“Surfacing into realspace in ten seconds,” Ji-min Bin stated.

All crew were braced, Brooks’s system informed him. All Response units were in position, all civilians in bunker rooms.

“Five seconds.”

When they came out of zerospace they’d be at the edge of the Mopu System, and from zerospace they could have no idea what might be waiting. The odds of them coming out anywhere even close to a Hev fleet were infinitesimal, but not impossible. And in the siege of a solar system, billions of automated defense systems could be scattered around the edge of the system. Could – the Hev did not often use those, but it could not be ruled out.

His eyes scanned over the crew pit one last time, taking in and appreciating their professional calmness. Despite the potential danger, no one betrayed their nervousness.

“Surfacing,” Bin declared. “Approximate distance . . . four light-hours, thirty-seven light minutes from Mopu Prime.”

The screens that covered the bridge activated, going from an off-color blur to an exact presentation of what surrounded them.

The star Mopu was a dot at this distance, larger than the other stars in the sky, but not by much. It was a dimmer star than Sol, thirty percent lower in mass and just above a Red Dwarf.

But aside from all the expected astronomical phenomena, there was nothing in sight.

Which wasn’t odd. The distances were so vast that fleets of millions wouldn’t even be visible to the naked eye. But any ship that had been lingering in the system would be broadcasting its presence not just in radio traffic but by heat and other forms of radiation.

With them just having arrived, it would take time for their radiation to reach other eyes to be noticed. That gave them some edge.

“We are picking up active signals from Hev picket ships, about two light-minutes out,” Jaya said. “Detecting a cluster of ships heading in-system about twenty light minutes out beyond that, likely cargo transports. There are larger concentrations of ships about one light hour further in – it must be a reserve fleet. Still counting, but it’s as big as expected, it seems – tens of thousands of vessels.”

“Are we within passive sensor range of the Hev pickets?” Ambassador Decinus asked, sitting at Brooks’s side.

“Yes,” Cenz replied. “They should soon be catching our light and being made aware of our presence.”

“And the Sepht scout vessel?” Brooks asked. “She should be near.”

“I’m not seeing – ah, there she is,” Cenz said. “They are keeping behind a Kuiper Belt object. Her IFF identifies her as the Eyes Gazing Upon the Bright Flower.”

“Send a tight-beam signal to them, and inform them of our arrival. We can set a rendezvous deeper in the system.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“We must assume a neutral orientation,” Decinus ordered.

“Belay that,” Brooks said. “Maintain direct heading and keep the coilguns pointed in our direction of travel.”

“That could easily be interpreted as a hostile gesture, Captain. It’s normal to assume a neutral position and point your weapons away-“

“This is an active war zone,” Brooks said. “And the P’G’Maig will not respect us for doing that. They will see it as a sign of weakness.”

It was his ship; Ambassador Decinus knew this. He could not win this argument, and simply accepted it with a curt nod.

A few seconds passed, then Cenz spoke again. “We are receiving automated pings from the Hev pickets. It is hard to make out at this distance, but I believe they have a dedicated communications ship – it is orienting for sending a tight-beam FTL communication deeper into the system.”

“Good,” Brooks said. “The sooner Overlord Ks’Kull is aware of our arrival, the better. But we had best announce ourselves as well. Open a broadcast channel. Full view.”

He stood, placing his hands behind his back.

Eboh nodded to him as the channel opened.

“This is Captain-Mayor Ian Brooks of the SUS Craton to all P’G’Maig ships. We arrive in peace and goodwill and send the greetings of humanity to your people. We have traveled a great distance over many days and we request our audience with Overlord Ks’Kull.”

It would take two minutes for the message to reach the nearest ship. In that time, though, the captains of the Hev pickets would have very little information.

They waited.

“The picket ships are orienting and burning,” Cenz said. “They are headed towards us. It is a high-g maneuver, Captain.”

“It’s an intercept,” Brooks said. “Have all point-defense cannons and anti-missile systems ready, monitor for missile launches.”

“We have launch,” Jaya said. Her voice carried urgency but no panic.

“This is a violation of our agreement,” Decinus noted darkly.

“It may not mean that yet,” Brooks said. “How many contacts?”

“Twelve. They appear to be simple cluster missiles, Captain. Rather small for a ship our size, they are unlikely to cause any serious damage on an armor hit.” She looked up. “Nevertheless, shall I launch counter-missiles?”

“Negative,” Brooks said. “Estimated travel time?”

“Their delta-v is low. It will be nearly twenty minutes before they reach us.”

“Then wait,” Brooks said.

Decinus leaned closer to him. “Do you believe they are reneging on their willingness to speak to us, Captain?”

Brooks turned and spoke back equally quietly. “Doubtful. These are likely to be a test or warning. They will detonate their missiles before they reach us.”

“It seems,” Decinus said with a sigh, “that you have more experience with Hev than I do.”

Brooks nodded, but did not elaborate.

Minutes passed. If the missiles got too close their only option for counter would be their point-defense cannons; multi-barrel, rapid-fire cannons that simply threw a wall of bullets into the path of a missile to destroy it. While effective, missiles could always slip through.

If one did, in this first test, it may not damage the Craton. But it would send a poor message to the Maig. It would make the Craton seem vulnerable.

But launching a counter-barrage, even if just to destroy these missiles would likewise show them to be panicky, and could even be pointed to as a hostile act, justifying a full-out attack.

So they would wait.

“Estimated time of impact?”

“Missiles have exhausted their fuel,” Cenz noted. “Minimal attitude adjustment thrusters only. Approximately . . . one minute out.”

“Target with PDCs. At fifteen seconds out, begin fire.”

If the Hev were going to detonate them as a warning, they were waiting a long time. With the distances involved, they had to have already sent the signal . . .

“Thirty seconds out,” Cenz noted.

Brooks took a deep breath. “Are all PDCs locked?”

“Aye, sir,” Jaya replied.

“Missiles detonated!” Cenz said excitedly. “Accounting for . . . yes, all of them sir! It was a warning, as you said.”

“Keep the PDCs ready, watch for any debris. I want a methodical fire pattern. We’re showing them that we don’t want dirt on our shoes, not that we’re afraid.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Aye, sir,” Jaya replied. “Firing two bursts to deal with the scrap.”

On the giant screens, he could see the tracers flying out.

“We’re receiving a message,” Eboh said.

“Show it.”

A three-dimensional image of a Hev appeared. The broadcasting ship was highlighted, invisible still, but circling its approximate location.

“Craton, you will leave this system immediately,” the being hissed. “It belongs to the P’G’Maig and we will allow no intrusions into our sacred territory.”

The message ended.

“Captain, may I?” Decinus said.

Brooks nodded, and the ambassador stood. “Open channel to the Hev ship,” he ordered. “Unidentified Hev Captain, I am Ambassador Decinus of the Sapient Union Diplomatic Corps. We have been granted permission to enter your territory and to meet with your leader, Overlord Ks’Kull. If the situation has changed, we must hear it from the Overlord himself. Please hold your position until we have received word from him.”

The reply came four minutes later.

“I have heard no such orders! Leave, now! Now! Our next missiles will not be so kindly detonated before they have reached you, humans! This is our final warning! You have five minutes!”

Decinus frowned, looking to Brooks. “If we cannot speak through diplomatic channels, if this Hev will not cooperate, I am at a loss for what to do, Captain.”

Brooks sighed. “It’s time to press the issue.”

He stood again and signaled for an open frequency.

“Hev vessel,” he said, calmly. “We are here to speak with your Overlord and have permission. You are wasting our time – and his. You are nothing – your posting is nothing. I would be doing your leader a favor if I were to destroy you. You will grant us passage and then crawl back to the warren you spawned from. You have exactly four minutes to respond, or the next you hear from me will be my missiles impacting your hull.”

He gestured to keep the signal going. “Put us on an intercept course. Warm up the coilguns and arm missiles.”

He cut the transmission.

“Christ Jesus!” Decinus said. “Captain, what on Earth are you-“

“Calling his bluff,” Brooks said.

“Captain, are you serious about our course . . . ?” Urle asked.

Brooks had a slight sheen of sweat, but nodded. “I’ve known this type of Hev before. He will back down and send word to his superiors – if they haven’t heard back already. We saw they had a faster-than-light communications ship. Ks’Kull is surely paying attention, and he wants to see how we react.”

Decinus still seemed perturbed. “You do not think this will be an incident? You just threatened his subordinate. I know Hev can be cavalier with the lives of their people, but . . .”

“A walord like Ks’Kull won’t care about his underlings,” Brooks said.

This wait was the most tense yet.

A message finally came in. “Honored guests,” the Hev Captain said, bowing so low that he was nearly groveling. “A most terrible, foolish mistake has been made. Of course you are free to enter the system to speak to our honored Supreme Overlord Ks’Kull. He awaits you in orbit around the fifth planet of the system, the gas giant Hwukess. I . . . I beg for your forgiveness, and humbly-“

Brooks cut off the message. “I accept your offer,” he sent back.

“Navigation, plot a course to the gas giant, and begin charging the zerodrive. Put all weapons systems on standby. And contact the Bright Flower again – tell them to hold position.”

----------------------------------------

“Captain, how did you know the Hev would bow before your threat?” Decinus asked. “Surely you can understand that that was entirely against diplomatic protocol.”

The ship would take some time to gather enough power to make the next jump into zerospace. Much of the time in space, there was nothing to do but wait.

The Ambassador’s words sparked a question in Brooks’s mind, and before he answered he scanned the bridge for a sign of Kell. But that ambassador was not present.

His eyes went back to the man. “I was a junior shipman on a smuggling ship on its way into the Dekkar system-“

“A smuggling ship?” Decinus asked, his voice quite disapproving.

“Yes,” Brooks replied, without hesitation.

“What were you smuggling?”

“Data and constructors,” Brooks replied. “To allow the mining colony in the asteroid belt to produce high-end equipment on-site. It helped get them out from under the thumb of the colonial government.”

“I see,” Decinus said, his disapproval flickering to uncertainty.

“That’s not important,” Brooks said. “The Hev also had a colony in the system – it was a sticky situation that still hasn’t been resolved, but at that time we were avoiding the colonial authorities by traveling through Hev-controlled space. The Captain has worked out a deal with them, but when we were going through, we encountered a picket that threatened us.”

“Were they P’G’Maig?” Decinus asked.

“No, they were another Red Hev clan called the Y’K’Mog. When they threatened us, I was on the conn, and I had never encountered Hev before, so I was concerned. But the Captain did as I did here, and then told me about how these challenges were just that – tests. Sometimes by the Hev hierarchy, sometimes by the individual captain who thinks he can pull off a theft and get away with it. The only way to react to it when you’re in the right and they know it is by holding your ground and threatening back.”

“I see,” Decinus said. “This is nothing at all like what I am familiar with from reading on the Blue and Yellow Hev clans.”

“Different cultures,” Brooks said with a shrug. “I can’t say it wasn’t a risk here, but I had a strong feeling that it would work.”

Decinus considered that, and Brooks looked back around, wondering just where Kell had gone. He often seemed to enjoy being in the command center, especially when things were occurring.

“Captain,” Cenz said suddenly, his face screen showing alarm. “I am detecting a new ship – I believe they are Fesha.”

“Fesha?” Brooks repeated. “What on Earth is a Fesha ship doing here?”

Decinus leaned forward. “Is it a long-range bulk carrier?”

“We are still resolving the image – they are almost two light hours distant, orbiting the seventh planet, and just came into view.”

“So they wouldn’t have seen us yet,” Brooks said. “At their current orbital rate, do we still have line of sight?”

“Yes, sir, we-“

“Captain!” Shomari Eboh said. “We are receiving an FTL transmission. It is the Fesha ship.”

Brooks scowled.

“The Hev must have told them that we arrived,” Urle said.

“Or our operational security was sloppy,” Brooks noted. “But I think your thought is more likely to be true. Any thoughts on why they’re here?”

“I can offer a theory for that, Captain,” Decinus said. “I was instructed not to speak on this unless it became relevant, but we have reason to believe that the Fesha are conducting some sort of trade with the P’G’Maig.”

“If they’re trading with the Fesha, then it really means the Aeena,” Urle said with distaste.

And it was true. The Fesha were a client species to the xenophobic and isolationist Aeena. No human had ever even met one of the shadowy puppet masters in the flesh, as far as was known, with the Fesha handling all external contact so as to keep their masters ‘untainted’ by outsiders.

“Shall we accept their message, Captain?” Eboh asked.

“Yes,” Brooks decided. “Put them on broad-view.”

An image appeared, projected for all in the seeming midst of space.

The being that was looking at them could not be further from a Hev in looks; while Hev were furred and hunched, with small eyes and snout-like faces, the Fesha looked like something from a fairy tale.

The Captain stood at the fore, but behind him stood others of his kind on the bridge of his vessel.

The lithe species appeared to be carved from crystal, their bodies almost entirely clear, save for when scintillating lights crossed the surface, created by small internal organs, and the glow spread by their silica skin.

Little was known about their evolutionary origins, but the lights were a part of their communication system, with the slack taken up by the hair-like blades atop their heads.

This was where their true mouth was hiding; the hair-like structures waved above their heads at all times, scratching and rubbing together to create their verbal language. Unlike the rest of their bodies, those blades were red, appearing dark and dull until they caught the light and turned bright.

It was those sounds that greeted Brooks, along with a spreading bluish glow across its face that his system speculated was a sign of cordiality.

“This is most unexpected. You are the Ian Brooks, I understand,” the Fesha said.

Its eyes were pale white orbs, embedded fully in its skull, able to rotate to see almost any direction even through its own body.

“Fesha ship, what is your purpose in this system?” Brooks asked.

“The same might be asked from where I stand,” the Fesha replied. “This one is Tii Keh Sheh.”

“Captain Tii Keh Sheh, this is an active warzone,” Brooks said. “I ask again what you are doing here. For your own safety, you should leave.”

A ripple of a color that seemed to wane between orange and violet now spread across his face in several splotches. Brooks’s system could not identify the meaning.

“This one feels in no danger. But are you, Ian Brooks?”

“Your presence may jeopardize attempts at creating a peace between the warring factions,” Brooks said, ignoring it.

“We, too, attempt to bring peace,” Tii Keh Sheh replied. “How do you propose to do such? If we speak together, perhaps our voices will pierce the veil of violence.”

“I am afraid that is not possible,” Brooks said curtly. “But if you are seeking to prevent the extermination of the T’H’Tul, then we are of a like mind and I wish you success.”

The being was quiet for a long moment. A chill blue spread down from its face.

“Perhaps,” it replied cryptically.

The communication ended.

Brooks sat back down.

“That was less fruitful than could be hoped,” Decinus said. “Have we identified the ship? Does it have any weapons?”

“Its IFF says it’s the Klejket, but that name is not in any of our databases,” Urle said.

“I find myself skeptical of his claim about wanting to bring peace,” Brooks said sourly.

“I do not enjoy being pessimistic – but I agree,” Decinus said.

Urle took a breath, considering. “On the one hand, Fesha getting involved isn’t usually a good thing for us. But they don’t frequently take on direct encounters, so I’m not too concerned about them attacking. The question is just why they’re here – what would they benefit from peace here? Or anything here, for that matter?”

“We cannot assume they are here for selfish purposes,” Decinus said thoughtfully. “We are right to be cautious in our dealings with them, but we cannot let our judgments be clouded until we know more.”

“It is true,” Brooks agreed, “That there are Fesha factions not under the control of the Aeena – at least not directly. But given the situation we cannot let our guard down. If they can communicate with us faster-than-light, then they can speak to someone else outside the system and call in reinforcements.”

“Given that this is a mission of humanity,” Decinus said, “And there is a Sepht ship here, it becomes our responsibility to ensure their safety first. They, after all, rejected the T’H’Tul call for help. If they were to be harmed while aiding us it would be a diplomatic disaster at a very inopportune moment, and would make us appear weak and ineffectual.”

“As well as leave Sepht dead,” Urle said.

“Of course,” Decinus replied. “But we must keep the larger picture in mind. I recommend, Captain, that we have the Bright Flower stay close – or request them to leave.”

“Commodore Siilon sent me the specifics of their mission – they will not leave,” Brooks said.

“Really? I was not informed of these details,” Decinus said, frowning.

“Need to know basis. It’s a naval matter,” Brooks said, not wishing to go down this path right now.

He rose. “Yaepanaya, you have the bridge. Urle, with me.”

Decinus looked surprised. “Shall I come?”

“No,” Brooks said. “Ship matters.”

The Ambassador clearly knew he was being excluded from something, but accepted it without comment. “I have preparations of my own to make.”