Terran Fleet Command Saga 4: TFS Fugitive by Tori L. Harris

Author:Tori L. Harris
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: AuthorToriHarris.com
Published: 2017-04-29T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Earth, Terran Fleet Command Headquarters

(16 hours later - Leadership Council Meeting Chamber)

“Madame Chairwoman,” the representative from the Middle Eastern Union interrupted for the third time, “I believe at this point we are all in agreement that some sort of formalized relations — perhaps even an alliance at some point — with the Wek … excuse me, with the Crowned Republic of Graca … is in our long-term best interest. Indeed, none of us would have agreed to sign the preliminary memorandum of cooperation with them otherwise. Yet here we are, barely six months after being attacked by the Resistance, and this Council is being asked to endorse a course of action that could easily lead us down a path towards war against another member of the Pelaran Alliance. For that is what you are asking us to do, is it not?”

One of Lisbeth Kistler’s first acts after taking over as Chairwoman had been to remove the enormous dais and lectern from the front of the meeting chamber. The message she had intended to convey was clear — there were fifteen members on the Leadership Council, and each representative’s vote carried precisely the same weight as any other. In stark contrast to her tyrannical predecessor, Kistler fully embraced the position of Chair as specifically defined in TFC’s charter. In her opinion, it had never been intended as a governing role so much as that of a chief facilitator, maintaining the group’s focus and, whenever possible, preventing their discussions from becoming mired in political gridlock. She remained, nonetheless, a skilled politician in her own right and was not above using certain … tactics, both subtle and otherwise, to guide the course of the debate in the direction she preferred. Before answering the gentleman — an astonishingly handsome man from the United Arab Emirates — she had positioned herself immediately adjacent to his workspace, working the center aisle between the representatives like a professor proctoring a final exam.

“Representative Shadid,” she began again after allowing a long pause to ensure that he had actually finished speaking this time, “not to put too fine a point on it, but I don’t think that is a fair characterization of what Admiral Sexton is asking us to consider. You saw the same briefing I did,” she said (it was not entirely true, but close enough under the circumstances). “The Wek mining facility at Herrera was attacked without provocation by forces from a neighboring Pelaran-cultivated civilization known as the Krayleck. As chance would have it, TFS Theseus, which Admiral Patterson dispatched at the request of Crown Prince Naftur in hopes of stabilizing the situation, arrived just as the station itself managed to destroy one of the Krayleck ships.”

“Which, remarkably enough, looked virtually identical to one of our own Ingenuity-class frigates.”

“I certainly agree with you that it’s remarkable, sir, but perhaps not so surprising. We have known for some time that the Pelarans have applied their cultivation program a great many times. It stands to reason, in my

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