Page 24 of Agrippa's Acceptance

Agrippa felt him before she looked at the door to the bridge and saw Amelagar standing there. They both knew what had to happen.

They’d somehow become one cohesive unit that worked together toward their common goal. The marines were professional and trained hard. When they weren’t running drills they were in the ship, going through the manuals that Agrippa and Anatu had compiled for the ship. For the cloak they had no physical manuals. Their tablets contained the programs and could self-destruct with one voice command. The cloak were off limits to everyone but Agrippa and Anatu.

“Congratulations, please continue with the drills, I have to talk to the general.” Amelagar left and they all went into the ship again. They lay down in the cryo pods and practiced getting ready and to their stations. Then they practiced for a proximity alarm and anything else they thought they might encounter. It was the things they didn’t know about that worried Agrippa.

***

Amelagar felt a combination of elation and dread. He stopped in front of the door to Balthazar’s office, grateful he could load this problem on another cyborg. Since he’d been chosen to lead this mission, he’d been given much more information about the relations between the humans and cyborgs and he knew that Anutu was invaluable with relations in spite of her blunt way of speaking. The human journalists loved her and published many pictures of her. But now, their problem was that the human president barely allowed her out of his sight.

He walked into Balthazar’s office and got straight to the problem.

“The cloak worked, but stopped. Anatu got it going again.”

Balthazar sighed. “You need Anutu for the mission?”

“Yes general.”

Balthazar stood. “You will come with me to earth to speak to the president.”

“I have to—”

“You will come with me.” Balthazar’s eyes glinted. “If the human wants to murder someone, I will run away while he is murdering on you.”

Amelagar sighed. Balthazar has been learning odd earth sayings which he was incorporating into their own language. Some of it was very apt and some just weird. Today it was ominous. No one wanted to mess with the president of earth. He might have to outrun Balthazar to escape the president’s wrath.

With an evil smile, Balthazar contacted Anatu and told her they were on their way. They went to find a shuttle. With the humans coming and going all the time, it was getting difficult to book a shuttle and they had to wait for one to return. Half an hour later, they stepped into the president’s office. Anutu sat on a couch, scowling down at a magazine with a picture of her. “I’m not a trendsetter. I’m a cyborg tech,” she said to the president.

“And you are also a charming trendsetter,” the president said with a smile. The look in the President’s eyes made Amelagar uncomfortable. Did he look like that when he gazed at Agrippa?

Seeing Anatu’s ryhov gave him hope. If she could be gifted with a soul, surely he could be too.

Her blue ryhov increased its movement. A small smile played around her lips. The president joined Anutu on the couch, taking her hand in his.

Balthazar sat down across from Anutu and the president and Amelagar took the chair next to him.

“What can I do for you, Balthazar?”

“We need Anutu?” Balthazar said. Amelagar might be wrong, but it did not seem to be the right approach to him. Why not explain about the problem with keeping the cloak running. Praise Anatu’s skills first and put the human in a good mood?

The president got to his feet so fast, Amelagar couldn’t follow his movement, even with his enhanced cyborg abilities. Interesting.

“No.” It was harsh and gritted between clenched teeth. The president’s fists opened and closed and he looked ready to go for Balthazar’s throat.

Anatu shrank back. “I won’t leave my human.”

Her human put a reassuring hand on her head and stroked a soothing hand over her hair.

Anatu stayed seated, but her gaze was troubled. She probably knew this was coming. Everyone on their team knew they needed a programming expert along. He suspected Balthazar had hoped Arakhu would find the human programmer, Elizabeth. But even if he found her, it would be too late now for her to catch up with the rest of the team. They were about to set a date for their departure.

“It’s the only way the mission will succeed. We need a tech that knows human and cyborg computers. The only way our mission can succeed is if we have someone that can make changes on the fly. You know this.”

The president sat down and took Anatu’s hand in his again. He held it against his thigh, his jaw set at a stubborn line. “You have Agrippa.”

“She is brilliant with the engines and cryo chamber and good with the cloak, but she doesn’t have Anatu’s ability to fix problems with the cloak as they come up. I wouldn’t ask if there was someone else,” Balthazar said quietly. “If this mission fail, the war will take a turn for the worse. We can’t afford that.”

Anutu had looked stunned, but now she glared at them. “I do not wish to leave my human. I’ve only owned him for a short while, if I leave him he would be lost.”

The president’s shoulders relaxed. He smirked at them. “Yeah, what she said.”

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