The voices continued to drone on, grating on Larik'Ni's nerves, and making her wish that she could turn off her hearing. This wasn't a meeting, it was an argument. It had started in the late afternoon, and had dragged on until the evening hours. News that the
Arrowhead
had arrived early to pick Larik'Ni up only made things more tense.
Haven only had a population of roughly nine hundred and fifty, spread through a single underground city. There had been plans to hollow out another thousand or so kilometers to either expand the existing city, or build a new one. That was where this fight started. Unfortunately, it didn't stay there.
As governor, Larik'Ni oversaw the Haven Council, which consisted of five people; a Maylogi, a Korulam, a human, a Muldaxian, and a Birran. It was the Birran, a man named So'Rit, who was causing the most trouble.
Larik'Ni had to admit that this man was gorgeous. He was tall and muscular; he wore tight fitting tunics that accentuated his three pectorals. His hair was immaculate, a deep red that framed his teal face, joining with the beard that flared out from his cheeks and chin like the manes adorning the male lions of planet Earth.
Larik'Ni had heard from the women and men So'Rit had bedded that he had the kind of cock a lover would dream about, and that he knew how to use it.
So'Rit was also belligerent, abrasive, and, as the humans would say, a fucking asshole. He had been a sycophant of Larik'Ni's predecessor, and hadn't forgiven her for being elected to the position he coveted when Jolek's crimes were revealed. He was also an adherent to the orthodoxy of their homeworld, and hated Larik'Ni for no other reason than she was clan-less; a fact he reminded the council of almost daily. In fact, he was about to do so again.
"I would expect a clan-less like her to just abandon us!" he spat with a voice full of venom and contempt. The argument had now gone from expansion to Larik'Ni's upcoming conference.
The human councilor, a woman named Lorraine Hastings, had finally had enough. "For fuck's sake, So'Rit, she's not abandoning us! Governor Larik'Ni is going to a conference to help us forge our own future! And she's taking a quantum comm with her, so we'll be in constant real-time contact. So knock it the fuck off!"
Larik'Ni usually preferred a degree of decorum during these meetings, and kept the profanity to a minimum. In this case, she appreciated Lorraine's defense of her.
"Thank you, Councilor Hastings," Larik'Ni said. She turned her attention back to her fellow Birran. "We have been cut off from the galactic community for too long."
"By design!" So'Rit spat. "And because no one will have us."
"At first, that was true," the Maylogi councilor, Agav said. She stood up, and used her towering height and semi armored body to intimidate the abrasive Birran. "This world has been colonized for eighty-four years. I have been here since the beginning. We have survived by going it alone, but we will thrive with allies."
"Besides," Larik'Ni said, "with the Verokk constantly harassing those who are trying to come here, we need help. The Coalition patrols can only do so much."
"And whose fault is that?" So'Rit demanded.
"Your old friend Governor Jolek," Hyst, the Korulam councilor said. "He made that deal with Lady Riv to capture that human freighter captain and the Muldaxian he was with."
"Who escaped," So'Rit said. "Had they not-"
"Had they not escaped, then two innocents would have been lost!" Larik'Ni snapped, cutting him off. "Is that what you wish? For innocent lives to be lost?" The other Birran kept quiet. "No more can be accomplished today. We will adjourn until tomorrow."
"Do you think he's pissed that your ride got here ahead of schedule?" Agav asked after the others filed out of the council chamber. Like all Maylogi, Agav had plates of chitinous armor covering most of her body. Only her face was exposed. She had four bright green eyes that sat wide on her face, an artifact of her species evolving from a herbivorous ancestor, and twin nasal slits instead of a nose. Her mouth was a thin line.
"Possible," Larik'Ni said. "He schemes more than anyone I have ever met. I fear he may try to seize power in my absence."
The Maylogi woman gave Larik'Ni a worried look. "What are you going to do?"
"I am not sure yet." Larik'Ni was not a political animal by nature, but it wasn't politics with So'Rit. It was a fight. He was going to learn that Larik'Ni knew how to fight back.
We clan-less always have to fight for our survival,
she thought.
So'Rit is in for a rude awakening.
----
The original Tref star went supernova billions of years ago, leaving behind a super dense neutron star. Jets of radiation blasted from the star's poles; radiation that could fry a ship even when its shields were at maximum.
The star tumbled end over end, like a pinwheel. From a distance, and when viewed from the direction those jets shot out, the light looked like it was blinking on and off, hence the name these stars were given. Pulsars.
"I couldn't be lucky twice," James Barret groused. Last time he came to Haven, when he was undercover as Gideon Price of the
Fool's Errand,
he arrived in Haven's orbit when the planet was out of the path of the streamers. He was able to dock immediately, meet his passenger, and spend a lovely evening in Governor Larik'Ni's company, and in her bed.
The
Arrowhead
was at station keeping, waiting to rendezvous with Haven. Barret sat in the pilot's seat in the cockpit, staring at the Tref pulsar.
The
Arrowhead's
forward viewports weren't glass, but a transparent metal. That metal could be polarized to block out certain wavelengths of light. It was set to filter out the harshest light from the pulsar, while leaving Tref itself still visible. The star was close enough that Barret couldn't see it spinning through the empty night.
"You know," Endira Vas said, coming up behind the pilot's seat, "watching Tref isn't going to make Haven come out of the streams any faster."
"I'm just lucky Haven makes a complete orbit in just a few days. That makes this a lot easier," Barret said. "Otherwise we could be stuck here for months, and not just another three hours"
Vas sat down at her nav station. She was wearing a long red robe, a gift her sister Tanlin had given her before they left the monastery on Covilax three days prior. Her hair was still damp from the shower.
"We're still early, James," Vas said. "We weren't technically due for another week. Even after spending a few days with Tanlin." She grinned at her mate. "Or are you that impatient to see Larik'Ni?"
Barret let out a small chuckle. "Maybe a little. Of course, you're the one who spent the last hour masturbating in the shower, and I'm sure I'm not the one you were fantasizing about."
"Guilty as charged," she said. "I'm still disappointed the shower's not quite big enough for us to have sex in. Neither is the tub."
"The new
