Broken World: Liars

Broken World: Liars (Chapter 8)

Joan

"Matthew!"

Major Darling, promoted to counter Daniel's new rank, turned around.He had two soldiers with him, one on each side, and all three of themcarried guns. On a human shuttle, projectile weapons would have beenfar too dangerous, as even the tiniest breach of the hull couldpotentially doom the entire vessel, but the Confederacy built itsships far stronger than what Earth and its nations were capable of.Here, it was the weapons that humans could barely even dream of thatwould be far too dangerous to use. Darling had been talking to anItem'qar Warrior. He seemed vaguely familiar to Joan, but shecouldn't quite remember when she had met him, or what his name was,and frankly, she didn't really care, either.

"Joan. What can I do for you?", he asked, making an apologeticgesture to the alien, who seemed a bit irritated at the interruption.

She hesitated. "I'm not sure", she said.

The man frowned. "Okay? So do you actually have a good reason tointerrupt my conversation with Problem Solver Ilfeq, or not?"

"Of course I do!" she snapped at him, but remembered that he washer superior and continued in a much calmer voice: "I just don'tknow what exactly we can do."

He sighed. "This is about Daniel, isn't it?"

"I just got a message from Captain Graupe saying that the Allianceis giving up on him."

"Give us a few minutes, please, Ilfeq", said Darling. TheItem'qar nodded and walked out of the corridor. "Yes, I heard aboutthat. I don't like it any more than you do, honestly, but what howthe WEA deals with their citizens is none of our business."

"He is going to be sent to a labour camp, Matthew!"

"It's very unfortunate, I agree."

"Unfortunate doesn't even begin to-"

"He shouldn't have disobeyed, then!" Joan flinched under theunusually harsh tone. "He shouldn't have applied his owninterpretation of the rules, shouldn't have killed that damn bear,and should have let Zacharias die! For Christ's sake, Joan, you thinkI like this? He's under my command, he's my responsibility, just likethat man was his, but this isn't war, this isn't a battle, this isn'teven a drill. This is politics, and that means that I can't doanything. I'm under orders to let him be taken, and tried, and foundguilty if the Item'qar so choose, and that's what I'll do, because ifI don't, it's anarchy!"

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, the tension disappearingfrom his face and postures as he did. "The same goes for you, Joan.You work for the military, you follow your orders same as everyoneelse."

Joan fell silent. Gritting her teeth, she turned around and leftDarling and the alien to whatever they were talking about. She was anadult. She was several years older than Darling, older than Daniel,than Graupe, Grenouille, all of them. She was probably the oldesthuman on board, and she was growing very tired of being treated likea child.

"Follow my orders", she hissed under her breath. "Goscrew yourself, Matthew!"

She wouldn't have dared saying that to his face. She knew it, and itonly made her more angry. She'd been calm the entire time. She hadendured Chx' initial xenophobia, had tolerated Daniel's antiques, andhad done her best to be polite and helpful to everyone, and she wasgetting so incredibly sick of it all. She was overworked,having to deal with both the German and the American soldiers, and byGod, she deserved more respect than this.

Yet she would comply. Of course she would. Whenever those angrythoughts arose, her professional mind stepped in, letting her knowthat of course the commanding officer outranked her, ofcourse Chx respected her now, of course Daniel just wantedto make her happy, like a friend should.