Post by Lorpius Prime on Jun 14, 2009 23:47:48 GMT -5
Hyong was waiting when they returned. Pascual pushed the door to the guest quarters open to find the Bat sitting at the conference table. He was wearing the eye patch device that he had worn during the conflict over the embassy; and he was staring intently at the claws of his left hand, which was stretched out in front of his face.
As soon as Pascual stepped into the room, however, Hyong took the device off his eye and stood up. Pascual frowned at the way he watched the Tadpoles enter the room.
"Ah," Pascual coughed, "Ambassador Rokden, you've already met Hyong Yaheek, but… Hyong these are Dr. Vurk and Dr. On—Onadunwe," Pascual stumbled as he tried to remember how to pronounce the Tadpole physician's name.
"Hello," Rokden said tersely. Hyong gave a slow nod.
There was an awkward silence before Onadunwe said, "Then you are the spy?"
Hyong hid his hands behind his back, and then turned towards her.
"I am here to observe," he said, "but there is nothing secret about my assignment."
"I mean that you are a member of your species' military, and that your role is to gather useful information about others."
Beside Onadunwe, Vurk's face twisted into an expression that Pascual could not interpret. The other two Tadpoles remained still and silent. Pascual shifted his weight uncomfortably.
Hyong answered, "I am an intelligence operative in the service of the Republic."
"Yes, then I am pleased. I have hoped to meet one of your soldiers."
This caused Vurk to gurgle something in his own language, and Rokden turned towards the two scientists, his own expression inscrutable. Onadunwe said something quickly in the same language, and then held up one hand, palm out towards Hyong.
"Hyong Yaheek," she said, "I wonder if I may challenge you to a game."
"Forty minutes to turnover, Commodore."
"Very well, Commander," Xi Feng said to the video image of her Executive Officer. "Wait five minutes, and then call the crew to stations. I'll meet you on the bridge."
"Yes, sir."
They both saluted. Xi Feng closed the connection, and then got up carefully from the desk in her cabin. Her uniform was slightly wrinkled in front, so she took a moment to straighten it.
Once that was done, Xi Feng inhaled deeply. Waiting to execute an operation always made her slightly nervous, especially if she was alone and didn't have to put on a show for anyone else. She had been fidgeting at her desk for the last hour or two, while making little progress reading through maintenance reports. She turned off her PDA and slipped it into a pocket.
It would take two to three minutes for Xi Feng to travel from her cabin to the bridge. She would have to be her usual calm, confident self once she arrived. She sighed one last time to calm her nerves, and then set her jaw.
When the harsh buzz of the shipboard alarm erupted out of speakers on the ceiling, Xi Feng didn't even blink. The voice of Lieutenant Raptis, the communications officer, echoed over the noise.
"General alarm! All crewmembers to their stations! Prepare for turnover maneuvers in thirty-four minutes! General alarm! All crewmembers to their stations! Prepare for turnover maneuvers in thirty-four minutes…"
Xi Feng pushed open the door to her cabin and stepped out into the hall.
They had to get a team of spacers to replace the chairs at the conference table. The original ones had solid back rests which made them impossible for the Tadpoles to use. Pascual felt like an idiot for not noticing immediately after entering the room for the first time. Rokden had shaken off his apologies, however, and the Barn Swallow's crew had attacked the problem with great enthusiasm. It took them less than ten minutes to transform four of the chairs into stools upon which the Tadpoles could sit comfortably.
Pascual was sitting at one end of the table, with the Tadpole engineer, Vurk, sitting at the corner seat on his left. Rokden and his assistant had excused themselves to their rooms, so Vurk and Pascual were watching Hyong and Onadunwe in the center of the conference table.
The two were playing Go. They had settled on it after several minutes' discussion with Pascual as he went through the Barn Swallow's library of simple board games. Pascual hadn't actually known how the game was played, but the rules were apparently quite simple—even if the strategy was not. Their game board was projected up on the big wall monitor, although Hyong and Onadunwe were actually interacting with PDAs they had laid on the table.
On the monitor, Pascual watched Onadunwe's black pieces swallow another chain of Hyong's white pieces. Hyong's wings twitched. The Bats apparently played a similar game among themselves, which was part of the reason Hyong had chosen this one. Onadunwe, on the other hand, claimed to have no experience of such a game, although she had agreed after Pascual read the rules summary. Hyong captured a—much smaller—chain of black pieces in retaliation. The board was about half filled now.
"I think she's making him angry," Pascual muttered. He'd intended the comment only for Vurk, but from the way Hyong's ears swiveled, Pascual knew he'd failed.
"I do not blame him," Vurk said. If Tadpoles were capable of whispering, then Vurk was not trying. "She has been looking for an opportunity to do this all her life. The way she talks, I have learned to avoid mentioning his species around her."
Onadunwe put down a new piece. It didn't capture anything, but it put another of Hyong's chains in an inescapable trap.
Pascual turned to Vurk, "Out of curiosity, what do you call them? The Bats?"
Vurk drew back his lips and made a harsh clicking noise with the back of his tongue.
"Uh…"
"It is the Charterling name for them," Vurk clarified. "We had very little direct contact ourselves."
"Hey, that's right," Pascual sat up and looked at Hyong, "I forgot to ask you where the Tadpoles were on your map."
"Later," Hyong growled. He hovered a claw over his PDA for a moment, before finally tapping the screen. Two more black pieces disappeared, but Onadunwe immediately captured five of Hyong's.
If his expression wasn't so amusing, Pascual might have felt sorry for Hyong.
He looked back at Vurk, "So does she have some particular grudge against the Bats? I know you don't get along, but this is the first time I've seen one of you challenge them to a duel."
"I was a soldier in a past life," Onadunwe said. It was one of the few things she'd said since starting the game.
"A past life?" Pascual filed this tidbit of information away for later reporting.
Vurk nodded, "She was a high-ranking commander in our fleet. And from the way she talks about it, you would think that was all she ever was."
"You're just intimidated."
"On the contrary," Vurk straightened up a little, "I think you're a much more accomplished individual now."
"I was a great leader!"
"You never fought any battles!"
"I oversaw the destruction of the ninety-second wave!"
"Kyhyex transports," Vurk said to Pascual. He turned back to Onadunwe, "I don't believe it counts unless they actually shoot back."
"So," Pascual interrupted, "this commander, was she a big hero?"
"He wasn't," Vurk said, "not really, although Onadunwe clearly thinks that's an oversight. She's actually likely to be much more famous for discovering the flaw in our habitat structures. But of course saving the colony hardly compares to shooting down a handful of unarmed transports."
Onadunwe started to turn around in her stool again, but stopped when Hyong dug his claws into the table surface across from her.
"As fascinating as this discussion is," the Bat hissed, "I would like my opponent to be able to concentrate on our contest. I am sure she would like to fully appreciate the outcome."
Everyone stopped talking and looked at Hyong as he tapped on the PDA to place another piece.
"I am going to win in twenty-seven moves," he said.
Onadunwe laughed, a short, deep barking noise. She turned back to her monitor, fully focused, and put down another piece, capturing four more of Hyong's pieces. Pascual raised an eyebrow, but could not follow the next few moves, because his phone rang.
"Excuse me," he said, and got up to walk back into his private room in the guest quarters.
His phone was currently part of the Barn Swallow's communications network, which meant that Pascual could take the call on the computer at his desk. He did so. It was Commander Sykes again.
"Hello, Ambassador," he said. "I wanted to let you know that we'll be starting our turnaround maneuvers in a little under ten minutes, now. I had the guest quarters excluded from the alarm in case you are discussing something important."
"Er…" Pascual grimaced, "yeah, thanks."
Sykes nodded, "Anyway, you're pretty much right on our axis, so you shouldn't feel too much rotational acceleration. You will lose apparent gravity for about five minutes before we reactivate the primaries, however. If you want to alert the rest of our guests yourself, I'll plug you back into the intercom for the ten-second warning."
"All right, Captain, I'll let them know. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Ambassador."
The connection died. Pascual rubbed the small of his back, which was sore from sitting with poor posture. He went back into the conference room.
"We're going to be turning over in about nine minutes," he told the room. "We won't have gravity for five minutes, and there may be some, uh, rotational acceleration, to the walls, I guess." Pascual gestured with his hands.
The game players and Vurk all acknowledged the warning, and Pascual knocked on Rokden's door to pass the message on to the Tadpole ambassador. Rokden did not open the door, but spoke through it to say that he had heard. Pascual wondered if he should ask someone to better soundproof the rooms.
Pascual sat back down at the table beside Vurk, and leaned forward on his palms. He glanced up at the Go board, but was not familiar enough with the game to know who was winning just from the image alone.
"So how about you, Dr. Vurk?" Pascual asked the Tadpole beside him. "Had any interesting past lives?"
"Oh no, this is my first," Vurk said, causing Pascual to snort. "And I must say, putting up with Onadunwe makes me think rebirth is overrated."
"Good," Onadunwe said, "then I won't have to tolerate you pestering me ever again once you're gone."
Both Vurk and Hyong muttered in their own languages, and neither of them sounded very pleasant. Pascual eyed both of them, and decided not to ask anymore questions for a while.
"Task Force One has begun turnover maneuvers," the Navigation Officer, Tara Lahiri, announced. "The Danube has cut primary engines and is turning. Uruguay is still six minutes from the mark, Commodore."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Xi Feng said. She called up the plot of the task force on the monitor at the end of her armrest.
Xi Feng had deployed the warships of Task Force One in a very rough cone around the noncombat ships. The Danube, one of her two Amazon-class destroyers and sensor platforms, was at the leading tip of the cone. Behind the Danube, Task Force One's other cruiser, the Lithuania, was at the head of the cluster of support vessels. Scattered around the edges of the formation were the other Amazon-class destroyer, the Congo, and five Luzon-class destroyers. The Uruguay was in the rear, capping the base of the cone. Each ship was spaced at least twenty kilometers away from any other ship.
"Lithuania has cut primary engines, Commodore," Lieutenant Lahiri said.
"Thank you, Lieutenant; I'll watch the progress on my monitor for now. Just tell me when we're approaching the mark."
"Aye, sir. Five minutes."
Xi Feng looked over her shoulder to her XO, "Everyone's at ready stations now, Commander?"
"Mostly," Hiram Wade nodded. "Engine Three is short a man, a spacer closed a hatch on his foot and broke it."
"How about our marines?"
"They've broken into teams and are assisting at guns one through eight."
"Think we could use them to fill the hole?"
"I think we should leave them right where they are. Fuchs says he'll be all right, and they're familiar with the gun compartments. They might get in the way somewhere else."
"Very well," Xi Feng nodded and turned back around. "Lieutenant Cheyo, are you prepared for the exercise?"
"Yes, sir," the Tactical Officer said, "the program is locked and loaded. Ready to execute on your order."
"And I hope you've triple-checked our gun loads?"
"Yes, sir. I did a visual inspection myself right before the alarm went up."
"Very good. Lieutenant Raptis?"
"Yes, sir?" the Communications Officer looked over his shoulder.
"When we hit the mark, you're going to sever all our outgoing communications with the rest of the task force. Understood?"
"Aye, sir. I've got my finger on the switch."
"Good."
Xi Feng was silent for a few moments, just listening to low hum of the workstations around her, and the bridge crew operating them.
"One minute to mark, Commodore."
Xi Feng touched a control on her chair. A red light appeared on her monitor.
"Attention crew," she said, "this is Commodore Lee. We are one minute from our mark. All hands prepare to commence exercise."
She touched the control again, and the red light disappeared. She turned her chair slightly to the left to glance at the Intelligence Officer.
"Predictions, Commander Donaldson?"
"I do not care to speculate, sir," he said.
Xi Feng frowned, but shook her head. At least she wouldn't have to wait long.
"Ten seconds to mark."
The Uruguay was now the only ship in Task Force One which had not cut its primary engines and engaged its thrusters to rotate around. Xi Feng squeezed the arms of her chair as she watched her flagship's marker approach the blue line on her monitor.
"Mark."
Xi Feng's head snapped up, her expression icy calm.
"Lieutenant Cheyo, execute program and," she added for effect, "fire."
As soon as Pascual stepped into the room, however, Hyong took the device off his eye and stood up. Pascual frowned at the way he watched the Tadpoles enter the room.
"Ah," Pascual coughed, "Ambassador Rokden, you've already met Hyong Yaheek, but… Hyong these are Dr. Vurk and Dr. On—Onadunwe," Pascual stumbled as he tried to remember how to pronounce the Tadpole physician's name.
"Hello," Rokden said tersely. Hyong gave a slow nod.
There was an awkward silence before Onadunwe said, "Then you are the spy?"
Hyong hid his hands behind his back, and then turned towards her.
"I am here to observe," he said, "but there is nothing secret about my assignment."
"I mean that you are a member of your species' military, and that your role is to gather useful information about others."
Beside Onadunwe, Vurk's face twisted into an expression that Pascual could not interpret. The other two Tadpoles remained still and silent. Pascual shifted his weight uncomfortably.
Hyong answered, "I am an intelligence operative in the service of the Republic."
"Yes, then I am pleased. I have hoped to meet one of your soldiers."
This caused Vurk to gurgle something in his own language, and Rokden turned towards the two scientists, his own expression inscrutable. Onadunwe said something quickly in the same language, and then held up one hand, palm out towards Hyong.
"Hyong Yaheek," she said, "I wonder if I may challenge you to a game."
* * *
"Forty minutes to turnover, Commodore."
"Very well, Commander," Xi Feng said to the video image of her Executive Officer. "Wait five minutes, and then call the crew to stations. I'll meet you on the bridge."
"Yes, sir."
They both saluted. Xi Feng closed the connection, and then got up carefully from the desk in her cabin. Her uniform was slightly wrinkled in front, so she took a moment to straighten it.
Once that was done, Xi Feng inhaled deeply. Waiting to execute an operation always made her slightly nervous, especially if she was alone and didn't have to put on a show for anyone else. She had been fidgeting at her desk for the last hour or two, while making little progress reading through maintenance reports. She turned off her PDA and slipped it into a pocket.
It would take two to three minutes for Xi Feng to travel from her cabin to the bridge. She would have to be her usual calm, confident self once she arrived. She sighed one last time to calm her nerves, and then set her jaw.
When the harsh buzz of the shipboard alarm erupted out of speakers on the ceiling, Xi Feng didn't even blink. The voice of Lieutenant Raptis, the communications officer, echoed over the noise.
"General alarm! All crewmembers to their stations! Prepare for turnover maneuvers in thirty-four minutes! General alarm! All crewmembers to their stations! Prepare for turnover maneuvers in thirty-four minutes…"
Xi Feng pushed open the door to her cabin and stepped out into the hall.
* * *
They had to get a team of spacers to replace the chairs at the conference table. The original ones had solid back rests which made them impossible for the Tadpoles to use. Pascual felt like an idiot for not noticing immediately after entering the room for the first time. Rokden had shaken off his apologies, however, and the Barn Swallow's crew had attacked the problem with great enthusiasm. It took them less than ten minutes to transform four of the chairs into stools upon which the Tadpoles could sit comfortably.
Pascual was sitting at one end of the table, with the Tadpole engineer, Vurk, sitting at the corner seat on his left. Rokden and his assistant had excused themselves to their rooms, so Vurk and Pascual were watching Hyong and Onadunwe in the center of the conference table.
The two were playing Go. They had settled on it after several minutes' discussion with Pascual as he went through the Barn Swallow's library of simple board games. Pascual hadn't actually known how the game was played, but the rules were apparently quite simple—even if the strategy was not. Their game board was projected up on the big wall monitor, although Hyong and Onadunwe were actually interacting with PDAs they had laid on the table.
On the monitor, Pascual watched Onadunwe's black pieces swallow another chain of Hyong's white pieces. Hyong's wings twitched. The Bats apparently played a similar game among themselves, which was part of the reason Hyong had chosen this one. Onadunwe, on the other hand, claimed to have no experience of such a game, although she had agreed after Pascual read the rules summary. Hyong captured a—much smaller—chain of black pieces in retaliation. The board was about half filled now.
"I think she's making him angry," Pascual muttered. He'd intended the comment only for Vurk, but from the way Hyong's ears swiveled, Pascual knew he'd failed.
"I do not blame him," Vurk said. If Tadpoles were capable of whispering, then Vurk was not trying. "She has been looking for an opportunity to do this all her life. The way she talks, I have learned to avoid mentioning his species around her."
Onadunwe put down a new piece. It didn't capture anything, but it put another of Hyong's chains in an inescapable trap.
Pascual turned to Vurk, "Out of curiosity, what do you call them? The Bats?"
Vurk drew back his lips and made a harsh clicking noise with the back of his tongue.
"Uh…"
"It is the Charterling name for them," Vurk clarified. "We had very little direct contact ourselves."
"Hey, that's right," Pascual sat up and looked at Hyong, "I forgot to ask you where the Tadpoles were on your map."
"Later," Hyong growled. He hovered a claw over his PDA for a moment, before finally tapping the screen. Two more black pieces disappeared, but Onadunwe immediately captured five of Hyong's.
If his expression wasn't so amusing, Pascual might have felt sorry for Hyong.
He looked back at Vurk, "So does she have some particular grudge against the Bats? I know you don't get along, but this is the first time I've seen one of you challenge them to a duel."
"I was a soldier in a past life," Onadunwe said. It was one of the few things she'd said since starting the game.
"A past life?" Pascual filed this tidbit of information away for later reporting.
Vurk nodded, "She was a high-ranking commander in our fleet. And from the way she talks about it, you would think that was all she ever was."
"You're just intimidated."
"On the contrary," Vurk straightened up a little, "I think you're a much more accomplished individual now."
"I was a great leader!"
"You never fought any battles!"
"I oversaw the destruction of the ninety-second wave!"
"Kyhyex transports," Vurk said to Pascual. He turned back to Onadunwe, "I don't believe it counts unless they actually shoot back."
"So," Pascual interrupted, "this commander, was she a big hero?"
"He wasn't," Vurk said, "not really, although Onadunwe clearly thinks that's an oversight. She's actually likely to be much more famous for discovering the flaw in our habitat structures. But of course saving the colony hardly compares to shooting down a handful of unarmed transports."
Onadunwe started to turn around in her stool again, but stopped when Hyong dug his claws into the table surface across from her.
"As fascinating as this discussion is," the Bat hissed, "I would like my opponent to be able to concentrate on our contest. I am sure she would like to fully appreciate the outcome."
Everyone stopped talking and looked at Hyong as he tapped on the PDA to place another piece.
"I am going to win in twenty-seven moves," he said.
Onadunwe laughed, a short, deep barking noise. She turned back to her monitor, fully focused, and put down another piece, capturing four more of Hyong's pieces. Pascual raised an eyebrow, but could not follow the next few moves, because his phone rang.
"Excuse me," he said, and got up to walk back into his private room in the guest quarters.
His phone was currently part of the Barn Swallow's communications network, which meant that Pascual could take the call on the computer at his desk. He did so. It was Commander Sykes again.
"Hello, Ambassador," he said. "I wanted to let you know that we'll be starting our turnaround maneuvers in a little under ten minutes, now. I had the guest quarters excluded from the alarm in case you are discussing something important."
"Er…" Pascual grimaced, "yeah, thanks."
Sykes nodded, "Anyway, you're pretty much right on our axis, so you shouldn't feel too much rotational acceleration. You will lose apparent gravity for about five minutes before we reactivate the primaries, however. If you want to alert the rest of our guests yourself, I'll plug you back into the intercom for the ten-second warning."
"All right, Captain, I'll let them know. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Ambassador."
The connection died. Pascual rubbed the small of his back, which was sore from sitting with poor posture. He went back into the conference room.
"We're going to be turning over in about nine minutes," he told the room. "We won't have gravity for five minutes, and there may be some, uh, rotational acceleration, to the walls, I guess." Pascual gestured with his hands.
The game players and Vurk all acknowledged the warning, and Pascual knocked on Rokden's door to pass the message on to the Tadpole ambassador. Rokden did not open the door, but spoke through it to say that he had heard. Pascual wondered if he should ask someone to better soundproof the rooms.
Pascual sat back down at the table beside Vurk, and leaned forward on his palms. He glanced up at the Go board, but was not familiar enough with the game to know who was winning just from the image alone.
"So how about you, Dr. Vurk?" Pascual asked the Tadpole beside him. "Had any interesting past lives?"
"Oh no, this is my first," Vurk said, causing Pascual to snort. "And I must say, putting up with Onadunwe makes me think rebirth is overrated."
"Good," Onadunwe said, "then I won't have to tolerate you pestering me ever again once you're gone."
Both Vurk and Hyong muttered in their own languages, and neither of them sounded very pleasant. Pascual eyed both of them, and decided not to ask anymore questions for a while.
* * *
"Task Force One has begun turnover maneuvers," the Navigation Officer, Tara Lahiri, announced. "The Danube has cut primary engines and is turning. Uruguay is still six minutes from the mark, Commodore."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Xi Feng said. She called up the plot of the task force on the monitor at the end of her armrest.
Xi Feng had deployed the warships of Task Force One in a very rough cone around the noncombat ships. The Danube, one of her two Amazon-class destroyers and sensor platforms, was at the leading tip of the cone. Behind the Danube, Task Force One's other cruiser, the Lithuania, was at the head of the cluster of support vessels. Scattered around the edges of the formation were the other Amazon-class destroyer, the Congo, and five Luzon-class destroyers. The Uruguay was in the rear, capping the base of the cone. Each ship was spaced at least twenty kilometers away from any other ship.
"Lithuania has cut primary engines, Commodore," Lieutenant Lahiri said.
"Thank you, Lieutenant; I'll watch the progress on my monitor for now. Just tell me when we're approaching the mark."
"Aye, sir. Five minutes."
Xi Feng looked over her shoulder to her XO, "Everyone's at ready stations now, Commander?"
"Mostly," Hiram Wade nodded. "Engine Three is short a man, a spacer closed a hatch on his foot and broke it."
"How about our marines?"
"They've broken into teams and are assisting at guns one through eight."
"Think we could use them to fill the hole?"
"I think we should leave them right where they are. Fuchs says he'll be all right, and they're familiar with the gun compartments. They might get in the way somewhere else."
"Very well," Xi Feng nodded and turned back around. "Lieutenant Cheyo, are you prepared for the exercise?"
"Yes, sir," the Tactical Officer said, "the program is locked and loaded. Ready to execute on your order."
"And I hope you've triple-checked our gun loads?"
"Yes, sir. I did a visual inspection myself right before the alarm went up."
"Very good. Lieutenant Raptis?"
"Yes, sir?" the Communications Officer looked over his shoulder.
"When we hit the mark, you're going to sever all our outgoing communications with the rest of the task force. Understood?"
"Aye, sir. I've got my finger on the switch."
"Good."
Xi Feng was silent for a few moments, just listening to low hum of the workstations around her, and the bridge crew operating them.
"One minute to mark, Commodore."
Xi Feng touched a control on her chair. A red light appeared on her monitor.
"Attention crew," she said, "this is Commodore Lee. We are one minute from our mark. All hands prepare to commence exercise."
She touched the control again, and the red light disappeared. She turned her chair slightly to the left to glance at the Intelligence Officer.
"Predictions, Commander Donaldson?"
"I do not care to speculate, sir," he said.
Xi Feng frowned, but shook her head. At least she wouldn't have to wait long.
"Ten seconds to mark."
The Uruguay was now the only ship in Task Force One which had not cut its primary engines and engaged its thrusters to rotate around. Xi Feng squeezed the arms of her chair as she watched her flagship's marker approach the blue line on her monitor.
"Mark."
Xi Feng's head snapped up, her expression icy calm.
"Lieutenant Cheyo, execute program and," she added for effect, "fire."