Date Point: 15y6m3d AV
Grand Commune of Females, Tiritya Island, Cimbrean, The Far Reaches
Allison Buehler
“You’re standing by them? Even after what they did?”
Yulna had commandeered a kitchen as she usually did when Xiù and Allison visited her. Allison didn’t complain—she got to lounge around and watch as the two who actually enjoyed cooking indulged their creative hobby, and she got to enjoy their creations.
She wasn’t touching the talamay today though. This wasn’t an occasion to be merry. Yulna was… understanding, but not happy.
“What choice did they have?” Xiù asked.
“…Starve, I suppose,” Yulna sighed. “And who would I be if I insisted that people had to starve themselves to death? Is my comfort worth more than their lives?”
“That’s my attitude,” Allison agreed.
“But… cannibalism though?”
“I mean…all living things must eat. And humans can’t digest raw grass or… whatever the local version is.”
“I did some reading up on it,” Xiù interjected. She was sifting flour to Yulna’s right and was already coated in a fine white coat of the stuff. “It comes back to nutrition. Humans just…need too much of it. Ironically, we actually find it harder to survive on lower-Class worlds because of the way the planetary classification scale works.”
“It’s the same for Gao,” Yulna agreed. “We’re obligate carnivores. I suppose that’s why the Dominion eventually bumped our rating up above ten. We didn’t cross a billion until…well, the modern era and intensive farming.”
“Part of the reason,” Allison nodded. “Political prejudice played its part too, I’m sure.”
“Or the Hierarchy.” Yulna sighed and deposited a bowl full of icing sugar and butter under the mixer. Some lucky cubs were going to be bouncing off the walls in a few hours: Allison certainly didn’t want to eat a Nava cake, though Xiù didn’t seem troubled by the recipe.
“Perhaps we should discuss something different?” Yulna requested. “Talking about cannibalism here in my kitchen is…”
“Off-putting?” Xiù suggested.
“Yes, let’s go with that.”
“It is… kinda the reason we came here today…” Allison reminded them. “I mean, it’s always great to see you, but…”
“But this is important,” Yulna sat down on a stool and scratched her claws idly on the countertop. “I know… I keep thinking about Triymin. I never met her.”
“No,” Xiù said quietly. “You never got to.”
“What was she like?”
Xiù set her bowl of flour aside for a second and leaned against the counter opposite Yulna. “…Wounded,” she said after a moment’s thought. “Scared. She barely knew how to be a Gaoian, but she was so brave… And so loyal…”
“Sounds like a Gaoian to me,” Allison said. It earned her two grateful looks.
“How many more like her were on that ring, I wonder…?” Yulna mused.
“…More than could ever be saved.”
“That’s a very… male answer, Allison.”
Allison just shrugged, and after a second Yulna sagged. “…But true,” she conceded.
“Ayma was appalled when she found out what Triymin’s mother had done to save the cubs…” Xiù recalled.
“Yes. She always… in the loveliest way, she was loyal and loving to a fault. But I could always sympathize. Those are the virtues and ideals of this Clan after all: Loyalty and love.”
“And the unrestrained fury of a mama bear,” Allison said. She elaborated when they looked at her. “What was that guy’s name again? The Corti who abducted you two?”
“Trig,” Xiù said.
“Remind me what happened to him again?”
“That bastard deserved what he got,” Yulna growled.
“You tore him apart.”
“Personally,” Yulna agreed. She caught the note of satisfaction in her own voice and her expression changed to consternation. “…So you’re right. Unrestrained fury.”
“…I never did find out what I was doing there,” Xiù said suddenly. “It’s like I was almost an afterthought and they didn’t know what to do with me?”
“Oh! Didn’t Regaari tell you?” Yulna looked surprised.
“Tell me what?”
“The whole experiment was about you. He wanted to see how you reacted to distressing stimuli. He was testing how well Humans can empathise with other life forms.”
“…With a sample size of one?” Allison asked. “He wasn’t a very good scientist.”
“He was an exiled sadist with delusions of grandeur,” Yulna snarled. “The Directorate expelled him years before he took us.”
“I did wonder why they didn’t object to you… to what you did to him,” Xiù looked obviously uncomfortable.
“…That was your first time seeing that side of us,” Yulna sighed. “And I suppose that’s the problem I face now. My Sisters are going to feel pulled in two directions by their instincts over this ring and what the Great Father did to it.”
She tapped her forehead. “Up here we can see the logic of it and understand that the Hunters were really to blame… Down here though…” She stroked the fur of her abdomen. “The Great Father killed a great many cubs, both on Gao and now on the Ring. Some of us will be furious with him over that, even though we never knew them.”
“And because you made him Great Father…” Xiù predicted.
“…Yes.”
“Your throne’s wobbling a bit, huh?” Allison asked.
“I don’t have a throne. I never had a throne. But I had the power to give Daar his, and he certainly never wanted it.”
“But he’s using it.”
“Yes, because he must.” Yulna stood up and plunged into the depths of a fridge in search of God-knew-what. “There are people who don’t understand that.”
“There always are.”
“…What happens if Daar loses the love and support of the average Gao on the street?” Yulna asked. “He has the Grand Army and the Clans, but what about the civilians? The disapproval of the Clan of Females is a soft power at most, and so long as I’m Mother-Supreme it’s off the table. But even the mightiest and most intimidating throne needs to rest on a solid foundation of public support.”
She found what she was after—eggs—and returned to making her cake.
“Well…that’s really up to him, isn’t it?” Allison argued. “He just did a Great thing, and now its on him to show why it mattered. And I suppose it’s worth noting that the males in your society hold a lot more power than they generally exercise.”
Xiù nodded. “Let’s face it. If the Males didn’t want the Females to have any power at all, they outnumber us several times over…”
“…And cases like Myun aside, they’re bigger and stronger than you, too,” Allison pointed out.
Yulna broke an egg into the flour bowl, and Allison saw Xiù subtly wince and bite her tongue. Yulna had an… unorthodox approach to baking, but right now it was her kitchen and her relaxation activity, so she got to do it however she liked.
“You’re saying that Females only have any power because males allow it?” she asked, seemingly oblivious to Xiù’s fidgeting.
“…No. But there’s something important at play. Hell, look at us.” Allison gestured to Xiù and herself. “Julian’s never been small, but now he’s a lot heavier than the pair of us combined. The only reason Xiù ever wins when they spar these days is because she’s tricky, and because he’s just playing. What if he decided to stop playing one day? He’s managed to scare me plenty of times.”
“You’re scared of him?” Yulna asked. She selected a tube of Nava paste and Allison looked away so that she wouldn’t have to suppress the urge to heave as Yulna squeezed a healthy quantity of pureed insect guts into the cake batter.
At least Xiù didn’t seem fazed. “Sometimes.”
“A woman who isn’t at least a little scared of her man is either an idiot or she has a weak man… In which case she’s an idiot,” Allison said. “But, see, the thing is? That goes both ways. It’s just…different.”
“…How so?”
“Julian is…a very caring man. If I’m feeling even the tiniest bit sad for any reason at all, it ruins his day and he doesn’t want to do anything else until whatever upset me is fixed. That’s…a hell of a power to have. It honestly scares me that I can do that to someone.”
“If we called him right now and said we need him to come home… he would,” Xiù agreed. “And I’m pretty sure Yan and Vemik would understand, too.”
“But he could overwhelm you, if it ever got into his head to do so,” Yulna finished. “And the Males could overwhelm us.”
Allison nodded. “Yeah. And that’s my point, I think.”
“Daar wouldn’t behave like he does if he didn’t truly care about the Females. He’d just enslave us,” Xiù elaborated. “He doesn’t want that, he wants a strong Clan of Females. I think, really, that’s the thing that’ll win the argument for him.”
‘Us,’ Allison noted. Xiù always included herself in the Clan of Females whenever she spoke about it.
Yulna finished mixing her cake batter in thoughtful silence for a few seconds, then poured it into a greased tin. “…Yes. I think you’re right,” she said at last. “And I think I can make that argument to my Sisters, too.”
“And the Dauntless crew?” Xiù asked.
Yulna sighed and finished scraping out the batter. She ran her spatula over the surface to flatten it down and spread it out, then turned to transfer the cake tin to an oven. “…They did what they had to to keep each other alive. We do what we must to protect each other. I don’t think we can blame them. In fact… I think I feel sorry for them. I wouldn’t want to have to make the choices they did.”
She closed the oven and dusted off her paws. “…And that’s my official position on it,” she declared.
“…Thank you, Mother.”
Yulna duck-nodded, then returned to the fridge and produced a covered plate. “I made this one earlier. Something a little more pleasing to the human palate… I hear you have a couple of young ones in your house yourselves, now?”
“My brothers, yeah.” Allison accepted the plate gratefully and sneaked a glance under the cover. Strawberries and chocolate gleamed back at her. “Oh man. It’s gonna be hard to be a good big sis and not eat all of this…”
Yulna handed her the mixing spoon. “Here. If it keeps you from stealing a cub’s cake, you can lick the spoon. Just bring it back next time.”
“…Thanks.”
In fact, Allison gave the spoon to Xiù as soon as they were out of Yulna’s sight, and tried not to horf as Xiù got it all over her nose and chin with every sign of enjoying it. Eventually she’d had enough and just had to comment. “…Really?”
Xiù paused. “Hmm? What?”
“That’s a nava cake, babe.”
“Yup!” Xiù happily scooped a dollop off her chin to lick it off her finger, then saw Allison’s expression. “…I guess it’s an acquired taste.”
“Y’know, sometimes I can’t tell if you take being kinda-sorta Gaoian real seriously, or if you just went native. I mean, you even say ‘us’ when you talk about the Clan.”
Xiù cleaned the end of her nose and shrugged. “That bit I take seriously,” she said. “I mean, I don’t pretend like I’m not a little messed up about it, bǎobèi…”
“You’re fine,” Allison assured her. “But I’m sorry, Nava-flavored cake is where I draw the line.”
“More for me!” Xiù beamed with a teasing look on her face, and licked the spoon again. “But what’s the problem? You like my chāshāo bāo don’t you?”
“Pork is one thing. Nava’s another.”
“Your loss.”
Their shuttle was waiting to take them back to the mainland, and Xiù gave the pilot’s seat a wistful look as she sat down. “…I should really learn how to fly one of these,” she said.
“Why not? You can definitely afford the lessons.”
“I think I will then. It’d be nice to fly again.”
“Especially a shuttle. We could go into orbit again. How does another out-of-this-world experience sound?” Allison grinned at her, and the Gaoian Sister piloting the shuttle flicked her ear with a smirk as Xiù went crimson, before returning her attention to the job at hand and taking off.
“…It sounds like a chance to have some pr ivacy, really.” Xiù admitted. “The boys are lovely, but I miss having the place just for us.”
Allison sighed and nodded as the shuttle banked over the grand commune and accelerated. “Yeah. I mean, when was the last time we just hung out?”
“Not since your mother showed up.”
“We should fix that.”
Xiù looked sideways at her, then snuggled up close. “Camping trip? A fire and a tent somewhere?”
“And a crate full of beers. Just like old times.”
Xiù sighed. “That sounds perfect.”
“We’ll make it happen,” Allison promised. Xiù nodded, snuggled into her a little closer, and comfortable silence descended. Allison stroked her hair a few times then put her head back to relax for the ride home herself.
At least some things in life could be simple…
__
Date Point: 15y6m3d AV
Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches
Ava Ríos
Charlotte, being about the girliest girl ever, needed a few minutes to get past the delighted squeaking and happy-clappy dancing stage of excitement before flitting into the kitchen to make tea because… well, presumably there was some British version of logic at play.
Ben watched her go with a fond chuckle then gave Ava a hug. “Well. It’s about bloody time. In’t that right, Hannah?”
The dog wagged her tail at him, while Ava grinned and sat down on their couch. “Yeah. It is.”
“So what’s he like?” Charlotte called. Her and Ben’s house was small and modest, especially by Folctha’s standards. Charlotte called it ‘cosy’: Ava had always felt it was cramped, especially with all the stuff they had cluttering up the place. Stacks of old console games, a tough Aloe Vera that was somehow managing to survive their slapdash attention, shelves full of interesting knick-knacks and a mountain of untouched cookbooks. The whole thing was sprinkled liberally with lonely crumpled socks and mugs that bore a thin internal lacquer of dried tea.
She had to admit: it was one of the most characterful and lived-in places that she knew. It was a home in the complete and messy sense of the word, whereas Ava had few possessions and paid for a cleaner to visit twice a week. The contrast was stark.
“He’s been through a lot,” she said. “He’s tough, composed… kinda dangerous…”
“Dangerous?” Ben asked.
“In the best way. He has that… quiet intensity. Y’know? Disciplined.”
Charlotte poked her head out of the kitchen. “How’d you meet?”
“I actually can’t tell you the details!” Ava gave her a sorry smile. “I met him in Egypt.”
“Bloody hell, everything comes back to Egypt with you!” Ben rolled his eyes. “…What the hell happened over there?”
“Stuff. Big stuff that I don’t really… But Derek was involved.”
“You and your soldiers…” Charlotte darted into the room long enough to give her a hug, then returned to the kettle.
“What else?”
“Well… he’s artistic! He doesn’t think he is, but that’s just because he’s never tried to make art, yet. But he’s got an artist’s soul, y’know? What else…? Uh, I know he has an ex-wife and a kid out there somewhere, but he doesn’t like to talk about them much…”
“He does?” Ben asked. “…How old is he?”
“He’s about twelve years older than me.”
“Wow.” Ben sat back. “Isn’t that kind of a big gap?”
“I don’t care.”
“Heh! Fair enough. What else?”
“Well, he’s—”
Ava’s phone rang, interrupting her, and she pulled a face. She’d set a different ringtone for when her editor Jason was calling off the work line. He’d only be calling now if something big had come up.
“Mierda…” She gave Ben and Charlotte an apologetic look and fished the phone out of her pocket. She made a point of buying pants with real pockets.
“This is Ava.”
Jason had a lot of noise behind him. Things in the office must be getting active. “Hey Ava. Are you able to come in? It looks like a big ET piece is about to land.”
“Jason, I only got off work an hour ago! …How big?”
“Apparently the Gaoians are gonna make some kind of big statement to the Dominion Security Council. We know it has to do with that Byron crew and the planet they were trapped on, but other than that…”
“The SOR were involved too,” Ava predicted.
“How d’you know?”
“Sources. The HEAT were activated. All of them.”
She heard him typing frantically. “This is why we need you, Ava.”
She sighed. “Okay. I’m having tea with my friends. I’ll come in as soon as I’ve drunk it.”
“Ava—”
“Do I have to remind you about Folctha’s working hours laws again? I’m coming in. But I want ten minutes with my friends first. Got that?”
“…Alright. See you in twenty.” He hung up and Ava rolled her eyes as she put her phone away.
“Bloody hell. You got assertive!” Ben said, approvingly.
“Jason always wants me in five minutes ago when something new comes down the wire,” Ava sighed. “If he knows it’s coming though, that means it’s not urgent. There’ll be plenty of time to prepare for it.”
Charlotte delivered the tea and sat down. She looked about ready to fizz out of her skin, and could barely sit still. “So?”
“So… what?”
“So you’ve known him for a while, he’s asked you out… could this be the one?”
Ava laughed and picked up her drink. “…I don’t really believe in ‘the one.’ But I have a good feeling about Derek. I think… I think we can see things in each other that are there, but neither of us believe are there. Y’know?”
“Sounds constructive,” Ben commented. “You gonna bring him down the park or the beach anytime soon?”
“One step at a time. Come on, you remember how long it took me to convince you two to try out the beach with me.” Ava sipped her tea. “Anyway. It’s just the start.”
“Yeah. But keep us in the loop. You look way happier already.”
They chatted briefly about Ben’s work, Charlotte asked after how baby Diego was doing, and the tea vanished much too quickly for Ava’s liking. Pretty soon, she couldn’t think of an excuse not to drag herself off the couch and reluctantly call a cab. There were hugs, promises to take an afternoon down at the beach together sometime soon, and she went to work with Hannah at her side.
The office was thrumming when she got there. Jason glanced pointedly at the clock when she came in, but got a complete no-sell glare in return. Ava wasn’t on call today, her presence was totally voluntary and he had no right to give her any kind of grief.
Fortunately, the chief editor Amy Larsen was less of a pain in the ass. She also knew when the office needed some fast food to handle a late evening news bomb that promised to turn into a potential all-nighter. She gave Ava a grateful smile, and with a glance in Jason’s direction and a roll of her eyes she somehow made everything better.
Hannah curled up in her soft little doggy bed next to Ava’s desk as Ava sat down and checked her emails. She put on her headset and got on the office voice chat. It was weird how she was using her computer to talk with people who were sat at most only a few dozen feet away, but it worked: their hands were free, they could type or search or contact their sources, all without filling the air with shouts and confusion.
Amy smiled at her and though she was on the far side of the room, her voice sounded close and conversational in Ava’s headset. “Hey Ava. Thanks for coming in.”
Ava waved at her and adjusted her mic. “So something big’s gonna happen with the Gao?”
Jason’s voice: “Yeah. Apparently the Great Father just showed up on the Rich Plains in person…”
Date Point: 15y6m4d AV
HMS Sharman (HMNB Folctha), Cimbrean, The Far Reaches
Lieutenant-Commander Kieran Mears
Letter for notes,
RE: Senior Master Sergeant Christian Firth
Sergeant Firth entered my office in a downright giddy mood today, a happy change from our earliest sessions where his usual demeanor was one of cynical, barely-contained aggression.
To be fair, that aggression is still there in full measure, if not possibly stronger. What’s changed is its direction and application. Rather than projecting a state of constant low-grade anger, he now seems motivated, as though he now views the things that used to make him angry as opportunities, rather than frustrations.
My suspicion is that our counseling sessions are only partly responsible for this change. He is one of the first and heaviest users of Cruezzir-D, being a first-generation HEAT operator. He is also one of the oldest men on the team but, like all the operators, there has been a pronounced anti-aging effect and recently it’s become impossible to miss. The full effect has taken longer to manifest with him—the medical board believes that is due to a combination of his age, sheer size, and accumulated injuries over a rough career. In any case he too has reached the point where he looks like a young adult, and increasingly his attitude is that of a young man as well.
Firth, to his immense credit, has taken to calling it his “second shot” at life. I feel this is a healthy view to take of the situation, though like the other operators he expresses concern about what the long-term risks of their heavy “Crude” usage might exactly entail. Coincident with his recent attitude shift and his “more handsomer” appearance, he is finding himself in a state of rapid and extreme physical improvement, much like Arés had experienced for many years. This too has fueled his optimism and, in conjunction with his intensely competitive nature and dominant personality, rekindled his long-term belief that he would eventually “beat Arés at his own game.” One might feel sympathy for their gym equipment, considering its likely fate.
Apparently this is all causing some interpersonal friction with his fiancé Freya, which became a focus of today’s session. He is unsure how he might address this beyond expressing his love for her at every opportunity. He feels this may be making things worse, however, and I suggested that she might feel a little overwhelmed.
That seemed to draw an analogy in his mind and he recounted at length his mentoring of Arés on an eerily similar relationship. To quote: “Christ. Y’think it might be all this young-puppy bullshit goin’ on inside me?”
I noted that possibly his best course of action would be to talk it out with her at home in a casual setting. I have reinforced that “casual” means laid-back, unplanned and so forth; he laughed, which is a distinctly rare sound in my experience, and recounted that he’d given the exact same advice to his Brothers on more than one occasion. He stated he would “try and relax some.”
We touched briefly on Operation LOST CUB. He had nothing much to say on the subject, but what he said was direct and honest. Quote: “It saves lives in the long run, it protects people I care about, and those poor fucks were fucked before we ever got there. I ain’t gonna worry none too much ‘bout it.”
This pragmatic attitude is typical of him, and I am satisfied that he is mentally and emotionally well.
-Lt Cmdr K. Mears,
Counsellor, HMS Sharman.
Date Point: 15y6m4d AV
Dominion Council vessel Rich Plains, The Ruibal Territories
Champion Sheeyo of Clan Goldpaw
The Dominion Security Council were slow to change and glacial when it came to adopting new things, but even they weren’t so hard-headed as to ignore the obvious benefits of jump drives now that both the Humans and the Gao had embraced the technology.
The Rich Plains never warped anywhere anymore: It just went. From orbit to orbit, from system to system. As the Council did the rounds, gracing each member and associate member species with their presence, they skipped the intervening voyage and all its associated risk.
Adding Jump Arrays had helped enormously. Delegates could come and go from their homeworlds rather than travelling potentially for weeks to reach the Council, and staying for months. Sheeyo could be back on Gao for an important discussion with the Great Father or his Cabinet in the morning, and attend a Council session in the afternoon quite easily.
Or, as the case may be, bring the Great Father with him.
The alien delegates stiffened and watched warily when Daar prowled four-pawed into the council chamber. Sheeyo couldn’t blame them: They were used to Goldpaws and Whitecrests and other slim, average specimens of the species. Daar was… exceptional. Stonebacks were generally like that, but Daar was…was a massive, lacerated, more-than-feral embodiment of retribution.
And civilized. That part always confused: on the rare occasion the Great Father cared to be civilized, he did so in a way that always put people off-balance.
Sheeyo cleared his throat. “Honored delegates,” he announced: “Daar of Clan Stoneback, Great Father of the Gao.”
Daar padded alongside Sheeyo and laid a heavy grateful paw on Sheeyo’s back. “Thank you, my friend. I brought you some beef jerky ‘fer later…” He then turned towards the assembled beings and rose to his full, colossal height. Standing fully upright, Daar was tall enough to look a Guvnurag in the eye. Only the gangly Champion Loomi matched him for altitude, but there was nobody to match him in stature.
“Delegates, I came here to give you this warning in person, as what is about to happen is my responsibility,” he said. The Great Father used his rolling, booming voice to maximum effect. “What has been done was necessary. But the consequences will be dire.”
Heads turned and whispers textured the chamber for a second, but he ignored them. “Four days ago, by the Gaoian reckoning, a First Fang task group led personally by myself and supported by Human forces from the Hazardous Environment Assault Team attacked and were successful in destroying… this.”
Sheeyo had dutifully loaded a presentation on the Ring into the chamber’s holographic display systems. It sprung up in the middle of the hall now, still wire-thin in comparison the planet it girdled but undeniably immense beyond understanding.
“This,” Daar told the chamber, “was a Hunter megastructure. You can see the estimates on its size and volume. We believe that more than ninety-five percent of the Swarm-of-Swarms was docked at the time of this ring’s destruction, and that it was home to the largest Hunter population in the galaxy.”
Sheeyo glanced to his left at the soft noise he heard there. The Corti delegate blinked and recovered her composure quickly, but for a second there had been an expression of sorts on that tiny, subtle face. He wasn’t sure what emotion she had expressed, but to get through a high-caste Corti’s discipline it had to be intense.
She locked it down again in a second, but Sheeyo knew. He returned his attention to Daar as similar reactions bounced around the hall.
“Despite this objective triumph, our great enemy was crafty and resilient,” the Great Father continued. “The Hunters fought back, hard. In so doing, they bought themselves time, and were able to save many ships. They are wounded and diminished, but still very much active… and now they are severed from what was their primary source of food.”
He tapped a claw sharply on the lectern when the background rustle of conversation got a little too loud, and that was enough to quiet them again. “The Dominion may believe that the Hunters primarily feed themselves by raiding, but that ain’t so. As it turns out—and the Council should already know this, as it was a tiny young Gaoian female called Sister Triymin who first delivered this intelligence to you—” the Great Father’s voice dropped half an octave as he said that, and for a second there was livid anger almost crackling in his hackles and teeth, “—this Ring was full of slaves. Slaves kept and bred purely for the purposes of being meat.”
He raised his voice now. Where Sheeyo had mastered the art of lofting his voice over a commotion, Daar’s gravelly tones just smashed the hubbub aside like a landslide. He would brook no interruption.
“Less slaves than livestock,” he said. “Feral. Broken. With no hope of rescue. I only hope that, if anything is left of them now that the Ring is gone, they’ll forgive me for putting ‘em out of their misery.”
“But they are the past,” he continued before any outrage could be voiced. “The future contains what’s left of the Swarm, and it still amounts to fifty thousand or more ships full of starving, desperate Hunters. Already, our intelligence says they have begun to raid aggressively along spacelanes near Kwmbwrw space. If the Dominion wants to avoid slaughter on a scale you haven’t never seen, you need to mobilize immediately. That is my warning.”
He finished with a deep breath, and tilted his neck until it made a popping sound that seemed to satisfy him.
“Now,” he said. “Know that this Council forfeited any right to object or question us when you stood by and watched my people burn nearly to extinction. I have done you the courtesy of giving this warning. It’s up ‘ta you whether you listen. My personal advice? Invest heavily in jump arrays. Get shields up around your core systems. We will make our prototype systems available, and in the meantime we will patrol heavily along vulnerable spacelanes and intervene when and how we see fit. Be grateful: I remind you that until such time as compensation has been paid for this Council’s failure to act in our defence, we are not bound by our treaty obligations.
“One last word: Y’all need to change your battle doctrine. The Dominion has relied for too long on an unwieldy doctrine of gross tonnage and firepower. That needs to end now and y’need ‘ta look at how those of us who actually got results against the Hunters have been doin’ things. Hard times are ahead: You can adapt and overcome them. We’ll even help. But if you fail to heed my warnings today, you will be mauled at least, and we won’t be able to stop it. Consider yerselves warned.”
With that, he dropped to his four-pawed gait and ignored the Speaker and the gathered Ambassadors as he headed for the doors. Their clamour for an explanation, or to shout at him, seemed to just bounce off him unheeded, and he was gone.
Sheeyo beat a rather less dignified retreat rather than face the delegates on the Great Father’s behalf. He practically had to run in fact, and by the time he caught up with Daar they were halfway back to the shuttle bay and he was out of breath.
Generously, Daar slowed down for him.
“They’re all talk an’ no listen, ain’t they?” he commented.
Aware that he’d need to go back into that chamber shortly, Sheeyo opted for a diplomatic answer. “That… went as well as could be expected, My Father.”
Daar only grumbled in reply and padded along in silence. Even at this slower pace, Sheeyo was finding it hard to keep up with him.
“Yeah,” he eventually allowed. “I s’pose. Meanwhile I gotta head back t’Earth again and schmooze. And also, I got a surprise I’m cookin’ up. Uh…I should maybe apologize ahead o’ time. It’s gonna make ‘yer life rough, maybe.”
“I suppose it would be too much to ask what it is?” Sheeyo asked.
“Yup!” Daar rumbled a chitter from somewhere deep in his chest.
“Naturally,” Sheeyo duck-nodded. “It wouldn’t be a secret if I could.”
Daar chittered again, which was a most gratifying sound.
“I’ll send ‘ya a note when it’s done. Anyway, right now I gotta get groomed ‘fer this. And unless ‘yer wantin’ ‘ta help me shave down…”
“I… thank you, My Father, but I think I’ll decline.”
Daar chittered even deeper and waggled his ears. “Oh? ‘Yer loss I s’pose.”
He rolled easily through into the departures area still chittering to himself, and Sheeyo was left to hang back and turn toward his office. He doubted he’d ever quite get used to the Great Father’s foibles.
Just what in Keeda’s name did Daar have planned?