The Captain's Heart CH 97

“Captain,” the female said, over the comm as he continued to look over the tallies for what they had taken on while at Thuruksamian’s Reach

“Captain,” the female said, over the comm as he continued to look over the tallies for what they had taken on while at Thuruksamian’s Reach, “there’s a civilian here asking to speak with you.”

“Refer them to the civilian dispute board. If they’ve already tried to have the situation resolved that way, have them tell the board to forward the logs. I’ll look them over and contact them with my decision, or if I need to speak with the parties to get more information.”

The system was in place, and easily accessible for all civilians, and nearly always resolved the issues without having to involve him, but every so often, someone thought this would be easier if they dealt directly with him.

“Captain, he says that it’s regarding some people you wanted him to contact for you?”

People to contact?

He wasn’t looking to contact anyone.

Was he?

He opened the door and looked out on the bridge. The male looked nervous, at the beta’s side, and seeing him, Gralgiran remembered who he was trying to get in touch with. It had been weeks, and with having to go to Kelser, and now making sure no one had tried to overcharge him for what the ship needed, he hadn’t thought about them.

“Come in.” He motioned the male in his office. “You didn’t have to come,” he said, once the door closed. “You could have left a message.”

“I didn’t think you wanted anyone to know.”

He kept his amusement from showing, sitting and motioning for the male to do the same. He supposed that for a civilian without hunters related to him, ballads made it sound like anything they did was filled with mystery and intrigue.

“Were you able to get in touch with them?”

The male nodded and offered him a slip of paper.

It had been ripped from a larger page, and Gralgiran wondered where it was from. The only place he remembered paper being used was in cubs’ activity books, something for their growing claws to catch in and rip. A way for them to learn control without damaging anything important or dangerous.

The male had no family on the ship, but he could have bought such a book for this. And if the intend was to avoid leaving evidence, it worked.

A comm frequency and a time and date, in Federation standard. The conversion put it in slightly over ten hours. He’d have to stay up late.

He tilted an ear, and the male shrugged.

“That’s all they gave me.”

“And you came as soon as you received this?”

A nod.

Comm transmissions were easier to trace than general broadcasts. And he now had a timeframe for the pack search, as well as the receiving point. The Earther broadcasts might have revealed their locations, if that was what he was after.

“Thank you. Your help is appreciated.”

“You’re not going to tell anyone I helped you, right?”

Now he chuckled. “I won’t. But you don’t have to worry. Nothing you did in helping me is illegal.”

The nod was too hurried to be belief.

He couldn’t do anything about that. But he had to wonder just what kind of ballad the male had built around their interaction.

“You can go.”

He was out of the office so fast, Gralgiran was surprised the bridge’s beta didn’t come asking what this had been about.

He returned to the tallies. He still had work to do.

He sat in the office in his apartment, a tall glass of Ohmstorun barely touched, as he set his comm to the frequency and send the ready ping. Only comms set to wait for it would react. He couldn’t know if the Earthers were waiting, but it didn’t hurt to send it.

At the time indicated, his comm informed him of a contact, and he accepted it.

The Earther was male. The beard, as Jeremy identified it, indicated that. He wasn’t any of the three males he’d seen in the broadcasts. He leaned back in the chair and smiled. “Captain Gralgiran sel Helrarvnir, you can’t imagine how surprised I was when my friend on your ship said you wanted to talk with me. Sorry for the delay. Had to make sure this wasn’t another attempt to find us by people who don’t particularly like what we do.”

The Earther spoke Federalize, so they’d have a common language, but Gralgiran responded in the male’s language.

“And how may I address you?” He couldn’t tell if the surprise was over being asked for a name, or that he spoke Earther.

The smile returned. “Call me Tommy. Just Tommy will be fine,” he said in Earther.

Earthers didn’t have the same social rules about name, he reminded himself. It still made responding harder.

“Thank you for contacting me, T—Tommy.” He kept his ears straight and didn’t show the embarrassment he felt at addressing a stranger by so short a name.

“To speak with an illustrious person like you, the privilege is mine.” The expression became serious. “Tell me, how is your Heart doing? My friend doesn’t get to see a lot of him now that he’s working.”

He fought the irritation that a stranger was asking about his Heart after having one of the crew spy on him. This was going to be an exchange of information, so he’d have to share something to get something.

“He is making progress. He’s socializing among the crew with only the rare incident now.”

“And you, are you and him….”

Gralgiran locked his face into a neutral mask to keep the stab of pain from showing.

“I guess that’s none of my business.” The smile returned. “Well, you wanted to talk with me. How can I help you?”

“I’ve listened to your broadcasts.”

“I figured that was how you’re aware of us.”

“On top of having information about what happened to Jeremy, you shouldn’t have been able to get.”

The smile didn’t change, but the Tommy the Earther gave a slight nod of acknowledgment.

“You’ve been giving news about what takes place on Earth and some of the decisions the Earth government has made.”

“That’s easily available to anyone willing to dig and knows the hands to shake.”

“When relating to what was done to Jeremy, your broadcast commented on the technology involved, referred to involvement of Earther military. I’d like to know everything you know about that involvement.”

The smile faltered, then fell. “Fuck.” He ran a hand over his face, sighed. “I’m going to be upfront with you. My plan was to get as much out of you before answering your questions. You have no idea what it would do to our cause to have an update directly from the famous Gralgiran sel Helrarvnir. But I can’t help you. I don’t know how the military is involved in this.”

He didn’t have the skills to tell if he was lying, and none of his betas had the familiarity with Earther needed to read the details of their faces to tell.

“You said you were planning on pumping me for information before telling me what you know.”

“Yes, but you are not someone I want angry at me. You have far too many successful hunts. I don’t trust how well we’re hidden to keep us safe if you decide you need to find us.”

“Then how do you know even that?”

“It’s all we were able to get.”

Which implied a source of information. Someone, or something, with a potential to have more. Could he get the male to reveal it to him?

“You spoke of a cause the information from me would help.”

“Anyone and everyone broadcasting information to the masses does it with a cause in mind.”

“And what is your cause?”

The smile returned. “Captain, with all due respect, were are nowhere near friendly enough for me to talk about that even on a frequency I know is secure.”

Says the male offering me his short name, came unbidden. “But I could help you with that cause.”

“Of course. You and your Heart are the most visible people out here at the moment. Our listeners can’t wait to know what is happening to the two of you. How your Heart is improving. When he’ll return to you.”

“You are turning our lives into a ballad.” He and Jeremy, talked about by Earthers who were exiled from their people. Gralgiran was confident he knew what cause this man fought for.

“No, not at all. We report what takes place. We don’t embellish or alter. We tell them as it was told to us. It’s just that we have to rely on second and third-hand sources for a lot of the information we get. Having someone directly involved speaking with us? That’s priceless.”

“I would settle for your source regarding the military involvement.”

The Earther started at him. “What exactly are you offering here?”

“Me. A direct line to what is happening to me and Jeremy. I’ll even discuss non-sensitive subjects as they relate to my ship and my people if you want. In exchange for your source.”

“I can’t—” the male swallowed. “I can’t promise that. The man I’m in contact with, he’s…. He doesn’t talk with a lot of people. In fact, I’ve never talked to him. He contacts us once in a while with something. Not often something we can use, but usually relating to a broadcast we made. So I know he listens. The best I can do is try to get him to contact me so I can tell him you want to talk with him. But I can’t promise he’ll be willing.”

Gralgiran nodded and considered. “I’ll grant you one interview just for the attempt. I’ll answer questions about me, what is happening to Jeremy, and some questions about my ship.”

“Just for me to try and get him to speak with you?”

“You say he listens. Maybe hearing me will give him a sense of who I am. Make him inclined to speak with me.”

“I—” excitement built. “I’m going to need time to set things up. I need to work out who’ll interview you. I need to make sure the frequency can’t be hacked for the duration. Oh, this is going to be so good. You have no idea. I’ll have my friend tell you when.”

The call ended before Gralgiran could speak.

He sighed. So much for him not involving the male in this any further.

    *

“There’s no doubt about it anymore,” Toom exclaimed, throwing his arms up. “You have taken residence in Gezbiliam’s bed.”

The betas in his office looked amused at the outburst. Or simply at Toom’s presence. Gralgiran hadn’t invited his friend, but Toom, being Toom, hadn’t let that stop him. He was determined to be involved in parts of his life he might not belong in.

“I’m with the pilot, Alpha,” Batrix sel Gezbil said.

“And you’d know,” Zorfiel said. “She’s your namesake, after all.”

The male rolled his eyes. “We don’t know what the Earther want out of this.”

“To know how the situation between me and my Heart is progressing.”

“Oh, I swear,” Toom said, “you can be so innocent at times.”

“I’m with him,” Zorfiel said. “They are Earthers. We know how they feel about you and him.”

“They are Earthers who have exiled themselves from their people.”

“You don’t want us to tell you the number of ways we could use that setup to infiltrate our enemies’s information network,” Descinikal Dosirar said.

“And I don’t have a backroom access to them,” Toom added.

“They are fighting for those like them who love people of the same gender.”

“That’s just what they’d tell you,” Toom exclaimed.

“He didn’t. When I asked, he refused to tell me. I worked it out.”

“Okay. That puts me more on your side,” Zorfiel said. “But I still don’t like this. Descinikal Dosirar is right. Passing ourselves off as rebels would be one of the first thing we did if we needed information from enemy forces.”

“I didn’t promise to answer any and every question they ask.”

“And what’s to keep them from editing your answers so you say whatever they want?” Toom demanded.

“Our version of the recording,” Batrix sel Gezbil answered. “Once a contradicting recording is made public, they negate each other. It’s why no one bothers with ‘recorded proof’ of anything. But I’d be more comfortable with your permission to find out where they’re hiding.”

“No. Until they reveal themselves to be untrustworthy, we will consider them allies. That means that there will be no investigation in anything relating to them. Am I clear? If at any point I discover you’ve looked into them, you will have to find a different Alpha to serve under.”

“This is why I love having you as my Alpha,” Zorfiel said. “You always make things so easy on me.”

“Good. What else do you want to arrange in preparation for the interview?”

“Oh,” Toom said. “We are so going over what you will and won’t even get close to talking about with them.”

Outline section 

It took very little time for the laborer to get a signal to the human pirate radio with Gral’s desire for contact them. Them getting back took a bit longer, and when they did it was with only a time and a frequency. So Gral had to go about his other captainly duties for about twentyish hours.

When the time rolled around, he was at the secure communication console on the bridge waiting. And he wasn’t disappointed as the same voice he has heard severals times on the radio greats him.

The human is a little bit salesman, little bit reporter, eager to flesh out Gral and Jeremy’s story. Gral, for his part, wants information on what the human brainwashing machines are and where they came from. The human, despite his need to get information from Gral, won’t lead him and be upfront that he doesn’t have that information. No one does. He CAN, however, get Gral in contact with the one human capable of telling Gral everything the resistance knows about the machines.

It feels like a red herrings to Gral, but aside from doing a raid on Earth and capturing one of their scientists, it’s the only lead he has. So he accepts the trade of information and begins answering questions.

Addition 

No Addition

This went about the way the outline wanted it. The only real change is that it’s going to be an interview, instead of just an exchange of questions. I don’t know if Tommy is ever going to show up again, but I like him here.

Yes, Toom does butt-in place he shouldn’t when it comes to Gralgiran. In his defense, he has been looking after his political wellbeing for a while now. Not that it’s the underlying motivation.