Post by Lorpius Prime on Jul 31, 2012 2:12:26 GMT -5
In Eduard Molinas' professional opinion, deception was always the best method for maintaining information secrecy. The best hidden secrets were the ones no one ever knew to look for at all.
Unfortunately, that sort of con became much harder when one assumed high level political office. As President of Mexico Eduard had had to assume that all his movements and communications were the subject of intense interest and scrutiny by dozens of foreign intelligence agencies, plus his own domestic enemies, reporters, and even the occasional excessively devoted fan. But as Chief Executive of the Organization of Earth States, he had to add advanced alien races employing unknown technology to that list. The counter-intelligence reports Eduard had read over the past two years usually alternated between tones of frantic paranoia and utter despair.
The "clean" rooms in Earth Fleet headquarters under the Venezuelan Coastal Range were not as secured as the paranoiacs could have made them. Eduard drew the line at plucking out all his hair and spending days bathing in caustic chemicals before he could have a confidential conversation. Still, the rooms were very hardened against unwelcome observation.
Eduard closed the last door of the airlock mechanism behind him, and waited for the wholly mechanical indicator to tell him that the machinery which physically separated the room from its surroundings had run its course.
He turned around to eye Lavrentiy Kozlov, already seated in one of the room's fixed chairs.
"So what does she know?" Eduard asked.
"Formally, nothing," the Admiral of Earth Fleet said. "But she's a bright kid, and she's been Commodore Lee's secretary for the past two months. So more likely than not she's picked up on a few things."
Eduard's eyes darted to another, empty chair next to Lavrentiy. The last time they had both been in this room, that other seat had been occupied by the Admiral's secretary. Now it was just the two of them.
"Do you think we're compromised?"
"There are so many unknowns, I can't answer with anything firmer than gut instinct," Lavrentiy told him.
"Understood. Still, I want your impression."
"I think we're safe," Kozlov said. "I think that's the Commodore's belief as well, or she would have said something in her message."
Eduard nodded, then chewed on his tongue a little as he thought.
"We can still abort," the Admiral noted. "We'll have that option even up to the last day, probably without consequence."
"No," Eduard took a deep breath, and looked Admiral Kozlov in the eyes again. "No, we'll keep with the original decision. No time for cold feet." He forced a weak smile.
Lavrentiy held his gaze for just a moment before speaking. "Aye aye, Mr. Chief Executive," he said as he stood up and saluted. Then he nodded towards the airlock. "Would you care to flip the indicator? I can't stand being in this place any better than you."
Eduard sighed with relief, and didn't care how audible the noise was.
"So the Kekregka are parasites?"
"At least some sort of symbiotic organism, it would appear."
Arreyux Goyeharg looked down from his perch near the top of his office. Yenga Goying remained standing placidly just in front of the entrance. She probably thought the perch was a pointless extravagance to have installed in the Ambassador's working space. Well, it certainly was an extravagance; but Arreyux did not consider it pointless at all.
"And one has now infected a crewman of the Humans' expedition?" the Ambassador asked.
"That is what I have just explained, yes."
Arreyux gave his intelligence advisor a sour look, though probably not one she could see from this angle.
"Is there a danger of contagion?"
"The Humans are now enforcing stricter biological security procedures, but Operative Yaheek believes it is mostly a precaution. His assessment is that the Humans believe it was a highly improbable fluke. He is uncertain about the validity of that conclusion, but is not privy to all the information the Humans have, nor is he an expert in either species' biology."
Yenga adjusted her gaze slightly upward, "I am reviewing and updating our own information base on the Humans' biology, but at this moment my impression is that we simply don't have enough data about the Kekregka to draw any firm conclusions."
Arreyux made an affirmative gesture. "What about the risk to us? Is Yaheek himself safe?"
He thought he saw Yenga's furled wings tremble slightly, but it could have just been a play of shadows as she shifted her weight between legs.
"We can't know with much more certainty than we can about the Humans," she said. "Operative Yaheek says he will attempt to gather some samples, but it may take some time, and he may not have the means to examine them immediately."
Arreyux was silent for a few moments. He popped the joints of his right arm out of the sockets which locked the limb in place. Then he scratched at the underside of his chin.
"Ambassador?"
He let himself fall completely free of the perch, then executed a precise flip to land on directly in front of Yenga. It was a natural maneuver for his species, but he was still not all that practiced in the higher gravity of this planet. He felt a little swell of pride at having pulled it off successfully as he straightened up before his intelligence advisor. She tensed visibly, but did not back away.
"I believe I instructed you to call me Arreyux, didn't I?"
Yenga started to bare her teeth at him, but quickly closed her mouth and just glared.
Arreyux went on, "Considering the circumstances, perhaps we ought to request this information from the Kekregka ourselves, directly. Don't you agree?"
"I do not believe they would agree," Yenga answered in a low voice.
Arreyux leaned in slightly, close enough that if Yenga lifted her chin, their snouts would almost touch.
"Maybe not," he said. Then he turned on one foot and walked back towards his desk. He settled into the chair behind it and started calling up his official communications program on the office computer.
"Still," he went on, while his subordinate remained standing by his doorway, "it is the right thing to do, after all. And I'm sure Operative Yaheek will agree when he receives my instructions to present the request."
Yenga said nothing, and Arreyux decided that he would let her fume in place for a few minutes before dismissing her. He began dictating his message.
Pascual was sitting at the edge of his bed and rubbing the sleep from his eyes when two warm arms went over his shoulders and crossed themselves atop his stomach.
"Getting up already?" Nadia Yatskaya murmured.
Pascual nodded. "Shuttle's in ninety minutes," he suppressed a yawn.
Nadia leaned her head against the back of Pascual's neck so that he could feel her jaw move as she spoke. "For the Tadpoles' ship?"
"Yeah, don't want to miss the tour," he said, as if there was any way they'd go on without him.
"Mmm," Nadia scooted down the bed and plopped her chin onto his shoulder. "Take me with you?"
Pascual reached back and squeezed one of her thighs. "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble for going AWOL."
She raised one hand and gently patted his belly. "Actually," she said, her voice filling out to its normal tones, "Colonel Borzakov wants me to come along anyway. I just thought it'd be nice of you to invite me."
He tilted his head to get a view of her forehead and the short blonde hair that was tickling his ear. "Why? Are you trying to scout out their capabilities or something?"
The marine lieutenant pulled back without actually releasing her hug. "Never hurts to be prepared," her lips curled into a slight grin.
Despite the time they'd spent together over the past few weeks, Pascual realized he had never actually looked into her eyes from this close up before. Their color was gray-green, but the irises had an unusual texture to them. They were perfectly flat, without any of the depth and irregular striations that one could see in natural eyes. If Pascual couldn't see them adjusting to the light, he might have thought she was wearing contact lenses with a false color painted on.
He considered asking about them, but couldn't think of a way to do it that didn't sound awkward.
Instead, he said, "Well if the Colonel ordered it; I guess I'll just have to find some way to enjoy spending the day out with a pretty woman." She pinched him, but he ignored it, "We should get ready, though."
She practically somersaulted out of bed and was halfway across the little apartment before Pascual could even turn his head.
"I call shower first!"
Pascual sighed and lay back down. He stretched his arms out over the top of his head and tried to ignore the unpleasant, guilty feeling stirring deep within his gut.
Unfortunately, that sort of con became much harder when one assumed high level political office. As President of Mexico Eduard had had to assume that all his movements and communications were the subject of intense interest and scrutiny by dozens of foreign intelligence agencies, plus his own domestic enemies, reporters, and even the occasional excessively devoted fan. But as Chief Executive of the Organization of Earth States, he had to add advanced alien races employing unknown technology to that list. The counter-intelligence reports Eduard had read over the past two years usually alternated between tones of frantic paranoia and utter despair.
The "clean" rooms in Earth Fleet headquarters under the Venezuelan Coastal Range were not as secured as the paranoiacs could have made them. Eduard drew the line at plucking out all his hair and spending days bathing in caustic chemicals before he could have a confidential conversation. Still, the rooms were very hardened against unwelcome observation.
Eduard closed the last door of the airlock mechanism behind him, and waited for the wholly mechanical indicator to tell him that the machinery which physically separated the room from its surroundings had run its course.
He turned around to eye Lavrentiy Kozlov, already seated in one of the room's fixed chairs.
"So what does she know?" Eduard asked.
"Formally, nothing," the Admiral of Earth Fleet said. "But she's a bright kid, and she's been Commodore Lee's secretary for the past two months. So more likely than not she's picked up on a few things."
Eduard's eyes darted to another, empty chair next to Lavrentiy. The last time they had both been in this room, that other seat had been occupied by the Admiral's secretary. Now it was just the two of them.
"Do you think we're compromised?"
"There are so many unknowns, I can't answer with anything firmer than gut instinct," Lavrentiy told him.
"Understood. Still, I want your impression."
"I think we're safe," Kozlov said. "I think that's the Commodore's belief as well, or she would have said something in her message."
Eduard nodded, then chewed on his tongue a little as he thought.
"We can still abort," the Admiral noted. "We'll have that option even up to the last day, probably without consequence."
"No," Eduard took a deep breath, and looked Admiral Kozlov in the eyes again. "No, we'll keep with the original decision. No time for cold feet." He forced a weak smile.
Lavrentiy held his gaze for just a moment before speaking. "Aye aye, Mr. Chief Executive," he said as he stood up and saluted. Then he nodded towards the airlock. "Would you care to flip the indicator? I can't stand being in this place any better than you."
Eduard sighed with relief, and didn't care how audible the noise was.
* * *
"So the Kekregka are parasites?"
"At least some sort of symbiotic organism, it would appear."
Arreyux Goyeharg looked down from his perch near the top of his office. Yenga Goying remained standing placidly just in front of the entrance. She probably thought the perch was a pointless extravagance to have installed in the Ambassador's working space. Well, it certainly was an extravagance; but Arreyux did not consider it pointless at all.
"And one has now infected a crewman of the Humans' expedition?" the Ambassador asked.
"That is what I have just explained, yes."
Arreyux gave his intelligence advisor a sour look, though probably not one she could see from this angle.
"Is there a danger of contagion?"
"The Humans are now enforcing stricter biological security procedures, but Operative Yaheek believes it is mostly a precaution. His assessment is that the Humans believe it was a highly improbable fluke. He is uncertain about the validity of that conclusion, but is not privy to all the information the Humans have, nor is he an expert in either species' biology."
Yenga adjusted her gaze slightly upward, "I am reviewing and updating our own information base on the Humans' biology, but at this moment my impression is that we simply don't have enough data about the Kekregka to draw any firm conclusions."
Arreyux made an affirmative gesture. "What about the risk to us? Is Yaheek himself safe?"
He thought he saw Yenga's furled wings tremble slightly, but it could have just been a play of shadows as she shifted her weight between legs.
"We can't know with much more certainty than we can about the Humans," she said. "Operative Yaheek says he will attempt to gather some samples, but it may take some time, and he may not have the means to examine them immediately."
Arreyux was silent for a few moments. He popped the joints of his right arm out of the sockets which locked the limb in place. Then he scratched at the underside of his chin.
"Ambassador?"
He let himself fall completely free of the perch, then executed a precise flip to land on directly in front of Yenga. It was a natural maneuver for his species, but he was still not all that practiced in the higher gravity of this planet. He felt a little swell of pride at having pulled it off successfully as he straightened up before his intelligence advisor. She tensed visibly, but did not back away.
"I believe I instructed you to call me Arreyux, didn't I?"
Yenga started to bare her teeth at him, but quickly closed her mouth and just glared.
Arreyux went on, "Considering the circumstances, perhaps we ought to request this information from the Kekregka ourselves, directly. Don't you agree?"
"I do not believe they would agree," Yenga answered in a low voice.
Arreyux leaned in slightly, close enough that if Yenga lifted her chin, their snouts would almost touch.
"Maybe not," he said. Then he turned on one foot and walked back towards his desk. He settled into the chair behind it and started calling up his official communications program on the office computer.
"Still," he went on, while his subordinate remained standing by his doorway, "it is the right thing to do, after all. And I'm sure Operative Yaheek will agree when he receives my instructions to present the request."
Yenga said nothing, and Arreyux decided that he would let her fume in place for a few minutes before dismissing her. He began dictating his message.
* * *
Pascual was sitting at the edge of his bed and rubbing the sleep from his eyes when two warm arms went over his shoulders and crossed themselves atop his stomach.
"Getting up already?" Nadia Yatskaya murmured.
Pascual nodded. "Shuttle's in ninety minutes," he suppressed a yawn.
Nadia leaned her head against the back of Pascual's neck so that he could feel her jaw move as she spoke. "For the Tadpoles' ship?"
"Yeah, don't want to miss the tour," he said, as if there was any way they'd go on without him.
"Mmm," Nadia scooted down the bed and plopped her chin onto his shoulder. "Take me with you?"
Pascual reached back and squeezed one of her thighs. "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble for going AWOL."
She raised one hand and gently patted his belly. "Actually," she said, her voice filling out to its normal tones, "Colonel Borzakov wants me to come along anyway. I just thought it'd be nice of you to invite me."
He tilted his head to get a view of her forehead and the short blonde hair that was tickling his ear. "Why? Are you trying to scout out their capabilities or something?"
The marine lieutenant pulled back without actually releasing her hug. "Never hurts to be prepared," her lips curled into a slight grin.
Despite the time they'd spent together over the past few weeks, Pascual realized he had never actually looked into her eyes from this close up before. Their color was gray-green, but the irises had an unusual texture to them. They were perfectly flat, without any of the depth and irregular striations that one could see in natural eyes. If Pascual couldn't see them adjusting to the light, he might have thought she was wearing contact lenses with a false color painted on.
He considered asking about them, but couldn't think of a way to do it that didn't sound awkward.
Instead, he said, "Well if the Colonel ordered it; I guess I'll just have to find some way to enjoy spending the day out with a pretty woman." She pinched him, but he ignored it, "We should get ready, though."
She practically somersaulted out of bed and was halfway across the little apartment before Pascual could even turn his head.
"I call shower first!"
Pascual sighed and lay back down. He stretched his arms out over the top of his head and tried to ignore the unpleasant, guilty feeling stirring deep within his gut.