1.18
Everything came to a complete stop the moment Logan opened his mouth. No one moved a muscle, not even the guard, who stopped mid arrest, looking at Logan with a raised eyebrow, before turning to scan the rest of the room, trying to gleam a shred of clarity on what had just been said. Luckily, he had a few options to choose from. The first, was that of a shared look of disbelief and anger on the faces of the former King and Lendrick. Then there was the earthling, Sybil, jaw agape and eyes wide like she would have never considered such a thing to be said. Finally, Queen Miranda’s reaction was one of pure confusion, as she looked between everyone else.
A veil of silent tension filled the room, and the guard felt, for lack of a better term… awkward. He turned to face the queen, clearing his throat and drawing her eye.
“Your majesty… I’m sorry, but… did you wish for me to arrest Captain Rake? I don’t mean to sound insubordinate, it’s just that his proclamation sounded rather… official? I wouldn’t want to be interfering in interspace business while in the process of performing my duties.”
Miranda blinked, then shook her head, clearing the fog of confusion that had set in.
“No, you’re fine Sarmis… Please, return to your post. And close the door behind you when you do. Do not come in unless you specifically hear my voice calling for you.”
The guard nodded, doing an about face and marching through the doorway. All eyes were on him as he grabbed the doorknob, easing it shut. Then as if the audible sound of the latch clicking into place was the primer, the room exploded into a cacophony of voices all at once.
“You can’t do that!” Lendrick bellowed “It’s his right as a free-space citizen!” Marcus said, finally speaking up as he took a step towards the rest of the group.
“Gentlemen, what’s -” Miranda began to speak, when she was cut off by the all-encompassing argument.
“Seriously Logan? You’d invoke that right on my son?” Augustus growled, mouth agape in shock.
“I thought he wasn’t your son anymore Augustus?” Logan shot back. “Why do you give a shit all of a sudden?”
“Why you little -”
“Erm… excuse me?” Miranda tried again, her voice a little louder as she tried to be heard.
“I won’t stand for this!” Lendrick shouted, his face turning red in a fury. “Prince Caustos won’t stand for this.”
“Well both you and the prince are more than welcome to sit,” Logan said, leaning in till his face was inches from the diplomat. “Because last time I checked, you don’t get a say in this!”
“How dare you!”
“HEY!” Miranda shouted, her voice going up several octaves in a screech that brought all other voices to a screeching halt. Logan, Lendrick, Augustus, and Marcus all turned to her, eyes wide in surprise, their mouths closing as they adjusted themselves back to a more dignified state.
Miranda took a moment to center herself, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. She ran a hand through her greasy black hair, pushing it back behind her ears, before exhaling slowly, not looking up as she spoke in a soft, warning tone.
“I understand tensions are high right now. I also understand that there are… conflicting opinions in this room concerning this… invocation. But today is not only my first day as queen, but my first day hearing about something so polarizing. So do you think it all possible that one of you could stop this pissing contest for FIVE MINUTES, and tell me what Forced Relinquishment is?!”
The silence in the room was deafening. None of the occupants made a sound as Miranda scanned the room. None, except for Sybil’s faint, breathy giggling. All eyes turned in her direction, and unlike everyone else, she hadn’t moved an inch in all the commotion. There she was, lounging against the wall, a glass of whiskey in one hand that swung freely, while the other, she held up to her stomach, trying to contain her laughter.
“My my,” She said after a moment, the familiar knowing smirk on her lips as she looked out towards the faces gazing on her. “I’ll give you this, you lot are the most entertaining group of people this side of the sector. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve been so entertained.”
Miranda’s temples throbbed in frustration, though she kept her calm enough to speak in a more subdued and diplomatic tone, even if it was through clenched teeth.
“Do you know what they’re talking about Sybil? This… forced relinquishment?”
“I do…” She said cryptically, casting her eyes down to stare at her drink, which she was swirling in her palm.
Miranda felt her eye twitch and had to take another deep breath before responding. “Would you please enlighten me as to what it is?”
A smile appeared on Sybil’s face, though she stayed quiet for a time, choosing instead to drain the rest of the alcohol in her glass. She gave a satisfied sigh, setting the drink down, and just when Miranda was getting ready to truly lose her patience, was when she answered.
“Forced Relinquishment, a by-product of the Free Space Pioneering Act of 2175. Back then, Earth’s fleet was stretched thin from rapid colonization, yet they still wanted visibility in the eastern arm of the galaxy. To that end, they decided to rely on private corporations to go out and explore, promising tax breaks and relaxed government oversight. But, they still needed the bodies to fill the ships. So, using an old tactic from the ancient British Empire’s colonization of Australia, they found them.”
“British Empire? Australia? I’m not sure I follow.” Miranda said, her eyebrow raised in curiosity and confusion.
Sybil shook her head, waving away her questions.
“Not important. Just a fun little historical fact. What is important however,” She said, slowly raising her gaze to look from Miranda to Logan, her gaze a cold and powerful beam that seemed to gaze into his very being, “is that Mr. Rake here has potentially found a loophole to get Cameron out of prison.”
“What?” Miranda gasped, her mouth dropping open as she looked from Sybil to Logan. The man didn’t return her gaze, focusing instead on the slowly nodding Sybil.
“You heard me right. See, like I said, the government took inspiration from the old worlds way of doing things. So, when they needed bodies to go out on colony ships, and couldn’t find anyone up to the task, they turned to people that society wasn’t going to miss, i.e. prisoners. They set up the corporations as their own governing body and went through the various correctional facilities. They ran tests, physicals, psych evals, the whole shebang. Anyone that the companies deemed fit was, for lack of a better term, forced to relinquish their citizenship in order to join the colonization expeditions.”
“By the stars, that sounds horrible!” Miranda’s face had contorted into a grimace of disgust. Ketris had servants and a working class, but slavery had been outlawed since the planets founding. To her, the thought of forcing someone to abandon their life in order to be at the whim of another government was something so horrible she didn’t want to even think of it.
Sybil on the other hand simply shrugged, her tone nonchalant as she continued. “That depends on you prospective I suppose. But to a cut a long story short, the expeditions were a success, and the act stayed in service with a few modifications. Now, a citizen of free-space has the right to invoke a request of forced relinquishment on any prisoner under earth jurisdiction. As long as the request is approved by an Earthgov official, which in this case would be me, and the current ruling planetary official, being you, Logan can take Cameron under his custody and responsibility.
Miranda went through a gamut of emotions, internally as well as facially. Shock, disgust, curiosity all ran through her along with something else… hope. She looked at Sybil who gave her an affirming stare before looking back to Logan who now met her gaze. She saw something then, something behind cold, steel-colored eyes. It was an effort to get her tongue to form the words for the question she needed to ask.
“You… You really think he’s innocent. Don’t you?”
A slight tilt of his head told her all she needed to know. She turned back to Sybil who was watching the exchange with interest.
“So… just like that? If we both approve, Cameron goes free?”
Sybil made a face that could only have been read as ‘not exactly’.
“In a way, yes. But also no. There’s quite a few caveats that we’d need to discuss before we make it official -”
“You can’t possibly mean to go through with this!” A shout from the far end of the room broke the calm atmosphere of the moment. Lendrick, who it seemed, couldn’t contain his indignation any longer was staring daggers at Sybil.
“The Pellyn boy murdered a planetary official! Surely you don’t intend to approve such a preposterous request? You’d be a fool to do so! I don’t know how you can honestly call yourself a representative of the mother planet for even considering this!”
Sybil blinked, taking a moment, before she took a step in Lendrick’s direction. Then she took another step, her tone growing cold and dangerous as she spoke.
“I’m sorry. I think you’ve made a mistake there Lazarus. See, I think you believe that I’m someone who cares what you deem preposterous. Or perhaps you think that I actually care as to your thoughts on a matter that doesn’t concern you,”
Her voice was sharp and authoritative, dripping with venom from every syllable. As she crossed the threshold, all eyes were on her, all ears opened to understand her clearly.
“Let’s get one thing straight okay? This is my sector. Not yours. These walls, this floor, the trees outside, the blood in your veins, they all belong to me.”
Her tone deepened and dropped and octave, coming out as more of a hiss, as she backed the diplomat into a corner. No one else moved a muscle. Even Augustus, who until this moment, had backed the man since he had arrived on the planet, was silent and still.
Lendrick was visibly perspiring, his lips quivering, as he realized he had nowhere to go. He looked around, trying to find someone, anyone to help him out of this situation. When that proved useless, he changed tactics, attempting to smooth things over.
“M-My apologies for any offense Ms. Moore. I-I was simply -”
She didn’t let him finish, putting a finger to his lips to quiet him as she leaned in her lips inches from his ear, speaking at a whisper that was still loud enough for all to hear.
“Yes, we let you have your little nobilities, and give you the impression that we’re just here to make sure everything runs smoothly, but make no mistake. Critique the way I run my sector again, or continue this dialogue of acting like some entitled child, and there is no one who can save you from what I’ll do to you. I run shit around here. You just live here.”
She pulled back to gaze into his eyes and in that moment, Lendrick saw nothing but cold hard truth. He gulped, his breath a trembling shudder.
“Understood?” She asked, practically growling the word.
He nodded rapidly, not taking his eyes off the women.
“Good.” She said, her tone changing instantly, back to it’s usual cool and friendly timbre. She turned away from Lendrick, her gaze settling on Marcus, who was currently looking at her in abject terror.
“Marcus, can you be a dear and fetch my datapad from my room? I have some paperwork to draw up. That is,” She turned to look at Miranda, “If you’d wish to proceed with the process? What do you say?”
She didn’t even hesitate.