“How many are there at any given time would depend on what was on the agenda. One or two would be there if everyone is out looking for your mate and her friend. Or around forty if they are all there for a meeting.” Dora added her knowledge to the conversation.

“Sounds fair. Point us in the direction and we will take it from there.” Meliss gave a quick look at Toni as he grinned.

“I’m in.” I wanted a piece of this action. “Sherry can have her talk with Dora and we can get out of the way while she is taking care of business.”

Dan gave a quick glance at Sandy. “Count us in. They will find out we were with you when you killed that first bunch and Crus. Either way we are dead men. They will drop a bounty on our heads too. There won’t be anyplace we can go and feel safe. Taking a few of them with me before I die will be a better way to go.”

Sandy shook his head. “That place is shielded. I don’t think we can make it in. It would take a Star Destroyer to blow a hole in that shield.”

Toni put his left arm over my shoulder. “Or one sword. I think we have the shield problem licked.”

“We are dead men.” Sandy took a quick glance in my direction after he said it.

“I know the expression, and you could be right.” I was laughing as I gave Sherry a wink. “I will be back in five days to check on you. If you have star jumped, leave information with Dora. If that isn’t possible, then leave it with Sandy, Dan, or Vin.”

Dora shook her head. “It's dangerous leaving information with another on this post. I suggest you call.”

A smile spread across the faces of Meliss, Toni, and myself as Sherry shook her head. “Can’t call across two billion light years.”

“What has that got to do with anything? I know you can’t call across two billion... The Pash use Polarity Drive? You traveled two billion light years from home?” Dora was in shock as she calculated the distance in her mind. Dan and Sandy weren’t doing a whole lot better.

“I’ll leave the message. You take care. This might be a game to you, but a phaser can kill you as quickly as it does everyone else.” Sherry walked over and gave me a hug.

She turned and took Meliss in her arms. “I will miss you. Be careful, our daughters need you at home.”

Meliss gave Sherry a tender hug and a kiss before he straightened up. “Come back safe. I hate to think I would have to kill all slavers to avenge any harm that may come to you.”

I don’t know if Dora or the two men put much stock in that remark Meliss made. I knew it wasn’t an idle threat. If anything happened to Sherry I was positive Meliss would spend the rest of his life hunting down and killing slavers. Pash didn’t start fights, but they sure finished most of them.

Five of us walked out of the café headed toward Control Center on pad six. The slavers on this post forfeited their lives when they put a bounty on Sherry and me. Now it was time to make them pay the price.

We didn’t go in the front door. We went in the back way, which wasn’t actually a door until I made one. Before we reached the shield, I pulled my sword and pushed it into the force field. We could hear the shield generators screaming as they overloaded when my sword sucked all the energy out of them. A bright fireworks of energy beams poured into the place where I had the sword stuck in the shield. A black hole formed at the tip of the blade and radiated outward as it collapsed the shield. Toni, Meliss, and myself had seen these results before. I can honestly say, Dan and Sandy were in total disbelief.

“Now!” I charged forward as the shield collapsed, and swung at the armored wall of the Control Center. There was a flash of light as the wall disappeared before us.

Toni and Meliss were already past me, firing as they ran into a room with only one man in it. The inside walls weren’t armored and Toni blasted the door in front of him. Meliss turned to his right and blasted a hole in the wall. Those rooms were empty as they should be. Toni ran into the next room, past the crater he had left when he blasted the door. Meliss did the same as he charged into the room through the gap in the wall.

I was right behind Toni as I sprinted for the door twenty feet away to my right. Toni and Meliss waited until I had reached the door. I was standing off to the side as I held the sword in my right hand and swung it toward the door. The door disappeared in a flash as the blade touched it. With the blaster I was carrying in my left hand, I hosed down the inside without even aiming, knowing I wasn’t hitting anyone. Dozens of phasers answered my shots. The slavers already knew something was wrong when their force field collapsed. They were waiting, and figured we were coming in the door. They poured a sweeping death of phaser fire into that doorway, guaranteed to kill anyone stupid enough to step forward.

“Crank it up.” Was in my mind. I was firing wild random shots back into the room. It was my job to make the slavers inside that room think that was where the attack was coming from. Toni and Meliss blasted holes in the walls. Toni and Meliss were at a full run when they made passages through the walls. The slavers were caught looking in the wrong direction when Toni and Meliss ran into the room, a nano second after the respective holes were blown. It was over in less than a heartbeat. The slavers were out matched.

I turned around to look at Dan and Sandy who hadn’t even made it into the room where I was. “Put up your weapons. This has already ended.”

Sandy hesitated before holstering his weapon. “Only a couple of them here? We missed most of them, didn’t we?”

Toni and Meliss walked out of the room as I shook my head. “All of them were here. You have your port back, if you can keep more slavers from moving in.”

Slipping my sword over my back I turned it loose, knowing it had disappeared. I holstered my blaster as I walked over in front of Dan and Sandy. “Hold up your right hands and I’ll swear you in.”

Neither one of them comprehended what they were going to be sworn in for, but they automatically held up their right hands.

“As an active Captain of the Earth Alliance, and still registered as Captain Brandy Winters of UF-2, I hereby do deputize Sandy and Dan as Justices of the Peace on Durus Nine. There’s a lot more to it than that, but it’s legal. You can lower your hands.”

I was looking at two disbelieving faces as they lowered their hands. “You’re the law on this outpost. It’s legal. I’ll drop the paperwork in the post log. The next cargo ship that comes by will hold your comlinks and security badges. Any questions?”

I glanced from one to the other. “If you two pick up where Crus left off, I promise to come back and personally take care of the situation. You're going to find a terrible temptation to help yourself to the money that flows by this post. You'll tell yourself it won’t make any difference if you take some. It either won’t be missed, or those it belongs to won’t report it, as they operate outside the law. Don’t do it. It’s tainted money. It will own you if you touch it. It corrupts and controls the lives of those who touch it. Think of Crus if you are tempted. ”

Staring with disbelieving eyes, Sandy dropped his hand as he shook his head. “You are joking aren’t you?”

“If you think I’m joking go take a look at the thirty one dead bodies in the next room. Deep space isn’t the place for anyone looking for a long life. Trading in slaves will shorten that life even more. I didn’t do you any favors. The slavers may want this post back. If they do, then you both are probably dead men. If they don’t, then the idea you are lawmen may keep any bounty hunters from wanting to kill you for any reward the slavers may place on your heads. Let’s go back over to Crus’s office and I’ll file that report. We need to be going. If you do your job right, this is probably the first and last time you will ever see a Pash.” I didn’t have to tell them that, if they didn’t do their job right, they wouldn’t want to see a Pash. They understood the message that wasn’t spoken.

By the time I left Durus Nine with Toni and Meliss, Sherry had already taken her ship and jumped space. I prayed she stayed safe. If the Earth Alliance had any inkling what I was involved in, I would have been court-martialed and executed. I found the double set of standards I was playing hard to believe myself. I had deputized two men, under the authority given to me as Captain of an outpost, while helping Sherry find people who would fight against that same authority. Now I was headed home to join forces against the Earth Alliance. In simple terms, I told Dan and Sandy to uphold the law while I was breaking the law. The concept would play havoc with the mind if one let it.

Two days passed, and we were leaving home again. I walked up the ramp ahead of Toni. “You drive.”

He stepped up into the ship behind me. “You sure?”

“Yes, you can get us there a lot quicker. I have to bring up the co-ordinates every time I take us anywhere.” I turned around waiting for him to take his seat behind the console.

He nodded as he moved to the console. Running his hand over the console caused a seat to form up out of the floor behind me. The side of the ship flowed back again. “You don’t take that long and besides, you will never learn if you don’t keep doing it.”

Taking my place on the seat that formed under me, I motioned with my finger for us to go. “Maybe I’ll have it figured out when I get to be your age.”

“Are you suggesting I’m old?” The side of the ship opened up again as Toni stood up.

I stood up and turned to look at him. “No, my King. I should be flogged for the mere suggestion you might be old. I was only suggesting you were sufficiently aged to be wiser than me.”

Toni started to step off the ship ahead of me. “I thought that was what you were suggesting.

We walked into the huge meeting hall together. I had been told there were approximately half a million Pash in that hall when it was filled. Today, it was filled past capacity, and more were still arriving. There were millions more Pash waiting at home, or wherever, for the result of this meeting. I could feel Meliss, and the four girls in there somewhere. Of course the girls would be the center of attention for the moment. They were the only natural born Pash females. Up until Sherry and I had daughters, no females were born to the Pash. The Pash took female mates outside their species. That was how Toni found me. I was so lucky in a lot of ways.

I walked with Toni up to the speaker’s stand. The hall was filled with voices, but not the kind most humans would ever hear or understand. It was a calliope of mind thought. It took me close to twelve years to learn how to separate mind thought in a crowd. It’s like humans learn to listen to only one voice in a room full of people chattering. Eventually, I learned to separate the mind chatter and listen in on a particular mind thought.

Toni raised his right arm up in the air and it was as if all sound in the world had been turned off. It became deafening in how quiet it was. “Humans are settling in the Trag universe. In spite of the notice to the Earth Alliance, and repeated warnings to the settlers, more humans keep coming and refuse to leave.”

“In a few minutes, our Queen will ask you to vote in support of the treaty we signed with the Trag. The Earth Alliance has betrayed the Trag by allowing this to continue without taking measures to punish those who trespass. The Earth Alliance has betrayed the Pash, as we also signed the treaty. The treaty was plain. No human settlement would be allowed in the Trag galaxy, in return for the Trag not unleashing any more bio mechanical virus on human life forms. Trade between humans and Trag was agreed upon, on the condition that those who had been infected would be in charge of the trade. That was the treaty the Trag, the Pash, and Humans signed. There have been no revisions, nor new treaties.”

Toni looked over at me. “My Queen.”

I nodded in agreement with Toni. “My Lord.”

Taking a deep breath, I turned my attention to the sea of Pash in front of me. “Your King and I have arranged to meet with the Trag, immediately after we take a vote. We hope to accomplish several things with our visit. We wish to convey to the Trag that the Pash do not break treaties. We want to meet with some of the settlers and convince them it is a situation of utmost importance for them to leave the Trag galaxy immediately, or they will forfeit their lives.”

Toni reached over and put his arm around my waist. He knew how hard this next part was for me.

I made sure my mind was clear before I started. “IF the Earth Alliance believes it has a right to take action against the Trag for killing the trespassers who refuse to leave, they may declare war against the Trag. If the Earth Alliance declares war against the Trag, they are also declaring a war against the Pash. We signed the treaty with the Trag.”

I started to say 'I know my people,' but humans were no longer my people. “I know the humans and they will risk war for the spoils of war. Toni and I have requested a meeting with the President of the Earth Alliance. We will remind him of the treaty with the Trag. We will also inform the Earth Alliance that a broken treaty and war with the Trag, means a broken treaty and war with the Pash.”

Turning my head to look at Toni, I sent him a mind thought. ‘Time to vote’

Toni squeezed me before he looked out across the sea of Pash. “The question is, do we honor our treaty, or do we let the Trag take care of this themselves? Yes is to honor the treaty, no is to let the Trag do this alone. Vote.”

We waited for the hologram generated, blue and white graph, to tally the vote. Seconds later the graph was solid blue. Not one single white showed up on the graph. I was proud of the Pash for their solid commitment to their treaty. I knew this could very well lead to war if the Earth Alliance did not pull the pirates and slavers from the Trag galaxy. How many had to die before it ended, if it began? No doubt our lives would be changed from this point forward.

Hours later Toni and I were on a starship, larger than Toni’s little personal craft. We were going to try and talk some sense into the humans, and their planet grabbing allies. There were no negotiations here. It was a clear case of 'leave the Trag galaxy or die.'

Our first stop, of course, was to visit the Trag. We wanted to reaffirm our commitment of support to the Trag and get a feeling for how bad the situation had degraded.

Toni parked the starship close to the Trag capital. I had been there many times on trade disputes. The Trag weren’t a bad species, if one could call plants an intelligent species. They just took a lot of getting used to.

This starship had teleport capabilities, and we beamed into the conference room. Toni gave me a mind thought as we faced a party of eight Trag across the room. ‘Let’s get serious. The Trag do not have a sense of humor.’

Four Trag separated from the group and walked over to meet us. “You have broken the treaty.”

I stopped several feet back from them. No matter how many times we met, I always thought they looked like walking mushrooms. They had four eyes on stalks, four arms and four legs, on a body that resembled a mushroom. Years back when we first met them, Toni told me they were vegetable life, not animal. It was a never-ending problem for me to comprehend that plants could grow to be intelligent.

Hoping to show respect, I bowed my head as I answered the Trag. “We only recently have learned of the transgressions. We have come to warn the trespassers that they must leave, and that the Pash will honor the treaty with the Trag.”

One of the Trag stepped up in front of the others. “We would be within our rights to kill them.”

Straightening up, I nodded in agreement. “You would. It may also bring war with the humans. I am sure many humans would die, but so would the Trag. You do not understand the numbers of the humans. Take the numbers of the Trag and increase them by several thousand fold. That would be the beginning of the human numbers. Even if you managed to kill several thousand of them to one of your deaths, they would still win in a war of attrition. “

The Trag looked back at the others behind him, before he looked back at me. “We should have destroyed them the first time. We will revise their DNA so they can no longer reproduce.”

I shook my head. “That won’t work. Only those that are infected will not reproduce. I know of your DNA virus. The first plan, where you were going to change all of them into females only able to bear females, could have worked. This second plan is flawed and will not work.”

“Then we will redo the first plan. The treaty was broken and is no longer valid. We are within our rights to wipe them out.” He waited.

Trag didn’t have facial expressions, so I couldn’t tell how serious his statement was. Was war eminent, or would they give us time to try and rectify the situation? “The first plan would have worked. It would have taken them by surprise. It won’t work now. They'll find one of your DNA bio-mechanical balls and it will be all they'll need to declare war. The Trag would not survive. The Pash signed the treaty along with the Trag. Let us see if we can make the humans leave the Trag galaxy, as agreed. If they do not, the Pash will join the Trag in a declaration of war against the humans.” I glanced over at Toni. That was a terrible commitment for me to make. If it came to war, many Pash would die along with the Trag.

“The Pash have never broken a treaty.” Toni was looking at the Trag, as he reaffirmed what I had said.

“The Pash are good, the humans are not.” The Trag studied me for a long time. “You will fight for the Trag? You are human. You also have reason to not like Trag.”

It was a long sigh. So long ago. I was a product of the Trag DNA virus, but now I thanked them for what I was, instead of hating them. “I am not all human. I am Pash. I was born human. That I can not change. My mate is Pash, my daughters are Pash, my friends are Pash and my home is Pash. The Pash part of me is by desire, the human part of me is by fate. I can not change my fate. I can change what I do with my life. I am Pash, I honor the Pash treaty with the Trag.”

“You fight for the Trag?” He waited for confirmation.

“No, I fight with the Trag. The Pash will not fight the Trag battles. I will try and intervene. Please let me see if this can’t be resolved without loss of life. If the humans will voluntarily leave the Trag Galaxy, before we start spilling life forces, it would be beneficial to all parties.” I started to say blood, but the Trag didn’t have blood. I was sure they would know what I meant though. They had dissected enough humans, and other life forms, to know what blood was.

“We shall wipe out all humans who settle in Trag galaxy.” He had all four eyes focused on me.

It didn’t escape me that talking to Trag was a lot like talking to a bot. The had a single purpose mindset. “You would be within your rights, but let me talk to the humans who have broken the treaty first, and see if we can get them to leave.”

“If they do not leave, they die. No human is welcome in Trag galaxy.” He waited for an answer.

“Yes, if they do not leave, they will die. You may kill the humans if they do not honor the treaty. I remind you that there can not be any dissecting of the humans or their allies for your experiments. It is in the treaty.” The problems with broken treaties are that all bets are off when one side stops following the rules. They shouldn’t be shocked when the other side does indescribable things in return.

“We will not agree to more terms. We have the right to protect Trag galaxy.” There was a definite tone in his voice.

I knew what that meant. The Trag would start dissecting the trespassers and designing viruses to wipe out the species. The Trag hated animal life forms. They only tolerated the Pash because of the treaty they had with the Pash. The Trag had captured, and dissected, Toni’s brother. The Pash retaliated with a vengeance. There was no doubt the Trag would have been wiped from existence if they had not signed a truce with the Pash.

It never failed to amaze me how contradictory life is as it moves along in time. At one time I would have killed all the Trag if I could. At one time the Pash were in position to eliminate the Trag. Now, here we were, ready to give our own lives to protect them. Some said it was Karma to go back and face the same problems in life from the other side.

“I would rather you didn’t start dissecting humans right away. Give me some time. I would like for them to leave voluntarily. You are within your right to kill them. I request you don’t make them suffer if you dissect them. Give me thirty days. I need time to contact all parties involved. We will meet with the some of the trespassers and the Earth Alliance.” I may have hated pirates and slavers, but being dissected by the Trag wasn’t the way to die, even for those kinds of life forms. I had a strong feeling the Trag were going to have a lot of lab specimens if those humans who were trespassing on Trag territory didn’t leave. I was going to do everything I could to convince the humans and their allies that they were not going to enjoy what was left of life, if they stayed in the Trag Universe.

“Thirty Earth days. Not one more.” The Trag waited.

Another Trag stepped up and set eight small cylinders on the floor before it backed away.

I glanced over at Toni as I shook my head. “This is going to get messy. I need to see Lass. I want to know what she can tell me about the future.”

“Let’s get to it. Thirty days is awfully short when you’re trying to stop a war.” Toni and I gathered up the cylinders. He touched the relay on his belt and we were back in the starship.

It was times like this that I wished Toni’s mom, Lass was still the reigning Queen of the Pash. I believed, with all my heart, that the hardest thing I ever had to do in my whole life was to commit the Pash to a war. So many lives could be lost on all sides. For what? Because of the greed of a few? If any survived they would look back, as they traded back and forth between Trag and humans, and wonder what the war was all about?

In my heart I knew that millions of lives were going to be lost. Humans had a very nasty record of making and breaking treaties as it suited them. There had to be a way out of this mess. The Earth Alliance had to understand that they could not ignore this treaty.

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