Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [123]
A female soldier signaled at the door. “The General is ready to debrief you now, um, ma’am.” She seemed unsure of how to address the girl. The soldier had short blond hair and a pale face, and her features held a habitual hardness.
Orli got to her feet from her bunk. Though she dreaded it, she was also anxious to tell her story. She had already relived the long and terrible nightmare a thousand times. “Do I need to bring anything? Or prepare?”
“Just tell the truth, ma’am. The General wants to hear all the details.”
Orli followed the trim young woman through a maze of passages. The air smelled of dust and the polymer sealants that paved the floor and varnished the walls. Orli didn’t feel up to asking casual questions, and the soldier did not try to make chitchat.
Orli felt a knot in her stomach. She wasn’t afraid she would be lectured or reprimanded, though she had a sense of guilt at being a survivor. The military would probably make her see counselors.
Inside a briefing room that felt stuffy and too warm, General Lanyan sat waiting for her at the end of a long silver-topped table. The General was an imposing man, squat and broad-shouldered, his dark hair cropped short, his square jaw dusted with a shadow of stubble. Inside the base he wore clean gray fatigues that showed his name and insignia.
Three lower-ranking functionaries sat along the table, all of them looking intently at Orli as she entered. They had recorders, cameras, and datapads for taking notes and making analytical projections. She hesitated, then walked forward and stood near the end of the table—the empty end. “Should I sit down, sir?”
“Yes, please, Miss Covitz. I hope all of your needs have been taken care of.”
“I...yes, well enough, sir.” All of her needs? Did the General have the slightest idea of how much she had been through? “What’s going to happen to Captain Roberts?”
“That’s none of your concern right now. I’ve reviewed the images from your colony, and we just completed a lengthy discussion with Mr. Steinman, who confirms what Captain Roberts found. No one questions the fact that the colony has met with some sort of disaster. Now we need to understand what happened.” He leaned forward, interweaving his fingers. The functionaries took notes, but Lanyan pretended they weren’t there.
Orli sat straight in the hard chair and recited all she had seen, dredging out of her nightmares the difficult details of how she had been stranded on the cliff face as the battleships swooped in and began their massacre. She talked about the explosions, the panicked colonists, the relentless war vessels opening fire, weapon blast after weapon blast. All the buildings incinerated, the Klikiss transportal targeted, people running and screaming...her father’s communications shack going up in flames...
The General saw her as just a child, probably full of fanciful imaginings. When she noticed the condescending expression on his face, Orli felt a moment of unmistakable hatred for him.
Instead of letting herself get too angry, she turned her voice into pure ice. “They were EDF ships, sir. I saw the insignia on the side. Five big ships and one huge one: I think they’re called Mantas and Juggernauts. I watched as they came around again and again.” She choked, drew a breath. “They fired repeatedly. Nobody had any chance to surrender. They came to wipe us out, and that’s exactly what they did.”
The three assistants dutifully took notes and scowled. “I know you were scared and confused, young lady. However, I assure you that EDF ships would not do such a thing,” Lanyan said. “Your friend Steinman says he didn’t actually see anything himself.”
“Mr. Steinman was kilometers away out on the prairie.” She shook her head as if to clear the buzzing