Mindshard (ON HOLD)

Interrogation

     His head lolling back after the impact of yet another blow, the creature in a Juresil's body sagged against the restraints holding him attached to the wall behind him.  Stepping up the power level on the bulky metallic shock gauntlet he was wearing on his right hand with an adjustment to its wrist control pad, the cold-faced Halinor standing a pace away clenched the bulky gauntlet into a fist.  He nodded in satisfaction as the energy field flaring into brilliance around it appeared to be several magnitudes brighter than what it had been previously.  He then leaned in to hammer the clenched gauntleted fist abruptly against the side of the creature's head, snapping it roughly to the side, blood spraying from cuts opened up on its cheek.

  "Not so powerful when you catch them in wereform."  Another robed Halinor, a woman, commented coldly from close to the only door into the small chamber the creature was jailed inside.  In her slender hands was a compact scanning device, keeping a record of their interrogation.

     The male with the gauntlet looked over his shoulder at her then at the four glowing extraspacial wards on two opposing crescent brackets rising from the deck on either side of their prisoner, placing them equidistant from each other and from the lolling creature.  Their color, normally a soft gold, was instead a strident, pulsing red, warning that they were at their extreme range of capacity.  Perhaps the drax was less powerful when it took a Sidhe form, but even now the wards were barely holding it.  If just one failed, the enraged creature of legend would rip the cruiser apart like tissue paper with barely a pause.

     Pushing the grim thought to the back of his mind, he turned and refocused on the trapped creature, hovering on the edge of unconsciousness.  He only hoped the wards held long enough for them to elicite something useful out of the captured spy.  Clenching his teeth in resolve, he leaned in again to swing hard at the drax's head with the force gauntlet.

     He managed to land that blow, and a handful of others to the drax's head and body before a light touch on his shoulder gave him pause.  Leaning back, he glanced over his shoulder to see who was interrupting him.  And immediately bowed with respect when he recognized her sculpted features.

  "Lady lis'Katenor."  He murmured in greeting, head still down.

  "Master Indrulan."  Lis'Katenor returned with a nod of acknowledgement before turning her eyes onto the captured drax.  Hanging limply from his restraints, he oozed blood from numerous wounds onto the deck.

  "Has it said anything yet?"

  "We were about to begin the questioning, my lady."  The Halinor at the door answered, her head also bowed with respect.

     The Praetor mistress nodded in understand.

  "Excellent.  Proceed, Master Indrulan."

  "My lady."  The Halinor with the force gauntlet replied with a final bow before turning his attention back to the drax.  "Administering ten centus of isonapoline."  A hidden hypospray in the gauntlet's knuckles hissed as he pressed it against the drax's neck.  Immediately the battered creature stirred, eyelids fluttering as the powerful stimulant pushed it out of comfortable unconsciousness and into painful awareness.

  "Do you hear me, drax?"  Indrulan rasped, leaning back enough to give the shifting prisoner some air.

  "I do, sidhe."  The Juresil-wrapped being burbled in reply, the moving of his mouth enough to spill more blood from cuts inside down his chin and onto the deck.  "By what authority do you hold me?  This action is an illegality against the Drax and the laws of the Pax Drakonus.  Release me immed, . . . urk!"  The drax's head snapped hard to the left in response to Indrulan's short-armed backhand, the force gauntlet sending a ripple of energy and pain washing through his entire body at impact, further complicating his internal injuries.