Post by Lorpius Prime on May 11, 2009 2:15:28 GMT -5
Pascual joined the conference that afternoon following a late lunch. They were using one of the secure meeting rooms near the top of the foreign ministry building. The designers had compensated for the lack of windows by using a high ceiling and relatively small central table to create a feeling of spaciousness.
There were seven people in the Human delegation. Pascual took a seat at the left end of the long table, which was the one closest to the door; he was not yet an active member of the negotiations and as such was to remain unobtrusive. Councilor Durante sat in the center of the table and the Deputy Councilor in charge of the Bat Section, Omar Khatib, was on his right. Each of them was accompanied by two aides from their offices, who took up the flanks, putting Pascual next to Rosa Johnson, Durante's Press Secretary. She brushed off Pascual's brief attempt at small talk and looked away from him, compulsively twirling a pen through her fingers near her left ear.
At the far end of the table from Pascual, someone had set up a smaller table to provide enough space for the two Bat representatives to sit side by side. They were waiting in silence, like a pair of gargoyles wearing their funny green berets that marked them as diplomatic officers. One of them was digging absent-mindedly into the tabletop with a claw. Or perhaps he was intentionally destroying the wooden surface; it was always difficult to tell.
Across the table were the Tadpoles. Pascual had to admit that the name fit so well he was now using it as his mental label for the aliens. They looked remarkably human, in some ways more so than even the Bats, enough so that one might even mistake them for ordinary people at a distance. They were larger than humans, spanning just under a meter at the shoulder. Their limbs were swollen like bodybuilders', and they stood with a pronounced forward hunch as if walking under a tremendous weight. They wore only minimal clothing, a single tube of cloth wrapped around their waists like a kilt, which left uncovered most of their orange-brown and leathery skin. But the Tadpoles' most distinctive feature was a furry black ridge that stood up against their skin and ran from the top of their wide skulls down their backs and past their waist to become a thin, stubby tail. The trait gave them the appearance of an Earth frog just exiting its larval stage. It also prevented them from using a human chair properly, and they had been procured stools instead.
There were three of them in the delegation, and Durante addressed the one sitting rightmost. "Ambassador Rokden, welcome back, I hope you have enjoyed your morning. Allow me to introduce Ambassador Pascual Molinas," he gestured to Pascual. "He is the nephew of our Chief Executive and is a trusted representative of the Organization of Earth States."
Pascual inclined his head, "I am honored to meet you, Ambassador."
Rokden turned his head, slowly, to look at Pascual, then gurgled something, presumably in his own language. Pascual managed to look impassive, and the Tadpole turned back to Councilor Durante without elaborating.
"Where is your leader?" he asked. His voice was deep and gravelly, and had almost a movie-monster quality to it.
"Chief Molinas has many duties as the highest officer of the Earth government, and as the President of Mexico, one of our constituent states. He regrets that these duties mean he cannot attend every meeting between our people. But be assured, Ambassador, that as our highest diplomatic officer, I am fully accredited to represent Earth at these meetings."
Rokden nodded, and Pascual wondered if that gesture meant the same thing for him as it did to humans. He might even be consciously using a bit of human body language. After all, the Tadpoles had apparently picked up on Earth's spoken languages—or at least, English—faster than even the Bats had managed.
"We are willing to speak with whomever you wish," the Tadpole said, "as long as you will help us."
"Ahh, yes," Durante said, leaning forward slightly, "I'm afraid we still don't entirely understand why you would feel the need to come to us with any request. It is a long way from Titania to Earth, and your people have never bothered to contact us before."
Rokden and the other Tadpoles leaned forward as well, perhaps in imitation of the Councilor. "We did not come out of a desire for friendship with your species, do not think us deceitful. We have come out of a great necessity; my people are confronting a terrible crisis."
"We wish you had come earlier, humanity seeks friendship with all species, including yours, Ambassador."
"We have come now. Will you assist us?"
Durante shook his head, "We want friendship with all species, but humanity cannot afford to trust others too easily. You admit that friendship with Earth has not been a concern of your people before now. Why do you seek our help when others are nearer to your settlement?"
The Tadpoles seemed to think this was an appropriate time to straighten up out of their lean, even though Durante continued to rest on his elbows against the table.
"The Charterlings in this system have been unable to offer the assistance we need, their colony is simply too primitive." Pascual raised an eyebrow at that. No one he knew in the OES bureaucracy would have called any of the alien colonies "primitive", especially not in comparison to Earth.
Rokden went on, "And as for these," he and the other members of his delegation turned towards the Bats sitting on their left, "they would rather we all died so that they could consume the rotting pulp of our innards."
Everyone in the human delegation winced. Predictably, and not unjustifiably, both of the Bat representatives stood up in their chairs and began shouting at the Tadpoles in their shrill language. The Tadpoles remained seated, saying nothing, but this just seemed to anger the Bats even more. One of them reached out a clawed hand, looking like he was about to attack Rokden.
"Please!" bellowed Deputy Councilor Khatib, holding up his hands. His voice was almost as deep as the Tadpole Ambassador's, and helped to inspire a great respect for him among his colleagues. It worked to forestall a fight between the aliens, too. The Tadpoles turned back to look at the humans, and the Bats at least feel silent, even if they remained standing and clearly seething.
"Ambassador Rokden," the Tanzanian Councilor said in a lecturing voice, "the Bats have always been friendly to humanity, and we hold their counsel in high regard. I hope you will take the fact that we have agreed to meet with your delegation over that counsel as a sign of our willingness to welcome any species with honorable intentions, and will not use it as an opportunity to insult our friends."
Durante, Pascual, and the four human aides all nodded in agreement. Khatib was painting a rosier picture of the relationship between Earth and the Bats than the reality, but they were still the closest thing mankind had to friends in the solar system these days.
There were a few seconds of strained silence before the Tadpole Ambassador spoke again. "Very well. I apologize." He paused while the Bats sat down, though they did so somewhat grumpily. "My people have much at stake; we must be willing to accept help wherever we can find it."
"Then perhaps," Pascual spoke up for the first time, eager to get the discussion moving forward again before any more arguments broke out, "you should tell us more about what exactly the problem is that your people seem to be facing."
He glanced to his right, hoping he hadn't spoken out of turn, but Durante and Khatib both nodded in agreement.
Rokden nodded, but did not reply at once. Instead he looked to one of the two Tadpoles seated next to him, and the two aliens spent a moment conversing. Their language sounded to Pascual like old plumbing, as if their throats were filled with rusty, dripping pipes. After the Tadpoles had finished, Rokden looked back around and nodded again.
"Our information on this system was incomplete," he said, "and we departed intending to settle on a much less challenging world. The extreme climate of our colony has required us to use a vacuum habitat which we purchased from our own Charterlings as an emergency substitute. But there was a flaw in the design, and the habitat is unsuitable for us."
"So you can't use it?" Councilor Durante asked.
The Tadpoles looked mournful; their body language really was remarkably similar to humans'. "We must use it, we have no alternative. But our Enharg are dying."
Enharg? Pascual raised an eyebrow, and turned to find the rest of his delegation already looking over towards the Bats.
One of them twitched his nose. "The word is one of their self-references, but they more often use it to mean something like 'soul'. In this case, however, he means they are being poisoned. Their colony has been in contact with Governor Shyankyang for some time now about their troubles."
"My people are too desperate for enemies now," Rokden said.
"Gentlemen," Durante said, raising his voice slightly to head off another argument. "Ambassador," he addressed the Tadpole, "if your colony is unsustainable, then maybe your people should return to their homeworld."
The Tadpoles all straightened. "We cannot, Councilor," Rokden said, sounding angry. "Our warp transport no longer has the resources to sustain us; we would die attempting to make a return journey."
Durante sighed, "Well I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm not sure how Earth could be of any assistance to you in this matter."
"You could provide us with a replacement habitat."
The Foreign Councilor blinked, "I'm grateful for your confidence in my species, Ambassador, but that sounds like it would be beyond even our means. Our own colonies are still quite dependent on supplies from Earth."
Rokden shook his massive head, "My people simply need a viable habitat. Your planet has produced an installation which is capable of meeting our needs with only minor alterations to interface with our equipment. You are currently transporting it to this system's fourth planet."
"Wait, you want the Mars colony?" that was Miss Johnson, who had dropped her pen and was now staring slack-jawed at the Tadpole Ambassador.
Her boss gave her a sharp look and she shrunk down into her seat with a cringe. Pascual had to suppress a gleeful smile.
"Apologies, Ambassador," Durante said, "but I share some of my assistant's surprise. We do have the start of a colonization effort underway to Mars. Even if you could make use of it, however, I don't believe that is something Earth would be willing to just give up."
"No, we will trade for it."
Durante was shaking his head, "You don't understand Ambassador. Earth businesses have been working on the colony for nearly a decade; it's an investment of tremendous value. It's not something I think my people will consider simply trading for."
"We will give you a weapon," Rokden said, and every human in the room froze. "We have seen how your planet is struggling to construct a battle fleet. My transport has brought one of the heavy lasers from our warp ship. We will give it to you in exchange for your 'Mars colony'."
Pascual barely noticed when the Bats began screaming again.
The Uruguay had been at heightened alert for twelve hours now and Captain Lee still didn't know why. Fleet Command had ordered Uruguay to immediately cease and withdraw the close-range probes she had been using to gather detailed intelligence on the Tadpole transport, and to raise the threat level on the alien ship. The ship Captain Lee and her crew had so recently been guarding was now a potential target.
Xi Feng had fudged a little on the probes. The techies had been just about ready to run a spectrometer analysis of the transport's hull, and Xi Feng had judged the intelligence important enough to give them another hour before calling them off. She was glad that she had, too, although the results had been less than exciting. Apparently the Tadpoles built their ships out of the same high-carbon steel as plated the outer surface of the Uruguay.
Steel hull, electric thrusters throwing xenon ions, ordinary low-power lasers for sweeping debris, the only thing exotic about the ship was that it was big. Nothing hinted at what might be the next great step in starship, but it did tell Xi Feng enough to know that she could kill it. All of the Uruguay's rails were loaded and the capacitors charged. If she gave the order to fire, the transport would survive slightly more than twelve seconds before it died in a cluster of nuclear fireballs.
Xi Feng just wished she knew why. Two days ago she had put herself, her ship, and 60 crewmen between that transport and a hostile warship which could have blasted right through them all like so much tissue paper. Xi Feng did not like the thought that they might have all been asked to risk their lives for no good cause.
"Captain, you want to see this." Xi Feng blinked herself out of her thoughts to look over to Armando Salinas, the current duty officer for the sensor station.
"What have you got, Lieutenant?" she unbuckled the straps holding her into her acceleration chair.
"That shuttle's in range of the telescope, sir," Xi Feng walked hand-over-hand to his station and Salinas rotated his chair so that she could look past him to his monitor.
Fleet Command had refused to broadcast detailed orders about the alert for fear of interception. Unfortunately, they had also refused to use a laser comm, which struck Xi Feng as overly paranoid. Instead, they were sending someone over on a Fleet shuttle to brief the Uruguay's captain in person, which struck everyone as overly paranoid. But even at this distance, it was clear that the vessel on Lt. Salinas' monitor did not have the lines of a standard shuttle.
"An assault shuttle?" Xi Feng chided herself for losing control of her voice. No matter how surprised she was, it was poor form to show it to her subordinates.
Everyone else on the bridge turned to gape. "Give me that feed!" the tactical officer demanded.
A moment as Lt. Salinas punched in the appropriate commands. Then: "Well I'll be damned. That's what it looks like to me too, Captain."
Much to the disappointment of film and game producers, Earth Fleet had never created a Marine Corps to accompany its battle fleet. The gruff space marine clad in power armor was an absurd fantasy. There was no place for boarding actions in space combat, except as a joke. Every Earth Fleet captain knew that.
Except that four years ago, Russia had acceded to the OES; and when the Russian space forces were integrated into Earth Fleet, they had come with a battalion of Russian space marines and all of their equipment. Including the specially designed shuttle which was now closing with the Uruguay.
This promised to be interesting.
The two ships made an awkward pair as they spun lazily through their orbit. The Uruguay class of cruisers had been designed specifically to permit Fleet shuttles to dock securely in the larger ships' cargo bays, so that they could be hauled long distances. The Russian assault shuttles, however, had not been built to Fleet standards, and had to dock at one of the Uruguay's conventional personnel hatches. The long cylinder of the shuttle now stuck out at a right angle to the cruiser's length, interrupting her sleek lines.
In her briefing room, Captain Lee bowed her head twice. "Admiral Blevins, Colonel Solyanov."
They both returned the salute, and Rear Admiral Blevins gestured for everyone to take a seat. Despite the significant improvements in engineering and design over the preceding Washington line of cruisers, the Uruguay was still pressed for space; and the briefing room was one of the areas in which the designers had been particular ruthless about taking out every inch of excess. There was enough room for Xi Feng and her seven senior officers to sit down; but they would know each other very well afterward. For this briefing, however, Xi Feng only had her Chief Tactical Officer and Chief of Intelligence, which meant that they were merely cramped.
"I'm sorry I can't take you off the alert for this, Captain," Blevins said as he settled into his seat, "but we still aren't sure how things are going to break, or when they might.
Xi Feng nodded. Commander Wade was taking her place on the bridge during the briefing; he and the rest of the senior crew would have to be filled in later. She waited for Blevins to continue.
"Well," the Welshman smirked, "I'm sure you're a might curious as to just what is going on here by now, Captain."
"I'd be tempted to beat it out of you, Admiral, if I didn't think the Colonel here would take both my arms off first."
Blevins chuckled and the Russian marine nodded to Xi Feng appreciatively. She had been fascinated to see the man board her ship. Unlike everyone else, he didn't use the ceiling handles to "walk" himself through the corridors, he just walked normally. There was some sort of adhesive on his boots which was strong enough to give him a completely secure hold on the deck, allowing him full freedom to use his hands for other purposes, like firing a weapon.
"It seems, Captain Lee, that our little friend out there," Blevins tilted his head in the direction of the bridge, but Xi Feng knew he was referring to the Tadpole transport, "is packing quite a bit more firepower than we originally thought."
"We ran some probes by on close-approach several hours ago, Admiral; we didn't see anything except standard debris brooms."
Blevins nodded, "It's not externally mounted, so Fleet doesn't think it's a threat, but we're not taking any chances either."
"What do they have?" that was Xi Feng's chief tactical officer, Lieutenant Cheyo.
Blevins sighed, and the expression on his pudgy face made him look slightly froglike. He paused a moment to look over the tactical officer, then turned his eyes back to Xi Feng, "I'm sure you remember the battlecruiser which the Kyhyex sent through here in 2053, Captain?"
"Yes," Xi Feng said flatly.
The Rear Admiral nodded, "Well apparently the lasers on that ship had about half the energy throughput of the monster these 'Tadpoles' have brought along."
Lieutenant Cheyo made a face, "Now, I never scored well in history, but we're talking about the ship which put a hole through Io, right?"
Blevins nodded an affirmative. Cheyo sighed, then glanced to the Uruguay's intelligence chief next to him, "You know, I thought we had rules against bringing stuff like that into Earth space."
Lieutenant Donaldson just shrugged slowly. "Legal in Texas," he said.
Xi Feng allowed herself a smile, but held up a hand to keep her crewmen from losing all perspective.
"Admiral," she asked, "am I to understand from this discussion that the Tadpoles' disposition towards us has changed?"
"The politicians are still working things out. Obviously we're hoping they'll find an acceptable settlement, but our job is to be ready if that doesn't happen."
"And I don't suppose you can tell us how likely that is?" Donaldson asked.
Blevins shook his head, "The negotiations are still classified above all of our pay grades. The only reason I'm able to tell you about the cargo our friends are carrying is so that you can help Colonel Solyanov seize it if necessary."
"Necessary", in this case, obviously meant if the Tadpoles tried to leave without handing the weapon over. It was the sort of morally dubious policy that the people in the briefing room might have questioned if they weren't all uniformed soldiers trying to defend their planet and their species against the constant pressure of an alien colonization effort. The aliens had warp engines, gravity shields, and particle cannons; Earth might as well have had wooden sticks. There wasn't a single Earth Fleet officer who would think twice about killing to get her hands on advanced technology that might even the odds even slightly. The politicians could worry about conscience.
"We'll support the Colonel in whatever way we can, Admiral. But there's not going to be much left for him to secure if we pump that ship full of nukes."
Blevins' smile was lopsided and apologetic, "No, Captain. The Uruguay is cover for Solyanov's team. Hopefully, the Tadpoles think that's just an ordinary shuttle clamped on out there. If the operation goes forward, they'll approach in the Uruguay's shadow."
Xi Feng managed not to grimace, and hoped her subordinates had the same composure. No one wanted to make themselves a target for enemy fire, no matter how much sense the military logic made. Unfortunately, to become targets was exactly what Blevins was asking Xi Feng and her crew to do. No, he was ordering them to do it.
She nodded, "Understood, Admiral." Then she turned her head to the Russian marine officer, "Colonel, I'd like to get your pilot talking with my navigator if we're going to coordinate this."
"Of course, Captain," Solyanov answered. "If you like I'll have Sergeant Markovic cross over as soon as we're done here. My understanding is the target cannot flee too quickly anyway, correct?"
Xi Feng let her intelligence officer field that one. "Reaction drives only, yes sir," Donaldson said. "They've got longer legs than us, but we can damn sure beat them in a sprint."
The Russian nodded graciously, but Blevins was positively beaming. "Excellent," he said. "Well people, as usual, if the government drops the ball, the Fleet will be there to pick it up again. Let's get to work."
There were seven people in the Human delegation. Pascual took a seat at the left end of the long table, which was the one closest to the door; he was not yet an active member of the negotiations and as such was to remain unobtrusive. Councilor Durante sat in the center of the table and the Deputy Councilor in charge of the Bat Section, Omar Khatib, was on his right. Each of them was accompanied by two aides from their offices, who took up the flanks, putting Pascual next to Rosa Johnson, Durante's Press Secretary. She brushed off Pascual's brief attempt at small talk and looked away from him, compulsively twirling a pen through her fingers near her left ear.
At the far end of the table from Pascual, someone had set up a smaller table to provide enough space for the two Bat representatives to sit side by side. They were waiting in silence, like a pair of gargoyles wearing their funny green berets that marked them as diplomatic officers. One of them was digging absent-mindedly into the tabletop with a claw. Or perhaps he was intentionally destroying the wooden surface; it was always difficult to tell.
Across the table were the Tadpoles. Pascual had to admit that the name fit so well he was now using it as his mental label for the aliens. They looked remarkably human, in some ways more so than even the Bats, enough so that one might even mistake them for ordinary people at a distance. They were larger than humans, spanning just under a meter at the shoulder. Their limbs were swollen like bodybuilders', and they stood with a pronounced forward hunch as if walking under a tremendous weight. They wore only minimal clothing, a single tube of cloth wrapped around their waists like a kilt, which left uncovered most of their orange-brown and leathery skin. But the Tadpoles' most distinctive feature was a furry black ridge that stood up against their skin and ran from the top of their wide skulls down their backs and past their waist to become a thin, stubby tail. The trait gave them the appearance of an Earth frog just exiting its larval stage. It also prevented them from using a human chair properly, and they had been procured stools instead.
There were three of them in the delegation, and Durante addressed the one sitting rightmost. "Ambassador Rokden, welcome back, I hope you have enjoyed your morning. Allow me to introduce Ambassador Pascual Molinas," he gestured to Pascual. "He is the nephew of our Chief Executive and is a trusted representative of the Organization of Earth States."
Pascual inclined his head, "I am honored to meet you, Ambassador."
Rokden turned his head, slowly, to look at Pascual, then gurgled something, presumably in his own language. Pascual managed to look impassive, and the Tadpole turned back to Councilor Durante without elaborating.
"Where is your leader?" he asked. His voice was deep and gravelly, and had almost a movie-monster quality to it.
"Chief Molinas has many duties as the highest officer of the Earth government, and as the President of Mexico, one of our constituent states. He regrets that these duties mean he cannot attend every meeting between our people. But be assured, Ambassador, that as our highest diplomatic officer, I am fully accredited to represent Earth at these meetings."
Rokden nodded, and Pascual wondered if that gesture meant the same thing for him as it did to humans. He might even be consciously using a bit of human body language. After all, the Tadpoles had apparently picked up on Earth's spoken languages—or at least, English—faster than even the Bats had managed.
"We are willing to speak with whomever you wish," the Tadpole said, "as long as you will help us."
"Ahh, yes," Durante said, leaning forward slightly, "I'm afraid we still don't entirely understand why you would feel the need to come to us with any request. It is a long way from Titania to Earth, and your people have never bothered to contact us before."
Rokden and the other Tadpoles leaned forward as well, perhaps in imitation of the Councilor. "We did not come out of a desire for friendship with your species, do not think us deceitful. We have come out of a great necessity; my people are confronting a terrible crisis."
"We wish you had come earlier, humanity seeks friendship with all species, including yours, Ambassador."
"We have come now. Will you assist us?"
Durante shook his head, "We want friendship with all species, but humanity cannot afford to trust others too easily. You admit that friendship with Earth has not been a concern of your people before now. Why do you seek our help when others are nearer to your settlement?"
The Tadpoles seemed to think this was an appropriate time to straighten up out of their lean, even though Durante continued to rest on his elbows against the table.
"The Charterlings in this system have been unable to offer the assistance we need, their colony is simply too primitive." Pascual raised an eyebrow at that. No one he knew in the OES bureaucracy would have called any of the alien colonies "primitive", especially not in comparison to Earth.
Rokden went on, "And as for these," he and the other members of his delegation turned towards the Bats sitting on their left, "they would rather we all died so that they could consume the rotting pulp of our innards."
Everyone in the human delegation winced. Predictably, and not unjustifiably, both of the Bat representatives stood up in their chairs and began shouting at the Tadpoles in their shrill language. The Tadpoles remained seated, saying nothing, but this just seemed to anger the Bats even more. One of them reached out a clawed hand, looking like he was about to attack Rokden.
"Please!" bellowed Deputy Councilor Khatib, holding up his hands. His voice was almost as deep as the Tadpole Ambassador's, and helped to inspire a great respect for him among his colleagues. It worked to forestall a fight between the aliens, too. The Tadpoles turned back to look at the humans, and the Bats at least feel silent, even if they remained standing and clearly seething.
"Ambassador Rokden," the Tanzanian Councilor said in a lecturing voice, "the Bats have always been friendly to humanity, and we hold their counsel in high regard. I hope you will take the fact that we have agreed to meet with your delegation over that counsel as a sign of our willingness to welcome any species with honorable intentions, and will not use it as an opportunity to insult our friends."
Durante, Pascual, and the four human aides all nodded in agreement. Khatib was painting a rosier picture of the relationship between Earth and the Bats than the reality, but they were still the closest thing mankind had to friends in the solar system these days.
There were a few seconds of strained silence before the Tadpole Ambassador spoke again. "Very well. I apologize." He paused while the Bats sat down, though they did so somewhat grumpily. "My people have much at stake; we must be willing to accept help wherever we can find it."
"Then perhaps," Pascual spoke up for the first time, eager to get the discussion moving forward again before any more arguments broke out, "you should tell us more about what exactly the problem is that your people seem to be facing."
He glanced to his right, hoping he hadn't spoken out of turn, but Durante and Khatib both nodded in agreement.
Rokden nodded, but did not reply at once. Instead he looked to one of the two Tadpoles seated next to him, and the two aliens spent a moment conversing. Their language sounded to Pascual like old plumbing, as if their throats were filled with rusty, dripping pipes. After the Tadpoles had finished, Rokden looked back around and nodded again.
"Our information on this system was incomplete," he said, "and we departed intending to settle on a much less challenging world. The extreme climate of our colony has required us to use a vacuum habitat which we purchased from our own Charterlings as an emergency substitute. But there was a flaw in the design, and the habitat is unsuitable for us."
"So you can't use it?" Councilor Durante asked.
The Tadpoles looked mournful; their body language really was remarkably similar to humans'. "We must use it, we have no alternative. But our Enharg are dying."
Enharg? Pascual raised an eyebrow, and turned to find the rest of his delegation already looking over towards the Bats.
One of them twitched his nose. "The word is one of their self-references, but they more often use it to mean something like 'soul'. In this case, however, he means they are being poisoned. Their colony has been in contact with Governor Shyankyang for some time now about their troubles."
"My people are too desperate for enemies now," Rokden said.
"Gentlemen," Durante said, raising his voice slightly to head off another argument. "Ambassador," he addressed the Tadpole, "if your colony is unsustainable, then maybe your people should return to their homeworld."
The Tadpoles all straightened. "We cannot, Councilor," Rokden said, sounding angry. "Our warp transport no longer has the resources to sustain us; we would die attempting to make a return journey."
Durante sighed, "Well I'm sorry to hear that. But I'm not sure how Earth could be of any assistance to you in this matter."
"You could provide us with a replacement habitat."
The Foreign Councilor blinked, "I'm grateful for your confidence in my species, Ambassador, but that sounds like it would be beyond even our means. Our own colonies are still quite dependent on supplies from Earth."
Rokden shook his massive head, "My people simply need a viable habitat. Your planet has produced an installation which is capable of meeting our needs with only minor alterations to interface with our equipment. You are currently transporting it to this system's fourth planet."
"Wait, you want the Mars colony?" that was Miss Johnson, who had dropped her pen and was now staring slack-jawed at the Tadpole Ambassador.
Her boss gave her a sharp look and she shrunk down into her seat with a cringe. Pascual had to suppress a gleeful smile.
"Apologies, Ambassador," Durante said, "but I share some of my assistant's surprise. We do have the start of a colonization effort underway to Mars. Even if you could make use of it, however, I don't believe that is something Earth would be willing to just give up."
"No, we will trade for it."
Durante was shaking his head, "You don't understand Ambassador. Earth businesses have been working on the colony for nearly a decade; it's an investment of tremendous value. It's not something I think my people will consider simply trading for."
"We will give you a weapon," Rokden said, and every human in the room froze. "We have seen how your planet is struggling to construct a battle fleet. My transport has brought one of the heavy lasers from our warp ship. We will give it to you in exchange for your 'Mars colony'."
Pascual barely noticed when the Bats began screaming again.
* * *
The Uruguay had been at heightened alert for twelve hours now and Captain Lee still didn't know why. Fleet Command had ordered Uruguay to immediately cease and withdraw the close-range probes she had been using to gather detailed intelligence on the Tadpole transport, and to raise the threat level on the alien ship. The ship Captain Lee and her crew had so recently been guarding was now a potential target.
Xi Feng had fudged a little on the probes. The techies had been just about ready to run a spectrometer analysis of the transport's hull, and Xi Feng had judged the intelligence important enough to give them another hour before calling them off. She was glad that she had, too, although the results had been less than exciting. Apparently the Tadpoles built their ships out of the same high-carbon steel as plated the outer surface of the Uruguay.
Steel hull, electric thrusters throwing xenon ions, ordinary low-power lasers for sweeping debris, the only thing exotic about the ship was that it was big. Nothing hinted at what might be the next great step in starship, but it did tell Xi Feng enough to know that she could kill it. All of the Uruguay's rails were loaded and the capacitors charged. If she gave the order to fire, the transport would survive slightly more than twelve seconds before it died in a cluster of nuclear fireballs.
Xi Feng just wished she knew why. Two days ago she had put herself, her ship, and 60 crewmen between that transport and a hostile warship which could have blasted right through them all like so much tissue paper. Xi Feng did not like the thought that they might have all been asked to risk their lives for no good cause.
"Captain, you want to see this." Xi Feng blinked herself out of her thoughts to look over to Armando Salinas, the current duty officer for the sensor station.
"What have you got, Lieutenant?" she unbuckled the straps holding her into her acceleration chair.
"That shuttle's in range of the telescope, sir," Xi Feng walked hand-over-hand to his station and Salinas rotated his chair so that she could look past him to his monitor.
Fleet Command had refused to broadcast detailed orders about the alert for fear of interception. Unfortunately, they had also refused to use a laser comm, which struck Xi Feng as overly paranoid. Instead, they were sending someone over on a Fleet shuttle to brief the Uruguay's captain in person, which struck everyone as overly paranoid. But even at this distance, it was clear that the vessel on Lt. Salinas' monitor did not have the lines of a standard shuttle.
"An assault shuttle?" Xi Feng chided herself for losing control of her voice. No matter how surprised she was, it was poor form to show it to her subordinates.
Everyone else on the bridge turned to gape. "Give me that feed!" the tactical officer demanded.
A moment as Lt. Salinas punched in the appropriate commands. Then: "Well I'll be damned. That's what it looks like to me too, Captain."
Much to the disappointment of film and game producers, Earth Fleet had never created a Marine Corps to accompany its battle fleet. The gruff space marine clad in power armor was an absurd fantasy. There was no place for boarding actions in space combat, except as a joke. Every Earth Fleet captain knew that.
Except that four years ago, Russia had acceded to the OES; and when the Russian space forces were integrated into Earth Fleet, they had come with a battalion of Russian space marines and all of their equipment. Including the specially designed shuttle which was now closing with the Uruguay.
This promised to be interesting.
* * *
The two ships made an awkward pair as they spun lazily through their orbit. The Uruguay class of cruisers had been designed specifically to permit Fleet shuttles to dock securely in the larger ships' cargo bays, so that they could be hauled long distances. The Russian assault shuttles, however, had not been built to Fleet standards, and had to dock at one of the Uruguay's conventional personnel hatches. The long cylinder of the shuttle now stuck out at a right angle to the cruiser's length, interrupting her sleek lines.
In her briefing room, Captain Lee bowed her head twice. "Admiral Blevins, Colonel Solyanov."
They both returned the salute, and Rear Admiral Blevins gestured for everyone to take a seat. Despite the significant improvements in engineering and design over the preceding Washington line of cruisers, the Uruguay was still pressed for space; and the briefing room was one of the areas in which the designers had been particular ruthless about taking out every inch of excess. There was enough room for Xi Feng and her seven senior officers to sit down; but they would know each other very well afterward. For this briefing, however, Xi Feng only had her Chief Tactical Officer and Chief of Intelligence, which meant that they were merely cramped.
"I'm sorry I can't take you off the alert for this, Captain," Blevins said as he settled into his seat, "but we still aren't sure how things are going to break, or when they might.
Xi Feng nodded. Commander Wade was taking her place on the bridge during the briefing; he and the rest of the senior crew would have to be filled in later. She waited for Blevins to continue.
"Well," the Welshman smirked, "I'm sure you're a might curious as to just what is going on here by now, Captain."
"I'd be tempted to beat it out of you, Admiral, if I didn't think the Colonel here would take both my arms off first."
Blevins chuckled and the Russian marine nodded to Xi Feng appreciatively. She had been fascinated to see the man board her ship. Unlike everyone else, he didn't use the ceiling handles to "walk" himself through the corridors, he just walked normally. There was some sort of adhesive on his boots which was strong enough to give him a completely secure hold on the deck, allowing him full freedom to use his hands for other purposes, like firing a weapon.
"It seems, Captain Lee, that our little friend out there," Blevins tilted his head in the direction of the bridge, but Xi Feng knew he was referring to the Tadpole transport, "is packing quite a bit more firepower than we originally thought."
"We ran some probes by on close-approach several hours ago, Admiral; we didn't see anything except standard debris brooms."
Blevins nodded, "It's not externally mounted, so Fleet doesn't think it's a threat, but we're not taking any chances either."
"What do they have?" that was Xi Feng's chief tactical officer, Lieutenant Cheyo.
Blevins sighed, and the expression on his pudgy face made him look slightly froglike. He paused a moment to look over the tactical officer, then turned his eyes back to Xi Feng, "I'm sure you remember the battlecruiser which the Kyhyex sent through here in 2053, Captain?"
"Yes," Xi Feng said flatly.
The Rear Admiral nodded, "Well apparently the lasers on that ship had about half the energy throughput of the monster these 'Tadpoles' have brought along."
Lieutenant Cheyo made a face, "Now, I never scored well in history, but we're talking about the ship which put a hole through Io, right?"
Blevins nodded an affirmative. Cheyo sighed, then glanced to the Uruguay's intelligence chief next to him, "You know, I thought we had rules against bringing stuff like that into Earth space."
Lieutenant Donaldson just shrugged slowly. "Legal in Texas," he said.
Xi Feng allowed herself a smile, but held up a hand to keep her crewmen from losing all perspective.
"Admiral," she asked, "am I to understand from this discussion that the Tadpoles' disposition towards us has changed?"
"The politicians are still working things out. Obviously we're hoping they'll find an acceptable settlement, but our job is to be ready if that doesn't happen."
"And I don't suppose you can tell us how likely that is?" Donaldson asked.
Blevins shook his head, "The negotiations are still classified above all of our pay grades. The only reason I'm able to tell you about the cargo our friends are carrying is so that you can help Colonel Solyanov seize it if necessary."
"Necessary", in this case, obviously meant if the Tadpoles tried to leave without handing the weapon over. It was the sort of morally dubious policy that the people in the briefing room might have questioned if they weren't all uniformed soldiers trying to defend their planet and their species against the constant pressure of an alien colonization effort. The aliens had warp engines, gravity shields, and particle cannons; Earth might as well have had wooden sticks. There wasn't a single Earth Fleet officer who would think twice about killing to get her hands on advanced technology that might even the odds even slightly. The politicians could worry about conscience.
"We'll support the Colonel in whatever way we can, Admiral. But there's not going to be much left for him to secure if we pump that ship full of nukes."
Blevins' smile was lopsided and apologetic, "No, Captain. The Uruguay is cover for Solyanov's team. Hopefully, the Tadpoles think that's just an ordinary shuttle clamped on out there. If the operation goes forward, they'll approach in the Uruguay's shadow."
Xi Feng managed not to grimace, and hoped her subordinates had the same composure. No one wanted to make themselves a target for enemy fire, no matter how much sense the military logic made. Unfortunately, to become targets was exactly what Blevins was asking Xi Feng and her crew to do. No, he was ordering them to do it.
She nodded, "Understood, Admiral." Then she turned her head to the Russian marine officer, "Colonel, I'd like to get your pilot talking with my navigator if we're going to coordinate this."
"Of course, Captain," Solyanov answered. "If you like I'll have Sergeant Markovic cross over as soon as we're done here. My understanding is the target cannot flee too quickly anyway, correct?"
Xi Feng let her intelligence officer field that one. "Reaction drives only, yes sir," Donaldson said. "They've got longer legs than us, but we can damn sure beat them in a sprint."
The Russian nodded graciously, but Blevins was positively beaming. "Excellent," he said. "Well people, as usual, if the government drops the ball, the Fleet will be there to pick it up again. Let's get to work."