Chapter 29

It was three days before she had any interaction with people again. Her meals had been delivered with a polite knock on the door but the guard that brought them refused to speak to her at all. She spent her time sleeping and exercising interspersed with long, hot showers that would not, could not wipe away the feeling that she was still, somehow, soiled. She knew it was irrational, but that didn't stop her from shuddering when her thoughts turned to that eternity in the chair.

There was a knock at the door and, after a short pause, it opened to reveal Vlad, accompanied by a squad of soldiers. They had obviously arrived at where ever they were going and she was to be transported to wherever the hell they wanted to send her. Kat knew she could not take on seven armored men, but she kept her eyes and ears open as they escorted her through the ship and to the shuttle bay.

Loaded into a shuttle and seated at the rear, they used flexible plastic strips to bind her to the acceleration couch. It seemed they wanted to take no chances with her while the shuttle was in flight and the other soldiers were tied down. She almost smiled.

The shuttle launched and the gentle acceleration pushed her back into the sparse cushions of the chair. These seats were designed for armored men and the cushion was uncomfortably thin for a small woman in a thin cotton hospital gown. Complaining would get her nowhere and besides, she was glad to be seeing something other than the walls of her cell.

The trip was much shorter than she had anticipated and they had definitely not gone down into a planetary gravity well, so they must be meeting another ship. Her suspicions were answered when the ship settled a bit and she felt the momentary flutter in her stomach that told her she had switched from one gravitational field to another. There were a series of clanks and hisses as the shuttle was secured and the bay was flooded with oxygen, before the rear loading hatch opened and the smell of a new environment flooded in.

The brightly lit bay was similar in design to the one they had left just a half hour ago, but it was on a much larger scale. Instead of the pair of shuttles, it held six, plus a rack of as many EVA sleds used to work outside the ship in the vacuum of space. On one wall was a detailed painting of the 'Eden Rising' sculpture she had seen in the Anson offices on Callabria. She was fascinated to see the details lovingly rendered by a talented hand, displayed so openly on the bulkhead of a warship. It seemed wrong somehow, that a church would be so openly militaristic.

Outside the hatch stood a squad of soldiers, outfitted much as the ones who had escorted her here. The soldier she thought of as 'her' escort, handed her over to the new squad and re-boarded the shuttle. The only one of her escort to stay was Vlad and he immediately took charge of the detail and marched them all out of the bay.

She was taken to an empty cabin, almost identical to the one she had been imprisoned in on the other ship. The only real difference that she could see was in the color of the walls and a set of clothing laid out on the bed. Vlad followed her in and dismissed the guard, telling them to wait in the passageway. The senior man on the detail insisted on taking Vlad's sidearm before leaving, a sensible precaution in Kat's mind.

"You are to get dressed. The Bishop would not be pleased to see you appear before him in those gowns. We must be proper, no?" Vlad grinned at her, then motioned towards the fresher cubicle.

Kat examined the clothes, not surprised to see they were in her size, and took them into the fresher to change. While she was getting dressed, Vlad began to brief her on what to expect.

"Da Bishop is very important man. You will say yes sir, no sir unless asked to explain something. Be respectful. I know you had bad time, and the new Vicar on our ship wished to execute you, but the Bishop, he does not like to kill unless it is needed. You be polite, maybe he just keep you here."

Kat found that very interesting indeed. It seemed that there were factions within the ExTrans, much as in every other segment of society. She would have expected more unity among a religious organization, since they all had a codified set of rules they professed to believe in. Maybe there was something there she could exploit, assuming she lived past the meeting with this Bishop character.

She was escorted to a conference room that looked like it might once have been the officer's mess. She could still see spots on the bulkheads where it looked as though they had cut out the attached tables and repainted, the newer paint not quite matching. The room was carpeted and there was a large, ornate table surrounded by matching chairs. At the far end of the table sat Dakarai Mbosa, Chief Financial Officer of the Callad System branch of Anson Industries, Galactic.

He was watching her closely and ignoring the chatter of the two men on each side of him. He was much as she remembered, other than being dressed in a black uniform with a gold Mobius strip on each lapel. Even from where she was standing, she could a little sparkle, as if there was a diamond embedded in each insignia, probably an indication of rank.

The men to either side of him were also dressed in uniform, each with golden Mobius strips but they all had smaller, red-colored stones embedded in their insignia. Kat had to assume that they were his advisors, perhaps ship commanders in his fleet? The insignia appeared to be a match for those worn by the late, unlamented Vicar Gauss.