Tough Talk
On Board Rogon Starship
Alchibah Asteroid belt:
Richard Redmond waited outside the recessed doorway. He was not accustomed to waiting, but that couldn’t be helped. Suddenly the door opened “enter” came the Rogon voice from within.
The room was large and there were just three Rogons in the near end. Redmond was glad to see Shintok; maylock-A, but somewhat shocked to see the second one, the distinct lack of a neck hair identified this Rogon as an Ossog.
Redmond knelt down on one knee and addressed the Rogons “Masters, your obedient slave awaits orders.”
Ossog; sespes-AP was not impressed “enough is! Clear speak is!”
Shintok; maylock-A took over the questioning “no slave speak… straight talk only is…first view” the room darkened and a large 3-D presentation filled much of the volume. Redmond realized he was watching the battle between UNWG task force and the Rebel pirates the little raiders move fast and precisely firing quickly but accurately. Redmond was not a trained naval officer but something was obviously wrong… then it dawned on him.
“The cowardly traitors didn’t fight back never even fired back… while I’ll have all their heads” he said, without thinking that the people in question were already dead.
“Silence” said Ossog; sespes-AP ‘cowards not, too high acceleration is… view again.”
The scene repeated itself and this time it was obvious to Redmond that the pirates were much too quick and agile. What could explain that?
As the room lights came back up sespes was first too speak “slave ships acceleration too high is… explain must.”
Redmond had only one answer “the UN was experimenting on an advanced drive; those criminals stole the secrets and have had all this time to get them to work. That’s was why we were planning to come here when the Masters arrived.”
“Enough! Truth is?” said the big Ossog. maylock answered “truth is not… lying again, this slave is… krett explain must!” Redmond began to sputter “Master truth is…” when the 3rd Rogon spoke he was shocked into speechlessness.
“Human slave, we will not tolerate any more lies. If you don’t know something… say so. Keep making up self serving lies and your usefulness ended will be…so cut the bullshit!” This third Rogon was Shintok; krett-N after a lifetime dedicated to studying Humankind and the last 3 years dealing with them directly he was not going to put up with any nonsense from one such as this.
“Forgive me Master; I gave only reasonable answer… I will not make any more guesses.”
Humiliated and scared Richard Redmond was still incapable of admitting what was so obvious that even the alien could see it.
sespes spoke again ”Enough is, continue the view.”
The projected images now played out the events from the planet Rogons being ambushed on a mountainside, another lightning fast fighter destroying a dragon head ship, a strange fight in primitive snow covered town and then explosions… many explosions.
When the lights came up again Shintok; krett-N resumed the interrogation, for interrogation it was. “Our dragon heads were landing with defenses set low…we were told not to expect a resistance… You, told us not to expect resistance. How do you explain that?”
“Please, master I had no way to know the criminals would fight, they fled from Earth… We had a plan… to kill them on the asteroid; I didn’t know.”
Richard Redmond knew one thing, he was arguing for his life here, he would say anything to placate this horrible creature who spoke and thought like a human.
“You should have known… these slaves had been fighting you for years, why would they not fight here? You have much to explain” said krett, and the questions went on and on and on.