Dragon Squared by Ellis Timothy

Author:Ellis, Timothy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty Five

Two things happened at the same time.

Aisha popped up, and Woof appeared.

“Your father wants to see you,” she said. “And you do need to talk to him.” Then she took notice of Woof sitting down in front of me. “I’ll get Walter here for you as well. Do I tell your father yes and now?”

I must have looked bewildered.

“Yes, and now,” said Woof.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“Bud?” asked Aisha.

I waved both hands around frantically for a few seconds, then got control back.

“Yes and now. Jeez. Why would I know?”

She vanished, and I looked at Woof, who was smiling, but through a sad face.

“We just left the Imperium,” he said. “Happened about ten minutes ago. My guess is your dad just stopped talking to our leader.”

Dad strode in through the doorway, with Leanne following him. He took in Woof sitting there, and headed for the conference table. I sighed, rose, and went over there. Woof followed. Before we were all seated, Aisha appeared with a Lufafluf I’d seen in the Imperium leader’s council before, but had never formally met. He went to the seat next to Woof, and Aisha sat next to Leanne.

Walter was the last to arrive. He appeared looking at my empty desk, turned, saw who was here, and closed his mouth with the obvious question unasked. He came over, and sat in the empty chair to my right, which Woof had left there for him when selecting his.

“This is Niftling,” said Woof. “He’s been our leader since day one of the move from our old world.”

He introduced the rest of us. Only he and Dad knew each other. Day one suggested there’d been a leadership change on the day they’d decided to move, back before the Imperium had begun. From what I’d heard, some of Arthur’s people had been there then, and it was the first meeting of Jon with the panthers, who’d been helping Arthur back then behind the Keerah’s backs.

This was not something Woof had ever mentioned before. But still being leader now, suggested Niftling had plenty of backing at home. Now I thought about it, I didn’t recall Woof ever mentioning the politics of his world before.

“We just left the Imperium,” said Niftling. He looked at me. “And the first thing I have to say is I apologize for not supporting you and walking out when you did. I thought we were doing the right thing at the time, and that we owed the Imperator and Jane a debt for ensuring our survival. But things political have been steadily deteriorating over the last year. For us, anyway.”

He paused, and looked at my dad, then back to me.

“If you’ll have us, we’d like to join the League. If not, we’ll go full independent. I’ve stood down all our military forces, and they have orders to return home within the hour. Our Gatekeepers are now assigned to system defense and policing, and our crews on protectorate ships are also returning home. So are all our cadets and midshipmen, and those officers on Imperium ships, and in fighter or bomber squadrons.

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