The rest of the two days passed pleasantly. Mims insisted they stay alert. They slept in shifts and kept their weapons close at hand. Despite the Captain's caution, there were no attacks. The posted guards appeared to be sufficient deterrent, or maybe the High Commander had rounded up everyone who was willing to throw away their careers and/or lives for a chance to take revenge. There couldn't be that many of them, could there? Mims hadn't been heard from in three decades. How many humans would carry a grudge for that long?
Most of them, probably.
Yvian and Lissa spent their time immersed in human video entertainment. Yvian had been shocked to learn that Mims had a massive library of the stuff on the Encounter, and it hadn't even occurred to him to share. In the face of her indignation, the human had shrugged. He didn't watch Holovision, much. Yvian guessed it reminded him of home. Not a pleasant thing, for a man of his history.
After weeks of jumping from one crisis to another, Yvian reveled in the sudden lack of urgency. To just sit and be entertained...it was decadent. Sure, they were confined to one room. Sure, vengeful humans could try to kill them at any moment. But for the better part of two days, there were no decisions she needed to make. No actions, no desperate gambles. Just her sister and a friend and a console full of stories. By the Crunch, the humans even brought her beer.
Yvian had come perilously close to hugging Hamilton when she saw the case on her cart. If the High Commander's aide didn't have such an air of severe professionalism, she would have. Would have done more than that, if the woman had seemed open to the idea. Hamilton was the first attractive female Yvian had interacted with since the attack on Krog Prime. Her presence ignited a powerful longing. Or maybe the sight of her just reminded the pixen that the longing was there. Either way, Hamilton set Yvian aflutter. Her sister noticed, but so far had been kind enough not to comment.
At 0300 hours human time, which would have been about 1900 hours in the Confederation, the High Commander came for them. He was dressed in his fancy dress uniform with all the ribbons. He looked a little tired. Yvian was a little disappointed to see Hamilton wasn't with him.
"The Delegation's ready," he told them. "I want you to introduce them to the Xill."
"Understood," said the Captain. He donned his helmet.
"I got two things before you go." The High Commander handed Mims a data cartridge. "First off, this little gizmo will let you switch a Node between the Confed Nexus and our Webspace. Should come in handy if you need to contact us again."
The Captain took the gizmo. "Thanks. I'll get myself a ship with a Node on it as soon as I can."
"Well," General Young's lips quirked in a pleased expression that was not quite a smile. "That's the other thing." He keyed into his wrist console. The Captain's wrist pinged.
Mims opened the file he'd been sent, revealing a holographic projection of a ship. "You gotta be shitting me."
"Its a Ronin class reconnaissance cruiser. Top of the line." The High Commander pressed a few more buttons, transferring control of the vessel to Mims. "Less firepower than our battleships, but she's fast, she can hide from most sensors, and she functions as a light carrier."
"Thats..." Mims stared at the ship's holoprojection. "Thank you." He looked up at the General. "I wasn't expecting anything like this."
"It's the least we could do," The High Commander told him. "I figure we owed you a ship. No weapons, of course. You know we don't allow Terran armaments outside of our space. But she's got everything else. We refueled and stocked the Encounter, as well, My boys are running a last minute check to make sure no one left you any nasty surprises. Should be good to go by the time we get down there."
Yvian almost opened her mouth to ask about the MACdriver, but stopped herself. If Federation weapons weren't allowed in Confed space, drawing attention to the Encounter's trump card was a bad idea. The General had to be aware they had the thing. If he hadn't said anything, Yvian took it to mean he was pretending he didn't know so he wouldn't be required to confiscate it. Yvian just had to hope Mims had some other way to get ammo for the device.
Mims and the pixens followed the High Commander out of the room. An escort of twenty SDF soldiers was waiting. They took a shuttle to the cargo bay this time, which was a relief to Yvian. She was still very sore.
A half dozen SDF techs were exiting the Random Encounter when they entered the docking bay. One of the techs saluted the High Commander and reported they had found and removed explosives from the reactor compartment. The General grimaced at the news, dismissing the techs.
Before they boarded the Encounter, the Captain turned to General Young. "This... this hasn't been a pleasant experience, but you were a pleasant surprise. Thank you, Sir."
The High Commander snorted. "Aldara remembers, Mims, but that don't mean we all remember the same shit. More to the point, you might just have saved the human race." He gave the Captain a salute. Mims returned the gesture with crisp motions. "Thank you, Mims. And use the gizmo if you get more intel. Don't risk your ass coming into our space again."
"Yes, sir."
The High Commander turned to the sisters. "As for you ladies, it's been a pleasure. If you ever find yourself in Terran space again, give me a comm. The Federation owes you one." He saluted them as well. They returned it. Yvian felt a strange stirring of pride in the face of the General's approval. She could see why this man commanded the human military.
"Godspeed, ladies and gentlemen. Dismissed." The High Commander turned and gathered up his men and left.
"Alright ladies," Mims said as the last of them marched out of the bay. "Let's get this show on the road."
The Random Encounter pulled out of the docking bay. Yvian pulled up the sensors and tried to figure out if anyone was targeting them. Target lock from gun turrets was traceable, but Terran projectile weapons were another matter. She tried to scan around and see if any of the nearby ships were pointing in their direction, but she doubted she'd notice in time if an attacker wasn't being obvious about it. She looked up from the sensors when she noticed they'd stopped moving.
Mims had parked the Encounter a mere four hundred meters from where they'd exited the docking bay.
"Why'd we stop?" she asked.
The Captain continued to type into his console. "We're waiting for our ride." Yvian looked at her sensor screen again. A ship was approaching. The ship the High Commander had given them.
"Aren't we kind of in the way here?" asked Lissa. "I don't know how things are done in the Federation, but in the Confed you'd get in trouble for blocking a docking bay like this."
"They'll just have to deal with it for now," Mims replied. "We move any further into open space and we might take a MAC round."
"What's to stop us taking one now?" Yvian wanted to know. "We're not moving. We'd be pretty easy to hit."
"Not without hitting the Station," Mims pointed out. "And if anyone was willing to do that, we'd have been dead before we launched."
"You're using Stellar Command as a pixen shield!?"
"Of course not," he huffed. "They're not pixens. I'm using them as human shields."
"And you wonder why everyone wants to kill you." she quipped.
"No," said the Captain, suddenly grave. "No I don't."
Yvian cursed her thoughtlessness. Mims hadn't spoken of it, but she knew the last few days had been deeply unpleasant for him. Between the disdain of his people and the reminders of what he had lost, Yvian was certain he wasn't as calm and centered as he'd been pretending to be. Not to mention the murder attempts.
The silence stretched, growing steadily more awkward. Several more seconds passed before
Lissa rescued them with a change of subject. "So..." she drawled. "They gave us a ship."
"They owed us a ship." The Captain grunted.
"It doesn't have a name."
"The Lady Wanderer," Yvian announced.
"No," said the Captain.
"Why not?"
"I already told you," he said. "It's bad luck."
"The Wandering Lady is bad luck," Yvian corrected. "The Lady Wanderer's a totally different name."
"No it isn't." The Captain leaned back, clasping his hands behind his head. "What makes you think
I'd let you name my new ship, anyway?"
"Yeah," Lissa cut in. "It's my turn to do the naming."
"Is it now?" Yvian could hear the human's sly smile.
"Yep." Lissa sounded smug. "You guys suck at it anyway."
The Captain snorted. "Well maybe Yvian does..."
"No, it's both of you." Lissa told him. "The Gunzerker? Really?"
"It's my ship and I'm gonna name it." The human huffed. "We're calling it the Exile." He started typing.
"The Recompense." Lissa was smug.
"Shit." The Captain froze. "That's good."
The Recompense arrived twenty minutes later. The Captain lowered its shields and opened a docking bay. The Random Encounter slid gracefully into the cruiser. The doors slid shut and the shields came back up. Only then did the Captain open a channel.
"SDF Dresden, this is Outcast," Mims transmitted. Yvian assumed the delegation knew who he was, but there was still no sense in spreading his real name around. "Is the delegation ready to proceed?"
"Outcast, this is Dresden," came the reply. "We're ready to go when you are."
"Acknowledged." The Captain activated the jumpdrive. "I'm going ahead to introduce you. Wait five minutes, then make the jump."
"Acknowledged, Outcast. We'll be there in five."
The drive finished charging and the Jump effect took hold. The Recompense came out of the Gate. The Captain hailed the Xill hub.
"Exodus, this is Mims. There's a diplomatic envoy from the Federation on its way. They'll be here in five minutes."
"Indeed." The Genocide's smooth baritone filtered through the comms. "And with four days to spare. Well done."
"I've been meaning to ask..." started Mims.
"Why didn't we contact the humans directly?" Exodus finished.
"They've been trying to open diplomatic relations for centuries," the Captain elaborated. "They send an envoy to the edge of your space every year. You'd think proposing an alliance would be a simple matter."
"Proposing it would be," the Xill Representative agreed. "Receiving it would not. Once the humans realized my compatriots and I are part of the Xill, they would have attacked, or at the very least, refused to work with us. Explaining the threat of the Vore would not sway them, nor would the threat of conquest. In nearly every scenario, contacting the Federation directly would result in war. We would have been forced to conquer them without the element of surprise. It would be costly, and forcing the humans to cooperate would become exponentially more difficult."
"No," Exodus continued. "What we needed was a neutral party. Someone to lay out the situation in a way the humans would understand without threatening them directly. It was the only avenue we discovered that would result in active cooperation."
"Cooperation, maybe," the Captain mused. "But it's not a good way to inspire trust."
"Trust?" The Genocide laughed. "What human would trust me? Would you trust Hitler, Mims? Stalin? Rivas? Not to mention that the Xill have slaughtered thousands of species. Genuine as our offer is, only a fool would take it without reservation."
"Fair point," Mims conceded. "But that wasn't what I wanted to ask."
"Yes it was," Exodus told him. "It just wasn't what you were planning to ask. And no, I have no objection to you retrieving one of the Lucendian ships for yourselves. Our forces won't destroy you when you exit the Gate with one."
"Thanks." Mims hesitated, then said. "You do know how creepy the whole mind reading thing is, right?"
"It's called predictive analysis, and its' supposed to be." The Genocides' voice was amused. "You're a dangerous man, Captain. I don't want you getting too comfortable."