Alternate Arus, Chapter 4
Connor waited in the small briefing room for the king and his advisor to appear. He knew they must have heard from their fleet. He allowed himself a small smile as he thought of the payback that must have occurred. Regardless of what he told the witch and his declarations of neutrality, he found himself firmly on Arus' side of the table. He had spoken to too many people impacted by the Drule Empire and by this king in particular. He knew that the everyday people of the empire did not necessarily support or even know about the activities of the ruling class, which allowed him to focus solely on the king and his witch.
After a protracted wait, Connor rose from his seat as the king and his witch entered the room. He did not bow or offer greeting, watching as the nearly invisible waves of fury emanated off the king. Connor forced himself to stay relaxed, and focused on keeping his heartbeat slow and steady and his breathing even. He knew if any harm would come, it would come in this moment. He took a moment to savor the unknown and then returned his focus to the king in front of him.
The king left him standing for nearly ten minutes, simply staring and taping one finger nail on the table in front of him. Other than the palatable fury and the rhythmic tapping of his finger, the king made no movement.
"If this treaty is not granted?"
"Their majesties have instructed me to relay the following. 'The terms of engagement have changed. Our people and our planet will no longer allow the continued eroding of Our resources and Our people. Therefore, should the cease fire not proceed, Arus will no longer wage a defensive battle.'"
The witch neither moved nor spoke. The king continued to tap his finger, his gaze unblinking, filled with wrath and loathing. As the tension ratcheted up, Connor focused on keeping the king's gaze, fighting to keep his heartrate, breathing, and mind calm. The anticipation and uncertainty working together toward a state a euphoria.
"We accept the terms and conditions of the treaty. Witch!"
"At your command, sire."
"If this human stands on my planet in an hour, he is your next laboratory experiment."
"At your command, sire."
Connor bowed and prudently started backing toward the door. "Sire."
"Human."
Connor paused.
"You have proven a worthy advisory, and We do relish one and rarely see a human capable of standing against Us. Since We feel the need to punish someone, We feel it prudent to send you away."
Connor bowed again, deeper, without breaking eye contact, "Sire, I accept the compliment and look forward to our next encounter."
The king said nothing further, only continuing to watch Connor with rage. The witch glided across the floor to stand in front of Connor, breaking the staring contest between King and diplomat. "If you would?"
Connor nodded, and turned to leave the room. He fought and won the battle to look over his shoulder. As soon as the door closed, he turned, and ran for the hanger. Even though he had left his ship in a quick start state, anticipating the need for a hurried withdrawal, having only an hour to make the journey to this ship, disengage the auto-destruct, gain clearance, and gain enough distance from the planet to avoid the King's wrath would make things very dicey. As he ran, Connor allowed himself one brief burst of satisfaction at a job well done. He had accomplished everything his employers demanded, and managed to garner some useful souvenirs and information. As he subvocalized to the ship to prepare for departure, he picked up some speed as the count-down continued. Celebration would come later. A very well-deserved celebration, indeed.
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Years of answering summons in the middle of the night had the king answering the call, even before his eyes had opened or he had registered being woken. "Your majesty, we have an incoming transmission from Diplomat Vath."
"About damn time. Route it to me."
"At your command."
The king reached for his ear piece, while reaching over to give his wife a kiss to wake her up. "Transmission from Connor."
She opened her eyes to see her husband climb out of bed to pace while he listened to the recording. The queen watched as her love's face took on a very satisfied look, followed by a calculating gleam. As the transmission ended he whooped and pumped his fist in the air. The Queen found herself tearing up. "It's over? We have peace?"
The King tossed his ear piece onto the bedside table then slid under the covers to hover himself over his wife and lean in for a very long kiss. "We have our ten years."
"We need to tell everyone!"
"It is 3am. I think we can let everyone have, O, another 45 minutes of sleep before the celebrations begin?"
The queen smiled as she ran her hand down the very fit, very happy husband on top of her. "Or an hour."
The king leaned in for another kiss. "An hour."
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"Connor Vath to Arus Command. Repeat Connor Vath to Arus Command. En route to home base with full report. Have only 30 minutes left to leave planet and very large, very very wrathful subject. Terms accepted. Repeat. Terms accepted. Connor Vath out."
The room erupted again in cheers as the recording played for the umpteenth time.
"I am going to take a real vacation. One with a beach and a cadre of beautiful beach bunnies. . . No! A secluded cabin in the woods with a devoted fan girl or three. . . No! A luxury suite on a secluded beach!"
"Dude? Really? We just finally handed that megalomaniac a decisive defeat, gained ten years, and you want to spend time with beach bunnies? You so stole my idea!"
"Ok look, we can split the beach bunnies. Half for you and half for me, so that we cannot disappoint anyone."
"I can work with that!"
"Lance! Darrell!"
"Yes, Queenie?"
"Don't call me Queenie!"
"Can we at least have ten minutes to celebrate before you and Mr. I-am-not-happy-if-I-am-not-working bust our asses? I mean, according to the logs, Connors transmission came over an hour ago." Lance turned a mock glare on his Queen, while his Commander just sat back in his chair with his hands behind his neck and a smirk on his face.
"And you thought I was foolish for giving up the bachelor life? It has it's perks! Ow!" The king rubbed his arm and looked at his wife. "What was that for."
"Because."
"Because?"
"That's it. Because."
The room erupted in laughter, as the Queen crossed her arms over her pregnant belly and stuck her tongue out at the king, who just rolled his eyes and exchanged the male look of sympathy with his best friend over dealing with a spouse. As the room settled down, a more serious look fell over the King's face.
"We will have to go and collect Connor from the rendezvous. I do not trust Zarkon as far as I can throw him. Wait, as far as Lance can throw him. . "
"Hey!"
"Allura and I discussed it, and I will be personally going because we need someone with sufficient authority at the rendezvous to finalize the negotiations there. Once those are completed, we will continue to Malaz. I will have to be present to deal with Kana Valluk. She will not accept anything less than me. We need to move on this, so planning on leaving in two days. Allura will take care of the proclamations here and start moving on the secondary negotiation targets."
"Wow boss. We had a whole 30 seconds of celebration before you start us working again? What about my beach?"
The king smiled, "That is why we are leaving in TWO days, Lance. Today is for celebrating, tomorrow is for packing."
"In that case, I am outta here! Tschuss!" With that exclamation, Lance fairly leapt out of his chair and beelined for the door. With Lance's departure, the exodus started until only Keith and Allura remained. Keith held out his hand, and pulled Allura into his lap when she took his. They stayed cuddled together with Allura's resting her head on Keith's shoulder, and Keith stroking her growing stomach.
"Allura. . . "
"We discussed this possibility, Keith. There is no choice. Kana Valluk will NOT accept anyone else. And we need Malaz on board as soon as possible. We cannot afford to grow complacent, and, and, and, you know all this."
"It does not mean I like it."
"Regardless of how far we advance technologically speaking, we will never be able to travel instantly and as long as beings live in the universe, there will be conflict. Life cannot come into existence without conflict and competition. As long as we have conflict, we will need soldiers. Which means military families will be separated. I don't HAVE to like it. In fact, I hate the fact you will miss the birth of our son, but . . ."
"But. I know. I know. I just wish there was a different path."
"Me too. But we are going to change the Universe, Keith. We are going to make a place for Arthur, his siblings, and make one part of the Universe better."
"I know. I know."
Allura sighed and put her hand over Keith's on her stomach. "Just come back soon to us."
"You know it."
"Suddenly I am feeling very, hmmmm, tired."
"Can I escort you back to your rooms, your Majesty for some, hmmmm, rest?"
"I think that would be fabulous."
Keith grinned and suddenly stood, keeping his wife in his arms.
"Keith!"
"Allura!"
The couple just started laughing as Keith carried his wife the short distance to their suite.
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