Arjen sighed deeply. Females in the human military disturbed him considerably, though he'd accustomed himself to the fact that they were included there—even in active combat—with no objection from the males who should be protecting them. And this one sounded like his Clan Mother. "Ka'naya Ship-Captain, please. Ask this of me not. It will you only hurt cause."
"Don't worry about that," Willis snapped. "You have your duty, I have mine. Tell me."
"As you wish, ka'naya." Arjen sighed again, this time to himself. She did sound much like Ka'ruchaya Noriy… He opened his shirt, exposing his massive chest. "See you these?" he asked, tracing the scars that ran from the base of his throat to just above his belt.
"I see them," Willis said grimly. Similar scars, found on maybe ten percent of recovered Traiti bodies, had Imperial experts puzzled. They had to be significant, and deliberately inflicted—they were far too regular to be accidental—but no one had been able to venture a reasonable guess at what they meant.
"I them in my Ordeal of Honor earned. Too much we have of Rangers heard; the truth we must know. That can best through the Ordeal learned be. When we on Homeworld are, and a clan have found that will him adopt, the Supreme will ask that he it try. If Rangers truly as prisoners claim are, he will agree."
"That's not a condition of releasing the ship, then," Tarlac said.
"No, Ranger. The Ordeal must freely chosen be. Those who it try unwilling, die. We ask not certain death of you, but if you the Ordeal survive, the First Speaker says you will this war with honor end."
That possibility, Jean Willis knew, was something no Ranger could ignore. Unable to let him go without some objection, she spoke quietly enough that the comm pickups wouldn't transmit her words. "Anything that would leave scars like that on one of them… Steve, it's suicide, even if he says it isn't—or a trick so they can take you alive for interrogation, then blow the Lindner out of space. You don't have any reason to trust them."
"Trust doesn't have anything to do with it," Tarlac replied, just as quietly. "It's a case of trying to minimize the Empire's losses. I don't think it's suicide, but if it is, so what? I won't be any deader than if I refuse and his fleet destroys the Lindner. If he's being honest, you can get word back to Terra. If he's not, and they do try interrogation, well," Tarlac smiled slightly and shrugged, "I'll make sure I'm no use to them except as a warm body."
"Yeah." Willis knew what he meant, and her voice was bitter. Senior Imperials, or those in sensitive positions, could be given protection against questioning; she had it herself. If the Ranger chose, a code phrase in his own voice would turn him into a mental blank. It would do nothing to him physically, but it would wipe out, completely and permanently, every memory he had. He would never remember so much as his name unless he was returned to Terra to have the tapes of his latest mindscan reimprinted.