Lt. Commander Briar Semo scowled at her aide, a rotund alien male of short stature, who gazed up at her with equal displeasure.
“If you would only seem to give way a little …” he began.
There was a slight pause as he listened to her thought-voice.
“I don’t care that their demands are ridiculous!” he snapped. She shook her head at him in disdain.
“A military commander you might be, but you make a ruddy patty-cake diplomat!”
The Kweep female shifted one hoof slightly, yielding to him.
“They backed your latest offer right off a cliff,” cautioned her aide, whose nametag proclaimed him to be Chief Petty Officer Samison. “You need to come at them obliquely. Try applying some of that brilliant strategy you’re so known for! Think of it as … verbally flanking your opponent. They know how badly you want this contract, Commander. And in their greed they’ll make you pay through the teeth to get it.”
All this was relayed via translator bot to Lissa and her two guards as they stood a little ways off, observing the commander and her diplomat aide. They had not meant to eavesdrop, but Lissa had paused in her approach when she observed that the conversation was not idle chatter.
Sensing now the pause in their argument, Lissa jerked her head at Ash and Shiro before stepping out of the little alcove where they had stood to listen. Nearing the two UC representatives, she said in a mild tone to let them know she had overheard them, “Perhaps I could help.”
She sensed it when the commander directed her thoughts at her.
“And just who the hell are you?” Semo demanded. Her thought-voice had a slight lilt to it, as though she spoke with the Kweep version of a strong accent. But there was enough command in her presence, alien or no, that Lissa stood just a tad straighter. It was not unlike the feeling she’d had when facing her former math teacher without her homework done.
“Ambassador Melissa Phelps of Planet Earth,” she said, proud of how even and mature her voice sounded. “Did Mr. Piff send word ahead that we were coming?”
“Yes, and a damned nuisance it is. No offense meant, Ambassador,” she added a bit hastily when her aide bit back a protest at her brusque retort. “We are in the middle of some delicate negotiations here with SS42 and I don’t have time to be gallivanting around the galaxy on rescue missions—especially ones on a planetary scale such as you seem to have.” She shook her large flat head.
“Not that we do not empathize with your plight,” her aide began.
“Space Patrol has done what it can in the matter of your slavery issue,” Semo said.
“What the commander means to say is …”
“I think I understand.” Lissa laid a reassuring hand on his sleeve. She shrugged casually and glanced away. “We came here with small hope. Hardly a spark of it, really. Could there be any organization in the universe powerful enough to oppose the wicked greed of the Galactic Trade Company, I asked myself? But of course there isn’t.” She smiled wistfully up Samison.
“Oh, Universe Co. is powerful enough, to be sure!” Semo fell right into the trap Lissa was cunningly spinning for her. “We have millions of drones and could easily survey your planet, find out what it needs, depose that idiotic Jester convocation you have in lieu of a real planetary sovereignty!” Her voice was contemptuous, but her in-depth knowledge of Earth politics was interesting.
“It is a great pity, then, that you have no interest in establishing your own headquarters there. Ah well.” Slowly, Lissa turned as though to leave. Ash and Shiro stepped with her, mimicking the motion.
“What did you say?” The commander’s exclamation was almost comical. Lissa slowly pivoted on her heel back to face the two UC reps.
“Oh, didn’t Mr. Piff tell you? We are offering to make Earth the first Milky Way planet in the Universe Corporation.” She spread her hands wide. “Since we’ve never been members of GTC, they can’t possibly dispute the idea, and unlike those space-station officials, there's something you can offer us.”
“And what is that?” Samison was suspicious.
“Freedom.”
Semo stepped closer to Lissa as though to shield them from prying ears, or minds. “Let me get this straight, if we bring Earth government up to UC standards …”
“Then you get Earth as a permanent base for Universe Co. in the Milky Way. So long as you establish a Space Patrol base on our single moon, to keep the fleas away, and give us full access to your drone fleet in order to help establish and maintain actual democracy on Earth. And no slavery.”
“Those are your only terms?” Samison asked.
Lissa smiled at the two of them. “Let’s sit down and talk somewhere, shall we? I think we will be able to come to terms that are mutually beneficial.”
“Earthling, I think you might get yourself a deal!”
There it was at last. The tiny spark of hope that Lissa had carried across tens of thousands of lightyears of space now ignited into a slow burn that could soon sweep across the face of Earth and bury OneWorld in a grave of ash and dust.