Pria remembered the moment Steiner talked about. She even did the same a few days ago, with someone. "I'm thankful for that. Don't know how much do you remember about me, but it was the best thing anyone could've done at the time."
She leaned back a bit, thinking for a moment, then decided to be brutally honest. "Honestly? He'll never respect your kind, boss. Rich, arrogant, and honestly, most high-born *rsehats have a superiority complex. What ya need, is someone who lived in the cracks of the concrete like him. Ya need me."
Pria began to observe his face, firstly to figure out his thought process, secondly to see what sort of reaction could she get out of him.
He looked at her for a few moments before turning away and producing a sheet of paper. He quietly signed his name and a few other things on it before producing two stamps. One was the seal of the Fleet Admiral and another was House Steiner's family seal. Both were applied to the same paper and given over to the Captain. This will get you in to see him. If the SIS gives you trouble, you let them know that he's still technically our prisoner, since I haven't officially turned him over yet.
"Thanks boss. Imagine there'll be a few hearings at the court before his fate is decided?" Pria asked as she packed the sheet. She was ready to give another point of view to those who would judge him. "And if that's the case, what's his best case scenario?"
He shook his head This case is to be kept strictly out of the courts, whatever happens to him is the Service's business. At least until I turn him over. Work fast Captain, I am not in a position to hold on to him forever.
"Understood"Pria stood up, and went for the prison where they kept him. She still wore her red pilot's suit, with it's arms wrapped around her waist, revealing her black top, when she showed up at the prison's gate. She must've caused quite a disturbance, since guard told her that someone is looking for her now.
Rupert had been, yet again, roughly removed from his cell and brought to an interrogation room, and chained to a bar on the table. It wasn't the same room as before, not that it really mattered. One interrogation room was much the same as another. He hoped it wasn't that SIS bint coming to see him again, but at least the temperature was set properly this time. Just as he got himself comfortable for another long wait, he heard the sound of a guard fumbling with keys just outside the door.
"I don't know why you want to speak to him, Captain. If I had my way, he'd have already 'committed suicide', but orders are orders. Director Mountbatten won't be happy about this, of course, but that's your problem, not mine. I'll be at the guard station, keeping watch on the monitors. Just wave when you're ready to leave."
Just then, the door opened, a single person entering the room. As the person came into view, Rupert saw a younger officer in a BAF flight suit. The Captain's informal appearance and demeanor was a stark contrast to everyone else he had spoken with since his surrender. Rupert sat back in his chair and waited for the Captain to speak.
"Well, good thing you didn't had your way" Pria spoke in an obviously dismissing tone. "Now, shut the fuck up, turn off the cameras, and let the adult talk, will ya?"
The guard turned around, and left. Whether he turned off the cameras or not, couldn't be told. Pria sat down, pulled out a box of hand-made cigarettes, lighted one up, and then threw it and a box of matches on the desk. "Well.... Here we are" A distant sadness could be heard in her voice."I wouldn't count on a court date, sadly" Sighed "You know how those rich pricks think..."
Rupert took one of the cigarettes and managed to get it lit. It was a bit difficult considering he was still cuffed to the table and his range of motion limited, but he managed. While he took a couple drags off the cigarette, he looked over the woman across the table from him, trying to figure out her angle. From her appearance and beaning, he could tell this one was certainly no noble. Her voice was familiar, one of the few sympathetic to him during his surrender in New London space. He thought it possible she was sent by the SIS in a second attempt to draw information out of him, but that didn't really fit.
"You must be Captain Y'berg. I remember you from New London... Yeah, I know exactly how those rich pricks think. Always looking down at their noses at everyone, as if springing from the right loins makes them special..."
Rupert paused for a moment.
"No court date? Somehow, I'm not surprised. I must've struck a nerve with that SIS bint." Rupert took another drag off his cigarette. "As usual, justice in Bretonia only belongs the 'right' people. It's not for the likes of you and me."
"It's a bit too red-blue in that form, mate. Here's the thing, you're or was a hostile soldier, that got captured, but also a Bretonian citizen. They pretty much cannot decide if you're a POW, a criminal for shooting at our merry arses, or a traitor." Sighed, and took a long drag "Plus, you've pissed off Mountbatten, but I'll handle that."
She looked all over Rupert, mentally noting his scars and bruises, thinking about what to say to comfort him, with thoughts chasing eachother in her head, often contradicting one another. "Y'know, I get ya. Where you came from. You've believed in a cause, and fought for it. I can admire that, and even more that you've realized your mistake. It takes more than most have, and I don't think you'd deserve punishment.
Pria looked at Rupert, slightly smiling at him, in a reassuring way "Tell me, what do you think, do you deserve a second chance?"
Rupert's cigarette had run out. With no place else for it, he snuffed it out directly on the table's surface and left the butt where it was. The guards could clean it up. He leaned back in his chair and thought over the Captain's words.
"Captain, I allowed my hate for the criminals that call themselves the Bretonian nobility to blind me, and I allowed the Gauls to take advantage of my naivety and turn me into a weapon against my own people. I took up arms against my fellow Bretonians, aided in the oppression and destruction of my own world. The fact that I thought I was serving a higher cause doesn't absolve me of my crimes. I know I was only a small part of the Gallic war machine, but I'm no less guilty of the death and destruction on Leeds than the murderers on those siege cruisers."
Rupert paused for a moment.
"I didn't come here for forgiveness, or to get a second chance. I came here to face justice for my crimes. Whether it's here, or in the next life, I'm nothing more than a damned soul waiting for judgement."
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