The Captain's face was badly bruised and he was shaking with reaction.
"I thought they were gonna space me," he said and shuddered. "I knew they couldn't get a ransom for me, they already took everything I ever had. I thought they were going to vent me with the rest of the garbage."
Amos put an arm around the older man and guided him to the bunk.
"I would give you water if I could," he said, "but they have turned it off." He paused for a moment. "Captain," he said softly and waited until the other man looked at him. "Soamosa, do you know anything about her?'
The Captain shook his head regretfully. "No, nothing. I haven't seen her since we were split up, and they don't talk to me." He raised a shaking hand to brush back his short hair. "I'm sorry."
"I did not expect that you would know, I only hoped that they might have become careless and allowed you to see something. It is no matter."
"How long have we been here?" Sung asked.
"I do not know. I have slept four times, and I have been fed eight. But what relation that might have to real time I could not begin to guess. What is your estimation?"
Sung shook his head, his face looking infinitely sad.
"I don't know," he said, "I just don't know."
"Rest," Amos said gently and placed his hand against the Captain's shoulder, urging him to lie down. He grinned ruefully. "We shall have a wealth of time to talk later. Put your head down for a while."
Sung nodded tiredly and lay flat, his eyes closed before his head touched the pillow.
Amos sat on the floor in a lotus position. Before resuming his meditations he offered a brief prayer of thanks for the gift of a companion to relieve the silence of his imprisonment.
Several hours later Sung stirred and woke. He turned to Amos and stared at him in puzzlement.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
"What?"
"Who the hell are you? What are you doing in here?"
"Captain, what are you talking about?" Amos studied the Captain's irate face with astonishment. "I am Amos ben Sierra Nueva, a passenger of yours…"
"Passengers aren't allowed in the captains quarters! What are you doing here?"
Amos licked his dry lips, uncertain how one answered a man apparently losing his mind and growing more angry by the minute.
"Captain Sung," he held out a placating hand, "we are not on your ship, we have been thrown into the brig of a Kolnari pirate. Don't you remember?"
The Captain's eyes widened, a look of fear shuddered across his face to be replaced by confusion.
"What did you say my name was?"
"You are Captain Josiah Sung, of the merchanter ship Sunwise."
"The Sunwise," Sung reached out and gripped Amos's hand desperately, "I remember her. She's my ship, the Sunwise. I know her. You see? I'm all right."
"Yes, of course you are, Captain. It was only a moment's confusion. You woke from a deep sleep to find yourself in a new place, it is not uncommon to be disoriented under such conditions. All is well." Amos gave the Captain's hand a squeeze and smiled encouragingly at him.
Sung raised his tear-slicked face to glare at Amos.
"Let go of my hand you bastard! How the hell did you get in here?"
Amos felt his heart pounding in the cage of his ribs, more strongly than it had when he pushed his body to its limits.
"I'm the Captain dammit! I don't entertain the passengers. You got that? Get out of here!" Sung pointed to the hatch and then blinked. With a gasp he turned to look at Amos. "What's happening to me? What have they done?"
Amos shook his head, equally horrified. The bruise on the Captain's face was proof of a head wound, but would such a wound have an effect like this? Had the Captain been poisoned? Was he being shown the effects before they did the same to him? It would be like Belazir to torture him so, the Kolnari idea of subtlety.
Suddenly Belazir stood before them. The edges of his image bore a soft white fuzz for a moment, then the holo snapped into clear focus.
A white silken robe emphasized the inhuman blackness of his still-magnificent body. A feathered clip held back his brittle white hair.
"Good morning Simeon Amos, or good evening, whichever you have decided it must be. How are you getting on down here?"
"Not well, Master and God. The Captain is not himself." Amos's eyes dared to demand answers, but he would not give Belazir the pleasure of hearing him ask for them.
"Is he not?" Belazir said with amusement. "Then who is he? Captain Sung, who do you think you are?"
"What… what do you mean?"
"Who are you?" Belazir asked.
A look of blank astonishment crossed Sung's face and he raised his hands helplessly.
"I don't know," he said, his voice tight with horror. "I don't remember." Tears gathered in his eyes and he struggled visibly not to blink and send them rolling down his cheeks. "I don't remember."
Amos glared at the Kolnari, letting his face show contempt. He spat at the feet of the image.
Belazir quirked a smile at him. "You offer little sport, scumvermin; you tell me everything that I want to know without my even asking. Why should I tell you anything?"
"You knew before you did this that I would despise you for it, Master and God. Why you even bothered to show up I cannot imagine."
"Is this wise, scumvermin, to bait a man who holds your lives in his fist? I am sure that your friend Channahap would advise you otherwise." He folded his massive arms across his chest and regarded Amos with amusement. "It may be that I have information that you might wish to have. If you ask me very politely, I might unbend sufficiently to enlighten you."
Amos's lips quivered with rage, but his need to know the fate of his young cousin won out over his pride and his hatred.
"I beg your pardon," he said formally. "Master and God."
Belazir raised an eyebrow. "I will assume that was a request for knowledge. I know that you wish for information about your young cousin. But I will instead unfold a larger plan before you. One that touches the fate of all your people." He paused, smiling, to observe the effect this pronouncement was having on Amos. "You can see that the Captain here is not behaving normally, can you not?"
"Of course I can," Amos said through gritted teeth. "Master and God."
"You are thinking that we have beaten him into this condition, or that we have poisoned him."
Amos nodded.
Belazir's face suddenly seemed weary. He shrugged and half-turned away.
"In fact he has been overcome by a contagious, progressive disease that attacks the memory center of the brain. You are a carrier of this disease, Simeon Amos, but we have made sure that you are completely immune to it. You have seen how rapidly it works, how devastating it is."
Belazir's golden eyes narrowed. "We Kolnari have gained great respect for such weapons. You and the rest of the scumvermin on that accursed station taught us a singular lesson about biological weaponry. Now we of Kolnar shall return the favor.
"You will be given a drug that will prevent you from moving or speaking and then you will be returned to your people."
Amos rose from the bunk, to confront Belazir on his feet.
"We are not stupid, Belazir. My people will know that something is wrong. Why else would you return me?"
"Oh, but they will have to fight to recover you. It will all be very convincing, I assure you. A raging chase through the skies of Bethel. But they will win, for yours is a valiant people. And their reward shall be to become like the Captain. We will leave him here with you so that you can fully appreciate what your return to the bosom of your people will mean to them."
As Amos rushed forward the grinning image of Belazir blinked out and he crashed into the wall instead. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor, and then he looked up to meet Captain Sung's gaze.