Private Loyalty Interview: Tavian Vale

[Rinea]

Outreach had been recalled.

High Command was anxious. "What impact do the excursions have on their psychological profiles?"

"Have they gained any sympathies?"

"Why was Societal Rebalance mentioned in the Tatooine report?!"

Their complaints, their questions, their fears--it all weighed heavily on Rinea, who happened to be the only Intelligence Officer from the Loyalty Division assigned to whole damn fleet. Before Planeshift, her parameters were simple: go from A to B, submit a report, go home. Now, High Command recalled the away teams and tasked her with interviewing all of them. It was a mistake, even an amateur in her position knew this. All they would succeed in doing was causing frustration at best, sowing dissent at worst. But with words like 'sedition' being thrown around, she wasn't in any position to debate with her superior officers.

Tavian Vale was called in for review. He was disarmed, and his companion implant was shackled. It could submit data, but it would not be able to think for itself.

"See him in," Rinea ordered the guard. She sighed as soon as he left the room and prepared for the ugly task ahead.

 

[Tavian Vale]

Rinea

Tavian walked in with a relaxed posture but alert eyes. He scanned the room before fixing his gaze on Rinea herself. They didn't have a lot of contact before the Event and maintained that professional distance afterwards too.

Until now.

He sat down without prompt. Back crisp, but he was already missing Lyra buzzing in his mind. It was cruel to shackle her. She wouldn't be the same for days, but Rinea knew that. They all knew what a cruel method that was and did it anyway, because there was little other way to keep an Outreacher in check.

With that AI in his head he could slice through this ship and the fleet at large like a knife through butter.

"I suspect this is the part where we stare at each other until one of us cracks and starts to talk first." Then a beat. "I did the hard part for us both, how can I help you, ma'am?"

 

[Rinea]

Surveillance was bearing down on them both. This interview wasn't merely a test of Tavian's loyalty, but hers as well, especially given her reputation from before she was forced into LD as punishment in all but name.

Rinea kept a stone face, hardly blinked, and folded her hands on the cold table between them.

First, procedure. "Bodr'ine'ako, Officer second class--Intelligence, Loyalty Division. Interviewer."

Her eyes flicked to a camera, then back to Tavian. "Name. Rank. Assignment."

Then, she moved on to her first question. From here, she could generally make it up as she went along, so long as a satisfactory report came out the other end. "Knight Vale, please enlighten me on your most recent mission. Why did your team spend more time in Sith space than authorized?"

Tavian Vale

 

[Tavian Vale]

Rinea

There was the unofficial reason.

Because we are stuck in a place we do not understand. Surrounded by enemies we don't know. The more we spend time with them, the better we can handle them later.

But that was a message that showed too much initiative. They'd nail him to the wall for it. Tavian knew that much without Lyra buzzing in his ear about what to say.

"L.Y.R.A. calculated the odds of gaining valuable intel to be north of ninety point five percent if we stayed past the initial mission time. I did a cost-benefit analysis and decided that mission parameters allowed enough leeway to stay." Eyebrow raised up a touch at the Chiss. "Outreach operatives of my rank are allowed latitude in the field if not challenged by a senior or equal-ranked officer. The Captain saw the same analysis and agreed with me."

It was a good thing Lyra made him memorize that whole spiel or he would already be reeducated.

 

[Rinea]

"Captain Wulicailt is on suspension." She stated in dismissal of her concurrence.

"Orders were clear. Low touch, low visibility." She adjusted the goal posts. "Data from LYRA suggested a high-level encounter with a probable Sith telepath." She, of course, referred to the strange man his team had met on Sluis Van. "Why did you engage at all?"

She was glad to see that Tavian avoided stupid answers so far, but the nature of this interview was about to become anything but routine.

It was time for another question. Shift the context enough times, and you might get a bad answer. Bad answers made her superiors happy. They were out for blood.

"Deputy Chief Santerk has levied an insubordination complaint against you. You have a right to know your accuser and the details of that complaint. Any questions before I proceed?" She didn't have to ask his permission. In fact, the professional thing would've been to leave it as a statement and move on before he had a chance to request said details.

She was doing him a favor. Whether or not he saw it that way.

Tavian Vale

 

[Tavian Vale]

Rinea

"At the time we did not know he was a telepath. We decided to continue observation to ascertain if the subject was a rarity or if this was a normal array of powers accessible in this reality."

After all, someone who could know everything, everywhere, all at once was a clear danger.

If it was a skill that anyone had access here would be catastrophic.

"We determined the likeliness that this was a widespread skill as unlikely. Furthermore, discrepancies in his story led us to believe that he was not in fact omniscient. There were gaps in his knowledge. The likelihood he was a charlatan with an affinity for mentalism and a healthy dose of luck is rather high as a result."

A beat.

"If we had blown him off, we would have caused a scene, he was quite insistent on having our attention. Low visibility means low visibility, ma'am."

His hand ran through his hair as he watched her wearily. It was just a feint. Tav wasn't that worried, because he knew exactly what this was. There was no senior Cyber Knight on the Fleet. From the Outreach presence in the Fleet, he was the highest rank. That meant he had nominal control over the Cyber Knights spread through the fleet.

The senior officers did not like that. Not one bit. He was expecting them to move on him, but the surprise was how fast they had acted on such flimsy grounds.

"Insubordination? That's a grave accusation. On what grounds, ma'am? Every action I have taken was to support the Fleet and well-within the purview of a senior Outreach member."

He wondered what she was playing at, because he saw a lifeline when he was being thrown it.

 

[Rinea]

Ever since Lyra was shackled, specialists had been drilling into the implant's datastream, all to confirm the single piece of evidence used to support the complaint. Of course, such an act was seen by many within the fleet to be unethical, and normally, such a decision would be reserved for the highest levels of judicial leadership. Not to be conducted on the whims of a fleet officer.

Rinea gave him a look bordering on sympathetic, but it was only a flash. She played an audio recording over the room speakers.

"We could at least make an example out of this town. A preview of what is to come. This world desperately needs a Societal Rebalance. We can start with the slavers."

She replayed it again, this time to focus on a single piece from within the whole.

This world desperately needs a Societal Rebalance.

The recording stopped, and she leaned forward in her seat. "You were never in any position to make that call." To say the least.

Societal Rebalance was a decision by committee. To have it come from the mouth of a field officer--Cyber Knight or no--was taboo. Already, this entire loyalty interview revealed itself to be a full-blown interrogation. He wasn't being analyzed for correction. This was the lead-up to an unsanctioned court-martial.

Everything Tavian said prior was reasonable. He answered well. Even Rinea was pleased to see he hadn't acted out like some might for having their loyalty questioned.

Rinea said nothing further. Merely awaited his reaction.

Tavian Vale