The guard outside of the isolation cell was pale. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead, and he had jumped when Brooks entered the room.
His prior escort did not follow him in, hanging back like the room was leaking radiation.
Brooks went in, nodding to the guard.
“Open the door,” he said.
“Are you nuts?” the man asked, staring at him, agog.
Brooks gave him a sterner stare. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
From the other room came the voice of the previous guard. “The boss gave him permission to see her.”
The man’s face blanched paler, but he turned and pounded on the door.
“Wake up! Someone’s here!”
The reply was immediate and vicious, if muffled by the door. “Tell him to go fuck himself!”
The guard gave Brooks a quizzical look, asking without words; do you really still want to go in?
Brooks nodded.
The man unlocked the door and stepped back – all the way out into the next room, and then he closed that door behind him.
Brooks opened the cell door. It was dark, almost black, in the room beyond. His HUD adjusted his vision to match it better, and he was able to make out a cot, a very basic toilet . . . and that was it.
“I’m only here to talk,” he said calmly. “I’m not bringing more trouble to your door.”
“You can still go fuck yourself,” the reply came.
He felt a tingling down his spine; it reminded him immediately of when he’d first met Kell. It was far more subtle, he didn’t feel sickened by it. But it was there all the same.
“My name is Captain-Mayor Ian Brooks of the SUC Craton. May I ask your name?”
He couldn’t actually see anyone, yet he felt like there was someone there.
And then she suddenly was there; she had been the whole time, but for some reason his vision had simply been unable to register her; his HUD had noted her presence, but even being aware of that had been somehow difficult.
She was a short woman, very pale. Something about her skin looked slightly sallow and unhealthy, save for her hair, which was so dark as to look like ink. It fell past her shoulders, messy and tangled.
Her eyes were her most noticeable features. One was brown, but the other was a vivid violet. In the dark it seemed to glow, to shine with its own light.
His sensors told him it was not sending out light, though. They said she had a pair of brown eyes.
“Apollonia,” she eventually replied. She was looking him up and down, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. He felt like she was seeing through him, in a way that could not be quantified.
And if their understanding of CRs was right, she was.
“Why are you here, Captain-Mayor?” she asked.
“I only want to talk – peacefully,” he said, holding up both hands to show they were empty.
“They all say they want peace,” she noted, turning and beginning a slow pace back and forth.
“I’ll have to show you I mean it, then,” he said. “I’ve come to ask if you would like to leave with us – and also if you would join the crew of my ship.”
Her eyebrow arched slightly, but that was the whole of her reaction.
“You would not have to join the crew, but if you did you would become a citizen of the Sapient Union, with all the rights that entails.”
“And the duties and limitations,” she noted.
“If you have particular concerns regarding those, we can address them now. Yes, there would be duties and responsibilities, but they’re not terrible.”
“You want me because I’m a Seer,” she said.
“Yes,” he replied. “I won’t lie about that being valuable. We’ve had encounters with Leviathans, beings that live-“
“I know what you’re talking about,” she said quickly.
“Then you know that people like yourself give a passive protection to those around them,” Brooks added. “But again – you can come with us and not join the crew. If you wished to live on the ship, you could do that. Or we could take you to another system or station and you could live there.”
She scowled at him suddenly, suspicion rife in her eyes. “This is all so very kind of you, Captain-Mayor. But why? You want what I have, but if I don’t want to give that then you’ll have come all this way just to help one woman? I can’t imagine you spend this much effort helping every asshole who finds themselves in a hole on some shitty frontier colony.”
Brooks was not surprised by her outburst. “I don’t have that power,” he told her. “But when I can I do try. I understand you’ve been accused of a crime – a crime that I think it is clear you did not commit.”
“How do you know?” she demanded. “For all you know I did murder the sheriff.”
“Did you?” he asked.
She was silent a long moment as she looked at him.
“No,” she finally said.
“There’s never been a CR who could kill someone by looking at them,” Brooks said. “So I view it as seriously as I would view that claim about anyone. That is – it’s absurd.”
“Even if I was to agree to come with you, I’m still a suspect here,” she said. “You can’t just wave your hands and make that go away.”
“I feel confident that I can solve that issue,” Brooks replied. “But I can’t do that without your help – without you wanting to leave.” He looked at the cell she was in; it was far smaller than was considered humane for any person to live in, and she had nothing, not even a pad. “I don’t expect you enjoy it here.”
She pitted him with a hard stare. Her eyes nearly closed as she looked at him, and he realized she wasn’t actually seeing him anymore; her eyes had rolled back, and through her slitted lids he could only see white.
“I’ll think about it,” she said. “Now leave me alone.”
Other Terrestrial 