C18 Guilt (Patreon)

Nearly the end of Executioner's Gambit now. Would love some opinions on this one.

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Tori walked and crawled back the way she’d come while listening to the two krakun argue. From time to time, she tapped her cane against Daskatoma’s hide to give him a sense of where she was, hoping he might scoot to give her more room—and more importantly—not back out to the airlock until she was safely clear once more.

As she went, she seethed with anger at the deputy commissioner. Sure, he had reasons for the horrible things he helped do, but none of that justified the risks they’d taken. What if an innocent bystander had drunk that poisoned brandy or eaten that poisoned sausage hash? Regardless of what the company expected him to do, he had no right to recklessly endanger the crew. Had Thojy accidentally killed the wrong person, Daskatoma would have shared that guilt.

She just wanted to … slap him. Her anger hadn’t quite pushed her into hating him, but she couldn’t imagine ever being able to forgive.

Eventually, she pulled herself from the krakun’s armpit. As she emerged, the heated discussion between the two stopped, and they laid still on their bellies in the freezing shaft like statues—save for their eyes which followed her to a point midway between the pair. Daskatoma had been gesturing with raised palms and Jintauroka was pointing in his face, but now that Tori had joined them, they slowly lowered their claws to the deck.

Jintauroka finally broke the silence. “Well, Tori, what a surprise—” the investigator sneered, “the most suspicious geroo appears right in the middle of a suspicious event!”

Daskatoma tilted his head in surprise, but only a few degrees before his horns clanged off the rafters. “Tori is suspicious?”

She ignored him, focusing on the investigator instead. “You seemed disappointed that I wasn’t interested in your investigation, so I came down to find out why Daskatoma”—without turning, she thwapped him in the snout with her cane—“was violating your crime scene.”

“Hey!” he said, taking a moment to rub his nose—though Tori doubted she could have hurt it. “I didn’t know—”

“Fair point,” she interrupted, still not looking his way, “we didn’t know we were a crime scene either. Perhaps, you should have wrapped the ship in yellow caution tape, Investigator?”

Jintauroka seemed unperturbed by her taunt. He stared at her for a long moment before asking, “Levity? This is an appropriate moment for levity?”

Tori wandered to the edge of the corridor and turned back so she could see both krakun at the same time. “Honestly, I was a little worried about you two coming to blows,” she said. “May I remind you that krakun need to treat slave ships and their inhabitants as extremely fragile?”

Daskatoma nodded, but Jintauroka ignored her, turning instead to glare at the other krakun. “You need to leave this ship immediately.”

“You want him to go? See now, that seems suspicious to me,” said Tori before the deputy commissioner could respond. “After all, Daskatoma is the only person aboard who stands to gain from Commissioner Troykintrassa’s death.”

Daskatoma nearly choked. With an expression more wounded than when she’d struck him, he whispered, “Tori! Why would you say that?”

Finally, she looked his way and rolled her eyes in a dramatic fashion. “Don’t be daft, Dask,” she groaned. “Investigator Jintauroka already knows that none of our crew benefits from your uncle’s death, but you, obviously, could land his job.”

Internally, Tori cringed. As angry as she was, she still didn’t wish to hurt him. But yet, she’d gotten a pretty good read of Investigator Jintauroka. He was shrewd and thoughtful. Tori doubted she could mention anything—short of Daskatoma’s connection to a serial killer—that would make him look guilty. All that really mattered was that Jintauroka stopped looking for a killer among the geroo!

“I didn’t kill my uncle!” shouted Daskatoma. His eyes flitted between the two investigators, and he explained, “I loved him and am deeply indebted to him. I wouldn’t have my job without him.”

She nodded and lowered her ears sympathetically. “Of course, you didn’t. But you’re obviously someone the investigator will need to question. You’re here. He’s here.” She spun and glared at Jintauroka, demanding, “Why don’t you want to speak to him now?”

The krakun ground his teeth and glared right back at her. “I will interview the victim’s nephew at the time of my choosing, and not a moment before,” he growled. “Unlike you geroo, I can call Daskatoma into my office, and we won’t have to speak crammed in a bleach-soaked, freezing-cold death-trap of an escape hatch!”

Daskatoma looked more curious than angry. “Yeah, Tori, why is it so awful here?” he asked.

She ignored him, focusing on the investigator instead. “Well, that seems like a double standard to me. Dask gets to speak to you at his convenience, but we’ve got to drop everything and deal with you now? May I remind you that we’ve all got jobs and responsibilities, whereas Dask”—she glanced his way with a sympathetic look—“I’m sorry to say this—is probably unemployed until the company decides who will be our new commissioner.”

“It’s fine, Tori,” he said in an understanding tone. “There’s a lot of bureaucracy to wade through. It may take a few months—”

“Enough. You, off the ship,” he said to Daskatoma. Then, he turned to Tori. “You, back in the commissioner’s stateroom so I can finish my interrogation.”

Instead of backing away, Daskatoma said, “Tori didn’t do it. I did.”

“What?” shouted the other two in unison.

He hesitated a moment before repeating, “My uncle’s death is my fault.”

Tori rushed to him, and with both arms, she tried to cover his mouth. “Dask, stop!” she begged. “Don’t say that. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But I did, Tori,” he said, cupping his claw behind her as if he’d scoop her up. “I didn’t get the shuttle the maintenance it needed.”

Tori groaned. “You said that only your uncle had the authority to expense the shuttle’s maintenance.”

“That’s true, but—”

“And that you reminded your uncle that he needed to do this!”

“I did, Tori,” he sighed, “but not enough. I knew how important this was. I should have been hassling him weekly until he finally took care of it. This is all my fault!”

“What is it with you two?” shouted Investigator Jintauroka. “I swear, confessed killers are less suspicious than you.”

The trio fell silent for several long moments, and the krakun stared down at Tori. “Daskatoma feels guilty. Ignore him. But regarding me… Perhaps, you rely on your instincts too much?” she asked him. Then, counting off on her fingers, she explained, “I have no means to hurt anyone, no motive to do so, and there’s certainly no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong. And even if you did have some evidence—like you had some sort of neutrino camera that could take a photo of the past, and you snapped a picture of me sabotaging the shuttle’s navigational whamjangle—”

“Navigational whamjangle?” asked Daskatoma quietly with a smirk.

“Even if you had that, you’d never bring me to court.”

Jintauroka lowered his head until his eyes were nearly on level with her own. “Of course, I would!” he hissed. “All of the empire’s inhabitants—citizens and slaves—are subject to its laws.”

“No, you wouldn’t because long before you proved I was a murderer, the company would worry that a slave had attacked the ship’s commissioner,” she explained. “And if that ever happened, they’d purge the ship—execute all ten thousand of us, ‘just in case’. I’d be long dead before you could get a court date.”

The krakun seemed surprised at this. “Well, I… Is this so, Daskatoma?” he asked.

The black and orange krakun nodded. “Yeah, the company is inflexible about that.”

“And frankly, even having you aboard this long is putting us in danger. Everyone here knows what would happen if we hurt a krakun, and none of us would risk harming one of you,” said Tori. “So, if you’re going to interview Dask in your office, I think I’m speaking for everyone when I say that we’d appreciate if you’d do that sooner rather than later.”

Jintauroka could no longer meet her eyes, and a silence stretched over the three until Tori thought she might scream. “I’m sure you’re correct,” he finally admitted, “but I take my job seriously. I’ve begun an interview with you, and I’d like to finish it.”

Tori opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a klaxon sounded, repeating three loud bursts, a pause, and then another. Dadadaa! Dadadaa!

Investigator Jintauroka groaned and lowered his head to the deck. “For the love of wealth and power, what now?”

“Fire alarm,” said the other two in unison.

Daskatoma pulled his communicator from his necklace and punched a button. The captain answered on the first ring. “Where?” asked the krakun.

Captain Gutassi didn’t ask for clarification. “Outside the commissioner’s stateroom. There’s a wrecked scissor-lift,” he explained. “Engineering was trying to haul it off when it started smoking, but it’s on fire now.”

“So? Let out the air. Fire won’t burn without air,” said Jintauroka.

“No!” shouted Tori. “The captain just said there’s workers there.”

“Not to mention that aluminum decks melt at six-hundred and sixty degrees,” said Daskatoma. “You put a hot deck under vacuum, and you’ll suck a hole right through it.”

He turned back to the strand. “Does Jintauroka have a safe egress to the shuttle bay?”

“Egress? Shuttle bay?” shouted the investigator. “I’m not leaving!”

“Yes, you are. Company policy,” said the commissioner. “Both of us have to evacuate, if possible, go through the gate, and wait on the far side for the crisis to pass.”

“He should,” said the captain. “Go now, and I’ll sound the distress klaxon if the fire spreads, and you should find a safer place to shelter and wait it out.”

Jintauroka closed his eyes and groaned. He beat his chin against the deck so hard that Tori bounced in place. “Fine!” he shouted at last. “I’m done here. I’ll go interview Daskatoma at my office.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gJZztzebARaDLjfCmjBIeOTChY7Bhck8Z_FALT_WAq4/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?