Aftermath

[Arrenhe tr'Khev 0]

The possibility of being killed in the line of duty was not a new idea to Arrenhe, and he'd come to terms with that possibility quickly, ever since the first time he stood on a landmine and had to trust to N'Dak to keep him alive. An assassination attempt was something quite different however. Before joining Galae, as the youngest son of a junior senator, a kidnapping for some sort of ransom had been more likely than being killed. The fact that this assassination attempt had not been politically motivated, or even personal, was befuddling. He'd been hopping mad right after taking the dagger in the leg, though due to the dagger he couldn't do much hopping. Now he was just highly motivated to know why someone had tried to kill him.

 

Before starting the interrogation Arrenhe performed the usual medical scan, and she turned out to be pregnant. Only about a month along, nonetheless it forced a change in strategy for the diminutive dheno. As little as he was usually involved in the rougher interrogations, as they weren't at all to his style or way of thinking usually, he generally was brought in as the "good cop" when that strategy was determined to be useful. Due to the woman's pregnancy he couldn't risk some of the more dangerous methods this time, as there was precedent in the past to allow the child to be born before any serious punishment was carried out on the mother. Unwilling, even in this much more personal case, to enact justice in the course of investigation he came up with another way.

 

Therefore he brought in t'Eriel, who fit the requirements for his strategy and was one he could trust not to lose her temper or her patience. For almost two hours t'Eriel sat alone amongst the dhenos in the interrogation chamber, merely staring silently at t'Malna. Whatever was in the female dheno's mind during this time Arrenhe didn't know, but the look in her eyes unsettled even him, and eventually the suspect couldn't take it anymore either and was willing to start talking a little just to get t'Eriel out of the room. After she began to cooperate, Arrenhe entered into the interrogation, which combined with the woman's now more talkative attitude and rage toward the Arrain, got the rest of it out most suitably. Whatever pain the woman was experiencing emotionally Arrenhe used in place of inflicted physical pain, which he believed to be an underutilized tactic.

 

The base motivation for all of it apparently was the so called "murder" of the three engineer thieves. While the directive had been N'Dak's, the order and the manner of the after-death display had been Arrenhe's. It obviously wasn't to the woman's liking, especially since she'd been secretly bonded to the second of the three engineers, tr'Uhlad. She professed to know nothing about tr'Uhlad's smuggling attempt until after it was over, and judging by her anger over it Arrenhe had no reason to doubt it, especially as forthcoming as she was about the rest. She eventually opined that tr'Uhlad had chosen to go for some extra latinum so that, once they returned home, they afford to be together after his family cut ties, as they didn't approve of her. Arrenhe could scarcely imagine why.

 

She had been the ones to start the juggling "entertainment" and had used it as a cover to chuck the daggers at him. As rude of a server as she had been, that had been due to her self-proclaimed mission and hatred of Arrenhe. She was a server by trade, and eventually Arrenhe remembered her from other festivities the Talon arranged in the past. Thankfully she was used to laying out butter knives instead of throwing them so her aim had been pretty dreadful. She had also poisoned some of the food and wine, responsible for the sickness of a dozen crewmembers. None of them had perished, as it was done only to weaken Arrenhe enough to make him an easy kill later. She professed no desire to hurt anyone else, and seemed truely upset to learn that many of the crew had become ill by the refreshments and had only put t'Losak out of commission to get to Arrenhe. The low dose of paralytic had done that quite effectively, and his trusted dheno was still in the maenak bay trying to get everything moving again.

 

So Arrenhe had finally been able to use his personalized weapon in something other than the firing range, and it had worked well. Considering it was Arrenhe's fighting speciality, being no good in close combat or much better at throwing weapons than the woman, his aim had been true. His desire to have a non-lethal option had turned out as he had hoped, as had he shot her thus with a disruptor there would have been no interrogation and no closure, only a body disposal.

 

Arrenhe, as weary and befuddled by the whole situation as he was, remained quiet and professional through the interrogation. The "soft" interrogation approach apparently was quite a change-up from what t'Malna had expected, as no one had so much as pinched her through the proceedings. Before Arrenhe could leave she had even asked him why he wasn't torturing her. Since he had the information he needed, he told her the truth. "Before it is decided whether your unborn shall share your punishment, I would not risk it. I am surprised that you would."

 

She apparently had no answer to that, and Arrenhe left the interrogation room and ordered her taken, under guard, to the maenak bay to have the child's paternity confirmed through scans. As he worked up the report, he waited for those results to include in it. His people had already matched the DNA on the handle of the daggers to the woman, and confirmed the missing medicine and other ingredients from the maenak tent below. After sobering a few of the partygoers they also managed to get two eyewitnesses that saw her with the daggers, though none actually saw her throw them. Between the confession and the other hard evidence the witnesses weren't needed, but only added weight to the case.

 

Finally word came through from one of the dhenos sent along with t'Malna to the maenak bay. Indeed the child was fathred by tr'Uhlad. He included that data into the report, proof-read it, and then sent it off to t'Aejhae, N'Dak and t'Rexan. His authority was only to investigate, whatever form justice would take from there was not his call. Nor did he want that call. He'd faithfully executed the orders of his superiors in having the thieves executed, and used his knowledge to ensure the display thereafter was as effective a deterrent as possible. Had they been closer to home it may have been possible to use other methods, but that was how it was here.

 

He ordered t'Malna be taken into secure holding in the brig for the interim before he finally closed out his console and rose from his desk in the dheno office. It had been a long day, a longer night, and he was exhausted, heading to his quarters to get at least eight hours of sleep. After arriving inside his quarters he put the room on do not disturb mode. Should anyone be foolish enough to try to wake him, they would have to use a high level override to get any comms through, otherwise they'd have to break in and shake him awake.

[STSF_BluRox 0]

This is an excellent log!! I truely enjoyed reading it! Thanks!!! :huh: