[i]Does he think I can shoot plasma from my eyes?[/i] Ahkrin asked himself with an inward chuckle. "Get back, Elite!" the marine shouted at him, sweat trickling down his brow. Ahkrin grasped the bars tightly, staring at the marine. "What is this?" There was a pause as the human processed his question. Finally he lowered his shotgun. "What do you mean?" "Why have you taken us prisoner? I am hardly complaining, but it is most unlike you humans to do so," Ahkrin told the human, whose face contorted into one of unease. "It's really not my place to say, Elite. I'm not even supposed to talk to hostages--" "So we are your hostages?" Ahkrin asked the human, brow raising. "Interesting." "Corporal!" another voice boomed, a female's, yet strangely carrying much authority. It was very curious how the women fought for the humans. The Kig-Yar had their Shipmistresses, but the males still did the bulk of the fighting. The young man Ahkrin had been talking to paled, and spun around. "Captain! I... uh, I was just--" "Giving the enemy vital information?" the female captain demanded. She was smaller than the corporal but seemed to tower over him as she glared into his eyes, looking like she was about to punch him in the face. "Get your sorry ass down to reassignment, [i]private.[/i]" "Y-yes ma'am," the corporal-turned-private stammered, before pulling a sloppy salute and walking briskly away. The captain watched him go, before turning her blazing eyes onto Ahkrin. "You!" she shouted at him. Despite himself Ahkrin flinched back a little. From a [i]female.[/i] He was glad Zharn was not here to see him. "Talk again and I will ram a gun down your disgusting throat and put a bullet through it! Understand?" Ahkrin merely nodded, before shrinking back into the safety of the diminutive crowd. An Unggoy near him chuckled. He was promptly cuffed around the ear. * * * * * * * * * "Enough!" a voice commanded, the words distorted like an image viewed through dirty glass by the water Zharn was being near-drowned in. After a few seconds the marines torturing him pulled his head out of the water, and this time it remained out. Zharn was breathing heavily, eyes wide and unseeing as the water dripped down his cold, numb face. The bucket he could see terrified him. Zharn had faced down raging Mglekgolo with nothing but a rifle and a grenade, but the still rippling water imbued far more fear within him than they had. [i]Do not let them do it again,[/i] Zharn silently prayed to the Forerunners, hoping they were watching. He realised he was still shaking, and found that he couldn't stop it. He didn't [i]want[/i] to stop it. He just wanted to curl in a corner, shut out the world and never see a drop of water again in his life. "Take him to my quarters, bound," Admiral Cole ordered, before turning to Zharn. "We're going to have a little chat, you and I." * * * * * * * * <[i]UNSC Hastings, outside Eridanus II's orbit[/i]> "Elite," Admiral Cole stated blandly, staring deep into the small glass of bourbon on his impeccably polished desk. The word carried across to where Zharn was sitting and struck him like a slap in the face. "Y-yes?" he asked shakily, feeling as if he were about to throw yesterday's meager meal upon Cole's carpet. Water droplets from the torture still clung to his face, dripping down his quivering body and pouring into the ugly red welts that had been made across his body. A human loincloth was all that garbed him. [i]What are you doing? You are an Ultra! Has a little torture truly turned you into a frightened Unggoy?[/i] an angry voice within him demanded. [i]Yes,[/i] a meeker one replied tinnily. "There are people down on that planet. I'm planning to evacuate as many as I can before the rest of your kind show up. I know that Covenant are still on the surface." "I suppose there is truth in that statement," Zharn spoke back nervously, unable to look the Admiral in the eye. [i]Slam![/i] Zharn nearly jumped out of his skin, shrinking back against his chair. He forced himself to look up and saw Admiral Cole glaring at him. "You will command them not to attack civilians and otherwise as they leave Eridanus II," Cole ordered, and for a brief moment the broken shell of Zharn was bolstered by indignation. "I am not yours to order around! If my warriors wish to surrender they will do so. I shall not order them to, however. The Council would have my head, and I would be severed from the Journey!" he snapped, raising to his feet. He heard the marines posted at the door raise their guns before he'd even drawn to full height. "Sit down, Elite, or I'll have you flayed," Cole told him wearily, and Zharn immediately felt the strength leave him as he crashed back into the chair. The Admiral sighed, shaking his head and bringing a hand up to cover his eyes. Zharn could see a band of pale flesh on one of Cole's fingers, and if memory served him this meant that he had once been mated with another human. Zharn could not help but marvel at how this cold, cruel hell-spawned demon had ever gained the favour of a female. Still, the pale band showed clearly that it had not lasted. "I apologise for my outburst," Zharn muttered, eyes losing focus once again and memories of being plunged into the water arising. "No, it was very revealing. You obviously still don't understand just how much I dislike your kind. It seems I will have to show you. Raines!" A marine detached himself from the door and walked over slowly, an unreadable expression on his face. "Sir?" "The Elite our friend here arrived with; he's still in the brig, correct?" Cole demanded. After a pause Raines nodded. "He should be. I haven't given an order otherwise." "Good. I want you to take him from his cell and airlock him," Cole commanded without feeling as if he were ordering a meal from a menu. Zharn felt his hearts pound urgently. "[i]What?![/i]" he shrieked, sitting forward. Cole smiled a macabre smile. The marine named Rains nodded, giving a rapt salute. "At once, sir." "No!" Zharn cried, leaping to his feet despite his fear and attempting to stop the marine from leaving to carry out the order. His bound feet did not get far though, and he soon found himself toppling onto the floor, his jaw smashing into the hard metal. Raines glanced down at him with disgust before leaving. "You are close to this Elite, I take it?" Cole asked him after Raines had exited the room. Zharn still lay on the floor, moaning pitifully amidst the blood and tears. The Admiral strode over, boots pausing just before the purple puddle. Cole bent down, and stared at Zharn in the eyes. "Don't kill him... please," Zharn begged, too beside himself with worry for Ahkrin to even care about the shame he was dealing himself by stooping to the level of pleading. Admiral Cole smiled then. "Why shouldn't I? I'm sure that he has killed many of my people in the past. Such a menace should surely be removed, don't you think?" [i]I can't lose Ahkrin... not after Sorran.[/i] "If you kill him I won't order the troops still on the surface to lay down arms," Zharn spat out, hating himself for saying the words he was about to say. He knew this heresy would have him killed even if he survived this, and possibly even cut off from the Journey. But he could not let Ahkrin die. "Oh?" Cole asked, a glint in his eye as he grabbed the bourbon from his desk and taking a swig of it. At some unseen command, two marines came over and lifted Zharn up, before violently thrusting him back into the small, uncomfortable chair. "But I heard you say a few minutes ago that you'd never do such a thing. You were quite adamant, in fact." "I changed my mind!" Zharn retorted, his throat tightening as he realised that Raines was still carrying out his orders. Ahkrin could be being dragged to the airlock as they spoke. "Really? Well perhaps I don't care. Perhaps I'll just have you friend airlocked anyway to see your reaction. Being vacuumed isn't a very pleasant way to die, Zharn. The lack of air, the pressure as your friend's insides will be forced out of every orifice in his body, the freezing temperature... not very nice at all, really." "You can't--" "Can't I? What will you do, Zharn? Attack me? You're in no position to do so, I think. Perhaps I'll take you down to the observation deck and you can watch your friend as he is ejected into the harsh realm that is space. Would such a thing break you, I wonder?" Suddenly the communications receiver on Cole's desk buzzed, and after letting it ring for a few seconds the Admiral picked up the matte-black receiver and pressed it to his ear. Muffled words emitted from it, and Cole nodded sombrely. "Throw him in the airlock, Captain Raines, then await my order," Admiral Cole said softly, before gently placing the receiver on the desk beside him. Zharn stared at it as if it were some evil beast. "Now, Elite, these next few moments will be very important. Your friend is one button-press away from being thrown through the tunnel and into the great beyond, where he shall most certainly die. I'm going to offer you a choice, and it will be interesting to see how you choose. Your friend does not have to die. You can opt for the second option." "What is it?" Zharn demanded hurriedly. "Please, I'll do anything." "Don't be so sure. Your friend's place can be filled by ten other troops you command. If you choose this option then your friend shall live, but ten other various Covenant shall take his place and be thrown out of the airlock. No one other than you, Raines and I will ever know; it'll be our little dark secret."