It doesn’t take long before the Admiral approaches the ship. I mutter through the comm, “Admiral. Bad diplomat. Keep him unsure.”

“What my ineloquent sister is attempting to say,” Kazaya says, shooting me an annoyed look, “is that the Admiral is a terrible diplomat who almost ruined the last two treaties he’s tried to sign. He knows it’s his weakness, so if you make him think he’s offending you, he’ll be very careful with his words. You have to keep him on tenterhooks, wondering if you’re angry or not.”

“You got all that out of six words? Wow.” Marion is trying to play it cool, but I can tell he’s nervous. He really doesn’t want to give us away. The thought makes me smile, but only a little. No, he really doesn’t want to get caught. I give myself a mental shrug and shake my head slightly. His motives don’t matter, as long as we manage to get off this rock and out of Base-Command-controlled space. Luckily, Zarinnia is an independent planet in a system outside the Republic’s influence.

We watch on a small screen as the Admiral finds the ‘doorbell’ and presses it hesitantly. Soon, the vice-leader (whose name we’ve yet to learn) lowers the door slightly. “Yes?”

Faced with a seven-foot-tall alien man, the Admiral can’t help but stutter. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t speak your language. Is there someone on board who speaks Terran?”

Kazaya murmurs into the comm, “Don’t answer. Make him summon his translator. Force him to play on your terms, not his.”

I can see the vice-leader donning a somewhat confused expression, not enough to let the Admiral mock him but more than enough to convey his lack of understanding. The Admiral sighs heavily, lifts his CSD to his mouth and says sternly, “Someone send me a translator! It seems these… people… don’t speak Terran.”

I can actually sense Marion getting angry. “Calm. Provocation. Just breathe.” This time my sister doesn’t translate.

Marion forces himself to settle down as he steps up next to his second-in-command. He lowers the door just in time to see the Admiral’s translator join him in the bay. “What do you want?”

The translator flinches and I hear my sister snicker. She really doesn’t like that guy because he’s been trying to make advances on her for months. He stutters, “W-was anything on your s-ship d-damaged by the explosion? We’re j-just making sure n-nothing happened that would c-cause a delay.”

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Marion’s face creases and I know he heard the undertone of ‘please leave as soon as possible’. “No, nothing is damaged. What happened?”

The translator relays his answer to the Admiral and receives some response that leaves him shaking. “U-umm, there was some construction work going on that caused one of the tunnels to collapse. Unfortunately, there are concerns that the bay might collapse depending on whether the tunnel was structural or not. We’re trying to find out, but some of the tunnels are so old that they aren’t properly recorded. For safety, it might be better to fly off if your ship is repaired.” The translator lowers his voice. “He won’t admit it, but I think the Admiral is trying to avoid war by making sure your ship doesn’t get damaged.” He swallows hard. “This probably doesn’t matter, but I think he’ll kill me if I don’t manage to convince you to leave…”

Marion startles but hides it quickly and glances at his comm. I answer his unspoken question with one word: “Yes.”

His back straightens. I can almost sense him coming to a decision. My sister grins as she figures out what he’s going to do. “Tell your Admiral this. We have reason to believe that he and/or his men deliberately destabilized the landing bay in order to force us to leave. As we are wary of further attacks, we will be taking a man from his crew - namely, his translator - with us until we safely reach the next Starbase, at which point we will place the man in an escape pod and deliver him to the base.” Marion gives a menacing grin. “That is to say, tell your Admiral and then get on the ship. We’re taking off as soon as our message is delivered.”

The translator pales at the thought of being a hostage before realizing that the Zarinnians are actually doing him a kindness. Then he smiles before regaining a straight face and turning around to deliver their message. The Admiral’s face turns various interesting shades of red and white while he’s talking and I wonder if Marion realizes he just did a lot more than rescue three people. If the Admiral is suspected of attempting to initiate an interstellar war, Base Command will send investigators out here to find evidence. Instead what they’ll find is their two most restricted operatives either dead or missing and a smuggling business built on the backside of a station. I hide my smirk.

Kazaya makes a face as Marion leads the translator in. He stops in his tracks when he sees us and I calmly walk over to him. He looks terrified for some reason, but all I do is silently disable his CSD. He glances at it, then back to Kazaya. Then he clenches up his face, finds some well of courage, and doubles over in a perfect 90 degree bow. We both stare in shock. “I-” he begins, “no, I’m really sorry! I never wanted to make you feel uncomfortable, but the Admiral wanted me to get into your pants so I could convince you to either keep his secret or fall under his command. He threatened my parents if I didn’t listen.”

He’s on the verge of tears and I can feel Kazaya softening. We both know that he apologized in Zarinnian because he didn’t want to hide what he’d done. Finally, she smiles. “It’s okay. I kind of knew. You’re actually not interested in women, are you? Relax, I’m not upset anymore.”

He straightens, wiping his tears away, then lands on the floor as the ship takes off. “I’m really leaving,” he says in wonder. “I didn’t think I’d ever get out of that place.”

My sister grins. “Yeah, we didn’t either,” she says, and we leave it at that.