***
Aria gazed at the small alien in dismay. “Felipesegundo, you can’t leave!”
The Treb had asked the captain to be the one to break the news to Aria. He had summed up the plan to her as best he could and now stood before her, shaking his furry head regretfully.
“This one is responsible for the welfare of a great many people,” he said sorrowfully. “Were it simply a matter of this one’s life alone, this one would never leave theMaracaibo.”
Aria bent down and hugged the Treb tightly. “Of course, Felipesegundo. I understand. I’ll just…well, I’ll just miss you terribly.”
“This one will miss you as well,” said the alien softly.
Aria leaned back, putting her hands on his shoulders. “You were the first one here to make me feel welcome, aside from Jack.”
“Probably in a very different way.”
Aria laughed, brushing aside the tears that had fallen down her face. “Oh, my dear little Treb,” she said, hugging him fiercely again. “Promise you’ll stay in touch!”
“This one promises,” replied Felipesegundo, his voice muffled against her chest.
“Good,” said Aria firmly. “Now, shall we go and watch the action?”
The Treb took Aria’s hand and led her out of the chambers and down the corridor. “It should be interesting,” he said.
***
Captain Weir arrived on the command deck of theStella Marisand demanded brusquely, “What’s going on?”
The executive officer handed him a mug of coffee and said, “We’re not sure yet, Captain. This ship appeared out of nowhere and has its weapons trained on us.”
“If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” muttered the beleaguered captain. “Open a comm channel.”
“Aye aye, sir.” The comms officer tapped at his workstation. “Channel open.”
The screen remained blank. “Visual!” ordered Captain Weir.
“Visual blocked on their end, Captain.”
“Sorry about that, Captain Weir!” came a cheery voice over the comms. “We prefer to maintain our anonymity.”
“How does he know my name?” wondered the captain quietly. The executive officer shook his head. The captain tapped on a tablet and held it up.Send distress signalthe tablet said. The executive officer nodded and moved to speak quietly to the comms officer.
“Unidentified ship, you have your weapons trained on us. Desist at once,” ordered Captain Weir.
“Not just yet, Captain Weir,” came the voice. “We have some demands for you first. By the way, we’re blocking your distress signal so we can talk, just the two of us.”
The captain looked down at the comms station, where the executive officer caught his eye, then shook his head. Weir sighed.
“I am stating for the record that your actions constitute an act of interstellar piracy, to which I object in the strongest possible terms.” The captain tried to keep the note of defeat out of his voice.
“Your objection is noted, Captain Weir,” said the voice over the intercom pleasantly. “There is of course the fact that your ship has not logged your current voyage with any interstellar registry, and the question of why a luxury space liner is off any established flight path, has no passengers, and appears to be hiding in the orbit of an obscure planet, but we’ll simply brush past those things in the interests of doing business, shall we?”
Captain Weir gave a signal to the comms officer, who temporarily muted the channel. “Who the hell is this guy and how does he know these things?” he gritted.
His executive officer looked at him helplessly.
Signaling to unmute the channel, the captain said tersely, “State your demands.”
“Thank you, Captain. Our demands are simple: you and your crew must abandon ship. Well, I suppose that’s one demand, really.”
