We find our way through the senate building to a small conference room. Several bigwigs stand milling around outside the room. Felt Ear, Catie'a, and Fee'ah are among them, along with a few admirals and generals. My crew and I snap to attention and salute. The NASA admirals and ground control personnel quickly return the salute.
The door peeks open and the spotted head of an Engea surveys the crowd. The self important politicians and military higher ups all think that it is them that she's looking for and try to move into the room. She pushes them away and signs for us to enter. The military personnel, while confused, they know better than to question things. The politicians are very vocal of their opinion concerning our importance compared to theirs.
Ren clenches her hands, fighting off the urge to incapacitate any of them, a urge I'm sure we're all feeling. As Nyan walks past one of them they lean over and whisper in voice we can all hear, "If you're so important, why are you outside the room while I'm going in?" The politician swallows the profanity he is about to spew when he notes the lanyard around their neck identifying them as an ambassador.
We step into the conference room and the Engea closes the door after letting Fee'ah in after us. It's as expected, a long table with a dozen or so chairs surrounding it. Touch screens line each wall, even the one we just entered through is covered in screens that extended over onto the door.
It currently has the appearance of an interrogation room. The Shike is slumped in a chair at one end of the table, asleep. A pair of retractable cuffs are mounted to the table top, their thin lines stretching out to the looped plastic around the shikes wrists. It looks bad, but at least we aren't using zip ties.
The Shike sits up and glares at me with blood red eyes. So they aren't asleep.
\\Thank you for coming so fast,// Jennifer thinks. \\But was it necessary to bring these others?//
"Ma'am, we've all been assigned to help ambassador Nyan," I tell her. "There was never a question of who of us would come."
Jennifer turns to look at me. \\I was not thinking to you. How could you have overheard me?//
"I'm wondering the same thing."
She shrugs off the mystery. \\Question for another time. I've been told you're acquainted with our guest.//
"You could say that."
"You mean to say that they beat you up," says Connor.
"If memory serves me correct," I tease. "It was you who got shot." I smile and turn my gaze towards him. My smile falters. I'm staring at Connor, but not Connor. Same facial marking, identical hair pattern, similar hair cuts, even their uniforms are the same. But I just know that this is not Connor. "Who are you?"
"This is my brother," says the real Connor. "Ron Crow."
He gives a smile and offers me his hand. "Pleasure to meet you."
I glance at the hand warily before shaking it. I not sure what it is about him, but I don't like him. No, it's not that I don't like him, it's the reason I don't like him. It's not like with Connor. I can't explain what it is or how I know it, but my disdain for Ron is more... justified.
"Ignore him," another Connor says. He's standing to the side of the room, unnoticed so far. He's staring intently at the Shike, drilling a hole through space at them.
"He's new," Connor comments.
"A plus for the golden child," he says, still not taking his eyes off the Shike. "The name's Marcus Magpie. Yes, our parents have a sick sense of humor, they official changed their last names just so that ours would be in theme."
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Lucky 13 (NaNoWriMo 2017)
الخيال العلميHumanity may not be destined for great things, but its children are. Cheep long rang FTL is finally a reality, and onto the Lucky 13, one of the first of these new ships, is thrown a crew new out of the Academy. Captain Daniel May, just as green as...
