Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Two: To Be or Not To Be #9

Fox arrived outside Lannister's apartment dressed in a button down shirt and a clean pair of jeans. He hoped he'd found the right blend of casual but cleaned up. This whole party was too unclear for his taste. Was he off work and coming to a casual function, or was this a diplomatic thing? Blumenthal had arrived back from Saras station with Arneshi, one of the Consortium's senior diplomats. Lannister had announced he would be holding a private dinner for the two and then all but begged Fox to come. The captain was no more comfortable with these diplomatic functions than Fox and needed the moral support.

So here he was, being let in by Peeta, who was absolutely in his element, and being introduced around. Arneshi was tall, bald and wore long androgynous robes. It was hard to place Arneshi's features as either male or female and indeed the system translated their pronouns using zie and hir, indicating some non binary gender. Zie smiled and greeted Fox politely.

With Arneshi was another figure recognizable from TV, Javas, Sarasvat's chief science officer. He was a Devan, an advanced race that lay somewhere between human and Vatari on the evolutionary scale. He was a broad man with dark hair and an easy smile. He wore a black top, laced with silver, that showed his broad shoulders and trim body. There was little doubt where his gender identity lay. He was often held up as an example of the so-called "friendly man," a stereotype of a masculine men with a penchant for being social and outgoing.

He took Fox's hand in earth fashion and, true to form, told the crowd he recognized this guy from that kiss. Fox blushed and wished that the press hadn't made quite such a big deal about it.

Fox normally found men like Javas insufferable, but even he had to admit the man had his charms. Fox found himself sitting at the back of Lannister's main room, with Jack and Zeta, drinking a hard cider and listening to Javas recount his trip to this galaxy. He'd been on Shin station, inspecting their data core.

Fox's slate, small and innocuous as it was, could hold almost as much data as all of Earth's computers combined. The Shin data core, built on the same technology, was composed of more than two dozen networked systems, each several tons in size. The amount of information, and the capacity, were mind boggling. While Fox wasn't able to keep up with the science, Javas had a knack for peppering it in with more personal stories about the people and places.

"I've one of my former sailors on Shin," Lannister commented as he joined them.

"So I've heard," Javas said. "Pity to say, I didn't get a chance to meet her. I left only a couple days before she arrived. Maybe I will have the pleasure some day, she sounds like a remarkable woman."

"Indeed," Lannister replied.

"I hear there's been some trouble with her ex husband back here on Earth," Javas commented.

"Yes, well Jack's been looking into that for us," Blumenthal said.

Jack gulped and nodded, blushing. "Yeah, I've an interview next week. Sure it will all blow over."

When the conversation had turned back to other things, Fox leaned over to Jack. "I knew that ass, actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah I didn't put the name and face together until they started showing it all over the news, but I remember him now. Back when they were going through their divorce, we were dry docked. I was base security. Had to run him off base, drunk, more times than I care to recount. Strictly speaking its off the record but I could leak it to the press if you want?"

Jack was nodding thoughtfully. "Maybe, eventually. Right now it would just look vindictive. But I'm sure his history will come out soon enough and then, yeah, I might call you about that, if you don't mind? We will keep it anonymous, of course."

They shook on it and Fox felt like at least he'd done something to help Cheyenne. She deserved so much better than what the press was doing to her right now. It was one of the big reasons he avoided news from the surface as much as possible.

"Dinner is ready," Peeta announced and they made their way to the table. The party filled the table and an extra one had been set as well. Peeta had hired two caterers to help prepare and serve the food. It was quite a feast and Fox couldn't help but smile when he saw Grandma's tamales among the offerings.

A familiar name brought Fox's attention back to the table. "I've another former sailor of mine," Lannister was saying to Blumenthal, "Dan, Dan Oleson. He and Cheyenne ran the missile command. Invaluable officers both of them. He has a remarkable talent for sizing up people, I've found. We could really use him in joint command. I don't know if there is any way to make that happen?"

Blumenthal nodded and promised to look into it. Fox hid another smile. He knew Lannister had talked to Dan recently and he was having trouble fitting in at his new desk job. Fox felt sorry for most of the old crew, forced into desk jobs or dock work. He hoped Blumenthal could find a way to get Dan up here.

"Was the trip productive?" Zeta, on Fox's other side, was asking her boss, Arneshi.

"Quite," Arneshi replied. "We have a place for their embassy on board Saras, but what's more we are close to a very historic agreement."

"Are we?" Lannister asked from down the table.

"Indeed, we are a couple of days from making a public announcement," Arneshi said, zie made a gesture of silence to indicate they shouldn't speak of this and then went on. "Quite historic. And you may have a military command again."

"Of sorts," Blumenthal cautioned. "We know that we must eventually surrender the last of our nuclear arsenal."

"We must?" Lannister cocked an eyebrow.

"We must," Blumenthal repeated firmly.

Fox sighed. He knew what Lannister was thinking, how it felt. But Blumenthal was right, the US couldn't possible hide it's nuclear submarines indefinitely and they all knew the Consortium would not be swayed to look the other way.

"Indeed," Javas said, "as you come to know our history of exploration in the galaxy, the number of planets and races we've discovered, ruined by this dead end." He shook his head. "Perhaps then you will understand that more than politics play a hand here."

"But we understand the local politics of this as well," Arneshi said. "And we've made rather substantial concessions as well."

"They will give this station anti-missile capacities," Blumenthal finished. "So we can protect the entire continent in case our enemies still have a missile or sub and would seek to use our lack of nuclear weapons against us."

"The risk is slight, I should think," Zeta said. "Our own submarines are sweeping the oceans. We've found most of the Chinese and Russian subs already."

"When will this occur?" Lannister asked.

"We will be making the announcement when we get back to Washington DC. The plan is already in the works."

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