Andy and Bache had relayed the new information to the others on their return to the Gabriel from the surface of Uly.
‘Why did it have to be the Klatt?’ said Phil, slumping back on his couch. ‘They’re one of the most dangerous races in the galaxy.’
‘How dangerous?’ asked Rayl, the worry evident in her tone.
‘Well, on a scale of one to ten, they’re an eleven,’ said Phil. ‘They have a penchant for shooting first and not even bothering with the questions.’
‘Shit,’ Rayl whispered as she sat back and hugged her knees to her chest. ‘Where would they take them?’
‘We can only presume the Klatt home planet,’ said Bache. ‘The Klatt have one thing in their society that’s a constant, their love of anything that embarrasses the GDA.’
‘Shouldn’t we let the GDA know?’ said Phil.
‘Already taken care of,’ said Bache. ‘I sent a transmission back to Dasos from the Councillor’s residence. It would carry a bit more clout that way.’
‘Well – aren’t we going to go there?’ asked Rayl, looking between Bache and Andy.
Bache took a deep breath before answering.
‘It’s not as simple as that,’ he said. ‘The GDA have an absolute ban on any uninvited vessel invading the Acheron region as the Klatt would perceive it as a declaration of war.’
‘We can’t just sit here and do nothing,’ said Rayl. ‘Those bullies could be torturing them as we speak.’
Bache nodded, a sombre expression on his face.
‘It doesn’t mean we can’t go in that general direction,’ he said. ‘But, we would have to be dark right from the start. They’ll be watching for any unusual ship movements coming in their direction.’
‘Cleo, can you plot—’
A course appeared on the holomap before Andy could finish the sentence.
‘That’s not very direct,’ said Rayl, gazing at the roundabout route.
‘Intentionally,’ said Cleo, appearing in person dressed as some sort of ninja warrior. It created a few raised eyebrows, but no one commented. ‘We have no idea how advanced the Klatt technology is. It’s such a closed society, nothing leaks out. So, we have to presume the worst and that they may be able to detect us through our cloak.’
‘Not very likely though,’ said Rayl.
‘But theoretically possible,’ Cleo countered. ‘They have a huge and extremely aggressive naval presence continuously roaming their region. They would destroy the Gabriel in the blink of an eye if we were caught snooping. So, this course skirts the Acheron region as though we were passing by and then we could pop in the back door when the time was right.’
‘Could we get the GDA to do a bit of sabre rattling at the front door?’ asked Rayl, glancing at Bache.
‘That’s something I’ve already suggested,’ Bache replied. ‘But I know the answer will involve confirming it is the Klatt that have them. Because at present, it is just an assumption.’
‘Well, there’s no doubt in my mind,’ said Andy.
‘Nor mine,’ said Bache. ‘But until it’s confirmed, we don’t want to risk starting a galactic war over a faulty presumption. Let’s take Cleo’s circuitous route and await developments.’
The other three humans nodded and one hologram ninja bowed deeply and vanished.
The Gabriel moved slowly away from Uly towards one of the jump points and forty-eight minutes later winked out of the system.
Later that day, Bache found Andy down in the port hangar inspecting the heat shielding on the underside of the Cartella.
‘I think Cleo would let you know if there was a problem with any of the ship’s systems,’ he said.
‘I know,’ said Andy. ‘It takes my mind off what Ed and Pol are probably going through, and at the end of the day, I am supposed to be the ship’s engineer.’
Bache smiled.
‘How long is it that you’ve known Ed?’ he asked, climbing the steps and sitting in the open airlock.
‘Almost ten Earth years now,’ Andy replied, his voice echoing around inside a strut housing. ‘I was in my mid-twenties working for a French company called Richolot Aerospace when NASA offered me the job alongside Ed.’
‘To design your first jump drive.’
‘That’s right. Although, it was so hush hush, I was in the job a month before they disclosed the full scope of the work to me.’
‘Espionage?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Our friend Xavier Lake.’
‘Amongst others.’
‘There was so much suspicion and distrust on your planet at that time. I remember the two space station commanders summoned for a little chat on my ship when we were looking for Lake. They despised each other even though they did the same job for the same planet and only a few thousand kilometres apart.’
‘Well, at least things have improved since then,’ said Andy.
‘Finding out how insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things can do that.’
‘That, and the threat of extinction.’
‘Don’t let that get to you. You weren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to get a little reminder how ridiculous that behaviour was.’
‘Shame the Klatt can’t be reminded of that.’
‘Unfortunately, they were around even before the GDA came into existence and are partly the reason why we came to be in the first place.’
‘Is that the explanation why the GDA are reluctant to rile them?’
‘Partly, but strange as it may seem, the Klatt actually assist in keeping the peace by policing a couple of other aggressive races in that arm of the galaxy.’
‘Oh, joy – more troublemakers,’ said Andy, shrugging. ‘I sometimes think it would have been better if Ed and I had failed and Earth could have carried on in blissful ignorance of all the cantankerous politicking going on around us. But then again, wearing my engineer’s hat, the technology we’ve gained is bloody mind-boggling.’
‘It is – indeed it is.’
Andy stopped his inspection and smirked at Bache.
‘Can tell you’ve spent time with James Dewey,’ he chuckled.
‘Ah, yes – the complications of learning a new language,’ Bache nodded. ‘Picking up the speech habits of others.’
‘You learnt English a lot quicker than I learnt Ellinika, so I’m certainly not going to criticise.’
‘James told me Ellinika was spoken on Earth.’
‘Yeah,’ said Andy, giving up on the inspection and sitting in the airlock door with Bache. ‘It’s vaguely similar to Ancient Greek. The grammar and spellings have evolved a bit, but it shows that first contact was thousands of years before we met you guys.’
‘I’ve seen images of what you call hieroglyphics in the Earth region called Egypt. That’s originally a written language of a race from what you call the Scutum-Crux arm. They were almost wiped out when their star went nova unexpectedly a long time ago.’
‘The legend of the ancients?’ Andy asked.
‘Ah, yes – you know of it?’
‘I read up on it the first time we went to Dasos. It seems your whole society is based on that belief.’
‘Yes, the few survivors roamed the galaxy seeding human DNA on promising planets, to ensure the species wouldn’t be compromised by one rogue event again.’
‘You believe it?’
‘The DNA evidence is pretty compelling.’
Cleo appeared suddenly in front of them and startled Bache. Not because of her unexpected arrival, but, this time, she sported a full goth look in a black and purple miniskirt with knee-length buckled platform boots. White make-up with black eye liner and lipstick made her seem a little menacing.
‘Well,’ said Bache, his eyes wide, ‘that look will certainly go down well in Klatt space.’
Cleo beamed.
‘We have an answer from Dasos,’ she said and as quickly as she had appeared, she disappeared again.
‘Make us work for it, why don’t you?’ said Andy, as they both stood and made their way towards the tube lift.