First Strike - An Earth@War Novel
Epilogue

Naval Brig

Naval Station Oscar, Kylar II

June 12, 2487, 0915 Local, 1535 UT

The duty officer led Carol Anderson to the interrogation room surprised to see her holding a basket of fruit. I wonder exactly what she’s up too? He knew better than ask of course and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Right now, like most of the brig’s staff he just wanted to beat the daylights out of the Batronian pilot. Get the win that they hadn’t been able to achieve in any other way. Eventually, he would talk. All this keeping him isolated stuff didn’t seem to be accomplishing anything and certainly didn’t help the people on Omar IV. Still, seeing the way she could get the Batronian to react was impressive.

Carol sat at the interrogation table and sat the basket of fruit in front of her. She saw the look of confusion on the duty officer’s face, but for now didn’t comment. Two guards led Shonze into the room. The transformation that had taken place in the Batronian pilot’s appearance was significant. She studied him, not saying a word. She noticed that he kept glancing over to the basket of fruit. She knew that, for a Batronian, fruit was a delicacy. Before the war, Batron imported as much fruit from Earth as Earth was willing to provide. She sat silently for a full two minutes before she began to speak.

<<The fruit is yours, of course,>> she told Shonze. He looked at her. She knew he was suspicious of what would motivate her to make such a gesture.

<<Another game? You are so inefficient,>> Shonze told her. Despite his physical appearance, he still spoke with his typical arrogance.

<<No game. A token of our appreciation,>> she replied. She watched as he studied her, knowing he was confused by the statement. She waited just enough time. <<Without your help, we would have lost Omar IV to Batron. But, thanks to you, we still have it. And Batron is in almost as bad of shape as we are. Oh, we haven’t won yet. But at least we’ve leveled the playing field.>>

<<You expect me to believe that your pathetic fleet stopped our glorious forces? You must think that I’m a fool.>>

<<Not at all, Shonze. I think you’re a lot of things but not a fool. But, I have no questions for you now. Just a gift and my personal thanks,>> Carol said. She nodded to the Duty Officer who summoned the guards.

“Make sure you put him in the best cell you have available. The guards should be polite. They should pretend to sneak him extra portions of food, smile at him and attempt to communicate politely. I will be sending more fruit over and your guards should sneak him some occasionally. They do not need to understand why. But, they must act as if he is their ally, not enemy,” Carol instructed the duty officer.

The duty officer could not contain his anger. He knew and had served with people who had died at Omar IV and more that were not accounted for. And now this woman expected him to treat a Batronian like he was an ally. This woman must have lost her mind, he thought. He tried to bite his tongue, but found he couldn’t stop from speaking out as soon as the alien left the room. “Why are we treating him as if he were our friend? I lost friends on Omar IV and I have no idea why you would treat a prisoner of theirs in this way. I have done everything you have asked, but this is too far,” the Duty Officer said.

“No, it isn’t. We’re thanking him for his help that prevented Batron from taking Omar IV. He needs to know that if it ever came out that he was the reason that Batron lost there, that his exile would be complete.”

“What are you talking about? Batron didn’t lose! We did! We didn’t save Omar IV, we lost it!” he shouted.

“True, but the prisoner doesn’t know that, does he?” Carol said as she headed for the door leaving the Duty Officer speechless.