it was ran through the voice-changer. His eyes strained against the darkness, trying despite himself to get even the slightest glimpse of their identity.

Five different people yet their identity was kept hidden in order to protect them, to stop their own people or others from pressuring them, lobbying them. They answered to nobody. They ruled over all. A Council member stopped ruling when they died — they weren't voted for or appointed by another — The Council selected its own replacements. The only thing almost everyone agreed on was that the five were composed of one of each of the five major species; human, Lunari, Revert, Voor, Lops.

There were other aliens, many, but none so populous — or at least, none who traveled and traded freely amongst the alliance.

Somebody must know who they were, Nate thought to himself.

It was a human who spoke back to him. As far as he could tell. "So this is the entirety of your claim, then? That you saw our Judge in the field, on Acropolis? You heard him meet with this...Madam Mayko and discuss their business with the bugs?"

"Yes, sir. They discussed ways to route bug forces through Federation and Lunari defenses, sir."

"Are you aware, Captain, of the roles of a Judge?" A Revert asked this time, though Nate only saw the light project on a different mysterious vapor. He thought he could see a chair beyond it, and the shine of a glass bowl.

"Yes, ma'am. The Judge is a covert operative, often used in infiltration—"

"I know what a Judge is, Captain." She cut him off frostily.

Nate bit his lip. Hard.

"Have you considered the possibility that our man, one of the best of our Judges, given license to act and condemn as he wishes, representing the Council in all ways, was working undercover in order to ascertain information?"

Nate held his hands behind his back, pinching his fingernails into his skin. "Yes, Ma'am, but when he agreed for my companion and I to be put to the death, I thought it was unlikely."

Silence fell. Longer than a moment, longer than a minute. Nate stopped himself from wincing. Silence was bad.

"And yet you are not dead, Captain."

"No, Ma'am, I escaped with my life—"

"Miraculous." Another voice came.

"I was given help to escape the arena by a Federation operative, sir, as I said—"

"We have spoken to our operative, Captain and have received proof that it was he who arranged for your escape."

"Sir, with respect, that's ridiculous, he'd left Acropolis by that time."

"Captain, this Council works on evidence and reputation. The strength of the evidence and the benefits of your reputation from the evidence you have provided in the past." A human voice came this time. "Our operative has a strong reputation from continually bringing down bug operations in the past, giving us unprecedented knowledge of their forces, their attacks."

"But, sir, don't you see that's the bugs who give him pre-planned knowledge in order to push him through the ranks? Ships they don't mind losing, small attacks they don't mind failing—"

"What we see, Captain, is a soldier, a good soldier, who has been under a lot of stress recently, been through a lot of battle, who comes to us with zero evidence, calling into question one of the mightiest tools in our defense against the bugs. The Council finds no substance in the claims against Judge Jarek and dismisses them entirely."

And just like that, the lights flickered off. Behind him, four helmeted soldiers shifted from one leg to the other.

Nate sighed, his head bowed. He let himself be led from the chamber. Outside, his eyes flickered as they got used to the brightly lit corridor, as bland and sterile as a hospital.

"It's alright, son." The ambassador Peters put his hand on his shoulder, but he was already looking at messages on his armguard. "That's most Council hearings. If they ever did anything, they wouldn't be so powerful, get it?"

"No, sir." Nate said truthfully.

Peters turned to him, grinning, meeting his eyes for once. "It's so when they actually do pull their finger out, everybody shudders."