Chapter 10. Arrival of the Diplomats
Four Months in May Part II
PART II
Arrival of the Diplomats
“Looks like we’re in the hospitality and security business now, Rick,” Chipman said to his head engineer.
Matulis savored his sip of whisky, swallowed, and nodded. “We thought we were scientists.”
“Explorers . . . I think we’ll tire of this quickly.”
They were sitting in Matulis’ office located deep in the lower levels of the ship, adjacent to engineering, the sounds of propulsion an ever-present comfort to a man who looked after his engines as a shepherd watched over his flock.
“Well, Matheson will handle most of it.” Matheson was the protocol officer brought on board to serve as a buffer between the diplomatic and operational personnel of Operation Tarrash. He had embarked on the Eridanus yesterday as it orbited Starbase Bellution, along with officials from two small planets—Vaarnix and Seeris. These minor planetary dignitaries, two from Vaarnix and one from Seeris, were included in the Oreana-bound delegation for a show of inclusiveness and as a reward for past cooperation with ISEA in putting an end to the orbital hostilities between their two civilizations some twenty years ago.
Chipman and Matulis continued on with their good-natured carping, the captain with his feet balanced on a wastebasket, nursing his drink; Matulis sitting back in his chair with his feet up on an opened lower desk drawer. The engineer’s office was cozy and snug, with a desk and two chairs, a table laden with technical papers and blueprints. The captain often hung out there with his head engineer when off duty. The two were colleagues and friends of long standing—since their first mission serving together—and these mini bull sessions were one of the few opportunities for the captain to let down his guard and relax. Matulis could say stuff directly to Chipman’s face no one else would dare utter, (not even Pissario, who generally just found fault around the edges). And never out of one-upmanship, but rather, to keep him steady and true, and the captain valued that. Neither one was a man to be trifled with: Matulis of sharp intelligence and features who had a deep and catholic understanding of the physical properties of things and how they worked; Chipman a man of both action and thought, a sturdy bear of a man, with the solid build of the baseball catchers of yore.
Their break from duty was interrupted by an alert from the bridge. Communication capability had been temporarily disrupted on board by a nonstandard energy beam directed at the Eridanus, originating from Starbase Bellution. Matulis and Chipman quickly reverted to their roles of engineer and captain—the former heading to engineering master control to recalibrate where necessary, the latter to the bridge to take command. Just minutes following the full restoration of communications, security reported that the Seerisian minister had been attacked in his quarters. He was able to identify his assailant: the junior Vaarnix officer who had boarded with him, and who now had barricaded himself inside the Deck 14 laundry facilities. The communication disruption, carried out by an accomplice below, had been a ruse to distract the crew.
Protocol Officer Matheson was called to the bridge, and once there, offered a possible explanation for such an inauspicious start to the mission. Although a peace treaty had been signed between the two planets, there had remained a small but steadfast contingent of the Vaarnix population who would not accede to it, and evidently, one of the Vaarnix diplomats on board did not accept the existence of the Seerisian minister as a legitimate member of the Operation Tarrash delegation. How he had gotten through both Vaarnix and ISEA’s vetting process was a mystery, according the other Vaarnix delegate, who repeatedly espoused her ignorance and innocence. Eventually, a sedative gas was pumped into the rogue delegate’s hiding place, and he was then disarmed and transported down, escorted by the protocol officer, to ISEA Command personnel down on Starbase Bellution. The Seerisian minister had been administered to in sickbay; he was not badly injured, and would continue with his onboard mission. All in all a minor incident, and, God willing, not an indication of the level of intragalactic cooperation to be encountered going forward. The Eridanus would delay warping out of orbit for twenty-four hours before resuming its voyage.
Image: Mutual cooperation Source: “One of a Pair of Insignia Badges with Double-Crane Decoration,” Korean, 19th century. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Marilyn and Robert Hamburger. Edited by J. Weigley
Intriguing.