Chapter Eighteen
The delegate from the Draell delegation was named Cranog. Cranog was a tiger shifter with tufted ears and yellow eyes. He sat in the conference room in the Draell’s meeting house, and his men lined the wall behind him. Their expressions were as grim as their stiff grey uniforms with sharp, asymmetrical collars angling up to the right.
Sekari glared at Kodran with an expression of glittering hatred. Kodran sat next to Rosamund, hand over hers. Nelka, Ferenc and Lina sat with them as well. The Vulfans had already given their recorded statements, and were now headed back home to bury their dead.
“We have evaluated all of your statements.” Cranog’s voice was a harsh, emotionless monotone. “We have made our findings and reached our decision.”
Rosamund shuddered, and Kodran squeezed her hand.
“I told you what happened,” Sekari spat at Cranog. “Why is this man not yet in chains?” He jerked his head at Kodran.
Cranog slowly fixed his gaze on Sekari. “You told us what happened. You claimed that these men attacked you without provocation and you defended yourself. You lied.”
Sekari reared back, and scales covered his skin. “You dare?” he snarled, and smoke streamed from his nostrils.
“We do. After you contacted us, we tapped into the Draell’s security feed and observed what really happened outside their caverns.”
That took Sekari aback for a moment. Then he recovered – or tried to. “The feed could be faked!” he blustered.
“It could, although it is highly unlikely that they would be able to fake a live feed that quickly and at such high quality. However, we also did a forensic examination of the fight scene, and of the survivors. What we found did not match the story you told. It matched what we were told by the Vulfans and by the Draell.”
“I see they’ve bribed you to cover for them,” Sekari snarled. “I don’t have to put up with this.” He made as if to leap to his feet, but several of Cranog’s men hurried over and pushed him back into his seat.
“Please add false accusation of a Level 3 Federation Official to the list of charges,” Cranog noted to one of his men, who was taking notes with a stylus on a shiny black tablet. The man nodded and tapped the tablet several times.
“Charges?” Sekari choked with fury.
Sekari glanced at his surviving clan members, who were huddled together at the back of the room. They looked back at him with mingled rage and sullen despair. There weren’t enough of them; they would not be able to take on all the Federation officials in the room.
“We have not gotten to the Draell-nar,” Cranog said. “You hid their existence from the Federation and from most of your people. You exploited them and underpaid them.”
“They signed an agreement to work for our clan! We provided them with the equipment to make their livelihood!”
“You mean your ancestors forced an agreement on them, many generations ago. The agreement would not be approved by the Federation if it were submitted today. You paid them starvation wages guaranteed to keep them indentured to you, and overcharged them outrageously for food and oxygen and supplies so their children’s children would still be indebted to you.”
Sekari sniffed haughtily. “If they wish to be released from their agreement, we will do so. We are a benevolent and generous clan.”
Cranog ignored him. “And furthermore, you lied to us about the presence of cyborgs in order to wipe out the Draell-nar and hide your crimes against them.”
“There are cyborgs!” Sekari screamed. “If you didn’t find them, then Kodran’s clan is hiding them!”
“We searched the entire planet. We found not a trace of them.”
“Then they fled before you arrived! I am being framed!”
“We searched the surrounding area,” Cranog shrugged. “We saw no cyborg ships.”
Sekari was shaking with rage.
“Then they used a cloaking device!”
Rosamund thought she saw a flicker on Cranog’s brow when Sekari said that. As if Cranog knew, but wouldn’t acknowledge it. Perhaps he knew about the soldier-cyborgs. That would be a hard secret to keep entirely under wraps.
“You always have an excuse, don’t you? You will be returned to Federation Prime, to stand trial for your crimes.”
Cranog’s men pointed silvery wands at Sekari and his crew, and silvery nets shot out from the wands, sucking tight around their targets. The wands must have been designed to block Draell’s ability to shift, because the scales vanished from their skin.
Several men descended on each of Sekari’s crew, and Sekari himself, and began dragging them from the room.