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Croto was gaining a wealth of knowledge about the Restans as he rode aboard the Restan warship. His activity was undetectable to the Restans, though, judging by the excitement, they seemed to have made some discovery about him.
At one point the captain of the ship and the human and Restan he had rescued came into the hangar space he was being kept in. They seemed even more agitated than usual, talking with the other Restans who were both guarding and studying him.
It was tempting to just mend the gash they had made in his side when they entered. He was also still a little put off that they had killed his mobile unit, though he knew he could fix it also.
But for now he just left things as they were.
After a time he could feel the course change. He had calculated they had been heading for the star system the humans called Tau Ceti. Now he quickly realized they had changed course for what was the Restans’ home star system.
This surprised him a little. Taking an alien ship to their home system would seem to be a very risky thing, and the Restans were not known for taking risks. Was this the effect the humans were having on them?
That was always the great unknown. What would happen when these two ancient enemies from what the humans called Earth met? War had been predicted by many of his race. Yet somehow, despite an initial engagement, general war had not broken out.
It seemed that both races still feared the unknown aliens which had destroyed all life on the planets in this region of the galaxy more. And they had formed an alliance against them. War between them had been predicted and even encouraged, so that they would both be even stronger. But war had not broken out, and now time was running short for their preparation.
The Amferians were again approaching. Their discovery of the human ships which their advance scouts had attacked proved that. And no doubt would have been reported to their main fleet by now.
Croto was about to go into sleep mode when he detected them. Two Amferian scout ships tracking the Restan ships. They were very far off, and most certainly too far for the Restans to realize their presence. This was confirmed by the total lack of reaction of this ship and the others. He monitored the communications between the ships, hoping one of the others would notice and alert them all. And he listened in on the conversations aboard the ship he was on.
No, they didn’t realize they were leading Amferian scouts to their home system.
If Croto had been capable of sighing he would have done so. He hadn’t wanted to communicate with the Restans or humans yet. To do so would mean moving up the contact schedule considerably.
But schedules were made to be adjusted. Particularly when dealing with unpredictable races such as these.
He sent out a preliminary message to the Restans and human aboard his ship on their personal communicators.
“It is time to talk.”