Sci walked up to where Cheriss was standing with the man apparently named Raymond. He kept his distance for a few second, but finally gently cleared his throat.
Cheriss, a credit to fast reflexes, spun around. Her hand was near her blaster, but she moved it into a sharp salute a second later. "Major."
"Agent Blade," he responded, with some formality. "You sent us on quite the wild goose chase."
"The what?"
"Don't ask," he replied with a wave of his hand. "We need to talk."
"Yes, I think we do, Major. Where and when?"
"Actually, I think I'll leave the full discussion to the active mission leaders. I'm actually here on a call for backup."
"Understood, sir."
"And Cheriss," he said as she started to turn back to Raymond, "Don't even think of slipping away again. I'll be watching, and at the moment I'm not above stunning you."
"Understood, sir," she replied with a small chuckle.
The door slid open.
Eti and Naira looked up expectantly, wondering who it was, hoping it was a friendly face. Ever since the end of the firefight, they'd been thrown into this cramped room aboard the Major's craft and just...left there. There was a small food dispensary in the room, and they had been able to get something to eat, but it was getting weird. Captain Boyd had taken the device they had found, too.
At any rate, they had spent their time figuring out what to do when someone finally came for them. Most of their scenarios had revolved around who it was. Lord Atner, or Lieutenant Bush, would be a worst-case scenario. If they were lucky, it might be Lieutenant Chalk--Mike--or maybe Captain Boyd, depending on what she wanted or said. As they turned, though, they stopped and stared.
"Well," whispered Eti. "Now what?"
Neither one had known what to do if the Major himself dropped by.
Sci walked over to the table and took a seat. He placed the datapad in his hands on the table and gestured for the Ladies to take the other two chairs.
"Dohrnaira Neris, and Etidorhpa Neris," he said, pronouncing both names perfectly--not an easy task for such unusual names. "You are former and current Ladies-in-Waiting to Queen Mother Llessur Atner, am I correct?"
They nodded as he continued. "According to reports from Captain Boyd, the two of you stowed away aboard the Red Home when it departed Mendellia. When you got here, you managed to bungle up what seemed like a self-motivated recon job. Then you got consistently in the way, including picking up a vital piece of evidence without letting us know about it, and ending up almost shooting your ruler." The girls looked a little abashed at that, and Sci smiled inwardly.
Actually, Vickie's report had been longer on the facts and shorter on the dramatic hyperbole, and Sci's summary had included a few leaps of deduction. However, their reactions confirmed that Sci was right on the mark.
"I'll start with 'Why?'" he said reasonably.
It was the younger of the sisters, as expected, who rose to Sci's challenge, though Eti's demeanor lacked somewhat of the feisty, self-confident arrogance that the Major had inferred from his team's descriptions of the girls. "You make it sound like -- like --"
"The truth," he cut her off. "The question stands."
"But we didn't mean any harm!" she pleaded, almost cowering.
"That said, the question stands."
"It wasn't our fault," Eti pouted. "We never meant to come here in the first place. We did not stow away. We . . . er . . . well, the ship left earlier than we thought it would."
"That's understandable. Why were you aboard at all?" Sci was the height of diplomacy.
At that, both the sisters flushed pink and exchanged a hesitant glance. "We were just having a look round. . . ." Eti tried.
"You'll need to learn to lie better in your job," he said dryly.
Eti leaned forward with a flash of the feistiness Sci had expected. "If it seems I lie poorly, Major, that is because I do not lie at all. Were I lying, you would be certain of my honesty -- I have been in royal employ long enough to learn that lesson."
"I can confirm that, sir," Naira put in suddenly with a half-smile. "Not that it took Lady Atner to teach Eti to lie properly, of course, but if she can't, no one can."
Eti glared at her sister before continuing, "I have said nothing that is not true."
Sci smiled at the elder sister. This might be promising. "Fair point, Lady. Were you looking for something specific or just a look around? We do arrange tours for anyone with clearance, and I would have been honored to show you anything."
"We would've hated to have bothered you," Eti tried to resume the lead from her sister, but Naira, with Sci's eyes fixed on her, shook her head and answered anyway. "Nothing . . . specific."
"All right," he responded. "Let's move on...When you were discovered onboard, what happened?"
"We weren't discovered," Naira admitted, glancing down.
"Indeed? My agents must have mis-reported. They said they found you--I assumed it was onboard."
"We met in the city," Eti bristled.
Sci looked at her coldly. "You manage to hide all the way but 'meet' in a crowded city? What were you doing then?"
Eti went red. "Well it would've been rather embarrassing, wouldn't it, to just pop out and say, Hello, here we are, we didn't mean to fly all this way with you and could you turn around and put us back down in Mendellia please? Your people are rather, shall we say, unpredictable, Major, and we couldn't say what they would do if they found us while in flight. It just seemed best to stay out of their ways until we could get back on solid ground and look for our own way home. We didn't want to get in the way of their mission, after all. And we manage to look after ourselves all right at home, so we bargained we could look after ourselves all right in Jerusalem, too."
"You lost," he observed. "Though..." He shifted back to Naira. "I do apologize for any inconvenience you suffered. But back to the point...What happened once you landed?"
"We left the ship and went into the city," Naira stated simply before Eti could speak.
"Beautiful, isn't it? I can't wait until I have a free moment to explore."
The elder sister shrugged. "We haven't yet been able to see much of it."
"Rather dusty, what we have seen," Eti muttered.
"Antiquity can do that. You'll find out in time. What happened next?" It was like being interrogated by a schizophrenic.
"Well . . ." Naira began.
"It's rather confusing. . . ." Eti added.
"Try me," he offered.
"Are things always this chaotic around Terra Group?" asked Naira with a convincing air of curiosity.
"Lots of explosions and gunfire," Eti nodded.
"Yes," he said simply.
"Jedi Boyd left us when it started and we didn't know what was going on," Naira continued, "so, well, we came back here. Because we didn't know what else to do. We hadn't any money left, because, you know, we hadn't planned to be here at all so we hadn't brought much. And Terra Group might be chaotic but at least, we hoped, they might help their countrywomen in distress." She said all this with a guileless directness--but something in the younger sister's expression as she watched Naira relating the tale prompted Sci's suspicions.
He nodded. "And the device?"
Both the girls' faces fell. "Oh," Naira said.
"You have it now, of course," Eti shrugged. "We didn't even know what it was. We just found it in the street."
"You just happened to find it?" He sounded skeptical.
"We were looking for money, actually," Eti smiled sweetly. "Since we hadn't any more ourselves. Naira found a coin by chance on the street, so we were looking to see if we could find any more, and then we found that thing of yours."
He seemed to miss her sweetness. At any rate he was still cold. "Fine. The lightfight is straightforward, so that leaves one question."
Another glance passed between the sisters. "And then we can go?" Eti asked hopefully.
"Maybe. Depends on the answer." That seemed to unsettle them slightly, but Eti raised her chin defiantly to await the question.
"Why?" he asked reasonably.
Eti flushed while Naira paled. Silence reigned for the space of a minute. Finally the younger said coolly: "That is our business. It does not concern Terra Group."
"Wrong answer. The moment you became a discovered stowaway it concerned us." No matter that, strictly speaking, that had happened ten minutes prior.
"But I cannot see," Eti protested, "what it is that concerns you! Unwillingly we came with your people on this journey, and all we have done since we were stranded here, unprepared for anything that might happen to us, was to try to survive and to find a way back home."
"Why were you here? It's no secret that the Ladies in service to Llessur have been trying to split up Thayer's engagement--and since his fiancee is my officer, that concerns me."
"His engagement!" Eti laughed easily. "Rumor has it there's not anything left to be split up." But Sci marked the flash of alarm in both girls' eyes at Thayer's name.
He laughed back. "You need to keep up." Turning to Naira, he smiled more softly, almost sadly. "Why? And what's this about Thayer that has you jumping at shadows?"
"Not at shadows," she said darkly.
"Naira," Eti hissed a warning.
"At this point I think I can guess," he started slowly. "Just how active were you concerning that engagement?"
Naira collected herself. "I know of what you speak--Lady Atner disapproves of your lieutenant and wishes her son to marry one of her own ladies. And I was one of those ladies. That...that is all. I failed to do what she wished me to do." Her eyes dropped, and she added under her breath, "How any lady could succeed, I know not."
"Illicitly. There have been a number of odd problems plaguing the relationship..."
"Then perhaps Lord Atner would be wise to follow his mother's advice," Eti said.
At this moment, Thayer himself knocked on the door. The girls jumped, but Sci slipped out to chat.
"He was looking for Becki," he explained when he returned.
"What problems had they had?" Naira muttered, meeting his eyes again stubbornly.
"Lost email, mistimed meetings, not to mention rumor."
"I--" The look that had flashed across Naira's face was one of unmistakable complicity, but she quickly composed herself.
Eti interrupted her: "Are you implying we had anything to do with that? The Queen mother only sends her ladies to Lord Atner as companions, not -- not -- saboteurs! And rumor is merely a fact of life in Mendellia."
Sci shrugged. "Now that all three of us are sure... You can tell me now, or wait until it comes back to haunt you. Imagine what the new Queen will think..."
"What?" Eti hissed, momentarily stunned to monosyllabism.
He ignored her. "Why?" he asked, a third time.
Eti glowered and started to rise, but Naira tugged her down. "Sister," she whispered. "Wait."
"If you're so sure of everything," Eti went on, only somewhat restrained, "why do you need us to tell you anything?"
"I don't," he responded. "I'm giving you a way out."
"Out of what?" Eti persisted.
But Naira again met Sci's eyes. "Out of snares of our own making, sister," she answered for him. Sci smiled at her and waited.
Ignoring Eti's whispered "Naira! No . . .", the elder Neris sister spoke.
"I really thought Eti could have succeeded, sir," she said quietly. "I could not. None of the other ladies could. It was too much to bear, the Dictator was always so harsh, so short with us, no matter what we did or didn't do. We had to go when Llessur sent us -- and we wanted to go, because if it went well, wouldn't we win all? at least so we thought -- but after a few hours with him finding fault and being one moment sullen and the next furious, it began to seem a prize not worth winning. It was no use trying to woo him if he was so determined not to be wooed." She blushed and paused. "But I truly thought Eti could do it. If anyone could."
"Rock and a hard place. I sympathize."
"Of course I could've," Eti snorted. "And so I should have done, had Lady Atner ever chosen me to go to him."
"Don't be too sure," he snapped.
"But as she never sent me," Eti raised her chin again, "there wasn't anything I could do to win him."
"Stop it, Eti," Naira sighed.
The younger sister began to protest, but Naira glared her down. "It isn't going to work. Maybe it could have once, but not now, you see?" She looked back to Sci. "We had hoped one of us could become Queen, but I failed, and Eti's chance was slow in coming, so we had to find another way. There's your 'why.' We were on your ship hoping to find something to help..." She trailed off, reticent when it came to how the Red Home was to have helped their ambitions.
"By breaking up the relationship and making her a candidate," he finished.
Naira sighed. "To put it bluntly, yes."
"They were half-broken-up already at that point," Eti grumbled.
"More than half," Sci said. "Were you also involved in those problems I mentioned?"
"We weren't needed to start rumors," Eti said icily. "They spawned enough of those on their own."
He nodded. "You weren't the avalanche. But you were some of the loose stones."
"You're too kind," was the younger sister's sarcastic grumble.
"You'll mean that soon."
"We took opportunities as they came to us," Eti allowed. "We had to do something."
"Such as...?"
"What does it matter now, if they didn't work?" Eti sulked.
"It matters because I want to know who I'm helping," he replied mildly.
"Just little things," Naira offered. "Crossing his path, so he would at least know Eti from the other ladies in the Palace."
"And..."
"We hadn't time for much else."
"The emails?"
"What? We -- " Sudden understanding dawned in Naira's face. "Oh. I had near forgot -- but how could you know that?"
He smirked. "Lucky guess. Email does not vanish with our equipment."
"Yes," Naira said. "That was one of the opportunities. Rather a remarkable one really -- but Eti was always quick for an opportunity."
"Very well," said Sci, standing. "This conversation can stay between us--" they looked at him, incredulous "--provided you stay on the straight and narrow."
"What will you do now?" Eti asked.
"You'll be free to go, but we're your meal ticket and your ride--don't go far, we'll put you on the next shuttle home. I need to go stretch my legs. When I get back," he said to Naira, "if you still want a tour of the city, let me know."
Naira blinked in surprise. "I...suppose that would be nice."
With that, he walked out the door.
"Well, sister," Eti said tartly, "that certainly could have gone better."