No one has much to say. I ask when the ship will actually land and he says that he does not know. Weeks, perhaps, or just a matter of days. Maybe hours. Deceleration is in progress, that is the important thing. “You betrayed Plotar,” he adds. “We can no longer avoid that problem. We will have to say something of it.”
“I did not betray Plotar,” I say.
“Yes you did. We all know that; it is too late to lie.
We will have to make some explanation of how we have tolerated a traitor in our midst.”
“I helped you escape,” I say.
“You do not deny that you betrayed him?”
“It does not matter,” I say. “I willed the escape. I planned and executed it.”
“You cannot argue with a maximum leader,” one hundred ninety-nine says. “It’s in the rules. It is my decision to make. I do not know what to do with you, Quir. We can hardly dispose of you.”
“Leave him alone,” Nala says.
“This is not your affair.”
“Nevertheless,” she says, “leave him alone. He has suffered enough; more than any of us.”
“I don’t appreciate being reprimanded,” one hundred ninety-nine says.
“I’ll do anything I want,” Nala says. She stands. She points at him. “You realize that I’m just tolerating this,” she says. “I can end it at any moment. Don’t try my patience. I’ve let it go this far because I don’t care. Don’t make me care.”
“What are you talking about?” I say. The situation, once again, seems beyond me.
“Never mind,” one ninety-nine says. “All right. We will discuss this no more.” He looks suddenly awkward in his robes. They do not fit; his face is too small for the helmet he wears. “I adjourn this meeting,” he says. “We will figure out some plan some other time. Plans do not matter. I regret the incident. We will allow ourselves to be greeted by them and let them make the decisions. I apologize. I apologize.”
He staggers away. Nala and I are left standing alone in the meeting room. She shakes her head and leaves in the opposite direction.
“No,” she says to me, “I won’t talk about it with you Quir; not now or ever.”