The Journey Home, Part 2 (Ch 18)
Chapter 18
Late the following day, the general walked to the brig. As she entered, Lt. Halstrom came to the position of attention. He stood about 5’10” and appeared to be very muscular. His black hair was close-cropped, his brown eyes compassionate but watchful.
“As you were, Lieutenant. I’ll need to speak with my prisoners.”
“Yes ma’am.” He waited.
“I’ll need to speak with them in private.”
“Yes ma’am. Both interview rooms at the other end are empty.”
“All right. Please move Prisoner Wilson to Interview Room 1.”
“Yes ma’am.” He reached behind him, detached a device from his belt, and offered it to the general.
The general took it, then turned it over in her hand. At first glance, it looked like a rechargeable flashlight. The tube was black, about four inches long and a little over an inch in diameter. At one end, a fine silver screen bulged slightly. At the other was what looked like a receptacle. On one side of the tube was a large red button, and a short distance behind it was a smaller black button. That one, black on black, was barely visible. “What’s this?”
“A de-animator, ma’am. Basically it’s a stun gun. If the prisoner does anything untoward, point it at him and press the red button on top. It will render him unconscious. In the alternative, if you press the screen on the end against him, it will have the same effect.”
She reached it toward the guard. “I don’t expect I’ll need—”
“Ma’am, please bring it with you into the interview room. If you don’t, I can’t release the prisoner.”
She frowned. “You can’t or you won’t?”
He didn’t flinch. “I won’t, ma’am.”
“Even for me?”
“No ma’am. Major Hones’ orders.”
“All right.” She looked down at the device again as the lieutenant turned and approached Wilson’s cell.
The young man was again sitting on the floor, his back against the back wall.
“Prisoner Wilson, stand up and interlock your fingers behind your head.”
Wilson stood and interlocked his fingers.
“When the door opens, you will exit and turn right. Keeping your hands in place, you will proceed to the end of the hall, then enter the open door on that end, turn right and have a seat behind the table. Put both hands palm-down on the table and keep them there for the duration of the interview. Be aware, if you make any other moves, I will shoot you. Do you understand?”
Wilson nodded.
The lieutenant backed away, then drew his phase pistol and trained it on the door to the cell. “Computer, open Cell 5 Right.”
The door to his cell slid open. Wilson stepped out and turned sharply to the right, then proceeded along the hall. The lieutenant kept his weapon trained on him.
At the end of the hall were two doors. The one on the right opened.
Wilson proceeded through it, then turned right.
His weapon still trained on the door at the end of the hall, the lieutenant glanced over his shoulder. “Ma’am, the door will close once you enter. At that point you’ll be sealed in. Don’t hesitate to use the de-animator if you need it. It only knocks them out. Oh, and when you’re through, if you’ll point the de-animator at the door and press the small black button, the door will open.”
She nodded, then had another thought. “Once I’m inside, please have Mr. Schaeffer move to Interview Room 2. I’ll join him when I’m through with Wilson.”
“Yes ma’am. And do you want me to put Posey in Room 1 after Wilson is back in his cell?”
“No. I think we’ll let Mr. Posey ruminate on what he’s done for awhile.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The general turned and walked down the hall.
*
When the general walked into the interview room, Wilson was seated to the right behind a table that was part of the back wall. There was barely room for the bench, which was part of the wall on that end of the room. His lap and legs were under the table, making any sudden actions difficult if not unlikely. His hands lay palm-down on the table as the lieutenant had ordered.
The chair on the left side of the table looked like the dining room chairs elsewhere aboard the ship. It was freestanding and could be moved at will. Currently it was near the left wall, roughly six feet from the table. The general left it where it was and sat down.
The door shut with a hiss.
She looked at Wilson. “Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, ma’am. You’re the general who came to see me in the infirmary.”
“That’s right. And now I’m the general who has to decide whether to shoot you into space or let you live.”
Wilson visibly trembled, but he only looked at her.
General Lowrey wondered whether he was being defiant, then remembered that the XO had cautioned the other prisoner, Schaeffer, to speak only in response to a direct question. “While we’re in this interview room, you may speak freely, Mr. Wilson.”
He sighed audibly, as if he’d been holding a breath. “Yes ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.”
“Never mind that. I want to know what happened and why. Were you recruited?”
He frowned. “Yes ma’am. I saw one of the flyers for the program, and—”
“No. I don’t mean for the program, Mr. Wilson. I mean were you recruited to blow up my ship?”
“Ma’am?”
“Did someone approach you either before you left Earth or after you came on board and ask you to help them blow up the ship?”
“Oh, no ma’am.”
The general’s brow wrinkled. Her gaze bore into his eyes. “What? How can you say no ma’am? You were caught red-handed crouching over a bomb with Mr. Schaeffer in the holodeck down on FOH3!”
He physically paled. “Ma’am? That was a bomb?”
“Yes it was a damn bomb! What did you think it was?”
Wilson trembled again, hard. “Ma’am I didn’t know! I swear I didn’t! Punky, he—”
“Punky?”
“Yes ma’am. Roger Posey. His nickname’s Punky.”
“All right. Just tell me what happened. Then if I have anymore questions I’ll ask.”
“Yes ma’am. Me and Max were sitting in his room. We were just talking. Then Punky came in and asked me and Max if we wanted to see this really neat game he came up with. We weren’t doing anything else, so we said all right. Then he put us in a lift—”
“A lift?”
“A transport car, I guess. Me and Max call it a lift ‘cause that’s what they look like and it sounds better than ‘elevator’. I think it’s British or something.”
The general nodded, trying to curb her impatience. “And then what?”
“And then when we stepped out, he led us down the hall to a holodeck room. We didn’t even know where we were. Or at least I didn’t.” He shrugged. “We went inside and Punky got these rifles from next to the door. He handed us both one and took one for himself, and—”
“The rifles were already in the room? Before you went in? Are you sure?”
“Yes ma’am. And then he said for the computer to run a program. I don’t remember what it was called though.”
“Okay. And then?”
“Punky showed us this box. It was way deep in the room, setting on the floor outside of the propulsion room door. Or you know, what looked like the propulsion room door.”
She nodded and rolled one hand in front of her.
“Then he told us to look in the box. So we both squatted down and he gave us these little wire things, two each, and told us to stick them in the middle of these kind’a plastic cubes in the bottom. So we did.”
She nodded again, urging him to continue.
He shrugged again. “That was about all, I guess. Then the door came open and Punky fired toward it. Then somebody by the door knocked him down. And me and Max thought it was part of the game so we tried to get up and shoot too. And the next thing I knew, I woke up in the infirmary.”
The general arched her eyebrows. “That’s it? There’s nothing else?”
“Yes ma’am. There ain’t nothing else. I swear. And like I was saying in the infirmary first time I saw you, I didn’t mean to cause no trouble. We were just playing a game.”
“It was no game, Mr. Wilson. It was a dry run. Mr. Posey was practicing. He was having you practice blowing up this ship.”
“Oh, no ma’am. I’m sure it was—”
“Stop talking now, Mr. Wilson. Unless you have further facts to relate, the interview is over.”
He looked at the table.
“Do you have any further facts to relate?”
“No ma’am.”
“Very well. When I open the door, I will exit. Remain where you are and follow the guard’s instructions. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am.”