by S A Pavli
“We are connected through to all remaining Emra,” he announced, “via our conference facilities.”
“Please explain Emra,” said Commra after a puzzled look.
“The Dansai are ruled by a council of leaders called Emra, drawn from the thirty leading families in our Federation of five planets.” said Tozak. “I am the head of the my family and the leader of the Congress.”
“I see,” said Commra. “So these are hereditary positions? Not elected?” There was a pause while the computer translated.
“No translation for the word ‘elected’,” it whispered in our ears.
“Selected by popular mandate,” said Commra. There was a further pause.
“No translation for ‘popular mandate’” said the computer.
“Selected by the people,” I added. The translation proceeded and Tozak grunted his understanding.
“Such foolish ideas were abandoned thousands of years ago,” he declared.
We made no comment.
“Tell us about your civilisation,” said Tozak.
******
That evening, after we had all settled into our individual rooms, we gathered in a common lounge area to discuss the day. Dinner was scheduled for later in the evening and we had arranged for some of our food to be transported to the palace from our ship. The meeting with the Dansai leaders had dragged on for a number of hours with questions coming thick and fast from both sides. In the end we both agreed to create a fact file to be uploaded to our separate AIs for us to study at our leisure. We were of course careful not to reveal the location of our home systems.
I could see that many of the Dansai were, understandably, hugely excited by our presence. There was much discussion between them, which our AI did not translate. But Tozak, and a few of his obvious henchmen were more reserved and I could not help wondering why.
As our discussion proceeded it became apparent that our early impressions of the Dansai was not very positive. Their society seemed at odds with their level of technological progress, and their nature seemed humourless and somewhat dour and secretive. But we decided that such early impressions were sure to be inaccurate and we should not be unfair to our hosts.
A trio of escorts arrived to take us to the dining room for our evening meal. Following them through the palace I was suddenly struck by the lack of automation. Our escorts were Dansai, as were most of the staff in the Palace. There were very few robots in evidence and those that we did see were basic cleaning and serving robots. Clearly their AI and robotics technology was not very advanced.
A long table was filled with dishes of food, our own rations from the ship laid out at one end. As we progressed through the meal, conversation was made, but in a stilted fashion, the Dansai waiting for Tozak to take the lead.
The Dansai were not averse to alcohol, we had that much in common. As a result things loosened up somewhat. Tara and the other female members of the Dansai delegation became more animated and there were even a few tight smiles. I remembered an old jape, “a German joke is no laughing matter”, and thought that to paraphrase it as “ a Dansai joke …” would not be inaccurate.
Later in the evening I noticed Tara and a couple of the female delegates deep in conversation with Manera and Cora. The female mafia at work I thought with a chuckle. But I was pleased. We needed to make some connection with these people and any avenue was welcome.
The party went on late and we were even treated to some Dansai music. It seemed somewhat Eastern to my ear, the chords and harmonies a little unfamiliar. But not unpleasant. We retired to our rooms in a reasonably amicable atmosphere. The ice appeared to be, if not broken, at least starting to crack.
Lying in bed with my beautiful partner afterwards I asked her how she had got on with ‘the girls’. She gave me a little secret smile and snuggled closer, her silky skin caressing mine, firm curves of her body sliding against me. I breathed in her warm fragrant smell and gave a growl of appreciation.
“You are trying to distract me. And succeeding.”
“You are very easy to distract.”
“Only by you, sweet one . So did you learn anything?”
“I think Tara was reluctant to reveal too much but, reading between the lines as you Humans say, there is dissention. Some Dansai are tired of war. They are hoping that we can help.”
“What do they know about what Tozak called the Engineers?”
“It is an ancient legend,” replied Manera. “That star travellers visited their planet in the distant past. And engineered their DNA to make them what they are. But there is no evidence.”
“Well, similar so called legends existed on Earth long before we made contact with Hianja,” I said.
“Tara told me that they have sent expeditions into the cluster and discovered the remnants of other civilisations, long destroyed by climate change,” continued Manera. “But they came up against the Saraya and stopped exploring.”
“I would not want to stop exploring,” I said.
“I can see that…” she said, her hot breath tickling my ear, as the firm curves of her body slid over mine.
Chapter 9
Next morning, we had breakfast of coffee and ship’s rations in the dining room, but without the presence of any Dansai. After breakfast we had a conference call with our fellow crew members on the Settang. Hamolatonen expressed the view that we could not move on to the centre of the cluster to find the Makers until the Earth expedition arrived, and we all agreed. He pointed out that the Earth expedition will not arrive for two weeks, and suggested we rotate the team on planet for the sake of variety. We agreed to stay for a couple more days.
Tozak and a couple of his acolytes, with the a large military escort, appeared when we were finished.
“We have a suggestion for you,” he began. “We want your help to repel the Saraya war fleet. You are Dansai like us and you should help us against the common enemy.” There was a shocked silence. We looked at each other and I could see consternation in everyone’s face. Except for Cora of course, who looked impassive as usual. Commra looked flustered and I caught his eye and shook my head, almost imperceptibly, but enough for him to notice.
“Er… it is not our …er, policy, to get involved in military conflict,” he said.
“But we can talk to the Saraya,” I suggested. “We may be able to come to some agreement.”
“We don’t want an agreement with them,” said Tozak, “We want to exterminate them.”
“We cannot help you to exterminate another species,” said Commra firmly. “And I suggest you desist from such thought mister Chairman.”
“If you don’t want to get your soft hands dirty,“ sneered Tozak, “then give us your AG technology. We can build ships that will make us invincible.”
“We do not have the authority to give away technical information,” said Commra. “We are an exploration and first contact mission only.”
“If you do not have the authority to give it away, then we will take it.” Tozak nodded to his military commander who barked out an order. His men moved around us, their guns threatening. Manera moved closer to me and I put a protective arm around her.
“Tozak, our commander is on the mothership. He will never agree to what you want,” I said loudly.
“Perhaps he will agree when I start killing you one at a time. Starting with you.” He scowled at me.
I was about to challenge him when I was pushed to one side and Manera stepped in front of me.
“Let us discuss it with our commander,” she said.
“Better still, persuade him,” said Tozak forcefully. He turned to his military commander. “Take them to their rooms and make sure they are well guarded. I will return in one stran and expect an answer.”
We were hustled out and back to our rooms. Manera pulled me to one side, grabbed my arms and looked me in the eyes.
“Do not try to be a hero mister Earthman,” she said. “Getting yourself killed will not get us out of here.”
&
nbsp; “Sorry love,” I said contritely. “I… er… will try to keep my heroic tendencies under control.”
“Just see that you do,” she said with a glare from twin laser blue orbs.
We gathered in the common lounge and established an audio connection to the Settang.
“Bad news Guardian,” began Commra.
“I have been receiving feed from Cora, via the ship.” said Hamolatonen. “This is a disaster. This character will carry out his threats.”
“What can we do to persuade him?” asked Commra, He looked frightened and I could understand why. I was sure that Hamolatonen was correct. Tozak would start killing us one at a time, starting with me. He had nothing to lose.
“Tozak will start off by killing one of us,” I said. “Probably me, since I crossed him, or maybe the Guardian, because he is the leader.” Commra blanched and found a chair to sit down. “By the time he realises we won’t budge, we may all be dead.”
“Well, thanks for that Paul,” said Hamolatonen with heavy irony. “Do you have any positive suggestions?”
“We have to escape,” I said.
“This place is teeming with soldiers,” said Commander Pariso. “And we have no arms.”
“We have a secret weapon,” I said. They all looked at me with blank expressions. “And it’s not my irresistible charm.” This was treated with silence and an ironic look from Manera. “It’s Cora.”
Commra frowned impatiently.
“What can Cora do on her own?”
“The Dansai think she is a female. If we can get her alone with Tozak under some pretext … I’ve seen him looking at her. She may be able to overpower him. Take him hostage and negotiate our release.” There was silence while they pondered the idea.
“I have seen him casting lustful looks in my direction,” said Cora. I tried not to chuckle at her simple and literal statement. “I could allow him to be alone with me for the purposes of seduction. That will be an opportunity to take him hostage.”
“But he is going to want an answer from us,” said Commra. “Before any … seduction … can take place.”
“We can tell him we agree to support the Dansai forces,” I said. “But we have to sit down together and hammer out a military strategy. That will take a few days, and in the meantime, Cora can give him the come on. He gets our military help, and a new girlfriend. He won’t be able to resist.”
“Hmm, yes,” said Commander Pariso thoughtfully. “And it will give us the time to work on our escape plan. That will not be easy.”
“What is the ‘come on’?” asked Cora. “I can guess, but I am not sure how it works.”
“Perhaps Captain Constantine can help you,” said Manera with an impish smile. “He seems very knowledgeable about these things.”
“I think you girls can get together later,” I said hastily.
Commra cleared his throat and we all gave him our attention.
“What if he asks for a demonstration of our good faith,” he said. “He looks like a suspicious bastard.”
This was a good point and there was silence while we considered it.
“We cannot take sides on this dispute,” Hamolatonen reminded us firmly.
“Well, it’s not just a dispute. The Saraya have blockaded this planet and are attacking the centres of population. Thousands of civilians are dying,” Commra replied.
“I did not intend to minimise the situation,” said Hamolatonen, his annoyance evident on his face. “But legally, we will have to answer to the Guardian Council when we return.”
“When we return? At this point, it is a case of if we return,” said Commra, with a meaningful look around him.
I had to confess that they both had a point. But if it was a case of break the law, or die, the answer seemed clear! Manera had the same thought.
“I think the Council will forgive us breaking the law if it means our own survival,” she said. “And in any case, the Saraya are the aggressive party here. Morally, we have a duty to help the victims.”
“Yeah, it just grates to be threatened into it,” I said. “Had Tozak asked nicely and negotiated some limited support from us, we would be happy to provide it.”
“I just wonder if he has the support of the, what did he call it? The ruling council, the Ram-Tela?” asked Manera.
“That is a good point,” I said. A thought occurred and I turned to Cora. “Cora, are you able to communicate with Tara Con Sata?”
“I can connect into their communications network,” she said. “But I do not have her identity.”
“I do,” said Manera. I looked at her curiously and she grinned. “The female mafia,” she said. I remembered how many times Manera and Tara had huddled together talking quietly.
“Good work.” I gave her an approving look.
“And we can just call her on this,” said Manera, walking over to the comms unit on the table. It was fairly basic, with a small 2D screen and a keyboard. She punched in a number and we waited apprehensively.
“Manera, what is going on?” There was a blurred indistinct picture on the small screen, which materialised into Tara’s out of focus face. “You are calling from the Palace?”
“Yes, we are being held prisoner,” said Manera.
“Prisoners? What? What do you mean?” It was hard to see any expression on her face but her tone was hard and annoyed.
Manera quickly explained Tozak’s ultimatum to us and the subsequent events, and then asked her if she knew what was going on.
“The fool!” she almost spat the epithet. “We agreed only to ask you for help. He is exceeding his authority.”
“Is there anything you can do? We have to give him an answer or he will start killing us,” said Manera, speaking carefully to allow the translation program to do its job.
“I will need time,” said Tara. “You have to delay him.”
Mmm, back to square one I thought. Tara began to say something else but the screen suddenly became blank. At the same time the doors to our lounge were thrown open and a number of soldiers burst into the room. Their leader shouted something and our translation computer spoke into my ear.
“You will not use the communications device.” One of the soldiers bent down and ripped the cable from the wall connector. The soldiers gave us the eyeball treatment before leaving with appropriately loud shouting, stamping of feet and slamming of doors. It would have been amusing had we not been in a deadly serious predicament.
“How long is a tran anyway?” I asked. Our ship’s AI informed us it was one twentieth of the planet’s rotation period which I worked out to be just over one hour. Not very long before Tozak would want an answer from us. I came to a decision.
“Okay, this is my suggestion,” I said. “We offer military support to the Dansai. Cora is our military expert, so she offers to sit with Tozak and look at possible military strategies. That will give her the chance to be alone with him. As soon as she can she takes him hostage and then radios us. We stage a diversion, say use our ship to attack the palace. That will give Tara the time to bring down Tozak.”
“What if Tara cannot bring down Tozak?” asked Manera.
“Then we get on the ship and get the hell out of here.”
“It sounds very risky,” said Commra. “Why don’t we just offer to help them, and then get out of here first chance we get?”
“Because Tozak will know that our offer of help will only last as long as he holds us prisoner,” I said. Commra’s expression told me that he agreed with me.
Hamolatonen’s voice came over our common comms channel.
“That sounds as good a plan as we are going to get.” As if on cue, the door opened and Tozak walked in with his entourage of troops, their guns held at the ready.
“Your time is up,” he said harshly. “What is your answer.”
Commra gave me a veiled look before turning to the Dansai dictator.
“You give us no choice,” he said. “Cora is our military expert. I suggest you consult with
her as to how best we can assist your forces. She will need to know the disposition of the enemy’s forces as well as your own before she can formulate a plan of attack. Is that agreeable to you?” Tozak eyed Cora thoughtfully for a few seconds before replying.
“You will remain here for now while I consult with Cora,” he said finally. He nodded to Cora and she followed him out of the door. As the door closed behind them I had a twinge of conscience that I was using Cora in such a way. I knew her sense of duty to protect us would not allow her to say no.
Chapter 10
We had all expected something to happen quickly, but as time dragged on without word from either Cora or Tara, we at first became fidgety and nervous, then bored and irritable. The soldiers brought us food, our own rations which had been unloaded from our ship the previous day.
The evening drew in and we were unsure whether to prepare for the night, but I suggested we should remain prepared for flight. Whatever clothes and equipment we had was packed and ready to go. The Dansai had not yet interfered with our communications and we were in constant contact with the Settang.
Night descended and the distant lights of the city appeared. Could we rely on Tara I asked myself. What resources did she have? It was deep into the night and Cora had still not returned, There was only one interpretation that I could put on that, which made me feel even more miserable. She is just a robot I told myself. Albeit an advanced semi-sentient AI, but not an innocent young woman, sacrificing her virtue for the cause. But somehow that did not help.
It was the Earthly equivalent to three am when we got the message from Cora.
“Tara Con Sata’s forces are on their way to surround the palace. I have Tozak prisoner and our fighter will be supporting Tara’s forces by attacking the palace defences. Please remain where you are for now. I will be sending our two soldier robots to rescue you.”
There was a resounding cheer from all of us and I gave Manera a hug.