"Have a seat, Miss Mc'kee." He saw her jaw working with a question, but the words wouldn't come out. The place her brother had told her to meet him was a military base, and now she was here. "My condolences to your loss. As you now know, your brother passed through these doors on his deployment, but beyond the fact he has proved invaluable, and he is safe, I can tell you no more."

It took a moment to recover, before her anger got the best of her. "If you know so damn much, why didn't anyone come and help Karabellum?"

"That is classified, but we were all taken by surprise."

"But now that you know there's a threat, you will utilize what I have learned to mount a counter attack?"

"That is beyond the scope of this conversation. You are here to conform to a legal matter regarding stolen property in your possession."

"I'm taking care of that myself, good sir." Ketty didn't like the direction of the conversation, but she wasn't giving up, except he was a stubborn man and his mind had been made up before she arrived. After a half hour of pleading, she was getting angry because no one seemed willing to help.

"Perhaps, Rear Admiral Barg, you don't understand the gravity of the situation this society faces." She almost felt like the last ambassador trying to save an ungrateful nation.

"It's not that we don't acknowledge there may be a threat, Miss Mc'kee..."

"May be a threat? You pompous idiot. My parents are dead. You have to do something."

"My forces are allotted to defend the core systems due to a lack of..." His mouth screwed into a snarl as he searched for the words that wouldn't come back to haunt him. "Due to a lack of resources. Furthermore, we are unable to identify any tangible threats. For the past thousand years there has not been a need for military strength like you presume we will need, and the enemy has not attacked on a united front."

She imagined herself flying over the table and wrapping her hands between the folds of his fat neck. By the time guards arrived, she would have at least given him a scare. Instead she tried to be real.

"You use words like, 'may be a threat,' and 'the strength I presume we will need.'" Let me tell you mister, I have been right in the face of the nastiest alien race you will meet in this lifetime. They're smelly, fast, and nearly impossible to kill. Beyond that, there is no motive behind their aggression and they have no moral bearings what-so-ever."

"My forces may seem impressive, but we don't have enough strength to mount an attack on an enemy which has no home world or base of operation," he said.

She was a woman now, and it was time for her to act like one. Gazing into the stone wall eyes of Rear Admiral Barg, she realized she was at a turning point in her life. There was a conflict inside her which somehow had spilled out into this war. But the struggle wasn't against Harazel, the military, or the Firm. She was fighting against herself and it was killing her. Would she be consumed by the death of her parents and the loss of her bots, or would she embrace the woman she was becoming?

"You know what, Sir, go ahead and do what you want. I have a meeting to catch, and I see I'm wasting my time here." She stormed out of the control tower with her entourage in tow, but out in the corridor, she was stopped dead in her tracks. Captain French of Alderom was there waiting to take Harazel.

"Ah, young princess, you are a force to be reckoned with, but don't doubt for a second if you cross me again, I will hunt you to the end of the Subdivision."

"Don't worry, Captain, next time I won't threaten you." The soldiers accompanying him stood hard on their smiles. "And Captain, don't let the bird bite you."

They walked away, but Kato wasn't convinced they had seen the last of him. "He's got it in for us. You really think they're going to let us go."

"No, but somehow Greer has pulled some strings, or Captain French would have detained us already, don't you think?" Ketty looked him in the eye as they boarded Kestral. She could see his concern, but there was something else there. "Are you getting soft on me Kato?"

"No, I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"So now you're my keeper as well?"

"It's not like that," he snapped, but he realized he was over reacting. "Sorry," he tried to reel it in, but it was too late. "We'll talk about it later." With that he stormed off, more embarrassed than anything.

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