Evans felt his stomach chruning as the chanmber behind the airlock door repressurized with a loud, high-pitched hiss. We're safe, he thought. We've docked in a friendly starport and the Barbados will be repaired. Why am I so nervous? He groped for the answer as the door opened, and finaly realized: Now,I'll be the new alien arrival. He (and the other human crewmembers) had been less than recpetive towards Tendath and Methesus: they were the only aliens on Barbados. He never expected the shoe to be on the other foot.
An Asryian stepped through the portal and curtsyed to Evans. Evans couldn't help blinking in suprise, he'd never seen one in the flesh before. He looked like a bipedial tiger, (female Assryians resembled leopard-human hybrids,) and wore burgandy armor on his waist, biceps and chest, with a veridian robe cascading from the waist-armor to the floor. "I am thankful for your safe arrival, Brother Earther. It would be dreadful for the Triple Alliance to lose such a skilled warrior, even this late in the war. I am Sub-Praetor Risson, an officer on Ashria's Shield."
It took a split-second to realize that was the name of the starport, and Evans replied, "Thank you, Sub-Praetor." He gestured to the Marines to escort the prisoners out of the ship, (or roll them out: one was still in a hospital bed and two were in whellchairs,) and walked with Risson into the airlock and into a tunnel. "And what did you mean by 'Triple Alliance?' "
"It is the official name for the alliance between our species and the Thalans," Risson said, before adding, "And you may call me 'Risson'. As a ship-captain you out- rank a starport officer."
"Very well, Risson," Evans said, and got down to business: "How long can the crew and I expect do be here?"
"That depends on the extent of your ship's damage, but our repiar crews are more than competent. I'd guess that you will resde here for no more than three k'tars."
A k'tar is eight days, Evans thought. That's twenty-four days out of action...unless Starfleet Command puts me in a new ship before then.
"Thank you for the information," Evans said, feeling somewhat irratated at speaking this formaly, which suprised him: he was normally outgoing. It's just battle fatigue, he assrued himself.
The walk down the hall was short, and soon they came to a door at the other end. It slid open with a quiet hiss, and Evans walked thorough, following the Marines and prisoners, himself followed by crewmembers axiously trying to nuge past him. The scene when he stepped through the door was awe-inspiring.
A huge spire soared to the summit of the station, with cylindrical tunnels spreading out in eight dirsctions every hunderd feet up. Crewmembers briskly walked about, tending to thier duties, and shuttle craft flew to and fro, most of the traffic coming out of a large tunnel at the far end of the station. But what made it nearly unbeliveable were the ships.
They were objects of beauty with their sleek, goose-like hulls and soft orange and bathtu-white paint jobs as they rumbled out into space or drifted into docks.
That made Evans remember something. He looked around for Risson, who was standing next to him. "What is it, Brother Earther?"
"I was wondering if my crew could assist yours and in repairing my ship," Evans replied. "They know it well, and they might find some damage I didn't know about."
And I don't want your cronies snooping around and finding anything out.
"Of course they can," Risson replied, "How else could we repair the ship effectively? Now, you must be tired. We have vacant quarters avaliable, I hope they are to the liking of you and your crew."
Evans nodded, and followed Risson and the crew down thw catwalk, passing the Marines, who were stopped for the moment, trying to explain that Tendath was a crewmember and not a prisoner. Sighing, Evans stopped and assrued the Skathalet guards of the former, which seemed to satisfy them. Tendath offered no reply other than mumbled thanks, which Evans understood. If Tendath's half as frazzled as I am, he's proobly having a hard time walking.
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Grand Admiral (or to use the Korx term, Supreme Director) Hessarah Mengathis shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh. The Dominon was on the reatreat, its planets were either under merciless seige or in rebelion, its once-great economy was in shambles, and its navy was being torn to pieces, and here she was, safe in an underground bunker, help making a plan for the defence of Korx when the Allied invasion fleet came. This is disgraceful, she thought savagely. She looked from chair to chair at the Dominon Navy commanders seated at the table. They all sat silently, looking worried and scared. Good, Hessarah thought, even more savagely, It's about time they got a reality check. And then, the thoughts full of irrational loathing:They're bureaucratic fools. All they care about is how extravagan they can make thier estates. They don't have families to protect. Karalx should have purged them, not enslaved Snathi who had no part in that recession.
The thoughts were there and gone faster than an Earther jet fighter; it was time to start. "Gentlemen, we all know why we're here: to drum up a defence fleet for when the Allies come," she said suddenly.
Director Torren sent her a repoachful look, as if using Earther expressions was somehow treason. Hessarah ignored him, and told of her plan: "I propose we move every other capital ship we have into orbit immediatly. This way, Korx will have an exlent defence fleet, and our colonies will all have at least one frigate defending them."
She made a great effort not to say 'remaining colonies'.
"That is not enough," Torren said acidly. "Those frigates were outdated when we bought them from the Thalans, all they'd do is give the Allies more to shoot at, and we'd have a Mithrilar-damned bloodbath on our hands."
Hessarah turned her head to Torren--slowly, she wanted to scare him--and said, "True, but you forget we have an advantage the Allies are ignorant of." Torren said nothing for a while, then spoke in realization: "The Telenath."
"Precisely," Hessarah said evenly. "When our spies stole the data on engineering battleship-sized vessels from the Thalans, we didn't know what to do with it," she exlained to the questioning looks of the commanders. "But when we bought those frigates, we slowly got idead on hoe to build capital ships. We've been building the Telenath since before the war, but we're just starting to finish it. It won't win us the war, there's no doubt about that, but if we damage the invasion fleet enough, we may be able to get an armistice with the Allies, or get the Torians to through thier hat into the ring."
Torren gave her annother angry look for using an Earther expression, but this time it had a hint of good humor in it. The other commanders were silent for a few minutes, then nodded in approval. "I guess this meeting wasn't nesesary...but I don't like being kept in the dark about a superweapon that could prevent our defeat," one said indignantly as he stood up."
"Sorry, but you didn't Need To Know," Hessarah replied, making sure the capitals thudded into place. With out dismissing them or bidding them farwell, Hessarah stood up and walked out of the room, down the hall and into an elevator. The ride up was silent and grim except for the hum of the cable. She stepped out when she reached the top and went outside and found her vehicle and driver wainting for her. "Take me home," she said simply, and he wordlessly turned the engine over and started driving.
The ride home, which lasted a few hours, was wordless except for Hessarah thanking her driver and sending him off. She noticed other vehicles in her driveway, parked haphazardly, as if the drivers were in a hurry to get out. Good, they're here,
she thought and walked inside. She found a group of Korx sitting at a table, in civillian clothes. She gave them all a plote nod and sat at the head. "Does everyone know thier part in our plan?" she asked with out preamble. Everyone wordlellly nodded, but Hessarah still urged, "But let's go over them again."
Everyone did know thier part, down to the last detail, and they rattled them off, one by one. "It's settled, then: Operation Blood Moon starts tomorrow."
Her co-conspiritors nodded again.
