Page 8 of The Alien's Private Redemption

"If your people managed to resurrect the lost technologies," Zoric drawled. "You would be out of a job. And human women would be safer."

Ae-cha turned and hissed at him. "We have more of it than your pathetic band of psychos."

"I don't pretend to be saving anyone. We know who and what we are."

That was a lie but Ae-cha didn't need to know that. He knew what his people had been for the last five generations but he also knew there was more to their history.

"Which means you have no right to be here."

The fight had been going on since his people had agreed to help the humans. Ae-cha's people had been partnered with various human groups over the years and believed themselves to be righteous. He could dispute this but he had a bigger concern.

Before he could continue the argument, Colonel Schuh broke in.

"I will not be allowing it to happen again," he said. "It shouldn't have happened this time. I'd like an explanation for that, Doctor."

The woman who had been running the interrogation squirmed slightly in her seat.

"I don't think that's an appropriate discussion to have here," she protested. "They're not cleared-"

"For this specific case, they are," Colonel Schuh said, silencing her protests. "In fact, they're here to find answers you can't, so start talking Doctor Phillips."

She sent a deeply unhappy glare at Zoric, then started talking.

"This was not my first session with the prisoner," she said. "And I had been briefed about the kinds of phrases that were likely to set her off. While I find it difficult to credit that she could have a self-destruct sequence programmed into her brain, I was instructed to avoid triggering it while I attempted to get more information from her."

"What kind of information?" Zoric asked.

"Since she has already confessed to treason in front of multiple witnesses, I wasn't looking for confession. But since several of those witnesses are potential allies, and they insisted that she was likely the victim of some kind of psychological programming, I have been attempting to assess how complete that programming is."

"You sound like you don't believe the programming exists," Ae-cha said, her frown matching Zoric's.

"I've seen people who have been subjected to psychological manipulation and so-called programming. Private McBride does not show any of the behaviors I would expect from someone who had been convinced to kill herself in the event she was discovered," Doctor Phillips explained.

"I would submit that it's unlikely you've ever encountered someone like this for the simple fact that, if you did, they would be dead," Ae-cha said. "It was only because she was very, very lucky that Private McBride survived to be interrogated at all."

"Angela was not commanded to kill herself, her brain was programmed to stop breathing," Zoric said. "A command to take her own life would have been kinder."

Doctor Phillips stared at him, shock plain on her face. "How could you possibly say that?"

"She knew she was dying, knew what was happening, could feel everything, and do nothing. If she'd been commanded to killherself, she might have been able to fight it, or had a choice in what happened," Zoric told her.

"Despite their occasional faulty wiring, humans will fight to stay alive," Ae-cha added. "What was done triggered the fight to stay alive, but made sure it was futile. It was torture."

Colonel Schuh nodded. "We've been told how to stop it once the command is triggered but I had hoped our advisors could help us find a way to remove it entirely. Doctor Phillips, you were supposed to get information from the prisoner to assist them. Is that going to be possible?"

The doctor started to respond but Ae-cha cut her off. "Obviously, she's too clumsy to be effective. And I can't really blame her when she can't see what she's working on. At this point, I think her assistance is doing more harm than good."

"That's why I was hoping to have her set up to monitor her brain for any further sessions," the first doctor said. He'd been quiet for the discussion and Zoric couldn't read his name from where he sat.

"You want to see the changes in her brain when the self-destruct is tripped," Ae-cha said, her mouth curled into a sneer. "I want to remove it before it happens again. Trust me, these are very different scenarios."

"There may be damage we're not seeing," the first doctor protested.

"Trust a surgeon to resort to surgery," Ae-cha snapped.

"I never said that," he replied hotly.

"Enough," Colonel Schuh said, interrupting the fight. "Doctor Phillips, can you help them or not?"

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