Cryptikon Far Freedom Part 2

even angry with Aylis for trying to hide the truth from her. What was going on? Mai saw that Jon was further upset by the revelation. Good - but he wasn't doing anything about it! Demba's expression changed for the worse, yet she withheld any proper response to the moral and legal requirements of the situation. What could Jon have conveyed to her in so few words?

  Demba looked at Jon again. "Are you sure?" He nodded his reply. It was maddening to Mai, insufferable! "Aylis?" Demba questioned. "You don't want to prosecute?"

  Aylis shook her head no, lying back in the examination and treatment chair, tired. Aylis was a great person, deserving of all the honor and fame, but she seemed to shrink now. She was a mere mortal, a victim of an ancient and still too common act of violence. Mai was sorry for her. Mai was hardened to rape cases, but this one made her sick to her stomach. The Navy was far worse than she ever suspected!

  "You know that according to Navy law we don't need your permission to prosecute," Demba said to Aylis.

  "You couldn't prosecute him," Aylis responded, "without medical evidence I won't give you. It's impossible to prosecute him, evidence or not."

  "It would be inconvenient," Demba said.

  "Yes," Aylis agreed.

  "Inconvenient!" the Marine shouted angrily, making Sammy jump next to Mai.

  Demba ignored the Security officer. "Is it who I think it is?" she asked Jon.

  "Yes, Admiral. She notified me before her departure. I thought I knew him, but I see I didn't."

  "You allowed her?"

  "She's Aylis Mnro! How should I have stopped her?"

  "I would have locked her up! You're the captain of the ship! You can issue an order to any crew member - including admirals - and expect it to be obeyed!"

  Mai saw Jon flinch at the tone of Demba's voice and his reaction was satisfying to her.

  "She's Aylis Mnro?" the big woman asked in disbelief, looking again at Aylis. "The Aylis Mnro?"

  Mai watched the Security officer battle with feelings of both awe and anger. The anger won. The woman pushed Demba aside and moved closer to Aylis. Demba inserted herself between them again. She wasn't sure, but Mai felt this action was extraordinary, even as rough as Navy life must be. Jon moved to help Demba but she waved him off. Mai backed away and placed herself protectively beside Sammy, with a hand on his shoulder. She was a little apprehensive, considering the size and demeanor of the Marine lieutenant.

  "Jones, listen to me!" Demba ordered, looking up at the taller woman from too close to her. "Let it go! You don't know what we know, and we don't want to explain it to you right now!"

  "Rape is rape, sir!" The lieutenant was deadly serious. "I know what it feels like!"

  Demba opened her mouth, closed it, and stared at the Marine's face with concern for her. "I'm sorry!" Demba declared, looking very sad.

  "You were--!" Aylis tried to say.

  "Never mind about me!" the lieutenant shouted. "I've lived a risky life! You can't let this go unpunished! Tell me who did it!"

  "I can't! Please! You can't prosecute him. It's impossible."

  "Just tell me his name!" the Marine ordered Aylis. "I'll kill the son of a bitch!"

  The woman was wonderful, Mai thought. She was almost quivering with rage. Jon was standing there with a look of awe, while Demba was still stuck between the big woman and Aylis.

  "I believe you would," Aylis said in the calmest voice Mai had yet heard from her. "Thank you for your concern. I'm sorry I can't allow you to seek justice for me. What is your name?"

  "Jones, ma'am. Lieutenant Jamie Jones, Union Marines."

  "Is this Jamie?" Aylis asked in wonder. Despite what had happened to her, Aylis was able to show shock. She was questioning Demba but looking hard at the Security officer.

  "Why did you go to him?" Demba asked, ignoring Aylis's urgent question, nudging the lieutenant away from Aylis.

  "Go to whom?" Jones persisted.

  "I made a deal with the devil," Aylis replied. "Maybe it was worth it, maybe not."

  "I would never have expected this," Demba said.

  "I knew it was dangerous." Aylis looked from Jones to Demba. "Is this Jamie?" Aylis asked the strange question again in a serious voice. Some reply came to Aylis from the expression on Demba's face. Aylis reacted in renewed distress.

  "Are you really Doctor Mnro?" Jones asked, obviously disbelieving it.

  Aylis lost the small measure of calmness she had attained. She broke down and wept without restraint, curling up in the drape which covered her. Demba held Aylis close and looked at the others in the room, conveying the message that they should leave.

  Jon attempted to pull Lieutenant Jones away and she resisted, until he looked at her with a very caring expression and silently mouthed the word please.

  "I'm filing a report!" Jones declared in an angry whisper, allowing Jon to escort her away.

  Mai sustained her devastation by how Aylis Mnro was reduced to the weeping, battered woman she now observed. When Sammy asked her what was wrong with her, Mai became even more upset.

  = = =

  They wouldn't answer her questions! They wouldn't explain anything! Marine Lieutenant Jamie Jones was prevented from doing her duty. She felt angrier than in years, in decades. The anger was real and reasonable and she relished it, but it was tempered by the mystery behind everything. Why did they tolerate such a crime? Why did they tolerate her? Was it Aylis Mnro? The victim couldn't be Aylis Mnro! That would make the crime even more terrible, something to be recorded in history texts. Yet only the civilian physician wanted to seek justice. It couldn't be Aylis Mnro! Mnro was an historic person. Why would she even be on this ship?

  Is this Jamie? Is who Jamie? Was she Jamie? Whose Jamie? Who was Sammy and how did he suffer such an injury? Why would the admiral be his guardian? Why would Admiral Demba have such a close friendship with the most famous woman in history? Why did the admiral affect Jamie so strongly, awakening feelings she thought were long lost to the years and to the vanity of staying alive? Why was she so desperate to be a good Marine, desperate to do her duty, desperate to stay on this doomed ship? Why did she want to believe all of what was unbelievable?

  2-05 Sons Remembered, Mai Retained

  Aylis slept. Perhaps she dreamed…

  Always the coward.

  Always the terror of my life.

  It isn't my choice.

  It is your choice.

  It's yours: you or her.

  Not her. Never!

  You're the best and bravest of all of us.

  Remember that. Remember me.

  I'll try.

  No tears?

  None to keep me from seeing you clearly for the last time. But from the next moment on.

  She looked upon his face with a great swelling of love for her best son, followed too soon by a flood of anguish that threatened to destroy her. The tears came, and through them she saw... a dark face with stripes and glowing eyes!

  She screamed, or thought she did. She awoke, or thought she did. Only words and emotions, but the fragment assaulted her with a force that could have spilled her blood. Fear pushed it into the dark, where it would wait for her. Another fragment began.

  "Always the coward."

  "What did you say, Mother?"

  "Always the coward. I'm always so cowardly."

  "You did what had to be done."

  "I can't finish it! She's in there crying her heart out, begging to have her mother back. I can't face her!"

  "I'll take care of her, Mother."

  "You will? Yes, I suppose you're suited for it. But I'll never want to believe you're a cruel person."

  "It is a cruel thing to do."

  "And now I'm losing you, too. I may never see you again."

  "It's no great loss to you. I've always disappointed you."

  "Is that bitterness I hear?"

  "Not at all, Mother. It's perfectly understandable. What I don't understand is why you could love my father and not me."

  "Perhaps I don't like you very
much, but I'll always love you."

  "We'll end on that, Mother. I hope we meet again someday, to continue our difficult relationship."

  He turned and opened the door, allowing the weeping of a child to be heard. He walked through the doorway, the door closed, but she could still hear the child. She would hear her forever.

  "Dare I translate that last sentence," she said to herself, "to mean that he does have feelings for me?"

  "You."

  "I."

  "Go away." He began to fade. "No! Wait. Why are you here?"

  "You're my mother. You were hurt."

  "You care?"

  "Yes."

  "Because it's your duty, by definition."

  "Yes. And no."

  "I'll take what little you can give."

  Aylis sat up on the edge of her office sofa. She was pleased her son came to see her, but she wouldn't reveal such emotion to him. That was a stupid response, regretted instantly! It seemed a century or two meant nothing to her feelings for her son. The feelings were still there, still as strong as ever, and still painful. It was so long ago, and yet he seemed the same Direk. She experienced a moment in which she felt acutely how old she was. He should have seemed a stranger to her after a century and decades apart from her. Perhaps he was always a stranger, and so he seemed the same.

  "Did you touch me?" Aylis asked.

  "No."

  "I just remembered you. When you took care of Jamie for me."

  "I remember it."

  "What did you do with her?"

  "I took her to live with her grandparents."

  "You didn't put her in stasis?"

  "No."

  "She doesn't remember her real mother. What did you do to her?"

  "Perhaps you don't remember what you did to her," Direk said.

  "No, I don't remember," Aylis said sadly. "I probably should not want to remember. Does she have your auxiliary memory