Neutral Space(7)

“Jack, you all right?” Jim was concerned.

I leaned in close “She’s on trial because of something I told her.”

“Then you saved innocent people.” Dan clapped me on the back. “Time for lunch. They called it early so they could get back to the trial.” I nodded numbly.

There she was on the monitors again; her demeanor had not changed. The hard edge of Trekes was present and not the softer Kheda I met. “There was another instance when you did not fire on an enemy ship was there not Major Trekes?”

“There was.” The room gasped. How could they know these things about her?

“On day 127 in the year of Laman, you and your squadron were engaged in a firefight with a squadron of human vessels. Is that correct?” The official paced in front of her.

“Yes,” Kheda said coldly.

“You destroyed how many ships that day, major?”

“Five.” Her voice was hard and distant.

“Can you speak up?” He stopped pacing to face the room.

“Five, sir.” She said pointedly.

“And yet you merely took out the engines of the sixth. Curious, I took the liberty of checking your ships logs and do you know what I found major?” He leaned on the railing near her.

“Yes.”

“Please tell the court what I found.” He addressed Kheda.

“I was scanning the beacons of the ship before engaging them.” She took a deep breath and let it out.

“And why exactly were you doing this?”

“Because I owed a human my life.” The room gasped again. “The pilot of the sixth vessel was the man that saved my life when my ship went down on Micea nearly a year ago. Without his help, I would be dead now. I owed him my life my debt is now repaid.”

“Can you prove your story?” He raised his brows.

“I only have a scar on my leg and his beacon number to prove my claim.” Kheda raised her chin.

“And his name?” The official started pacing again.

“He said his name was Jeep.” Kheda’s eye twinkled as her lip quirked up at the corner.

“Jeep? What kind of name is that?” He stopped pacing to stare at her.

She smiled and repeated exactly what I’d told her when she’d asked the same question “A twentieth-century earth conveyance. Sir.”

“She makes a mockery of this court remove her.” The center judge shouted. That’s the Kheda I knew.

“Your honor tomorrow I wish to call into evidence more on this line. If the judges will humor me, I intend to prove that Major Trekes is under the influence of this human.” It had to be her lawyer if Kelsair had such a thing.

“Try what you want she’s not the same Trekes she was. The court is adjourned.” The center judged heaved a sigh.

The monitors were black again, and I hurriedly told Dan and Jim what happened. “What did you do to her?” Dan was shocked.

“I was a perfect gentleman,” I swore.

“Maybe she’s not used to that in the Kelsairan army,” Dan suggested.

“Do me a favor find out what you can about her from the Kelsairans.” Dan looked at me. “None of us knew Trekes was a woman till all this started.” Dan nodded.

I spent the entire afternoon discreetly gathering information from anyone I could. “What’s really going on with Trekes? Everything they tell us humans is to make our knees shake.”

The Kelsairan stared at me. No one knew his real name, so we all called him M. “What’s it to you, Jack?”

“The way I see it she keeps up the way she’s going, and she’s headed here.” I moved closer talking low so the guards wouldn’t hear.

M stared again. “Looking to boost your rep? The nurse ain’t good enough for you anymore?”

“Wrong rep, M.”

“Ah, want to take on Trekes the badest of the bad.” He nearly laughed at me.

“Only if she’s everything they say she is.”

“Oh, she is. I wouldn’t try it if I were you though. She’d eat you for breakfast then have you for dessert if you get my drift.”

“Are you saying what I think you're saying?”

“Oh, the major knew how to have a good time.”

“Then maybe I can kill two birds with one stone.”

I said walking away cringing at what I’d just said: “You’re asking for trouble Jack.” The other conversations I had were similar to the one with M. She had a reputation among the Kelsairans. She was a charismatic leader to her men. They idolized her but feared her at the same time. She’d run into a firefight to save any of them and took several of her own men to her bed. It just didn’t make sense. At first, I thought it started after I’d met her, but it seemed to be a long-standing tradition. Almost a right of passage in her unit, something was wrong. Dan told me the same news and looked just as confused. He wasn’t a soldier, but he knew behavior like that would never be tolerated in the human army.

Dan and I worked out a plan to get me to the hospital ward the next day and not get me killed in the process. I told Dan what M said about the nurse and me, and he merely laughed. Then he looked at me quite seriously and asked if it were true. I told him then about the nurse and one of the guards, she’d merely been an excuse to learn the language, but the prisoners could talk all they wanted.