Diell Breaker (LGBT- Sci-Fi - Romance)

Chapter 31

Chapter 31 

Cheung stared at Rhys with his mouth open, frozen in sheer disbelief. Then his expression changed, his eyes narrowed sceptically, his mouth tightened. He didn't believe him, Rhys realised in sudden dismay. 

"End recording," Cheung instructed the console unit. He looked very coolly at Rhys, "What do you mean by that?" he demanded. 

"It's the truth!" Rhys protested. "I told you nobody knows!" 

Cheung pushed back from the table and folded his arms, everyone knew Farrell was as straight as the shortest line between two points. Rumour had it he actually hated oms, he certainly discouraged any from serving on his ship. Petrov's appointment had surprised a lot of people, himself included. It was out of the question that he had been carrying on an affair with Owen, it made him wonder, was anything this man said reliable? 

"Ask him!" Rhys insisted. "Ask him to his face if he wasn't the man with me that night! The ship's records will show he was down on Fayruz, what does he say he was doing there if he wasn't with me?" 

Cheung almost laughed, yeah right! He was just going to walk up to Captain Farrell, the most intimidating man he'd met, and ask him if he was an om, if he'd been Owen's lover. He'd be fried on the spot, and when they scraped him off the floor he'd be lucky if he wasn't busted back to crewman! 

"I think we'll leave it there for the moment. I need to talk to Lieutenant Petrov and Lieutenant Shehu next and then I'll get back to you." He sighed, "We'll probably need to do the whole interview again, without your ... comments about Captain Farrell." 

XXX 

Petrov couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Who would have thought Shehu would allow him to ...? 

He turned round to kiss the man in the bed, next to him, "I should get up, it must be dinner time. Are you hungry?" 

"A little bit," admitted Shehu, who had been on the verge of drifting off. 

"I'll bring you something from the refectory if you like. Or would you rather have some soup from the dispenser?" Petrov walked naked across to the dispenser and returned with a cup of chicken soup, still the universe's best answer for the convalescent. Shehu took it and sipped slowly as he watched his lover dress. He still couldn't quite believe his luck, that this man was his. 

"There's a message from Cheung," announced Petrov as he fastened on his wristcom. "He wants to see me about a statement, for Rhys' kidnapping. You've probably got one from him too," he handed Shehu's wristcom to him. 

"I'm going to get a clean uniform from my cabin then grab a bite to eat. Will you be okay here?" 

"I'll be fine." In fact he felt almost as good as new, but he was enjoying being fussed over, it was a novel experience. 

Petrov scanned his wristcom. "Damn. I'm on duty again until midnight." He looked hopefully at Shehu. "Is it alright if I come back here, afterwards?" 

"It's very much alright!" Shehu smiled. Everyone would know they were sleeping together, but so what? At that moment he couldn't have cared less. 

Petrov went out in a hurry to get back to his cabin. He called Cheung on the way and arranged a time to meet the following morning. Cheung would come across to the Diell by stealth pod and interview Shehu as well. 

XXX 

By the next morning Rhys was having second thoughts about his disclosure. Jake had been pretty scary when he told him to keep his mouth shut. If something happened to him, it was obvious whose word Cheung would take note of, Jake could say what he liked and no-one would challenge him. He'd be just another om beaten up for hitting on the wrong man, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Perhaps he should retract his statement, before Cheung had a chance to speak to Jake. He went in search of the Lieutenant after the breakfast shift was over but found to his dismay that he had already left for the Diell. He didn't return his rather panicked call. 

Cheung went through his interview with Shehu quickly. He only needed an account of what had happened when Shehu went to Petersen's cabin and it didn't take long. He ended the interview on the console unit, then turned to the other man. He was the same rank as himself and not only that, he'd worked with Farrell for ten years or more, perhaps he could help. 

"An odd thing happened yesterday," he gave a rueful smile. "Can I speak in confidence?" 

Shehu nodded, his interest quickening. 

"I was interviewing Rhys Owen and I asked him who the man was that he met outside the Three Suns, before Petersen found him, and he told me it was Captain Farrell!" He looked embarrassed. "Crazy huh?" 

"What!" Shehu was astounded. As far as he knew, Farrell had been pursuing Alexei, not Rhys!  

"Yeah, I don't know what he was trying to pull," Cheung continued, still talking about Rhys, "but I thought I'd run it past you first. I really don't want to have to ask Captain Farrell about it," he grimaced. "He was probably on board the whole evening, was he?" he asked, almost as an afterthought. 

"I'll find out for you," Shehu offered, checking the ship's log on the console. The sooner this rumour was put to sleep the better. He frowned. "No, actually he was down on Fayruz, for a short time. From 20:30 to 22:10." Both men stared at each other.  

"I'll have to speak to him, won't I?" Cheung concluded reluctantly. "After I see Lieutenant Petrov." 

The interview with Petrov took longer than the one with Shehu, as Cheung needed to ask him about his relationship with Rhys and his knowledge of Petersen, as well as the events in question.  

He wanted to ask him point blank if he knew if the Captain was an om, and whether he had been having a relationship with Rhys, but he knew it would be a severe and unwarranted breach of privacy. He had only raised the matter with Shehu because he was expecting to have the possibility eliminated. 

The closest he came to asking Petrov about the Captain was to ask if he knew who Rhys had been meeting that evening. His rather equivocal answer didn't help. "Not of my own knowledge, no." Petrov didn't want to lie outright. He clarified, "I could make a guess of course, but that's not evidence."  

"No," agreed Cheung, his heart sinking, hardly the absolute denial he'd been hoping for. "Thank you Lieutenant Petrov, that's all. End interview," he instructed. "Just one more interview to go then, with Captain Farrell," he said with deceptive casualness as he deactivated the console unit. If he hadn't been watching closely, he would have missed Petrov's reaction. The other man didn't gasp or flinch, he simply froze, for about a second. 

Fuck!