LF Friends, Will Travel

Collateral damage - FINAL

Jan Eagles stared down at the document in front of him. This was bad, this was terrible, this was... It was like a bout of exceptionally bad food poisoning, the more he read it the worse it got and just didn't stop. As you went through the events, every time you thought the Raha had hit rock bottom, they'd once again find another level of depravity.

The buzzer sounded once again, the signal that someone was at the door to his office. A buzzer that had been going on for the last twenty minutes. He knew exactly who was on the other side of that door: Unk'gar, the Estorian diplomat. No more fancy velvet letters and snide comments: the Raha he had met before had been desperately trying to talk with Jan.

The Terran however had been spending the last twenty minutes trying to calm down, trying to bring the anger to a manageable simmer. The diplomat was a master at never snapping, never letting even the worst of the worst get to him. But these actions... If anything as time went on he got more and more angry.

Jan pressed a button to unlock the door, seeing the entrance slide open and revealing a very nervous looking Raha on the other side, antenna twitching and wringing its little talon like hands. The Terran made a motion towards the chair opposite his desk which the insect quickly took.

"Greetings bright one, I am so glad we could talk before this gets out of hand, we need to-"

"Shut the fuck up, you don't get to talk, I talk."

The Raha was silenced by the pure fury emanating from Jan as Unk'gar sat there, silently across from the Terran, squirming in his seat. Somehow those words coming from the normally soft spoken Jan made them more terrifying. Honestly, even the Terran was slightly concerned with how he felt: the anger was like a burning in his chest, he hadn't felt this way since... well since before going into stasis.

"Let's go over what happened shall we. First a member of your royal family attacks a Terran vessel, injuring one and enslaving another, which breaks all of our previous agreements."

"It is highly regrettable that prince Hakthas made the mistake of not verifying such an action, we didn't know about-"

"Don't. Bullshit. Me." The Terran interrupted the snivelling excuses of the insect in front of him, a tone that stated there was no way argue against the pure rage emanating from the diplomat. "We're not really annoyed with that part, because your arsehole prince got himself killed doing that. Good riddance frankly."

Jan took a moment to glance back down at the document in his hands, as if the events that had happened over the past week hadn't been burned into his brain at this point.

"Your reaction to this was to board a Ritlian research vessel, killing everyone. You did this might I add, by breaking the safe harbour law; the only treaty the both of us have agreed to. We've informed the rest of the Federation species about this so I'm sure every Estorian space captain is going to be thrilled to realise that nobody is going to save their ass anymore."

Unk'gar looked as if he was going to interject, which the Terran immediately held a finger out to cut them off so they could continue.

"You used this ship to attack a research station, killing all three scientists inside. Research that was going to revolutionise medical technology in the galaxy, research that has been set back by at least ten years. You do all this, while also failing to accomplish any of your actual goals!"

"The Raha royal house regrets that Lut'har chose such unsanctioned actions against the Terran Alliance, we-"

Jan slammed his fist onto the table, causing the opposing diplomat to jump in his chair.

"An AI captured his ship! We have all your communications, we know you gave express permission and had knowledge of his actions before he took them. Your lies are insulting."