“Confusion to the enemy?” I suggested, trying to keep my voice steady. It didn’t crack or break, so I think I did a remarkably good job.
Dhahabu snorted in amusement, raising her fresh glass. “At least as much confusion as they give to us.” The other two raised their glasses, and I tentatively joined in, taking a respectful sip of Eire-style whiskey. Even in my exhausted, petrified state, I could tell it was exquisite. Olgolny and Fedha both sipped their drinks, but Dhahabu tossed her tequila back with abandon.
Tired of waiting for the inevitable, I decided to kick things off. “I suppose we should talk about New Melbourne.”
“We have your report on the loss of New Melbourne. That’s not why you’re here.”
“What do you know about the Empire’s nobility, Lieutenant?” Olgolny asked.
I considered this odd question, wondering how my knowledge of the enemy’s upper class outweighed the greatest Royal Commonwealth defeat since the Empire’s initial blitz. One million soldiers lost, an entire defense sector compromised, three star systems captured and a dozen more rendered indefensible. Worse, many threatened systems were within the Critical Defense Zone. Should one of those worlds fall, the Empire’s jumpships could reach the capital. Knowing the defensive forces on most of those worlds, I estimated the Empire would be in striking range within months, if not weeks, and then it would be all over. Imperial forces would take the capital, the Royal Commonwealth would fall, andsomewhere along the way, I would be slain. This war was over. The Commonwealth was dead, even if it would take a few more months for the corpse to stop twitching.
It was a catastrophe beyond imagining, and they wanted to ask me about Imperial nobles?
“Not much, I’m afraid. Nobles tend to be heavily augmented, often demon princes or better. They’re fearsome warriors, lead their battalions from the front, and enjoy melee combat.”
“We know how they fight. We’re interested in how they function within the Empire’s political system,” Marshal Dhahabu interrupted as she poured herself another drink.
“Well, from what I’ve learned, they select their leaders in a sort of, ‘election via assassination.’ Strong rulers survive, and the weak, careless, and unpopular die. I submitted a report to Military Intelligence after the outbreak of hostilities, to give our agents some useful info. I’m certain I could find a copy.” I did my best to give a military-style report.
Marshal Fedha shook his head. “We know about your report. It was received ten years ago, circulated to a few departments that never made much use of it, then filed in a digital archive, catalogued, and forgotten…”
“… until we found it,” Grand Marshal Olgolny finished, looking intently at me over her sake. Her amber eyes bored through me.
I hesitated, then decided to lay all my cards on the table. “To be honest, if you have my report, then I don’t know what more I can tell you. I don’t know very much about the Empire’s nobility at all, only what I learned from the girl I dated during my Academy days.”
“Yes,” Olgolny said. “It’s her we’d like to speak to you about.”
“Astrid?” Her face flashed through my mind, and Isuppressed the sudden flutter in my heart. “What could she have to do with anything? I haven’t spoken to her in almost twelve years, before the war…”
“From the MI reports we have on her, you did quite a bit more than speak with her,” High Marshal Dhahabu lasciviously said.
I felt my cheeks flush, but kept firm. “I fail to see what that has to do with the war…”
“Astrid was an Imperial noble, was she not?” Fedha asked.
“Yes, a minor one, heir to a petty barony somewhere deep in the Imperial hinterskies…”
Grand Marshal Olgolny waved me silent. “Lieutenant, the Baroness Iyulya Astridur’s presence at Royal Colonial Academy was a rare oddity. Your relationship with her was a singular event.”
I scoffed. “You can’t mean to tell me no one has ever befriended an Imperial before.”
“Is that the word you’d use?” High Marshal Fedha waggled his silver eyebrows.
“Had relations with, then,” I replied, deciding not to admit that, on my side, it had been young love at its purest. “I can’t be the only Commonwealth officer to take up with an Imperial.”
“Most officers have better taste,” Marshal Dhahabu murmured into her scotch and soda.
“No.” Grand Marshal Olgolny threw her colleague a quick warning glare. “So far as we can tell, you are the only member of Her Majesty’s government, intelligence services, or armed forces who has had personal contact with an Imperial noble of an intimate nature.”
At a loss for words, I sipped my watered-down whiskey to cover my shock.
“How would you describe your past relationship with the Baroness Astrid?”
I sipped my whiskey again, for courage this time, as frustration bubbled under my cool exterior. Did they intend to play with me long? I’d rather get the punishment over with quickly. It wasn’t like I had much to live for anyways. With the star front broken, my life expectancy measured in weeks, if not days. Prison might give me a bit more time before the Empire conquered our worlds.
Marshal Dhahabu quietly, yet pointedly, slapped her empty glass onto the table next to her. “If you don’t want to answer our reasonable questions, we could always return you to what’s left of your legion.”
My frustration bubbled over, and I foolishly snapped. “Do you mean our emotional state, or are you looking for more explicit details?”
