Kara awoke from her brief and fitful sleep to find four very disturbing messages waiting for her. The first, from Lieutenant Warren, was to inform her that the fucking loyalty-flagged medic had been promoted to sergeant. The second was a very predictable affidavit from Tanaka herself—basically it said she had not sought out the situation, and her actions aboard the<em>Roger Young</em>that had led to said promotion had only been undertaken with the thought of saving lives. It covered her ass quite nicely—Warren had obviously told her just what to write.<br/><br/>These first two developments might not have so bad by themselves—at least she would have had an excuse to take out her anger at Paige on the evil little doctor. But the third message was from Captain Douglas, informing her that both Tanaka and Private Key had been granted asylum by the Commonwealth. She could only interview either of them with a Loyalist to monitor and record the conversation—and just getting either interview was a byzantine process that would take weeks. The last message was from one of her puppets in Warren’s squad, a giant oaf named Private Vogel. He had seen Tanaka dressed in an extremely expensive outfit and all tarted up like a call-girl, walking to an unknown rendezvous.<br/><br/>Kara was paranoid even on her best days—and this was definitely not one of those. She was immediately certain that either Tanaka was fucking her way up the ladder, or that this was all some massive anti-Imperial conspiracy. What if the vile cunt had let herself be captured and put in PES so that she could disrupt the military from within? Were these men so weak that they had already been seduced and corrupted?<br/><br/>Her mind racing out of control, Kara first contacted the leader of the<em>Kidd’s</em>Loyalty Squad. She explained her dilemma and practically begged him to ease the asylum restrictions or otherwise help with her investigation. But predictably enough, the arrogant English twit only mocked her misfortune and signed off.<br/><br/>Kara was seeing red afterward, and fantasies of murdering everyone involved in this sudden clusterfuck flashed through her mind. Using emergency Imperial computer protocols that the Empire had forced on the Commonwealth fleet, she gained access to the ship’s comm system. On the highest level of encryption, she reported all these events to her superiors and asked for immediate instructions.<br/><br/>She did not have to wait long for the audio-only reply, and was shocked by how high up the PD food chain her report had gone. “This is Senior Director McCloskey of Fleet Psychology Control. I don’t have much time so I’ll get right to the point. I listened to your report and found the Commonwealth’s abuse of their asylum privileges infuriating. I do not agree with your conclusion that this is the result of an anti-Imperial conspiracy, Citizen Reinfeldt—your psych profile indicates you have a tendency for incidents of hyper-vigilance I believe this is one of those times.”<br/><br/>“I deeply apologize, Senior Director,” Kara replied, feeling humiliated.<br/><br/>“That’s quite alright—if you must err, better to do so on the side of caution. You were right to bring this incident to our attention—there’s been a pattern of disrespect from the Commonwealth of late, and its high time we sent them a message. By a very fortunate coincidence a black cruiser task force is posted within range of Hamilia. Oh, by the way I am now giving you clearance to know of the existence of the black cruisers so we don’t have to kill you. At exactly seventeen-oh-six hundred hours Imperial standard time, our cruisers will pull the<em>Kidd</em>out of FTL with an inhibiting field and destroy it. I suggest you be inside an escape pod and launch the instant the vessel drops out of FTL if you wish to survive.”<br/><br/>Kara had often heard that she ought to be careful what she wished for. As much as she wanted Tanaka and the men she was whoring herself out to to die, she could not stand the thought of so many loyal Imperial and Commonwealth subjects being killed just to send a message over the abuse of asylum privileges. “Director, I...I must respectfully recommend against that course of action.”<br/><br/>“Why, I must say I am shocked, Citizen—I thought you’d be pleased. As unlikely as your suspicions might be, this would deal with them.”<br/><br/>“I’m willing to defer to your judgment that my suspicions are invalid, Director. And the Hamilia operation is by all accounts going very poorly—the unnecessary loss of even a single ship could turn the tide in favor of the orcs. I respectfully suggest that a more cost-effective method to punish the Commonwealth be found.”<br/><br/>“Very bold of you to disagree with a Senior Director, my dear,” the man chided her. “But your argument has merit. We will find another way to punish the Commonwealth. Continue to be vigilant, Citizen. As for your loyalty-flagged medic, the Commonwealth and her platoon leader will not be able to protect her at all times once she is on Hamilia—I suggest you either assassinate her or confirm that she is still broken.”<br/><br/>“Yes, Senior Director, thank you.”<br/><br/>“Fleet Pyschology Control Out.”<br/><br/>Kara breathed a sigh of relief. She would deal Tanaka, Key, and Warren, but not yet—if the Senior Director felt her suspicions were unfounded, then she needed to gather further evidence. She decided not to confront Warren directly over this—she would pretend to be friendly, stay with him on Hamilia, and wait for him to slip up.