Nightfall_at_Algemron

Delonghi, with that dark hair of hers and those big brown eyes, looked less happy to see him than Dareyev did.
"I'm a little surprised to see you two working together," Gabriel said.
"It became time to share data," Delonghi answered. "Things have been going on that require cooperation between our forces." She gave him a look.
He gave it right back to her in spades, for he knew that she knew about the Externals. "Cooperation is important," Gabriel said. "More so now than usual, so listen to me, because this is vital. We have to get to Algemron."
"After the way you left recently," Dareyev said, "I would hardly have thought it was a priority."
Gabriel swallowed and said, "Yes, well, that can't be helped right now, but we have to go back. I'm sure you'll insist on taking me there in custody. That's just fine, but let's get on with it."
"You might give me a sense first of why I should listen to anything you have to say," Elinke said. "You've already betrayed every thing you should have stood for, and Star Force is not in the habit of letting her prisoners dictate ships' destinations."
"I'm sure it looks that way to you," Gabriel said, "but let's go see Lorand Kharls. He'll explain once I tell him what I know."
"You're not going to see anything but the inside of a cell for a while." She motioned to Gabriel's guards. "Hand him over to security, then accompany them to his cell."
Elinke began to turn away as two of his guards grabbed his forearms and began pushing him forward. Gabriel shrugged them off fiercely.
"Elinke! Elinke, you've got to listen to—"
"Quiet, you!" The guards grabbed him, more fiercely this time. They began to drag him to a nearby corridor.
Elinke and Delonghi disappeared into a pack of officers and technicians who were quickly rushing off toward another corridor—probably to finish dealing with the small matter of the VoidCorp ship. The captain had already turned her attention elsewhere, shutting Gabriel out of her world for the time being. Gabriel struggled, but the Marines were prepared this time, and he couldn't break free.
"Captain!" he shouted above the din of a docking shuttle. "Captain, you've got to listen to me!" One of the guards jabbed the butt of his rifle into Gabriel's kidney. His knees collapsed, and he would have fallen had the guards not held him so tightly. "Elinke! Call Kharls! Tell Kharls we have to get to Algemron! Elinke!"
Chapter Fourteen
Gabriel was taken to a temporary holding cell lit by harsh ceiling lights that gave no warmth. The tiny room, no more than two meters square, had a cold metal bench set into the wall across from a large window that looked out onto the main cell block. He sat down and was about to try contacting Enda again when Captain Dareyev appeared before the window. He couldn't be sure under the harsh light of the cell, but he thought he could see the silhouette of someone else a few paces behind her.
"AH right, Connor," Dareyev said tersely, "you have two minutes to say your piece. Out with it."
It all came out in a rush: the stone, Ohmel, the rockslide, the Glassmaker site, the arachnons, the Patterner. Gabriel left out the more intimate details, but he must have told it all inside of two minutes because the captain stood motionless, not saying a word, but listening intently. When he had finished, she said nothing, just stood there looking at him.
At a loss for words but desperate to convince her, he asked, "Did you tell Kharls I'm here?" She ignored the question and simply said, "How did VoidCorp know where to find you?"
He was taken aback by the sudden change of subject, but it was something that had been on Gabriel's mind as well. He thought of that inner voice saying, The stone… There are forms ofbroadcast emission with which you are not familiar.
"Well?"
"I don't know," he answered truthfully. "If I did, don't you think I would have done my best to stop it?"
"That," Dareyev replied through a tight smile, " I don't know. I know you're a traitor to the Concord, but exactly where your loyalties lie, I'm still not sure. You tell me."
"You think I'm VoidCorp!" Gabriel was genuinely shocked, but he pushed his rising anger down. He didn't have time for this. "I am not VoidCorp, nor have I ever been. Would they have chased me across half the Verge, forced my ship down, and grabbed me with armed soldiers if I was one of them? If you can't believe that, if you won't even listen to me, then call Lorand Kharls. Please. You have no idea how important this is."
"You're not going to see anyone without my approval," Dareyev replied, "though it is amusing that you should ask for him, since he's been in the neighborhood recently."
"I should think so," Gabriel said. "Schmetterling's been his base for a while now."
"He's not aboard," she said. "It seems your information is outdated. He's at Algemron."
Gabriel blinked. A chill went over him, for he had long since had the sense that Lorand Kharls did not often go to planets unless they were literally or figuratively ready to blow up.
"It really s heating up over there, then," he said.
"The other Concord Administrator there called him in for emergency consultations," Dareyev replied. "They've got their heads together now, but they're both sure that another Galvinite offensive is about to start, and not just some little skirmish—another big one. We're going to be in the middle of a war unless something can be done to stop it."
"Offensives," Gabriel said. "You have no idea how offensive things are about to get, and they have nothing to do with it. Elinke, please—"
She gave him a cold look.
" Captain." Gabriel corrected himself. "They're coming. More trouble than you've ever seen in one place."
"Who is coming?"
Gabriel glanced around and dropped his voice. "Do you know what kind of—" He stopped himself. Hundreds of hours, the Patterner had said. There was no time for this. "Please, we've got to get to Algemron!"
She looked at him. Her voice took on a quiet coolness. "What exactly were you doing on Galvin, Connor?"
Gabriel clutched his head and moaned. "I went there to shop, but someone else was shopping, too—for me. I found Jacob Ricel there, Captain."
She stared at him. "He's dead."
"A couple of him are," Gabriel said, "but the one you think was dead didn't die until a few weeks ago. Unfortunately he died without making a confession in front of anyone but me."
Elinke smiled slightly. "Convenient, that."
The fury flared up in Gabriel. He took a couple of steps toward the window until he was centimeters from the thick glass and said, very softly, "I am tired of being thought a liar when I'm not lying and a traitor when I've never been one. Some of that at least will come out at the trial, but if you don't get me back to Algemron now, there will never be a trial, and your sorry little vendetta is going to be swallowed up in the destruction of all human life in the Verge! You are going to be up to your chest rivets in the biggest war you ever saw, and everything you have—every weapon, every ship—is going to be worth no more than a bucket of warm spit against what's coming for you. You are all going to die. We are all going to die, unless you get moving now!"
A brief silence. "Without proof," Dareyev said after a moment, "all your ranting is going to get you nowhere."
"Proof," Gabriel said. "Damn it, Elinke! What kind of proof will you accept?" She started to object to his use of her name again, but he slammed the flat of his hand against the glass, silencing her. "In a few days you'll have all the proof you need when everyone and everything in Algemron is nothing but a smoking ruin!"