“They’re attacking the Fhetat?” Kal yells.
“That’s what Sevi says,” Maria says to Kal as he manns the ship’s navigation.
“Oh my,” the Queen Ravileth says and walks to stand between the two pilot seats. “We had it all wrong. Representative Nuren is settling Rhasdwiis business and demonstrating the benefit of strong IP law enforcement, of course she is gunning for the Fhetat.”
“I’m relieved, I have to admit,” Kal says with a smile that he doesn’t try to hide.
“This is unfortunate,” the Queen says. “Everyone in the universe is going to be relieved that the threat of unprovoked war from the Fhetat is neutralized. And who better to do it than the heroic Pen Nuren who defended her homeworld from the same unprovoked hostility? The IP, led by Pen Nuren, will be the de facto judge and executioner of the universe and we will let it happen because we think Fhetatians are scary. Isn’t that why we have risked so much, to avoid that reality? Or is it enough that Nuren isn’t knocking down your home this time?”
Kal looks to Maria.
“She’s the best, I told you,” Maria says.
“Put Whadgaf’s ship over the speakers,” Kal says and when Maria does, he speaks to everyone who is listening. “Whadgaf, we have to convince everyone protecting Eakran to defend the Fhetat.”
There is silence and Kal questions if Maria had dropped the communication by accident.
“We’re still here,” Sevi says. “We don’t understand. The Fhetat, by all accounts, is not a good place. Children are brought up in cruel conditions, women have no rights, and the distribution of wealth is abhorrent. The Kings live lavishly while the majority of the people fight and scrape for resources. If Representative Nuren wants to use the resources of the IP to address the abuses there, I say let her. We should get back to the Regions to discuss our legal options. With good legal counsel, we can deal with Eakran’s situation, and the one we created when we broke into the headquarters.”
“I think I agree with Sevi,” Whadgaf says.
“The Queen has something to say about that,” Kal says and the Queen Ravileth reminds everyone why they worked so hard to oppose the assisnation of Representative Eakran.
“But it’s the Fhetat,” Sevi says. “I don’t want to go there.”
“We have to,” the Queen says. “The IP can’t do this unchecked or it’s that way forever, and that’s not what the IP is. The IP establishes model laws, it should give cultures the means to govern themselves fairly, not to impose rules from a distance that can’t take the lives of real people into account. That leads to the very abuses they claim to be trying to curtail on the Fhetat. If we want to change the Fhetat, we do that by influencing the Kings who wear those magical crowns, not by occupying it.”
“And those Kings are open to criticism?” Whadgaf says. “Because the last I heard, they were all power-mad despots who think they could run the whole universe. I don’t disagree with you Queen, I think I speak for everyone when I say we are all properly shamed and reminded of our duties to this universal civilization that we belong to, but there is no clear course of action here. Will the forces that protect Eakran understand the value of protecting the Fhetat? I can’t answer that. Will the Fhetat accept our help? Will we be throwing good lives to slaughter to protect mad despots? These are hard questions and I don’t know if the six of us can answer them right now. We have to go back to the Regions and figure this all out.”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Kal says. “Once the IP arrives in Fhetat space, they will create a perimeter that will be almost impossible to penetrate and we will suffer mass casualties. If we are going to help the Fhetat, we have to support them from the inside. Maria heard on the announcement that reinforcements to IP Law Enforcement are almost assembled, one soldier for every five inhabitants of the Fhetat, that’s millions of soldiers, and they will arrive at the Fhetat in about twenty cycles. We don’t even have a million in Eakran’s detail, we have about a quarter of that. How big are the Fhetat’s forces?”
“There are sixteen separate forces on the Fhetat,” the Queen Ravileth says. “If they can come together, they should have considerable numbers to defend themselves, but Representative Nuren knows that she can defeat the Kings, all sixteen of them, or she would not be doing this.”
“We have to ask them if they want help,” Giovanni says. “Even if everyone in the Regions agrees, we can’t just show up unannounced.”
They all think as their ships continue the journey to the Banned Regions.
“I think we all know what we need to do,” Maria says after a long silence. “We have to split up again. I think our ship should head to the Fhetat. We got the Queen, I can control minds, we can make the Kings understand that accepting our help will be a powerful statement to the IP. You all continue to the Regions and let us know what support you can get together and how fast they can make it to the Fhetat.”
“The last time we did this, some of us got arrested,” Giovanni says.
“Well,” Maria says, “we got different teams this time so let’s hope for better results.”
Everyone agrees and they reluctantly separate, each ship flying through space with more urgency than before.
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