UNCONSCIONABLE BREACH

1563 4D

Infuriated, Frintar called Mentrius from her cubbyhole post not far from the Domehall the aliens were using. “Where’s that boss of yours? His people broke in at the base of the Complex and they killed a squad we had down there. Are you responsible for this?” The hand commscreen shook as she stared into it.

Mentrius looked pained. “I would do no such thing. My orders you already have in hand, and I’ve followed them exactly. If I were going to deviate—“

“No, I know.” He told the truth. She’d trusted him and he’d never broken his word. It was damn Arlen again. She’d had to put more people into watching Arlen‘s private forces than she could put at the spaceport; in fact, the spaceport was almost totally exposed. If the rebels hadn’t been completely bottled up in the Complex, she’d never have risked this deployment.

But thanks partly to Arlen, they were about to win back the Complex. He’d seized the air-control system, and the rebels were dropping from suffocation and heat. Frintar could count a few soldiers’ lives more lightly against such a success. And she knew Arlen knew that; he had no doubt relied on it.

“Anything else?” Mentrius had been waiting.

“I’d like to contact Arlen on other matters, but I can’t reach him. Could you help me reach him?”

Mentrius said, “He contacts me. I’ve left messages for him in several places, but he hasn’t responded.” Mentrius‘s voice held steady, but its conspicuous lack of tone said to Frintar: I’m worried about him.

“All right. I’ll leave my message with you and with his offices. Please have him contact me as soon as possible. That’s all I need for now. Thank you.”

“I’ll let him know as soon as I can,” Mentrius said. He broke the connection.

Now for the aliens. Frintar called an aide to her post and said, “What’s going on now? They’ve only got a few hours left in there.”

The aide, an older man in gray named Nazrino, said, “It’s been total silence. Ever since the wailing three hours ago, we haven’t heard a thing. The last detachment went inside two hours back.”

“The last detachment? They were supposed to have a group out here at all times.”

“They insisted. What were we going to do, start another battle? They said the Complex was already won. You weren’t available to kick the problem higher, so we let them go in. As far as we know, they’re all inside.”

“You did all right. But we’ll have to find out why they reneged on the agreement.”

The hand comm panel spoke. “Reshlind here. Someone’s coming out. It’s one of the alien soldiers, but there’s something wrong with him, I think. Maybe you’d better stop down.”

“I’ll be right there.” Frintar beckoned to two guards and made her way with her aide down to the hall’s atrium. Four soldiers stood around a single tall alien, its pale-gray chitin helm tattered and frayed, its tiled eyes showing a trace of gray against their natural indigo, its posture slumped and softened as if parodying an old and decrepit human. Its hands twitched; the long nails clacked. Frintar approached. “Greetings. May I help you? I am in authority in this area.”

The heavy head swung to face her, and the body followed suit. The alien said, its voice strained and ragged, “This is a treacherous and unconscionable breach of our global treaty with you. We are terminating relations with you and preparing to levy sanctions on all of your kind on this planet.”

“I don’t understand. What has happened to break our treaty?”

“Come with me. You may bring your aides and personal escort only.” The alien turned and walked to the side of the atrium. Two others like it, also looking frayed, joined it at the entrance to a small cubby just off the atrium.

A full-scale comm panel occupied the cubby. Four aliens stood in the cubby looking at the screen.

“Show her.” A flicker, then an evening sky darkened the screen; a small globular dot rose through the air into a softly-clouded sky. It vanished.

“That was our ship, just as things happened a few moments ago,” the alien said to Frintar, its voice thickening further. “At this critical time, when we have gathered in our most important ceremony, you have stolen our ship. We have contacted your regional oversight group and warned them so they can prepare you for what is to come.” A thin curl of hardened tissue broke free from the alien‘s head and fell to the floor of the cubby.

“We have had no such plan or intention,” Frintar said, her mind racing. Ah, that was why Arlen was missing. If not, she had to find him. “I will call all of our heads of state and work to determine what has happened,” she said. “Then we will deal with the offenders.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the alien rasped. “Everything changed the moment the ship was raised from the port. It cannot be undone.”

“Didn’t you guard the ship yourselves?” Frintar‘s question left her before she could stop it. Yes, and she was the one who had decided to thin the human ship guard down to a token force. Gullinder would not like that, not that it mattered any more. Frintar tightened the muscles in her chest, then slowly relaxed them.

The alien went on. “There is a time during our gathering when we must all be present. We gave to your government the responsibility to manage the guarding of our travels, and our ship, during this time.”

“And we warned you of the risks of doing what you have done,” Frintar said. “You chose to disregard those risks.”

“They were not relevant to this problem. We have not been harmed, not directly. It is our property, our link to our worlds, which has been compromised. You gave us no indication that your people would behave in this manner. Now we must act to recover our property. First, you will communicate with those who have taken the ship, and order them to return it. This is an ultimatum.

“The alternative to return of the ship is destruction of your environment: all the cities, the surface settlements and industries, and the biological resources you require for human life.” The alien‘s eyes clouded to a pale blue. Its voice now grated on Frintar‘s ears, as if only the higher and lower frequencies could still be clearly formed.

The creature seemed to deteriorate physically as she watched. The aliens might act out of desperation. Frintar spread her hands wide and said, “I’ll do whatever I can. How can I communicate with your ship?”

The alien said, “We have an emergency communicator. You must come with me, alone.”

Frintar looked at Nazrino, her aide, and shrugged. “Keep an ear open and stay right here.” She pointed at one of her guards. “You, get back to the comm center and relay a message to Regional Operations. Tell them the ship has been stolen, and Frintar is in alien hands.”