thought the enemy’s maneuvers were suspicious. Clearly, in hindsight it is obvious to anyone watching that the enemy wanted to test their fighters against ours in a limited engagement. This made us suspicious that they were testing a new material or weapon. So, we had some of the remains of their fighters brought aboard one of the ships and examined.” He was intentionally using ‘we’ to avoid saying who did what. “The initial examination turned up a biological substance that should not have been there.”
“What was it?” asked one of the Advranki Senators.
Solear responded, “Well, I will turn the podium over to Lorano. He led the investigation to determine what the substance was.” Solear sat down and gave the podium to Lorano.
Lorano said, “Respects Gentle beings,” and waited for the obligatory nods in response. “The substance was blood. Specifically it was blood from a Neto.”
“A Neto?” interrupted Senator Figur, the same Advranki Senator that interrupted a moment earlier.
Lorano responded, “Yes. The tests were conclusive. There is no question that a Neto was piloting at least one of the fighters in the skirmish. I would guess that Netos were flying 20 of the fighters.
“The leading two wings,” interrupted the same Advranki Senator. “Those two wings took all of the casualties. I recall from the video that they lost 18 fighters from those two wings.”
Lorano looked at Solear, who nodded in agreement. He said, “Solear could answer that question much better than I, but basically yes. We both believe that the reason the enemy took such high casualties is that they intentionally blew up their damaged ships to prevent us from finding out that Netos had piloted them.”
Senator Figur said, “Netos are a very ‘young’ race, to put it politely. Last I knew they had just invented electricity. How could they have the mental capacity to understand complex computer systems and fly fighters?”
Frank looked over at Senator Figur. He desperately wanted him to be quiet. Everything depended upon proper timing, and Senator Figur was wasting it by asking pointless questions. Frank said, “Senator Figur, perhaps we could let Lorano finish his story.”
Lorano nodded at Frank in private thanks. Lorano continued, “Well, they don’t; or at least they didn’t. It is clear from the biological sample though that the Hiriculans have been tampering with them. I don’t think the Hiriculans have been altering the Neto’s DNA, but they certainly have been engaging in selective breeding, advanced training, and more than likely drug therapy.”
Senator Figur interrupted Lorano and said, “Are you sure?”
Lorano hid his first response to the question and simply said, “Yes.”
Figur said, “Computer, can you compare the performance of the possible Neto pilots to the Alliance pilots?”
…Calculating….
Solear stood up joined Lorano at the podium. He said, “Let me answer that. This computer probably isn’t tuned for that complex of a task. We had the battle computers at fleet headquarters calculate the relative performances.”
Senator Figur said, “Computer, cancel request. What was the result of the fleet analysis?”
Solear answered, “They performed poorly. All of the Alliance pilots in the battle were Advranki. So, using their performance as a baseline of 100%, the pilots tentatively identified as Hiriculans performed at 95% and those identified as Netos performed at 67%.”
Senator Figur exclaimed, “Wow! That is actually pretty good, isn’t it? It seems much better than I would have expected.”
Lorano replied this time. He said, “There wasn’t much hardware for us to recover, but what little we did get seems to indicate that the Hiriculans may have tried to compensate for the Netos mental shortcomings by modifying the flight helmet and the corresponding controls to have the computer perform more functions.”
Senator Figur interrupted, “Aren’t the fighters almost a
“What was it?” asked one of the Advranki Senators.
Solear responded, “Well, I will turn the podium over to Lorano. He led the investigation to determine what the substance was.” Solear sat down and gave the podium to Lorano.
Lorano said, “Respects Gentle beings,” and waited for the obligatory nods in response. “The substance was blood. Specifically it was blood from a Neto.”
“A Neto?” interrupted Senator Figur, the same Advranki Senator that interrupted a moment earlier.
Lorano responded, “Yes. The tests were conclusive. There is no question that a Neto was piloting at least one of the fighters in the skirmish. I would guess that Netos were flying 20 of the fighters.
“The leading two wings,” interrupted the same Advranki Senator. “Those two wings took all of the casualties. I recall from the video that they lost 18 fighters from those two wings.”
Lorano looked at Solear, who nodded in agreement. He said, “Solear could answer that question much better than I, but basically yes. We both believe that the reason the enemy took such high casualties is that they intentionally blew up their damaged ships to prevent us from finding out that Netos had piloted them.”
Senator Figur said, “Netos are a very ‘young’ race, to put it politely. Last I knew they had just invented electricity. How could they have the mental capacity to understand complex computer systems and fly fighters?”
Frank looked over at Senator Figur. He desperately wanted him to be quiet. Everything depended upon proper timing, and Senator Figur was wasting it by asking pointless questions. Frank said, “Senator Figur, perhaps we could let Lorano finish his story.”
Lorano nodded at Frank in private thanks. Lorano continued, “Well, they don’t; or at least they didn’t. It is clear from the biological sample though that the Hiriculans have been tampering with them. I don’t think the Hiriculans have been altering the Neto’s DNA, but they certainly have been engaging in selective breeding, advanced training, and more than likely drug therapy.”
Senator Figur interrupted Lorano and said, “Are you sure?”
Lorano hid his first response to the question and simply said, “Yes.”
Figur said, “Computer, can you compare the performance of the possible Neto pilots to the Alliance pilots?”
…Calculating….
Solear stood up joined Lorano at the podium. He said, “Let me answer that. This computer probably isn’t tuned for that complex of a task. We had the battle computers at fleet headquarters calculate the relative performances.”
Senator Figur said, “Computer, cancel request. What was the result of the fleet analysis?”
Solear answered, “They performed poorly. All of the Alliance pilots in the battle were Advranki. So, using their performance as a baseline of 100%, the pilots tentatively identified as Hiriculans performed at 95% and those identified as Netos performed at 67%.”
Senator Figur exclaimed, “Wow! That is actually pretty good, isn’t it? It seems much better than I would have expected.”
Lorano replied this time. He said, “There wasn’t much hardware for us to recover, but what little we did get seems to indicate that the Hiriculans may have tried to compensate for the Netos mental shortcomings by modifying the flight helmet and the corresponding controls to have the computer perform more functions.”
Senator Figur interrupted, “Aren’t the fighters almost a
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