Chapter 20

Admiral Douglas's ready room: Admiral Douglas had just returned to his ready room, after watching the Mastiff leave Beta Durani station. His intercom beeped, and Ensign Femia told him that Senator Clark was calling him. "Put him through."

The admiral saw a rather weasely looking man on the monitor, "Hello Admiral, I was just calling to see if I could arrange a meeting with your science officer, uh Commander Langford I believe."

The admiral wanted to shut off the monitor, but that wouldn't have been proper. "Of course Senator, I believe we can have a meeting room set up in about an hour."

The senator smiled, "Excellent admiral. My people and I will be there in an hour. And Admiral, I'd like to speak to you as well, if that's alright."

"Of course senator Clark. We'll see you in an hour."

The monitor clicked off, and the admiral remembered an old saying his father told him about politics and a backed up toilet, he started to laugh.

..
Before the senator arrived, the Admiral contacted Lt Kirhaka, and Lt Commander Langford. He wanted them there for the meeting, and he told the Lt that if anyone asked, she was Lt Commander Langford's assistant. Hershell asked the admiral why the Lt was really there, and the admiral just smiled. Senator Clark and his people arrived an hour later, and were escorted to the conference room where the Admiral and the others were waiting. As he entered the room, the Senator smiled as fake a smile as the Admiral had ever seen, "Ah Admiral Douglas, it's an honor to finally meet you." and he extended his hand.

The Admiral shook his hand, "The honor is mine senator."

The Admiral introduced his people, and the senator seemed a little uneasy that Lt Kirhaka was present. Then the senator introduced his people, Allen Maxwell his R+D team leader, and Jeanne Task, his personal assistant. Miss Task seemed to become pale when she entered the room.

As the others were starting to sit around the table Miss Task was becoming more and more nervous. The admiral looked at her, "Are you alright Miss Task?"

She stood up rather slowly, "I'm sorry, but would you all please excuse Me." and she headed for the door.

Once in the hallway, she asked a marine for a bathroom, and he pointed to a door 10 feet down the hallway. Miss Task made it to the room, and just managed to close the door before she became violently ill. The one marine guard went to the door to check on her, but he waited outside, as he heard her violently retching. When the noises inside the room quieted, he opened the door and found her unconscious on the floor, and sweating profusely. He used his comm. link to contact sickbay for a med team, then decided to inform the admiral.

The marine went back to the conference room and quickly informed the admiral, and the admiral nodded and whispered something to the marine who also nodded.

..
"I'm sorry senator Clark, but your assistant seems to have become ill, we have a med team on the way to check her out."

Senator Clark seemed a little nervous, but before he could say anything, Lt Kirhaka spoke up.

"Perhaps Admiral, she is suffering from Kushor-ngKara."

The Admiral just nodded his head, "Perhaps your right Lt."

Senator Clark looked at them, "Suffering what Admiral?"

"Kushor-ngKara senator. When we first encountered the Lt's race, it was found that some humans are allergic to their dander, much like with dogs and cats."

"Is it contagious?"

"No senator, if you were allergic, you would have reacted by now."

"I see, is there a cure?"

"No sir I'm afraid not. It might be best if your assistant stayed away from the Lt and the other Firekans of the crew."

Senator Clark just nodded, "I take it that Miss Task is going to be alright?"

"Oh yes senator, I'm having a med team check her out just to be safe."

The senator seemed a little flustered, but he quickly went back to his reason for being there.

..
"Admiral, we at R+D would like to interview your Minbari prisoners. We think that it would be useful in our examinations of their technology."

The Admiral sat back for a moment, then looked at the senator. "I'm sorry senator, but I'm afraid that that won't be possible."

The senator now looked even more flustered, "Why not admiral?"

The admiral smiled slightly, "Well senator, there are two reasons. First, we don't have an interpreter to translate for us."

The senator interrupted him, "I thought that one of the Minbari officers spoke English. He could be the interpreter."

"Mr. Nosann is not available at the moment senator, in fact none of the Minbari are available."

"What do you mean the Minbari aren't available?"

"Well senator as I was saying, they're currently on board the Bull Run. And the Bull Run is enroute to a meeting with the Minbari."

"You mean to tell me that all of the prisoners are on that ship."

"Yes senator, at the request of your President, the prisoners are being returned to their government."

Senator Clark was almost as pale as Miss Task had been, and he spoke very slowly. "The president sent all of the prisoners back to the Minbari?"

"Yes senator, each and every one of them. As a sign of good faith. So I'm afraid that your R+D people will have to do things the old fashioned way. Now if you'll excuse me senator, I have other duties I have to take care of. I'll leave you in Lt Commander Langford's care, I'm sure she can help you with any questions you may have."

..
The admiral got up and left the conference room, and the senator followed him.

"Admiral may I speak to you for a moment?"

Putting on his best smile, the admiral turned around, "Yes senator."

Senator Clark stood very close to the admiral and spoke softly. "Admiral, you have no idea who your messing with do you? I'm a very powerful man in the Earth government."

The admiral stepped closer to the senator and smiled. The admiral looked the senator in the eyes, and spoke just above a whisper, "Senator, this is my ship, not the Earth government. When it comes to power here, you have none. You brought a telepath on board my ship, in the hopes of getting information from the prisoners or my people. Now your trying to bully me into giving you what you want. It won't work, just think how easy it would be for me to arrange an 'accident', and the investigation would show that it was just a tragic accident."

Now the Admiral looked at the marine guard, "Sergeant, the senator has very urgent business back on the space station. Escort him to his shuttle, and stay there until he takes off."

The marine snapped to attention, "Yes sir." and then came up beside the senator.

The admiral left and went back to his office.

..
A few hours later, Commander Langford came to the admiral's office, and when she entered she just looked at him. "Is there something I can do for you Commander?"

"Yes sir, you can tell me why the Lt was really at the meeting today, and why the senator left so quickly."

The admiral set down the reports he was going over, and then looked at Hershell. "The Lt was there, because I found out that the senator would probably have a telepath with him today. It seems that the Firekans can detect telepaths."

"Is that why Miss Task became so ill?"

"Well actually, that was unexpected. I had Dr. Lloyd run a full scan of her, and she found an unknown substance in her blood. It seems that not only can the Firekans detect telepaths, but also they excrete a pheromone that only affects telepaths. As you saw, it makes them violently ill."

Hershell just shook her head from side to side, "That's why most of the Firekans on board have been attached to security lately."

The admiral just smiled, and then winked at her. "And the Senator sir?"

The Admiral smiled, "He and I had a chat, and he remembered some urgent business back on the station he had to do."

"Is there anything else you needed to talk about Hershell?"

"Yes sir. We have the preliminary results of the tests on Mr. Laqua's ship. The weapon as near as we can tell is Tachyon based, but it's far more advanced than anything we have."

"How much more advanced Hershell?"

" I can only begin to guess sir. But the output to input ratio is off the scale sir."

The admiral looked at her, "For the sake of a tired old Admiral, can you put it simple terms Hershell?"

"Yes sir. On a scale of 1 to10. Civilian tachyon cannons are a 1, and Mil-spec tachyons are a 2. Mr. Laqua's cannon is a 25."

The admiral just looked at her for a moment. "That would put its damage potential on a scale equal to our antimatter cannons. Is there any way we can duplicate that cannon?"

Hershell just shook her head, "Sorry sir, we can't even open it up to see exactly how it works."

The admiral just shook his head now, "Well since we can't do anything about it now, lets just try to keep Mr. Laqua away from the senator and his friends."

Hershell just nodded, "Yes sir."