>>5970678For now, you see no other choice but to play along. Placing one hand on the forehead, you urge him in cracking voice, “Please, get him away from here. I don't want to see him ever again.” Silas briefly flashes his caramel-tinted teeth before kicking his prisoner's shins, “You hear the capt', get a move on you psycho!” Tim does not give you so much as a glance as he passes under the low doorway.
You three march on in interminable silent. Before entering the mess hall, Silas throws his massive overcoat over Tim's shoulders to hide the cuffed wrists. Nothing more is needed to make it seems like just a normal gathering of the vessel's most senior officers; even in defeat, Tim walks with an unnervingly straight gait, head still unbowed. Indeed, if there are any rumours after this, it will be because of you.
You have won, the crisis is over. Why then does it feel so bad? Fear, or more likely shame, avoids the gaze of passing crewmen and responds to their salutes with barely audible mumbles. You desperately want to lean into Silas, so close his hedgehog hairs poke your cheeks and brush your eyes, and whispers into his ear, “What's the plan?” but Tim would hear it. You dare not assure Tim everything would be fine for the same reason.
The silent procession finally reaches its end. Ludlow is currently off-duty, so Silas hands Tim over to a grizzled guard. You follow him puppy-like as he fills out half a dozen liability-waiver forms before the watchman hands him the key to Tim's temporary holding cell. Not yet satisfied, he pulls out yet another slip of paper with pinpoint precision from a thick binder, “Is the captain coming in with you? If so then I also need her signature here, here, and here... Also swipe your ID card over this reader for the electronic copy.”
You have hated red tape all your life, but just this once the routine makes you feel safe. Nothing can go awry, the protocol will protect you. This arrest is just another mundane entry into some officer drone's database. Everything, even your existence, is just that, a clerical fiction. You shake your head free of the dangerous delusion before it can take roots. This is a real situation, and you must respond to it on your own initiative. Bet they don't teach any of this back in Pacifica.
