Dawnwind 1: Last Man Standing (29 page)

“Brisk little man, isn’t he?” said Tomo.

“Can you blame him?” asked Pucala.
 
“This colony’s lost a quarter of its population in the last three days.
 
That’s bound to make anyone chilly.”

“Enough,” said Desu.
 
“I want to find out what happened aboard the
Maiden
.”
 
She brushed the chime-board with her fingertips.

A moment later, the door slid open.
 
An old man, short and stout, with short dust-colored hair stood there.
 
He wore a green-and-black Guard shipsuit, but with a white band around his right arm.
 
His face was as bare as a newborn’s.
 
His black eyes were sharp and took in the three officers at a glance.

“First Officer,” said Tes Jebim.
 
“We’ve been expecting you.”

There were a dozen people in the guest suite, all of them barefaced, all of them wearing the white mourning ban over their uniforms.
 
Most were silent, simply there to witness the exchange between the old man and the
Crimson Star
’s First Officer.
 

Jebim waved Desu to a chair, and sat, heavily in its opposite.
 
As soon as he sat, a guardsman wearing a cleric’s scarf appeared at his side, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you strong enough for this, Jebim?” asked the woman.

He patted the cleric’s hand.
 
“Of course.”

“Are you ill?” asked Pucala.

“I’m dying, miss.
 
Systemic organ failure.”

Pucala’s brow knit together and Desu knew the medic was fighting the urge to pull on a handscanner and confirm the diagnosis.
 
Jebim had obviously read Pucala’s reaction.
 

“There’s nothing to be done,” he said.
 
“I’m comfortable, and the medics here have numbed most of the pain.”

Desu glanced at Jebim’s crewmates, assembled behind him.
 
“Perhaps someone else should speak?
 
Another officer?”

“There is no one else,” said Jebim. “And I’m not an officer, ma’am.
 
All the officers were killed aboard the
Maiden
.”

“You’re the senior ranking guardsman?” asked Tomo.

“I am.”

Desu nodded.
 
“Then tell me what happened, Mr. Jebim, in your own time.”

* * * * *

 
Jebim talked.
 
Tomo recorded what he said.
 
Desu listened, calmly asking questions only to clarify points, here and there.
 
The interview took about two hours.
 
After the old man had finished, he produced a PIN and handed it to Desu.

“That has statements from the rest of the crew.”

Desu copied the files to her own PIN.
 
“Thank you.”

Jebim nodded.
 
His head was bobbing, his eyes hooded.
 
“You should read mine first,” said the old man.
 
“Quickly.”
 
His grin was self-deprecating. “I don’t think I’ll be available for questions much longer.”

The trio from the
Star
left.
 
Desu waited until they were back by the elevator before she spoke.
 
“Opinions?
 
Impressions?”

“Those people have been through fire,” said Tomo.

The First gave him withering look.
 
“I think that goes without saying, Tomo.
 
Do you have anything more constructive to add?”

“Not at the moment, ma’am.”

“Pucala?”

“Obviously, we’ll need to review all the statements before making a formal report,” said the medic.
 
“Mister Jebim’s condition could be affecting his recollections.”

“No one else there contested what he said,” pointed out Desu.

“With all due respect, ma’am,” said Tomo, “those people probably aren’t inclined to cast aspersions on anything their self-appointed leader has said.”

Reluctantly, the First had to agree.

* * * * *

Administrator Sej met them in the lobby.
 
Accompanying him was a dark-skinned man with short red hair, wearing the gray robes of a Devotee of Oba. Sej made introductions.

“First Officer Desu, this is Proctor Levajosu.”

The proctor inclined his head, and kept his hands tucked inside his sleeves.
 
“First Officer.”

“Proctor.”
 
Desu glanced at Sej, but the administrator was frowning at a PIN.
 

“The administrator was kind enough to let me know that you had arrived,” said Levajosu.
 
“You’ve just come from interviewing Mr. Jebim?”

“You know him?”

“My associates and I were traveling on the
Harmonious Maiden
,” explained Levajosu.

Desu blinked.
 
“I’m sorry, proctor, I had forgotten.”

“I was wondering when you would like to interview us.
 
As you can imagine, we have a great deal of work to do, to establish our cloister.”

“Of course,” said Desu.
 
“Officer Tomo and Officer Pucala can accompany you to your quarters, and start right now, if it’s convenient.”

The proctor looked as surprised as her officers did, but the man nodded.
 
“Of course.
 
We’ve taken temporary lodgings in one of the outer towers.
 
If you’ll follow me, officers.”

“First?” Tomo shot Desu a questioning look.

“I’m going to be speaking to Administrator Sej for a while,” said Desu.
 
“Make a start on the interviews, and then meet me back at the capsule platform in three hours.”

Tomo nodded and fell into step behind Pucala and the proctor.
 

Sej put away his PIN, and glowered at the officer.
 
“What can I do for you, First?”

“I’d like to see all the colony comm logs since the attack.”

“Easily done.
 
Anything else?”

“Yes,” said Desu.
 
“I’d like to know what happened to the
Maiden
?”

The old man shrugged.
 
“After we evacuated the survivors, the ship’s orbit decayed.
 
It crashed on the far side of the planet.”

“You have the coordinates?”

“Of course,” said Sej.
 
“Do you want someone to fly you there?”

“That won’t be necessary,” said Desu.
 
“I’ll take my own transport.”

* * * * *

 
The three senior officers of the
Crimson Star
had gathered in one of the ship’s conference rooms.
 
It had been three days since their arrival at Napiso.
 
Three days spent reviewing info, interviewing the survivors of the
Maiden
, analyzing the wreckage of the starship that had survived crashing into the planet’s surface.

Pucala dropped her PIN to the tabletop and rubbed her eyes.
 
“I think I’ll go blind if I have to look at another file.”

“That won’t be necessary,” said Desu, placing her own PIN on the table.
 
“I think we’ve reached consensus.”

“The
Maiden
flew into a ripper,” said Tomo.
 

“After her First breached protocol, refusing assistance to the colony,” added Pucala.
 
 
The medic seemed to have taken a grudge against the fallen ship’s First Officer, after listening to the comm logs between the colony and the
Harmonious Maiden
.

“What I’d like to know,” said the defender, “is where in the Wastes, the Sewkari managed to get their hands on a ripper?”

“There are bound to be a few floating around out there,” said Desu.
 
“They probably scavenged it.”

“A functional ripper?” Tomo said.
 
“That’s awfully coincidental, First.”

“Maybe,” admitted Desu.
 
“But that’s not what we’re here to discuss.”
 
She picked up her PIN, opened a file.
 
“We all agree the loss of the
Harmonious Maiden
and the majority of her crew was due to hostile actions.
 
Yes?”

Second and Third Officers nodded their assent.

“Actions that could have been prevented if her First Officer had followed protocol.”

“Yes,” said Pucala.

Tomo shook his head.
 
“What was the man thinking? Chasing after a Sewkari ship with no backup and no idea if he was running into an ambush!”

“Only the gods know now,” said Desu.
 
“Any other official comments before we seal this file and send it homeward?”

“Commendations,” said Tomo, firmly.
 
“Although most of the survivors were ready to sit down and die, a handful of the crew got them up and moving again.
 
Those guardsmen should receive some recognition.”

“Agreed,” said Desu.
 
“Recommendations?”

“Medic Nodomi Hisuni,” said Tomo.
 
“Defender Nevopil Sebo.”

“Guardsman Pimuqi Ese,” said Desu.
 
“Fifth Allocator Tes Jebim.
 
Posthumously.”

“And Guardsman John Epcott,” added Pucala.

Tomo nodded.
 
“Yes.
 
Epcott, especially.
 
His name shows up in almost every interview.
 
Popular fellow.”

“He wasn’t popular with everyone,” said Pucala.
 
“The personal logs we’ve recovered make it clear that the
Maiden
’s First didn’t think much of him.”

“And that most of the crew didn’t think much of their First’s attitude,” added Desu.

“It’s interesting,” said Tomo.
 
“Why didn’t Epcott succumb to the same fatalism as the others?”

“He’s an alien,” said Pucala.
 
“Obviously, his psychology is less susceptible to the mass dynamic.
 
If Epcott hadn’t been there, there might not have been any survivors at all.”

Desu picked up her PIN, opened the file on Epcott.
 
She studied his image.
 
 
His dark hair, his blue eyes.
 
The slight smile that looked oddly fragile.
 

“Should we set him apart?” asked the First.
 
“Suggest a special commendation?”

Pucala and Tomo both nodded.
 
Desu made the note, and sealed the file.
 

* * * * *

 
It was after midnight on Napiso, and the last transport to the
Crimson Star
was waiting to depart.
 
Most of the guardsmen had returned to the
Star
, but there were a couple of stragglers.
 
The transport still had an hour to go before its scheduled departure, plenty of time for the remaining guardsmen to make their way to the landing bay.

First Officer Desu was one of the stragglers.
 
She had had a difficult day, spent in private conference with Administrator Sej and his associates.
 
The colonists had just been coming out of their shock when the
Crimson Star
arrived, and now it seemed their numbness had given way to anger.

In light of recent events, the administrative council was demanding a permanent Guard presence on Napiso.
 
They were sending two messages, one to the Colonial Authority and the other to the Junian Assembly itself, listing their demands and outlining their reasons for them.