“Screw him,” Enrique declared. “You should’ve kicked him harder.”
Jessica’s mind was already several steps ahead. “You get the comm-set tracking running yet?”
“They’re setting it up now. It’ll be ready in a few hours. It’ll notify whoever has the duty the moment one of our guests goes someplace they don’t belong.”
“Good. These people are making me nervous.” Jessica tapped her comm-set earpiece to activate the device. “Nash to Yosef.”
“Yosef, go ahead.”
“Do me a favor and use Jalea’s comm-set signal to figure out where she is at the moment.”
“Stand by.”
Jessica notices the metal chains and cuffs in Enrique’s hand. “Make sure that guy is well restrained. And don’t let the doc tell you otherwise.”
“You got it.”
“And I want someone watching him at all times until his ass is back in the brig.”
“Jessica?” Ensign Yosef’s voice called over Jessica’s comm-set.
“Go ahead.”
“Jalea is in her quarters.”
“Copy that. Thanks.” Jessica tapped her comm-set again to turn it off and started down the corridor.
“Where you going?” Enrique asked.
“I’m gonna have a heart-to-heart with the rebel princess,” she told him as she walked away.
Jessica strode confidently down the corridor towards Jalea’s quarters. Her cabin was not far away, since everything forward of the primary bulkheads was still closed off due to the hull breach that had occurred when they had rammed the Ta’Akar ship a week ago. That had given Jessica little time to think about what she was going to say to Jalea when she confronted her.
Arriving at her door, Jessica pressed the buzzer along the side of the doorway. A moment later, Jessica heard the sound of the metal latch releasing right before the door slid open to reveal Jalea. Her face still appeared angry, and the prisoner’s blood splatter still decorated both her top and her right hand.
“We need to talk,” Jessica ordered as she stepped into the cabin, forcing Jalea to step aside.
Jalea turned to keep herself facing Jessica, not wanting to turn her back to her. “I don’t believe we have anything to talk about.”
“Oh, I beg to differ,” Jessica said, a slight chuckle following her words. Jessica stepped deeper into the cabin. It was a small, standard cabin meant to accommodate two members of the crew. Jessica herself had lived in one until only a few days ago, when she moved into a larger single occupancy cabin on the command deck. She had done so not because she wanted to, but because her new duties required her to be as close to the command section as possible, even when she was off duty.
“Very well,” Jalea said, realizing that Jessica was not offering her a choice. “What would you like to talk about?”
Jessica smiled at Jalea’s attitude and at how Jalea not only kept herself between Jessica and the exit, but had also chosen not to close the door. This lady was well trained. And the more dealings Jessica had with her, the more she was sure of it. The question was, trained by who? “What the fuck happened back there?”
“Nothing,” Jalea lied. “I simply lost control. I apologize.”
Jessica could tell in an instant that the apology was fake and was only meant to hasten an end to the confrontation. “That’s crap, and you know it. You’ve been cool as a cucumber since the moment you stepped on board. Hell, you didn’t even shed a tear when you brothers in arms, one by one, blew themselves up to save us. And all of a sudden I’m supposed to believe that you just lost it?” she said, throwing up her arms. Jessica folded her arms across her chest as she recalled the events that had transpired in the brig only minutes ago. “You were pushing him, fucking with his mind, weren’t you? You and the captain. Yeah, I saw the little wink he gave you. So what was it? What did you say to him?”
Jalea turned to her left and moved a few steps away from Jessica while still maintaining a clear shot to the exit should she need a quick retreat. “I was trying to prove to him that the Doctrine of Origins was false,” she said with indignation, “that Caius is not a God, and that his cause is not just.”
“And the part about us being from Earth? And about Na-Tan?”
“It is just a variation of the Legend of Origins. One followed by many of the more spiritually inclined. Ybarans are such people, so I expected he would be familiar with the details of this particular variation of the legend.”
“Well I’m not familiar with the details. Perhaps you’d care to enlighten me?” Jessica’s tone demonstrated that it was more of a command than a request.
“If you insist,” Jalea answered reluctantly. “Many of the societies in this part of the galaxy have been oppressed for countless generations. Caius himself has been in power for more than one hundred years. During this time he has also caused much pain and suffering and has oppressed billions. Believing in miracles, believing that salvation from such atrocities and oppression will someday come to be, helps keep hope alive. For many in the Pentaurus cluster, hope is all they have.”
“And what about this Na-Tan?” Jessica prodded.
“One of the versions talks of one that will save them from evil. This one is called Na-Tan. He is said to come from a distant star called Sol, from the birthplace of humanity. Earth.”
“Na-Tan,” Jessica mumbled as everything fell into place. “You were trying to convince that poor, brain- washed schmuck that Nathan was Na-Tan, come to save the people from the evil Caius.” Jessica shook her head. “And it almost worked, too. Didn’t it?”
“Almost,” Jalea admitted.
“But it didn’t. And you know why it didn’t? Because it was stupid. You don’t win somebody over by telling them everything they believe is wrong. All that does is solidify their beliefs and make them hate you all the more. And when done to groups, it galvanizes them.”
Jalea’s demeanor changed, softening somewhat, as her tone became less defensive and her posture more open and inviting. Jessica may not have been born with Nathan’s natural ability to read body language, but she had been taught the skill in spec-ops training.
“My intent was only to make him question his beliefs,” Jalea explained apologetically, “not to convince him to side with us. Making one question their beliefs puts a crack in one’s armor. Over time, that crack widens and the armor weakens.”
Jessica didn’t much feel like listening to Jalea preach. And she had absolutely no patience to stand by while she tried to play her in the same way that she tried to play the captain. “Yeah. I don’t really give a shit about all that. You see, your methods of persuasion don’t work on me the way they might work on Nathan. So save it, princess.”
Jalea tried her best to look confused and shocked. “I’m sorry. What is it you’d like me to do, then?”
“What I’d like you to do is to shut the hell up.”
“Excuse me?” Jalea asked, continuing her charade.
“If someone asks you a question, you answer them. If someone tells you do go somewhere and do something, you go there and do it. Otherwise, you shut up. You don’t make tactical decisions on your own. And you don’t take actions on your own. And if you do otherwise, at best you end up in the brig right alongside our Ghatazhak friend.”
Jalea did not care for Jessica’s threats and immediately changed both her posture and her tone to communicate her dislike back to Jessica. “And at worst?” she asked, as if challenging her.
Jessica’s arms dropped to her sides, her gaze became cold, and her eyes became slits. “I end you.”
“End me?” Jalea asked, feigning ignorance of the term.
“Yeah. End you. You know, put a bullet in your brain? Punch your ticket? Put your lights out? Plant you six feet under? No wait, those are all Earth terms, so you wouldn’t understand them, would you?”
Jalea looked down for a moment. “No, I’m afraid-” When her eyes came back up, she found the business end of Jessica’s sidearm only centimeters from the bridge of her nose, immediately noticing that Jessica had just finished thumbing off the safety. She froze in her tracks, not moving a muscle. Her first instinct would normally be to jerk to one side while smacking the weapon in the opposite direction. But there was a coldness in the eyes of the holder of the weapon that told her caution was the more prudent choice of action.
