SODIUM:6 Defiance by Stephen Arseneault Page B

the cruiser that had held us in the static field.
    The city Mayor quickly whisked us away in a long white transport for a red carpet tour of his city. We were offered plates covered with delicacies of the planet to which we humbly declined. I explained to the Mayor that all our nutrition was derived from our suits. At first his eyes lit up with the thought of how much money could be made with such a suit. He then looked back at the plate of boiled gurgles before him and began to eat with a smile on his face.

Chapter 5

    The tour ran for most of the Bekin morning before we were invited to the Mayor's home for a lunch that we would not be eating. His residence took up the 82nd floor of the Pern Government building in the center of Sage's downtown district. The Mayor lived well.
    In the mid-afternoon we were paraded before any number of businessmen who pried and prodded us for details about our suits, our ship and any possible trade. Each was soon told that I was the first Ambassador to their system and that I had no authority to trade or divulge any information other than polite greetings and minor facts about our culture. They quickly got the idea that their business ventures would be going nowhere and just as quickly lost interest in the beastly humans and their tall yellow sidekick.
    We reached the Rechin worlds of Horn and Mantis four and six days later. Each time a tour of the capital was offered followed by greetings from their business elite. I overheard one comment made stating that the humans were no fun. They were too stoic and lifeless. I wanted to ask the fellow if he had ever been around a team of scientists. If he had, the behavior would have been better understood.
    Our final visit was to the Geffel world of Skkez. The Geffel were the friendliest and most humble of the three species. They ran the mining colonies where the Meche had been known to pirate. I asked the Governor of Skkez if we could visit one of the mining colonies that had been attacked by the Meche. He hesitated to answer before warning us that he thought is was a terrible idea. The Meche were evil and their raids seemed to be planned just when protections were always at their lowest.
    My first thoughts were that the Meche had someone on the inside feeding them information, but I didn't have enough knowledge of the situation to make such a call. The Governor then asked if we would need an escort. He would be willing to send a destroyer with us if only because he did not want an incident with the Meche to happen while we were his guests.
    I declined the offer and assured him that while we had no offensive capabilities we were quite capable of defending ourselves. After several attempts at offering a military escort and being declined, he decided that perhaps he would only look to increase patrols in the area as a precaution. I thanked him for his consideration.
    While on the Ambassadors tour on Skkez one of our scientists had taken the time to disassemble and study the Megar transponder. It had a highly accurate starmap of the region built in and he was able to transfer the map to our ships systems and then on a lark to one of our QE comm cubes. It was an impressive accomplishment for only having had the device for a few days.
    We departed Skkez three days later, heading towards the mining colonies of sector four. Our first stop was a far colony on a rocky world with no atmosphere. We set the Saxon down in a mining camp where tunneling equipment and crew quarters had been abandoned. Hershen and I exited the ship to explore the mine. Just before entering we saw the remains of a Geffel guard who had been cut nearly in two by either a particle beam or laser weapon. Once inside the mine, there was evidence of a skirmish with an air-locked room showing broken windows and signs of a struggle.
    We proceeded into the mine for nearly half a kilometer before turning back. When we again reached the surface I was stunned to see a menacing black craft landing