“The Trojan Horse idea isn’t one we should ignore,” Siler said. “Because while appearances make it unlikely, it’s still very possible.”
“Look, I realize that empathic blockers and overlays have limited my abilities for the past few years, but you’re all acting as if we have no information.” Jeff sounded annoyed and just this side of pissed. “I may not have been able to read the people in the other ships well or at all, but I’m telling you that I know what the Z’porrah and Ancients feel like empathically, and I’m saying that there is no one on that ship who’s thinking bad thoughts against us.”
“You said they felt like no Z’porrah you’ve read before,” Siler pointed out.
“Yes, because I’m used to feeling nothing but hate, disdain, contempt, superiority, and bloodlust from Z’porrah. And these feel nothing like that. They’re afraid and they’re hopeful as their main emotions, but they had the rest of the usual emotions in there, too, meaning they aren’t faking it or using some kind of empathic shield to fool me. If you want, I could waste time and tell you what each one of them is feeling, but I’d prefer that you all trust me when I say that I know what hope and fear feel like, even when they’re coming from races we haven’t interacted with all that much.”
“So, basically, you feel that they’re refugees without ulterior motives and without spies in their midst.”
“Yeah, baby, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Spies wouldn’t be bothering to hide their emotions from an empath when they’re in the middle of space far away from the planets with the empaths on them. If they even know we have empathic talents.”
“They know,” Wruck said, while pointing to various things on the Spaceship Screens. “Believe me, the Z’porrah know all about every sentient race in the galaxy. We do as well. However, knowing that there are empaths and knowing how to hide from them are two very different things.”
“I agree that it would be a leap to assume that any spy on the Z’porrah ship would be expecting Jeff to know they were coming, be able to reach the ship, and be able to read anyone on the ship,” Chuckie said, still looking at the screens and scribbling things down on a pad Walter had provided. “It’s possible, but highly improbable.”
“Based on the condition these ships are in,” Alexander added, “I would feel that any of them being an attacking force is also highly improbable.”
“So, we’re back to the idea that they’re refugees, Christopher. Can we show them a modicum of mercy now?”
This question earned me Patented Glare #5. But before Christopher could reply, Buchanan cleared his throat. “I think you’re all missing the bigger, far more worrisome, question.”
That got the room’s attention, even Team Science’s. “Which is?” Jeff asked.
Buchanan nodded toward the screens. “If we have six refugee ships headed toward us, with the potential of many more behind them that Walter just hasn’t picked up as out of the norm yet, then I think what we really need to ask is: Who are they all fleeing from, and is that enemy coming after them?”
CHAPTER 9
THE ROOM WENT SILENT for a few long moments. Then Jeff nodded. “That is definitely the right question, thank you.” He shook his head. “We can’t keep this a secret for too much longer, and I mean minutes, not hours or days. We need to make a plan of action, and that requires a good chunk of those in the LSR.”
“They’re fleeing from the Z’porrah. I mean, that seems like the obvious choice to me.”
Chuckie shrugged as he turned back to his calculations. “Maybe. But just because the big war is between the Z’porrah and anyone else they don’t like, that doesn’t mean that smaller conflicts aren’t causing issues.”
“True,” Wruck said. “We tend to let the individual solar systems deal with their issues themselves. We step in as needed, but less and less once species are on a path toward full sentience and civilization.”
“Do you mean spaceflight?” Alexander asked.
“No, not wholly.”
“The Shantanu are hella sentient and hella civilized and they only care about spaceflight because they had to in order to help their solar system and because helping the Cleophese to survive on land and, as an extension, space was something important to them.”
Wruck nodded to me. “Exactly. Sentience requires a full understanding of not just the world around you but that there is a vast galaxy filled with other beings out there. Whether you desire to meet those others or not isn’t the defining characteristic. For us, at any rate.”
“What’s the defining characteristic for the Z’porrah?” I had a feeling I knew, but it was always nice to do the double check.
“They want races that will strengthen them. They don’t care about sentience and civilization, or even the potential for such, so much as they care about creating a stronger fighting base.” Wruck shook his head. “Originally, when we were allies, they didn’t feel this way. They agreed with us on how to uplift.”
“That must have been one hell of a spat.”
“They start small,” Siler said. “They always start small, and then get larger and larger until they’re all-encompassing. You’ve seen that here on Earth. And if you’re not sure, look no farther than Stephanie.”
Jeff groaned. “Speaking of my niece, we have an extra layer of issues.”
“You mean you think Cliff Goodman and his Crazy Eights and Stephanie and the Tinkerer are going to try to take advantage of the current and upcoming situations?”
“It’s a safe bet,” Siler said.
Chuckie nodded as he appeared to finish perpetrating higher math. “We need to assign more resources to tracking them down.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” This statement earned me the room’s attention.
“Mind explaining that?” Christopher asked.
“Sure. I enjoyed being ahead of our now dethroned Mastermind. And, frankly, we’re currently ahead of Stephanie and the Tinkerer, too.”
“How?” Jeff asked flatly.
“She means that we know what’s coming and they don’t,” Chuckie said. Rightly. “However, they do know about the current push to join Centaurion Division. Meaning they have a great way to infiltrate.”
“Yeah, join up as a World Protection-Minded Citizen, undermine from within. Only, we know what all of them look like.”
“Do we?” Buchanan asked. “We have no idea what the LaRue and Reid clones are looking like right now, nor how old they are. You know that Goodman isn’t going to try to become a recruit. And while we have descriptions of the rest of them, most of them are average-enough looking that it’ll take one of us to identify them. And we don’t have the time to do that.”