Loonatics Unleashed:
"Silent Conspiracy"
(This story is post Season Two – after the cartoon series.)
Rated T for Intrigue.
Disclaimer: Loonatics Unleashed, Duck Dodgers in the 24th and ½ Century, Looney Tunes, and all related Characters and Elements are trademarks of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Other references, lyrics and quotes belong to their individual artists, authors, copyrights, or trademarks.
Does one betrayal always lead to another? But what do you do when your enemy has the cunning to plot it, the knowledge to implement it, and the determination to see it through to the bitter end . . . and what do you do if that enemy is your friend? Actually, the genre should be Intrigue, but there wasn't the option.
"Okay, let's put a little theory into practice!" And with that, Tech unclipped his green triangular chest shield. Using his magnetic ability, the coyote genius slid the micro thin layers of metal in the shield to expand it out to surfboard size. Hopping onto the board and magnetizing the soles of his boots to it so he wouldn't slip off, the canid anthromorph enveloped himself in a magnetic field and shot off down the inner ramp-ways of the planet Blanc that was the new home and base of operations for the Loonatics.
It had taken an obscene amount of time to perfect the process of micro-engineering the individual atomic planes using a micro-mechanical cleavage technique to modify the atomic lattice of the metal of the shield. While the actual process was complicated, it didn't take long . . . now that he'd created a special kiln and apparatus for it. Plus, the end result was amazingly simple. Instead of the shield being a solid piece of synthetic material interlaced with metal alloy, it now consisted of ultra thin layers that he could shift and lock into place. "Keep up . . . if you can!"
Rev stared open mouthed after his best friend. He heard the coyote chuckling over the wrist communicator that they kept tuned to each other as Tech prematurely started the race to gain the lead over the roadrunner. The two really weren't feuding anymore. Oh, sure, they bantered back and forth, but they no longer tried to one-up themselves by dissing the other. In fact, their friendship had deepened into a brother-like relationship. Still, Rev was worried. At the speed Tech was going, you didn't steer, you took aim. Tech called today's activity 'an experiment in bold new scientific research.' He called it just plain reckless. Then Rev laughed at himself. He was taking this whole 'big brother' thing too far if HE was being the voice of reason. Throwing caution to the wind, Rev's eyes glowed red as he fired up his super speed and jetted after his friend. "Oh-you-are-so-on! Let's-drag!"
A thin trail of fire followed the speedster as he skimmed down the purple and white checkered pedestrian walkway in the magnetic wake of the canid scientist. They were racing 'underground' if there was such a place on the hollow planet of Blanc. From space, Blanc resembled a large, grey-black Wiffel ball with half a dozen very large holes in its shell. It had two moons, one was large and purplish in color while the other was small and rusty red. Due to the impressive wormhole apparatus suspended in the center of the planet sphere, the moons orbited only around an equator of solid shell, avoiding all of the planetary holes. Suspended in the center of Blanc where a normal planet's core would be, Wormhole Central was a beautiful and massive azure spherical structure surrounded by faintly glowing concentric 'Merry Melody' rings. Depending on the currant operational status of the station, the rings glowed either a pale pink or gold. The holes in the planet crust allowed the connecting wormholes to pass safely through the nexus. Being in the center of the universe, Wormhole Central allowed connections to any known black hole for near instantaneous travel from one part of the cosmos to the other. Whoever controlled Blanc, controlled access to the universe. After two recently failed attempts of hostile takeover, Zadavia decided to make the Loonatics into Guardians of the Universe, and Ace moved their base of operations to Tweetums' planet. Not only could they keep the crossroads safe, they could immediately transport to any intergalactic trouble spot where they might be needed.
The populous of Blanc lived in and on the inner curve of the shell, covering it with a myriad of domed cities, parks, and even some wilderness areas. Most of the domes sported vast gardens complete with statues, exotic imported plants in their own environment pots, and birdbaths for the populous to enjoy as well as forested sections that complimented the cities. The cities proper were collections of minor domes atop trunk-like and branching bases; the whole affairs looking remarkably like alien trees themselves. A forcefield covered the outer surface of the planet, protecting it from meteors and other interstellar debris that sometimes accompanied the wormholes whose nexuses pivoted here. The perforated planet crust itself was hollow as well, supported by countless decorated, flaring columns and interlaced with suspended, color-coded checkered ramps. It was here, inside the crust of the planet where the complex network of roadways, both vehicular as well as pedestrian, resided. The planetary shell also contained the planet's emergency shelters, secret Royal chambers, prison, as well as the massive gravity generators that kept the outside-in planet properly weighted.
Rev swerved onto a side motorway in an attempt to overtake the green and black clad coyote even as Tech had to veer off the curved, teal and white plaid path that he followed because of damage from the recent invasion. As ruler of the planet Blanc, the Royal Tweetums, a small, yellow bird anthromorph who closely resembled his distant ancestor Tweety Bird, was expending every effort to restore his beloved planet. There were, however, still areas that the repair crews hadn't yet reached. The duo were little more than streaking smears of red and green as they each tried to pull ahead of the other.
Officially, the two Loonatics were becoming familiar with their new home. Rev was helping Tech expand his use of his magnetic ability. And Tech was helping Rev calibrate his own internal GPS to this new place. After all it wouldn't do for the galactic heroes to get lost in their own home.
Unofficially, they were just goofing off.
"Hey-Tech," Rev called as he came up on a parallel ramp near where Tech was road surfing. The two raced back and forth, sometimes one ahead and sometimes the other. Both took slightly different routes but crisscrossed each others' paths often. "Should-you-be-going-this-fast? The-tunneling-effect-of-high-velocity-on-your-sight-must-be-rendering-you-virtually-blind-and,-genius-that-you-are,-you-forgot-to-bring-your-global-positioning-goggles. Aren't-you-afraid-you're-going-to-crash?"
"Actually not," Tech replied smugly. The canid anthromorph answered his companion's concerns as he continued slaloming through the planet's crust. He pinballed a bit, ricocheting as he zoomed through the byways and halls of inner Blanc. "You see, genius that I am, I have encased both my 'surfboard' and myself with my magnetic ability, kind of like a miniature version of the earth's magnetic field. Since Blanc's infrastructure is largely comprised of ferrous alloys, I am not only able to utilize the negative and positive aspects of magnetism as impetus for near frictionless movement, I am also able to tap into the magnetic lines. By noting their distortions caused by the juxtaposition of matter, I am able to fine tune and use them as an extended 'magnetic radar' of sorts to navigate. So while I don't have your internal GPS to guide me, this will do. "
"Oh,-well-in-that-case, . . ." Since Tech could use his magnetism to steer, Rev didn't need to worry. Coming up fast from behind, Rev smirked mischievously and gave Tech a tremendous push, kicking up his own speed so that he wasn't actually running on the ramps, but flying a few inches over them. "Feel-the-need-for-speed?"
"Re-eev!" Tech screamed. Tech lost control but managed to keep his glowing emerald magnetic sheath tight around him. The coyote corkscrewed down a round tunnel before he could pull out. "I don't need to go any faster!"
"Ah,-Tech,-you-can-handle-it! Good-job,-well-done-on-pulling-out-of-that-spin-by-the-way. You're-doing-great!" the roadrunner encouraged. Rev REALLY loved being big brother and he was having a blast leading Tech into all sorts of trouble. But not to worry. He'd lead the silly coyote back out of it again, so it was all good. The speedster flew low, awash in his best buddy's slipstream. It was a new experience for the roadrunner to be pulled along in reduced air pressure and forward suction directly behind the rapidly moving coyote. Man, no wonder migratory birds flew in lines. It was much easier to fly with Tech breaking the wind resistance for him. At the next intersection, Rev veered off onto a blue checkered secondary ramp and resumed weaving his course around that of the coyote's in an effort to come out ahead in the race. "Oh,-man-this-is-sooo-COOL! We-just-have-to-get-my-little-brother-Rip-up-here-for-a-visit. He-might-not-be-as-fast-as-we-are,-but-he-is-a-roadrunner, Even-if-he-doesn't-choose-to-run-fast-most-of-the-time,-he-can-certainly-withstand-the-acceleration-and-we-can-easily-make-a-zoomatrix-for-him."
The two speeding Loonatics abruptly split further from each other, each taking a divergent ramp as they came across a group of pedestrians. When they'd first come to Blanc it was during the invasion of Optimatus and Deuce's troops, and the citizenry had gone to ground in the emergency shelters. Now the place was a hive of activity. Vehicles of all sorts traversed the ramp-ways and pedestrians crowded the pedestrian paths and stairwells. The crowds were exceptionally thick on the ramp-ways under the major domed cities above and on the motorways leading to and from the Royal Tweetums palace dome. Being the crossroads of eternity, or at least the universe, there was a wide assortment of citizenry, not to mention visitors from far reaches. The native population of Blanc was a near polar opposite from that of Acmetropolis. Back home, anthromorphs were the minority; here, they held the majority with only a few humans in the mix.
The two friends avoided the booby trapped tunnels around the secret throne room, choosing instead to take their little drag race further from the main hub of Blanc activity. Unfortunately, as Tech discovered, trapped corridors weren't the only danger of racing in Blanc. A large transport vehicle loomed ahead on a collision course with Rev. Without thinking, Tech shifted his weight, jumping his track to land on the roadrunner's and pushing Rev out of the way. Since the avian was flying a few inches off the road surface he recovered quickly, but not before the coyote was run down by the truck.
Tech bounced down some stairs and over the edge of a ramp. The resultant drop sped the out of control coyote past several more motorways, then through an oval shoot only to be funneled into a blind alley. Desperately, the green toned Loonatic tried to magnetically latch into the tunnel's metal walls to slow himself down, but succeeded only in ripping up the zigzag patterned paneling and pulling it with him toward the abrupt end looming ahead. Dreading the inevitable, Tech whimpered. This was going to hurt. A lot.
The crack up was quite spectacular and despite the concern he felt for his coyote friend, Rev couldn't help but wish he had a holographic-video camera to record it. It took the roadrunner next to no time to circumnavigate the transport. He found Tech's surf board snapped in two and Tech stumbling around a bit. The whole blind alley was a shambles. Tweetums wouldn't be thrilled with the added damage to repair. Apparently, the genius managed to hold his board together with his magnetism for the crash landing but that was it. The high speed impact left Tech looking remarkable like an accordion. Then his green, healing glow surrounded him and at a molecular level his body structure realigned into its proper form as he regenerated. Rev picked up the green surfboard and with a little manipulation, collapsed the two pieces back into some semblance of the Loonatic symbol. The roadrunner put his arm around the coyote's shoulders to steady him. He'd been doing a lot more of that lately, starting with the whole mad music man thing and the Blanc invasion scenario.
Rev looked around the corridors and stairwells. They were deep in some of the pedestrian walkways, but he'd never been to this section before. "Where-are-we?"
"No idea." Tech shuddered as the last of his fractures healed and the dislocations settled into their proper frame. The pain receded, but the coyote still leaned on the roadrunner for support. "So, where are we?"
His eyes once again glowing red, Rev activated his GPS. That was the whole point of this exercise, after all. The inverted nature of the planet made it tricky. The roadrunner could 'see' with his internal global positioning, and he was starting to learn the correlations and to recognize where everything was in relation to him here on Blanc. With Tech's 'surf board' broken it would take them longer than usual to get home. Rev smirked. But not that much longer. He grabbed Tech and took off. The roadster took them unerringly to the proper hatch, then he guided the still woozy coyote 'up' to the surface.
The Loonatic duo paused a moment to look at the rosy sky above them. They could see Wormhole Station with its currently pink rainbow of rings around it in the center of the planet above them not entirely unlike a sun up in the sky, but the far curve of the planet beyond was too far to see. With the gravity generators, the surface of Blanc appeared and felt as flat as any conventional planet. The new Loonatic tower was situated a fair distance from the royal palace. If any enemies attacked, they didn't want both palace and headquarters taken out with one blow. Rev sighed. The red and black clad roadrunner was perhaps the Loonatic having the hardest time adjusting to the move. His mom, pop, and younger brother were still back on Acmetropolis, but it was more than that. Every time he used his internal GPS, the odd inverse curvature of Blanc that showed up in his mind's eye reminded him that he was a stranger here.
"Come-on,-lets-get-back." Rev took Tech to the single stemmed, tree-like tower that housed their headquarters. The dome on top was actually similar in many ways to the sphere atop their old base on Acmetropolis. Indeed on the inside, it was a close replica of their old base. It was just the outside that looked alien. Rev chuckled. "Home-sweet-home. Instead-of-living-in-a-hamster-ball,-we-now-live-in-a-tree-house."
Red Triangle
Far from galactic center, though some would contest not near far enough, a ship left the safety of its armada and ventured deeper into the brilliant star field and colorful nebulae of the Merry Melody galaxy. The ship itself appeared little more than a golden ball topped by a sweeping solar wind comb that gave it a vague Romanesque appearance. The main sphere was nestled in between two broad, crimson colored, triangular wings; as well as between massive amounts of armaments, which at the slightest command could multiply to double the firepower. For anyone who'd encountered such a vehicle before, they knew it to be a Martian Battle Cruiser. And not just any Martian battle cruiser, but the flagship of the entire Martian invasion force. Even more alarming than the appearance of said cruiser, was the occupants . . . or rather one of the occupants in particular.
Tyrr'henia, Martian Queen and destined ruler of the cosmos, didn't often accompany her commander in the forefront of conquest. When she did, it was usually only to observe from the safety and comfort of the moon-sized, imperial Galactic Death Cruiser that served as mobile base for the cloud of small warships that comprised the bulk of the invasion fleet. The small warships resembled smaller versions of the battle cruiser, except instead of broad triangular wings, the sphere-like cockpits were each ringed with a stabilizing hoop. However, both Death Cruiser and warships were left behind this time. The current intergalactic situation demanded the queen's personal attention. While Tyrr'henia implicitly trusted her commander's military prowess as well as his ability to keep her safe, General Melvin tended to be a bit . . . heavy handed . . . in matters of diplomacy.
Queen Tyrr'henia languidly relaxed back, basking in the ruby glow of her temporary audience chamber, one slim leg draped over the armrest of the angular, vermilion throne. The lighting mimicked that of her home world, Mars. This throne room was positively dinky compared to that in her royal palace on the home world, but it did have the raised, circular dais and a few of the huge, green vulture-like servants that befitted her station. Two of the Martian creatures stood slightly behind and to the sides of her, fanning their queen with large, fluffy pink fronds, even though the air conditioning on the battle cruiser worked perfectly. A third green buzzard, down-turned beak and pink feathered topknot held proudly, stood further back lightly playing a Martian harp; a musical instrument that looked, and sounded, like it had had an unfortunate run-in with a violin and a harpsichord. A couple of army green metallic Centurion robots populated the shadowed edges of the room.
The queen herself closely resembled her ancestor Queen Tyr'ahnee of the 24th and ½ century. She was a tall, slim humanoid with long white hair, ebony skin, and wide violet eyes. A painted, ornamental violet line crested her cheekbones defining her heart-shaped face. It peaked up in the middle as if traversing the bridge of a nose; however, like all Martians, her features displayed neither nose nor mouth. Also like her forebears before her, Tyrr'henia's royal apparel held a distinct ancient Egyptian flair. The wide collar, armbands, halter top and belt were made of gold while a royal purple gauze gown only partially concealed her long legs. Instead of a crown, she wore a wide, gold and royal purple headband topped with a perfectly cut, green Gordovian power crystal.
General Melvin entered the audience chamber and stood at the foot of the dais awaiting his queen's acknowledgment. Sergeant Sirius stood beside his master, silently recording all around him. Most true Martians were tall,well formed and well muscled, though a small percentage of them were not. Melvin, like most of the brilliant military strategists before him, was short by anyone's standard. He wore an army green, Romanesque helmet complete with face-guards, movable visor, and crest on his round head. With his black Martian skin and featureless countenance, Melvin looked remarkably like a cannonball with eyes. He also wore metallic, drab green forearm and shin guards, and short, kilt-like hip armor. White gloves and shoes and a red bodysuit completed his uniform.
"Well, general?" Queen Tyrr'henia's voice was soft but carried remarkably well.
"He has seen the urgency of the situation, my queen." Melvin bowed slightly, his blue-grey eyes lit up with glee. "And he is calling an emergency summit meeting even as we speak."
"Excellent." Queen Tyrr'henia sharply clapped her hands, sending away her green vulture attendants. When dealing with less advanced races, she found it well not to overly flaunt her position. "Conference them in, commander."
At a signal from Melvin, Sergeant Sirius bopped his nose with a forepaw and the telecommunication screen flared to life. An expansive backdrop of exotic tapestries in robins egg blue, bright gold, and deep amber filled the main monitor. Central in the décor was Blanc's stylized rendition of Wormhole Central which drew the eye down to a throne almost as massive as the Martian queen's. Sweeping bejeweled golden banisters led up the steps to the burnished throne. In all the expanse of wealth, it was easy to overlook the small, yellow anthropomorphic bird sitting in an amethyst adorned booster seat in Blanc's royal throne.
"Kiss me sweet, kiss me gentle. Kiss me on my little dimple. Kiss me sweet, kiss me gentle. Kiss my little cares away." What wasn't so easy to 'overlook' was the insipid little song that the bird sang. As a tweety bird, the ruler of Blanc couldn't help but sing. In addition to his usual royal blue knickers, tunic and black boots, the Royal Tweetums also wore the royal purple cape and gem studded crown as befitted official functions. The small tweety bird's crown as well as scepter also sported the Wiffle ball look common to Blanc. "Kiss me night, kiss me morning. Kiss me underneath the awning. Kiss me night, kiss me morning. Kiss my little cares away." Tweetums finished singing his inane song before greeting the Martians teleconferenced into his throne room.
Before the formal greetings could be completed, the screen split and Blanc's throne room shared visual space with the mayor of Acmetropolis' executive office. Ceiling high windows framed with cream colored draperies and sweeping valances showed a background of Acmetropolis cityscape behind the dark grained, carved desk. A full-sized flag depicting an anvil stood guard over in one corner. Seated at the desk was the dignified mayor of the city-planet. Though ostensibly an elected leader of the planet, Acmetropolis' mayor had no real opposition in running for the office for the last several elections. She sat dignified and poised, her black hair neat in its sweptback style and her slightly exotic features calmly composed. Her royal purple, full length business dress was as fine as any royalties' and her shoulder cape was clasped with elegant, titanium claps. Her round earrings were of the same bright silver metal. The Mayor's full, dignified voice added to the greetings.
Last to appear were the sibling rulers of Freleng, both Zadavia and Optimatus appeared in the wavering, pastel colors of full holographic projection common to their home world technology. They didn't conference in to share the telecommunication screen, but stood as freestanding holograms on the Martian flagship. Both Felengians were uncommonly tall and both siblings' long hair flowed up in the hologram's aura. Zadavia's was varying shades of blond from almost white to deep amber, while Optimatu's shoulder length hair and double pointed beard was a uniform deep purple with a wide streak of white. Even though the holographic projection masked their eyes in light, both were obviously concerned. The Martian queen noticed that none of the Frelengians' background surroundings were revealed in the hologram, keeping secret any hint of Freleng. The mystery piqued her interest. Tyrr'henia reigned in her conqueror's spirit to attend to the matter at hand.
"Thank you for responding to this emergency session of the interplanetary leaders." Optimatus' deep, ponderous voice sounded a touch tired, as if coming back to rule his planet was more burdensome than he anticipated. Indeed, he was ill prepared to handle any political intrigue not of his own making. His dark rimmed right eye took in the assembled nobles of various races before him while his bionic left eye locked on the small Martian commander standing beside his dark queen. Melvin gave a slight nod, giving the male sibling leader of Freleng the illusion of having a personal ally.
While Optimatus presented the evidence, Melvin withdrew into his own thoughts. The cannonball headed Martian had discretely informed Optimatus of a security breach. The so-called civilized planets distrusted the Martians enough to discount any threat that wasn't of Martian origin itself. When Sergeant Sirius first detected some unknown party gathering information about the Martian people, General Melvin was worried enough to launch a full scale investigation. What his sergeant and Centurion robots discovered was some sort of entire spy network that was electronically infiltrating many of the surrounding civilizations' databases. The perpetrator was crafty, always stopping the leak and disappearing from the information matrix as soon as he got what he wanted. Melvin was able to discover neither exactly what information had been transferred nor who had acquired it. The general was quite worried. His own conquest plans might have been compromised. Even though his race was millions of years more advanced than most other civilizations, someone was continually able to foil his detection scans. Still, there was really only one candidate.
It made Melvin soo angry that anyone would gather information for a devastating takeover. Devastating takeovers were his specialty! The Martian general did not like the competition, but this wasn't something he could fix with a stick of PU 36. He had to play the political game . . . for now. But Melvin was anxious for the time when he could secure his position for a takeover without mucking about with useless politics. Renewed annoyance gripped the Martian that any puny creature could so thoroughly block and hide the evidence.
Melvin's attention drew back to the meeting as the evidence and warrant canisters materialized in each leader's state room and were brought to them. Queen Tyrr'henia unrolled the exquisitely thin and flexible computer screen contained in the tube and pretended to peruse it for the first time. "Oh my. This is serious. Serious enough that immediate action must be taken despite the lack of specifics."
The holographic Zadavia's shining eyes narrowed. Having once been betrayed, she was not so swift to trust again. "It seems, mayhap that the lady fains concern too easily."
"Don't be ridiculous." A touch of annoyance that clearly indicated that she was unused to being questioned sharpened Queen Tyrr'henia's response. "If we wanted to take over any of your pathetic little worlds we would simply swoop in and take them!"
The Queen's arrogance irritated Optimatus, but she spoke true. The Martians didn't usually bother with subtle political intrigue. The last of his reservations in accepting the Martian's evidence slipped from his mind. He leaned close to his sister to whisper in her ear. "The queen's arrogance is unbelievable."
"Oh, as yours used to be?" Zadavia teased back.
A gasp from both Prince Tweetums and the mayor of Acmetropolis drew Zadavia's attention back to the electronic documents before her. A slow dread crept through her. The techno spy's network had been carefully constructed, but the spy had not been careful enough . . . at least on the receiver's end that Melvin had hacked into. And as was pointed out in the documentation, the spy could only be from one group of beings . . . could actually be only one person from within that group, in fact.
"But where would we hold him?" The royal Tweetums considered his holding cells deep in Blanc's planetary crust. They held the traitorous Queen Grannicus and her henchman Slyth Vester well enough, but neither of those villains possessed super powers. "Blanc corrwectional facilities arwe not designed for his type."
"Also, meaning no disrespect of course, since Freleng's prison dimension seems somewhat less than secure," here the Martian queen inclined her head toward Optimatus in tribute to his own fairly recent escape, "in behalf of the Martian people, I offer to see to the criminal's incarceration. Our advanced technology should have no problem in keeping him properly contained."
Tweetums and Acmetropolis' mayor started to nod agreement. It seemed reasonable, but at Zadavia's vehement protests they hesitated. Both planetary leaders owed much to the Frelengian princess. During her exile from her own planet, she had greatly aided both of their worlds in providing a team of superheros to keep them safe and to return the royal Tweetums to his throne. Neither knew why Zadavia would refuse the Martians' offer, but they trusted her judgment.
"We'll take him." Acmetropolis' mayor stood up decisively from behind her massive, carved desk. Seeing the protest in the Martian queen's eyes, she continued firmly. "Since the meteor struck my planet, we have had a large number of hostile, highly powered individuals threaten us and we are equipped to deal with them. Also this spy is a native of Acmetropolis and as such he is our responsibility. Trust me. He WON'T be getting political asylum."
For having only eyes as facial features, Queen Tyrr'henia's ire at being thwarted was evident. After a moment, though the Martian royalty relaxed and nodded her consent. There would be other opportunities to acquire the spy's services. She placed her seal on the electronic document and instantly each of the leaders' copies were updated with it. With that matter settled, one by one, the assembled leaders added their marks to the arrest warrant.
" . . . no . . .." Fear and disbelief strangled Zadavia's protest. She could not believe that HE could be caught doing something like this.
Optimatus placed a supporting arm around his sister's shoulders to keep her upright in her shock. He knew Zadavia didn't want to believe that yet another of her most trusted allies would defect . . . but he'd walked the on wrong side himself . . . as had Rupes Oberon and Deuce. It seemed that his younger sister's ready trust was constantly cursed with betrayals. He knew how strong greed could be; greed for wealth, greed for power . . . greed for knowledge. And while anger ate at him that anyone would dare thus harm his sister, his own previous betrayal of her undermined his fury.
"I am sorry, Zadavia." Optimatus hesitantly placed his seal on the arrest warrant, then held it to his sister.
Zadavia's throat constricted so tight it hurt. She had to go along with the arrest or lose everything . . . her planet . . . her people. But if she did sign the warrant and vouch her testimony against him, she would lose her friend. Did one betrayal always lead to another? She had to admit that if she, herself, wasn't personally involved and didn't know the culprit, the evidence would convince even her of his guilt, and she too would have eagerly taken the same course of action as the other leaders. The tall, Frelengian woman raised her chin, facing her assembled fellow leaders that awaited her signature. The tears that flowed from her eyes were masked by the hologram's distortion, rendering them invisible to the assemblage. Zadavia set her features in regal detachment and added her mark.
"We must bring in the culprit." Queen Tyrr'henia sat forward in her throne, subconsciously taking command of the meeting. With the warrant signed, the time of action was upon them.
"My queen, I have had dealings with these creatures before. I do not trust them." Melvin spoke too low for his voice to be carried to the electronically gathered leaders. He knew what the Martian queen planned and tried one last time to talk her out of it. "When first we met, they destroyed my Galactic Death Cruiser, decimated my fleet, and stole away my gaming partner!"
"But they are heroes, General. They are honorable." Tyrr'henia was not content with simply eliminating a threat, she wished to gain a valuable asset as well. Their spy was too dangerous for her to take directly. She needed the heroes to neutralize him first. The Martian queen had always found the honorable to be the easiest to manipulate. "And they will deliver."
General Melvin stubbornly folded his thin arms over his equally thin chest. He would comply with his queen's wishes. But he didn't have to like it. "Involving those . . . persons . . . does not please me, my queen."
The Marian queen rose smoothly to her feet and by her regal bearing alone, commanded the floor. Putting on an air of benevolent concern, Tyrr'henia raised her voice to address the leaders of planets. "My esteemed associates, since you seem wary of Martian involvement, I believe it is time to place a call to the leader of the Loonatics."