Starship Armstrong - Season 2

Part 67 - The Trial Of Dr. Kang (III)

McAfree sat in the corner of a tiny, windowless interrogation room. She had tipped her chair backwards on two legs and was rocking back and forth on it. She had already fallen over twice.

If the police thought they could break her by making her wait in a boring empty room for hours they had another thing coming. Waiting in boring empty rooms for hours was basically her job now.

She had been grabbed at the same time as Dr. Kang, but while he was quickly spirited away in a shuttle to who knows where McAfree was turned over to the local station cops. That was the lowest form of cop in her educated opinion. At least the cops on undeveloped colonies got up to cool cowboy stuff, what did these glorified hall monitors ever do except get their application to be a cop on an actual planet rejected?

McAfree had to pee already. This did not bode well. She was worried what would happen if she fell over again, but not enough to stop rocking in her chair.

Finally, hours into her torture, the door opened. The surprise almost made her fall over in her chair.

Two station cops, a man and a woman, stepped in. They had sad little station cop uniforms and identical haircuts.

"Hello, Yoshiko," said the male cop, placing a cup of depressing station coffee on the table in front of McAfree "I've brought you a coffee."

"Oh good," said McAfree "I so we're building a rapport right now right? You've totally bought my friendship with this cup of alleged coffee."

"We want to talk," said the female cop.

"I gathered as much," replied McAfree, standing "But before you guys frame me for whatever the powers that be have conjured up I need to go to the washroom."

"Talk first," said the male cop "Then you can use the washroom."

"Well, no," said McAfree "Washroom first. You've left me here for hours."

"It's not up to you, Yoshiko," said the male cop.

"I'm either going to pee in your washroom or in that corner," McAfree pointed to a corner of the room "Do you understand how serious I am? I have already chosen my corner. I'm sure you've read the file they must have on me. I'm betting somewhere in there it says that I'm utterly shameless. In exactly those words. Do you know how I know it's in there? Because it's true. I'll do it. I'll pee in the corner of your interrogation room. I don't know whose job it is to clean this place so I guess this all comes down to how much you like the maintenance staff around here."

The female cop looked at the male cop and shrugged.

"Don't look at me," he said "You have to take her if she goes."

"Come with me," said the female cop.

McAfree was taken to the washroom and the female cop watched her pee. She returned to the interrogation room feeling relieved and much more self-assured.

"Have a seat," said the male cop as soon as she arrived.

McAfree did so, and immediately began rocking her chair again.

The male cop pushed it back down.

"Please don't do that," he said, with barely restrained menace.

"You're not in any trouble," said the female cop "We just want to talk to you about Dr. Heliodore Kang."

"What the coffee trick and the no bathroom ploy failed so now we're on to good cop/bad cop? I'll save us all some time: I'm not signing a waiver of my right to silence, I'm not your friend, I don't want to tell me side of any stories, I don't actually think you're going to physically strike me, and I don't believe you have magical evidence implicating me in a crime I had nothing to do with. So unless the two of you have come up with something original that every cop on Mars hasn't already tried on me I'm going to have to insist on talking to my lawyer. I'm certain Doc Kang is hiring one for me presently."

The male cop snatched the untouched coffee out of the table and stormed out of the room to go find the file on Yoshiko McAfree. He would later verify that the phrase "utterly shameless" appeared three times.