Burning Bridges

Written by Elise Heider
Edited by DiscardingSabot

A single table flanked by two chairs was all that occupied most of the ship's interrogation rooms. They were almost universally unused, but this particular one was occupied by a female skink. Dark brown leathery skin with sand coloured patterns could be seen around her mouth and neck. Big, amber irises surrounded by pale yellow made up her eyesight.
She was wearing officer's clothes, albeit in very rough shape; dirty and wrinkled, with dry blood splatters on it, and the radio receiver missing from her shoulder. She looked tired, shoulders drooping down, posture slouching slightly, her hands in her lap. An expressionless stare covered her face, just as the only door leading into the room swung open with a deep, unsettling creak.
Concerned, she looked up. A slender male snake had entered the room, closing the door behind himself. He was wearing an unzipped mechanic’s jumpsuit tied around his waist, and a dark blue shirt. His skin was scaly and almost uniformly tan.
“You don’t need to worry, it's gonna be alright.” he said in a calm tone as he pulled out the other chair to sit down. “I’m not like the others you met. I don’t believe in unjustified violence, it’s against my religion. I got you some water. You must be thirsty.” he said as he reached forward and placed a plastic cup onto the table between them.
She took her eyes off him, lost in a whirlwind of thoughts, worries, and hopelessness. The snake caught onto this, moving his head to try and catch her gaze.
“I promise you won’t get hurt. But we need your help. What’s your name?”
The skink didn’t look at him as she sucked in her lips. Her gaze remained stuck at the corner of the table for a long, uncomfortable pause. Eventually, the snake leaned closer.
“I’m Jansé, Jansé Vindrenni. From the flight deck. Refuelling crew. I’m here to help you.”
The skink offered a brief, simple reply after a small pause.
“Irrni” she said in a shaky, raspy voice, still refusing to look at him.
“It’s a nice name. From Grenalli?”
“Yes” she nodded faintly.
“I have friends living there. They say it’s a beautiful place, lots of history. Always wanted to visit it, but things never lined up. Work, weather, kids being ill. You know how life is.” he paused “You are a signal officer, right?” he pointed at her right shoulder patch; a green circle with a yellow segment on top and the bottom, inside there was a U symbol with a dash beneath it. He already knew this was the patch of a signals sub-lieutenant, but still waited for her answer.”
“Yes … I …” she was about to say more, but her mouth opened just a little before regressing back to silence.
“That’s good. Listen, I know you’ve been through a lot. All of the bridge crew have, but you can trust me, neither of us wants anyone else to get hurt. But you have to help us.”
She looked at him, observing what looked like genuine sympathy in his vivid green eyes. The anger, contempt and disgust she had seen in the others were absent here.
“I ... I already told you the truth. All of us did” she said in a trembling tone” I swear. Please, believe us.”
“Irrni, we are beyond that point now. Let that go. We know the truth. We all want to go home.” he paused for a bit and leaned closer, looking deeply into her eyes ”I have two wonderful daughters and a beautiful wife back home. One of my girls was dating a pilot, a commercial pilot, a real charmer…” he smiled “They could be married by now. Who knows, maybe I’m a grandfather by this point. My other girl must be working on her thesis now. She is studying to be an infrastructure engineer.” his joy faded away as it was overshadowed by grief in his eyes. “It’s been five years. I … missed out on so much about their lives. They must think I’m dead by now. My dear Laonlé may even have remarried. I just hope she is happy. ... I need to know if they are well.
Irrni closed her eyes shut, biting her lip a little. Suppressing her emotions as she anticipated his next question.
“Do you have a family waiting for you, Irrni?” the skink shook her head, just a little at first. “Friends?” she nodded weakly “Do you plan on starting your own family?” she nodded, little droplets of tears pooling in the corner of her eyes “That’s okay, don’t worry. You’ll meet someone out there. I’m sure. We will all go home. But we need your help first to end this test.”
“Please .. please I swear, there is no test of any kind! I tried to tell everything I knew to the previous guy! He didn’t even let me finish!”
“Then do tell me. I’m here to listen.”
Irrni looked at him, he seemed interested, with no sense of sarcasm nor mockery she could pick up on. She sighed.
“These past four years we’ve been trying to figure out what happened. A six-month delay is rare but it happened many times before … A year and a half? It happened once. Three years? It’s unheard of. Something must have gone terribly wrong. They started to cross-check the navigation data but everything came across correct, to the fifteenth digit. Navigation was confused … until they checked previous records and saw a consistent offset. Our HMA terminal had a fault they couldn’t identify.”
Jansé was still listening closely.
“Go on, please.”
Irrni continued.
“They checked the offset and realised our alignment data was wrong by a fraction. We had problems with keeping the ship in formation prior but it was written off as the helmsman’s error. Propulsion engineers said they could fix the issue with gyroscopes. The problem was that those weren’t designed for such precise movements, so they'd had to modify them, but it would take a long time. They only have one shot to get it right as well. One poor adjustment and we would be lost forever.”
“Are these the tests we overheard the officers talking about?”
Irrni appeared invigorated by the notion that someone was actually listening to her for once.
“Yes, yes! Exactly! That’s why they had to cut down on the use of power!”
She looked up relieved, finally someone understanding what happened. Jansé looked at her a little uncertain at this point. It was starting to make sense. Too much sense.
“If this is true, why didn’t they tell the crew? It makes no sense to keep this glimpse of hope a secret.”
“I know …” she sighed deeply “Üdsali is ... was a very old fashioned kanpiu. He thought of the ship’s crew as a ‘unity forged in steel’, and that the ‘glorious servicemen of the Odraani Navy can deal with any situation, no matter what fate brings’. He wanted the crew to stay focused on their tasks of running the ship and her systems. That ‘promises are for politicians’. All of his direct subordinates opposed the notion to keep this secret, but he underestimated how quickly morale would fall. The engineers were so close …”
“Tell me, how do you know about this? You are not in navigation.” He pointed at her shoulder patch.
“I operated the intercom monitor, I overheard a lot of fragmented conversations. We put them together with the operators from different stations and shifts.”
Jansé remained quiet for a long while in confusion and contemplation, his heavy, scaly eyebrows dancing on his facial features as he pondered this new piece of information. Eventually, he shook his head and looked at her again.
“So … you didn’t know anything directly? Right? Tell the truth, please.”
“No, but I’ve just told you that we heard their intercom! I AM telling the truth!”
“That’s enough, Irrni.”
“It’s the truth! What more do you want to hear?!”
“The real truth. Not what you were told to believe. We know this is a test run by the Odraani intelligence. We overheard our superiors, saw monitoring equipment. No way Üdsali would be silent about a ‘solution’, it just makes no sense. We know what happened. All we need now is an officer to reach out to the monitoring station or laboratory to call this off. People got hurt. People got killed. They have to call this off.”
“We can’t reach anybody because there is nobody to reach! This is insanity!”
“People are dying every day. I know you are not okay with that.”
“Of course I’m not! But there’s nothing we can do! I swear!”
“Irrni, please. Stop covering for them. You are not gaining anything from it. Help us.”
“I AM NOT!” she shouted at him as she began sobbing. She leaned back in the chair and buried her face in her palms. “I’m not lying …I’m not … I want this madness to end. I want to go home just as much as you do.”
“Then help us, Irrni.” he paused to let Irrni calm down “Reach out to them. Send a message. You may not be in on it but can still send out a request to end this. Everyone will be forever grateful for your help. I know you are brave.”
Irrni rested her hands on the table. She looked defeated, her body didn’t move at all, only her gaze was racing around the room, but never landing on Jansé. Minutes kept ing but the silence was only broken by unnerving, metallic echoes that sounded through the ship's hull. An uncomfortable reminder of what was going on elsewhere throughout the ship, where the crew were not as willing to listen as Jansé had been. The snake eventually spoke up again.
“Irrni. Help us. Please.”
The skink drew a sharp inhale, followed by a slightly more calm exhale.
“Alright” she nodded with one hand on her face, her eyes reddened from crying “I’ll do whatever I can…”
“Thank you” Jansé smiled gratefully, placing his hand gently on hers. She didn’t move, just looked at the lizard for a brief moment. “You are a good person. I promise you’ll be safe.”

-----

The comms room was quite cramped, filled to the brim with radio equipment, analysers, recording stations, intercom monitors, cabinets holding various types of reels and tapes, all inventoried precisely.
Irrni was sitting by one of the consoles; filled to the brim with switches, knobs, nixie displays. She looked confident at the station, wearing a bulky headset, currently busy operating the equipment.
Jansé was sitting on a chair, next to what looked like an analysing station. He was watching her with interest, almost seeing what normality was on the ship before, people doing their jobs, having a place to belong to.
There were two other people in the room, a young female snake, blue and white in colour and a tall gecko, his scales almost pure black. They ed to learn about operating the radio, so they can cover more shifts.
Unfortunately, the air seemed to freeze with tension as heavy steps could be heard approaching from outside the room. A tall lizard entered the room, with yellow, leathery skin and deep sitting brown eyes. He either lost a lot of weight or was wearing an officer's uniform that didn't belong to him, as the clothes sat very loosely on his body. Definitely not up to spec.
He approached from behind and slapped Jansé’s back.
“Jansé! Heard the great news! Bitch got talkative? Finally!”
“That’s enough, Lüanözza. Cut it out.”
“Alright, it’s your gig.” he backed down obnoxiously “How did you do it?”
“Just talked to her? She’s a living, feeling person, you know, … shocking, right?” looked at him in disgust, only noticing his holster now.
“Should have listened to you sooner, fair play. I bow to your methods, sir!”
“That’s ... enough.”
“So what do we have here?”
Lüanözza crossed his arms as he looked to the skink at the controls. His change of tone was startling. The ‘joking’ nature was gone, replaced with a deep, emotionless voice. Jansé spoke up.
“She’s reaching out to the research facility headquarters. Direct calls and distress loops. No luck yet, but she said given the distances, it could be days before we get a signal. Been going on for two hours.”
“How convenient …”
“What?”
“Stalling us as long as she can.”
“Why would she do that?”
“She’s just an ahaidon. Small fry. Nobody gives a shit about what she wants to say, and she knows that. If it was a senior officer, maybe. Or Üdsali himself, but that boat has sailed” he smirked
“A distress signal is a distress signal.”
“Fair enough” he walked up to the s and leaned over the skink's consoles” So, Miss … what are we doing here?”
Jansé looked concerned, the last thing he wanted was for Lüanözza to be in the room right now.
“Leave her to work. In fact, just please leave.”
“I’m just learning. Never too late for that, right?”
Irrni finally ed the conversation, still busy adjusting some knobs.
“It's ... it's fine. I got used to being watched over.”
She went on for another ten minutes before she turned around in her swivel chair to face Jansé.
“I was unable to get any signals .. did a wide range sweep, adjusted the receivers but no signal I can tune on. I … I did however record a long distress signal, reporting the conditions and the casualties on it. It’s on a loop, airing on all frequencies. I also directed any incoming calls to the intercom so if we get a response, the whole ship will know immediately, with no delay.”
“Thank you, you did a wonderful job.”
“Could I ... Could I have a glass of water? My throat got dry from talking …”
“Of course.”
Jansé looked at the young snake standing in the corner and nodded at her. She nodded back and left the room.
“So …” Lüanözza addressed Irrni “you slot the authorization card here, put in a tape and start recording here right?” he pointed at various bits of the control .
“Uhmm … yes?” Irrni replied in a concerned tone.
“… and where do you send it out on a loop on all frequencies”
“Here - she pointed at a smaller .
“Aaah okay, now I get it, now I get it. Not that hard.” Lüanözza was looking back at her with disdain.
At this point, Jansé moved up and silently pulled the tall lizard aside.
“Lüa ... Tell me, what the fuck are you doing? Can you please leave? You are freaking her out.“
“Listen here you bwenni fuck. I’m-”
“The fuck does my religion have to do with any of this? We are both the subjects of a godforsaken Odraani experiment and you think that holds any weight now?”
“Listen” Lüanozza paused to calm his temper, ignoring Jansé “I’m in charge here, and the only reason you can play this little game is that I allow it. Don’t push your luck. Am I clear?”
“We are making go-”
“Am I clear?”
“You are a cook.”
“AM I CLEAR!?” Lüanözza hissed as he yanked Jansé’s collar.
“Yes…” replied Jansé in a defeated tone.
“Wonderful!” he cheered up and patted him on the shoulder “I’m happy we are on the same page, friend.”
Irrni watched them from a distance. She couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but the overall body language made her heart race. She looked at the gecko standing guard in the room, and their gazes met. Both of them had concern clearly embedded in their facial features. He still made a subtle hand gesture reassuring her things will be alright.
The situation was slightly defused by the snake returning with the water. The plastic cup had murky, cold water in it, the best they could get at this point. Irrni thanked her and took a few sips, getting familiar with the strange taste before she quickly gulped down the whole thing. The snake took the glass from her and retreated back into her corner.
Lüanözza took a few steps towards Irrni.
“Say, miss, can I hear the full message in full? Just to double-check it before it goes out. Quality control, if you will.”
“Ah, it’s airing already but I can play it for you?”
“Just pause it, you can resume after.”
She clicked a button on the console and removed a tape from the same . Placing it into another machine before clicking play.

“This is Dreadnaught 17-02-OU1-3-03-0218 of the Brallü Expeditionary Fleet. Calling Research station Zero, Urgent. We are experiencing serious system errors, food stocks are running low and basic life systems are failing. Crew morale is low, casualties are high. Kanpiu Üdsali is KIA, no second in command took charge. We are requesting the immediate termination of the long term isolation test. Send override codes for the status lockdown. We need reactor control or we will experience a system failure. Urgent.”

Lüanözza looked unimpressed.
“Is that it? It’s a bit ... vague innit?”
“It's a standard format. I didn’t want to raise suspicion.”
“Why the fuck not? They already know things ain’t normal.”
“If they knew about the mutiny, they’d destroy the ship or gas the interiors.” she argued, looking increasingly worried at the questioning tone from the lizard.
“No, they wouldn’t if they knew we had hostages. Funny you forgot to mention it?”
“I told you already! This is the safest way! Anything else woul-”
“Record a new one.”
“But …”
“Record a new one. I’m not going to ask again.”
“For fuck’s sake Lüa, enough!” Jansé interrupted. His usual calm tone was gone now.
“Record a new one.” Lüanözza placed his hand on his holster.
“Alright, alright! Let me just …” she caved in, taking out a fresh tape from a cabinet below the consoles then inserting it into the recording . She cleared her throat and glimpsed at Jansé to try and calm her nerves... But seeing the concern on his face, only made things worse. She clicked a button and began recording in a trembling voice.

“This is D-Dreadnaught 17-02-OU1-3-03-0218 of the Brallü Expeditionary Fleet. Calling Research station Z-Zero, Urgent. We are experiencing s-serious system errors, food stocks are running low and basic life systems are failing. Casualties are high Crew morale is very low, experienced a mutiny, s-suffered heavy casualties. They took hostages. Kanpiu Üdsali is K-KIA. We are requesting the immediate termination of the long term isolation test. Send override codes for the status lockdown. We need reactor control or we will experience a sys-”

An ear-splitting bang cut her short. Blood, pieces of flesh and fabric erupted from her back and torso, spraying the console in crimson. She fell forward, as she was shot two more times. Lüanözza walked up to the console and leaned into the microphone, adding to the message that was still recording.

“... this is Lüanözza Edri speaking. I am in charge. Every day we get no response, I will personally shoot a hostage. Junior, senior officers, security and other fools. Their blood will be on your hands and the burden of their families’ suffering will weigh on your soul. Release us now … Urgent.”

He turned off the recording, placing the tape into the broadcast section, taking the same steps he saw Irrni doing.
Jansé snapped out of his stunned state and ran towards Irrni, pushing Lüanözza aside as he rushed forward. The skink was bleeding profusely as she collapsed onto the station she had been sitting by, one hand by her head, twitching, the other hanging limply by her side. The third shot had completely destroyed her shoulder.
Irrni was still alive, taking laboured, short breaths, interrupted by bloody coughs that sprayed onto the console, covering the keyboard in messy red. The moment her wide-eyed gaze landed on Jansé, it burnt a hole straight through the snake's soul. Her breathing got sparser and sparser till it stopped completely. Mouth agape, eyes staring into nothing. Her tail was still twitching for a little, but then it went limp, too.
Jansé whipped around to face Lüanözza. He shouted at the tall lizard, practically fuming.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!”
“Made a better recording. Has a bit more weight to it.”
“You … fucking sociopath. You wanted to kill her from the moment you stepped in.”
“Obviously. She did her part. You did yours, I did mine.”
“Her name was Irr-”
“I don’t care. She was an officer of rank! She was part of it. Do you think she deserves any remorse for all this suffering? She had it coming.”
“You're going to get everyone killed.”
“No. YOU will get everyone killed, bwenni.” he haphazardly pointed the gun at Jansé -“You playing this merciful, peaceful fatherly figure is a massive waste of resources. Feeding, hell, giving water to them?” he pointed at the skink’s body. “Every day we are losing weeks' worth of shit we could be saving for ourselves! How’s that not gonna get everyone killed, huh?!”
“They are people, not cattle.”
“Debatable! They were fine with messing with us for years!”
“They didn’t know! Say, what the hell do you want next? Return home with a ship full of dead bodies and carry on with your life as if nothing happened? Is that your plan? Do you think that’s how this works? They are going to execute everyone for mutiny, starting with you!”
“We have proof of what they did to us. You know how sensitive the Odraani is to its public image. We are in a good position to negotiate. Our silence for our freedom.”
“Are you a moron?! There won't be any threat to its public image if they fry the entire goddamn ship before we even get a chance to speak! Did it not cross your mind that they might not give that much of a damn about our compliance, considering our current situation?”
“They’ll need to recover the research data.”
“What data? You’ve just given them exactly what they need. They know the bottom line. It’s broadcasting right now on that fucking blood-soaked . They got their result in its purest form.”
“It’s more than that. They’ll want to know everything … interviews, ship records, health checkups. They invested a lot into this test. They will want their results. No matter how many bodies they have to shove aside to get them. We both know that.”
“You sure know a whole fucking lot about what THEY want for someone toting a gun for the supposed greater good of the rest of us, you know?!”
Lüanozza was stunned, trying to find words. His hold audibly tightened around the pistol, his rubbery glove creaking against the grip. His eyes landed on the other two people in the room. They looked confused, sharing glimpses with each other.
“… and what do YOU know?” he finally snapped back.
“I’ve been making good progress with getting people to cooperate, till you come here AND FUCK. EVERYTHING. UP.” he yelled at the top of his lungs, pointing at Irrni’s body. His voice was shaky and pained. “Gods’ sake, Lüa, why did you kill her?” he looked at the skink, defeated “Why not a warning shot? She was cooperating! I promised her she wouldn’t get hurt!”
“All she did was record a distress signal, useless. I learned how to do it in ten minutes. Besides, you shouldn’t promise something you know you can’t keep.”
“You blew that junior officer's head off last week in front of the crew because he didn’t pull himself together in time. Because he was too busy crying. How can you be this sick?”
“He was wasting our time. Bawling for hours.”
“We've been locked in here for close to two thousand days straight, and now you waltz around with a gun in people's faces expecting results in the blink of an eye?!”
“We can’t waste resources.”
“You are “wasting resources” by making people drag bodies all day, or throwing up from the mess you make every time you feel like pulling the trigger!” Jansé looked at Lüanozza in a distressed manner, almost begging. “Please, Lüa, listen. Don’t go further down this route. There’s no need for continued bloodshed. They are people with families, children, lovers and friends. Have them speak on the radio each day, proving they are alive, fed, cared for. Reassure the researchers that we are still civilised. This is the only way.”
“Why?”
“To save lives. Please, I’m begging you.”
“Wake up, Jan … it’s over. Your method failed.” he leaned closer to Jansé’s face “You wasted a week trying to get anybody to help us with your kindness, and got nobody of value to speak. You can go back to those fucks and play psychologist if you want, but don’t waste my time. If I find out you are up to something, you and everyone with you will get the same treatment as her. Am I clear?”
“Please …”
“Am I clear?” he pointed the gun at him from his hip
“Yes …”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, now fuck off.” he then snapped at the snake and gecko still in the room “You two!”
They were pretty much frozen in shock, not daring to set off the leader.
“Get this cleaned up, and monitor the signals. I want at least three people in here, at all times. ... and bring me a voice recorder with some blank tapes.”