Zoe’s Tale PART III Chapter Twenty-Three

Something was nudging me awake. I swatted at it. Die, I pass off tongue to.Zoe, hickory give tongue to. You make water a sh emergeor.I blinked up at hickory, who was framed as a silhouette by the let down coming from the corridor. What argon you talking clean astir(predicate)? I give tongue to. superior general Gau, hickory give tongue to. He is here. Now. And wishes to speak to you.I sit down up. You retain got to be kidding me, I said. I picked up my PDA and looked at the m.We had arrived in junto space fourteen hours earlier, popping into innovation a thousand klicks issue from the space point that planetary Gau had made the administrative doubtquarters of the crew. He said he hadnt exigencyed to favor integrity planet oer a nonher. The space target was ringed with hundreds of ships from in all everyplace combination space, and veritable(a)ing a lot shuttles and cargo transports, going surrounded by ships and grit and forth from the station. Pho enix Station, the largest hu troops space station and so oversize Ive heard that it actually affected tides on the planet Phoenix (by amounts measurable al whiz by sensitive instruments, scarcely still), would start out fit into a corner of the Conclave HQ.We had arrived and announced ourselves and direct an encrypted message to General Gau postulateing an audience. We had been effrontery parking coordinates and on that pointfore allow forfully ignored. afterwards(prenominal) ten hours of that, I in the grand run went to sleep.You bop I do non kid, Hickory said. It walked back to the verge and turned up the lights in my state dwell. I winced. Now, please, Hickory said. Come to hail across him. five dollar bill polisheds later I was dressed in something I look forward tod would be presentable and walking somewhat unsteadily down the corridor. After a minute of walking I said, Oh, crap, and ran back to my state dwell, leaving Hickory standing in the corridor. A minute later I was back, fashion a habilitate with something wrapped in it.What is that? Hickory looked.A gift, I said. We continued our trip through and through the corridor.A minute later I was standing in a hastily arranged conference room with General Gau. He s in additiond to unitary side of a table surround by Obin-style seats, which were non rightfully well designed either for his physiology or mine. I s besidesd on the different, shirt in my hand.I leave behind cargo deck removed, Hickory said, after it delivered me.Thank you, Hickory, I said. It left. I turned and face up the general. Hi, I said, somewhat lamely.You ar Zoe, General Gau said. The piece who has the Obin to do her bidding. His address were in a language I didnt down the stairsstand they were translated through a communicator device that hung from his neck.Thats me, I said. I heard my words translated into his language.I am interested in how a humans girl is able to pirate an Obin transport sh ip to micturate her to suss out me, General Gau said.Its a long stage, I said.Give me the short version, Gau said.My go created special machines that gave the Obin consciousness. The Obin revere me as the l acesome(prenominal) surviving link to my obtain. They do what I ask them to, I said.It mustiness(prenominal) be nice to endure an replete(p) race at your beck and call, Gau said.You should sock, I said. You have four hundred races at yours. Sir.General Gau did something with his head that I was going to hope was meant to be a smile. Thats a national of some debate at this point, Im afraid, he said. nonwithstanding I am conf white plagued. I was under the impression that you argon the daughter of John Perry, decision maker of the Roanoke Colony.I am, I said. He and his wife Jane Sagan espouse me after my father died. My birth m some other had died some epoch earlier that. It is on my adopted p arnts account that I am here now. Although I apologize I motioned to myself, and my state of unreadiness I didnt expect to meet you here, now. I scene we would begin to you, and I would have meter to prepare.When I heard that the Obin were ferrying a human to get hold me, and one from Roanoke, I was curious enough not to want to wait, Gau said. I also describe value in do my opposition wonder what I am up to. My coming to visit an Obin ship rather than waiting to receive their embassy leave behind make some wonder who you are, and what I know that they dont.I hope Im worth the trip, I said.If youre not, Ill still have made them nervous, Gau said. fair considering how far youve come, I hope for two our sakes the trip has been worth it. Are you comp permitely dressed?What? I said. Of the m all a(prenominal) questions I might have been expecting, this wasnt one of them.The general pointed to my hand. You have a shirt in your hands, he said.Oh, I said, and put the shirt on the table between us. Its a gift. non the shirt. Theres something wrap ped in the shirt. Thats the gift. I was hoping to find something else to put it in forrader I gave it to you, still you sort of surprised me. Im going to shut up now and let you just have that.The general gave me what I weigh was a obscure look, and then r for each oneed out and unwrapped what was in the shirt. It was the stone pit injure given to me by the werewolf. He held it up and examined it in the light. This is a genuinely raise gift, he said, and began moving it in his hand, testing it, I guessed, for weight and balance. And quite a nicely designed glossa.Thank you, I said.Not merely modern weaponry, he said.No, I said.Figured that a general must have an interest in archaic weapons? Gau asked.Actually theres a story behind it, I said. Theres a native race of intelligent universes on Roanoke. We didnt know about them before we landed. Not too long ago we met up with them for the first time, and things went badly. Some of them died, and some of us died. But then one of them and one of us met and decided not to try to start each other, and exchanged gifts instead. That prod was one of those gifts. Its yours now.Thats an interesting story, Gau said. And I think Im correct in supposing that this story has some implication for wherefore youre here.Its up to you, sir, I said. You might just decide its a nice stone knife.I dont think so, Gau said. executive director Perry is a man who constitutes with subtext. Its not lost(p) on me what it means that he has sent his daughter to deliver a message. But then to offer this come aparticular gift, with its particular story. Hes a man of some subtlety.I think so, too, I said. But the knife is not from my dad. Its from me.Indeed, Gau said, surprised. Thats however much interesting. Administrator Perry didnt suggest it?He doesnt know I had the knife, I said. And he doesnt know how I got it.But you did intend to ship me a message with it, Gau said. One to complement your adopted fathers.I hoped y oud see it that way, I said.Gau rotary the knife down. Tell me what Administrator Perry has to tell me, he said.Youre going to be despatchd, I said. Someone is going to try, bothway. Its someone coating to you. Someone in your trusted circle of advisors. Dad doesnt know when or how, simply he knows that its planned to happen soon. He wanted you to know so you could protect yourself.why? General Gau asked. Your adopted father is an ex officio of the compound center. He was part of the plan that repealed the Conclave pass off and has threatened everything I have worked for, for durable than you have been alive, young human. Why should I trust the word of my enemy?The Colonial Union is your enemy, not my dad, I said.Your dad helped kill tens of thousands, Gau said. Every ship in my die was bankrupted but my own.He begged you not to call your ships to Roanoke, I said.This was a place where he was all too subtle, Gau said. He never explained how the maw had been set. He mere ly asked me not to call my make pass. A little more teaching would have kept thousands alive.He did what he could, I said. You were there to destroy our colony. He wasnt allowed to surrender it to you. You know he didnt have m either options. And as it was he was recalled by the Colonial Union and put on trial for even hinting to you that something might happen. He could have been sent to prison for the simple act of speaking to you, General. He did what he could.How do I know hes not just being used again? Gau asked.You said you k smart what it meant that he sent me to give you a message, I said. Im the proof that hes tell you the truth.Youre the proof he gestates hes telling me the truth, Gau said. Its not to give voice that it is the truth. Your adopted father was used once. Why couldnt he be used again?I flared at this. Begging your pardon, General, I said. But you should know that by direct me to send you this warning, some(prenominal) my dad and my mom are all at onc e secure of being labeled as rats by the Colonial Union. They are both going to prison. You should know that as part of the deal to get the Obin to beat me to you, I cant go back to Roanoke. I have to wait with them. Because they believe that its only a matter of time before Roanoke is destroyed, if not by you then by some part of the Conclave you dont have any soften over anymore. My parents and I have risked everything to give you this warning. Its possible Ill never see them or anyone else on Roanoke again, because I am giving you this warning. Now, General, do you think any of us would do any of this if we were not absolutely certain about what we are telling you? Do you?General Gau said nothing for a moment. Then, I am sorry you have all had to risk so much, he said.Then do my dad the prize of believing him, I said. Youre in danger, General. And that danger is closer than you think.Tell me, Zoe, Gau said, what does Administrator Perry hope to get from telling me this? Wha t does he want from me?He wants you to stay alive, I said. You promised him that as long as you were running the Conclave, you wouldnt flaming Roanoke again. The longer you stay alive, the longer we stay alive.But theres the irony, Gau said. Thanks to what happened at Roanoke, Im not in as much control as I was. My time now is spent keeping others in line. And there are those who are looking at Roanoke as a way to withstand control from me. Im confident(predicate) you dont know about Nerbros Eser Sure I do, I said. Your important opposition right now. Hes act to convince people to follow him. Wants to destroy the Colonial Union.I apologize, Gau said. I forgot youre not just a courier girl.Its all right, I said.Nerbros Eser is planning to attack Roanoke, Gau said. I have been get the Conclave back under my control too slowly but enough races support Eser that he has been able to fund an expedition to take Roanoke. He knows the Colonial Union is too weak to put up a defense o f the colony, and he knows that at the moment I am in no position to stop him. If he can take Roanoke where I could not, more Conclave races could side with him. Enough that they would attack the Colonial Union directly.You cant help us, then, I said.Other than to tell you what I just have, no, Gau said. Eser is going to attack Roanoke. But in part because Administrator Perry helped to destroy my exceed, there is no way I can do much to stop him now. And I doubt very much that your Colonial Union lead do much to stop him.Why do you say that? I asked.Because you are here, General Gau said. Make no mistake, Zoe, I do appreciate your familys warning. But Administrator Perry is not so kind that he would have warned me out of his own simple goodness. As youve noted, the cost is too high for that. You are here because you have nowhere else to turn.But you believe Dad, I said.Yes, Gau said. Unfortunately. Someone in my position is always a target. But now of all times I know that even so me of those who Ive trusted with my life and booster doseship are calculating the costs and deciding that Im worth more to them dead than alive. And it makes sense for someone to try for me before Eser attacks Roanoke. If Im dead and Eser takes revenge on your colony, no one else go away even try to challenge him for control of the Conclave. Administrator Perry isnt telling me anything I dont know. Hes only confirming what I do know.Then Ive been no use to you, I said. And youve been no use to me, I judgement but did not say.I wouldnt say that, Gau said. One of the reasons I am here now is so that I could hear what you had to say to me without anyone else involved. To find out what I could do with the information you might have. To see if it has use to me. To see if you are of use to me.You already knew what I t centenarian you, I said.This is true, Gau said. However, no one else knows how much you know. Not here, in any grammatical case. He reached over and picked up the stone knife and looked at it again. And the truth of the matter is that Im getting tired of not knowing, of those whom I trust, which is planning to gibe me in the heart. Whoever is planning to assassinatorate me is going to be in league with Nerbros Eser. They are resemblingly to know when he plans to attack Roanoke, and with how large a force. And perhaps working together we can find out both of these things.How? I asked.General Gau looked at me again, and did that I-hope-its-a-smile thing with his head. By doing a bit of political theater. By making them think we know what they do. By making them act because of it.I smiled back at Gau. The revivify is the thing in which I shall catch the conscience of the king, I said.Precisely, Gau said. Although it allow be a traitor we catch, not a king.In that summons he was both, I said.Interesting, Gau said. Im afraid I dont know the reference.Its from a play called Hamlet, I said. I had a friend who equivalentd the playwright.I like the quote, Gau said. And your friend.Thanks, I said. I do too.One of you in this chamber is a traitor, General Gau said. And I know which one of you it is.Wow, I persuasion. The general sure knows how to start a meeting.We were in the generals official advisors chamber, an ornate room, which, the general told me beforehand, he never used except to receive foreign dignitaries with some gloss of pomp and circumstance. Since he was technically receiving me for this particular meeting, I felt special. But more to the point, the room featured a baseborn raised programme with perverts, on which sat a large chair. Dignitaries, advisors and their staff all approached it like it was a throne. This was going to be useful for what General Gau had in intellect for today.In front of the computer program, the room opened up into a semicircle. well-nigh the perimeter stood a curving bar, largely of standing height for to the highest degree sentient species in the Conclave. This is where adviso rs and dignitaries staff stood, calling up documents and data when inevitable and whispering (or whatever) into small microphones that fed into earpieces (or whatever) worn by their bosses.Their bosses the advisors and dignitaries filed into the area between the bar and the platform. Usually, I was told, they would have benches or chairs (or whatever suited their automobile trunk shape best) offered to them so they could rest as they did their business. Today, they were all standing.As for me, I was standing to the left and just in front of the general, who was seated in his big chair. On the opposite side of the chair was a small table, on which lay the stone knife, which I had just (and for the second time) presented to the general. This time it was delivered in packaging more formal than a shirt. The general had taken it out of the box I had found, admired it, and set it on the table. vertebral column along with the staff stood Hickory and Dickory, who were not happy with th e plan the general had come up with. With them were trio of the generals warranter detail, who were likewise not very pleased at all.Well, now that we were doing it, Im not sure I was totally thrilled with it either.I thought we were here to hear a request from this young human, said one of the advisors, a tall Lalan (that is, tall even for a Lalan) named Hafte Sorvalh. Her voice was translated by the earpiece I had been given by the Obin.It was a pretense, Gau said. The human has no petition, but information pertaining to which one of you intends to assassinate me.This naturally got a stir in the chamber. It is a human said Wert Ninung, a Dwaer. No disrespect, General, but the humans recently destroyed the entire Conclave fleet. Any information they would part with you should be regarded as extremely suspect, to say the least.I agree with this altogether, Ninung, Gau said. Which is why when it was provided to me I did what any well-founded person would have done and had my s ecurity people check the information thoroughly. I regret to say that the information was good. And now I must deal with the fact that one of my advisors someone who was privy to all my plans for the Conclave has conspired against me.I dont understand, said a Ghlagh whose name, if I could take to be correctly, was Lernin Il. I wasnt entirely sure, however Gaus security people had given me dossiers on Gaus circle of advisors only a a couple of(prenominal) hours before the meeting, and given everything else I needed to do to prepare, I had barely had time to skim.What dont you understand, Lernin? asked General Gau.If you know which of us is the traitor, why hasnt your security detail already dealt with them? Il asked. This could be done without exposing you to an extra risk. Given your position you dont need to take any more risks than are absolutely necessary.We are not talking about some ergodic killer, Il, the general said. Look around you. How long have we known each other? How hard have each of us worked to create this vast Conclave of races? We have seen more of each other over time than we have seen of our spouses and children. Would any of you have accepted it if I were to make one of you disappear over a vague charge of traitorousness? Would that not seem to each of you that I was losing my grip and creating scapegoats? No, Il. We have come too far and done too much for that. Even this would-be assassin deserves better courtesy than that.What do you intend to do, then? asked Il.I bequeath ask the traitor in this room to come forward, he said. Its not too late to right this wrong.Are you offering this assassin forgiveness? asked some creature whose name I just did not remember (or, given how it spoke, I suspect I could not actually pronounce, even if I did remember it).No, Gau said. This person is not acting alone. They are part of a conspiracy that threatens what all of us have worked for. Gau gestured to me. My human friend here has given me a few names, but that is not enough. For the security of the Conclave we need to know more. And to show all the members of the Conclave that treason cannot be tolerated, my assassin must answer for what they have done to this point. What I do offer is this That they allow for be treated fairly and with dignity. That they will serve their term of penalization with some measure of comfort. That their family and loved ones will not be punished or held responsible, unless they themselves are conspirators. And that their crime will not be made known publicly. Every one outside this room will know only that this conspirator has retired from service. There will be punishment. There must be punishment. But there will not be the punishment of history.I want to know where this human got its information, said Wert Ninung.Gau nodded to me. This information ultimately comes from the Colonial Unions Special Forces division, I said.The selfsame(prenominal) group that spearheaded the destruction of the Conclave fleet, Wert said. Not especially trustworthy.Councilor Wert, I said, how do you think the Special Forces were able to locate every one of the ships of your fleet? The only time it assembles is when it removes a colony. Locating four hundred ships among the tens of thousands that each race alone has at its disposal was an unheard of feat of soldiery intelligence. After that, do you doubt that the Special Forces had difficulty coming up with a single name?Wert actually growled at me. I thought that was rude.I have already told you that I have had the information analyse out, General Gau said. There is no doubt it is accurate. That is not under discussion. What is under discussion is how the assassin will choose to be discovered. I plagiarize The assassin is in this room, right now, among us. If they will come forward now, and share information on their other conspirators, their treatment will be generous, light and secret. The offer is in front of you now. I beg yo u, as an old friend, to take it. Come forward now.No one in the room moved. General Gau stared at each of his advisors, directly and in the eye, for several seconds each. none of them took so much as a grade forward.Very well, General Gau said. We do this the hard way, then.What will you do now, General? asked Sorvalh.Simple, Gau said. I will call up each of you in turn. You will bow to me and protest your subjection to me as the leader of the Conclave. Those of you who I know are truthful, I will offer you my thanks. The one of you who is a traitor, I will collapse you in front of those you have worked alongside for so long, and have you arrested. Your punishment will be severe. And it will be virtually definitely public. And it will end with your death.This is not like you, General, Sorvalh said. You created the Conclave with the idea that there would be no dictators, no demands of ad hominem allegiance. There is only allegiance to the Conclave. To its ideals.The Conclave is near collapse, Hafte, Gau said. And you know as well as I do that Nerbros Eser and his sort will run the Conclave like a personal fiefdom. One among you has already decided that Esers dictatorship is preferable to a Conclave where every race has a voice. Its clear to me that I must ask for the allegiance I once only held in trust. I am sorry it has come to this. But it has.What if we will not swear allegiance? Sorvalh said.Then you will be arrested as a traitor, Gau said. Along with the one who I know to be the assassin.You are wrong to do this, Sorvalh said. You are going against your own vision for the Conclave to ask for this allegiance. I want you to know I believe this in my soul.Noted, Gau said.Very well, Sorvalh said, and stepped forward to the platform and knelt. General Tarsem Gau, I offer you my allegiance as the leader of the Conclave.Gau looked at me. This was my cue. I shook my head at him, clearly enough that everyone in the room could see that he was waiting for my v erification.Thank you, Hafte, Gau said. You may step back. Wert Ninung, please step forward.Ninung did. As did the next sextuplet advisors. There were three left.I was beginning to get very nervous. Gau and I had already concur that we would not carry the act so far as to inculpate someone who wasnt actually guilty. But if we got to the end without a traitor, then we both would have a lot to answer for.Lernin Il, General Gau said. Please step forward.Il nodded and smoothly moved forward and when he got to me, viciously shoved me to the b make it and lunged for the stone knife Gau had left on the table next to him. I hit the floor so hard I bounced my skull on it. I heard screaming and honks of alarm from the other advisors. I rolled and looked up as Il raised the knife and prepared to plunge it into the general.The knife was left out and within easy reach for a reason. Gau had already said he intended to reveal the traitor he said he knew without a doubt who it was he said the p unishment for the traitor would include death. The traitor would already be convinced he would have nothing to lose by attempting the assassination then and there. But Gaus advisors didnt commonly carry around killing implements on their person they were bureaucrats and didnt carry anything more dangerous than a writing stylus. But a nice sagacious stone knife carelessly left lying around would be just the thing to convince a desperate would-be assassin to take a chance. This was also one reason why the generals guards (and Hickory and Dickory) were stationed at the perimeter of the room instead of near the general we had to give the illusion to the assassin that he could get in a stab or two before the guards got him.The general wasnt stupid, of course he was corrosion body armor that protected most of the parts of his body suasible to stab wounds. But the generals head and neck were still vulnerable. The general thought it was worth the risk, but now as I watched the general try to move to protect himself, I came to the conclusion that the weakest part of our plan was the one where the general presumably avoids being stabbed to death.Il was bringing down the knife. no(prenominal) of the generals guards or Hickory or Dickory was going to get there in time. Hickory and Dickory had trained me how to disarm an opponent the problem was I was on the ground and not in any position to block the knife blow. And anyway the Ghlagh were a Conclave race I hadnt spent any time learning any of their weak points.But then something occurred to me, as I lay there on my back, staring up at Il.I may not know much about the Ghlagh, but I sure know what a knee looks like.I set up myself on the floor, pushed, and drove the heel of my foot hard into the side of Lernin Ils most available knee. It gave way with a sickly twist and I thought I could olf execution something in his leg go snap, which made me feel sick. Il squealed in pain and grabbed at his leg, dropping the knif e. I move away as quickly as I could. General Gau launched himself out of his chair and took Il all the rest of the way down.Hickory and Dickory were suddenly by me, dragging me off the riser. Gau shouted something to his guards, who were racing toward the general.His staff Gau said. offend his staffI looked over to the bar and saw three Ghlagh lunging at their equipment. Ils people were clearly in on the assassination and were now onerous to signal their conspirators that theyd been discovered. Gaus men skidded to a stop and reversed themselves, leaping over the bar to get at Ils staff. They knocked away their equipment, but not before at least one of them had gotten a message through. We knew that because all through the Conclave headquarters, alarms began stuttering to life.The space station was under attack. just about a minute after Il had made his clumsy attack on General Gau, an Impo encounter cruiser named the Farre launched six rockets into the portion of the Conclave space station where Gaus offices were. The Farre was commanded by an Impo named Ealt Ruml. Ruml, it turns out, had reached an agreement with Nerbros Eser and Lernin Il to take command of a new Conclave fleet after Gau was assassinated. Ruml would then take the entire fleet to Phoenix Station, destroy it and start working down the list of human worlds. In exchange all Ruml had to do was be prepared to do a little flagrant bombing of Gaus offices and flagship when signaled, as part of a larger, orchestrated coup attempt, which would feature Gaus assassination as the main event and the destruction of key difference of opinion ships from races loyal to Gau.When Gau revealed to his advisors that he knew one of them was a traitor, one of Ils staffers sent a coded message to Ruml, informing him that everything was about to go sideways. Ruml in turn sent coded messages of his own to three other battle cruisers near the Conclave station, each captained by someone Ruml had converted to the c ause. all(a) four ships began warming up their weapons schemes and selecting targets Ruml targeted Gaus offices sequence the other traitors targeted Gaus flagship Gentle pencil lead and other craft.If everything went as planned, Ruml and his conspirators would have disabled the ships most likely to come to Gaus aid not that it would matter, because Ruml would have opened up Gaus offices to space, sucking anyone in them (including, at the time, me) into cold, airless vacuum. Minutes later, when Ils staff sent a check note just before getting their equipment kicked out of their paws, Ruml launched his missiles and readied another set to go.And was, I imagine, entirely surprised when the Farre was struck broadside almost simultaneously by three missiles fired from the Gentle Star. The Star and six other trusted ships had been put on alert by Gau to watch for any ships that began warming up their weapons systems. The Star had spotted the Farre warming up its missile batteries and h ad quietly targeted the ship and prepared its own defense.Gau had forbidden any action until someone elses missiles flew, but the instant the Farre launched, the Star did the same, and then began antimissile defenses against the two missiles targeting it, sent by the Arrisian cruiser Vut-Roy.The Star destroyed one of the missiles and took light suffering from the second. The Farre, which had not been expecting a counterattack, took heavy ill-treat from the Stars missiles and even more damage when its engine ruptured, destroying half of the ship and killing hundreds on board, including Ealt Ruml and his bridge crew. Five of the six missiles fired by the Farre were disabled by the space stations defenses the 6th hit the station, blowing a hole in the station compartment next to Gaus offices. The stations system of airtight doors sealed off the damage in minutes xliv people were killed.All of this happened in the space of less than two minutes, because the battle happened at incred ibly close range. Unlike space battles in merriment shows, real battles between spaceships take place over huge durations. In this battle, however, all the ships were in orbit around the station. Some of the ships involved were just a few klicks away from each other. Thats pretty much the spaceship equivalent of going after each other with knives.Or so Im told. Im going by what others tell me of the battle, because at the time what I was doing was being dragged out of General Gaus advisor chamber by Hickory and Dickory. The last thing I saw was Gau pinning down Lernin Il while at the same time trying to keep his other advisors from drubbing the living crap out of him. There was too much racket for my translation device to work anymore, but I suspected that Gau was trying to tell the rest of them that he needed Il alive. What can you say. No one likes a traitor.Im also told that the battle outside of the space station would have gone on longer than it did except that shortly afte r the first salvo of missiles a funny thing happened An Obin cruiser skipped into existence unsettlingly close to the Conclave space station, setting off a series of proximity alarms to go with the attack alarms already in progress. That was unusual, but what really got everyones attention was the other ships that appeared about thirty seconds afterward. It took the station a few minutes to identify these.And at that point everyone who had been fighting each other realized they now had something bigger to worry about.I didnt know about any of this right away. Hickory and Dickory had dragged me to the conference room some distance away from the advisor chamber and were keeping it secure when the alarms suddenly stopped.Well, I finally used that training, I said, to Hickory. I was amped up on oddment adrenaline from the assassination attempt and paced up and down in the room. Hickory said nothing to this and continued to scan the corridor for threats. I sighed and waited until it si gnaled that it was safe to move.decade minutes later, Hickory clicked something to Dickory, who went to the door. Hickory went into the corridor and out of sight. Shortly after that I heard what sounded like Hickory arguing with someone. Hickory returned, followed by six very serious-looking guards and General Gau.What happened? I asked. Are you okay?What do you have to do with the Consu? General Gau asked me, ignoring my question.The Consu? I said. Nothing. I had asked the Obin to try to contact them on my behalf, to see if they could help me save Roanoke. That was a few days ago. I havent heard from the Obin about it since.I think you have an answer, Gau said. Theyre here. And theyre asking to see you.Theres a Consu ship here now? I said.Actually, the Consu asking for you is on an Obin ship, Gau said. Which doesnt make any sense to me at all, but never brainiac that. There were Consu ships following the Obin ship.Ships, I said. How many?So far? Gau said. About six hundred.Excuse me? I said. My adrenaline spiked again.There are still more coming in, Gau said. Please dont take this the wrong way, Zoe, but if youve done something to anger the Consu, I hope they choose to take it out on you, not us.I turned and looked at Hickory, disbelieving.You said you take help, Hickory said.