Chapter 20

Ambassador Gevale cut the comm line and stared at the black screen in front of him. He felt his whole body tense and the scales on his head press against his skull. The muscles in his face flexed as he ground his teeth together. Gevale stood from the chair he was sitting on and swept his arm across the desk, knocking everything to the floor. "Elnora!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Gevale stomped around the small room and slammed his fist into the wall in frustration. Elnora was spiraling out of control. She had always been obsessive and her mother indulged the behavior. As a child she had frequent tantrums and bullied his wife into giving her what she wanted. Elnora thrived in the veil of power but her vision was clouded. She was only concerned about her wealth, her linage, her needs not the needs of the Anoree people or the Royal Family.

Gevale leaned his head against the wall and sighed heavily. He should have reined her in years ago, but now it was too late. Due to the attack on the Starfleet ship, the Andorians were leveling an embargo on their trade agreements and would advise other worlds to do the same. Anoree depended on commerce from other worlds to fortify their economy. Her damned obsession with hybrids will be the ruination of our world! He turned from the wall and headed back to his desk.

"Get my daughter on the line immediately!" he screamed into the communication device.

00-00

Atar paced nervously across the room. His breath was ragged and he could feel the sweat rolling down his back. "Levine, the mistress will be calling in five minutes and she is going to want to know how her "little project" is going. What do you suggest I tell her?"

"The truth?"

Atar turned and stared directly at the monitor. "The truth?" he spat out throwing his hands up in the air. "You want me to tell her the truth? She slaughtered Doctor Rovik when he told her the truth!"

"You're ten light years apart Atar!" Levine laughed into the screen. "What could she possibly do to you?"

"You obviously don't know her very well," Atar mumbled shaking his head. "I'm fricken screwed!"

"Well, then lie to her ….. how the frick is she going to know?"

What?" Atar stammered in disbelief. "Are you stupid? The minute I lie to her about how great everything is she'll want to run over to the compound and to see for herself. Then what the frick are you going to tell her when she gets there?" Atar screamed at the monitor and jumped up and down.

Levine sat back in his chair and put his hand across his chest. "Atar, I'm flattered that you are concerned about my welfare," he chuckled. "But I'm not afraid of the Mistress. Tell her what you want and if she shows up here, she better bring it." Levine signed off on comm channel and the screen went black.

Atar stood motionless in the middle of the room. He gritted his teeth and punched his fists into the air participating in an imaginary boxing match. I'm completely and utterly s-c-r-e-w-e-d! It doesn't matter how many light years are between the Ambassador's ship and Elnora's … when she finds out her "project" is a bust, she'll kill me! I should have never gone along with this stupid plan. The Ambassador was right all this time.

"Atar! What the hell are you doing?" Elnora growled from the monitor across the room.

Her voice sliced through him like a knife and he froze in his tracks. "Mistress!" he shuttered, slowly turning around. His scale stood on end in shock. "I didn't realize you were on the line," he remarked trying to play it off casually.

"Why not? Were you not tracking the time?"

"I … ah…."

"Stop babbling like an idiot!" she said moving closer to the screen, which made her face look larger than life. "Have you spoken to Levine?"

Atar plastered a smile on his face. "Oh, yes … I just spoke to him," he said acting upbeat.

"And? Stop wasting my time!"

"The project is ….ah…. going well. Ten of our females are pregnant," he replied nodding his head.

"Ten? By the humans?"

"Yes…ah, with the hybrid seed compound," Atar said evenly. "And five of the human females have been inseminated with human seed."

"Inseminated? Why was that done?" Elnora questioned him. She was still leaning into the screen, which distorted her features on Atar's view.

"I ah…thought you wanted to run a controlled hybrid test," Atar stammered feeling his body begin to tremble again.

"I do… you idiot! Why were the human females inseminated? Why weren't they positioned for fertilization with their own males?"

"We tried… Mistress…the doctors even tainted the male's food with aphrodisiacs. But they refused to comply, so we had to resort to other collection methods." Atar walked back to the desk and sat down in front of the monitor. "There is one small problem, Mistress," he said in a small voice.

"What is it?" she yelled into the screen.

"There were some disciplinary problems at the compound, less than half of the human males remain."

"WHAT?" Elnora yelled shoving the monitor back. "What idiot allowed that to occur? We need every one of the human males to repopulate our planet! You call Levine back immediately and tell him that none of the remaining males are to be killed! Do you hear me?" she roared into the screen. Her face had turned purple and veins were sticking out of her neck. "Atar! Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Mistress …. I hear you," he coughed out.

"How many males are left on the human ship?"

"Seven."

"Then move them to the compound and destroy the vessel," she retorted. "We have no need for that hunk of tin anyway!"

"Don't you think we should salvage what we can from the ship before we destroy it?"

Elnora sighed heavily. "Atar, my only concern is the hybrid project. What you chose to do with the ship is not my business." She stabbed her hand down on the pad and cut the comm line between them.

00-00

Ambassador Gevale stared at the blank screen and felt his whole body begin to tremble. After he requested to be connected to his daughter, the bridge informed him that she was pending in the queue for Atar, who was talking to Levine at their research facility. Gevale demanded to be spliced into the connection without either party's knowledge. None of the facts that were discussed in either conversation had really surprised him. The minute the Andorian's had informed him the human ship was missing and had provided proof that Anoree were involved, Gevale knew Elnora had masterminded it. Even his aide's role as a collaborator wasn't news to the Ambassador. Only Elnora's single mindedness over her "project" as Levine and Atar referred to it concerned him.

"She's delusional!" he cursed under his breath. He shoved the desk in frustration knocking the computer monitor to the floor. "And Atar is an idiot for feeding into her fantasy!" He stood up and shoved the desk again screaming at the top of his lungs. There's only one way to fix this now! he thought as he stormed out of his stateroom.

tbc