Post by Lorpius Prime on May 13, 2009 0:57:07 GMT -5
"BLAST THE KYHYEX AND WIN A FREE NOKIA HEADSET!!!!!!!!!!"
Hyong moved the poorly-rendered crosshairs over the yellow-gray blob and selected. The little cartoon Kyhyex exploded with a satisfying "splorch" sound. The display changed, and Hyong was shown a long screen with lots of small text explaining how he was supposed to claim his free merchandise. It took several minutes for Hyong to read and comprehend the information. Apparently it required Hyong to be a Human. And to pay money. Hyong spent another few minutes attempting to reconcile this revelation with the claim of a "free" prize, before abandoning the effort as futile. He could ask Gracia later. Hyong closed the screen in disappointment.
"Would you like make ONE MILLION EURO? CLICK HERE!"
Euros were the common Human currency. One million of them would pay for Hyong's earlier prize several times over. Hyong clicked on the flashing rectangle.
The new screen which appeared looked very similar to the last one he had seen. The information it contained seemed almost as worthless. Frustrated, Hyong closed it, too.
Many more similar flashing rectangles beckoned on his display, but Hyong was becoming suspicious. After another such banner promising him "REAL Free PDAs! No Hassles!" took him to yet another screen like the others Hyong decided that Humanity needed to adjust its advertising regulations. He swore off selecting such offers until they had.
"Have Sex With REAL Women Tonight!"
Well, maybe one more…
For a brief moment, Hyong thought he might have been mistaken. This link did not take him to a screen like the others. In fact, it opened a new page that appeared as if it might be exactly what Hyong had expected.
But then another page opened before Hyong had selected anything else.
And then another.
And then more.
Before Hyong could even figure out where he'd left his cursor, dozens of new pages were opening on top of each other every second, assaulting Hyong's vision. Eventually, they exceeded the memory that Hyong had set aside to run this program. The virtual machine crashed and all of the pages which had opened disappeared. Hyong's vision refocused as his monocle returned to its normal transparency.
He must have cursed at the software failure, because Eugene LaRue turned around in the seat next to him to look at Hyong. The Human's eyebrows were raised.
"What are you doing?" Eugene asked.
Hyong pinched the monocle between his claws to remove it from his eye and return it to his vest.
"Gracia made me curious about your 'internet' a few days ago," Hyong said in a low voice. "I had our technicians create some software that would simulate one of your computers and allow me to explore the network."
"Do you Bats not have your own internet?"
Hyong turned his head in a negative gesture. "We have a public information space, but it's mostly a directory of services and personal contacts, as well as a reference and entertainment library."
"Well," Eugene said. He paused a moment before going on, "That sounds kind of like the internet."
"This seems to be much more chaotic. Actually," Hyong said on reflection, "it reminds me of a Charterling network. Applied chaos is often a significant element of their design philosophy. They, um," Hyong searched for the right terminology, "attempt to get results from large numbers of simple interactions."
"Yeah?" Eugene asked. "How does that work out for them?"
"Unfortunately well," Hyong said darkly. Eugene stared at him until Hyong realized that he'd said it in his own language. He repeated himself in English.
Before Eugene could respond, the door to the little room opened, and another man stepped through. He was slightly taller than Eugene, but had darker skin and gray hair. Hyong had met only an hour ago, but he was pleasant enough for a Human.
"They're starting to settle in," the new Human said. "Are you ready?"
Eugene stood up out of his chair and straightened his coat, "Hyong's just been discovering the internet."
"For the first time?" The other man shook his head, "You poor thing. Remind me to recommend you a good psychotherapist after we're done."
"That won't be necessary, Professor Valderrama," Hyong said as he pushed himself out of his own chair. Beside him, Eugene laughed. Hyong must have misunderstood something.
"All right then," the professor said. "We're going to walk out onto the stage and have a seat in the chairs out there. Are you able to clip this onto your vest there?" He held up a little black cylinder about the size of his thumb.
Hyong took it delicately from his hand and examined the device. There was a small lever on its surface that was held shut by a spring. Hyong affixed it to his vest near his shoulder, where Valderrama indicated. He handed another one to Eugene as well.
"Okay, good. That's just a microphone; it's going to let everyone hear us out there. Now don't worry about the audience, I'm going to introduce you and warm them up a little. After that you can say a few words of your own before we move into questions."
"I understand," Hyong said.
Valderrama nodded, "I'll ask the first few and then let the students ask some of their own. If there's anything you can't answer or you don't feel comfortable about, then just tell us and we'll move right along. Ready?"
"I am."
"Great!" The Human placed a hand on his shoulder for a moment, a gesture of reassurance. Then he led Hyong and Eugene out of the room.
They were standing on one side of a wide, raised platform. Powerful lights glared down from above on three low cushioned chairs in the center of the platform. Enormous green curtains blocked their view of the auditorium below them, but Valderrama walked briskly out from behind them towards the center of the platform. Hyong decided that he ought to follow.
Valderrama took the farthest chair, leaving Hyong to sit in the middle, and Eugene sitting on his left. Hyong looked out at the Human audience and wished that he was still wearing his monocle. The lights made it hard to see just how large the space was and how many of its seats were filled. He could only clearly see the people in a few rows at the front.
"Good morning, everyone," Professor Valderrama said. His words were greatly amplified by speakers that had been strategically placed throughout the auditorium. "Welcome," he went on. "For everyone that isn't in my class, I'm Herb Valderrama, and I'm an Associate Professor for the Political Science Department here at the University. For everyone that is in my class, the TAs have promised that you will be able to pick up your exams on Friday.
"I want to welcome all of you again to this special presentation that we've put together, and my thanks to the University administration for getting the facilities on such short notice. Let me get right to introducing our special guest," he turned to face Hyong and held out one hand. "With us this morning is Hyong Yaheek, from the Bats' embassy here in Caracas. Let's welcome him, shall we?"
Valderrama began smacking the palms of his hands together, and a great noise erupted within the building as the hundreds of Humans in the audience did the same. It sounded vaguely like rainfall, and went on for a few seconds before dying down.
Valderrama smiled and turned back to face the audience, "Mr. Yaheek here is a member of the Bats' armed services, and bears the rank of 'Senior Command Operative'. He is one of the ambassador's senior advisors and has apparently been working among us on planet Earth for almost twenty years. Mr. Yaheek, thank you for being here."
The Professor turned to Hyong and paused for a moment. Hyong realized that he was supposed to respond. "You're welcome," he said.
The Human smiled again, then leaned forward slightly to look past Hyong. "Also here is Eugene LaRue, Associate Professor with the History Department. Professor LaRue has known Mr. Yaheek for a few years now, and he's kindly volunteered to act as something of a cultural translator to assist Mr. Yaheek with understanding our strange alien ways. Professor, thanks for coming as well."
"Happy to help, Herb," Eugene said.
"All right," Valderrama nodded, "well I'm going to turn the stage over to Mr. Yaheek here. I believe he has a short statement of his own, and afterwards we'll all have the opportunity ask him some questions. Mr. Yaheek?"
Hyong had a mild urge to stand up, but he resisted it. Eugene had explained that the seated arrangement was supposed to give the whole event an aura of informality.
"Thank you, Professor," Hyong said, and listened to the slight echo caused by the delay in the machines amplifying his voice. "I'm honored to be here at the Central University of Venezuela."
The University was actually called something else, in another Human language, but Eugene had dissuaded Hyong from using that name after making it clear that Hyong was failing miserably at the pronunciation.
"I'm even more honored to be welcome on your planet," Hyong went on. "I have been here almost twenty years now, and this world and your species continues to fascinate me. Humans and Bats have been friends since our first meeting, and I'm proud to be a part of that friendship. By coming here to speak with you, it is my hope and that of my people, that those bonds will be strengthened further."
He paused for a moment as the auditorium broke into applause again—it was such a strange sound, not one that Hyong's people could replicate with their appendages.
"That is the end of the introduction that my embassy and I prepared for this event. I am eager to answer your questions."
There was a low murmur of laughter—including from the Humans on either of him—but Hyong missed the joke, again.
"All right, Mr. Yaheek," Valderrama said, "let's move on to the questions." He looked out at the audience, "Now, this isn't really a poli-sci lecture, but I hope everyone will forgive me if I start with some questions from that field before I open it up to the audience." He smiled and looked back at Hyong, "Mr. Yaheek, all of our public releases concerning the Bats have referred to your nation as a 'Republic'. Now, on our world that's a pretty broad term that simply means the power of government cannot be inherited. Can you tell us any more about your people's government? Who determines policies, and how those individuals achieve that authority?"
Valderrama had told Hyong beforehand that he was going to ask this question. Hyong was grateful that he'd done so because it had let him ask for advice on how to answer in an intelligible fashion.
"Well, the Republic only refers to the unified government of all our worlds. Each of our colonies and our homeworld has its own unique government, some of which you would not consider republics. The Republic is led by a President who is the supreme executive authority—I believe this terminology is correct."
Valderrama nodded back to him, and Hyong continued. "The President is selected by representatives of all the citizens of the Republic voting in proportion to the population of the colony they represent, and the citizens of Karee, our homeworld, make their own choice by a direct vote. The President is elected for a term of a little more than eleven years—precisely fifteen years on Karee. Presidents may be reelected for as many terms as the electors wish, but none has ever won more than one reelection, and few make the attempt. The current President is Yooreeyogux, and he began his first term shortly after I departed for this star system. His second term will end later this year; although we will still be bound by his orders for another two and a half years, until orders from his successor begin to arrive."
"That's the executive arm of the Republic," Valderrama said, "but what about the legislative? Who makes your laws?"
"Our representatives have had many conversations with your officials about this concept," Hyong said, "because my people do not emphasize the distinction as much as Humans seem to. From what I have learned in our discussions, however, I would say that legislative power is spread across elements of the Republic. Most regulations and ordinances are the responsibility of individual worlds, which craft them in a variety of ways. But the President of the Republic also has some legislative power which he delegates to the managers of the bureaucracies. Most of these powers affect our Military, Treasury, and Schools, and their implementation is the responsibility of each system's Governor."
"So every Bat system has a Governor?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention. The Governors are appointed directly by the President and sent to each system of the Republic. The local government of a system may dismiss a Governor if he acts unfairly. The President must dispatch a new Governor immediately upon receiving such a notice, but the original Governor's decisions remain binding until the replacement arrives. The President's representative in this system, as I'm sure you know, is Governor Shyankyang, who was with the original colony fleet."
"Thank you, Mr. Yaheek," Valderrama said. "It's fascinating how your people have adapted to the challenges of governing an interstellar nation. If I may move off the subject to ask one more question, however. We know even less about the other species which have colonized our solar system. Since the Bats seem to have extensive contact with these other species, is there anything you can tell us about the governments or societies of the Charterlings, Kyhyex, or Tharn?"
Hyong considered his answer carefully before responding. Valderrama had hinted that he would ask about other species as well, but Hyong had less preparation.
"Well," he began, "the Charterlings are not governed as a Republic, they are ruled by single individual who is the offspring of a previous ruler."
"They're a monarchy," Valderrama offered.
"Yes, that is your word. There are fewer defined rules to their government than ours. Territories and businesses are managed by families which compete to offer tributes of children and wealth to the monarch in exchange for a number of rewards, usually some sort of status that offers breeding rights."
"Sounds like a feudal system to me."
"I'm not familiar with the term."
"Fair enough," Valderrama chuckled, "what about the Kyhyex?"
"It is probably best to say that the Kyhyex have no government," Hyong said after some hesitation. "Certainly the ones most familiar to you answer to no external authority. Some of their older systems surrounding the Republic's primary territory operate in a loosely organized fashion, but there is no consistent decision making structure or hierarchy. More than any other intelligent species we have encountered, the Kyhyex live to eat and multiply. Where they have any semblance of government, it's usually military-oriented and simply a more advanced reproductive strategy."
"But don't the Bats have an alliance with the Kyhyex?"
"Yes, although there is no signed treaty or official document to that effect. After the Charterlings stole the technology for faster than light travel from us and sold it to the Kyhyex, the Kyhyex's expansion became a terrible threat. We reached an arrangement to provide technical and logistical assistance to the Kyhyex in order to keep them out of our territory, and the policy has worked with few exceptions. The Charterlings came to no such arrangement, and instead went to war with the Kyhyex, and eventually with us as well."
"Well I hope it's a war we can stay out of," Valderrama said.
"Yes."
"All right, and what about the Tharn? We've had almost no meaningful contact with them since their arrival."
"I'm afraid I cannot help you. We know almost as little about the Tharn as you. There are only a handful of Tharn colonies within the Republic, and I have never been to any of those systems. There are a great deal more in Charterling space, but even before the war they seemed nearly as ignorant as we are."
"Well that's hardly any fun," Valderrama sighed. "I guess it's a mystery we'll have to live with a while longer. Mr. Yaheek I want to thank you for answering my questions, and now if you don't mind I'm going to let the students ask some of their own."
"Of course," Hyong said.
"All right then," Valderrama turned to his audience again. "Anyone out there who'd like to ask something, please just raise your hand. We'll ask you to step up to the microphone in the center here and tell Mr. Yaheek your name. Do please keep the questions respectful."
Hyong couldn't see any Humans raising their arms, but some must have been because after a short while Valderrama pointed off into the distance.
"Yes ma'am," he said, "come on up."
A few moments later a young Human female appeared at the bottom of the stage to stand in front of small black pole.
"Hello, my name is Gabriela Stevens," she said, and her voice was amplified by the same system that had enhanced Hyong's. "Mr. Yaheek, many of us around the world find it offensive that since your arrival in our solar system, government officials and the media have consistently referred to your people as 'Bats', essentially likening your species to an order of flying rodents here on Earth. We don't believe that Humanity ought to refer to other species by labels which give the impression you're nothing but unintelligent pests. Mr. Yaheek, my question is, what is the proper name you have for your own people?"
"Ah…" Hyong said. He turned to Eugene, "What was it that you said the word sounds like to you?"
"Like a wet cough," Eugene said pleasantly.
"Right," Hyong said. He spoke the name of his species in his native language. The young Human at the microphone looked horrified.
"We discovered shortly after first meeting your species that you were incapable of properly pronouncing the word. I don't believe any of my people are offended to be called Bats. I find the similarity of Earth bats to my species quite remarkable. Their existence has absolutely fascinated most of the biologists we brought with us. The ones I've spoken to called it a rare example of, um," he looked at Eugene, "something like different things growing to be the same after much time."
Eugene frowned. But a voice in the audience beyond the point that Hyong could see shouted, "Convergent evolution!"
"That sounds plausible," Hyong said to the mystery Human. He looked down at the girl who'd asked the question again, "Anyway, I'm not a biologist. But I can still appreciate the likeness."
"Thank you, Miss Stevens," Professor Valderrama said. The Human female turned and walked away quickly, looking down at her feet. "All right, next can be you, over there."
A Human male appeared at the microphone. "Hi, I'm Mario Rosales," he said, "and I'd like to know why the Bats didn't ask Humanity's permission—or even make contact with us—before you began colonizing the Solar system. Don't you think we should have the right to our own worlds?"
"You have your own world," Hyong said, a little annoyed by the Human's arrogance, "we have never attempted to take it from you. Nor do I believe we ever will, the outer planets of this system have far more valuable resources. And I do not believe that you had any claim to them when our colony arrived."
"We were here first," the Human at the microphone protested.
"On this planet," Hyong argued. "I am not aware that any Human has even yet travelled to any world beyond the asteroid belt. The outer worlds have been settled by others. I suppose you could challenge our claim to Saturn. But it would be a dishonorable thing to do, given our friendship, and we would defend our colony."
The young Human opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off by Professor Valderrama.
"And what about Mr. Rosales' other question?" the professor asked. "Why didn't the Bats contact Earth sooner?"
Hyong continued staring at the Human below the stage for a moment before answering. "I was not with the original colony," he said at last, "but I imagine it was simply not seen as a high priority. We were unaware of Humanity's existence before our arrival, and we needed time to study you before initiating contact. The first colonists clearly thought their time and resources were better spent establishing themselves in the beginning."
"I see," Valderrama said. He pointed into the audience again. "Okay, up front here, you seem to have been struck by something."
Another Human male hurried down the aisle and squeezed his way around Mario Rosales to take the microphone.
"Yes, professor," he said, "thanks. Ah, my name is Franklin Thayer, and I wanted to follow up on an issue Mario raised, Mr. Yaheek. Is there any sort of policy that the Bats and other races have for interacting with less advanced intelligent species? Like a Prime Directive from Star Trek?"
"I'm not familiar with—" Hyong started to say, turning to Eugene.
"Oh I'm sorry!" Franklin himself interjected. "Star Trek is a popular fiction series. The Prime Directive was a rule that forbade advanced civilizations from interfering in the development of primitive species—giving them technology and stuff."
"Oh," Hyong said. "No, there is no such rule. Intelligent life is a rare occurrence, my nation only knows of two intelligent species other than yours which do not possess any form of warp drive technology. All of you are on the fringes of the Republic and have never been a pressing concern for our central government. The colonial Governors are empowered to represent the Republic to those other species, and they have all used their own best judgment about the best manner of doing so. I don't really know much about the other cases, but my impression is that Humanity is probably the most advanced non-warp species known to the Republic, and we interact with you on a much higher level than the others."
"There are even more intelligent species that we don't know of?" Valderrama asked. "Can you tell us anything about them?"
Hyong shook his head, "I know one of them lives mostly underwater, but that's all. As I've said, they've never been of much concern to the Republic as a whole. Humanity itself is probably little-known among my people beyond this system and some obscure branches of the colonial bureaucracy on Karee."
"Well maybe we can change that in time," Valderrama said. He smiled and pointed at someone else, "You had your hand up before, come on up here."
A third Human male came to the microphone. "Hi! I'm sorry if this is tri—oh, sorry, I'm Daniel Paredes. Anyway, I guess this isn't as important as the other questions, but I've been wondering what Bat music sounds like. You do have music, right?"
Several people in the front rows of the audience turned to look at Daniel Paredes, who looked down at the floor.
"Yes…" Hyong said. He had to think for a moment about how exactly he ought to answer that question. The Humans almost certainly wouldn't care about the particulars of his answer, but his own superiors might if they ever saw a recording or read a transcript. They hadn't given him any specific instructions or guidelines about how to talk about the issue, but that was only because it hadn't occurred to them—or Hyong—that it might be an issue.
"You probably wouldn't like our music," Hyong answered finally. It was the safest response he could give which was still true. "Most of it is very fast and complex compared to what I've experienced of Human music. I understand Human music is generally designed to appeal to emotions or aesthetic senses. Ours tends to be composed to test and demonstrate intellectual abilities or skill at managing an instrument." Which only makes it painfully boring, Hyong didn't add.
"Huh," Daniel Paredes said, "well, thank you, Mr. Yaheek." He turned to walk back to his seat.
"Indeed," Valderrama said from his seat, "that's a far more insightful answer to the question than I anticipated. All right, how about you in the back there."
The next Human took a few moments to reach the microphone. She was a female of her species, and was wearing a device over her left eye that Hyong had never seen before. It clipped over her ear and bore some resemblance to the Humans' cell phones, but the eyepiece was unusually bulky. And most Humans seemed to prefer to remove their phone headsets when they weren't in active use, so he imagined this was likely to be a different sort of device.
The Human placed a hand on the microphone stand in front of her. "Hello Mr. Yaheek," she said, "my name is Lisa Anders, and I have a question about warp drive."
"I'm not sure how much help I can be then," Hyong said. "Even if I was permitted to tell you how it works, I couldn't. I'm not an engineer."
"Well I'm a physicist," Lisa answered, "or at least I study at the Physics department here. And I suppose I should say that I have a question about warp travel that I hope you can answer."
"I make no promises," Hyong told her.
"Fair enough," she said. "In any case, before the Bats and other aliens began showing up in the Solar System, most of physicists believed that it was actually impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. Clearly it is possible, but we don't have a scientific consensus about the how. The primary problem has been that all of our observations indicate that traveling faster than light, regardless of the method, is effectively a form of time travel. So your warp drives ought to be carrying you back into the past with the potential to alter future events that have already been observed. Are you familiar with this problem?"
Hyong thought for a moment. "Yes, that does sound familiar. As I said, I'm not a physicist, but I believe I remember something about time travel equivalence from my general education."
"So you do travel through time using warp drive?"
"That sounds right to me, yes."
The whole auditorium was silent for a moment. "How do you avoid causality problems, then?" Lisa asked.
"I don't know that term."
"How do you prevent history from being altered every time you travel faster than light?"
"This is really getting beyond my expertise," Hyong said. "But as I understand it, we don't."
"So you're telling us that the Bats and everyone else can just change the past at will?"
"I suppose that's implied," Hyong said slowly. "But why would you want to?"
Lisa Anders stared at him for a while. "You wouldn't want to use that to change events that you didn't like?"
"Well, wouldn't attempting to do that lead to impossible series of events?"
"Yes! That's the causality problem I was referring to. Time travel has a problem with historical paradoxes." She sounded frustrated.
"I'm sorry," Hyong said honestly, "but I really don't know enough to satisfy your curiosity about this matter. It seems to me that if it were possible to do the things you're worried about; it would make history and the present impossible to understand. Perhaps it is too difficult to achieve any precision to make such actions practical, but I am ignorant."
Lisa Anders opened and closed her mouth a few times without saying anything. Eventually she leaned forward and said, "Forgive my rudeness. Thank you for telling me what you could."
"I wish I knew more."
The Human female smiled, then shrugged and turned to walk back to her seat.
The auditorium was silent. Hyong turned to Professor Valderrama who was staring blankly at him. The professor blinked and shook his head, "Er, yes, sorry. You really threw me for one with time travel." He looked back out into the audience. "Who's next?"
Hyong settled back into his chair to await a new question.
"Any other questions?"
Xi Feng looked around the conference table. Commander Larssen raised a hand.
"When are we getting our final burn calculations from EarthCOM?" she asked. "I'd like to have my navigators check their math."
Larssen was the captain of the EFS Bermuda, which had a relatively green crew for her to put through their paces.
"They've promised me they'll deliver in the next few hours," Xi Feng said, "but I'll keep leaning on them. Do tell me if your navigators think they can do a better job."
"Of course, Commodore."
Xi Feng nodded, "Anyone else?"
She waited a moment, but none of the other 19 ship captains from Task Force One spoke.
"All right then," Xi Feng unfastened her harness and pushed herself out of her seat. "You're dismissed."
The rest of the Earth Fleet officers followed her out their chairs, and saluted. Xi Feng returned the gesture, allowing them to grab the handrails and carefully file their way out of the conference room. All of them except one.
Beside Xi Feng, Commander Casey Rukavina continued to hover over his chair, steadying himself with one hand on the bars above him. After the last of the other officers had filtered out and shut the door behind them, he turned to Xi Feng.
"You asked to wait around after the briefing?"
"I did, Commander," Xi Feng said. She gestured at the chairs they had just left, "Please, have a seat."
The two of them returned to the chairs—which were bolted to the floor of the conference room—and secured the harnesses that would hold them in. It was an operation Xi Feng had performed many times over the years, but Rukavina finished faster.
Xi Feng pulled her straps tight, then looked at the other officer. "So what did you think?"
"I think the Orinoco wasn't listed as part of the Task Force," Rukavina said cautiously.
"No it wasn't Commander," Xi Feng said. "The Orinoco will remain on station with First Fleet."
"So the obvious question is why did I sit through this briefing if my ship isn't a part of the mission?"
"Indeed," Xi Feng nodded. "Commander Rukavina, you are hereby relieved of command of the EFS Orinoco. You will report to your new assignment tomorrow, following your promotion to Captain."
"Um," Rukavina blinked, "thank you, Commodore. I can't say I was expecting a promotion so quickly."
"Both Captains Abdullah and Kinobe were very impressed with the way you handled your ship on Venus Station."
"Well there's not much to do out there except tinker with sensors, but I appreciate their praise. That still doesn't explain what I'm doing here; unless you're adding a ship to the flotilla?"
Xi Feng picked up the two manila paper envelopes that had been clipped down to the table in front of her. Both of them were marked by large red security stamps.
"I have two sets of orders here," Xi Feng said. She handed one of the envelopes to Rukavina. "This one is high security and explains your next assignment. You may only discuss the contents with cleared support staff and your senior officers."
Rukavina's brow furrowed as he took the envelope.
"You may set that aside for now."
The Commander looked at Xi Feng, but set the envelope onto the table under a pressure clip.
Xi Feng handed him the other envelope. "These are your real orders," she said. "The document inside was hand-typed on a secure computer, which was destroyed afterwards. You will be the fifth person to read it, after Chief Executive Molinas, Admiral Kozlov, the Admiral's personal secretary, and myself."
Xi Feng paused for a moment before continuing. Rukavina held the envelope in both hands, but made no move to open it.
"Admiral Kozlov retains the only other copy in existence. You will read this one here in this room, and you will not leave until you have committed the contents to memory. Once you have done so, I will destroy it. Understood?"
Rukavina nodded very slowly. "Yes, Commodore."
"All right," Xi Feng held his eyes for a moment, and then gestured to the envelope in his hands. "Please proceed."
Rukavina flipped open the top of the envelope and pulled out the single sheet of paper inside.
Hyong moved the poorly-rendered crosshairs over the yellow-gray blob and selected. The little cartoon Kyhyex exploded with a satisfying "splorch" sound. The display changed, and Hyong was shown a long screen with lots of small text explaining how he was supposed to claim his free merchandise. It took several minutes for Hyong to read and comprehend the information. Apparently it required Hyong to be a Human. And to pay money. Hyong spent another few minutes attempting to reconcile this revelation with the claim of a "free" prize, before abandoning the effort as futile. He could ask Gracia later. Hyong closed the screen in disappointment.
"Would you like make ONE MILLION EURO? CLICK HERE!"
Euros were the common Human currency. One million of them would pay for Hyong's earlier prize several times over. Hyong clicked on the flashing rectangle.
The new screen which appeared looked very similar to the last one he had seen. The information it contained seemed almost as worthless. Frustrated, Hyong closed it, too.
Many more similar flashing rectangles beckoned on his display, but Hyong was becoming suspicious. After another such banner promising him "REAL Free PDAs! No Hassles!" took him to yet another screen like the others Hyong decided that Humanity needed to adjust its advertising regulations. He swore off selecting such offers until they had.
"Have Sex With REAL Women Tonight!"
Well, maybe one more…
For a brief moment, Hyong thought he might have been mistaken. This link did not take him to a screen like the others. In fact, it opened a new page that appeared as if it might be exactly what Hyong had expected.
But then another page opened before Hyong had selected anything else.
And then another.
And then more.
Before Hyong could even figure out where he'd left his cursor, dozens of new pages were opening on top of each other every second, assaulting Hyong's vision. Eventually, they exceeded the memory that Hyong had set aside to run this program. The virtual machine crashed and all of the pages which had opened disappeared. Hyong's vision refocused as his monocle returned to its normal transparency.
He must have cursed at the software failure, because Eugene LaRue turned around in the seat next to him to look at Hyong. The Human's eyebrows were raised.
"What are you doing?" Eugene asked.
Hyong pinched the monocle between his claws to remove it from his eye and return it to his vest.
"Gracia made me curious about your 'internet' a few days ago," Hyong said in a low voice. "I had our technicians create some software that would simulate one of your computers and allow me to explore the network."
"Do you Bats not have your own internet?"
Hyong turned his head in a negative gesture. "We have a public information space, but it's mostly a directory of services and personal contacts, as well as a reference and entertainment library."
"Well," Eugene said. He paused a moment before going on, "That sounds kind of like the internet."
"This seems to be much more chaotic. Actually," Hyong said on reflection, "it reminds me of a Charterling network. Applied chaos is often a significant element of their design philosophy. They, um," Hyong searched for the right terminology, "attempt to get results from large numbers of simple interactions."
"Yeah?" Eugene asked. "How does that work out for them?"
"Unfortunately well," Hyong said darkly. Eugene stared at him until Hyong realized that he'd said it in his own language. He repeated himself in English.
Before Eugene could respond, the door to the little room opened, and another man stepped through. He was slightly taller than Eugene, but had darker skin and gray hair. Hyong had met only an hour ago, but he was pleasant enough for a Human.
"They're starting to settle in," the new Human said. "Are you ready?"
Eugene stood up out of his chair and straightened his coat, "Hyong's just been discovering the internet."
"For the first time?" The other man shook his head, "You poor thing. Remind me to recommend you a good psychotherapist after we're done."
"That won't be necessary, Professor Valderrama," Hyong said as he pushed himself out of his own chair. Beside him, Eugene laughed. Hyong must have misunderstood something.
"All right then," the professor said. "We're going to walk out onto the stage and have a seat in the chairs out there. Are you able to clip this onto your vest there?" He held up a little black cylinder about the size of his thumb.
Hyong took it delicately from his hand and examined the device. There was a small lever on its surface that was held shut by a spring. Hyong affixed it to his vest near his shoulder, where Valderrama indicated. He handed another one to Eugene as well.
"Okay, good. That's just a microphone; it's going to let everyone hear us out there. Now don't worry about the audience, I'm going to introduce you and warm them up a little. After that you can say a few words of your own before we move into questions."
"I understand," Hyong said.
Valderrama nodded, "I'll ask the first few and then let the students ask some of their own. If there's anything you can't answer or you don't feel comfortable about, then just tell us and we'll move right along. Ready?"
"I am."
"Great!" The Human placed a hand on his shoulder for a moment, a gesture of reassurance. Then he led Hyong and Eugene out of the room.
They were standing on one side of a wide, raised platform. Powerful lights glared down from above on three low cushioned chairs in the center of the platform. Enormous green curtains blocked their view of the auditorium below them, but Valderrama walked briskly out from behind them towards the center of the platform. Hyong decided that he ought to follow.
Valderrama took the farthest chair, leaving Hyong to sit in the middle, and Eugene sitting on his left. Hyong looked out at the Human audience and wished that he was still wearing his monocle. The lights made it hard to see just how large the space was and how many of its seats were filled. He could only clearly see the people in a few rows at the front.
"Good morning, everyone," Professor Valderrama said. His words were greatly amplified by speakers that had been strategically placed throughout the auditorium. "Welcome," he went on. "For everyone that isn't in my class, I'm Herb Valderrama, and I'm an Associate Professor for the Political Science Department here at the University. For everyone that is in my class, the TAs have promised that you will be able to pick up your exams on Friday.
"I want to welcome all of you again to this special presentation that we've put together, and my thanks to the University administration for getting the facilities on such short notice. Let me get right to introducing our special guest," he turned to face Hyong and held out one hand. "With us this morning is Hyong Yaheek, from the Bats' embassy here in Caracas. Let's welcome him, shall we?"
Valderrama began smacking the palms of his hands together, and a great noise erupted within the building as the hundreds of Humans in the audience did the same. It sounded vaguely like rainfall, and went on for a few seconds before dying down.
Valderrama smiled and turned back to face the audience, "Mr. Yaheek here is a member of the Bats' armed services, and bears the rank of 'Senior Command Operative'. He is one of the ambassador's senior advisors and has apparently been working among us on planet Earth for almost twenty years. Mr. Yaheek, thank you for being here."
The Professor turned to Hyong and paused for a moment. Hyong realized that he was supposed to respond. "You're welcome," he said.
The Human smiled again, then leaned forward slightly to look past Hyong. "Also here is Eugene LaRue, Associate Professor with the History Department. Professor LaRue has known Mr. Yaheek for a few years now, and he's kindly volunteered to act as something of a cultural translator to assist Mr. Yaheek with understanding our strange alien ways. Professor, thanks for coming as well."
"Happy to help, Herb," Eugene said.
"All right," Valderrama nodded, "well I'm going to turn the stage over to Mr. Yaheek here. I believe he has a short statement of his own, and afterwards we'll all have the opportunity ask him some questions. Mr. Yaheek?"
Hyong had a mild urge to stand up, but he resisted it. Eugene had explained that the seated arrangement was supposed to give the whole event an aura of informality.
"Thank you, Professor," Hyong said, and listened to the slight echo caused by the delay in the machines amplifying his voice. "I'm honored to be here at the Central University of Venezuela."
The University was actually called something else, in another Human language, but Eugene had dissuaded Hyong from using that name after making it clear that Hyong was failing miserably at the pronunciation.
"I'm even more honored to be welcome on your planet," Hyong went on. "I have been here almost twenty years now, and this world and your species continues to fascinate me. Humans and Bats have been friends since our first meeting, and I'm proud to be a part of that friendship. By coming here to speak with you, it is my hope and that of my people, that those bonds will be strengthened further."
He paused for a moment as the auditorium broke into applause again—it was such a strange sound, not one that Hyong's people could replicate with their appendages.
"That is the end of the introduction that my embassy and I prepared for this event. I am eager to answer your questions."
There was a low murmur of laughter—including from the Humans on either of him—but Hyong missed the joke, again.
"All right, Mr. Yaheek," Valderrama said, "let's move on to the questions." He looked out at the audience, "Now, this isn't really a poli-sci lecture, but I hope everyone will forgive me if I start with some questions from that field before I open it up to the audience." He smiled and looked back at Hyong, "Mr. Yaheek, all of our public releases concerning the Bats have referred to your nation as a 'Republic'. Now, on our world that's a pretty broad term that simply means the power of government cannot be inherited. Can you tell us any more about your people's government? Who determines policies, and how those individuals achieve that authority?"
Valderrama had told Hyong beforehand that he was going to ask this question. Hyong was grateful that he'd done so because it had let him ask for advice on how to answer in an intelligible fashion.
"Well, the Republic only refers to the unified government of all our worlds. Each of our colonies and our homeworld has its own unique government, some of which you would not consider republics. The Republic is led by a President who is the supreme executive authority—I believe this terminology is correct."
Valderrama nodded back to him, and Hyong continued. "The President is selected by representatives of all the citizens of the Republic voting in proportion to the population of the colony they represent, and the citizens of Karee, our homeworld, make their own choice by a direct vote. The President is elected for a term of a little more than eleven years—precisely fifteen years on Karee. Presidents may be reelected for as many terms as the electors wish, but none has ever won more than one reelection, and few make the attempt. The current President is Yooreeyogux, and he began his first term shortly after I departed for this star system. His second term will end later this year; although we will still be bound by his orders for another two and a half years, until orders from his successor begin to arrive."
"That's the executive arm of the Republic," Valderrama said, "but what about the legislative? Who makes your laws?"
"Our representatives have had many conversations with your officials about this concept," Hyong said, "because my people do not emphasize the distinction as much as Humans seem to. From what I have learned in our discussions, however, I would say that legislative power is spread across elements of the Republic. Most regulations and ordinances are the responsibility of individual worlds, which craft them in a variety of ways. But the President of the Republic also has some legislative power which he delegates to the managers of the bureaucracies. Most of these powers affect our Military, Treasury, and Schools, and their implementation is the responsibility of each system's Governor."
"So every Bat system has a Governor?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention. The Governors are appointed directly by the President and sent to each system of the Republic. The local government of a system may dismiss a Governor if he acts unfairly. The President must dispatch a new Governor immediately upon receiving such a notice, but the original Governor's decisions remain binding until the replacement arrives. The President's representative in this system, as I'm sure you know, is Governor Shyankyang, who was with the original colony fleet."
"Thank you, Mr. Yaheek," Valderrama said. "It's fascinating how your people have adapted to the challenges of governing an interstellar nation. If I may move off the subject to ask one more question, however. We know even less about the other species which have colonized our solar system. Since the Bats seem to have extensive contact with these other species, is there anything you can tell us about the governments or societies of the Charterlings, Kyhyex, or Tharn?"
Hyong considered his answer carefully before responding. Valderrama had hinted that he would ask about other species as well, but Hyong had less preparation.
"Well," he began, "the Charterlings are not governed as a Republic, they are ruled by single individual who is the offspring of a previous ruler."
"They're a monarchy," Valderrama offered.
"Yes, that is your word. There are fewer defined rules to their government than ours. Territories and businesses are managed by families which compete to offer tributes of children and wealth to the monarch in exchange for a number of rewards, usually some sort of status that offers breeding rights."
"Sounds like a feudal system to me."
"I'm not familiar with the term."
"Fair enough," Valderrama chuckled, "what about the Kyhyex?"
"It is probably best to say that the Kyhyex have no government," Hyong said after some hesitation. "Certainly the ones most familiar to you answer to no external authority. Some of their older systems surrounding the Republic's primary territory operate in a loosely organized fashion, but there is no consistent decision making structure or hierarchy. More than any other intelligent species we have encountered, the Kyhyex live to eat and multiply. Where they have any semblance of government, it's usually military-oriented and simply a more advanced reproductive strategy."
"But don't the Bats have an alliance with the Kyhyex?"
"Yes, although there is no signed treaty or official document to that effect. After the Charterlings stole the technology for faster than light travel from us and sold it to the Kyhyex, the Kyhyex's expansion became a terrible threat. We reached an arrangement to provide technical and logistical assistance to the Kyhyex in order to keep them out of our territory, and the policy has worked with few exceptions. The Charterlings came to no such arrangement, and instead went to war with the Kyhyex, and eventually with us as well."
"Well I hope it's a war we can stay out of," Valderrama said.
"Yes."
"All right, and what about the Tharn? We've had almost no meaningful contact with them since their arrival."
"I'm afraid I cannot help you. We know almost as little about the Tharn as you. There are only a handful of Tharn colonies within the Republic, and I have never been to any of those systems. There are a great deal more in Charterling space, but even before the war they seemed nearly as ignorant as we are."
"Well that's hardly any fun," Valderrama sighed. "I guess it's a mystery we'll have to live with a while longer. Mr. Yaheek I want to thank you for answering my questions, and now if you don't mind I'm going to let the students ask some of their own."
"Of course," Hyong said.
"All right then," Valderrama turned to his audience again. "Anyone out there who'd like to ask something, please just raise your hand. We'll ask you to step up to the microphone in the center here and tell Mr. Yaheek your name. Do please keep the questions respectful."
Hyong couldn't see any Humans raising their arms, but some must have been because after a short while Valderrama pointed off into the distance.
"Yes ma'am," he said, "come on up."
A few moments later a young Human female appeared at the bottom of the stage to stand in front of small black pole.
"Hello, my name is Gabriela Stevens," she said, and her voice was amplified by the same system that had enhanced Hyong's. "Mr. Yaheek, many of us around the world find it offensive that since your arrival in our solar system, government officials and the media have consistently referred to your people as 'Bats', essentially likening your species to an order of flying rodents here on Earth. We don't believe that Humanity ought to refer to other species by labels which give the impression you're nothing but unintelligent pests. Mr. Yaheek, my question is, what is the proper name you have for your own people?"
"Ah…" Hyong said. He turned to Eugene, "What was it that you said the word sounds like to you?"
"Like a wet cough," Eugene said pleasantly.
"Right," Hyong said. He spoke the name of his species in his native language. The young Human at the microphone looked horrified.
"We discovered shortly after first meeting your species that you were incapable of properly pronouncing the word. I don't believe any of my people are offended to be called Bats. I find the similarity of Earth bats to my species quite remarkable. Their existence has absolutely fascinated most of the biologists we brought with us. The ones I've spoken to called it a rare example of, um," he looked at Eugene, "something like different things growing to be the same after much time."
Eugene frowned. But a voice in the audience beyond the point that Hyong could see shouted, "Convergent evolution!"
"That sounds plausible," Hyong said to the mystery Human. He looked down at the girl who'd asked the question again, "Anyway, I'm not a biologist. But I can still appreciate the likeness."
"Thank you, Miss Stevens," Professor Valderrama said. The Human female turned and walked away quickly, looking down at her feet. "All right, next can be you, over there."
A Human male appeared at the microphone. "Hi, I'm Mario Rosales," he said, "and I'd like to know why the Bats didn't ask Humanity's permission—or even make contact with us—before you began colonizing the Solar system. Don't you think we should have the right to our own worlds?"
"You have your own world," Hyong said, a little annoyed by the Human's arrogance, "we have never attempted to take it from you. Nor do I believe we ever will, the outer planets of this system have far more valuable resources. And I do not believe that you had any claim to them when our colony arrived."
"We were here first," the Human at the microphone protested.
"On this planet," Hyong argued. "I am not aware that any Human has even yet travelled to any world beyond the asteroid belt. The outer worlds have been settled by others. I suppose you could challenge our claim to Saturn. But it would be a dishonorable thing to do, given our friendship, and we would defend our colony."
The young Human opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off by Professor Valderrama.
"And what about Mr. Rosales' other question?" the professor asked. "Why didn't the Bats contact Earth sooner?"
Hyong continued staring at the Human below the stage for a moment before answering. "I was not with the original colony," he said at last, "but I imagine it was simply not seen as a high priority. We were unaware of Humanity's existence before our arrival, and we needed time to study you before initiating contact. The first colonists clearly thought their time and resources were better spent establishing themselves in the beginning."
"I see," Valderrama said. He pointed into the audience again. "Okay, up front here, you seem to have been struck by something."
Another Human male hurried down the aisle and squeezed his way around Mario Rosales to take the microphone.
"Yes, professor," he said, "thanks. Ah, my name is Franklin Thayer, and I wanted to follow up on an issue Mario raised, Mr. Yaheek. Is there any sort of policy that the Bats and other races have for interacting with less advanced intelligent species? Like a Prime Directive from Star Trek?"
"I'm not familiar with—" Hyong started to say, turning to Eugene.
"Oh I'm sorry!" Franklin himself interjected. "Star Trek is a popular fiction series. The Prime Directive was a rule that forbade advanced civilizations from interfering in the development of primitive species—giving them technology and stuff."
"Oh," Hyong said. "No, there is no such rule. Intelligent life is a rare occurrence, my nation only knows of two intelligent species other than yours which do not possess any form of warp drive technology. All of you are on the fringes of the Republic and have never been a pressing concern for our central government. The colonial Governors are empowered to represent the Republic to those other species, and they have all used their own best judgment about the best manner of doing so. I don't really know much about the other cases, but my impression is that Humanity is probably the most advanced non-warp species known to the Republic, and we interact with you on a much higher level than the others."
"There are even more intelligent species that we don't know of?" Valderrama asked. "Can you tell us anything about them?"
Hyong shook his head, "I know one of them lives mostly underwater, but that's all. As I've said, they've never been of much concern to the Republic as a whole. Humanity itself is probably little-known among my people beyond this system and some obscure branches of the colonial bureaucracy on Karee."
"Well maybe we can change that in time," Valderrama said. He smiled and pointed at someone else, "You had your hand up before, come on up here."
A third Human male came to the microphone. "Hi! I'm sorry if this is tri—oh, sorry, I'm Daniel Paredes. Anyway, I guess this isn't as important as the other questions, but I've been wondering what Bat music sounds like. You do have music, right?"
Several people in the front rows of the audience turned to look at Daniel Paredes, who looked down at the floor.
"Yes…" Hyong said. He had to think for a moment about how exactly he ought to answer that question. The Humans almost certainly wouldn't care about the particulars of his answer, but his own superiors might if they ever saw a recording or read a transcript. They hadn't given him any specific instructions or guidelines about how to talk about the issue, but that was only because it hadn't occurred to them—or Hyong—that it might be an issue.
"You probably wouldn't like our music," Hyong answered finally. It was the safest response he could give which was still true. "Most of it is very fast and complex compared to what I've experienced of Human music. I understand Human music is generally designed to appeal to emotions or aesthetic senses. Ours tends to be composed to test and demonstrate intellectual abilities or skill at managing an instrument." Which only makes it painfully boring, Hyong didn't add.
"Huh," Daniel Paredes said, "well, thank you, Mr. Yaheek." He turned to walk back to his seat.
"Indeed," Valderrama said from his seat, "that's a far more insightful answer to the question than I anticipated. All right, how about you in the back there."
The next Human took a few moments to reach the microphone. She was a female of her species, and was wearing a device over her left eye that Hyong had never seen before. It clipped over her ear and bore some resemblance to the Humans' cell phones, but the eyepiece was unusually bulky. And most Humans seemed to prefer to remove their phone headsets when they weren't in active use, so he imagined this was likely to be a different sort of device.
The Human placed a hand on the microphone stand in front of her. "Hello Mr. Yaheek," she said, "my name is Lisa Anders, and I have a question about warp drive."
"I'm not sure how much help I can be then," Hyong said. "Even if I was permitted to tell you how it works, I couldn't. I'm not an engineer."
"Well I'm a physicist," Lisa answered, "or at least I study at the Physics department here. And I suppose I should say that I have a question about warp travel that I hope you can answer."
"I make no promises," Hyong told her.
"Fair enough," she said. "In any case, before the Bats and other aliens began showing up in the Solar System, most of physicists believed that it was actually impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. Clearly it is possible, but we don't have a scientific consensus about the how. The primary problem has been that all of our observations indicate that traveling faster than light, regardless of the method, is effectively a form of time travel. So your warp drives ought to be carrying you back into the past with the potential to alter future events that have already been observed. Are you familiar with this problem?"
Hyong thought for a moment. "Yes, that does sound familiar. As I said, I'm not a physicist, but I believe I remember something about time travel equivalence from my general education."
"So you do travel through time using warp drive?"
"That sounds right to me, yes."
The whole auditorium was silent for a moment. "How do you avoid causality problems, then?" Lisa asked.
"I don't know that term."
"How do you prevent history from being altered every time you travel faster than light?"
"This is really getting beyond my expertise," Hyong said. "But as I understand it, we don't."
"So you're telling us that the Bats and everyone else can just change the past at will?"
"I suppose that's implied," Hyong said slowly. "But why would you want to?"
Lisa Anders stared at him for a while. "You wouldn't want to use that to change events that you didn't like?"
"Well, wouldn't attempting to do that lead to impossible series of events?"
"Yes! That's the causality problem I was referring to. Time travel has a problem with historical paradoxes." She sounded frustrated.
"I'm sorry," Hyong said honestly, "but I really don't know enough to satisfy your curiosity about this matter. It seems to me that if it were possible to do the things you're worried about; it would make history and the present impossible to understand. Perhaps it is too difficult to achieve any precision to make such actions practical, but I am ignorant."
Lisa Anders opened and closed her mouth a few times without saying anything. Eventually she leaned forward and said, "Forgive my rudeness. Thank you for telling me what you could."
"I wish I knew more."
The Human female smiled, then shrugged and turned to walk back to her seat.
The auditorium was silent. Hyong turned to Professor Valderrama who was staring blankly at him. The professor blinked and shook his head, "Er, yes, sorry. You really threw me for one with time travel." He looked back out into the audience. "Who's next?"
Hyong settled back into his chair to await a new question.
* * *
"Any other questions?"
Xi Feng looked around the conference table. Commander Larssen raised a hand.
"When are we getting our final burn calculations from EarthCOM?" she asked. "I'd like to have my navigators check their math."
Larssen was the captain of the EFS Bermuda, which had a relatively green crew for her to put through their paces.
"They've promised me they'll deliver in the next few hours," Xi Feng said, "but I'll keep leaning on them. Do tell me if your navigators think they can do a better job."
"Of course, Commodore."
Xi Feng nodded, "Anyone else?"
She waited a moment, but none of the other 19 ship captains from Task Force One spoke.
"All right then," Xi Feng unfastened her harness and pushed herself out of her seat. "You're dismissed."
The rest of the Earth Fleet officers followed her out their chairs, and saluted. Xi Feng returned the gesture, allowing them to grab the handrails and carefully file their way out of the conference room. All of them except one.
Beside Xi Feng, Commander Casey Rukavina continued to hover over his chair, steadying himself with one hand on the bars above him. After the last of the other officers had filtered out and shut the door behind them, he turned to Xi Feng.
"You asked to wait around after the briefing?"
"I did, Commander," Xi Feng said. She gestured at the chairs they had just left, "Please, have a seat."
The two of them returned to the chairs—which were bolted to the floor of the conference room—and secured the harnesses that would hold them in. It was an operation Xi Feng had performed many times over the years, but Rukavina finished faster.
Xi Feng pulled her straps tight, then looked at the other officer. "So what did you think?"
"I think the Orinoco wasn't listed as part of the Task Force," Rukavina said cautiously.
"No it wasn't Commander," Xi Feng said. "The Orinoco will remain on station with First Fleet."
"So the obvious question is why did I sit through this briefing if my ship isn't a part of the mission?"
"Indeed," Xi Feng nodded. "Commander Rukavina, you are hereby relieved of command of the EFS Orinoco. You will report to your new assignment tomorrow, following your promotion to Captain."
"Um," Rukavina blinked, "thank you, Commodore. I can't say I was expecting a promotion so quickly."
"Both Captains Abdullah and Kinobe were very impressed with the way you handled your ship on Venus Station."
"Well there's not much to do out there except tinker with sensors, but I appreciate their praise. That still doesn't explain what I'm doing here; unless you're adding a ship to the flotilla?"
Xi Feng picked up the two manila paper envelopes that had been clipped down to the table in front of her. Both of them were marked by large red security stamps.
"I have two sets of orders here," Xi Feng said. She handed one of the envelopes to Rukavina. "This one is high security and explains your next assignment. You may only discuss the contents with cleared support staff and your senior officers."
Rukavina's brow furrowed as he took the envelope.
"You may set that aside for now."
The Commander looked at Xi Feng, but set the envelope onto the table under a pressure clip.
Xi Feng handed him the other envelope. "These are your real orders," she said. "The document inside was hand-typed on a secure computer, which was destroyed afterwards. You will be the fifth person to read it, after Chief Executive Molinas, Admiral Kozlov, the Admiral's personal secretary, and myself."
Xi Feng paused for a moment before continuing. Rukavina held the envelope in both hands, but made no move to open it.
"Admiral Kozlov retains the only other copy in existence. You will read this one here in this room, and you will not leave until you have committed the contents to memory. Once you have done so, I will destroy it. Understood?"
Rukavina nodded very slowly. "Yes, Commodore."
"All right," Xi Feng held his eyes for a moment, and then gestured to the envelope in his hands. "Please proceed."
Rukavina flipped open the top of the envelope and pulled out the single sheet of paper inside.