The Lost Colony
Copyright© 2026 by D M Arnold
Chapter 14: Legal Quagmire
“You have really done it this time, Nykkyo.” Illya Kronta paced in an interview room in the detention block of ExoService headquarters in Floran City.
“Illya — what would you have done?” Kronta continued to pace. “Illya — what?”
“Probably the same. Not that it excuses it.”
“It makes me feel better to hear that.”
“I’ll tell you one thing, Nyk. You had better not bolt to Earth this time. You do that and our friendship is over. I will not rest until I have you back here — in irons.”
“I have no intention of bolting. I want my name cleared. I want the real culprits identified, caught and punished — both here AND on Varada. I want to see whoever did this to Laida and the others pay for their crimes. I want the novonids cared for. I will do whatever it takes to those ends.”
Kronta stopped pacing. “Do you mean that?”
“With all my heart.”
“Good.” He pulled an object from his sash. “Give me your left arm.” Kronta snapped a wristwatch-like device around Nyk’s left wrist and squeezed a rivet with a crimping tool. “I convinced a magistrate to order you released under electronic surveillance. You may come and go as you like, but you must remain planetbound. This device is a transponder that will permit us to locate you anywhere onworld.”
“Thank you Illya.”
“And, you must remain in Floran City.”
“Is that a constraint imposed by the magistrate?”
“It’s one imposed by me. We are providing rooms for you and the others at the hostel near Government Center. I was fully prepared to detain you, Nyk. If I thought you were even considering heading to Earth...”
“What about the novonids?”
“They are being held here at Service headquarters. The ones who participated in your little insurrection are in detention cells — in particular, the one referred to as Mos.”
“His name IS Mos, Illya.” Nyk shook his head. “Why is it so hard to treat them as equals.”
“They’re not equals. They have different biology...”
“Their biology differs only in details. I had this same argument with Captain Egan. I didn’t expect to have it with you.”
“It’s a legal quagmire you’ve put us in. We have a cadre of solicitors scouring Floran Law for some guidance on this, Nyk.”
“Floran Law never considered such a situation. What of the others?”
“The ... unconscious ones are in the clinic, being given fluids.”
“Don’t give the ones without tattooed numbers too much glucose. We won’t even be able to communicate with most of them.”
“The medics have been forewarned.”
“What of Laida? May I see her?”
Kronta nodded. “Come this way.”
Nyk followed Illya to a detention cell. He saw Laida sitting on a bunk. Her eyes caught his and she stood. Nyk threw his arms around her, held her and caressed the back of her head. “How are you doing?”
“They’re treating me kindly,” she replied. “I have never been this long without sun.”
“Are they giving you syrup?”
She nodded. “Yes — it’s sustaining me. The others are all right, too. I wish they’d let me see Mos. He doesn’t understand.”
“We’re doing what we can.” Nyk took Laida’s hand and squeezed it.
“Nyk — don’t let them return me to Varada. I’m dead there.”
“You’ll die here. This place can’t sustain you.”
“I’d rather starve here than be put down there. Don’t let them return me to Varada. Please.”
“Come along, Nyk,” Kronta said.
Laida brushed a tear from her cheek and gave him a little wave. Nyk regarded her through the window-slit on the cell door. He watched her sit on the bunk and bury her face in her hands. He turned to Kronta. “All right Illya — human or not?”
Nyk paced in Kronta’s office. “I can’t recall a bigger mess,” Illya said from behind his desk. “The Varadans have severed communications with us. They are accusing US of stealing THEIR novonids. US! Stealing from THEM!”
“THEY brought the novonids to the 501 in Varadan shuttles,” Nyk replied. “Their primitive, alcohol-fueled, so-called spaceships dripped corrosives all over our shuttlebay.”
“We believe these statements are more directed toward domestic Varadan consumers,” Kronta replied.
“What can we do?”
“The 501 has been impounded and our forensics teams are going over it looking for evidence. We’ve taken statements from the crew.”
“Why don’t we interrogate them?”
“This bunch knows how to deal with truth drug. It doesn’t necessarily uncover the truth — rather, what the subject BELIEVES to be truthful.”
“What about interviewing the novonids?” Nyk asked.
“We have no interpreters. Except for yourself, none of our staff can speak their language. They can read and write it, but not speak it. With the exception of the one called Laida...”
“You mean Laida, Illya — not ‘the one called Laida.’ It IS her name.”
“With the exception of Laida, none of the novonids can read or write.”
“Let me be interpreter, then.”
“Rejected. You’re not an impartial party.”
“Then, let Andra.”
“Rejected for the same reason.”
“Illya — one reason I was asked to participate was to build a neural map for subliminal language training.”
“I had almost forgotten. Shit, I had forgotten.”
“Let them map my head, Illya. Let then create a Varadan language program and train ... whoever’s impartial enough.”
“I’ll want to watch,” Kronta said. “I’ve never seen neural mapping done.”
Illya accompanied Nyk into a treatment room. “You can change into treatment garb,” the attendant told him.
He looked around the room. “This looks like an interrogation setup. Is that truth drug?”
“We use truth drug as part of the procedure. Please get changed.”
Nyk returned wearing a broad loincloth. He climbed onto a therapeutic pallet. The attendant inserted an I.V. catheter into a vein in his arm.
A medic and a technician stepped into the room. “Mr Kyhana — let me explain the procedure.”
“I understand you use truth drug,” Nyk replied.
“A light dose — to get your mind focused on the subject at hand.” He pulled a vidisplay before him. “We will be presenting writings in Varadan. Actually, it’s the letter of intent you helped draft ... Ideally, someone should be conversing in Varadan to you, but we have no native Varadan speakers in the building.”
“Yes we do. We have Laida. She’s being held in detention.”
“One of the green ... beings?”
“Yes — one of them. She’s smarter than I am. Bring her here.” The medic glanced toward Kronta.
“He has a point,” Kronta said and pulled his handheld from his sash.
Shortly Laida was escorted into the treatment room. Her eyes darted between Nyk, the medics and technicians and the equipment. She stared at the tube leading to Nyk’s arm. She bit her hip and her eyes began to fill.
“Don’t be afraid, Laida,” Nyk said to her. “No one’s going to harm you.”
“But...” A tear ran down her face. “Oh, Nykkyo — they’re going to ... all because of me...”
“They won’t hurt me, either. These men are going to use my knowledge of your language to create a pattern they can use to train others. They need to give me some drug to put me into a trance.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes — that’s all. We need your help.”
“My help?”
“Yes. We need you to talk to me. That’s all you have to do — talk to me while they map my mind. Will you do that?”
She nodded. “Yes...”
“Good ... have a seat.”
“Tell her,” the technician said, “once you’re under the drug, she must ask you questions, and then more questions based on your answers. She must engage you in conversation even if the topic is rambling and makes no sense.” Nyk nodded and interpreted the technician’s words.
“Okay — let’s get started.”
Nyk took a deep breath. He felt Laida’s hand on his, turned his palm over and squeezed hers. A burning sensation began to radiate up his arm and he began to feel as if he were falling. A roaring filled his ears.
“Nykkyo...” he heard a sweet voice call his name. “Nykkyo — it’s Laida.”
“Laida,” he heard his own voice answer. “Laida my friend...”
The conversation between Laida and his own voice grew distant as the effect of the drug deepened, and became a faint echo...
Nyk opened his eyes, unsure of his surroundings. The room was spinning. He rolled his head to the left and looked into a pair of orange eyes in a green face. To the right he saw a pair of pale blue ones. “Laida ... Andra...”
“Are you all right?” Laida asked.
“I think I will be.”
“You did well,” Andra added. “They said they have a good pattern. They’ll start training interpreters this afternoon.
“Good. Then, they can get the novonids’ side of the story.”
Andra showed Nyk her left wrist. On it was a detention transponder. “I have one of these, too.”
“How much longer, Illya?” Nyk paced Kronta’s office.
“We’re making progress. Laida and the others have been interviewed, and their testimony matches yours. We’ve reestablished contact with Varada — the old way, relaying written communiques through an ExoScout.”
“What about that comm relay we left in orbit?” Nyk asked.
“The Varadans don’t seem to know how to make it work. We are near reaching an agreement to repatriate all but Mos and Laida.”
“What of Mos and Laida?”
“We have agreed to table that discussion — until after our legal system has disposed of their cases. This, at least, defuses the claim Floran absconded with Varadan property.”
“Property ... property, indeed ... They’ll probably be killed, Illya — the feral ones for sure.”
“It’s a Varadan internal issue — it’s not our affair.”
“Tomyka Wells, Captain Hayt and others yet unknown made it our affair. And, what’s Laida’s and Mos’s legal status here?”
“Mos killed the captain. He must answer homicide charges. Laida...”
“Laida didn’t do ANYTHING, Illya.”
“She is being held as a material witness.”
“Illya, we can’t keep them here, in confinement. In the days we’ve been on Floran — you can see it in Laida. Her color is fading. She’s slowly starving to death. We can’t sustain them on sugar water forever.”
“I know.”
“Release them.”
“We can’t release an accused murderer.”
“Then, release Laida, at least. Let her have some sunshine. She’s not going anywhere. She has nowhere to go. She won’t bolt.”
Kronta drummed his fingers on his desk. “All right. I’ll release her into your custody. Remember — it’ll be on your head...”
“How could I forget?”
He picked up his vidisplay and poked the screen. “Then let’s get her some sunshine.”
They approached Laida’s cell and found it empty. “Where is she?” Nyk asked a guard.
“We found her on the floor, vomiting and convulsing. We took her to the infirmary.”
“Our doctors won’t know what to do.”
“Follow me, Nyk.” Kronta led Nyk to the lift and requested level four. The liftcar door opened and they approached a checkpoint. The post was vacant.
Kronta passed his hand over a proximity pad. He signaled again. And again.
“Coming, coming...” An Internal Affairs sergeant holding a meal package approached the desk.
“Do you have a green girl here?” Kronta asked.
“What?”
“Did you receive a subject from ExoService detention?”
“Who wants to know?”
“I want to know.”
“And, who are you?”
“Check my profile.”
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