Salute the Colors
Location: IAV Magellan
The Tohoku class cruiser was built to impress, it resembled a massive castle, bot on a scale bigger than any sky scrapper could be on a world, where gravity held builders in check. In space, there was no such limit. It is possible that it was just a convenient place to have an exit meeting. Or perhaps they wanted to give Tian a message. She was made to wait a bit longer than usual, and the sailors and soldiers who walked by seemed to sense that despite her uniform, she was an outsider. They didn’t meet her gaze, they didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Then a young man in civilian clothes walked confidently down the hall, his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket unencumbered by the navy’s usual sense of needing to be purposeful in every moment. He walked past her, then stopped a few paces beyond her, and stopped and walked back to her with a puzzled look on his face.
“Dr Grace? Lt. Cmdr. Grace Tian?” He seemed surprised by her appearance, or was he mocking her? “I’m Chris Christian.. You can call me ‘CC’. I am with ANSI. They were supposed to show you right up. Hey I am sorry about that. Come on up, we can take the express lift.” He led her away from the busy shuttle station down a small corridor to a small trapezoidal door, he waved his hand over a scanner and the door opened up. The lift was small with room for maybe four people with two angled floor to ceiling windows looking out over the exterior of the ship. He directed her in and followed her inside. They were closer than comfortable. He gazed out at the ship casually.
“I have mixed feelings about this thing. All ceramics and glass. It flies everywhere in the Verse and inside we can pretend that everywhere is like this. But it isn’t is it?”
The lift opened, they were near the top of the tower. He led here down a quiet corridor. The ships seemed even cleaner and more antiseptic here than down below. He led her to a small room with two chairs, and a small table. He pulled a smart screen out of his jacket and spread it on the table. “Have a seat, this should go quick, just a couple of formalities and we can finalize the separation.”
---
'Hurry up and wait' was not a new situation for her. She'd brought along a small smart screen so that she could read while she waited, to all appearances poised and comfortable sitting in the seat that they told her to wait in. Dark eyes flickered upward when the civilian went past her and paused, and she carefully put her pad away when he spoke to her, standing politely to greet him. "Yes, I'm Lt. Commander Grace. It's not a problem; everyone is busy," Tian murmured as they made their way toward the lift and entered it.
She stood facing the window, cautiously keeping enough space between them to maintain propriety despite the feeling of not having quite enough room to move. He didn't seem to require a verbal response to his query about pretending everything out there was like this so she opted not to give him one, merely offering a faint smile in reply. When they arrived at the interview room she paused on the threshold a moment, scanning it. But her demeanor remained calm and her tone quiet as she took her seat across from him and waited for whatever 'formalities' he wished to address.
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“Looking at your service record, I don’t see any flags. So.. can I ask why the early separation?” He paused expectantly.
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"As you can see from the record, I've put in more than 20 years," Tian says simply, clasping her hands together atop the table. She met his eyes directly. "My last tour was rather difficult, for all that I was treated well. After thinking it over, I decided that it was allowable to step back and take things a little easier."
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A number of images flash across his smart screen. “Yes.. I read about your time as a POW on Boros. That must have been tough for your Tian.” He slipped into the informal effortlessly.
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She seemed to take no offense at his familiarity, neither acknowledging it nor returning it. "War is always tough. On everyone," Tian told him mildly. "I am grateful that we were treated respectfully and that at least some of the soldiers I remained behind to treat survived and were able to come home."
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“Yes the reports indicated that you seemed quite comfortable with the occupying forces. Do you recognize this gentleman?” He slid the smart screen across, showing a picture of Han Zhang, the commander of PDF on Boros.
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Looking at the image, Tian nodded slightly. "I do. He was -- or still is, I suppose -- a Colonel in the PDF. He was the commander in charge of the hospital at Vandenburg after we were overrun." She chose not to engage at the not-so-subtle dig into her comfort level, merely giving him the truth.
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“Yes. That was bit of an embarrassment. The brass are still aching from that. Those still around.” He joked. “So you didn’t know him personally? No communication?” He inquired.
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A single brow quirked slightly over her dark brows. "No, I'd never met him before then. In the weeks that he oversaw the hospital I did come to know him somewhat; he showed genuine compassion for all the injured, both his own forces and ours. Since returning, I've spoken with him several times. He has kept me up to date on some of the non-Alliance patients whose treatment I was overseeing." There was a subtle tightening of her expression, but Tian kept her answers brief.
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He nodded acknowledging an answer he seemed to expect. “And these?” He tapped the screen and two groups of images floated on the screen, two sets of youngish looking people, both with looks of passion or drive on their faces. They not familiar to her.
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Tian took her time with those images, tilting her head slightly and looking puzzled. Her dark eyes came back up to him and she shook her head. "They're not familiar to me, no. Should they be?"
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“Just checking.” He smiled “The ‘Battle of Boros’ has long been a puzzle to the strategists. How could the Alliance commanders be taken by such surprise. Clearly the Independents had people on the inside. They were able to take down the comm-systems, surprise the fleet, even incite the populace too riot covering their attack. The Alliance has been wondering how they did it. Your Colonel Han is believed to be one of the architects of that attack.”
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Tian considered that intel for a long moment and then slowly nodded. "I suppose it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they had people on the inside, just as it wouldn't surprise me to learn that we'd sent people to infiltrate their ranks," she finally said, pursing her lips slightly. "I can't speak to anything about Colonel Han or his involvement with any of it, however -- my contact with him was limited to keeping him apprised of patients' status and on the well-being of my staff."
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“So your official response, is that your relationship with Han was solely about medical operations? Is that your claim?” Christian leaned back a little.
“I believe you, but I am not sure that story is going to work. You see, the idea of a highly sophisticated military force defeating our Alliance military intelligence with superior equipment and training, isn’t the narrative they want. No traitors selling out their people. That has a certain plausibility to it.” He tapped the screen again. Here a picture of Tian from a distance in a conversation with someone on a street corner. It wasn’t a place she recognized. “Can you tell me how often you met with Han before the attack?”
"I believe I already answered that question, Mr. Christian," Tian returned evenly. "I had never met nor had I even heard of Colonel Han before the day Vandenburg's hospital was taken."
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He smiled at her. “Okay. Well, what are your plans now Dr. Grace?” He had a satisfied smile that seemed both sincere and sinister.
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It was becoming clear to her that no matter what she said in this instance, she was likely damned. "At this time, I intend to spend a little time regrouping and resting. I enjoy practicing medicine and I expect that I'll start looking around to see where a good trauma doctor is needed," Tian replied, her gaze still on the man before her.
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He rolled up the smart screen and tucked it in his pocket. “Well then, I am sure a Doctor of your talents will have no trouble finding rewarding work. If we have any further questions, you can be sure we’ll be in touch. As near as I can see there just isn’t enough hard evidence to pin any charges on you, and we wouldn’t want people to think the Alliance would hold people without due process. Innocent until proven guilty. You know.” He stood and offered his hand.
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Moving to stand, Tian chose to leave his hand hanging there. In a cool tone she retorted, "I'm sure if you have any further questions, my advocate will be happy to hear from you. Have a nice day, Mr. Christian." She picked up her own datapad and her cover, offering him a brief nod before turning in a precision about-face maneuver and heading for the door with her shoulders squared and her chin high.
Refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her anger she fumed silently. You screwed the pooch and now you’re throwing me under the bus. Ni Ta Ma De, Guay Toh Guay Nown!*
She was damned if she didn’t retire, that was patently obvious. And now by retiring, she was damned too. Well, fine—it just made her decision that much easier.
Grace Tian, are you the person to help the hopeless? Can you see yourself helping those who can’t help themselves? People on the Rim are suffering; the IRP needs your help to heal our people!
She left the building, returning home long enough to shed her uniform and change clothes, presenting herself and her papers to the local IRP office less than two hours later.
HOW TO SPEAK CHINESE[edit]
Fuck you, conniving or scheming person, literally "ghost head and ghost brain."
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