Interstellar Age

When Erich finally awoke, he found himself in a room, most likely on a space station or a different planet. Where he was suspended in midair, with his limbs bound by some form of gravitational pull. He was dressed in nothing but his compression shorts. However, before he could fully understand his surroundings, he heard a snarky yet feminine voice speak to him.

"So you're awake? That's good. And here I was, starting to think that you would sleep like a little princess for the rest of your lifespan. Can you tell me your name?"

Erich felt something was off. His memories seemed jumbled, and his senses were slower than they normally would be. Not only that, but he appeared to have a hampered sense of mental control. He almost let his name and rank slip.

"My name? My name is....."

The Dark Elf interrogator frowned when she saw that Erich had stopped speaking. Clearly the drugs were being hindered by something inside the man's body. Although she had run a diagnostic scan on Erich's body, and was stunned by the level of implants that he had, she had no detected the NeuroLink, or the trillions of nano robots that it composed of.

The Dark Elves had not detected the NeuroLink specifically because Tia had been doing everything in her power to conceal it. Right now, the adorable little artificial intelligence was doing everything to process the truth serum that was injected into Erich's body, so that he would not reveal anything to his captors.

As Erich's head began to clear, he noticed that his interrogator was a beautiful dark elf. Her hair was a flaxen blonde, while her skin was the color of chocolate. Meanwhile, her eyes were the color of caramel.

At first, Erich did not know how to respond to this exotic beauty who was standing before him. Though her figure was concealed by black and gold robes, Erich could tell she had a fantastic body beneath it.

Thus, after examining the interrogator, and the scowl on her face for some time, Erich wore a smug smile, before saying the words which he knew would deliberately piss her off.

"I'll tell you my name, if you tell me yours, sweetheart..."

The interrogator was stunned by the fact that Erich could still maintain enough mental clarity to deny her the answers which she sought. She immediately tapped a device on her wrist, which pulled up the holographic projection of the Svartalfheim President. Where the woman then began to question her superior for orders.

"Sir, the subject seems resilient to the truth serum. Although we have detected several cybernetic augmentations within his body, none of them are designed for processing chemicals. If I were to give him another dose, it could prove fatal. What are my orders?"

Kadron looked at the female agent with a hint of irritation on his face. After a brief examination of the encrypted message that Erich sent, it was believed to have been sent to the Alfheim Dominion, and not the Germanic Star-Empire, which meant that this prisoner held a more significant position than the Dark Elves once believed. Because of this, he had placed a high priority on gaining any knowledge that could be had from Erich.

With this in mind, Kadron decided to play the long con. It was odd that the truth serum wouldn't work, as it had proven to work on the majority of humanoid species. But since it was not working, he had no choice but to order his agent to proceed with caution.

"Do whatever is necessary to gain access to the information that this barbarian has. We need to know what he said to the Alfheim Dominion with that message he sent."

The agent saluted the President of the Svartalfheim Federation before ending the call. Once she had done so, she approached Erich, who seemed to be gaining a greater degree of mental clarity with each passing second.

"Aren't you an interesting specimen? I wonder if your race is naturally resilient to drugs, or if there is some secret you are hiding, even from my prying eyes?"

Erich naturally did not say a word, while it was true that his species was genetically enhanced to be naturally resilient to drugs, poisons, viruses, and other toxic materials. The real reason he was so rapidly gaining mental clarity was because of his NeuroLink, and only the citizens of the Empire knew about such a heavily guarded secret. One that he had no intention of spilling to the enemy.

Instead, Erich wore a smug smile, as he posed a question to his interrogator, which the exotic beauty found to be utterly shocking.

"So, now that your truth serum has failed, are you going to resort to torture now? You can try your best, but I will have you know that I have been trained to endure even the most brutal of interrogation techniques."

The look that the interrogator gave Erich was one of complete and total bewilderment. This was something that slightly unnerved Erich until the woman finally voiced her thoughts aloud.

"Torture? We in the Svartalfheim Federation would never resort to such a barbaric practice. While you have been illegally operating within our borders, you are a soldier of another interstellar civilization which is recognized by the galactic community. I am bound by law to treat you with respect and dignity.

The truth serum is our way of extracting vital information from high-value targets, without causing any damage to the mind or body. Don't tell me that your people engage in such a savage practice?"

This was an answer that Erich was not expecting. He had never before heard from anyone in his life that torture was a barbaric practice. It was standard operating procedure within the Germanic Star-Empire, the Great Oni Empire, and the Alfheim Dominion when it came to handling prisoners. In fact, most civilizations within the Alfheim Quadrant practiced torture to some degree or another.

The look on Erich's face told the interrogator everything she needed to know about the subject. To which she sighed heavily and shook her head in disappointment.

"No wonder why Captain Lunder was so eager to work with us. Your people are so uncivilized..."

Erich took great offense to this, as he spat at the Dark Elven beauty before condemning her for her words.

"Echo was a traitor! He betrayed the greatest civilization in the galaxy! And for what? Money? Fame? What exactly did you bribe him with to buy his loyalty?"

The female interrogator simply scoffed when she heard Erich's remarks. Like so many of his people, he was brainwashed to believe that the Germanic Race was superior to all others, and that their Empire was the pinnacle of civilization. She was quick to respond to this zealotry with a casual remark.

"Well, for starters, we showed him a little of respect. I get the feeling someone like you is not exactly accustomed to that, am I right? After all, you are what your people refer to as a mutant. Is that correct? Tell me, how is it that someone who has lived a life filled with discrimination can be so loyal to his society?"

It was Erich's turn to scoff now, as he attempted to force his interrogator back into his line of questioning despite not having any actual power to do so.

"You still didn't answer my question. Tell me what you did to get Echo to betray his people, and I will give you my name. That is a fair trade, is it not?"

The Dark Elven beauty smiled when she heard this and began to openly admit to how the Svartalfheim Federation secured Echo's loyalty. As if it was not even a secret.

"Is that really all you want to know? Very well, I will tell you, it is not like it is classified information or anything. To put it simply, the man your refer to as Echo was betrayed by your nation's politicians not that long ago.

While he was out fighting on behalf of your Empire, his wife was stolen by a planetary governor, and forced to bear his children. Something which I understand carries the death penalty in your civilization.

When he found out, he was naturally furious, and tried to expose the two adulterers. But unfortunately, your society is as corrupt as any other, and the politician not only got away scot free, along with Echo's wife, but Echo himself was abandoned to die against one of our allies.

He fought valiantly, but in the end, he was captured just like you. Where we extradited him to Svartalfheim. It was revealed to him just how much better our society is than the one he had come from. It did not take him long to decide that it was best if he were to spy on his own people for us. And thus, he returned to his homeland to fulfill the task.

Since then, he has been relaying information to us about your Empire, and the plans of your Supreme Leader. Thus, we know all about the Alfheim Dominion's plans to use your people as the spearhead of their upcoming war. Which we hoped to annihilate in a single battle, before forcing those bloodthirsty Light Elves into a galactic war, which they could not hope to win without their favorite war hounds.

And thus, we would be able to reclaim our homeworld once and for all. Something which we have not been able to achieve since our exodus, which occurred long ago. Unfortunately, you ruined these plans, and killed our spy in the process.

Now I have to find a way to convince you to take Echo's place. But it seems like that will be a difficult task, because you are far more entrenched in your people's hateful ideology than he was when we found him.

Since I have told you all of this, the least you could do is fulfill your end of the bargain. What is your name?"

Erich was bewildered by this story. But it was not surprising. The Empire had its own corruption, especially before the Emrys regime was established. In fact, he remembered a similar story of corruption, which caused the death of Butcher's family, an act which forever turned him against the Empire.

However, he was not convinced that the interrogator was being entirely truthful with him, and thus, he gave her a semi-false identity.

"My name is Erich Hartmann...."

The exotic beauty smiled when she heard Erich's name and repeated it aloud. She had no idea that Erich had not given her his full name, instead he had given her the name of the man who he was named after. A German hero of the Second World War from Earth's history.

"Erich Hartmann, huh? Well Erich, you should get some rest. I'm afraid that the truth serum which I administered to you has some nasty side effects if it is not processed properly, and you will need to sleep them off. I will find you in the morning. Guards, take this man to his cell!"

With that said, the exotic beauty pressed a button on her wrist device, and the invisible shackles which bound Erich to the air were released, where he then fell to the floor. As much as Erich wanted to make a break for it, his body refused to comply, as if it some other form of invisible pressure had taken hold of him.

Once the female interrogator had left the room, the guards grabbed hold of Erich and dragged him off to his cell. Where he would spend the night alone while thinking of a plan of escape.

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