Chapter 20

The Gaian Strength and Unity Party council meeting was a rushed and high-strung affair. Everyone was in a snit about Colette’s arrest when Sash told them the news, and several of them argued that now was the time to use the military force Sash had been building over time. They believed that the Party’s time had come; that Colette’s arrest on top of the Government’s inability to put a stop to Atlas’ genocidal shenanigans granted them a mandate to act. Indeed, it would be unconscionable, some argued, for them to have the military wherewithal to act and to fail to do so. They argued that to fail to use force now to protect Gaia from further assault would undermine their legitimacy in the end. What was there to wait for?

Sash held firm, but he was more or less being pushed to the edge of the cliff by the beast of inevitability. The only solid ground he had remaining to him was the fact that any attack on Atlas would bring a swift and deadly military reprisal from Earth, and Gaia simply could not protect itself from that. Sash was convinced Earth would bomb Gaia back into the stone age if given the chance. His critics claimed that in taking such a position, he was showing the same cowardly colors as the Provisional Government. That’s when things really heated up. To accuse Sash of cowardice was something like telling a world wrestler that he had a small pee-pee and looked good in pink. I must say, Sash showed considerable restraint considering the size of the veins in his neck. Things started to get loud, things were said that were not meant, and I basically had to push Sash out the door myself and instruct our driver take us to Colette’s apartment so we could all have a calming drink and regroup.

The council was so excitable that they didn’t even get around to quizzing me on my “insider knowledge” of Atlas which, to my surprise, hurt my feelings. Here I had traveled all this way, suffered all these lies and indignities, and when I finally arrived they couldn’t even give me a decent interrogation. It struck me that here was a revolutionary movement that lacked something essential. But maybe I was just tired and irritable.

The next day was a busy and heavy day, and near the end of it, all hell broke loose…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

It started with the arrival of Bogg Rhul, the Sirian official investigating Marff Rindilosk’s death back on Sirius IV. He was very anxious to talk to me. I shared with him everything I knew about Geelan, which wasn’t terribly much, and I showed him all the documents related to our business miscarriage, as it were. He spent some time poring over them. They didn’t of themselves suggest any unfair play towards Rindilosk, but all we had was a signed partnership agreement.

I told Bogg that Geelan was hiding out inside the Atlas compound, and that I believed Geelan had been cleaning up loose ends as far as his lawyer was concerned. Bogg wanted to talk to the people at Atlas, but Sash and I held him off. Diplomatically, and quite obliquely, Sash explained to our guest that more information would be coming soon, without saying how or by what means.

While Bogg believed my claim that Geelan had made off my money (it was easy enough to prove with my documents and financial records), he said it didn’t necessarily point to Rindilosk’s murder, though he agreed bad steps did tend to follow each other. He even commented that Geelan was now linked – loosely in one case and strongly in the other – to two separate crimes, namely Rindilosk’s death and my defrauding. He listened to my theory that Geelan was cleaning up loose ends by killing Rindilosk, but he took exception to it, because the travel times between Gaia and Sirius IV just didn’t add up. Geelan couldn’t have made the trips fast enough to match the video logs of his appearances on Gaia. I said it didn’t rule out an associate, and Bogg could not disagree that that was a possibility.

During our time, Bogg and I developed a good rapport. He seemed embarrassed and even a bit angered that a fellow Sirian had treated me so badly, and that fact alone made him want to stick around to get his own hands on Geelan, even if doing so would yield nothing in terms of solving the torture and murder of the con artist’s lawyer. Riding on these favorable terms, I pressed Bogg for some kind of guarantee of recompense from the Sirian government if they got a hold of Geelan. I didn’t want to assume that Geelan still had my money, but I wanted to get it back one way or the other. Bogg deferred that question to higher authorities, but he did clearly seem to remain in my court.

In the late morning, Sash and I visited Colette’s daughter, Naya, who looked worse than ever. We didn’t say anything about her mother. Sash just told her she was on pressing business and couldn’t come, but gamely told her how there was no way she’d be forgotten just because Mom was busy. The girl was heartened, if in perpetual pain, and we made our way out of that gloomy situation with as much speed as grace allowed. Sash really did care for her, and it seemed to firm his resolve about things. I think he went to see her in order to help him resolve his own inner conflict. With Colette arrested, he was now in charge, and things were quickly coming to a head, and not just from Naya’s point of view.

From the hospital, Sash took us to the city courtroom, where Colette was arraigned. They read off a long series of charges, a list more suitable to a terrorist than the leader of a political party, and she naturally pled not guilty to all of them. Sash personally appealed before the court for her release, or at least for the setting of a reasonable bail, and even I stood up and said a few words. But the judge wasn’t interested in any of it. He declared her a flight risk and slammed his gavel down. As the bailiff was escorting Colette away, she grabbed my arm and pleaded with tears in her eyes, “Sean, save my daughter. She’s all that matters.” The urgent, personal plea surprised and frightened me. I thought it odd that she would use that final moment to address me and not Sash, but I guess he already had his marching orders. In stunned response, I could only muster an encouraging nod, and she was gone. What could I do? I had been thrown into the middle of a civil crisis on this strange planet, and all I wanted was to get my money back from a slimy alien who happened to be hiding out here.

And that’s when things really got weird…two shocking pieces of information came to Sash that completely upended everything for all of us.