The Captain's Heart CH 85

He forced himself to watch the projection over the adjudication table. Jeremy, seated, calmly talking with a Ridoshi mentalist.

There was nothing there to make Gralgiran want to look away, other than the memory of how his Heart had ended up needing to speak to the mentalist. How he had failed Jeremy.

He should have known the Earthers were up to something when the station sought to assign Jeremy’s lodging with them. The administrators had no reasons to separate them, not unless an Earther had pointed to Jeremy’s specie. Possibly explained Earthers resided together whenever possible. He couldn’t know. He lacked the authority to demand how that had happened. But it made sense.

He should have known.

The Taournians were probably in league with them. Why else had it been a group of them, barging in, delaying Gralgiran’s confrontation with the Earthers. Making sure he couldn’t return to their lodging in time to protect him.

A hand on his arm force him to look away.

“Captain,” the Psychologist said. “You are not responsible for what happened. The Earthers are.”

He glared at the unoccupied side. “Where are the Earthers?” he demanded of the Adjudicators.

“On their ship,” the Kelsirian Adjudicator answered. “They claim terror at having been invaded a second time.”

“They kidnapped my Heart!”

“They claim no knowledge of what was done to your Heart, Alpha Gralgiran sel Helrarvnir.”

“Then how are they claiming I had to go to their lodging to rescue him?”

“The block of lodging,” the Kersosteran Adjudicator said, “was assigned to the Earther as a whole, based on an estimate of the personnel they thought would leave their ship. That estimate was lowered a few hours before the incident took place, freeing the lodgings where it happened.”

“And that isn’t suspicious to any of you?” he demanded.

“Suspicion isn’t proof, Kelser Captain,” the Dromian Adjudicator stated. “It is investigated. Answers will be found.”

“And who’s going to punish the Earthers when they return to their territories?”

“The same who punish all those who think they have escaped justice,” the Kelsirian Adjudicator said. “Your namesake.”

He growled. He didn’t want the gods to resolve this. He had failed his Heart. He needed to be the one to rip those responsible apart.

The hand on his arm squeezed. He glared at her, and the Psychologist nodded to the projection, where the Ridoshi was exiting the chamber, leaving Jeremy alone.

At least answers were coming.

He’d wanted the Psychologist to be the one speaking with his Heart. She was crew, and Jeremy knew her. He’d panicked when she entered the chamber and nothing she said calmed him.

“He knew who I was,” she told him when she joined Gralgiran. “He knew that I meant to help him. But the terror of who I am, who I represent, was too strong. I sensed a structured chaos within his mind while I was there, but had no chance to delve deeper.”

The Ridoshi had been with Jeremy for over half an hour. They would have had all the time needed to help his Heart.

The wait was too long. He wanted—needed—to be out there, hunting those who had shattered his Heart like this.

The hand squeezed, but he ignored her.

He wanted to taste their blood, smell their fear. Hear them beg for mercy and deny it. No one had the right to hurt him like this and escape.

“Alpha,” the Psychologist whispered. “You are not helping your Heart. Trust in the gods. Trust in your namesakes.”

Why were they allowing this if he was so favored by them? He wanted to scream.

He wanted to curl up around his Heart and never let him go. He wanted to seal their apartment so no one could ever hurt him like this.

“Kelsirian Captain,” the Dromian said, and he forced his anger and discouragement back before looking up at them. A door opened, and the Ridoshi Mentalist entered.

As with nearly every Ridoshi Gralgiran had encountered, this one wore nothing that qualified as clothing. Their carapace was devoid of anything other species deemed offensive features, and they didn’t seem to be bothered by the temperatures Federation Station operated at. This one had a harness over the raised third of their segmented body with pockets and hooks. It reminded him of those the mechanics wore for their tools.

The talk box was attached to the front of the carapace, under the head. Something he thought represented a near permanent need for its use. Others he’d interacted with had theirs at the end of necklace of various materials. The raised torso was engraved with designs that were meaningless to him.

“Adjudicators,” The Ridoshi said, the words synthetic out of the talk box. “I return with information.” Not one of them had their box speaking in a way the sounded pleasant to anyone. They didn’t hear, the way most of the Federation species did, and they didn’t care to accommodate them on that account. “The Kelsirian identified as Technician Jeremy Bradshaw, further more referred to as the patient, was assaulted.”

“Who?” he demanded.

“Captain,” the Kersosteran snapped. “Remember your place.”

He swallowed his anger. “I apologize.”

“Proceed, Mentalist,” she said.

“The patient does not know who took him from the Kelsirian lodging. Images I have are fragments, and will be transcribed once the meeting is done. They are the ones who are responsible for the Kelsirian victim found in the lodging he was taken from.”

“That is being investigated,” the Dromian stated in what felt directed at him. Not that Gralgiran cared about that, beyond what the investigation would reveal to him about those who needed to be punished.

“The process used on the patient has had an effect I have never witnessed before,” the Ridoshi said. “The mind has been altered, forced into a shape it does not like. All designed to cause the patient to feel terrified of the Kelsirian identified as Heart Gralgiran. Other Kelsirians are brought into the fear as indirect result. Unable to know if it was intended, or an unforeseen effect. There are remains of a different construct. The patient mentioned a box—” They looked in his direction.

“If I may,” the Psychologist said and the Kelsirian Adjudicator nodded. “Ambassador Querikrilgral Ormidoremitar is a mentalist as well. He created the construct with the patient’s permission to help him cope with the manipulations he was under.”

“The construct no longer is,” the Ridoshi said. “Unknown if the destruction was intended, or a side effect.”

“Does the patient know who did the treatment to him?”

“No.”

The Psychologist’s reaction was minute enough the others didn’t react, but Gralgiran glanced at her. She stared at the Ridoshi, who seemed to ignore her.

“Strangers,” they continued. “Doctors, is the descriptive he used. There is a memory attached of a same machine, a treatment in his youth, but the feel of the two are different.”

“Can you describe how they differ?” the Kersosteran asked.

“Permanence. The patient was told that this treatment would end what was wrong with him, where the previous one covered it with another illness.”

“It can’t be undone?” Gralgiran fought against the despair.

“If reached completion, the patient would seek to distance himself from Heart Gralgiran by all means imaginable.”

“If completed,” the Kelsirian Adjudicator said. “Which implies it wasn’t.”

“Correct. Process was interrupted.”

“How do we heal him?” Gralgiran demanded.

“Unknown.”

“Don’t—”

“Alpha,” the Kelsirian Adjudicator snapped.

He ground his teeth.

“Then,” the Kersosteran said, “we will see to it the patient gets the best lodging while the medics see to—”

 “No.” He was up, glaring. Defying them to tell him to sit down. To remember his place. “He is not staying here.”

“Captain—” the Dromian started.

“The patient demands to go with Kelsirians,” the Ridoshi said.

“I thought you said he was terrified of them,” the Kelsirian Adjudicator said.

“He is. He is angry at the terror. Angry that he cannot be with Heart Gralgiran.”

“I understand that,” she said, “but we have better medics on the station, access to more files on Earther physiology—” she looked from the Ridoshi, now looking at the Psychologist, to her.

“If I may?” she waited for permission. “I have met the patient. While it wasn’t for treatment, I got a sense of his mind. He will not let you treat him. He will defy you. He will resist. He had been manipulated into going against his will. He will not allow that to happen again if it is in his power to prevent it. Further more,” she added as the Dromian opened their mouth. “Ridoshi mentalist. You say the damage is not complete. Is it your conclusion that the patient’s will to fight can help it be undone?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think an environment where exposure to what he fears will help undo the damage?”

“Psychologist,” the Kersosteran said. “You can not expect us to approve that you put the patient in a situation that can increase his distress.”

She smiled. “I’d love to see you stop him.”

“The result of exposure is uncertain to lead to acceleration of undoing of the damage,” the Ridoshi said. “But so is the lack of exposure. When results cannot be determined, it is Ridoshi decision that patient decide the treatment. The patient has decided to be among Kelsirians.”

The Adjudicators conversed behind a sound shield. “We have to respect the patient’s decision,” The Kelsirian said, once they were done. “But we will hold the Viper’s Bane Psychologist accountable for any worsening of the patient.”

“I accept the responsibility,” she said.

“Then, with this matter settled, we are moving on to the one of the illegal scanning of the station and moving of military personnel—”

“Hunters are not military,” the Kelsirian Adjudicator said.

“They are employed by the Federation as guardians of borders and agents of enforcement,” the Dromian replied. “Both positions are identified as military by Federation law. The Hunter Captain as acted as a military agent for the Federation, therefore accepts the identifier.”

Gralgiran nodded. He didn’t care about the cost. He’d rescued Jeremy before it was too late. Any cost was acceptable.

The negotiation of the price of his infraction was dry enough it forced him to calm down so that once it was over, he was able to asked in a neutral tone. “What will be done with the Earthers?”

“Earthers were involved in the kidnapping,” the Kersosteran Adjudicator said. “They can deny knowledge of it happening. But not of their involvement. They will be escorted by Federation ships to the Disputed Territory and barred from entry. The Earther government will be contacted for explanations, but as a species outside the Federation, they are not required to investigate on our behalf.”

“What about their entry into the Federation?” he asked.

The Adjudicators looked at their Kelsirian counterpart.

“That’s a decision for the leadership to make, but I’m aware of a report documenting what was done to your Heart that kept him from recognizing you. I will file my own regarding what happened here. I don’t think we will be interested in continuing a relationship with a species willing to go to such length to curtail one person’s desires.”

“But another can take it up.” He kept the bitterness out of his voice.

“What other species decide to do,” the Kersosteran said, “what they are willing to accept from someone they will shepherd within the Federation is for them to decide. But remember that being shepherded in does not insure entry. We too have standards of what we expect other species to respect. A willingness to let them rule their territory as they will does not mean we must accept them in as they are. We demanded of Kelser a level of civility your people worked to reach. We will demand accountability of the Earthers in regards to how they treat their people, should they seek entry.”

He didn’t like it. Hated that those responsible were going to leave and not pay. But unless he was willing to break with his people and the Federation to hunt them, he had to be happy with this.

And trust that the gods would Meddle in a way that in time, he would see to it they paid.

Outline section 

No Outline

Addition 

Deal with the consequences

The outline goes from the rescue to a couple of weeks later, and I felt that was too much unaccounted time, so this starts resolving it with dealing with what happened in the previous chapter. To Jeremy, and what Gralgiran did to rescue him.

one detail I wanted to put in was that going back to the ship, with the kelsirians, was Jeremy's decision. in the outline, he was taken from the rescue to the ship and that felt 'natural' but as I've been writing the story I realized that a lot of things take place without his input, and there it a point where he'd stop accepting that. this is one of them.