The Coalition ensures peace between the Principalities… but only in the sense of a lack of military conflicts. Each Principality has its own morals and beliefs in how society should be structured, and none of the Thirteen Heroes discourage rivalry and political maneuvering. This, then, is the Coalition’s weakness.

  – Artan Razorgrass, of the Succession Rebellion (deceased)

  NAVEN

  The room was cold, but that was fine for Naven. His cheek still stung, and the chilly air – a discomfort for long waits – kept his mind clear and eased some of the swelling. It wasn’t much, but he took what he could get.

  There wasn’t much in the room. A tiny and uncomfortable chair bolted to the floor like most starship chairs were, a small table, and the ventilation that hummed softly while he waited. No window in this room – that would be silly. Unlike when he’d been kept prisoner in a berth on Apexillos, this ship was a proper law enforcement starship, and had these rooms for interrogation or otherwise. He couldn’t expect much comfort from them.

  His throat was parched, but he also didn’t anticipate that being fixed any time soon. Naven searched around for a bit of moisture to spread around, giving him some relief by moistening the tongue and mouth. These Enforcers didn’t have any reason to treat him humanely, he could already tell that. He had no doubt that the crew would be executed once they’d gotten the information they wanted.

  Much easier to do that than report why they were doing this to their Command. He’d known from the start they weren’t playing by the book when they’d roughed him up far more than necessary. None of the crew had resisted, at least physically. He doubted any of them would survive long once the Enforcers realized that most of them didn’t know anything useful.

  If Sallus had a plan to escape, she’d have to act fast. Much as he didn’t like the idea of throwing in his lot with this group even further, Naven realized that he wasn’t in civilized space any more. If he could get out of this and take the ship, he’d do it. The rules of war weren’t applicable to him as he was.

  The implication of a traitor is what made him thoughtful. He’d met all of the crew, and couldn’t quite put any of them in the bin of being an informant. Pan was missing, so he was the obvious guess, but the only time Pan had been away from the ship, Apex had been with him the entire time. They hadn’t stopped at a port in ages, and communication really only worked in-system, so any informant that had given useful information must have had a very complex system for delivering it.

  It didn’t make a lot of sense. Naven knew he had to be missing something, some incredibly obvious sign that would make it all fall into place. He just couldn’t see it yet.

  He’d just have to delay and hope that Sallus had a plan – or that Apex would wake up soon and rescue them.

  He wasn’t even sure the rescue part would happen. One part of him told him that Apex would be happy enough to just fly off on his own. He was pretty sure the dragon had little attachment to any of them. The other part of him reminded himself that while Apex had some alien sensibilities, he had a sense of responsibility in his own way. He was banking on the dragon viewing the capture of the crew as ‘stealing’ from him.

  And if that was the case, these Enforcers were in trouble.

  He didn’t want to rely on the possibly-incapacitated Apex, though. He’d have to look for an opportunity, likely caused by Sallus. He doubted the elf had lived for almost five centuries without finding ways to get out of situations such as this. He just didn’t trust that she knew a way to get out of it with him intact.

  Naven’s thoughts were interrupted as the door slid open, allowing the human who had been commanding the orcs to walk in. One of the Emerald Troopers followed, crossing his arms and standing by the door stoically. Though much smaller without the powered armor, the orc still out-massed Naven by at least three to one, most of it muscle.

  The message was clear. Don’t try anything.

  The man settled across from Naven and rest his hands on the table, threading fingers together.

  “Well, now we come to you, Mister Moongale. Or should I call you Lieutenant?” He smiled to Naven. “A Wolfson Commonwealth officer, all the way out here? We were very surprised to hear that such a man was on the ship.”

  Naven clenched his jaw… then paused and reconsidered. Something about that statement bothered him. Not very many of the crew knew which military he’d been in. Perhaps a few could tell from his accent, but even then… something was off. He held his tongue.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Hm… what I can’t figure out is why you decided to join up with a bunch of cultist-pirates? Are you a true believer, then? Seems weird to be hitting shipments and poor merchants way out here.” The interrogator watched Naven quietly, waiting for a reaction.

  That’s when the Navy man realized a few important things.

  He was now certain this guy was not a trained interrogator. This was sloppy. Way too sloppy. The man wasn’t stupid, and he’d done something very sharp, but his technique here just expected Naven to open up easily. Either that, or he was just being very slow about escalation.

  Naven didn’t have time for these games.

  “I’m sure you have your orders,” he said suddenly. “Do you ask too many questions about them?”

  The interrogator’s lip twitched, but that’s all Naven needed. This guy wasn’t the one who was in charge of the operation. He wasn’t even high up. He was a commander of a small force who planned to send them off to be fully ‘debriefed’ somewhere else. All he wanted was to squeeze some nuggets of information out so he could look good for his bosses.

  And all Naven had to do was… lead him on a little.

  To do that, all he had to do was… sell out his “crew” a little.

  Naven took a long breath. “If you can protect me and offer me something, I can tell you the specialties and skillsets of the crew members we’ve already dropped off.”

  Again, the corner of the man’s mouth twitched. He didn’t jump at the bait, but he was already hooked.

  “We can get that information from the rest of the crew,” he said in an even, mild tone.

  Barking out a laugh, Naven just shook his head. “If you’ve talked to them, you already know they don’t know anything useful. Only the Captain and I knew the whole story. It’s me, or you can try to crack her. And I think you and I both know she isn’t giving you anything useful, is she?”

  Eyes narrowed as the man regarded Naven again. “What is it you want, then?”

  Of course. Naven’s guess was correct, and this proved it. This was a large enough operation to use extra-legal methods for getting information. It would cost, but a good mage could extract what they wanted without all this back and forth.

  “Nothing much, really,” he replied with a shrug. “A new identity, a place of my own, maybe a girl or two to keep.” He wasn’t sure if slavery was something this group was involved in, but he was banking on it. “In return, I’ll tell you what I know about the people we dropped off. And which ones are cult true believers. Most of the ones left are, but some of the specialists were only in it for the money.”

  The man leaned forward. “Oh, so you were paid?”

  Naven grinned, “Oh yeah. A lot. But didn’t realize it would be quite this crazy, you know? Makes you think about the future. Why I’d prefer a quiet retirement.”

  The orc frowned, and Naven realized that he was going in a bit too hard on this, but fortunately the interrogator was way too eager to get some real information. This charade wouldn’t last too much longer, but he wasn’t in danger yet.

  “Did you really intend on doing something here with just a skeleton crew left? I’m surprised you could keep the ship running at all.” The question came with genuine curiosity… and that was the crux of how Naven knew he’d played the crew.

  “I don’t know the whole plan, but I’m pretty sure we were supposed to have more people to start with,” Naven replied easily. “But if you want more, you’ll have to give me some kind of guarantee that I’ll get what I want, too. I know how this works.”

  He had no idea how this worked.

  Still, the interrogator rubbed his chin… but didn’t take the bait. “I will see what can be arranged.” As generic an answer as any… and Naven was sure that all he was actually going to do was try to shake down the others. That was fine… the cultists really didn’t know much and would stick to the story of a talking ship, while Sallus probably had her own plan. The worst that could happen was the man would think Naven was trying to lie his way out and he’d come back to put more pressure on him.

  Either way, Naven won. All he really needed was the delay, not an actual deal.

  “Get him some water,” the man said, jerking his head toward Naven. He rose to his feet and walked out the door without so much as a ‘thank you’ to the ex-Navy man.

  Naven hadn’t expected thanks, anyway. For as ruthless as Sallus was, the elf had actually taken unusually good care of him as a prisoner, even before he’d agreed to help her. He couldn’t expect such pleasantries from a group of criminals. Once he was handed over to someone who knew what they were doing, he’d probably have an even worse time.

  With any luck, that wouldn’t happen.

  He laid his head back and stared at the ceiling as he reviewed the situation. Apex had been moving pretty fast, so even with the fastest couriers, information was spotty for the syndicate. He could tell that, just as his little conversation confirmed they didn’t really have an informant.

  No informant would have left out the fact that the ship talked and flew itself. That was the most important piece of information to pass on, so the obvious belief that there had been more crew to start with made it clear the man had been bluffing. They didn’t seem to know anything about what was going on, and the knowledge of his rank had been the real clue. It had likely been an attempt to make it sound like someone had told them, but only Sallus and Apex knew his original rank.

  The real manner of getting that information was obvious. If they’d found his berth, his old uniform was in there. That’s the only way they could know his past and full name. What’s more, they’d been moving fast and refueling through raids. The crew hadn’t gotten any shore leave since Thistlerock.

  Though that did leave the question of how Gristlemaw could so easily anticipate them. Did the old pirate know something that the rest of them didn’t? His relationship to Sallus certainly explained how he’d been able to guess her plan, but that just made him wonder what Sallus had in store for them.

  The only conclusion he could come to was she wanted to kill Tifello.

  But Apex had implied that Sallus thought Naven would, in the end, go along with that. This made him wonder, now, if she had thought seeing this corruption firsthand would result in flipping him to their side fully. And if that was the case… had Sallus actually anticipated them getting captured like this? Was this whole thing an elaborate plan?

  He shook his head. Naven knew he’d carried it too far. This was some wild conspiracy stuff. He needed to focus on the immediate problem of his imprisonment, and the fifteen normal crew members stuck here. Which left only one more question that had been nagging him.

  Where had Pan managed to hide?

  Closed Circuit

  "Hail Ringbreaker. Hail Apostate of Rust. Hail Dragon."

  Raziel is meant to be dead. He shouldn't have levels, skills, or the ability to throw lightning.

  But he does, and he's only just getting started.

  | ?? A noir-inspired, dystopian space setting | ?? A Gunslinger with growing magical abilities |

  | ?? Conspiracies, Murders, Mysteries | ?? Levels, Loot, and Boss Battles |