“Just tell us what you need,” Ian backed up Styxx’s comment, “but right now maybe we should take a second and get you checked out in sickbay.” Laying a hand on her shoulder, Jessa instantly reacted by backing up two steps.

Her pupils were dilated showing the effects of the concussion from her assault on the forcefield and the battle drug. “No, I need to stay here. When you are lost you are supposed to stay in one place. If I move Zala Tsu will not be able to find me and she will come back.”

“Kid that witch is not,” Ian stabbed a finger at the ground, “setting foot on this ship ever again.” His wording lacked any diplomacy and was just emotion-filled. Ian felt invincible and confident due to the pharmacological concoction racing through his veins. In hindsight, he would regret his comments but right now all he wanted was for Jessa to listen and obey his directions. “She is never coming back so get that thought out of your mind right now.” The aliens had done nothing but destroy his ship, try to kill his wife, and cause fear and terror in the crew.

Jessa stumbled back as if Ian had backhanded her. “Shut up. Shut the triffing varp up. She thinks she has the Prism but she doesn’t. I am not that stupid to give it to her.” Turning her attention to Rinker, Jessa continued her monologue that seemed to be pieces of coherent thought mixed with nonsense. “I said I was going to protect you so why would I give her the Prih,” she yelled out reaching for the sachel that Jessa just realized was no longer on her body. Until this moment, she had forgotten the sachel had beamed away with Zala Tsu during the transport. Jessa’s face went pale as her hand patted her body.

“Rinker....Rinker, she took my bag. She thinks she has it. What if she doesn’t come back? What if she goes home and doesn’t tell anyone I am here.”

“She might,” Rinker had lost track of what was in the bag itself. “But that would make her a liar out of omission.” He stated non-committally. It was best not to take sides when one didn’t have to.

“Good,” Ian snapped. “Be the best thing that ever happened to you. Let’s go,” he snapped and pointed to the door.

“She might. What the hell,” she looked at Rinker. “Why..why would you say that. You are supposed to be the nice one not like Mr. Congeniality over there who is refusing to see why we need her.”

Rinker shrugged. “I don’t control her, and frankly I don’t trust her. So me making promises for her would be dishonest and disingenuous. I believe her to be a bad person and I believe she would do bad things. I am not about to put my reputation, my honestly, on the line for someone I don’t trust.” The shrug repeated.

“If the truth upsets you, I’m sorry. But I believe honesty is the best policy and you are old enough and tough enough to take it.”

Ian slapped his forehead as if remembering something suddenly. “Oh my God you are right. We have the bridge, main engineering, and the hospital wing you and your people haven’t tried to demolish. If we are lucky she will destroy the ship enough that we all have to use the life pods. We can make some popcorn. Watch the destruction from the windows like it is a movie.” The sarcasm was thick and the message was still the same.

“Commander,” He started.

“Oh, we are using rank now. Yes, Commander Rinker. Should I salute or just stand at attention of are you going to allow me to assume parade rest when you drop your pearl of wisdom?”

“Ian, it is easy to dismiss someone you only knew for a few days and caused a great deal of mayhem while they were here. It is quite another thing to dismission someone that was a key part of every memory for your entire life.” He looked at him.

Jessa looked at Rinker pleading for him to step in and control Ian.

Jessa Novar.

“Thinking one can make that separation, no matter how necessary or correct instantaneously would demonstrate a level of sociopathy that would be very troubling.”

Rinker

Jessa opened her mouth but no words came out. She had to weigh what Rinker said with the truth and the truth she had told them. Jessa also had to come up with a plan for her own immediate future. With the destruction and violence that had just ensued and Jessa’s part in it, there was no way anyone on the ship was going to just forgive and forget. The battle drug was still clouding her mind and rational thoughts. “Uh-huh,” she conceded with more of a guttural sound than actual words. There would be time later for a more in-depth conversation with Rinker about her attachment to the Elders. Right now her biggest concern was not being removed from the ship as a consequence of the past two hours.

Reaching up to her neck, Jessa activated her armor completely encapsulating her. Instead of raising her hands defensively, however, she blurted out the words “aakrsht karana,” before dropping to the ground.

Ian looked at Jessa and crossed his arms. “Karana,” he repeated her last word. “What is that? Do? Act? To be?” He threw out several words waiting for a response from Jessa. When none came he continued his monologue. “You keep saying that word over and over as you gave your metal monstrosities commands.”

Rinker hadn’t put that level of thought into it. He wasn’t innately good with languages even though he learned three the old fashioned way. He didn’t connect that word to a verb. He thought it was a curse. Jessa was quite prolific with the curses for a pre-teen.

Jessa felt a knot forming in her stomach. The language of the Elders was exclusive and proprietary. No one but the Divine or members of upper echelons of the Galactic Union government was permitted to use or learn it. The fact Ian was attempting to try would mean a death sentence.

In the naivety of her youth, rules and structure were black-and-white concepts to Jessa. She was too young to embrace the rebelliousness that came with the teenage years. She was pragmatic to think outside the box of what society set down as guidelines. She was too foolish to believe anyone could know what she knew without being directly taught. The only thing Jessa did recognize was the advantage it gave her being able to communicate directly with the other Elders or the MECHs and have Ian and the others not know what she was doing. Her mind raced at how to change the topic cleverly so that Ian was not given more information than he already possessed.

After several long seconds passed without a response, Ian let out a deep sigh and rubbed his jaw. “So we are going with the silent treatment?” Pacing slightly he looked over at Rinker.

“I am not going to let you remove me from the ship,” Jessa announced finally settling on a response from Ian’s questions.

“You would think the universal translator would have figured this language out by now.” Rinker muttered to himself. It was very limiting for them to understand every word the Federation officers said, but between them and their weapons he had a secret code that the computer couldn’t break.

“Why do you care what my native language is? We can communicate just fine using Galactic Basic. You don’t need to know Galactic Prime. In fact, you are not permitted to learn Galactic Prime so just stop because you can’t learn it even if you want to. Our language is too complex for you to learn anyway,” Jessa said in a haughty tone.

“Aside from the fact that you frequently don’t. Your concealment is intentional to evade our comprehension of something.” He shrugged. “I’m not that concerned about that. As far as I’m concerned, I more interested… as always.. as to why its so important to hide.”

Jessa did not reply but pursed her lips tightly. Rinker was right. She had been trying to evade giving anyone a straight answer. What he was wrong about was how many people she was trying to stop from comprehending what she was doing. The weight of it felt crushing. Instead of coming back with a snarky reply, she just shrugged. For all of the Elder’s faults, they were right about Mind Seers. They had a way to get deep into your psyche which was why they were banned from the Union.

“Commander Bordeaux,” an officer stated coming up to Ian and whispering something in his ear. Ian’s face took on a stony quality. “We found the section team. I gotta go deal with them. Rinker can you deal with this,” Ian made a swirling motion with his hand, “and get her out of here.”

Ian Bordeaux CO

“Okay… why?” Rinker asked. There wasn’t any special advantage he could see with her staying on the ship. Certainly not one large enough to warrant attacking the people she just sacrificed her previous life for, metaphorically speaking.

Rinker

Jessa watched Ian turn on his heel and leave with a group of officers. Her body began to break out in a sweat and she suddenly felt like there was no air in the space to catch a deep breath. Looking at Rinker, Jessa’s responded. “Why,” she parroted back his response presumably due to him asking why she had just magnetized herself to the deck and activated her armor. “Because you just killed one of the Elders, kidnapped Zala, and blew Rogan out of your airlock into deep space. Why would you not do the same to me? I am not going to let you get rid of me that easily. I am not moving until Pellan comes for me because he is coming. He is,” Jessa yelled as if talking louder was going to make her statement have greater validity. She could call the MECHs to defend her but hopefully, it would not come to that.

“I didn’t do anything except try to save some innocents and get stabbed a couple of times by that silvered-haired friend of yours.” He said truthfully enough.

“She shouldn’t have done that but you should not have engaged her.”

As Jessa drew her line in the sand, she already was regretting it. She had no idea how long it was going to take Pellan to arrive but it was not going to be in the next few hours. If Jessa suddenly gave up, it would make Rinker and Ian think she was not in control of the situation. Glancing about the promenade, she saw no one seemed to be paying attention to her as they righted upturned furniture and set robots to clean up the glass and other debris. On the surface, life was returning to normal as it would be expected. The reality of life never returning to normal for her descended like an avalanche of granite rock. It was suffocating and terrifying. The phencyclidine of the battle drug still in her system only amplified her feelings of isolation, anxiety, and fear. At least the armor and helmet hid the fear on Jessa’s face and the shaking of her body. “He is coming,” she repeated only this time it almost sounded like a question to be answered than a statement of fact.

Jessa Novar

“Who is this ‘he’?” What people failed to understand was the majority of therapy was not to do all the talking.

Rinker

Looking around the space Jessa knew she could not stay here. She also could not have this discussion where others could eavesdrop. Rinker’s question allowed her to save face and not beg to leave the promenade after making such a public display to remain there thirty seconds ago. “Not here,” she released the magnetic locks holding her in place on the deck. “We need to go to your office and I will tell you only I am not taking my armor off. Don’t ask me to.” Right now Jessa felt safe clad in the protective suit. She could not stay in it forever. She would have to eat, drink, and use the facilities at some point but for right now no one could make her do anything she didn’t want to do.

“If you want to reactivate your suit just touch your neck,” she replied to Rinker as she pointed to the small metal disc embedded in the skin on his neck.

============
Rinker’s Office
============

Jessa entered Rinker’s office and sat down on the couch. Only when she saw his office door close did she retract her armor. Having spent a part of every day with Rinker since her arrival, she knew Heathcliff was not going to suddenly turn into a chatterbox peppering her with questions. Taking a deep breath she started. There was little she could control right now except for the flow of information. She would use this small thing to her best advantage.

“He is Pellan Vell. The man you asked about,” Jessa stated as if Rinker had lost track of the conversation during their walk. “In…on the promenade,” she stuttered. Rubbing her palms on her pant legs, Jessa was clearly nervous and anxious about the topic. “The man that is coming for me is Pellan Vell. He is the chancellor of the Galactic Union. He is also my Dad or at least I think he is.” Her tone trailed off slightly and her volume lowered to almost a whisper at her last sentence.

“Anyway, he is coming for me because that is what Dad’s do right? They pick you up when you fall and dust you off and say everything is going to be okay.” Her tone sounded more like a question rather than a statement.

Jessa Novar