Chương 177: Patching Up
"You are telling me all about those robots, right now."
Tachibana wasn't so impressed by my strong and in-control-of-everything act.
"You know…" he stated speaking in a slow manner, picking his words carefully. "I'd love to talk about those robots for endless hours if things had gone ever so slightly different today, but no. I'll have to refuse."
"That's not an option." I said. "You are given no choices. Tell me about the robots. What is their task, where and how are they manufactured, everything. I want to know everything you know about them."
"I said no."
Tachibana had raised his voice, in an attempt to challenge my superior position in the conversation, which was a natural result of him being a captive criminal and me being a regular citizen with some public support.
"Tell me." Tachibana said. "What good reason do I have to tell you about the robots?"
"Well, with the knowledge you can give me, we can decide what to do about them with greater confi-"
"No no no." Tachibana interrupted me. "That's not what I meant. I mean, what good would telling you about the robots do to me? What do I get out of it? In my opinion, nothing."
"Ah, that certainly makes the issue clearer." I said. "You want something in return."
"It's not going to be cheap."
That certainly didn't seem like a good way to negotiate, but I never completely understood Tachibana anyway, despite being rather close to him for a good portion of my life.
Seeing that I did not react to his last sentence in any meaningful way, he continued.
"I want you to drop criminal charges against me. No court. Set me free, and I will tell you not only about the robots, but a great deal more. I'm sure you will like the rest of the story as well."
"Tachibana…" I said. "Good try, but you are not in a position to negotiate for something like that. Even if I were to let you go, there are thousands of people who would still come after you and put you in a court – which, of course, doesn't mean that I won't put you in court myself in the first place."
"Give me the shuttle." he said. "You know I'm good at disappearing. Give me that shuttle of yours, and I will disappear."
"No." I said. "That's my shuttle."
"Our shuttle." Mei said from the background.
"There is no us." I told Mei. "Not anymore."
"Kagan…" said Tachibana. "Let me redeem myself. You are not seeing the greater picture here, and I'm sorry that I could not tell you about everything in detail. Despite ending in a disaster, everything that I've been trying to do was for humanity's sake. It is not the first time in history that something like this happened!"
"Still, even if you were right, no excuse can be made for the 30,000 plus innocent dead."
"Sir…"
One of the four guards in the room wanted to speak.
"Sir, I didn't want to interrupt, but I really feel like he is just wasting your time here." he said.
"I don't know what you are trying to gain, Tachibana." I said. "If I were you, I'd rather sit still and conserve my energy."
I quit the room and went back to the bridge. When I walked through the door, I saw both pilots staring outside, completely still, and definitely in awe.
"What are you two looking at? What did I miss?"
Looking at the same direction as them, I saw that the hole on the side of the Fort Unity had been mostly patched up, nearly seamlessly. The hole was only one fourth of its original size.
"No way." I said. "What is going on here!?"
"The robots." said the copilot. "They have been repairing the outer hull of the structure."
"The robots? How? How could they work so fast to fix such a giant and complex part of a space city?"
"No frikkin' idea, but it was awesome to watch."
I stared at the working robots for a little while with the pilots, before heading back to the 'brig'.
"Tachibana." I said. "You will tell me about the robots and everything else, or your dead body will be burned in the ship's exhaust plume."
"Easy, easy, hold on." said Tachibana. "You can not kill me, I haven't been to the trial yet!"
"I can and if you don't hurry up, I will. My hands are closer to your neck than the arms of law are to me in the middle of deep space. I'm no longer a president or a Navy officer, I'm just a crazy and dangerous resident now! And do not fool yourself by thinking that any of the passengers here will pick to protect you." I said. "You wanted something in return, Tachibana, didn't you? Well, there you have it. Tell me about everything, and you will have your life."
I was bluffing of course, but with the corner of my eye, I could see Mei slowly retreating to a corner.
"Fine, fine." said Tachibana. "I will talk."
"Hurry up."
I wasn't sure whether my bluff worked or Tachibana simply had enough of my way of doing things.
"I will talk, but… I don't have everything I need to present to you the complete story." he said. "I will also require the architect's presence here."
"What does he have to do with anything?"
"As I explain, everything will be clear." said Tachibana. "Please, just… Just listen to me at least for the duration of my… explaining, I guess."
"Alright." I said. "I will have the architect be here. What else?"
"We will have to be on the Fort Unity's primary command tower."
"That place is uninhabitable." I said.
"If the robots are working, not for very long, I presume." said Tachibana. "They were working though, weren't they?"
"I feel like you may be leading me into a trap, so I will have some Fort Unity citizens accompany us."
"No objections, they very well may." he said. "Maybe at least a few of them will have a change of heart if they happen to understand my struggle, though I don't have much hope."
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