“I will now begin the questioning,” Lieutenant General Schoss said, sitting down and looking at the old man across the table who only gred back at him, restrained to a chair by thick metal cuffs around his neck, wrists, and ankles.
“What an honor to have someone of such a high rank do the questioning in person,” the old man said, watching him set a stack of papers on the table between them.
“I requested to do so because this case is of the utmost importance, and you haven’t given a slip of information since we detained you,” Schoss said, giving the prisoner his full attention.
They were the only two people in the room, which was completely white. The only door was situated on the wall to the right of the old man. The table was a dull gray so as not to reflect the bright lights shining down from the ceiling above them. A rge screen was embedded in the wall facing the old man, and a mirror took up much of the wall to his left. Behind the mirror, a room full of spectators looked in on the interrogation, which was about to begin.
“First, state your name and age,” Schoss said.
“Odo Stuther, 76.”
“I’m going to skip the rest of the formalities,” Schoss said, sliding a stack of papers to the side and setting a small screen on the table in front of him.
“The seat you’re in right now is also an advanced lie detector, so don’t try to fool me. Why did you assist in the abduction of Princess Rey Seyn?” Schoss said, his face betraying no sign of emotion, his voice level and cold as always.
“For fun.”
“Don’t py games with me,” Schoss said, gncing at the screen in front of him.
“I wanted to set her free, that’s all. I’ve already confessed, what more do you want?”
“Who were you working with?”
“I don’t know their true identities, just the information they gave me.”
“If you wanted to save her, how did you know that they weren’t going to sell her or hold her ransom?”
“I didn’t.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Odo stayed silent.
“Do you know their whereabouts, or where they were headed?”
“You don’t?”
“We’ve been unable to track them down yet.”
“Well, I have no idea where they are either.”
“You just keep on lying,” Schoss said, sighing slightly. “If you tell me everything right now, I can ensure a quick execution.”
“I don’t have anything left to tell you.”
“Is that so? Well then,” Schoss took out a small, bck remote and turned to the screen behind him. He clicked a button, and the screen lit up.
A live video feed appeared on the screen, showing a simir white room, which appeared empty except for a chair in the center occupied by a young man. His limbs, like Odo’s, were confined to the chair.
“Ihava!” Odo said, his eyes going wide. “Why is my grandson in there?!”
“We haven’t done anything to him yet, but that will change if you don’t answer my questions truthfully,” Schoss said.
“You bastard! Why you…” Odo struggled, but could do nothing.
“We looked into him immediately after the incident and found that he had been in contact with the kidnappers. He’ll be executed soon anyway, but if you tell us everything now, I can make sure it’s painless.”
Despair filled Odo’s eyes as he realized that no matter how angry he got, he could do nothing to avert their fate.
“Fine, I’m not so stupid as to resist and watch my grandson get tortured in front of me.”
“Good. Now tell me how you and your grandson have been in contact with them.”
“Ihava was the only one in contact with them. Information passed between us with him as the mediator, so I never spoke with them directly.”
“What was their goal?”
“They were looking for a certain woman who had disappeared during the invasion of the Neveus system 28 years ago. They sent us two pictures; one of her when she was six, just before the invasion, and one using aging technology on the same picture to estimate her appearance now.
“Of course, we couldn’t find the woman they were looking for, but we gave them an opportunity to take a hostage instead.”
“Why didn’t you go with them?”
“I suppose the main reason was that I didn’t feel it was necessary. This was always going to be my st mission.”
“I still don’t see the real reason you did what you did.”
“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you now that they’ve escaped. Eighteen years ago I was working in the interior of Kaiavere base.”
“Yes, I looked at your record. You started working on ships ten years ago. Go on.”
“Although I don’t know the full story, or even if all that I’m about to tell you is true, this is the real reason I became involved in the first pce.
“That girl, the one you believe to be the third daughter of Emperor Kantz, is not, in fact, reted to him by blood at all.”
“Expin.” For the first time, a brief look of shock passed over the Lieutenant general’s face.
“When the Empire invaded the Neveus system, many containers and converters were captured, and the strongest ones were put in those breeding programs to produce future generations of soldiers to fight for the Empire. It was essentially svery. Some were brought to Kaiavere, where I was working eighteen years ago.
“That was when it happened. A guard, no one special, just a lowly security guard- got one pregnant. I don’t know why, but if I had to guess I would put it down to simple irresponsibility.
“This was before the White guard was established, back when the guards were still human.
“Unfortunately for him, she’d seen his face and threatened to expose him unless he found a way for her child to escape that life. Normally they don’t do genetic tests on them, but if they listened to her accusation and ran one, he’d be caught and executed. That’s why he decided to risk it all on a huge gamble.
“It was around this time that one of the concubines of Emperor Kantz became pregnant, and the two pregnancy cycles happened to line up almost perfectly.”
“But- Wait, what you’re suggesting is absurd!” Schoss was taken aback by the direction the story was going in, and couldn’t contain his incredulity.
“Yes, it was an absurd idea, but if he did nothing he would die, and so he chose to test his luck.
“He and I had barely ever interacted before then, but one day, he approached me and expined his situation, then asked me to py a vital role in the pn he proposed. I refused of course, but he’d anticipated that. In the end, I was forced to help him, even though I knew if I was caught I’d be killed.”
“How did he force you to help him?”
“Bckmail.”
“What did he use to bckmail you?”
“The doctor in charge of overseeing the birth of the daughter of the Emperor was my daughter, and the mother of Ihava.”
Schoss’s eyes widened at the unexpected development.
“27 years ago, she was assaulted by a military officer that had just returned from the Neveus invasion. He’s Ihava’s father, and the reason why I grew to hate the empire. But even then, she didn’t give up, and became the head doctor for one of the emperor's concubines. The guard threatened to reveal this, which would probably get her killed, or at least removed from that position.”
“And who was the officer who assaulted her?”
“General Marshall, although back then he’d only just been promoted to Major.”
“I see. Continue.”
“She scheduled the delivery of the Emperor’s child to be on the same day as his. The same night that both mothers underwent the birthing operation, the babies were swapped. The doctor faked the test results, and his own child was accepted as Rey Seyn, third daughter of Emperor Kantz.”
“What role did you py?”
“My level of clearance could get him along the necessary route at the necessary time, and I was also able to alter the security footage to cover our tracks.”
“What about the other child?”
“Again, they don’t run genetic tests on the containers and converters under normal circumstances, so she’s probably still somewhere on Kaiavere, unaware of her true identity.”
“I get the picture. This imposter was raised as a member of the royal family, and even she herself believed that she was Rey Seyn. But that doesn’t answer my original question. Hadn’t you already ‘saved her’ by that point? Why the abduction?”
“Once I saw the kind of life that she had been given and what y in her future, I realized that she hadn’t been saved at all. This is my way of giving her- no, I suppose this is just my way of atoning to make myself feel better. I was too te to save her from going through that tragedy twelve years ago, but maybe I can save her from being used like a bargaining chip.”
“And what about the guard and doctor?” Schoss inquired.
“I don’t know their whereabouts, and haven’t heard from them in fifteen years.”
“Thank you for the information you’ve provided us with. I find it very useful,” Schoss said, standing up. “Earlier, I acted as though I didn’t know where they were, but that was a lie. Our forces on Temure have contacted us to let us know that a ship recently crashed in the Helma region, near a small town called Mek. It was supposedly shot down, probably by a bounty hunter after the reward the government put out. I was going to send in our forces, but now I think I’ll take a different approach.
“I’ll have to verify, but if your story is true, then a simple genetic test would show that she wasn’t royalty. She could no longer be given to the dictator of Zambac, or anyone else.
“The girl is no longer useful to the Empire, in fact, if news of this got out it would be devastating. The easiest option would be to dispose of her, but the current situation is unstable. Thankfully, I have a simple solution that’ll eliminate all problems at once.
“You don’t have any kind of conscience do you?” Odo said in disgust. “Why can’t you just let them go?”
“Everything I do, I do for the Empire. This sacrifice, in my eyes, is worth it. I’ll see to it that you and your grandson are executed tomorrow,” he said dispassionately on his way out the door.
