Marietta sat in the control room and watched the Revorse disappear from view.
Revorse. It had been a long time - centuries - since she had last heard that name. These last few days she had spent analysing the Commander's story - and the increasingly clear evidence backing it up. It was becoming too apparent to ignore that the story had serious implications for the future of the entire intergalactic political scene. Only one thing kept her from releasing the news right now and overthrowing the Earth Federation in one blow - the threat of encroaching war with the XINE. Not only was it a much bigger and more impressive story, it would also weaken the resolve of the galaxy as a whole to throw the internal structure into chaos in the midddle of a war. Marietta was genuinely worried about the increased number of XINE attacks - was it really an invasion fleet? If so, were civilians being evacuated properly? If not, what justification did the government have for spending public money on a pointless war, sending thousands of people to their deaths? No species in the entire Tria gaalxy could communicate with the totally alien minds of the XINE... how could we possible understand their motives? Shouldn't we be trying to decipher their language, opening up peace talks?
The communication panel bleeped. She opened it up at her end. Jan Orvue's face appeared on the screen.
"Director, the cameras have picked up an incoming vessel!"
"Why didn't the automatic defense systems warn me about this?" she demanded irritably. It was a bad time for the defense systems to be on the blink.
"Ma'am, it hasn't registered as a threat. It appears to be an escape pod."
"Intercept it." she ordered.
Over the cameras, she watched as one of her ships approached the object and began to tow it with a tractor beam back to the fortress. It was captured without incident. Orvue hailed her a moment later.
"Director, it IS an escape pod! It contains two children!"
"Condition?"
"They're in full health. They're in the rest room. Director, I think you ought to listen to their story, they've been saying some very odd things..."
"XINE attacks?"
He shook his head.
"See to their needs and bring them to the control room."
After a short wait, the door opened at her command and Jan walked in, followed by two children, one female and clearly from central Tria, one male. They were wide-eyed, oviously still terrified. The girl wore a white shift and leather sandals, the boy a smart black suit that made him look like a miniature businessman. He was covered in wearable cybernetics from the latest line, all audio-visual enhancers, holo-visualisers and a soft-wired MP3 player.
"This is Gwestia and Motoi." Jan introduced them, "This is Mrs. La Verne. She wants to know everything that happened to you."
Motoi hid behind Gwestia, who glared at her in open suspicion. Marietta didn't know how to reassure people, so she didn't bother.
"Was your ship attacked?" she asked.
Motoi shook his head, "The engine stopped working. It exploded."
"A malfunction?"
"I don't know."
"We were asleep." said Gwestia, "The alarm woke me up. I woke Motoi up and we ran."
"Were there any other survivors?"
Gwestia shook her head vehemently.
"Are you sure? Just you?" Marietta could tell by the way her heart rate increased that she was lying, "Who was on your ship anyway, and where was it headed?"
"Its okay to tell her, Gwesty." said Jan, "Marietta knows all about her."
Gwesty looked up at the android sheepishly.
"A lady in white." she said, "With creepy wings."
"Gabrie Celeste." muttered Motoi, "The Valkyrie."
Marietta's expression did not change but her entire processor focussed on running the task of keeping her attention on the boy.
"What were you doing in a spaceship with a Valkyrie near our airspace?"
"If I tell you, can I play Eternal Sphere?" asked Motoi.
"Motoi, I think you'd better tell us the whole story." said Jan, "We can't protect you unless we know what's going on."
"Protect me? Gabrie Celeste said she would protect me as well! She lied!" snapped Motoi, "I've never even met you guys before! How do I know I can trust you?"
"Government ships don't just explode, Motoi." said Marietta, "They're the best ships in the galaxy and if there really was a valkyrie on board, she'd be virtually a goddess. Do you think she wouldn't know how to fix a faulty engine? Your ship was sabotaged."
"S... sabotaged? Someone's trying to kill me?"
"I told you that lady was bad!" screamed Gwesty. Motoi glared at her.
"Don't be silly! It wasn't Gabrie Celeste! She protected me!"
"She lied to you about protecting you! How do you know she wasn't trying to kill you all that time?"
"Motoi, do you want to see something?" asked Jan suddenly.
"What?"
"Come downstairs with me and I'll show it you."
"What is it?"
"The Chronicle publishing office."
"REALLY?"
Marietta sighed. She watched the two children follow Jan back out of the door, chattering excitedly and clinging to his arms. She didn't understand children. Why did they take to Jan so much but wouldn't listen to her?
Grudgingly, Motoi began telling the man the whole story: about his powers, about his escape from the Flying Battery soundsystem, about his audience with the Court of Tria, how he rescued Gwesty and about her powers. He reported the whole thing back to Marietta over an Eternal Sphere chat link. They're playing computer games, she thought to herself, sighing. What a waste of our budget. Still, the information was worth it.
She had two Valkyrie children in her hands.
"D... Director, we're in over our heads here. Can we just send them back? Please?"
"I need to speak to Motoi. Alone."
"Director, he's an intergalactic systems operator!"
"I know." she sighed, "I'm not going to do anything to him, I just want to talk to him about matters that don't concern other members of staff."
Jan relented. Five minutes later, Motoi was delivered back to the Command Centre. He faced Marietta, a look of absolute terror on his already white face.
"Don't worry, Motoi. I'm just an android." she said, "You're from a highly developed planet, you know what an android is. Now, I need to ask you an important question. Do you have records from the Flying Battery?"
"Of course!" he held up his MP3 player, "Daddy said always to back up your files."
"Smart advice." she replied, "I want to look through them."
"Its just songs..." he gingerly held out his MP3 player.
"I believe there is data stored in the form of a music file that... isn't a music file." she explained, ignoring his confused look as she took the tiny device and put the headphones in her ears, "When I am finished, you may play the music on our radio station. This will fulfil your your original purpose."
"Cool! Is it a pirate radio station?"
"Er..."
"Yarrrr!" yelled Motoi in a hearty pirate voice before running out of the room. Marietta sighed and uploaded all the songs into her memory banks. Most of it was just ambient music. We really do need to broadcast this, she thought. Controlling a galactic life support system would give us a major playing card when Central Tria next tries to take us off the air. She analysed the source codes of the fiels but found nothing out of the ordinary. Then, after an hour of searching, she found something. It was in the trash can - a record of a deleted file. The file had been burned onto a CD before it was deleted. It was a song with embedded lyrics. Not unusual, except that galactic ambient music had no words. This song was no exception. It was 'Rust Colour'. This particular version was performed by a live guitarist and singer called Lionel Deguares of Elicoor 3.
Marietta unplugged herself and left the control room. A reporter spotted her descending in the elevator; Genevieve.
"I am leaving the station." she explained. Genevieve looked surprised; Marietta rarely even left her room.
"Director, shall I watch the systems? I know they're on automatic, but..."
"They can't be trusted to maintain the entire station for any length of time." finished Marietta, "No. You will broadcast the Revorse tapes on all channels in exactly three days. Then you will put the cloaking field on and you will all abandon the station."
"Director!"
"Don't worry, I'll return and activate it again when the Earth Federation gives up trying to find us." said Marietta, "Nothing can stop the truth."
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