Race Rivalry (Gate Ghosts Book 3) by S. H. Jucha

Author:S. H. Jucha [Jucha, S. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hannon Books, Inc.
Published: 2022-01-10T20:00:00+00:00

19: Council’s Surprise

“What have you done to endanger our worlds?” Fillery shouted, standing and sweeping an accusing finger across the guests.

Fillery was stunned by the reception to her outburst. Mask-helmets retracted, and every human laughed harshly at her.

Claudia was tempted to reprimand Fillery, but the laughter nicely undermined the acerbic councilor.

When the laughter died down, David asked, “Would someone care to enlighten us?”

“You can thank three chairpersons for your possible trouble,” Johann said. “Dyehouse, Denham, and Allbers decided to investigate an unexplored wormhole near the Daimler system.”

“How could they do that?” Ramiro inquired. “No Axis-ship captain would take a hiatus from his lucrative routes to go exploring.”

Johann smiled conspiratorially at the councilors.

James Soisson was the first to leap to an answer, but he doubted it could be correct. “They wouldn’t!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, but they would, and they did,” Stacey replied.

“Someone, educate me,” Ramiro requested.

“The chairpersons sought out the sisters on Beta One to take them exploring, right?” James replied. He eyed the ex-officers and received their acknowledgment.

“You’ll have to forgive some of these corporate types,” Ceda said. “They have difficulty with ethical boundaries.”

“Could we have more details about the aliens, please?” Claudia asked. Suddenly, the lead councilor mantle felt heavier than she’d anticipated.

Miranda stepped forward, activated her holo-vid, and held out her palm. “These are engineering recreations from descriptions of what was seen.”

“No recorded imagery?” Ricardo queried.

“The sisters shut down the slates of the chairpersons while they were aboard the Dominance,” Miranda replied.

“Then how did you learn of these alien ships?” James asked.

Johann laughed. “You won’t believe this, Councilor, but Delhart had a visitor,” he replied. “Chairperson Dyehouse arrived aboard an Axis-ship under an assumed ID. She left her slate on Kilmer and borrowed her assistant’s device.”

“Why?” Fillery asked.

<I revise my estimate of this one’s intelligence,> Bethley sent.

Johann stared at Fillery until the woman became flustered and fidgeted.

Fillery had felt empowered by her election, but she was quickly learning she was woefully underinformed.

“Councilor Partus,” Stacey said, taking pity on Fillery. “You’ve just heard us state that the chairpersons entered into some sort of agreement with the Beta One sisters. This had to be a plan to mutually dominate humans in this area of space. Didn’t you understand that?”

“That’s your accusation,” Fillery accused, trying to regain control of the conversation.

Stacey held up her hand to dismiss Fillery’s outburst.

“To continue,” Johann said, while Fillery fumed. “Lisa Dyehouse was the source of the information.”

“We believe the presence of alien ships on the other end of a Kilmer wormhole scared the chairpersons,” Escher explained.

“So, the chairpersons had dreams of domination, saw the alien ships, and abandoned their plans. Then Lisa came running to the SADEs. Is that about right?” David asked.

“Yes,” Johann replied.

“Do you have any reason not to believe Dyehouse?” Claudia inquired.

Gat’r chuckled. “Every reason you could imagine, Councilor Hoffing,” he replied. “However, there is some evidence to suggest that she’s telling the truth.”

“Such as?” Claudia requested.

“For one, there haven’t been any more contacts between the chairpersons and the Beta One sisters,” Gat’r replied.

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