Chapter 12

The Permethians attacked the station in force and demanded that the crystal be surrendered or the station would be destroyed.

The attack had started just after the ‘My Love II’ had taken on its final load of missiles. While I was not happy that the base commander refused to release the anti-matter hunters, at least he had allowed us to have the Five Gigaton nuke version.

A mad dash of activity occurred when the first Permethian antimatter missile struck the station. There was no real damage, as the station’s shields could withstand much more than that. However, it was the warning shot that it was intended to be.

I heard Admiral Lardy’s voice in my head. He wanted to know what crystal the Permethians were talking about and was issuing a general call to all federation personnel to try and find out.

I was about to answer when Bonnie interrupted me and said, “No! Say nothing until we have more information!”

It was all I could do to listen to her. I swallowed my pride hard and held back. I mean, why shouldn’t I tell him?

Admiral Lardy’s voice once again invaded my head.

‘Damn it, people, someone is going to tell me why I have a Permethian battle fleet sitting outside, demanding I surrender a data crystal, or I am going to give them over to the Permethians when I find out who.’

Ok, that was more than enough for me. I was about to tell the admiral what he wanted to know despite Bonnie’s insistence when another voice came into our heads.

‘Delightful,’ Rouge thought, ‘I can watch you die at the hands of the Permethian’s 7th fleet. Oh, this is so sweet!’

‘Damn it, Rouge! Even you couldn’t want the station destroyed by them.’

‘Ah, that may be, Captain. However, there is nothing I can do to stop it. It seems that Captain Ramie called in a favor from his big brother. Somehow, I don’t see how you, or the space station, can stand up to the power of the 7th fleet. So I will sit back and watch you die.’

‘Damn you, Rouge!’ Bonnie injected.

Then, the Admiral invaded my mind again.

‘All right, hotshot, what do you think you’re doing, anyway.’

“I think the jig is up,” I roared to everyone.

‘I don’t care who you are or what you think you are smuggling. I warned you about what would happen if I found out! Damn it! you’re off my station right now. You can deal with the Permethians yourself.’

We felt the ship move on auto tractor beams toward the lunch bay.

Bonnie Mind spoke next: “Admiral, you do this, and you will be reduced to ‘latrine cleaner’ for the rest of your life.”

‘Why in the hell should I even listen to you after a threat like that?’

“Because, Admiral, you will be ordering the ambassador to her death, plus endangering the Ictheris project.”

‘What the hell does Ictheris have to do with this?”

‘Which crystal do you think they want?’

The Admiral’s mental voice moaned in my head. It was already too late, as we felt the ship ejected into space.

Mother said, “Dear, you have no choice now. You have to turn me over to the Permethians.”

“No! No!” Bonnie cried out.

“Hail from the Admiral of the 7th fleet. We have a visual of all things,” Jenny said.

That was a shock. Permethians don’t usually show themselves. I didn’t know what to make of the news.

“On screen,” I said as my voice cracked.

The display lit up, showing the alien commander in all his glory. This was the insect race that wanted to rule the galaxy.

“Ah! Greetings, Captain Maxis! So nice of you to join us out here.”

“Not that I had much choice,” I spat back.

“Now, now, Captain. Unlike my little brother, I am more than willing to ... how do you humans say ... let bygones be bygones?”