2017-11-20: Nothing Logical
- Log: Nothing Logical
- Cast: Loren Voss, Kahm Yugh
- Where: Bledavik, Royal Palace
- Date: November 15, 2017
- Summary: Kahm calls Loren in to discuss the the fate of the Lieutenant's career, and their next steps in light of certain revelations.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
And there it was. A message, with all the suspiciously-innocuous phrasing one expects when things are about to truly go south.
He'd known it was only a matter of time. At least, he considers, staring at the door to Kahm's office before him, he wouldn't have to worry about the when any longer.
Only how much. How far this would further damage matters for his parents.
Well, Loren considers, taking a steadying breath. Well, you reap what you sow. He lifts a hand and knocks. The moment there's an answer, he'll open it and step inside, closing it quietly behind him.
"Sir." And salute.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Lieutenant."
Major Yugh returned the Lieutenant's salute crisply. Word of his promotion hadn't been made official yet, but there'd been talk. The stripes on his uniform would seem to confirm.
He was also alone. That was an auspicious sign: this kind of event was generally attended by at least two additional MPs to haul you way into the brig while you awaited court-martial.
Kahm also seems a bit beat up. There's a bandage across his cheek, and sat slowly back into his chair. Again, word was that something pretty big happened.
"Take a seat. There's something i'd like to go over with you."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are fewer people than Loren had been expecting in here. That alone is given away by the track of his gaze.
His expression -- save for a brief questioning glance at the bandage on Kahm's cheek -- otherwise doesn't so much as twitch, though. He knows better than to assume anything good.
It's extremely doubtful, honestly.
It seems certain circulating rumors are true after all, though. Captain Yugh has been given a promotion. Being medical staff means that you hear things -- even if your social network is as paltry as Loren's is.
Take a seat, the Major says. "Yes, sir." Loren inclines his head in a short nod, before doing exactly that. He bears himself stiffly even seated, hands on his knees as he makes eye contact and... appears to wait, as if bracing himself.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm was looking at several papers already as Loren sat down. He seemed to be frowning harder than usual.
"I know you've likely been concerned about blowback falling on you in the wake of Lily Keil's escape." He said, having lost none of his capacity to be blunt from his promotion. "I don't intend to leave you wondering."
"I had a long talk with Element Tolone, and the conclusion provided to command is that Keil's escape was precipitated by the undiscovered explosions she had set prior to her capture, aided by timely assistance from the invading rebels. No video footage of her escape survived the attack, and a service interruption from the damaged infrastructure prevented back-ups from saving properly as well. Being that you were the only eyewitness who survived, it's relatively open and shut."
The back-up medias, Loren might note, are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference.
"You are cleared of wrongdoing, Lieutenant, and are to continue serving in your present capacities."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Blunt is better, if you asked Loren about it. Better to get it over with, than to circle around and stab someone when they're least expecting it. At least this will be quick.
...
Kahm lays down the verdict.
Loren blinks, as if taken aback. He doesn't relax -- not hardly -- simply wears the look of someone whose world has decidedly tilted. Wait, wait, he knows that he...
It shouldn't be possible, but his posture grows that much more tightly wound. He's realized something, after all. The brief thought at first dictates that Lily could have also caused this -- before he realizes that even in her state it wouldn't have happened. The lack of any other failures elsewhere in the complex would...
And he remembers Kahm's elemental area of expertise.
It's no more than a hunch but it's otherwise too neat. Wordlessly, he stares at the Major for approximately ten seconds, and his lips part as if there's something he'd like to say. Or ask.
His hands tense.
He should just say this account isn't right.
...Or is he wrong about the cause? Or is this a trap? Then what? ...Where would this leave his family if he allows this to happen?
Paranoia -- and filial duty -- have their due.
"...I... see, sir," he says at last, swallowing. "Is... there anything else?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm's expression betrays nothing beyond the fact that must have more wounds than Loren can see-the man seems to be sitting more than a little uncomfortably.
"I'd like you to answer something for me, Lieutenant." He finally said, leaning slightly forward, "When I questioned you about how Keil learned about the properties of -drive-, you dissembled. At the time, it seemed a fair enough statement. She'd been moved quite a bit, and it's not impossible she could've heard some careless talk. Then I reviewed the feeds. Everything before the attack survived."
The Major fingered a remote control on his disk, and the viewscreen mounted on the wall behind him hummed to life with a feed of Loren and Seraphita (also, cupcakes) 'interrogating' to prisoner. The feed zooms in on the fire element.
"Combat sti-mu-lant! Hey I got that word right! Yeah! That's what Drive is! I bet the leftenant has some on him!! I'm not allowed to carry any though, Tolone says I'm not res-pon-si-ble eno-"
Kahm paused the feed, and his eyes bored into the Lieutenant like frosted spears.
"Why did you lie to me, Lieutenant? Were you trying to protect her?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Multiple injuries. That's all he can tell as he searches the Major's gaze for anything even remotely resembling a hint or an answer. Where, precisely, he can't tell; hopefully someone's monitoring healing. Whatever happened was... perhaps even more significant than the rumors had intimated.
Kahm has a question for him. Loren's breath catches as the Major begins to explain, circling around him verbally like a predator angling in for the kill. Even before Kahm presses 'play', he's realized what this is about.
The medical officer hates lies.
But, 'I hate dishonesty' is always something that's easier to live by in the abstract compared to the concrete. Day to day living forces a variety of lies to get by. Most of them are of no serious concern -- little things that grease the vagaries of social interaction. Other lies are of more serious concern.
For example, telling a superior officer that you had no idea how a dangerous criminal got their hands on an equally dangerous drug...
That's a serious lie, one that puts them at risk. Holes only exist so they can be plugged.
Kahm doesn't waste time. He gives Loren a few seconds to stew where he sits -- rigid, locked up -- before finally lunging for the heart of the matter.
Even if he must have known what was about to be asked of him, Loren still leans back a touch, shoulders tensed. But he doesn't look away, even if it feels like he's just been run through.
"Don't you dare look away," echoes the old voice, first out of an even older memory.
"...I did lie," he says at length. The Fire Element..." He pauses a moment, as if attempting to collect his thoughts. "...With her rank, I know. If reported, any punishment would be minor. There's little reason to be concerned for her sake." His shoulders sag, he exhales a breath. "There isn't a good reason." He pauses. "Save for team unity. If... I am to continue with assisting the Fire Element... If I had spoken against her..." He visibly struggles for a moment, as if what he's trying to explain insofar as his rationale is slipping free from his attempts to bind and put it to words.
There are unspoken pacts. You don't do certain things to people within your group. You don't turn against them, hurt them, betray them. Neither will they to you. And together, you attempt to face off against the world, knowing your faith in one another will hold firm.
...That's how it had been, at least. These days, the sorts of groups he's been able become aligned with, even partially, are few. Weak things. Betrayal -- or perceived betrayal -- could easily shatter them. And then he'd be left to fend for himself again.
His gaze finally leaves Kahm. "...I'm not explaining it well," is his ultimate assessment. "But I couldn't do it. 'Sell her out'... that might be one way to put it. I can't do that."
His gaze lifts. "Deliberately lying to a superior officer carries its penalty."
And he's almost calm as he takes a breath, rigid posture easing.
Or maybe the better word for that look would be resignation.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
There is always an easy way, a path of least resistance. Kahm knew this fact well. Whether here in the demesne of Bledavik or in the very heart of Etrenank above them, it was all too simple to look at the rest of the continent and declare how things must be without thought to the cost spent in Solarian lives making it so. It was why he felt so uneasy about this promotion, why he itched to get away from the capital as soon as he had the opportunity. He didn't want to lose that close-up perspective, that instinctive knowing of the price they paid to hold off Filgaia's decay.
At least, this was what the major told himself. He stayed unrelenting in his focus on the Lieutenant, his gaze not budging an inch nor his lips betraying a single word as Loren explained his reasoning. He waited, shoulders tensed and coiled as the younger man resigned himself to his fate.
There was a resounding *smack* as the back of Kahm's hand flew across Loren's face with no less promptly than the salute he'd rendered him moments earlier.
"Lieutenant." Kahm said, stinging hand returning to his side, "Do you seriously believe I went through all the trouble of stopping your court martial just so I could have the honor of disciplining you myself? How petty a man do you take me for?"
There was a slight, accusatory tint to the Major's voice-the first Loren might ever have heard-and his hands slammed down on the desk as he leaned forward, failing to hide a grimace. "Like I said before, I want answers. Team unity? Regardless of rank, she's a surface dweller, Lieutenant! And a demi-human at that! Are you seriously telling me that you, one of the elect, are willing to end your career for her sake?!"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He didn't see it coming.
The hand catches him straight across the face, leaving a mark that's sure to linger. Glasses askew, the medical officer can really only stare at Kahm for a long, long moment.
He didn't see that one coming either.
For an instant, naked shock blooms in his gaze. Yes, perhaps Loren had thought Kahm to be that petty -- or near enough to it. "...Why?" he croaks before he can stop himself. He swallows -- his throat has gone dry. Whatever tension had drained from his posture before is back, in full force.
Hands slam onto the desk -- prompting a brief but cut-off flinch -- and for the first time, Loren realizes that he's never really seen the Major angry.
...It's no less than a rebuke. That, he can see for what it is. It's nearly an echo of his own thoughts, after all.
Have some damn pride. This is shameful.
There's a certain floor of ability expected from one of his background. Even those of the second class can't hope to make up for it, no matter how high they might rise in certain spheres. He's meant to excel--
And hasn't. Not really.
There's only so much you can blame on a dead brother.
"...No, sir."
'Unity' had only been a part of it. The rest had been just fear. With her rank, with the commander's favor...
And even that's a bridge too far to ever admit. He's been terrified of the potential political power of someone born on the surface. Afraid of what speaking up could do.
Silence drags on out, far too long. The only thing that can be said is that he meets and holds Kahm's gaze.
"There isn't a reason for it."
Nothing logical, that's for certain. But he has no answers to give.
So instead he sits there, as if frozen, knowing this is an unsatisfactory response and exactly how well this is going to go over.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Why?
That question hung in the air a moment, swinging like an unseen sword until Kahm angrily pushed it aside for his questions. He wished he had been able to talk to the Lieutenant Commander before having this conversation. The Lieutenant-both of them, perhaps-needed something the Major was utterly unable to provide. Perhaps he, long ago, had also needed something his charges had never seen the value in.
But reality was before him, and Kahm would handle it the only we he knew how.
His eyes don't break, and neither do Loren's.
That was something, at least.
"No reason, huh?"
The Major's shoulders gave a bit, and the man slumped back into his chair with a grunt, hands clasped in thought. "Well, you best think long and hard on why you did it, Lieutenant." He said, blue eyes looking up at Loren with steely resolve, "Because that's exactly the kind of spirit we're going to need if we're to survive what's coming. We can't afford to have the same divisions on the surface."
He wasn't angry, at least, not anymore. Had it been an act to test the Lieutenant's answer? Doubtful-Kahm wasn't that great an actor, his anger had seemed far too genuine.
"I got these wounds from a rogue ether user i'd been tracking...at least, I thought I was." The Major said. "The man in your report, Lieutenant. He was one of ours. An apostate Solarian, wielding ether the likes of which I've never seen. He killed three top Operatives before he was driven off."
Those calm blue eyes were still looking, but the seemed to be looking past the Lieutenant. "You want to know why I helped you? I helped you because I need you. You're the only one aside from myself and Lieutenant Van Houten who hasn't just commanded the 'lambs' but walked among them, learning how to use and deploy them. You and I are the ones who are going to need to find out what's happening out there, what's really happening, because no one here gives a damn about anything but the polish of the brass on their tacks while good men are torn to pieces in the desert."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He doesn't expect to be helped. He's learned that lesson over and over again -- never expect anyone else to have your own best interests at heart. At best, you might be useful to them -- maybe you won't get turned on when all is said and done.
But countering a court martial went beyond merely 'using' someone else. There was risk involved in doing it -- even with Kahm's history of service, he could have lost much. What... is this?
Even if he can hold Kahm's gaze, blue to blue, he's still struck by that familiar crawling sensation. He already feels as if he's lost.
And as Kahm settles back into his seat, Loren once again is presented with the distinct sensation that his world has gone and tilted a little more in its orientation. He blinks. Then, as if it were an afterthought, readjusts his glasses at last. "...Sir?"
Was that approval with his earlier statement after all? Or...
...Had all of that been staged, for that matter? A glance at Kahm puts the lie to that line of inquiry, but it's small consolation.
The Major's anger had been genuine. He can still read vestiges of it in his frame.
Perhaps out of necessity -- given his line of work -- Loren has a fairly good eye for emotional states. Not all wounded are able to speak.
There had been a rumor about a rogue ether-user. One other than Keil. Keil had been mauled by him, in fact.
But not that he was an apostate. Loren draws up where he sits, shoulders squared and tense. This is markedly different from the tension that he's possessed nearly since the start of this little meeting.
Is this... a joke?
No. This isn't something to joke about.
"...One of ours. I didn't know." He glances down, as if thinking, posture still locked up. It takes one slow breath to even ease some of it out. Three top operatives dead. The Major wounded. And here they were, facing down the possibility that this wouldn't be the end of it. That makes three he knows who have faced the apostate down.
"...Then that's what happened," he murmurs. He glances back up at last.
It's in time to receive the reason why, at last. "..." The only one, was it. His hands, still resting on his knees, curl loosely into fists.
His face still stings.
As if he could read the Major's mind, somehow, he stares, intent, at Kahm.
It's too much. This seems like a trap. But choices stopped existing for him a long, long time ago.
So he nods, the movement stiff, falling back into rote. "...Understood. What course of action do you suggest, sir?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm had certainly taken an extraordinary risk protecting Loren. Not only falsifying reports, but actively destroying information to cover up the truth....had even on iota of it slipped out, that'd be the Major's career. Quite likely worse, considering his status as a second-class citizen. There weren't any do-overs for that level of malfeasance.
And yet, as the man quietly started at Loren across his desk, he seemed wholly unbothered by the prospect. "At first they weren't sure I should tell you. Any of you." Kahm said, his hand clenching in mild annoyance. "But he stole a field computer off the dead. All of our embedded agents are at risk, including the Lieutenant. Whatever damage to morale the existence of a traitor may cause, hiding it only puts us all in more danger."
That's why they had find Van Houten, and warn her. But Kahm didn't speak this aloud.
The Major watches a moment while Loren deliberated about what to do, clearly uncertain if his next action would also lead to some sort of evaluation, some kind of test. Kahm couldn't keep employing this kind of tactic with the young man or was likely the second-guess every decision he made.
Then again, too late for that. The man thought, nodding as the blonde officer asked for their next steps. There was some resolve in their, even if it was mixed with resignation. The beginnings off a point.
Now, to temper it.
"We go back west." Kahm said, rising from the table and consulting a map of Ignas kept posted on the right side of the wall. He drew a rough destination across the flat terrain paper with his hand, "First to November City, then to surrounding areas. There are some contacts that need to answer for some facts concerning that man, and we should be able touch base with Lieutenant Van Houten and discover what she's learned in her time with the pirates. From there, we'll continue to secure Solarian interests in the region, and learn what we can about the apostate's location. He appeared to be headed south when we intercepted him, and that's well enough now."
Krosse could wait another day.
"We'll need to travel light and undetected, so before tonight pack your things and make yourself ready." Kahm said, facing Loren sharply. "Tomorrow, Lieutenant, you learn to ride a horse."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
A certain class in society is protective against many things. But so it went throughout the levels -- what would be a grave sin if commited by a member of one class is merely punished in another, and simply frowned upon if not overlooked entirely in yet another. But there's no mistaking the risk here for what it is.
It's startling, to Loren, that this seems to barely even concern the Major, considering the degree to which this would be -- no, 'career-ending' wouldn't even be the end of it. For someone like him, who weighs actions cautiously in the event it could come back to haunt him, it's outright unthinkable.
Instead, Kahm's focus is elsewhere.
"A field computer?" Loren visibly pauses. Realization dawns, moments later. "...He might still have the capacity to read from it, or know someone with the technology who does. Current operations would be at risk, too, if he has allies." 'If'. Considering the apostate's actions, that last seems somewhat unlikely...
But they can't rule it out. Or rule out the chance that the man might simply start eliminating agents one by one.
...Particularly the ones who are out of contact and unable to receive contact.
He might have no fondness for van Houten, but she's still a fellow Solarian, still a key player in their role here on the surface.
The Major's ahead of him here. He doesn't rise from his seat, merely shifting to watch as Kahm indicates various points on the map.
'We'?
Oh no.
...Was that part of his goal in sparing him a court martial?
Does Petran know he's getting 'borrowed' indefinitely? ...Probably, he considers after a moment's pensive thought.
South. "I... see. It appears that he's been largely targetting surface-dwellers, based on what I have heard from contacts. It's possible he may continue in that pattern for a while. It might buy us time, or at least provide us with an avenue to start searching." Most probably weren't as lucky as that Baskar girl. Most probably died. "There will be rumors..."
Loren, perhaps impressively, manages to sit up straighter than before. Somehow. Briefly, he blinks. Tomorrow? He knows better than to question it.
Though he's not entirely without questions.
"A... horse?" He does not -- as his files would have indicated -- know how to ride a horse. It simply hadn't been a skill he'd needed to know to fit in with the Lambs.
Now, it seemed, it was one he was going to gain.
Whether he liked it or not.