Alien Interludes (17 page)

Thinking about her mate’s continued sorrow, Cassidy squeezed his hand and looked up at him. He managed a smile for her. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I think so. I’m a little confused about this mind wipe the Head Judge mentioned. It almost sounds like they plan to lobotomize him.”

“We’l discuss it in a more private setting,” Degorsk said. It made her nervous the way he avoided her eyes. The Imdiko, who regularly indulged in practical jokes and outrageous humor, suddenly looked as careworn as his Dramok. “What would you like for lunch?”

She shrugged as they navigated the ivory-colored hals of the space station that housed the Galactic Council, the body that most civilized worlds belonged to. When disputes arose between planets, the Galactic Council mediated. When a people found themselves in crises, whether it be from natural disaster or falout from war, the Galactic Council swept in to render aid. In the case of Earth’s unforeseen demise, it was the Galactic Council which prosecuted the few thought to have had a hand in the tragedy.

Like Cassidy’s grandfather, who had known the Kalquorian invasion through the Bermuda Triangle wormhole would set off the nuclear explosives lying beneath Earth’s major cities. He’d known but refused to tel Tranis until it was much too late to save bilions of men, women, and children.

The trio reached the main concourse of the station, a wide, circular area in which businesses, stores, and eateries abounded in open stals beneath a clear dome. Stars blazed like tossed diamonds in the vast blackness of space overhead. Thousands of representatives from varying worlds miled in the area, the hum of untold languages a soothing drone to Cassidy’s ears.

“Look, Cassidy. A new dining room specializing in Earth food. Meck-ee-can?” Degorsk frowned at the strange word emblazoned on the restaurant’s red, white, and green sign.

Cassidy’s spirits lifted at the thought of burritos and tacos. “Mexican. You’l love this stuff. It’s spicy.” Tranis sniffed the air appreciatively. “I’m game. Let’s give this a try.”

They sat down at one of the eight circular tables within the space decorated with woven rugs and kitschy sombreros. Cassidy smiled at the expatriate waiter who came to greet them. His brown skin wasn’t quite as dark as her Kalquorian companions and he was much shorter, about as tal as Cassidy’s five feet three inch frame. He was a stocky felow with a round face and blinding white smile.

“
Hola
Earther,” he greeted her. “You ready for some taste of home?”

“You bet,” she grinned. “How close is it to the real thing?”

“Authentic to the last red pepper. Al stuff grown on Mercy Colony, including the beef and chickens.”

Cassidy was thriled to hear one of the Earther colonies, so recently begun, had produced wel enough that it could export off-planet. “Steak fajitas, then. Oh, and a chimichanga. Loaded nachos the whole table can share. And guacamole. Lots and lots of guacamole.” Her stomach rumbled in anticipation. Degorsk usualy insisted she eat healthy, and she rebeled whenever possible. Cassidy loved sweets and salty foods with a passion.

“You’re short someone,” he said, noting only two Kalquorians sitting with her. He nodded to the men, his smile fading a little. Stil, he showed no sign of disrespect to Earth’s former enemies. Many of the survivors were grateful to be free of Earth’s tyranny, though they stil viewed Kalquor with suspicion, if not outright hatred. Maybe this man had been rescued by Kalquorians.

Tranis bowed his head to the waiter. “Our Nobek wil join us soon. I understand you have spicy dishes as wel, uh—?”

“Manuel.
Si
, we can make you something to rival your grul, if you like. I suggest the
mole poblano
.”

“That would be wonderful, sir. Three large servings of that, please, and any ales you might have?
Gracias
.” Manuel left their table as Lidon entered the dining room. The Nobek, his limp a little more pronounced than usual due to having been on his feet al morning, stil made his way to the table quickly. He greeted the waiter with a bow and spoke to Manuel respectfuly in Spanish, not surprising Cassidy at al. Lidon spoke at least a dozen Earther languages fluently. Tranis spoke eight, and Degorsk had four under decent command. They’d been spies until the war’s end, so knowing the languages of their enemies had been of paramount importance. It made Cassidy a little ashamed that she, a native Earther, knew only her birth language of English.

“How is he?” she asked Lidon without preamble. It wasn’t that she cared more for her grandfather’s welfare than her mate. Quite the reverse was true. Lidon was simply too much a Nobek to fuss over his aches and pains and could be offended over someone worrying over him. It was difficult to show little concern when his heavy brows were drawn together and his jaw clenched. He was stil handsome despite the obvious strain, and his sleek blue-black hair lay like a sheet over his muscular shoulders.

Lidon sat down. The only concession he made to the relief of getting off his damaged right leg was the easing of tension around his mouth. “He speaks to no one but his defender, but I heard some of their conversation. He wants execution.”

“A martyr’s death.” Cassidy twitched a smile with no humor. “It would be a kindness to give it to him.”

“Not if it was carried out on Kalquor.” Lidon’s gaze was dark.

Cassidy didn’t want to think about that. “You said you’d explain the mind wipe option. Is it a lobotomy?” she asked Tranis.

The Dramok’s gaze shifted to Degorsk. “You can explain better than I,” he told his Imdiko.

Degorsk drew a breath. The irreverent Imdiko, usualy looking for an opportunity to joke, was as grim as his felows. “A mind wipe removes al a person’s memories. It leaves intact certain skils like speech, feeding oneself, taking care of personal needs.”

Something in Cassidy recoiled at the procedure he explained. “It gives a person amnesia then?”

“A bit more profound than that. It permanently removes al sense of how a person perceives himself and his world. If the judgment of the panel is to give General Hamilton a mind wipe, he’l lose every memory of his life prior to the operation, al conscious knowledge of self. He’l start from a blank slate, so to speak.”

“So he won’t remember me or what he did to my mother. Nor what he let happen to Earth.”

“It wil al be gone.” Degorsk, sensing her discomfort, took Cassidy’s hand. Her pale skin almost glowed next to the dark brown of his.

“His entire personality wil be erased?”

“Exactly.”

“God help him.” She swalowed. For Hamilton to have himself completely removed from his own memories sounded a lot worse to Cassidy than even execution. She’d dealt with something similar. For several years, she had forgotten her loving mother’s efforts to save Cassidy’s life, thanks to being brainwashed by her grandfather, General Patrick Hamilton himself. He’d replaced that recal with events much more sinister, even to the point where she’d testified for the prosecution at her mother’s trial. It had been Degorsk’s gentle prodding that had brought the real memories back.

It might have been true justice for the general to have his mind wiped after the horror he’d visited on Cassidy and the rest of Earth, but she’d never wish such a thing on anyone.

“What’s the likelihood of each of the three options?” she asked.

“I think life imprisonment is out of the question,” Lidon answered. “No matter where he’s incarcerated, General Hamilton wil be kiled by another inmate or a guard. Given the number of assassination attempts already made, it’s only a matter of time.”

Tranis agreed. “He’s the most hated man around. Some would like to feed him to the Tragooms.”

“So execution or mind wipe. Though if they erase his memories, there wil stil be those bent on kiling him,” Cassidy guessed.

“Wel if it comes to a mind wipe, his features wil be altered and he’l be given a new name and background to keep him hidden.” Degorsk snorted. “The idea is that he can be a productive member of society with his past destroyed.”

“Isn’t he kind of old to start his life over?” Cassidy asked. “I mean, he’s healthy as a horse, but he’d be looking at retirement on Earth.”

“He’l be eligible for the benefits accorded other senior Earthers. If they go the mind wipe route, Hamilton wil probably be placed on one of the colonies once he’s deemed ready.”

“I doubt that wil be his fate,” Tranis opined. He rubbed Cassidy’s back and smiled at her with such love her pulse stuttered. She suddenly wanted to skip lunch and go straight back to their guest quarters.

“Don’t be so sure. Kivokan is planning to push for the general to be remanded to his care. He’s testifying in hopes of the mind wipe.”

“As in Dramok Kivokan? Isn’t he one of your bosses?” Cassidy frowned.

“The Galactic Council wil not give Hamilton to Kalquor if he’s not to be executed,” Lidon snorted.

“They might if he can prove his case. And trust me, Kivokan is very persuasive.” Degorsk frowned.

“Okay, back up and tel me this scenario from start to finish.” Cassidy had a very bad feeling about the situation.

Degorsk took a deep breath to compose his thoughts. “Okay, you know about the psychiatric team on Kalquor dedicated to treating traumatized Earther Mataras.”

“The same group you now intern for. Dr. Govi heads that group.” Cassidy liked Imdiko Govi, who had taken a special interest in her own emotional upheavals folowing her joining Tranis’ clan. He had also become Degorsk’s sponsor when he’d decided to switch from being a military ship’s doctor to pursue psychology.

“Dramok Kivokan is second in charge of the team. He’s a respected doctor himself, but he tends more towards administration and researching new treatment options.”

“You’ve mentioned him in passing a few times, but I haven’t heard a lot about him.”

Degorsk grimaced, a strange expression on his normaly happy face. “I’m not too fond of his practices, to be honest. He gets results, but I can’t say I agree with al his methods.” Lidon raised an eyebrow. “Given your opinion of mind wiping, I’m not surprised.”

“He started that?” Cassidy asked.

“No, but he – perfected it for use on Earthers.”

The way Degorsk spat out the word ‘perfected’ told Cassidy her clanmate was very much against it. The information that someone had worked on the particulars to make mind wipes useful against her kind turned her cold.

“Why would a psychiatrist want to be able to remove Earther memories?” she asked.

Her three mates exchanged long looks with each other. Degorsk blew out a mighty breath. “Because so many Mataras were emotionaly damaged by how they were treated on your home planet.” Cassidy fought rising anger.
My clan would never allow that to happen to me
, she thought, and there was little doubt of that in her mind. Stil, with what she had suffered at the hands of her own grandfather she might have been at risk without their protection.

“I was damaged. I suppose I stil I am,” she said. “Would he have wanted to mind wipe me?”

Growls erupted from her clanmates. “No one is touching you,” Tranis snarled.

“But if you hadn’t clanned me?”

“Govi’s in charge,” Degorsk said. “He wouldn’t have alowed it.”

“Has he alowed others to undergo the procedure?”

“Only two. Their circumstances were extreme.”

“In what way?”

“Both had been molested and raped repeatedly as children. Their abusers were caught in these acts, and the girls were sentenced to life imprisonment under Earth’s morality laws. Their youth was taken into account so they weren’t mutilated or placed in the work camps, where they would have died in a matter of months.”

“By the ancestors,” Lidon swore. “Innocent children being punished because of the actions of others!”

Degorsk nodded. “They continued to suffer terribly in detention. They were seen as ‘ruined’ because of the rapes. Once incarcerated, their guards apparently continued the abuse.” Cassidy blinked back tears. She couldn’t imagine the horror those two girls, and who knew how many others, had suffered. “So they were a real mess, I suppose?” Her Imdiko sighed. “They’d never known any joy in living. These young women grew to adulthood in a kind of hel I don’t even want to contemplate. They’d both made multiple suicide attempts, and neither had anything close to sanity left to them. So Govi alowed Kivokan to erase their entire identities, taking away al the memories of their pasts.” Cassidy swalowed. “I guess in those cases, it was for the best,” she said.

“I suppose.”

“You don’t sound terribly certain,” Tranis prodded gently.

“They’re very happy now,” Degorsk said slowly. “Wel adjusted with their new identities. No sign of trauma whatsoever, and one has joined a clan. She’s due to have her first child in the second quarter.

So yes, I’l concede in their cases it was probably the best solution. But when they first came out of the procedure, they were so … blank. Souless.” Cassidy felt him shudder next to her. “And that’s what wil happen to the general if Kivokan gets his way?” Degorsk nodded. Tranis and Lidon looked as grim as he did.

“Wil I get a chance to make a plea on his behalf? As his last living relative?”

“You prefer he’s executed?” Tranis asked.

Their food arrived then. Cassidy looked at the Mexican dishes, and her favorites smeled as wonderful as she remembered. Someone who ate for comfort as much as to stave off hunger, she grabbed a nacho chip loaded with beef, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole.

Chewing morosely, barely tasting the delicious food, she thought hard about her grandfather’s fate. Execution was final. It was the martyr’s death Hamilton thought he deserved for ‘saving’ most of humanity from sin. If a sentence of death was carried out by the Kalquorians or the Dantovonians, it would be a long, horrific, and bloody affair. The Kalquorians believed in an eye for an eye, and to their way of thinking, Hamilton owed hugely for bilions of innocent lives. For the population of Dantovon, execution was just another form of entertainment. They would draw out Hamilton’s demise as long as possible for tourist dolars. They were campaigning hard to get the chance, offering a percentage of the proceeds to the survivors of Armageddon.