Unreliable Leadership
One moment they were both standing inside the Invader's ship, and in the next moment they were back in the middle of the cafeteria.
It felt like quite a bit of time had passed, but when they looked around they noticed the piles of scrap metals and broken technology were only a little smaller than before.
Veena was still at her computer.
Everyone was beginning to reconstruct the ships now that their planet's defense barrier was complete.
How much time had actually past then...? A day maybe? Did time work differently on board the Invader's ship? Or had more time passed and everyone was just doing the same thing?
Laes glanced at Lard Nar who nodded at him.
The Invaders had made their intentions very clear. The race of advanced aliens wanted to help the Vortians, but to do this they would first need to gauge the reaction of the populace which meant Laes needed to introduce them.
Chakri would offer her assistance by revealing herself as an Invader. Laes was a bit surprised Kachori would let her daughter do something potentially dangerous... not that the Vortians would do anything to her, but there were the three Irkens to consider.
He was especially worried about Pain. How would the Irken guard handle an enemy of the Empire being in his presence?
Maybe he'd react the same way Darden did... hopefully not...
It was hard to believe Darden was really gone... if he kept thinking about it he was going to get sad and start crying all over the place.
He needed to focus right now.
"So how do you want to address everyone?" Chakri asked, and Laes swung around to face her.
She was really good at appearing out of nowhere.
"I think the broadcast system is fixed. Do you want to use that?" she asked, tilting her head a little.
"Has it been fixed everywhere in the prison?" Lard Nar asked her, and she placed her hands behind her back and smiled up at him.
"It's been fixed everywhere. Mother told me she scanned the planet and there are 30 million five hundred twenty eight thousand and six Vortians in total. All of them should be able to hear the broadcast."
That's all that was left of his people...? Vortians weren't that populous to begin with since almost everyone only had one or no children because of work, but to think they'd let their numbers fall so low...
The prison covered the entire span of their planet with only some room being left for parking and storage purposes, but the whole facility its self had been split into several sections, at least as far as he knew.
The guards hadn't talked about it much, and since different sections worked on different projects using prisoners from those specific sections, he wasn't quite sure how many cell blocks there were.
Prisoners weren't transferred very often... and the guards that were transferred between cell blocks were often only on rotation between four or five other guards at a time, and none of them liked to talk.
There had been a few common areas, like the cafeteria they were currently in, but after the successful escapes, these areas had been shut down.
When this happened, even communication between immediate cell blocks became more difficult.
Laes stopped thinking of how big the prison must be shortly after he was placed in it.
All he knew was the immediate area which included his cell, the surrounding cells, the hallway to and from the showers, the cafeteria, the large work-space where they assembled weapons and battle mechs, and the testing room.
That was it. That had been his world after Vort fell to the invasion.
Maybe the Irkens had done that on purpose so the facility wouldn't feel so large and overwhelming...
Angry-Sheela, Buckram, Pain, Bann, Grumps, Shocker, Masher, and a couple other guards that rotated less frequently so he didn't remember them very well, were the only guards he knew.
Then Masher was reassigned somewhere. Shocker lost his station. Bann was recoded.
Their section had lost a few guards... had the Tallest been pulling guards to join the Armada's fight against the worms...? He always thought it was kind of weird that only 2 guards were positioned in a cell-block that probably contained at least 1000 Vortians.
Of course there were fail-safes in place... but it still seemed fairly risky.
The Tallest must have been desperate for soldiers even back then.
Then he felt someone shaking him. His attention returned to the present, and he realized Lard Nar had grabbed him by the shoulders and was currently trying to gain his attention.
"Sorry, what were we talking about again?" He asked, offering a sheepish smile.
Lard Nar let go then took a step back.
"I was asking if you wanted to use the broadcast system, but instead of answering you were just staring at the floor instead," Chakri informed him with a puzzled frown.
"Sometimes I think too much..." Laes admitted. "But yeah. Let's use that... um... should I prepare a speech or something...?"
"You just have to introduce us and explain why we're here," Chakri said, crossing her arms. "It's not hard."
"Yeah but..." Laes tapped his fingers together as he looked back down at the broken floor. "I think I should write something anyway..."
"Ok... I'll get the system ready, and you can go write something if that makes you feel better," Chakri decided as she disappeared again.
Laes grasped Lard Nar by the wrist. "You'll help me right? I'm super bad at speeches, and you've probably done this kind of thing before..."
Lard Nar nodded in acceptance.
"You'll need to write what you want to say yourself... but I'll proof read it for you, ok?"
"Thanks. I feel better about this already," Laes told him, letting go so he could begin his quest for a writing utensil and some paper.
A little while later he was sitting beside Veena, writing down everything he was trying to express onto a tattered piece of paper he found. His thoughts were everywhere, so it was difficult to think of how it should be ordered and stuff like that.
He ended up drawing a whole bunch of arrows connecting one blurb to the next. Then he handed it to Lard Nar who seemed to carefully consider each word he looked at.
After a very long stretch of silence, Lard Nar sighed as he handed the paper back to Laes.
"It makes no sense..."
Veena looked over her shoulder.
"What are you two doing?"
"Nothing!" Laes blurted.
He crumpled up the paper and tossed it somewhere hopefully far away. He didn't want her to know how incompetent he was at writing speeches... though he wasn't exactly sure why it mattered.
"Writing love notes?" She smirked.
"What? No!" he denied it quickly. He sighed and rubbed his cheek. "It's... it's complicated..."
Veena shook her head as her attention returned to her monitor.
"If you have to write love notes here, do me a favour and be quiet while you're doing it."
"Did I hear something about a love note?" His father questioned as he approached with his arms full of materials.
"It's not a love note!" Laes insisted. "No one said anything about love ok? It's just a regular note."
"Oh! Ok! But if you do every get the urge to write a really long sappy love note, poem, or lyrics, I can give you some pointers!" Freedo offered before making his way to another station that was in the process of being redesigned from the looks of it.
"Hmm..." Veena studied Laes' face for a moment.
He could feel his face flushing.
Oh great... why was his face doing that? He wasn't even writing love notes.
Why did Veena have to say that in front of his father? That topic wasn't going to be dropped for a long time now probably...
"You get an interesting expression on your face when you're flustered," Veena stated before turning her back to him again.
He had no idea how to respond to that, and when he glanced at Lard Nar he found his former cellmate chuckling at him.
How was he supposed to concentrate on the task at hand under these conditions...? Now he wanted to melt into whatever was left of the floor rather than continue trying to come up with something to say.
Once he found another piece of paper he decided to write away from Veena and everyone else, down one of the hallways where only a bit of sunlight was able to shine through.
He sat down and used a chunk of the floor as a table.
Lard Nar quietly joined him.
Again he tried putting his thoughts on paper, and again it ended up a complete jumbled mess.
"I'm not sure I can do this..." he admitted with a sigh as he handed to paper to his former cellmate.
The ex-leader of the Resisty again took his time reading over it. Then he held out his hand.
"Let me fix a few things for you..." he offered.
Laes happily handed over the writing utensil.
Lard Nar flipped the paper over.
"So you really have done a lot of speeches huh?" Laes remarked as he moved a bit closer so he could see what the other Vortian was writing.
"Yes..." Lard Nar replied. "Motivational speeches were one of my specialties back when I was a little more optimistic... but regular announcements were a lot more common."
He wrote a few more lines, and then he handed it back.
Laes read over the paragraph.
"This is an important announcement for all of the citizens of Vort," he said it out loud. "My name is Laes, and I have met with an advanced race that wishes to lend us their aid. They call themselves (you really should learn the name of their race). I hope everyone will offer them their cooperation during this time of healing and rebuilding. If you have any questions, feel free to ask either me or their representative Chakri and we'll answer you the best we can.
Thank you for all of the hard work you've been doing. Have a nice day."
"You didn't have to read what I put inside the brackets," Lard Nar told him with a slight smile.
"You don't think this sounds too...?" Laes questioned, lowering the paper as he met Lard Nar's gaze. "I mean... it kind of sounds like I'm forcing myself into the leadership position... but I'm not really their leader... I'm just a representative for the Invaders right?"
"I wrote it like that on purpose."
"Why...?"
"Because right now our people need leadership... and the Invaders have already decided you'll speak on their behalf," Lard Nar said.
He paused for a moment before continuing.
"I know this isn't something you want Laes... but you're the only one who's spoken to their leader. You're the only one besides myself who knows what's going on... and besides this you might be the only Vortian whose willing to speak in favour of the Irkens. This is why, even if it's only for a short time, you need to act as Vort's leader."
"..." well when he put it like that, it made it kind of difficult to argue with him...
"You rewrote the whole thing..." he forced a small smile. "Was it that bad...?"
"It made no sense... logical or otherwise..."
"Oh... what about the part..."
"None of it made sense..." Lard Nar repeated more strongly.
Everything that happened after that was a bit of a blur.
He remembered seeing Chakri and asking her what her people were called. There was no way he could pronounce it, so she told him to translate it to something he already forgot.
Something told him she did that on purpose...
He was also pretty sure he'd spoken to everyone through the broadcast system although he was trying not to think about that because he was still feeling nauseous from being so nervous.
Chakri revealed herself as an Invader properly. She looked a lot like her mother, except she was the same height as most Vortians were.
She also didn't seem to have any wings although she could be hiding them.
Didn't Sevai say something about that? He couldn't remember right now...
Fortunately Vortians were usually pretty easy-going, so no one really seemed to have much trouble accepting the idea that a highly advanced race of insect like people had decided to help them.
There were plenty of questions though.
Chakri answered most of them since he still wasn't entirely sure what was going on.
Everyone stopped to watch as the Invader's ship shimmered into view. It landed in what was once the parking area which was now a large pit of rubble and also mashed and broken ships.
Lyra, Filik, and Pain gathered together on the far side of the cafeteria, furthest away from where the foreign ship had landed.
They appeared to be discussing something... the Invaders most likely.
Would they react the same way Darden had...? If they were scheming, then he really should go over there and stop them.
Yup. He really should do that... but what if they were just having a friendly chat between comrades?
What could three Irkens possibly do to a ship full of Invaders with tons of advanced technology anyway?
He was just making excuses so he wouldn't have to go over there and talk to them wasn't he...?
He sucked in a breath and slowly exhaled.
Chakri was coming towards him. He straightened his posture as she reached for the invisible device on her head and pulled it off. It became visible. It looked like the headset Sevai had been wearing before.
"Mister Sevai wants to talk to you," Chakri remarked as she handed the headset to him.
He looked it over, confused about how it should work since there didn't seem to be a visible receiver or anything.
"Put it on your head," Chakri instructed him, and she tapped her head as though he had forgotten where his own head was.
Laes did this, and right away it was like a voice was being broadcast straight into his mind rather than hearing an external voice.
"Our scouts have found the Irkens... the only way for them not to be slaughtered or forcibly reprogrammed is if someone acting as a mediator between our two races intervenes... so what do you wish to do?"
His eyes widened and he turned to Lard Nar who was watching him curiously. He grabbed his former cellmate by the arm and stared intently into his face.
"Can you do something for me...?"
Lard Nar frowned. "That depends what it is..."
"Can you make sure I don't run away right now?"
"Run away from what...?"
"Everything?"
Namely the Irkens, the Tallest, and his new found responsibilities, but he didn't feel the need to get overly specific.
"Laes... you need to concentrate in order to project your thoughts to me..." Sevai interrupted.
Uh oh... that was one of the things he was bad at doing, especially when he got nervous like this... he let go of Lard Nar and tried to concentrate on what he wanted to say.
"Yes. I will intervene. Tell your counsel I'm intervening right now," Laes tried before his mind started racing off somewhere else. Like why was Lard Nar looking at him with that kind of expression, and what would his parents think if he died trying to talk to Irk's leader again, and would his people really be ok if he acted selfishly like this?
"I'm sorry Laes... but could you please return the headset to Chakri...? Your thoughts are making my headache worse than before..."
Apparently it was impossible to be dishonest through the headset, and apparently every Invader had one...
"Wait! I thought your technology was taken away from you, so how are you talking to me right now?" Laes wondered.
He heard Sevai groan a little in pain.
Oh shoot... could thoughts get loud? Did he just yell in the Invader's mind?
"I simply explained to the counsel the concerns you and Lard Nar had explained to me..." Sevai answered.
"I'm not trying to minimize my mistake... but the fact that the Irken's PAK had not been disabled, which is required by protocol, was a cause for concern... with this new information I have been allowed this piece of technology for the sole purpose of exchanging thoughts with you... under strict supervision of course... now please return the headset."
Laes fumbled to remove the device off his head, and he quickly returned it to Chakri who put it back on.
She squinted an eye at him.
"You didn't even think about it huh? Well ok, I'll have mother teleport you two."
Two? What? He glanced over his shoulder at Lard Nar just as the inside of the prison suddenly became the interior of the Invader's ship.
This was not what he'd been trying to communicate at all!
If the former leader of the Resisty got dragged into this he'd probably die.
The Invaders would know... so why did they teleport both of them here?
"I'm surprise your people were so accepting of this circumstance," Sevai admitted, and Laes' attention switched to him in a hurry.
The Invader seemed to be using a cane to help him walk. There was nothing special looking about this cane... it looked like it was made out of a smooth metal material, but it didn't seem to have any fancy gadgets attached to it.
"I'm glad... having your peoples' cooperation will make our rebuilding project much less complicated."
"How so...?" Laes questioned, forcing a smile.
He was still not fully convinced he could trust all of the Invaders. Most of them seemed unnaturally stoic... as though they were emotionally detached to everything around them... He wasn't too sure why Sevai was being so forthcoming in comparison.
Did this Invader have some kind of ulterior motive?
He'd never been this paranoid about someone's intentions before... He could probably thank Bann for that.
"It's always more difficult to rebuild and rehabilitate a planet when we must work in secrecy," Sevai told him.
There were dark circles under his eyes, and the bruises surrounding his antennae stalks hadn't faded at all. His skin was also much lighter than it had been when they first met.
Laes blinked when he realized he was staring. He quickly dropped his gaze to the floor.
Staring was considered impolite for Vortians, and the Irkens hadn't liked it much either.
One of his co-workers hadn't cared about it much, but that guy had come from a completely different part of their solar system. In fact, he might have been from another solar system entirely...
So were the Invaders he reminded himself... but he wasn't sure of all of their rules and regulations yet. He'd probably never learn most of them since it sounded like they had too many.
"You will be given a simple way to return to the ship, so if the Irkens decide to react violently to your presence, you will be able to leave," Sevai explained as he motioned to another Invader who was standing nearby. "My associate here will assist you as I am currently unable to handle this technology."
The other Invader stepped towards him with the technology in his hands held out.
"I suggest placing it under your clothing so that it will be less visible..." Sevai told him before switching his attention to Lard Nar. "You were brought here because Laes wishes for you to accompany him."
"No!" Laes shouted, startling the Invader who was trying to get him to accept the technology he pushed away as he yelled.
"Err..." he glanced at the Invader who'd taken a cautious step back and was studying him wordlessly. "Sorry," he apologized.
"It seems my words have alarmed you..." Sevai noted, and he dipped his head. "I apologize. That was not my intention..."
"Where is Laes going exactly?" Lard Nar asked Sevai who straightened up.
"I will be sending him into the middle of the Irken's stronghold," Sevai responded.
Laes quickly accepted the technology from the other Invader before coming to stand at Lard Nar's side.
"I can do this myself," he insisted. "I totally can. There's no reason to get Lard Nar involved with this..."
"Judging by your past interactions with the Tallest, I would like believe your words are true, however you will not just be meeting with the Tallest, and the circumstances on which you will meet with him will be very unfavourable towards you... from what I've been able to observe while "reading your mind," this will likely result in you fainting," Sevai's gaze met his. "If you faint, you will not be able to call for assistance."
Why did Sevai have to be so logical about everything?
Laes dragged his hand down his face. Ok... so... he probably would faint...that was true... but then he wouldn't be able to know if he was being killed or not which was kind of the point of fainting...
"If you are killed, you will not be able to continue as our representative. This will cause your people and my own some complications..."
The Invader was also laying out a pretty decent argument... although Sevai did say he argued for fun sometimes.
"I strongly believe your chances of survival would increase with Lard Nar's assistance as he seems to be very capable, even in the most undesirable circumstances," the Invader insisted.
"I'll go," Lard Nar decided very easily. Too easily.
"You don't have to," Laes told him, grabbing him by the arm. "The Tallest doesn't hate me and he still impaled me... I don't even want to imagine what he would do to someone he actually hates."
"I would normally feel nervous about that too... however..." he met Sevai's gaze. "I doubt I'm at the top of his murder list right now."
Ah... yeah. That was probably true.
"Still, there's no reason for you to take that kind of risk," Laes insisted, tugging on the other Vortian's arm in a very lame attempt to snap the former rebel out of his way of thinking.
Lard Nar managed a smile.
"You can't stop me Laes... I'm a rebel at heart."
"I thought you retired."
"I thought so too," Lard Nar admitted, and he sighed. "But whenever I hear about some kind of injustice, I feel like I should get involved..." He turned to Laes. "Besides, it sounds like you could use my help... and there's no way I'd let my family go into a dangerous situation like that on their own."
"Your family?" Laes repeated, dropping the other Vortian's arm.
Lard Nar considered him family? It was too bad he couldn't enjoy being really happy about this right now. He was much too worried that both of them might not survive this ordeal.
"You mean like a brother right?" he questioned unsure.
"Yes..." One of Lard Nar's eyes narrowed. "I'm not that much older than you."
"That's not what I meant."
"I'm pretending that's what you meant."
It was kind of nice to be able to banter with Lard Nar again like this... the only problem was they were probably both going to die soon.
The other Invader must have been listening to the first part of their conversation at least, since he was now approaching Lard Nar with the same kind of device Laes was holding.
"Please attach those machines to yourselves," Sevai told them before turning away.
He slowly walked towards a large circular pattern in the floor.
"This device," he tapped the pattern with his cane. "Will transport us to the hunter's ship which will then teleport you to where the Irkens are currently residing."
"You're coming too?" Laes asked in surprise.
"I may accompany you to our other ship, but I am not permitted to join you on your expedition."
It wouldn't have been a good idea for the Invader to come along anyway since the Irkens really hated Invaders. Besides, having Sevai with them would make them look like they were siding with the Invaders, which was kind of true but not completely.
How was he supposed to explain Vort's current relationship with the Invaders...?
Oh no. What if he shouldn't?
There was no way he could lie about it.