Chapter 1: Departure Day Part 1
In this episode: The Central Alliance High Council has called First Contact Ambassador Micha Lawrence for a dangerous mission. The invading Olmeri have been spotted just outside the Local Neighborhood, near the Hyades Cluster. The High Council wants her to go out there, try to get a treaty with Ka’len and stop the Olmeri. She learns they have assigned the Magellan to be her transport and her over watch. She talks with President Aliel Smbarak about the problem. N’amani tells her he was able to get all the supplies. She recalls President Smbarak telling her that she was going to have a high-value Elronym Administrator to help her with her backlog of reports and her discovery that N’amani is also a capable fighter.
Initializing The High Council Chambers on Dagon
Ambassador Micha Lawrence paced the clean marble floor outside the High Council Chambers. A tall set of ornate doors took up most of the inner wall. Well-spaced woven silk carpets muffled her footsteps. She wasn’t tall but she wasn’t short either. She was pretty but not overtly so. Her long, dark-blonde hair was braided over her left shoulder. She was dressed in the formal gold and rust color robes of a Keeper of Earth with a simple dark red woven belt wrapped around her waist. Her Ambassador’s sash with several medals hung across her right shoulder. Her First Contact pin was set on her collar. It’s eight jewels glistened in the clear light from the atrium windows above.
The pin had a simple, elegant design. The base was flat gold with a ring of gold braid inside the rim. Frank Drake’s iconic pulsar map for the Pioneer Plaque was engraved in the center. Eight small jewels were arranged in three dimensions to match the relative positions of the eight original members of the Central Alliance: Sol, Eridani, Procyon, Vega, Altair, Fomalhaut, Ras’alhague, and Aldebaran.
The inner doors began to open slowly outward.
“Ambassador Micha Lawrence,” the clerk called out.
The Ambassador took a breath and straightened, confident and humble at the same time. Her robes swayed gently as she walked into the chamber. She moved gracefully with a traveler’s determined gait. Worn, well-polished boots covered the space between her robes and the floor. She walked to the center of the room, crossed her arms fists closed to her chest, opened her arms to extend both hands palms up, turned them over and bowed slightly as she brought her hands down to her sides. It was an old-fashioned elegant gesture the Keepers all used. The original meaning was complicated. The common meaning was simply ‘I offer you peace.’
She looked up at the Council members.
The twelve members of the Central Alliance High Council sat on a raised platform in a semi-circle around a large, open floor. Carved oak columns supported a curved ceiling. Ebony panels inlaid with mother of pearl fronted the council seats providing an imposing view and a barrier.
Each of the High Council members wore a formal black robe with different colored scarves draped over their shoulders and bands on their sleeves to identify their roles on the Council and their home planets.
Council President Aliel Smbarak sat in the center chair. Her shoulder-length black hair framed her face. Her antique gold earrings almost matched her eyes. She wore three scarves: dark red, yellow gold, and spring green. The green represented Dagon, her home world; the red and gold her roles in Medicine and Agriculture. Her sleeves were trimmed in gold braid to show her role as Council President.
A clerk and two assistants sat at tables just below the council members’ seats. They were recording the proceedings.
“My greetings, Madame President,” the Ambassador said. She looked around the room. “My greetings to the entire Central Alliance High Council. How may I be of service?”
“We have a problem,” Minister Daru said. He wasn’t much for pleasantries.
The Ambassador turned to look at him with a questioning gaze and a smile, waiting for him to go on. She wanted to challenge him. ‘Ok. Sure. That’s why you called me here. Might you be just a little more specific?’ she thought. But she didn’t say it. It wouldn’t help.
President Smbarak frowned at him and turned to look at the Ambassador. “We’re getting more reports about the Olmeri. Several of our trading partners are reporting problems with their shipments of grains and other staples.”
“What sort of problems, Madame President?” the Ambassador asked.
President Smbarak looked down and shook her head. “Disruptions in deliveries, spoiled containers, booked shipments not delivered. There are too many things that have ‘not gone smoothly.’ And now, we’re getting reports of Olmeri raiders scouting other sectors.” She took a breath and sighed.
The Ambassador frowned. “What do our traders say?”
“They don’t,” Minister Rang said sharply. “They don’t tell us anything. Nothing. They won’t give us any details. All they say is they went to pick up the shipment and it wasn’t there. They couldn’t get the permit to load it. They were delayed and the shipment was sold to someone else. It’s always some excuse.”
The Ambassador listened carefully. He was just repeating the problem. He wasn’t adding anything new. “Is that what’s happening, though, Minister? What have they tried? Why did they fail?”
President Smbarak turned her head slightly and looked at the Ambassador. “That is the question we want you to answer, Ambassador.”
The Ambassador looked at her with concern and raised her eyebrows. “I see.”
President Smbarak shook her head and looked down at a small screen. “The latest reports we have are from traders near Ka’len in the Hyades Cluster.”
Minister Pargals couldn’t resist. “And that is where you are going,” he said wagging his finger at the Ambassador.
The Ambassador turned, shifted backward, and looked straight at President Smbarak, shaking her head ever so slightly. “Madame President? The Hyades Cluster is well outside the Local Neighborhood. It will take weeks just to get there.“ She raised her eyebrows, blinked a few times and smiled. ‘Please, oh please tell me that’s not where you are sending me,’ she thought.
Minister Daru shifted forward in his chair. “Well, yes. That’s why we want you to go there. We didn’t give you a First Contact Charter so you could take nice vacations. We’d rather not wait for the Olmeri to come closer.”
The Ambassador straightened and tried not to frown. ‘You want me to go where and do what?’ she thought.
President Smbarak smiled, nodded and shrugged her shoulders. “We need you get to the Ka’len system before the Olmeri arrive. Get a treaty with them and do whatever you can to stop the Olmeri.”
“I appreciate your confidence in me,” the Ambassador said with more than a little scepticism.
President Smbarak looked directly at her. She wasn’t smiling any more. “We have assigned the Magellan to be your transport and your over watch. Make your preparations quietly, Ambassador. Don’t mention your mission to anyone until you are well underway. Not until you are out of the Local Neighborhood. Even your team cannot know.”
“They are used to that.”
“Whatever you need, Ambassador.” President Smbarak looked around the room at the other council members as if to tell them they should all agree.
They all nodded.
“I’ll get the preparations underway,” the Ambassador said.
“Quietly, Ambassador. Quietly,” President Smbarak said.
The Ambassador nodded to her again, pasted a neutral smile on her face, bowed to the High Council members, and turned to leave. ‘Whoo boy, this is a doozy. But sure. I’ll go out there and see what I can do. Thanks ever so,’ she thought as she walked out of the chamber.