Chapter Two: Salt In the Wound
When Da'an got to headquarters, Renee was there to greet her. She could see Liam and Hubble in a room in front of a large monitor with several people at different stations wearing headphones.
"So what is going on?" Da'an asked Renee.
"It's better if you just go inside," Renee said uneasily holding the door for her.
Da'an stopped and stared at her looking for an answer, but when she received none, she walked inside.
"Tell me why I am here," Da'an told Hubble.
"Because you are the director of interspecies relations, and this is an interspecies emergency," Hubble said. "She's all yours." Then, he walked out of the room.
"She's almost in range, sir," one of the technicians said.
"What is going on here?" Da'an asked Liam.
"It's Lili," Liam said. "She's in a shuttle headed towards Earth. We couldn't make out the whole of the signal, but it sounds like she needs help. As the liaison of interspecies relations, you're entitled to an opinion of whether or not we should respond."
"Help? Her?" Da'an asked unenthusiastically. "Why bother?"
"Let's just hear her out," Liam said.
"Sir, she's in range," the same technician announced.
"Patch her through," Liam said.
Lili's face appeared with three other Jaridians behind her. "This is Captain Lili Marquette calling Major Liam Kincaid."
Liam started to respond when Da'an stopped him. Instead, Da'an took the controls. "You know, you have a lot of nerve showing your face," she said in the microphone.
Lili's face froze. Da'an knew that she could see her. "Uh, wh-who is this?"
"Who do you think this is?" Da'an asked sternly.
Lili observed the features more closely trying to figure out where she had seen this alien before, but one of the Jaridians beat her to it. "Da'an, this is Balvak of the Jaridian Peace Initiative. We are on a mission to enlist the help of humanity."
"Da'an?" Lili exclaimed. "I-I thought you were dead!"
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I was not in the mood to 'be sacrificed' for that little abomination you call a hybrid on that particular day," Da'an retorted.
"Da'an, please. The Jaridians' metabolisms are out of control. Ariel wasn't the Jaridian solution," Lili said.
"Surprise, surprise," Da'an muttered cynically.
"The dying has caused widespread panic. Jaridian resistors are threatening to overthrow the government. It's a civil war," Lili said. "We need help."
"Yes, and which part of that am I supposed to care about?" Da'an asked.
"Uh, Da'an, maybe I should…"
Da'an waved her hand to ward Liam off.
"Look. I know that you're bitter about our last encounter, but this is beyond both of us," Lili pleaded. "If you don't help us, our people are going to die."
"Why?"
Lili was stunned by Da'an's tone. "Wh-Why what?"
"Why in the name of all that's good and holy should I bother sending my people to die for a cause they don't believe in, especially in order to help a people who would drop them like last year's garbage at a whim!"
"The Jaridian high council is ready and willing to sign a peace treaty with you for your assistance," Balvak said. "We are aware of humanity's present situation with the Taelon priests, and we are willing to send troops to assist you."
"Keeping in mind that those particular troops will not last five minutes in this atmosphere," Da'an said bitterly. "No thanks."
"We could offer air support," Lili said.
"Forget it, you lying little Jaridian whore," Da'an shot back. "I wouldn't waste twigs and pebbles on you. We have our own problems here, and we do not need your people screwing it up like they screwed up your sad excuse for a society. As far as I'm concerned, this is just a classic case of that 'three-fold' rule. It's not our problem, it's not our fight, and it's time you started taking responsibility for your own actions. You chose your path the moment you nearly killed both me and Liam, so stop begging for help like a spoiled child and handle it yourself!"
"Da'an, don't hang up on me!" Lili begged.
"Oh, you mean like this!" Da'an shot back, cutting off the transmission. She darted a cruel grin at Liam. "And that's my opinion." With that, she marched out of the room ignoring the stunned faces and dead silence of the people watching her.
Renee and Hubble had been listening to Da'an from the outside. Renee appeared unscathed by the whole incident, but Hubble was just as stunned as the rest of the crowd. He grabbed Da'an's forearm. "What the hell was that?"
"That was my response," Da'an said simply.
"That was insubordination!" Hubble yelled. "Do you realize that you've compromised any possible alliance we could have made with the Jaridians?"
"To the contrary, I've left the decision to humanity," Da'an said. "Your people can do whatever you want, but it will be a cold day in hell before I send my people to aid in any cause she is a part of."
"Is that what your people believe, or what you believe?" Hubble asked.
"Why are you pushing this?" Renee asked Hubble. "Personally, I feel the same way as Da'an. This isn't our fight, and we can't afford to lose any people to this. We have problems at home to deal with. We have no allegiance to these people, and as far as I'm concerned, they'd never help us if we were asking them for assistance. Why should we assist them just because they suddenly have a problem they started and just because they happen to have one human on their side?"
"On their side as their personal concubine," Da'an added bitterly.
"That's enough from you two," Hubble said. "Da'an, I'm surprised at you. You of all people should know that true leaders should never let their personal vendettas get in the way of diplomacy. The Jaridians have firepower that we can't afford to reject just because you happen to not like one of the people allied with them who isn't even Jaridian. If you can't get your emotions under control, step down and find someone who can."
"I stand by what I said. Those people are nothing but trouble, and the Taelons would never forgive me if I sent them to die for Jaridians," Da'an shot back. "I've seen Jaridians pull these stunts all the time. They cry truce when things get a little rough, we sign a flawed treaty, and like a Ming vase, they break the treaty and come at us full force after they've found the time to reload their weapons. Those creatures don't have the intelligence for diplomacy."
"And we don't have the firepower to stop the priests," Hubble said.
"It isn't the question of whether or not we have the firepower to stop the priests," Da'an argued. "The priests don't care about firepower. All they have to do is manipulate as many bodies as they can into taking all that firepower for them. I thought the goal here was to stop the priests as bloodlessly as possible."
"My experience with the Synod says that 'bloodless' is a relative term," Hubble said.
"That is different. You can't—"
"I'm sending my people—that's humans and Taelons—to assist. And if you ever let your personal issues with Marquette compromise our relationship again, I'm pulling rank."
"Fine. After all, it's not like you'll be going with them, so what do you care?" Da'an said, and with that said, she stormed out of the facility.
"This is a stupid move, Hubble," Renee said.
"It's my move. You'll thank me for this, Renee," Hubble said.
"Someone is going to get killed for this," Renee warned. "I just hope you're ready to accept the consequences."
She ran to catch up with Da'an.
Renee found Da'an in an empty conference room with her head buried in her hands.
"You must really be an Espelon," Renee said, trying to lighten the mood. "The old Da'an would never have gotten that pissed off."
"That is precisely the problem," Da'an said in frustration. "Mr. Urick was right. I let my anger get the better of me. I've never done that before."
"It's all new to you. You'll get used to it after a while," Renee said pulling a chair next to her. "Besides, I agree with you. We don't even know much about the Jaridian atmosphere. For all we know it could be poison to us in the long run just like Earth is to them. And God knows how long we'll be there. The Iraq War was supposed to last only a month and we got stuck there for five years. Truman had to drop the atomic bomb on Japan just because World War II dragged on for so long."
"It is not all right. I was irrational," Da'an said. "I had every reason in the world to reject her request and the one I choose is that I hate her? I should not have said that, but…just seeing her face again enraged me. Have you ever felt that way about someone? Someone who violated you so wrongfully that just looking at them is enough to drive you mad?"
"Yeah…actually. I used to feel that way about you," Renee said.
Da'an looked back at her.
"I always thought that you were a coward. You never took action against Zo'or, and you caved in on Zo'or when he questioned your loyalty. You got a lot of people killed for that stunt, and you nearly got me and Liam killed. I just…I thought you didn't care about what happened to humanity, and I could never understand what Liam saw in you. But…after I really got to know you, I realized that you and I aren't that different. I found the good in you, and…I found the fight in you. You may consider what you did in there irrational, and…when I think about it, it probably was, but…you never would have had the guts to feel that way or even talk that way if you were a Taelon. It shows the spirit in you—the fight in you. And I like that. I'm glad that you can actually stand up for yourself and not take any crap from anyone."
"Actually, I was like that when I was younger," Da'an said. "Where do you think Zo'or gets it?"
Renee laughed. "Look, give Lili a chance. Even though I think this is stupid and…well, Liam doesn't know this but I really don't care for Lili, those Taelons are never gonna go without your support. They'll just say the same thing you're saying, and probably even worse so. Also if you go, and Hubble doesn't, you'll be able to say when to back down. If it gets too rough, we'll just pull our troops out and come right home. But Hubble's getting us into this. We've gotta see it through. If it comes down to it, we won't even let Lili sit in on the negotiations."
"I probably would not have reacted that way had she not been there," Da'an said with a long sigh. "All right. I am going to swallow my pride and apologize to Mr. Urick, but I absolutely will not apologize to Lili."
"I don't expect you to," Renee said.
While Liam and Hubble patched things up with the Jaridian ambassadors, Da'an called the Taelons for a special meeting to inform them of the situation.
"And why exactly should we care?" was the first question asked after Da'an finished explaining.
"It seems to me that if we do help the Jaridians in this crisis, and if we do sign a treaty, we are actually helping the priests," one of the scientists said. "With the Taelon-Jaridian War at a close, the priests will no longer have to worry about two opposing forces attacking them at the same time."
"However, we could also gain the upper hand by unifying our cause," another Taelon said. "It is like that classic US slogan: 'United we stand; divided we fall.'"
"More like 'United we fall; divided we do not stand a chance,'" Ta'lay said. "This is just the kind of desperation the priests need to determine how weak we are. If it is civil war as that human female says, it could last forever. The last Taelon civil war in our ancient history was recorded as lasting for fifty-six years."
"And to top all that off, the Taelon-Jaridian War has lasted for thousands of years," another Taelon argued. "We cannot afford to put ourselves in a position that could become long-term. We are not ready for that."
"It does not matter what we think," the Taelon who asked that cynical first question said. "We are going anyway because our so-called leader was not strong enough to oppose this travesty of a battle strategy."
"Hey, you don't talk about Da'an like that!" Mi'en cried. "There was nothing she could have done about this. Too many people wanted it."
"That seemed to be the case with her position in the Synod as well," the same Taelon said.
"If you have such a problem with the way I handle things, there is not one person here stopping you from returning to the priests," Da'an said surprisingly casually.
The Taelon sighed.
"This bickering is pointless," Da'an said. "I do not like this anymore than you do, but there is nothing we can do about it. However, I can promise you that if this situation drags too long for us to stand, I will send you all home. In order to make sure of it, I am going with you personally to oversee our affairs. No Taelon has ever died for a Jaridian, and I am not about to let that happen now."
"Hear, hear," Ta'lay saluted.
The others nodded in agreement.
"So when do we leave?" Mi'en asked.
"The Jaridians will be here in three hours to discuss our role in all this," Da'an said. "I will inform you of the decision as soon as the negotiations are over."
The Taelons reluctantly nodded again, and Da'an adjourned the meeting. Ta'lay caught Da'an as the others were leaving. "I heard about what you said to those Jaridians. I would not worry about that. If the Jaridians knew you were alive, I am sure they expected that kind of heated response to their request. After all, one of their warlords just tried to turn you in for a bounty. You have every reason to be upset."
"That's no excuse," Da'an said.
"Do not let it get to you. If Ka'li had not given his enemies a good verbal assault every now and then to keep them on their toes, the Taelons would never have become as respected as we were during his reign. Every now and then, the Jaridians need a good war of the words just to show that we are not going to let them push us around. It's a dignity issue. If you had just caved in and let them throw us on the scaffold for their insipid cause, they would just use that ten years from now to walk all over us. The first rule of diplomacy is to never be so quick to sign your country away to entangling alliances. That is how riff-raff like World War I gets started."
"Someone's quite the patriot," Da'an said.
"Actually, I am a nationalist," Ta'lay said. "They are not the same thing, I learned."