[Note to readers: these will come in handy.]
"All right, turn around. Slow like. You know this drill by now. Keep the hands up."
Arkwright kept his blaster level, watching Kesk do as he was told.
Rushed footsteps were heard in the doorway behind him. He flicked his head to check, and saw Rince charge into the room, wearing fatigues sweaty from working out late. His slugthrower was drawn.
"What the slag's going on?"
"Hello, Rince," Kesk said forlornly.
"Rince, put that down."
Rince looked back and forth between the two of them. "What is this, a stop for a late night snack?"
"I'll tell you if you stow that sidearm." Arkwright held one hand out, palm down, flicking his attention back and forth, keeping an eye on each of them.
Rince lowered the weapon, but didn't holster it. "Corporal, you wanna tell me what's going on?"
The Corporal's reply was quiet. "I think the situation is self evident, Lieutenant."
Rince looked from Kesk to the console he was standing next to, then at Arkwright.
Flynn took a deep breath in, trying to hold his blaster steady. "I caught him sending an unauthorized burst. There are erasures in the comm logs from this time every week, going back a month." He let out the rest of the breath heavily. "I caught him red-handed."
Rince's jaw muscles clenched, a slow frown forming. " ... Scourge?"
"I don't dispute any of it," he said.
The slugthrower slowly raised again, aiming directly in the middle of Kesk's forehead. Rince ordered coldly, "Don't move a slagging inch, Corporal."
Kesk's eyes were closed - he knew as well as any of them in that room what a slugthrower would do to someone's head at that range. Arkwright kept his eyes on Rince.
"Where were the unauthorized bursts being sent to?"
Arkwright stepped up slowly until his own blaster was between Kesk's shoulderblades, and touched a button on the commoboard with a free hand. "Looks like somewhere in Imperial space."
"The transmissions were sent to an office in the First Directorate," Kesk explained, still soft-spoken, eyes still shut. "Bureau of Operations. Imperial Intelligence."
Arkwright touched another button on a different panel, blaster up in his other hand. "Muek? Wake the Captain. Have him join the party down here, and tell him to hurry. And don't ask questions." He heard a safety snap, and looked up again.
"Don't pull that trigger, Rince," he commanded.
Rince's voice escalated. "I thought we still shot traitors, Commander."
Flynn's voice escalated further. "I'd like to greet the Captain with a little more than a dead body and a story, Lieutenant."
"So why'd you bother to call me down here, Flynn?"
"Because I thought I'd need you to shoot Draco for me!"
Silence passed, filled only with uncomfortable rustling and the movement of weapons in hands.
"Mr. McCathan is uninvolved in any of this to the best of my knowledge, Commander."
"Well then ... wh ... " Arkwright stammered.
Rince looked at Arkwright with fiercely taut eyes. "Oh, that's great. We're gonna trust the slagging traitor now!?"
"I have no reason to lie!" Kesk responded, voice set to compete with the near-yelling. Once he had their attention he toned it back to a whisper. "I know the only thing my future holds is a blaster bolt."
"More like a slug wrapped in an energy cocoon, pal."
"Rince, don't."
"What's going on here?" a new voice demanded. All three heads turned at the sound of the Captain, then quickly turned back, Rince first, Arkwright last. The captain was obviously not well awake, still in sweatpants and a tank top. He understood the blasters well enough. "Flynn?"
"Captain." Arkwright's voice was as quiet and depressed as Kesk's. "... we found your spy."
"Hello, Captain," Kesk greeted him softly. "Sorry to have awoken you so late."
The captain's face showed instant alertness. "My ... spy?" He looked from Kesk to Arkwright. "Evidence?"
"I caught him red handed, and he just confessed. Two witnesses." He relaxed his arms slowly, lowering the blaster.
The Captain nodded and folded his arms, apparently not confused by the strange turn the way Arkwright was, or at least hiding it quite professionally. He stepped up to Kesk.
Rince's finger stayed indexed across the trigger guard. "Captain, please don't step into the line of fire."
The Captain spoke over his shoulder. "If I'm in your way, move." He turned his attention back to Shurdin. "I'll allow you whatever statement you'd like to make before I have you interrogated."
Rince slowly sidestepped until he had a clear shot again, saying, "I'd like to remind everyone that the punishment for espionage is death. He's already confessed."
"Hey, hold it," Arkwright said, biting off his words. "I'm personally quite curious about what's going on here."
"It's all right, Commander," Kesk moaned. "I deserve it."
"No, you shut up a second," Flynn snapped. "You're one of the best men we have, Shurdin. What would make you go and do a thing like this?"
"Does it matter?" he asked.
"Might give you an extra five minutes," Rince answered sardonically.
Auriga stepped up to him, putting his hand on the slugthrower. "I think he's secured, Lieutenant. Ease up."
"Sir, the spy isn't bound in any way, shape, or form," he said. "He has Marine training and I'd rather not give him a shot at injuring either the Captain or Commander of the Liberator."
"No worry, I will not resist," Kesk insisted quietly, but Arkwright was already jerking his arms down and tying them up with his belt.
"Good thinking, Commander." Auriga turned back to Rince. "Lieutenant, if he tries to free himself or run, take out his knees."
Tightening the bonds, Arkwright glanced up at him for a moment, squelching an unfairly bitter thought about Rince's skill in that area.
"For the record," he said, lowering the sidearm but keeping it unholstered again, "I'd like to state once more that traitors are to be executed."
"So noted, Lieutenant."
When Arkwright finished with the belt he crossed to another panel and touched a few more buttons, calling up the holorecorder. Touchingly convenient they should already be in Primary Communications. Auriga was closing the hatch, keying the lock. Turning back to the comm panel, he punched up the bridge once more. "Muek, security alert on A Deck. No unauthorized entry to the radio room unless notified otherwise."
Turning back to Kesk, he said, "Your statement, Scourge?"
Kesk stood up straight, steeling himself. "I hate the Empire, Captain. I always have."
A moment passed limply, and it began to become evident that was all he had to say.
"... I think you'd better take it from the top, Scourge."
"So, you want to hear the whole story, Captain?"
The Captain looked quickly at Arkwright. "Get this on holocam, please." He gestured to an operator's chair for the prisoner, taking another himself. "The whole story, Kesk."
"As you wish," Shurdin said, sitting, taking a deep breath.
"Already recording, Cap'n," Flynn said from the background.
Auriga nodded. "Whenever you're ready."
Kesk took a moment to gather himself, sitting up straight in the chair, hands behind the back. Taking a deep breath, he began.
"When I lived on Berchest I had a sister, despite the official Imperial record stating otherwise. She had always spoken in opposition to the changing Republic government, and it wasn't long before she joined the Alliance. My father disowned her, and never spoke to her again."
"Go on."
"She became an intelligence officer, and risked seeing me a couple times."
"Name, please?"
"I don't know what name she went by in the Alliance. She never told me."
"Birth name?"
"Yianna Kesk."
Auriga looked up at Arkwright, and he responded with an 'I'll get on it' nod.
"Soon after my unfortunate incident, she came to see me in a tapcafe, with information that an Imperial officer was coming to interrogate me. She arranged for me to get off planet, and gave me her silver ring to enlist the help of some of her associates."
Arkwright tried to pull up Kesk's bio in his head. Incident ... he'd been railroaded by uniformed Imperial stupidity, like plenty of good clear thinking men and women. There wasn't much room in the New Order for clear thinkers.
Kesk continued, his face slowly darkening. "She said she would meet me on Chandrila after stopping at Alderaan to deliver her report. She'd been investigating some Imperial military project, something about bio-enhanced soldiers." Kesk looked up at the Captain and frowned apologetically.
Auriga nodded once more, understanding beginning to show in his face. Rince was unconsciously fiddling with the safety on his sidearm, clicking it on and off.
"I arrived on Chandrila with my father, but he died a few weeks later. When the public list of Alderaanian casualties was broadcasted on the Net, well, her name came up. I should have guessed something was wrong, since the only way to determine the casualties was passenger rosters - Yianna would never have used her real name while travelling - but ... needless to say I was too enraged to think.
"I joined the Alliance soon after that."
Wind shifted his weight, carelessly spinning his slugthrower while listening.
"Before I was transferred to the Liberator, I received a message telling me that someone wanted to meet with me, mentioning her name. I followed the instructions, and was snatched enroute. No doubt that was the plan. The Ubiqtorate colonel who had planned to interrogate me had tracked me, and informed me that my sister was being held in a remote location, under heavy, and unpleasant, guard. He also knew that I was soon to be assigned to this ship, and wanted an asset in place on one of the Alliance's most powerful vessels."
Rince snorted. "They pegged this shitcan as one of the most powerful vessels?"
Auriga turned and glared sternly over his shoulder at him. "You're talking about my shitcan, son."
Rince gave him as lighthearted a wink as he could, and the Captain mouthed something to him Arkwright couldn't see from his angle before turning back to Scourge.
"I was instructed to collect items of interest and send them via burst transmission once a week. If the ship were to be in immediate danger I was to get out in an escape pod, and if I was picked up by Imperial forces I was given a coded directive that would allow me passage to Coruscant for reassignment. Something I never intended to do, in any case." Kesk looked up again, almost faintly smiling ... almost. "It is ironic, though, that that coded directive saved our asses.
"Do you remember the certain Imperial inspector who we gave a tour of the ship to, Captain?"
"Heinrich?"
Kesk nodded. "Ever wonder how in the name of Vader's tailor we were allowed to pass?"
Auriga lifted his eyebrows, nodding. "Understood." He turned to the holocam. "Reference mission log Double-oh two dash six dash five."
"We figured as much," Arkwright said. "It was his fat arse put us onto the fact that we had a spy to begin with."
"That is why I tried to avoid him when we captured him," Kesk continued. "That is why the Judicator seemed to know where we were. That is why ... the pirate corvettes were able to board us so efficiently."
Several things happened at once. Rince whipped his sidearm forward, clicking the safety off, pain edging deep into his voice. "You son of a fucking bitch ... "
Arkwright was too far away to do anything.
Kesk said something to Rince, but his voice was drowned out by the the Captain's. "AT EASE, WIDOWMAKER!" Glares were exchanged around the room in place of gunfire. "His time will come. But not ... yet."
Arkwright had heard Kesk's reply. It probably wouldn't come out on the recording, but he'd heard it.
He'd said, "Yes, I am."
"Go on," Auriga said. Rince kept his weapon leveled at Scourge's face.
Kesk spoke, his voice beginning to break. "My actions have led to terrible misfortune on this ship, something I'm well aware of. I have never slept well on this ship, knowing these things."
"Why don't you just say you're the reason a good portion of the crew's dead?" Wind goaded. "Don't sugarcoat it."
"It's not something that hasn't already caused me a lot of pain," Shurdin cried. "Rince, everything you've called me I've already called myself. And since I am unable to send any more transmissions, the only thing I have to look forward to is ... meeting my sister soon." His eyes were misted.
"Do you have any accomplices?" Auriga asked.
"I acted alone, Captain. If the Empire has any other agents aboard this ship, I would be the last to know anyway."
The Captain looked away, tilting his head in thought as if trying to get the contents to settle differently. His eyes darted to Arkwright suddenly.
"Stop recording." Arkwright raised an eyebrow but crossed to the appropriate console as he was told.
"We ready to splatter his brains all over the bulkhead finally?" Rince spat. "At least he'll see it coming ... more than Karah got."
Auriga ignored him at first, saying, "A moment outside, Commander, if you please." Turning to Wind, he said, "If he's touched while I'm gone, I'll do to you what you do to him. Clear?"
The glares exchanged were heavy.
"Crystal," was the reply.
"Good."
Auriga walked to the door, but Arkwright took his place in front of the Widowmaker. Holding his hand out towards the gun, he wiggled the fingers in a 'gimme' gesture.
Rince slapped the heavy weapon into his hand begrudgingly, and the Commander turned wordlessly to follow the Captain out.
Kesk maintained calm, but his heart was thudding in his chest. The sound of the hatch closing rang like a death knell.
The Widowmaker faced him across the control room. Stars shimmered in the skylights above.
He drew his knife, spinning it around on the back of his hand, staring Kesk down.
"Y'know," he said slowly. "It would be fitting. You and me in this room." He caught the free blade in his palm by the handle, still looking at the other man. "I could slit your throat just like Karah's was."
Kesk swallowed. "You certainly could. If you gave it to me I'd do it myself."
Rince shook his head, spinning the blade again differently. "At any point in time, Kesk, all you would have had to do was ask for help. Instead you dragged us along with you and almost got us all killed."
"And what could have been done? If I stopped transmitting accurate data they'd have killed her inside a week. You think I wanted any of this to happen? You think I foresaw Karah's death?"
Rince practically growled. "Don't mention her name again, Scourge."
"Rince, understand," Kesk said. "I haven't lost one sister. I've lost two."
Arkwright stepped back inside, the Captain following him through. He was relieved to see Kesk still breathing.
"I blame no one but myself," he was saying.
"You're an idiot!" Rince yelled, waving an arm. "I would have gone with you wherever they had her and died for that kind of cause."
"That's good, Rince," Arkwright interrupted. "Because you're going to."
"Well, hopefully not the 'dying' aspect," the Captain added with a weak grin.
Kesk raised an eyebrow at the Commander.
"Our hands are as tied as yours, Scourge," he said. "You have to keep broadcasting or you lose your sister. So ... as soon as we find Yianna, we're going to get her the hell out of there."
Auriga nodded in agreement. "Begin recording.
"Corporal Kesk, for the sake of your sister, we cannot afford to allow even rumors of your apprehension to escape beyond this room. If there is another Imperial agent on board, that traitor could effectively send the bolt on its way to your sister's skull."
"Yeah, I don't trust Draco as far as I can shoot him from." Arkwright glanced at Rince, and the man's eyes suddenly bugged, as if he hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud.
"Obviously," the Captain continued, "this rules out immediate execution."
"And why do you care so much about my sister all of a sudden?" Kesk asked him.
The Captain's reply was stern. "There's been enough blood spilled because of you, Kesk. Your sister need not add to it." He paused. "And you will still address me as 'sir.'"
"And how do you propose to find her in less than a week, sir?"
"Don't concern yourself with that. For the next week, you and Lieutenant Wind will resume your friendly, drinking-buddy relationship. Rince, you will be his shadow - a friendly shadow. Understood?"
"Friendly shadow," Rince said. "Got it." He sheathed his knife while staring at Kesk.
Auriga stepped up to Kesk, still seated, and leaned in to him.
"Now, this does not clear you, Kesk," he said quietly. "You are the most despicable creature I have ever had the misfortune of encountering in this galaxy."
Jesus.
"You have done terrible wrongs, Kesk. Terrible. And you will be brought to justice."
Kesk nodded. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Captain."
Rince leaned back against the bulkhead. "Meaning as soon as your sister's safe you and I get locked in a room, pal."
Auriga glared at him again before turning back to Arkwright. "Anything further, Commander?"
"You covered everything, sir. Guess I'm not getting to sleep tonight like I'd hoped."
He nodded. "Anything constructive from you, Lieutenant Wind?"
"Yeah, can I have my piece back?" He looked at Arkwright.
The Commander handed it over silently.
"Very well then," Auriga said. "Lieutenant, you're both overdue in the barracks. Get some rest; you're back on duty in four hours. End recording." He turned to Arkwright, who was retrieving his belt from Kesk's wrists. "I had a solid 20 minutes shuteye, Flynn. You try and get at least that much, hm?"
"I will eventually, Cap'n," he said, threading the belt back on. Kesk rubbed sore hands.
"Mhm. I'll meet you in the war room for planning in an hour and a half."
Arkwright spoke up again before he could turn away. "Ah, sir?"
"Hm?"
He paused. "... is McCathan invited?"
Rince cleared his throat.
The Captain chewed his lip for a moment. "Negative. Just us - come up with some bullshit cover for excluding him."
Flynn shrugged. "I just won't wake him up."
"That works."
Turning to the comm panel, he said, "Bridge, stand down security alert. Disregard previous report. All is normal.
"Now," he said to the group, "let's hope Ensign Muek can keep his mouth shut."