Hounds of Orion

“What?” Miranda gasped, her mouth dropping open as she looked from Sybil to Logan. The man didn’t return her gaze, focusing instead on the slowly nodding Sybil.

“You heard me right. See, like I said, the government took inspiration from the old worlds way of doing things. So, when they needed bodies to go out on colony ships, and couldn’t find anyone up to the task, they turned to people that society wasn’t going to miss, i.e. prisoners. They set up the corporations as their own governing body and went through the various correctional facilities. They ran tests, physicals, psych evals, the whole shebang. Anyone that the companies deemed fit was, for lack of a better term, forced to relinquish their citizenship in order to join the colonization expeditions.”

“By the stars, that sounds horrible!” Miranda’s face had contorted into a grimace of disgust. Ketris had servants and a working class, but slavery had been outlawed since the planets founding. To her, the thought of forcing someone to abandon their life in order to be at the whim of another government was something so horrible she didn’t want to even think of it.

Sybil on the other hand simply shrugged, her tone nonchalant as she continued. “That depends on you prospective I suppose. But to a cut a long story short, the expeditions were a success, and the act stayed in service with a few modifications. Now, a citizen of free-space has the right to invoke a request of forced relinquishment on any prisoner under earth jurisdiction. As long as the request is approved by an Earthgov official, which in this case would be me, and the current ruling planetary official, being you, Logan can take Cameron under his custody and responsibility.

Miranda went through a gamut of emotions, internally as well as facially. Shock, disgust, curiosity all ran through her along with something else… hope. She looked at Sybil who gave her an affirming stare before looking back to Logan who now met her gaze. She saw something then, something behind cold, steel-colored eyes. It was an effort to get her tongue to form the words for the question she needed to ask.

“You… You really think he’s innocent. Don’t you?”

A slight tilt of his head told her all she needed to know. She turned back to Sybil who was watching the exchange with interest.

“So… just like that? If we both approve, Cameron goes free?”

Sybil made a face that could only have been read as ‘not exactly’.

“In a way, yes. But also no. There’s quite a few caveats that we’d need to discuss before we make it official -”

“You can’t possibly mean to go through with this!” A shout from the far end of the room broke the calm atmosphere of the moment. Lendrick, who it seemed, couldn’t contain his indignation any longer was staring daggers at Sybil.

“The Pellyn boy murdered a planetary official! Surely you don’t intend to approve such a preposterous request? You’d be a fool to do so! I don’t know how you can honestly call yourself a representative of the mother planet for even considering this!”

Sybil blinked, taking a moment, before she took a step in Lendrick’s direction. Then she took another step, her tone growing cold and dangerous as she spoke.

“I’m sorry. I think you’ve made a mistake there Lazarus. See, I think you believe that I’m someone who cares what you deem preposterous. Or perhaps you think that I actually care as to your thoughts on a matter that doesn’t concern you,”

Her voice was sharp and authoritative, dripping with venom from every syllable. As she crossed the threshold, all eyes were on her, all ears opened to understand her clearly.

“Let’s get one thing straight okay? This is my sector. Not yours. These walls, this floor, the trees outside, the blood in your veins, they all belong to me.”

Her tone deepened and dropped and octave, coming out as more of a hiss, as she backed the diplomat into a corner. No one else moved a muscle. Even Augustus, who until this moment, had backed the man since he had arrived on the planet, was silent and still.

Lendrick was visibly perspiring, his lips quivering, as he realized he had nowhere to go. He looked around, trying to find someone, anyone to help him out of this situation. When that proved useless, he changed tactics, attempting to smooth things over.

“M-My apologies for any offense Ms. Moore. I-I was simply -”

She didn’t let him finish, putting a finger to his lips to quiet him as she leaned in her lips inches from his ear, speaking at a whisper that was still loud enough for all to hear.

“Yes, we let you have your little nobilities, and give you the impression that we’re just here to make sure everything runs smoothly, but make no mistake. Critique the way I run my sector again, or continue this dialogue of acting like some entitled child, and there is no one who can save you from what I’ll do to you. I run shit around here. You just live here.”

She pulled back to gaze into his eyes and in that moment, Lendrick saw nothing but cold hard truth. He gulped, his breath a trembling shudder.

“Understood?” She asked, practically growling the word.

He nodded rapidly, not taking his eyes off the women.

“Good.” She said, her tone changing instantly, back to it’s usual cool and friendly timbre. She turned away from Lendrick, her gaze settling on Marcus, who was currently looking at her in abject terror.

“Marcus, can you be a dear and fetch my datapad from my room? I have some paperwork to draw up. That is,” She turned to look at Miranda, “If you’d wish to proceed with the process? What do you say?”

She didn’t even hesitate.