Odd, the chamber was. Strangely silent.
As soon as he stepped outside, he glanced around, expecting to see his father, but he didn't.
Not at first.
Then he was hit on the back of his head.
He spun and jumped.
His father had been waiting outside the door in the shadows.
"Disrespectful little--"
Khalzin caught his father's swing before he could strike him.
"Do not finish that," he said.
Xaul snarled at him. "You think you are so strong."
"I am strong enough," Khalzin said. "You got what you wanted. Why do you attack me?"
"You're an embarrassment. You are lucky Speaker Fowles was in a good mood.”
"If you say so."
"You were not thrown out and beaten for your suggestions."
"Neither were you." Khalzin started walking faster, attempting to distance himself from his father.
"It will never work," Xaul said a little louder. "Our people will be diluted until there's nothing left.”
"Thanks for your confidence."
#
Khalzin took his position on the training floor. His large, two-bladed staff held out in front of him. He spun the ju-nak back and forth, getting a feel for its weight. His blade was passed down over the generations, and he'd made it his own with handmade grips and wrappings.
Today especially, the weapon felt good in his hands. He needed to break things.
No matter how he tried after the meeting with the Coalition, he could not get it out of his head. He could not get past his father’s anger.
His father was a respected scientist and researcher among the Kantenan people. There was not a lot disposed to the sciences, and he and his father both had a brain for it. Both he and his father had found the same conclusions in their research. Just two far different conclusions of how to solve it.
Who was right?
Was either of them?
He could not help concluding that such vastly different ideas to solve the problem meant that there had to be other options that had not been considered.
What if he was wrong?
That was part of his dilemma. If he was wrong about this, what else was he wrong about? It could undermine his entire life path.
Yet he refused to give up on this. He had very little choice. He had preemptively contacted the Galactic Alliance's Science Society to find out what the procedure was to begin the process, and they'd sent him a series of requirements for the Kantenans to join.
Nothing complicated.
Just things that needed to be done.
