A stern-faced clerk held out a plaque emblazoned with the old Star League crest. Above it, Phelan recognized the insignia of the Wolf Clan. At the clerk's instruction, Phelan placed his right hand over his heart and his left hand on the cool surface of the plaque. "Do you swear on the honor of the Wolf Clan to tell the entire Truth and not to rest until Justice is done in this matter?"
"I do."
The Clan Loremaster glanced over at Phelan. "Please be seated."
Slipping into the witness chair, Phelan looked out at the assembled Clan Council. Composed of those Clan members who had earned Bloodnames, the Council formed the ruling body for the Wolf Clan. It elected two Khans, who subsequently represented it on the Grand Council, though the election was more a pro-forma acknowledgement of who among the Wolves were the greatest warriors. The Council debated and passed regulations, though the true management of the Clans fell to the Khans. In the main, the Council existed to sit in judgement over matters of honor concerning the Clan and the bloodlines it controlled.
The benches allotted to the Council members filled the first ten tiers of the room, with the remaining dozen devoted to the visitors' gallery. Built along the lines of a theatre in the round, its central dais slowly rotated so everyone could look upon the Loremaster, the Khans, and anyone else involved in the matter at hand. A ring of lights and cameras that moved with the platform provided images to the array of screens hanging from the ceiling, giving each member a view of the faces of the participants.
Each of the Clan Council members had Ivoting machinery and a communications terminal. Each vote would light up a red, black, or white lucite block, at the same time being tallied as an Aye, Nay, or abstention at the Loremaster's bench. The communications terminal came equipped with a keyboard that allowed typed messages to be sent to other Council members. It also included a headset that permitted public address or private verbal exchanges with other members or, with the Loremaster during a debate.
"Phelan Wolf, you have sworn to give full and complete testimony in the matter we are discussing." The Loremaster, whose thinning brown hair matched his eyes, gave Phelan a look meant to be encouraging. "As you are new to the Clan, and the matter we are discussing is your adoption into the Clan, please feel free to ask for any clarification you need to answer the questions."
"Yes, sir." Glancing up, Phelan saw Khan Ulric Kerensky and Garth Radick, the other Wolf Clan Khan, seated above and behind the Loremaster. At first glance, Ulric's white hair, moustache, and goatee made him look older than his fellow Khan, but his leanness and the hungry look in his eyes gave him an aura of youth and vitality. Radick's mousy brown hair and thicker build suggested a man more suited to a sedentary lifestyle, but Phelan knew that could not be true of one who had won a Bloodname. Seeing how Radick's restless brown eyes scanned the crowd, Phelan decided that much went on behind the pleasant mask Radick wore.
A younger member of the Clan came around from a table on the far side of the Loremaster's tall bench. Dressed in a gray jumpsuit, she proudly wore a cluster of three 8-pointed silver stars on her epaulets. Phelan recognized them as the insignia of the Supply and Support division of the Clan's military and assumed this woman to be from the Clan's equivalent of the Adjutant General's office. As she tucked a strand of red hair behind her right ear, Phelan noticed she wore a communications receiver.
She smiled at him openly. "I am Carol Leroux and I will serve as the Inquisitor in this investigation. Were you a full-fledged warrior, you would have an Advocate, but that is not permitted in this type of proceeding. You understand that it is necessary for me to take a devil's advocate position. In addition to asking my own questions—" she touched the electronic device nestled in her right ear—"I will relay questions from members of the Council. Please take as much time as you need to answer them."
"Thank you, Star Colonel," Phelan said, drawing a smile from the Inquisitor when he used the correct form of address. Though he decided to take that as a good sign, his roiling stomach remained unconvinced.
"Very well, Phelan Wolf, please state the name under which you were known in the Successor States."
"I was Phelan Patrick Kell. When captured and made a bondsman, I was frequently addressed as Phelan Ward Kell, with my mother's maiden name substituted for my middle name."
Leroux nodded. "Good. It is best to be complete in your answers." She pressed her hand against the earphone and a strange, predatory look passed over her face as she looked up at Phelan. "As a bondsman, what sort of duties did you perform for Khan Ulric?"
Is that some sort of trick question?Phelan frowned. "As I understood my lot within the Wolf Clan, as a bondsman, every duty I performed was for the Khan."
"Please, be more specific." A hint of irritation crept into her command. "What tasks did you perform at his request?"
Phelan started to pick up Leroux's hostility and his stomach did its best to turn inside-out. Cyrilla had warned him that matters of honor often devolved into heated discussions, but he hadn't gotten the impression that the issue of his adoption would take that turn. Great. Someone obviously sold my landing zone data to the enemy. This is not going to be fun.
"I was asked by Khan Ulric to research and provide data concerning the state of preparedness of the Free Rasalhague Republic. Most specifically, I worked up that information for use in the assaults on Rasalhague, the capital world of the Republic."
Leroux's dark eyes widened. "You depict yourself as a researcher, but were you not really an advisor? Did not Ulric Kerensky consult with you exclusively before the Rasalhague assault, Quiaff?"
"Perhaps I might have been considered an advisor, but I did not see myself in that role." Phelan did his best to keep his discomfort from his expression. "As for who else Khan Ulric consulted or my exclusivity, of this I am ignorant. He never chose to confide any of his plans to me."
"Is it not true that the Khan struck a bargain with you concerning the conquest of Rasalhague, Quiaff?"
"Aff." Phelan's stomach flip-flopped again. "It was bargained well and done."
His use of the Clan expression to seal a bargaining session took Leroux aback, while Phelan saw several Council members nod approval at his words. He tried to take heart in that, but Leroux recovered in an instant and was at him again. "Did you not, upon his orders, administer a beating to a member of the Warrior caste, Quiaff?"
Phelan shook his head. "It wasn't like that ..."
"Answer the question," she snarled. "Did you or did you not beat a member of the Warrior caste in full view of the Khan and his party on the surface of Rasalhague, Quiaff?"
"Aff." Phelan immediately looked to the Loremaster and began to speak before Leroux could utter another question. "If I could be allowed to explain my answer."
The Loremaster nodded. "Star Colonel, if you please, let him explain."
Phelan cleared his throat. "My concern in the invasion of Rasalhague was for the people of the world. By that point in time, I had learned that the Clans do not wage war against civilian populations, under normal circumstances anyway. I feared, however, that because the world was the Republic's capital, the defenders might retreat into the cities. All I asked of the Khan was that the assault be as bloodless as possible in terms of civilian casualties.
"He said I might accompany him to the world after it had been pacified. He made good this promise, but during our inspection, a newly unhomed individual approached the Khan to ask for help for his family. He was an old man, but a MechWarrior from the Khan's own party began to beat him mercilessly."