Chel blew out a breath. “What was that, Hal? Where did you pull that from?”
“Inspired,” Voa said, standing up and turning to look at him. “He didn’t know what to say.”
“I have an idea where they got that tech,” Hal said. “And I wanted to see if he’d respond to me saying runner instead of battleship.”
“He did,” Gerbardi said. “His eyes widened.”
“I noticed that, too.” Hal didn’t like where this was going. “Gerbardi, get a connection to the admiral as soon as possible. Mark it urgent.”
Gerbardi bent over his console. “I can connect you in five minutes, Captain.”
“I’ll take it in my office. Chel, remind Yiko we have a time limit, and I need to be alerted the moment they say their tow vessel is ready.” Hal walked out, knowing they all wanted to ask him questions about where he thought the tech had come from. But this was something to discuss with the admiral first.
By the time he had sat down at his desk, the admiral was on his screen. He ran down the situation for her, and ended with how he’d handled it.
“That was quick thinking,” Hoke said, and there was a tiny smile on her face.
“I know they wanted us to think they had invisible battleships, but I actually do think the runners floated closer to the boundary than the Garmman wanted them to. They obviously had to wait some distance away from their runners, or the trick would have been ruined, but something went wrong and they moved within visual and striking distance of our shared border.”
“You say your chief engineer is trying to get what she can from the one you’ve got in your hold?” Hoke was tapping at a comm set just out of Hal’s view. “I want some of the engineers at Battle Center to get a visual and to talk to her after you’ve given the runner back.”
“That’s fine.” Hal tapped his fingers on the desk. “I think they’re using Earth technology.”
“What?” Hoke sat straighter in her chair, her focus on him complete. “What makes you think that?”
“Conversations I’ve had with Fiona about the tech on her world. We keep forgetting the Tecran visited her planet four times that we know of. And the Garmman are the ones who found Professor Fayir’s plans for the Class 5s. The fact that Councilor Fu-tama couldn’t persuade the senior Garmmanofficials he approached to fund the development of the Class 5s, so he went to the Tecran instead, tells me that some deal was made between the two. Fu-tama’s dead now, but I don’t think anyone ever thought he acted completely alone.”
“You’re saying this invisible battleship ploy was something the Tecran learned from studying the tech on Earth, and they gave it to the Garmman as part of the deal they made when the Garmman handed over the thinking systems and the Class 5 plans.” Hoke rubbed her face. “That makes sense, but why start using it now, and right in our face?”
“The Tecran are no longer the power they once were. They’re under full UC control and aren’t able to so much as send out a battleship, let alone give more tech to the Garmman. Someone in the Garmman military has decided to flex their muscles a little and see what they can do with the toys they did manage to get before the whole plot was discovered.” Hal didn’t understand why they would want to, but it didn’t negate the fact that they had.
“I really don’t want you to give the runner back.” Hoke sounded harder, now. Pissed off. Then she sighed. “But for now, I don’t see we have a choice.”
“I don’t want to give it back, either.” He would love to just light jump away. “Yiko will go over every part of its surface up until the last second, though.”
“We should have spoken with the Earth women before now.” Hoke leaned back in her chair. “We’ve seen their people as technically backward since they first appeared. That may be true, but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn from them.”
“I think the Garmman might be wondering what wehavespoken to them about,” Hal told her. “Because they may well assume the fact that we saw through their trick is because of information Fiona, Rose, and the others have given us.”
“Time to make that true in reality,” Hoke said.
“Time we don’t actually have,” Hal reminded her. “But yes. Better late than never.”
CHAPTER 8
One of thereasons she was enjoying being on-planet, Fiona realized, was the distances.
Larga Ways wasn’t tiny, but she knew every inch of it by now.
The journey to the light industrial area on the outskirts of Distani took at least a half hour using the small runner Natta had hired.
They decided to all go together as a group and then Natta would split up from them before they entered the market, watching from a distance as usual.
It was obviously a popular place, because they had to park the runner a ten minute walk from the entrance, and Natta disappeared long before they reached the warehouse that was hosting the market.
“We’ll cover more ground if you and I split up,” Fiona suggested to Trayla as she took in the massive double doors to what was a huge warehouse—big enough to be luxurious by Larga Ways standards.
Trayla shook her head. “It’s too busy. Look how many people are in there. If you need help, I might not be able to get to you quickly enough.”
