The Tomb World Ch16

Daniels was metaphorically kicking himself in the side for how the meeting went. Eliza stepped up next to him, walking just as primly as always.

“That could have gone better” Daniels muttered.

“What makes you say that, I don’t think it could have gone better if we tried.” She said curtly.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Entirely. Any confrontation between us and the Union was bound to devolve into baseless speciesm and accusations. But this way the Gotari saw the Union picking a fight with us, the people they’d met and connected with. Assuming their psychology is similar to humans in this regard then they’ll view us as victims and the Union as the aggressors.” She explained.

Daniels frowned as he thought, “okay, maybe I see your point, but things would have still been better if they never showed.”

“Can’t change that, at least this way they have a better initial impression of us. The next thing we need to decide is whether we want to continue courting the Gotari as allies or focus our efforts on getting off this world.”

“Continue courting?” Daniels parroted.

Eliza’s pale cheeks flushed “Yes, how would you put it?”

She was deflecting, but the banter was good for Daniels. “Making friends, obviously.” Then he rubbed his chin, “I don’t see why we can’t do both.”

“We probably could, but do we want to ally with the Gotari. We both know that they aren’t Deathworlders.”

“I’m still not sold on that,” Daniels interrupted, “They have no trouble getting around in this gravity, and they can climb and swing around better than Sam and I. just because their little doesn’t mean they’re weak.”

“Their homeworld had no natural disasters, no earthqukes, volcanoes, or hurricanes.”

“Doesn’t make them Non-Deathworlders, the Trikes didn’t have that kind of thing either, and while the Balikstro have earthquakes, Baltur doesn’t have enough water for hurricanes.” Daniels countered.

Eliza reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, “that right there is why we need to choose whether or not we ally with them. All the evidence points to them not biengs deathworlders, but you are insistent on making them into Deathworlders.”

“I don’t follow.” Daniels said.

“Up until this point all our allies have been Deathworlders. Us Terrans, the Torweni, the Kunan’ai, all are deathworlders, but the Gotari might not be. The question is whether our little conspiracy is an coalition of only deathworlders, or is there room for non-Deathworlders as well?”

“Of course there is.” Daniels said firmly.

Eliza quirked a slim eyebrow “Oh, because I got a different impression from Astarte, she seems to believe that non-deathworlders wont have any value to our alliance.”

“If I recall, Astarte said she didn’t believe any of the Union species would be sympathetic to our cause. But this is different, the Gotari have not been bought in by their lies.”

“So then your decided?” she asked.

“It was never in question for me. I like Foric, and Fezzen, and I think I’ll like the rest of them.” They were silent as they approached the Staff of Lore. “I do have one question.” Daniels said, breaking the silence.

“What?” Eliza asked.

“Why are you suddenly so against the Union?” Daniels asked.

It seemed to be a one-eighty from her previous disposition.

Eliza gait faltered, but she straightened herself out in a second. She pursed her lips, “I don’t know. I think, I think I always wanted them to see us as more than dangerous, barely sentient monsters. I wanted them to stop hating us, and I thought that maybe acting how they wanted would change that. In fact, I think many people back home felt the same way. But no matter what we did they never acknowledged us. We blamed the crime on Earth for that, but now… now I think they never would have acknowledged us. Appeasement never placates tyrants after all.”

Daniels stopped to stare her down, searching her face for something, what that ‘something was he couldn’t say.

She stopped as well and met his stare. “I still don’t believe that Astarte’s great war is the best way forward. But obviously the Union will never respect us until we stand on equal but separate footing as their peers.”

Well, it wasn’t a total one-eighty then, she was still against any armed conflict. But at least she now accepted that the Deathworlders all needed independence from the Union. It was a start, and if Daniels was being honest he didn’t really want her to lose her desire for a peaceful resolution.

~~~*~~~

Fezzen watched the hyoomahnzgo and turned back to his uncle. “Was that really a good idea, stopping the meeting so early?”

Foric sighed, though his body language showed none of his exhaustion. “What choice did I have. There was no chance for a civil meeting after that, I could have either sent one away, snubbing them, or sent both. I think this is best for now. Besides, this isn’t really a matter we should be taking the lead on. Meeting one group of aliens was one thing, but two? And the second is the representatives of a massive alien empire beyond our imagination. This needs to be passed up to the council.”

Fezzen didn’t like that, he didn’t trust the council. Even with the threat of the swarm looming over head the council consistently tried to reallocate military resources away for other projects. What does a park matter if they didn’t have enough ships to fight the swarm?

Sometimes Fezzen wished the military was in charge, then maybe things would finally get done. But Foric said that military dictatorships were always a bad thing, and since Foric was his captain Fezzen trusted him.

Fezzen shuffled and gathered his courage to ask what he had been afraid to ask. “What does all of this mean?” he asked.

Foric’s tail drooped until it touched the ground. “I don’t know. We always knew that alien life would be vastly different from us. Even on our own world we were very weak and needed to hide in the Flortops for many millennia. The first gun was what finally made the ground safe for us in any meaningful way. It makes sense that alien life would be bigger and stronger than us. But the Deathworlder non-Deathworlder thing is another matter. I don’t know enough to figure out what it means.”

Fezzen thought for a minute. “They’re not stronger than us in every way.” He said slowly.

Foric turned to him. “Hmm?”

“They can’t climb like us, we saw that. And they can’t multitask like we can either.” Fezzen began.

“No, but one attack from the Terrans would be enough to break our bones I think, or at least hurt a lot. And they can run faster and farther than us.”

“They are better at some things, but so are we. And we are just as smart as them, and I think they think a lot like us too. I think this changes little. We always knew they were different, now we know why we’re different.”

Foric thought. “And what Noskin said, about Hyoomahnz causing trouble and being violent?”

“You said they might have been conquered, and Dan-yalz said as much, I’ve never read about any people who were conquered happily. Rebellion is only natural.”

Foric watched Fezzen unwaveringly. “You truly want the hyoomahnz to be good don’t you. You may be right on all those fronts, or maybe this Noskin was trying to warn us. This is why I don’t think we should be the ones in charge of this.” He said firmly.

Fezzen drooped his tail. He did want to believe in the hyoomahnz, but he might be letting his biases get in the way. “I still don’t like involving politicians.” Fezzen muttered.

Foric hooted “Of course not, no one does, not even the politicians. They don’t want the blame.” He said jovially.

Fezzen hooted with him as they set off to give the council the bad news.

~~~*~~~

Noskin watched the primitives and Hellworlders walk away and sneered. Or at least, sneered in his head, he would never do anything as uncouth as letting his emotions show like some temperamental deathworlder.

That Hellworlder captain was too easy to rile up, Noskin was insulted by how easy it was.

“Captain.” His aid asked from his side.

Dreery was the Drohodron in charge of the discovery aspects of their mission, while Noskin was in charge leading the mission, directing the scientific efforts, and even initiating first contact.

A first contact, Noskin felt his pulse quicken at the idea. A series of first contacts was all it took to elevate Ozzath of house Femeri to such a lofty position as Unity Representative. Just one successful first contact should be enough to get Noskin out of this cramped noisy research ship and into a plush office.

Or at least it would have if the Hellworlders hadn’t showed up first.

“Yes Dreery.” He answered slowly, allowing none of his irritation to show.

“We’ve gone over what data we have. These ‘sons of Gotal’ appear to be much stronger than they seem. From our observations of how easily they move under this intense gravity many on my staff are leaning towards classifying them as Deathworlders.”

Noskin blinked slowly as he thought, hundreds of scenarios played out before him, many of which he did not like. Another deathworld species in the Femeri sector, why were there so many? This made five now, maybe more.

“What rating have you landed on?” he asked.

“Its hard to say without their homeworld for reference or direct biological analysis. But we feel that they might be on the cusp.”

Well that decided it. “Classify them as normal for now.” He orderd.

Dreery looked alarmed “But Sir?”

“Obviously you failed to take into account the sons of Gotal’s size and how that might effect the metric.”

“Sir a deathworlder is a deathworlder, no matter how weak or strong they are.” Dreery protested.

Noskin put a hand on Dreery, and as a sign of how long they had been working together she didn’t flinch. “Dreery, we’re in a tough situation, the Sons of Gotal have already met the Hellworlders, and have been taken in by their falsehoods. They don’t know how dangerous the Terrans truly are. Classifying them as Deathworlders now would only drive them closer to the Hellworlders.”

“But it could prove dangerous for the crew to not know the danger that these new deathworlders might pose.” Dreery pressed.

Noskin thrummed in amusement, his throat vibrating in mirth. “Dreery, they are so little that even if they were deathworlders they couldn’t prove to be a threat.”

“Sir, the humans are small, and we know what they can do when upset. I saw one go on a rampage back home, over fifty were dead before they put it down.”

Noskin stopped thrumming. “Dreery, we are in a tight spot, I cannot see a way for us to escape without the Sons of Gotal’s cooperation, we need to know what they have learned from living on planet made by the ancients. Please see reason.”

Dreery still looked unsure, but she was a smart officer, she knew that Noskin was put in charge for his superior political sense. Her ears drooped in assent. “Alright, I think we will reexamine the numbers, we might find a better answer this time around now that I’ve heard your suggestion.”

“Good” Noskin nodded as he turned to look back out the window.

Even with the Hellworlders botching first contact efforts Noskin still had a shot at finally getting out of this pointless job. This was a world left by the ancients, and its value was far beyond anything he had come across before. Everything else was a paltry discovery compared to this world. He just needed a way to acquire the information and leave as soon as possible.