Page 22 of Argen Mate
Chapter Eleven
Zoe
“I have a lot to report today,” Commander Maktu began. “Foremost, we got a partial message from Dread Three. All of the Sargan ships were destroyed or disabled, and all eight Dreadnaughts escaped. However, Dreadnaught One took heavy damage, and they’re hiding out in a lifeless system to make repairs. We were not able to get further information from them because they were going dark to protect Dread One while they make repairs. No casualties have been reported.”
My heart sank at that revelation. That meant we couldn’t get confirmation that the people from Argen’s last shuttle run had been recovered. I refused to believe he hadn’t, feeling sure I would know if something had happened to him. I was missing him even though it hadn’t been a full day since we got separated.
“The Consortium contacted us this morning. They have made a formal demand to the Sargus Empire to return all or our people to Farseek. They have also demanded that the Sargans refrain from opposing our retrieval of our people.”
He paused to let that sink in. That revelation was huge! The Farseekans believed the Consortium betrayed them in the beginning by allowing their homeworld to be destroyed while the Farseek Brigade fought for them. The Brigade had shunned them, not the other way around.
Farseek may have been one of their less profitable worlds, but they had one of the best fighting forces, and the Consortium depended on their agricultural products as Farseek depended on Consortium technology.
Murmurs of surprise when through our assembly, most of which were members of Maktu’s ground fighting team. The rest were the shuttle pilots and us four Earther females.
“The Sargus Empire lodged a counter complaint that we had killed their people and stole a brand new colonial ship. However, the Consortium defended our actions since the Sargans broke the peace treaty when they attacked Farseek unprovoked. While it’s unlikely that we can extract reparations from the Empire, we are keeping theKurellisand will be allowed to return collect more of our people.
“The Consortium is also sending ships to help gather our people from the many worlds where they have been taken. The Sargans are to provide us a complete accounting of all the people they took.”
Everyone started to cheer at that announcement, and Commander Maktu actually smiled. He just waited while the room got boisterously loud. Everything they had done for the past two years had been validated by the Consortium that they thought had betrayed them.
Maktu waited while everyone quieted before he spoke again. “The other news I have comes long before we expected to hear from anyone.” He paused, and everyone was quiet waiting to hear what the news. “The Consortium has been in contact with the United Galactic Alliance of Worlds---which now includes Earth.”
My friends and I all gasped and my eyes filled with tears as I shook my head. I think that might have been the last thing I expected to hear.
“Earth joined the Alliance after the Drayids cut a swath of destruction in about a dozen of their major cities. The Alliance notified Earth that unknown numbers of their people had been taken---and we have received information on how to connect with the Earth networks.”
The others: Harper, Scarlet, and Nora, were just as shocked as I, and I wondered why Commander Maktu didn’t tell us privately instead of in front of everyone. Then I thought perhaps he didn’t want to treat us differently than the rest of his team. From her reaction, I didn’t think he had even told hissolmatuHarper the news beforehand.
I sniffed a little then wiped away my tears and gave the other three a weak smile. Though it came as a surprise, I knew we had already made our choices. As far as we were concerned, we were married to our men.Solmatuwas a lifetime commitment.
“What does this mean for us?” Maktu asked rhetorically. “It means we are taking these people back to Farseek, then we are going back to retrieve more people from the Sargus Empire. The Dreads will be going with us, but we shouldn’t face any more opposition from the Sargans.
“Although we have not formed an official treaty with the Alliance, they have taken a hard line against the Sargans’ humanoid trafficking. They have banned the Pican’s from Alliance space, and they will be apprehended and imprisoned if they are caught. The Alliance is also demanding their people be returned, including those taken from Earth. The Sargus Empire complained that giving up their slaves would gut their economy.
“Both the Consortium and Alliance basically said they don’t care. Also, at least three worlds in their territories are undergoing revolutions in response to our support team’s ‘Seeds of Freedom’ story that we flooded their networks with. Their governments are expected to fall any time.
“Finally, our efforts have paid off. In three months we will arrive back at Farseek for the first time in almost three years. The Dreads will be returning as well for shore leave and to regroup. We’ve only got three shuttles to move all our rescues fromKurellisto Farseek. It’s going to take days to get all our passengers ground side. We have commed ahead to see if there will be additional shuttles available to help from any passenger freighters that will be there about the same time we arrive. We are waiting to hear back.”
“For my ground team, once you have performed your routine armor and weapons maintenance, consider yourselves off duty until further notice. You’ve earned it. Everyone should check the logs to see if we have rescued any of your family so far or if they have been taken by the Picans to any of the sites we haven’t checked yet,” he said finally. “And that will be all. Dismissed.”
We, the fantastic four, just sat there as most of the others left except my friends and their mates. There was no official meeting called, but we evidently had things to talk about. The other three women and three men drifted over and sat down at the table with me.
“Wh-when did this all happen?” I asked. “H-how long have you known?” I looked at Commander Maktu almost accusingly.
“We were only notified a half hour before this meeting,” Maktu said evenly. “And, yes, it may be possible for you to go back to Earth with the involvement of the Alliance now. Because all of you were stolen from Earth by the Picans, the Alliance is demanding that you be returned.”
Pyrr, and Sahvin, and we women all looked at Commander Maktu in dismay. Give up our mates---oursolmatu? Then we realized he was feeling equally dismayed as we were.
“What?” I cried. “No!”
“Do they know that we have been given asylum and have taken mates?” Harper said, what the rest of us were thinking.
“I don’t want to go back,” I said.
“Neither do I!” Scarlet, Nora, and Harper all said almost at the same time.
“I have already put in a request with the Consortium to ask that you four be exempt from the Alliance demand,” Commander Maktu said calmly. “You have all been officially declaredsolmatuwhich is essentially the same asmeomeefor Sahvin and Nora.”
