“Send them in.” Nathan got up and went back behind his desk, Jessica rising to stand beside him as their guests entered the room.
Jalea entered, looking more poised and confident than she had since he last spoke with her. Marak was close behind, the difference in him being that he was a little more unkempt after several hours working on damaged engineering systems. Nathan noticed Marak’s appearance and chose to use it as his opening.
“Looks like you’ve been hard at work, Marak. How is it going in Engineering?”
Jalea translated Nathan’s words to Marak. Nathan wondered if Marak really didn’t speak English, or if they were just keeping up a front. If they were, then they obviously were not ready to reveal that fact just yet, so Nathan would have to cautiously play along.
“Marak says that everything is going well. And that your chief engineer is a very clever man.”
“Yes he is. Please, have a seat?” Nathan waited for his guests to sit down before taking his seat. Jessica remained standing, leaning slightly against the counter behind her.
“What may we do for you, Captain?” Jalea was again speaking far better English than before, apparently feeling that the charade was no longer required. And her sudden improvement did not go unnoticed by Jessica.
“Your English has improved, Jalea,” Nathan commented. He wanted her to know that her sudden improvement had not gone unnoticed.
“It is all coming back to me now,” she lied, a polite smile on her face. Nathan had a feeling that she was probably very good at deception, especially with her hypnotic eyes. Nathan wondered if she had been chosen for this assignment specifically because of her unique attributes. He wondered if she had abruptly changed her personality after realizing that playing the beautiful, demure widow with broken English wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Yet in this role, she was just as convincing, if not more so.
“I’m sure it is.” Nathan thought for a moment, unsure of what to say next. He could dance around the issue, as Jessica had suggested, or he could come clean and lay his cards out on the table. Keeping in his usual character, he chose the latter.
“Look, I’m not going to waste your time dancing around the table here. The fact is, we are a long way from home, and our ship is in need of repair. We need a place to hide out for a while. A safe port, if you will, where we can make repairs, and maybe pickup some supplies as well. Once that’s done, we plan on returning to Earth as quickly as possible. So my question is, what do you require from us in exchange?”
Jalea was still translating Nathan’s question to Marak as Nathan finished. He looked over to Jessica, who was glaring at him, obviously not happy with his straight-forward negotiating tactics. Jalea finished her discussion with Marak and then returned her attention to Nathan.
“Marak only wishes to repay his life debt to you, Captain,” she stated coldly. “He will see to it that you receive all the help that you need in order to get you started on your journey.”
Nathan stared at Jalea, unsure if he could believe her. It had been a precisely worded response, which made him suspicious. “That’s all?”
“Yes.”
Nathan wasn’t sure if they were telling the truth, or were the universe’s greatest liars. But he wasn’t going to give them the chance to take advantage of him.
“Look, Jalea. No disrespect intended, but I find it hard to believe that it’s that simple. I mean, by your own words, you people are fighting a war. And from what I hear, you’re losing. And all you want is to repay a life debt?”
“I understand your reluctance to believe us, Captain. You do not understand us. So I would not expect you to take our word so easily. You would be foolish to do otherwise.”
“Then you won’t be insulted if I don’t fully trust you right now?”
“Like I said, you would be foolish to do otherwise.” Jalea could tell that Nathan was having a difficult time believing her, and decided to offer more of an explanation. “Captain, your ship saved us not once, but twice. First, you appeared as if by magic, to stand as a shield between us and our enemy. Then, again as if by magic, you carried us all away to the safety of this asteroid field. In truth, you saved us not once, but twice. So indeed we owe you much. Probably much more than we can ever repay.”
Nathan looked them both over before deciding that he had little choice but to take them at their word for now. And he had no doubt that Jessica would keep a close eye on them while they were on board. “Very well,” he stated as he rose. “On behalf of the Aurora and her crew, I thank you for your help.”
“Just as we thank you for yours.” Marak spoke a few words to Jalea as he rose. “Marak wonders if he might return to continue his work with your chief engineer?”
“Yes, of course. Jessica will accompany you.”
Jessica took the cue from Nathan and led Marak out of the room, leaving Nathan alone with Jalea.
“Captain,” Jalea spoke. “I offer you another bit of information that might ease your concerns?”
“Please do.”
“What you said before is true. We are losing our war with the Takarans. In fact, had they defeated us this day, it is likely that the few remaining ‘Karuzari’, or ‘rebels’ as you call them, would’ve disbanded forever, and the revolution would be over. So you have done far more than saving our lives this day. You may have also saved our cause.” Jalea bowed her head slightly, then brought her eyes back up to his, their fierce determination showing brightly. “It is for this that Marak feels indebted.”
“Thank you for sharing that with me.” Nathan looked at her intently. “Is there anything else?”
“You should understand, Captain, that a life debt is a very serious thing to the Karuzari. And Marak would gladly sacrifice his own life to honor that debt.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Nathan stated in a tone that indicated he had nothing further to say on the matter.
Jalea bowed her head again, took a step backward, then turned and strode confidently out of the room, leaving Nathan alone.
“Captain to the bridge!” the comm officer’s voice called over the comm. Nathan immediately rose and followed Jalea out of the room.
“What’s up?” he asked as he entered the bridge.
“We’ve got a contact, Captain,” Cameron reported. “It just left the Takaran outpost on one of the gas giant’s moons. It’s headed toward the asteroid field.”
“Did you power down the reactors?”
“The moment they appeared,” she assured him.
“Are they headed for us?”
“Not yet. They appear to be headed to a different part of the field.”
“Let me know if they change course,” Nathan ordered before turning to Abigail. “How much of a charge did we get?”
“Eighty-seven percent.”
“So we can jump what, maybe eight and a half light years?”
“I would try to keep it under eight, if possible.”
Marak and Jessica entered the bridge, having turned back when Jessica heard of the contact on their way to engineering. Marak immediately began talking excitedly with Jalea in their language.
“Comm, find out how much longer until we get maneuvering and propulsion back online.”
“Captain?” Jalea interrupted. “Marak has told our ships to monitor all transmissions from the Takaran ship. We will provide translations of any communications that we intercept.”
“Thank you.”
“Captain,” the comm officer called out. “Engineering reports maneuvering is restarting now, should be online in a few minutes. Main propulsion will take longer.”
“So we can crawl out, but we can’t run.”
“We do have rail guns back up. At least we’ll be able to fight back,” Cameron suggested, hoping to alleviate some of Nathan’s frustration.
“I do not believe they will find us,” Jalea assured him. “The rocks are an excellent place to hide.”
“She’s right sir,” Ensign Yosef chimed in. “With all the metal in these asteroids, and the distortions and echoes caused by their gravitational fields, they’d have to be able to actually see us in order to find us. I’m having a hard time tracking them, and our sensors are pointed away from the field.”