They met back at the station, or the Tesraki version of a police station anyway. The building they walked into was massive, rising many stories. Robots and Tesraki of all shapes and sizes moved about with the light chatter of conversation. Of course, their presence drew eyes, though no one actually paused in their work to stare. WIth the Tesraki homeworld being one giant city, there was always something to do and no time to do it.

Adam had been patched and cleaned up, his wounds stitched back together. He had even retrieved his jacket, which was significantly more battery than it was before, requiring more stitches then he had to pull back together. He had done the sewing himself and admitted that his mother would probably have had a heart attack upon seeing his work, but then again time was limited as were his resources.

The shaking had stopped many hours ago, leaving him calm and collected as they were lead through the station and back towards the elevator. The investigator they had met at the first crime scene met them on the fiftieth floor.

"Have you talked to them?" Adam asked, stepping from the elevator and out into the hallway followed by Sunny and and krill.

"Only preliminary questions. We were waiting for your investigator to step in before we started.... Our understanding of humans is limited."

Adam pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair, "probably a good idea."

"So you think that these two attacks are related?" The Tesraki wondered as he lead the group of them down the hallway.

Adam nodded sharply, "I do."

The Tesraki turned to look at him, ears flattening back against his head, "Are you alright Admiral. I heard that you fought off all three of them before...."

"I am alright, how about them?"

"Two of them are fine, but the third is still receiving medical care. You broke his sternum, and it is going to take some work before he recovers."

Adam shuffled his hands inside his pockets nervously, "Whoopse."

"You saved a life, and, in my opinion, that is all that matters. Investigators have taken statements and matched them up against your story, and everything seems to check out, so you should have no problem legally, though I would stick around for a while just in case something else comes up."

Admiral Vir nodded, "Anything you need, Detective."

They had just come around the corner, when a commotion from the other side of the room stopped them in their tracks. Adam turned on the spot surprised to find a group of people heading towards them at a furious pace.

At the front of the group, the detective they called in was marching, dark brown coat billowing out behind him in great whipping streams of air. The look on his face was focused and thunderous, his cold grey eyes turned on Admiral Vir and the others with dark intent.

The group of them slowed in confusion as the human and the small army of Drev and Tesraki officers followed with.

"Admiral Vir." The Detective said, his voice booming around the room. Where their original entrance had not garnered more than a couple of glances from the assembled officers, this deep booming voice sure did grab their attention.

"Detective, wha-"

"You are under arrest!"

Adam stepped back in shock, his hands raised before his chest.

A gasp rose up around the room as everything came grinding to a stuttering halt.

"Under arrest! On what charges!" The man reached down to his side withdrawing his holstered weapon. Admiral Vir raised his hands slowly, "What is going on here." he demanded."

Sunny went to step in front of him, her spear raised, but he barked an order that made her stop in her tracks.

She turned to look at him and he shook his head.

The Detective walked forward glowering at Sunny, "You would do best to listen to your boss. As of yet there is no evidence liking you two to the crimes."

He grabbed Adam by the front of his jacket and spun him around, gripping a handful of his collar as he walked him over to the side of the room, pinning him against the wall, hands still over his head. WIth a kick of his foot he widened the Admiral's stance and began going through his pockets.

Behind them, sunny marched forward, 'What are you talking about! Let him go! What crimes!"

"The murder of the Tesraki."

"What!"

Andam was shoved harder against the wall as the man ran a hand over the front of his jacket and down either side.

He stopped as his right hip, reaching into his coat and confiscating his sidearm, which he handed to one of the Tesraki.

"I would never. I was off-world when that Tesraki died!"

"Don't try to play dumb Admrial. Last night in the alley, you Killed a Tesraki and nearly murdered three other people."

Adam spluttered in shock and confusion, "Murdered! I saved that Tesraki's life. He was in the ambulance when I-"

A sharp Jab to his ribs cut him off as the man ran a hand down either side of his legs, reaching a hand into his front and back pockets trying to find anything, "Your fingerprints were on the knife that killed the Tesraki."

Adam shook his head in shock and confusion, "I would never kill anyone! What are you on about."

Behind him, Sunny angrily marched forward, "Do you have any idea who he is! He's admiral Vir, representative of the GA. So get your hands off him little man."

She hadn't made it more than a few steps before two big, beafy Drev stepped in front of her, both of them at least nine feet tall if not more.

She paused in her tracks as the detective grabbed the Admiral's wrists and forced them behind his back securing them with energy cuffs.

Admiral Vir grunted, "What the fuck! I saved that Tesraki's life. He was alive, and those three men were trying to kill him."

"Can you prove that?"

"I.... yes! The Tesraki was fucking ALIVE when he left in the ambulance."

"That's interesting, because I have images right here than seem to think differently."

Adam was turned around and allowed to stand back to the wall as the Detective pulled a set of photographs from his his jacket and threw them on the floor at the Admiral's feet.

Adam stared down in wide eyed shock as the pictures he found there.

Bodies lying on the ground in carnage. Three humans and one Tesraki with a Knife sticking straight into its eye.

"YOu have to be pretty sick and angry to do something like that." The detective snarled

"But I DIDN'T He was ALIVE I.... I saved.... I saved his life. I Don't.... I don't understand."

"You have a history of xenophobic behavior Admrail, so It doesn't surprise me."

Krill, Sunny AND admiral vir sputtered loudly at that.

Krill shook his head, "Are you fucking insane. Admiral Vir BEGGED me to come onto his ship, how the fuck is that xenophobic."

Admiral Vir locked eyes with Sunny who was so speechless all she could do was open and close her mouth. If anyone here knew how untrue that statement was it was her.

"Look, you play a good came admiral, but I have looked over your history carefully. Your involvement in the Drev war, and your constant return to the Drev planet after that. Then of course there was the entire fiasco with the starborn, and how you are the reason humans have to wear spit shields when detained. Your tiff with Noctus, and your systematic destruction of the Gnar'lak. All of that is hardly evidence of a man who supports human alien interaction. The bran STILL don't trust the human race because of you."

"The hell are you talking about!" Sunny shouted, "He's the reason the GA even ALLOWED HUMANS IN. Just call the chairwoman, she will tell you."

Krill shook his head, "You don't even have to call her, there were at least thirty witnesses that saw the Tesraki leave alive."

Adam, Krill and Sunny turned to look over at the Tesraki director, who was standing just off to the side looking down at his feet, "I am sorry Admiral, but they are right, the evidence doesn't look good."

More gasps.

Admiral Vir shook his head, "What are you saying! You know what happened, your men saw..."

He was cut short as the Detective prodded him in the back, "If you can provide evidence of your innocence, we will consider it, but right now i have at least 30 eye witness testimonies, a knife with your fingerprints on it and two dead Tesraki."

"I WOULD NEVER KILL ANYONE." He snarled completely flabbergasted at the accusations.

"Save it." The man snarled, shoving him forward across the floor.

Adam turned back to look at sunny, who still stood dumbstruck blocked by a group of four Drev as he was dragged away. Krill was loudly proclaiming his innocence and protesting the charges as he was led back across the floor and down another group of steps.

Adam's head spun as Sunny's and Krill's voices were drown out behind him.

Xenophobia.... Murder?

He had never done either of those things in his life, it was completely ludicrous. He was dating Sunny for crying out loud, how could it even be possible.

Then again no one knew he was dating Sunny, and if you looked back at his career there were plenty of things that could be taken in the wrong connotation. He thought there were plenty of more things that were irrefutable, but that didn't seem to matter to the detective, who had already made his assumptions.

Was he part of some elaborate plot, or was he being used by someone else and fed false information. The Tesraki he had worked with on the first case seemed sure of the accusations as well, though there had been no evidence of these thoughts before today.

His boots thudded on the floor as they reached the bottom of the steps, and the Drev that held him ordered the steel door ahead to be opened. A very nervous looking tesraki pressed a button on the forward console and the interior door hissed open. He was brought into a small room, nd the door that closed behind him caused another door to open up in front of them.

The room they walked into glowed blue and purple from the energy fields on either wall where separate energy cells housed the inmates of the Tesraki jail. Most of the inmates were Tesraki, but there was at least one human curled up on their side in the corner. The way she was dressed, and how heavily she was sleeping suggested she had had an interesting night out on the town and had been pulled in for a drunken disorderly.

One of the field walls was temporarily shut off, and he was shoved into the small cramped room where he sat down on the metal bench and stared at the energy field as it was pulled back up. Outside the Detective sat watching him, looking eye to eye with each other, Adam could see what seemed like real disappointment on the man's face.

"It's a real shame, Admiral. I really believed you were a better man than this."

He stood up almost placing his hands to the barrier before stepping back, "I AM a better man than this, please just listen. I'm being framed.

"I wish I could believe that."

"You CAN believe that, I swear. I run a ship full of aliens if the GA wasn't here I wouldn't have my job. You can ask my family anyone, I would do anything for the GA, I-"

The man just shook his head and turned away leaving Adam to stare after him in complete disbelief as he did.

***

Sunny was irate. Not just irate but incoherent in her complete and utter rage. The only thing holding her back was the realization that attacking these people would get hr locked away where she would be unable to help Adam.

She couldn't believe the allegations.

Xenophobic, xhenophobic.

She knew first had how NOT xhenophobic he was.

.... Like very much

... not even a little bit

... either that or he was good at faking it, but Adam was the worst lier she had ever met, he couldn't fake his way out of a paper bag.

Beside her krill was arguing with one of the other officers, someone he said he recognized from last night,

"Instead of being angry like her, the little creature was pointing out all the inconsistencies she was too angry to see. Like how he hadn't been arrested on the spot, or what those other three humans were doing there, or how Krill and Sunny had SEEN the Tesraki drive away in the emergency vehicle.

They KNEW for a fact that Adam was innocent.

Sunny was more than positive. Adam was the biggest marshmallow in the universe. It had taken months to convince him to actually fight here in the dueling ring, and try to hit her considering he was mortified of the idea of hurting her, or any number of examples off the top of her head.

There was only one conclusion to make.

And despite not being a genius like krill, she knew the answer immediately.

He was being framed.