Death of a Neutron Star - Eric Kotani [25]
Suddenly Tyla knew why the Qavok captain was acting the way he was. "Captain, under normal circumstances I do not believe the Qavok would take your offer. But by making it, you put the Qavok captain in a very difficult position."
"How?" Janeway asked.
"You are offering the prince's yacht," Tyla said. "If the Qavok captain turns you down and then destroys you, he also destroys the yacht and would, more than likely, be killed by the prince."
"But he can't really accept my offering because that would show weakness."
"Exactly," Tyla said. "More than likely they will accept your offer on the surface, then destroy you when they have the yacht."
"Try to destroy us," Janeway said. "They've already lost four warships."
"Yes, try," Tyla said, smiling.
Captain Janeway smiled back, and for the first time Tyla relaxed a little. Just a little.
"Qavok flagship hailing us," Ensign Kim said.
"On screen," Janeway said, again motioning that Tyla move back a step or so.
Tyla quickly did so as the ugly face of Captain Qados appeared, larger than life on the large main screen.
"Captain," he said. "I will accept your offer."
"Fine," Janeway said. "Here are my terms."
"Terms?" the Qavok almost roared. "I did not agree to terms."
"You want your prince's yacht, you will agree to these," Janeway said, smiling.
Tyla wanted to laugh as Janeway made Captain Qados fume for a few seconds before going on.
"First," Janeway said, "two of your ships must move at least one astronomical unit away and hold position until the secondary star explodes."
Tyla watched as the Qavok captain said nothing.
"Second," Janeway said, "we will drop the prince's yacht exactly one hour after the secondary has exploded at a location of my choice, a safe distance from the explosion. You can pick it up there."
"No!" the Qavok shouted.
Tyla had never seen a Qavok actually flustered. He looked almost humorous as his scales seemed to push away from his hide. His mouth flapped open and closed and his eyes watered.
"Too bad," Janeway said, dropping back down into her captain's chair.
Tyla was amazed how relaxed she looked.
"Destroy me," Janeway said, "and you destroy the prince's yacht. I doubt he's going to like that very much, now, do you? Especially since by simply waiting some twelve hours, you can return it to him safely."
Again Tyla watched as the Qavok's mouth opened and closed. His scales flapped as if a strong wind were moving them. Finally he said, "I agree. All but the Invincible will move off to a holding position."
"Good," Janeway said. "Now we can get back to studying this binary neutron star."
Tyla thought she heard the Qavok captain snort in disgust before the connection was broken.
"This is a first," she said.
"Two of the warships are breaking orbit and moving off," Ensign Kim said.
"Keep an eye on them, Mr. Tuvok," the captain said.
"I will do just that, Captain," Tuvok said.
Tyla felt like rejoicing. In all her life she never would have imagined that one ship could back down three Qavok warships, yet she had just watched it happen.
Captain Janeway wasn't even smiling.
"You won, Captain."
Janeway shook her head. "I think the war is far from over. The real first is going to happen before us in the next few hours. And I would still wager Captain Qados and the Invincible are going to try something."
Tyla felt her stomach twist. "You mean like sending one of those neutron stars toward my homeworld?"
"Maybe," Janeway said, staring at the image of the neutron star binary on her screen. "Or maybe something else. I honestly don't know."
Tyla glanced at the screen, then back at Janeway, realizing that she had just witnessed something else for the first time. A captain actually admitting a weakness. It didn't happen in the Lekk fleet and she doubted it did in the Qavok fleet. These humans really were strange beings; of that there was no doubt. Very strange