Chapter 25.2

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The following day brought the end of Sabrina's role as witness, once the Council finished with its questions for her, Lien, and Zepharan. Ford and Horamennet were called upon to explain the technical aspects of the Wayship killer technology and the risks it could pose for inhabited systems and other types of ships; Sabrina rejoined Baldaran and Mara at the Council table. When there were no more questions for Ford, Mara adjourned the meeting, after announcing that Captain Devon would be available for testimony the following day.

"Really?" Sabrina asked as the meeting broke up.

Mara smiled at her. "Have you not spoken with him? He is fine. And Khediva could no longer pretend that his health was at risk after Homeworld delivered its analysis. Besides, I persuaded him that he would rather get this over with than find himself chained to the witness table when Aurora goes into labor."

"True," Sabrina said.

"For myself," Mara said, "I would like to get this entire Council meeting as far along as possible before Tirqwin emerges so that I will be able to spend some time with him afterward." She turned as Ford joined them. "You must be rejoicing in your freedom now that you are finished, Niavar."

He grinned. "I'm not finished, though. I offered my services to Horamennet as a sort of attaché."

"You did?" Mara and Sabrina chorused.

"Why?" Mara asked.

"Many reasons, not the least of which is the desire not to be separated from my wife for most of the day for the foreseeable future," Ford said.

"I take it you had a good conversation last night, then?" Sabrina asked, after checking to make sure the Continuity Supervisor was not within earshot.

"Yes. He admitted that he finds much of our culture strange, so I offered to explain things to him and give him context for some of the testimony. I think he may find Scotty's testimony more than a little perplexing, if Scotty's past exploits are any example." He paused. "Aurora invited us to dinner tonight—they've come up to Dansestari so they don't have to travel so early tomorrow. Any more late night meetings?"

"No, thankfully," Sabrina replied. "I'd love to see them. Mara, are you free?"

"Unfortunately, no," Mara said. "Give them my love. I am meeting with some of the other delegates to personally assure them that we are not trying to enlist them for a projected conflict with Homeworld. I cannot understand why, given all the testimony, they would think we believe Homeworld to be responsible for the situation!"

"History," Sabrina sighed.

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The next day was a little nerve-wracking for Sabrina, who knew her brother's dislike of questioning and tendency toward sarcasm. He was on his best behavior, though, and was mostly patient with questioners who obviously did not understand Praxatillian military procedures or the fact that he was working with a diminished special operations team instead of a strike force. He got testy when asked repeatedly why he did not just kill or incapacitate Malvarak, however.

"Look," Scotty said to the third person who had questioned him about this, "I think it's safe to say that I know more about Malvarak than all but maybe three people in this room. No one in my own chain of command has criticized that particular part of my job on Kuath. I made a judgment in the midst of a complicated assignment, based on the facts as I knew them and the primary objective of my mission, which was to evacuate as many people as possible from Kuath. Besides which, once Tirqwin arrived on the scene, it was up to him to decide what to do about Malvarak, not me."

Sabrina winced inwardly. One sentence too far.

He can still make it work, Ford reassured her.

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