Thresholding by CidGregor

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

This fic is dedicated to Post, for all that he has contributed to its existence. (SFR).
Chapter 6

"Your military forces are run by a complete fool! Why should I give him respect when he does not offer any in return?.! He is an arrogant, bigoted chlorfarker!"

"Maybe so…" Raven admitted. "But look at it from his perspective, Captain. An alien craft, contacting him from out of nowhere, plummeting toward populated cities, speaking a language he doesn't understand? General Graham's actions, however hasty they might have been, were done in the name of protecting the lives of his people. He honestly believes he was doing the right thing."

Tromand'r shook is head. "That does not excuse his actions! We were clearly damaged beyond repair, and were hailing him on a distress frequency that even a child on our planet would recognize-"

"Exactly," Raven cut him off. "On your planet. On Tamaran. But this isn't Tamaran. Things are different here."

"It is irrelevant at this point!" Tromand'r spat. "He has had more than enough time to understand that my crew and I were not threatening his people, realize his error, and offer an official apology, yet he insists on mocking and insulting us! Disrespecting our fallen comrades! And worst of all, threatening us further with baseless accusations and continued violence!"

"No one's arguing that General Graham's actions are the most admirable," Robin said. "But like it or not, he has a lot of power. Not only does he have a very sizeable portion of the American armed forces under his command, he can influence the rest of the country's armed forces into taking action against the possible threat-"

"My people did not come to this planet to threaten you!.!.!" Tromand'r nearly screamed. "By X'Hal, we came to this solar system in the name of protecting it!.!.! I will not stand here and listen to you…any of you referring to us as 'possible threats!.!.!'"

Tromand'r stormed seething from the main room, leaving the Titans and Lysand'r behind to stare after him from their spots around the room; Beast Boy and Terra leaning over the back of the couch, Raven and Lysand'r hovering beside the windows, and Cyborg in front of the broken and sparking viewscreen. Robin stood beside him and - to half the room's surprise - about as far away as he could get from Starfire, who was seated at the kitchen table.

"Princess…I sincerely apologize," Lysand'r said after a moment's silence. "Captain Tromand'r is a good man…but he does not take insults such as these lightly."

"We don't expect him do," Robin answered. "General Graham's behavior was short-sighted, racist, and entirely inexcusable. But Tromand'r, too, is guilty of shortsightedness today. Their actions may very well bring about a conflict between Earth and Tamaran. We can't let that happen."

"If Tamaran and Earth go to war, it could cost hundreds of thousands of lives…maybe even millions," Cyborg said. "Damn…we're all supposed to be the good guys! We shouldn't be fighting each other like this!"

"The danger is greater than you realize, friends of the princess," Lysand'r interjected.

"The name's Robin," the Boy Wonder corrected him. "And what do you mean, 'greater than we realize?' What could be worse than this?"

"If you'll recall from our message…ah…Robin…our ship was damaged in a battle with Gordanian fighters."

"What were Gordanian fighters doing in deep space without a command ship?" Cyborg said. "Unless y'all have tech I've never heard of, fighters can't go around by themselves, they need a command ship to return to for refueling and maintenance and all that."

"You are correct…ah…"

"Cyborg," the teen supplied.

"Cyborg. Yes. You are quite right. The fighters we encountered were indeed launched from a command ship. To be specific, a Gordanian Scout vessel."

Starfire let out a gasp. "NO!"

"What?.! What does that mean?.!" Terra asked, catching on to Starfire's sudden panic.

"A Gordanian Scout vessel has two primary uses. One is to be an advance force in invading enemy territory and report enemy positions and numbers back to their main fleet. This is usually a suicide mission, as the ship is almost always destroyed before the rest of the Gordanian fleet arrives. The other use, however, is deep space exploration. Their mission in this case is to search for new worlds to conquest and establish strongholds. They preferably scout for worlds abundant in resources necessary to fuel their war machine."

"And if you encountered their scout ship in Earth's orbit…" Raven began.

"Then they must have been scouting Earth for possible takeover," Robin finished, his expression grim. "And if we're busy trading blows with Tamaran, it'd be all too easy for the Gordanians to roll right over us without so much as a struggle."

"Damn…this is not what we need right now…" Cyborg muttered.

"But…can't we fight back against these dudes if they decide to attack?" Beast Boy asked.

"I'm afraid not, green one," Lysand'r admitted. "The Gordanian war effort is failing. They are running out of resources. This planet could be their saving grace, and I would stake my life on the likelihood that they will invade this planet with absolutely everything they have. Alone, I'm afraid you will be overwhelmed."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Terra spoke up. "I mean, if you count just our armed forces, maybe…but what about us? The Titans? Or the Doom Patrol? Or the Justice League, even? Couldn't Earth fight back with the superhero community backing the military?"

"I cannot say with any certainty. But I do not favor your chances. The Gordanians' numbers are still formidable, especially if they concentrate all their remaining forces here. A full-scale invasion could bring as much as ten million Gordanian warriors. And I am sorry to say, not only are they physically superior to normal humans, their technology is quite superior to yours, as well."

Terra had no response to that.

"Then our only hope is to turn this conflict with Tamaran around, and garner an ally instead of an enemy," Raven concluded. "How long do we have until the Gordanians get here?"

"Our intelligence believes the Gordanian fleet to be approximately ten light years from the Vegan Star System, where Tamaran is located. At full speed, they will arrive here in approximately sixteen cycles of our sun. The Tamaranian fleet, however, should be here within hours. Our fleet was on the outskirts of your star system when we sent our distress call, so they should be nearly here."

"All right," Robin said. "Then we have sixteen days to try to fix this before things get-"

"Fourteen."

Robin's head snapped toward Starfire. "What?" he said.

The alien girl flinched at his empty tone, but continued. "T-Tamaranian days are slightly shorter than those of Earth. Sixteen days for my planet is the same amount of time as approximately fourteen days on Earth, so-"

"All right, fine, fourteen days," Robin cut her off, all business. "We'd better use our time well. Beast Boy, Terra, I want you two to work with Lysand'r. Find out everything there is to know about the Gordanians. I trust you'll cooperate?" he added to the other Tamaranian.

"Yes, of course," Lysand'r agreed.

"Good."

"Wait a minute, you're trusting me to remember a bunch of mumbo jumbo about aliens?" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Just think of it as an episode of Mega-Horror Theater and memorize every detail, BB," Cyborg said with half a smirk.

The changeling's eyes lit up. "I can do that!"

"Moving on…" Robin said irritably. "Cyborg, I want you to get the T-ship ready to launch on a moment's notice; I want us to be the first ones to meet the Tamaranian fleet when they get here, in case General Graham won't be reasoned with. If we can make first contact a friendly one, it might give us the edge we need if General Graham does the worst. Raven, you and I will keep trying to talk some sense into the General. Starfire, do the same with Tromand'r…"

"But…what if he will not listen to me?" Starfire asked.

"Then make him listen," Robin growled. "You all have your assignments. Let's get to work, Titans!"

If the Boy Wonder felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him as he exited, he didn't show it. The doors swished closed behind him, and as soon as he was gone, Lysand'r turned and stared curiously at Starfire.

"Does he always speak to the princess so…coldly?"

Starfire sighed, eyes drooped. She turned and left the room through the door opposite the one Robin used before anyone could answer the question.

"Have I…said something wrong?" Lysand'r asked, looking around the room.

"No," Raven answered. "Robin's just being an idiot at the moment. Best not to worry about it right now…we have a job to do."

The Titans and Lysand'r split off as Robin had instructed, all save for Raven and Cyborg, who lingered after catching each other's eye. The room emptied, leaving the two of them alone.

"You know something about why Robin's acting so weird around Star?" Cyborg asked.

"I know something about a lot of things," Raven replied cryptically.

"C'mon, Raven, I'm serious," Cyborg insisted. "Under normal circumstances I'd say let those two figure their own problems out, but this is far from normal circumstances. You saw what happened just now, Rae. It's affecting the team in a bad way. We can't afford that. Not now."

Raven said nothing, which Cyborg took as a sign of agreement.

"Just…talk to them, okay?"

Raven glared at the titanium teen. "Why me?"

Cyborg shrugged. "I'm no empath. Besides, you know Rob and Star better than any of us. Right?"

"Not by choice…" Raven muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, I'll see what I can do," Raven growled. "Don't you have a spaceship to prep?"

"Yeah, yeah…"

Cyborg stalked off for the T-ship's hangar, and Raven was left alone to shake her head in annoyance. She had better things to do than solve some petty squabble Robin had with Starfire…but Cyborg had a point. If it was affecting the team, it had to be cut off at the source, and quickly.

She found Robin in Cyborg's room, trying to reconnect with General Graham through Cyborg's computer now that Tromand'r had shattered the main room's viewscreen. But either he wasn't doing it right, or the General was ignoring him, because nothing was showing up on Cyborg's screen but static.

"Robin."

"I'm positive I have this frequency right," Robin said in response. "The General is ignoring us, I'm sure of it. That's not a good sign. If he doesn't answer in two more minutes…"

"Robin, we need to talk."

Robin didn't bother to turn and look at her. "Talk about what?"

"About Starfire."

Robin visibly twitched; it was a small thing, something Raven only caught because she was looking for it, but it was there. "I don't have time for this," he brushed it off.

"You're giving the General two minutes to respond, right?" Raven countered. "So let's talk for two minutes."

"We need to be focused on the task at hand, Raven. We can't afford to waste time…"

"Ignoring it would waste more time in the long run," Raven snapped, cutting him off. "You might be too thickheaded to notice it, but the rest of us can see pretty clearly. Whatever your juvenile problem is with Starfire…GET OVER IT. It's starting to affect the team."

"What are you talking about…?" Robin demanded.

"No offense, Boy Wonder, but you've been colder toward Starfire ever since…" Raven paused, choosing her words carefully. "…ever since you saw Tromand'r absorb language from her. And ever since you've started with this attitude, Starfire hasn't been herself either. She won't be able to concentrate properly on the task at hand. And as long as that's going on, the rest of us will be distracted from our duties by worrying about the two of you. We need to be at one hundred percent for this Robin; you just said so yourself. I'd rather this problem be cut off at the source now, before I have to waste my time cleaning up a bigger mess later."

"There is no problem, Raven," Robin said. "End of story." He looked at the wall clock. "You and Graham had your two minutes."

Robin moved to walk past her, but her arm clutched his upper arm as he passed.

"I'm not blind, Robin," she said without looking at him. "You may not want to admit it, but I see a problem. And you need to fix it. Now."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he stubbornly insisted. He jerked his arm away from her grip. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

He gestured toward the door. Raven rolled her eyes in annoyance and made for the exit, but stopped again in the doorway. She looked halfway over her shoulder at Robin.

"You know…Terra wasn't alone, that day we beat Malchior."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she's not the only one who's sworn to keep a secret."

Robin just stared, not understanding.

"So you can go ahead and believe you're right all you want…" Raven went on. "But just so we're clear…I know a lot more than you realize……Dick."

Raven took a guilty pleasure in watching Robin's whole body jerk at that remark.

"I know what I'm talking about. Take my advice and fix this problem."

And before Robin could even begin to muster a reaction, Raven slammed the door in his face.