Chapter 17

Almost an hour later, Jim, Mary, and Amber walked into the cargo bay. Though not sure of this, Jim was a lot more confident that now, no one but possibly Mary could hack, copy, or use his tech. At the appointed time, Jim activated the DMTM, and both the man and bug creature appeared. The looks on their faces were almost comical and would have been so had Jim not been as untrusting as he was. Sitting at a table in the center of the room, Jim remained by the door, watching the readings he was taking constantly.

Hardly listening, he only picked up snippets of the conversation that they weren’t part of the Krong and only got a derogatory grunt from Jim. Still not trusting them, Jim increased the shield around Amber. Sighing, she looked at him and only nodded. After an hour, Amber and the two guests stood, “Now that you have convinced me the Empress of the empire,” here she sighed, “you have to convince my head of security.” Here, she pointed to Jim. The man nodded, and the bug creature did a semi-bow. What the fuck was this?

“Sir, we have followed you since you entered this space. To say that you have hurt the defenses of the Krong empire in this sector would be an understatement. The four or five planets that you destroyed were their main detection system. Without it, they would be blind if they came back here. The Empress told us of the battle against the Krong empire.” Sighing, he wasn’t sure how Jim would react to what he had to say, “What you did is unprecedented. The ruling clan has been the same for a very long time. This is the first time a clan went against an enemy and was almost totally destroyed.”

“Alright, so what has this to do with us and you?” Jim sneered out he really didn’t like this man or the alien with him.

“We just wanted you to know that they weren’t the only clan out there, they were the strongest, the problem is there are worse clans out there than them.” The man waited for Jim’s reaction, hoping that Jim might be on their side.

“You want me to believe that there are different sects of bugs here?” Jim laughed, “The bugs always have a hierarchy with a queen and king that they ALL follow, I have been in the minds of several of them and,” here he paused to get the words right, “I have seen no sign of different sects, so don’t expect me to believe you for even one second.”

The creature with the man, eyes grew wide, in shock, Jim supposed and rapidly began to click and hiss at the man. The man’s eyes also got large, “Did you understand what the thoughts were?” The shocked man asked?

Jim looked at the man like he was an idiot, “of course, I have the tech to discern what they were thinking and saying as a matter of fact.”

The creature with the man looked at Jim and started to click differently, “Can you now understand me?” Jim looked at it and backed away.

“What the hell is this?” Pulling his plasma pistol, he pointed it directly at the bug’s head, “Try to get in my head again, and it’s the end of you. I am far stronger than you think.”