Author's Note:
In this chapter, you guys get to meet Kali. Though it may seem like Harper likes her and she does flirt with Dylan a little bit, she on't wnd up paired with anyone.So hopefully she doesn't come across as a Mary Sue.Chapter 9
Inside hanger bay nineteen, the five crew members watched as ensign Kali Rhade disembarked from the slip fighter. Out of the corner of his eye, Telemachus saw Harper whistle softly and scowled at the young human.
"Seamus, you know that in most cases I'm very supportive of your… infatuations," Rhade warned him. "But not this time."
"Yeah yeah," Harper muttered, still focused on the woman. "Don't worry about me; I know when I'm out of my league. Which, unfortunately, is most of the time."
As Kali approached, four men exited the remaining vessels and followed her. They were all human and also dressed in Tarazed uniforms. The five came to a full stop about two feet away from the crew, with Kali slightly in front of the men. At that point, Telemachus and Dylan were greeted with salutes. The formalities ended there.
"Well," Kali said in good humor. "As impressive as this is, captain Hunt, I must warn you ahead of time that two hundred years is my dating age limit."
"Kal!" Telemachus was far from amused. He was angry with his cousin and embraced in front of the captain. Luckily Dylan just raised an eyebrow at her comment.
"Oh calm down, cousin," she laughed. "I was joking, with the assumption that captain Hunt has a better sense of humor than you. Not that it takes much."
Beka nudged him with her elbow. "I think you're right, Rhade," there was a hint of laughter in her voice. "I do like her."
"I see you've been quite busy yourself," the woman cocked her head to the side to get a better look at Tristan who was hiding behind Beka. "You sure work fast, Tel."
"He's not…" Telemachus rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Never mind, Kal. It's not what you think."
"No?" she sounded almost disappointed. "And here I was looking forward to being an aunt already."
"The admiral here is going to be the first Nietzschean in history to die a bachelor by choice," one of the men behind Kali commented, but quieted as soon as Telemachus glared at him.
"At ease, soldier," Rhade said in a tone that immediately reminded everyone that less than a year ago he was the admiral of an entire planet's military. "I thought you came here for a specific reason, not to discus my romance life."
"There's nothing there to discus!" Kali laughed. "But actually I do have news."
"Then let's take this to the conference room," Dylan interjected. "Rhade, take Tristan back to your quarters, show these gentlemen to the spare crew quarters. Beka, direct ensign Rhade to hers. I'm calling a meeting in the conference room within an hour. Everyone's dismissed."
* * * * * * * * * *
Telemachus left Tristan in their quarters, promising to be back a little later, while the four men waited in the corridor talking amongst themselves. They were soldiers, born and trained on Tarazed. They served under Telemachus for years, fought side by side with him, and the Nietzschean considered them good friends. He came out a few minutes later while they were talking.
"So," one of the soldiers asked as they started walking, "what's up with the kid?"
"Tristan? It's a long story," Rhade waved it off, not wanting to discus such things.
"Hey we were almost worried that we'd have to give a lot of anxious girls back on Tarazed the knews that you were no longer available," joked the second man. "They'd be so disappointed."
"They'll still be disappointed, Drason," said a third man. "We all know that the only woman the admiral here is interested in is a certain blond hot-shot pilot."
All four men burst out into laughter, but Telemachus frowned. "I have no idea what you're implying."
"Sure," Drason said sarcastically and slapped him on the back, "and the way you were looking at her back in the hanger bay is exactly how I would look at my sister."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Telemachus strode past them and rounded a corner towards the conference room. "By the way," he threw over his shoulder, "she's a red head."
* * * * * * * * * *
Kali followed Beka to the guest quarters. The first officer showed her around for a moment and then prepared to leave.
"Telemachus told you what I am," Kali called after Beka, and the other woman turned around.
"I hope I didn't seem too curious to make you feel uncomfortable though," Beka apologized after falling back to the door frame.
"It's okay, I get that a lot," Kali said, walking past her and sitting down on the bed.
"No, it wasn't really about you," Beka told her. "The little boy who you thought was Telemachus' son, Tristan, he's half Nietzschean and half human. I just haven't met anyone else who was."
"Ah that explains it," Kali nodded. "It's tough, you know, not fitting into one world or the other. But as you probably know by now, the Nietzschean on Tarazed aren't like your average ubers." The woman smiled that she was kidding by using the negative term.
"So I've been told," Beka muttered under her breath, mostly to herself than to Kali. "You and Telemachus seem close."
"Like I said, I'm his favorite cousin," Kali laughed, "and also the youngest of our generation. He's actually more like a brother than a cousin. That's probably why I make fun of him so easily. But Tel's a good man, one of the best I've ever known."
"Yeah," the first officer whispered as she walked out. "I'm starting to see that."
* * * * * * * * * *
Dylan, Beka, Telemachus, Trance, Harper, and Rommie were all gathered around the table in the conference room an hour later and listened as Kali presented the disturbing new developments. With the help of one of the screens, she showed the crew several reports from the planets on the outer reaches of the New Commonwealth. The reports spoke of numerous other problems, chiefly a rapid increase of Magog attacks. News from within the government confirmed that the world ship was indeed moving much closer to the known worlds. Even residents of Tarazed, the most secure planet in the New Commonwealth, were becoming nervous.
The crew listened with extreme concern. Finally when the woman finished, Beka shook her head. "Damn. When I saw Tyr last, he said that the Magog were going to be here in about two months. I should have gotten more information out of him!"
In the seat next to her, she could see Telemachus grimace at the mention of the former weapons officer. "It's not your fault, Beka," he said. "The price for further information may have been too high."
"It doesn't matter whose fault this was," Kali pointed out. "What matters is that there's a floating death trap closing in on all of us, and what, pray tell, is the Commonwealth doing? It's fighting a civil war!" She threw her hands up into the air in exasperation then directed her next comment at Dylan. "I have no idea how you plan to fix this."
"That," the captain leaned back in his chair, "is a very good question."
"Yeah, it is," she folded her arms under her chest, "and I wish that was all."
"You can't have more bad news," Harper protested. "I think we've reached our limit for the day."
"If only," Kali replied. "The second part of the story is that the so-called Nietzschean empire that your Tyr Anasazi managed to put together with the Collector's help is destabilizing, basically falling apart."
"Isn't that good news?" Harper asked.
"Not if we want a strong ally against the Magog," Dylan explained, immediately understanding the woman's thinking. "They may not like us very much, but they hate the Magog even more."
"As well as the fact that the world ship is currently the largest threat to their survival," Telemachus added solemnly. "One would think that of all times, this would be the perfect motivation for them to unite against a common enemy. However the individual prides are very selfish."
"That's exactly what's going on," Kali supported her cousin. "The Drago-Kasov pulled out first, claiming that they were not responsible for the smaller prides. After that, the entier empire simply began to crumble."
"Okay," Dylan whipped his hands over his face in apparent exhaustion. "I think I'll have to agree with Mr. Harper. We've had just about as much news as we can take for one day. Meeting adjourned."
