Chapter 9

The next several days where chaos for me, the council was at a loss as to what constituted an appropriate amount of aid for me, now with the thought of Janus looking over their shoulders they where eager to appear willing to help me, no one could agree however on what the minimum they could get away with.

I had also learned that Luna would be coming with me, I had tried to talk her out of it but she was admit about serving under a human intellect. Elora was no help with her simply agree that her expertise would be needed, Elora was having her own meetings with the Helpers; she could be found deep in thought, which turned out to be her having a dialog with the Helper we had met earlier.

I was approached by Salis on the third day after the meetings, I opened the doors to the quarters I had been assigned, he looked disturbed as if he had not been sleeping much.

"Nx, I need to speak with you off the record." He said.

I nodded.

"Of course Sir." I said.

He nodded at that.

"I am not your commander Nx, Salis will do." He said.

"Sir I believe in the respect of rank." I said.

He nodded again.

"Nx, you know how dangerous your mission is, what you may not know is that it is even more dangerous to a biologic." He said.

I nodded again.

"I understand the enemy targets life signs." I said.

He nodded.

"Yes, our cloaking technology is not 100 percent proven, you could be putting your mission at risk by bringing Luna." He said.

"She is determined to go sir, I have already tried to dissuade her." I said.

"Nx what do you know of our life cycle?" He asked.

"Nothing at all sir." I said.

He paused and took a deep breath.

"Our lives are measured in centuries not years, we can take several to reach full maturity, I myself am 1200 years old Nx, it gives us perspective on life that younger races do not have. Your mission may span multiple life times for my people." He said.

I nodded at that.

"It very well could sir." I said.

"You see Nx my daughter is only 112, she is hardly an adult, she joined the task force when she was 80, she made captain fast, her career is on the rise." He said.

I started to see what he meant.

"You fear she will waster her life on this mission." I said.

He nodded.

"She has yet to even mate Nx, she is a child, with the petulance and desires of a child." He said.

I sighed.

"Sir, I have tried to dissuade her, anything further I suggest you take it up with her." I said

He nodded.

"I have, she will hear no reason." He said.

"Sir the only thing I can offer is that I will do all that I can to ensure her safe return." I said.

He frowned at me.

"Then I better ensure you get as much help in that regard as I can." He said.

He handed me a data crystal.

"This is a list of what we will be doing for you, I suggest you look over the terms." He said nodding smartly, he walked briskly from the room.

"Elora you there." I asked out loud.

"Yes, and I already read the file." Her voice came out of nowhere.

"Can you give me the highlights?" I said.

"you are literate Nx." She said annoyed.

"Sorry if I disturbed you." I said.

"No Nx, I was ... working on something." She said.

"Oh." I said.

"Well any way Nx, we are getting a wormhole capable ship, top of the line recon vessel, it has ftl and stasis units. It should be invisible to the enemy, minor weapons, nothing fancy, its mainly a stealth recon ship." She said.