Haven 4 AVOW - Sandra R Neeley Page 0,91
all, goodbye Bart!”
“Rokai, this is not over. You cannot simply arrive on the Consortium’s satellite station without approval! You were expressly denied permission to dock!” Bart yelled.
“Of course not. We understand this. Under any other circumstances we would not have arrived without invitation, but, just this one time, we had to rescue Synclare. Come to visit us soon, or if you prefer, make plans to visit Cruestace. It is such a lovely place!” Rokai said, trying to deflect the issues at hand.
“I am with your parents now!” Bart said.
“Are you?” Rokai asked, knowing full well that Karel had said Bart was with his parents, but not imagining they could have been listening in with Bart. His voice did not give away a bit of the unease he felt at learning that they were most likely well aware of what was going on as it was happening. “Well, then enjoy your visit! Perhaps you can find a female to mate with there. It seems to have calmed Zha Quin — he bellows a lot less than he used to — perhaps it will calm you as well. Give my parents my love, I have a General who’s just rescued his kidnapped mate to escort back to Command Warship 1!” Rokai said. He flashed a grin at Karel and the two guards, then hurried from the office to catch up with Lo'San and Synclare.
~~~
Lo'San strapped Synclare into the seat beside him, and began the process of powering up the cruiser. “Missy, please prepare the cruiser for flight. We will be returning to Command Warship 1 without further delay.”
“Of course, General Lo'San. As I prepare for departure, Commander Tel Mo’ Kok wishes to speak with you,” Missy said pleasantly.
Lo'San sighed. “Wonderful,” he mumbled.
“General Lo'San!” Zha Quin bellowed. “Do you care to explain to me why you and Elite Force Commander Rokai ahl have stormed the satellite station of the Unified Consortium Defense?!”
“Of course, sir,” Lo'San answered, looking at the angry face of Zha Quin projected onto the white display across the windshield of the cruiser. “But please allow me to correct your assumption, sir, we did not storm the station. We simply landed, pled our case and gained access to my mate, sir,” Lo'San explained, being more formal than necessary with the ‘sirs’.
“Were you or were you not denied permission to dock?” Zha Quin demanded.
“We were,” Lo'San answered.
“And yet you did it anyway! Are you aware that my Sirena and I were yanked awake after a stressful morning by a com from Chairman Bartholomew, accompanied by Sovereign Zha Tahl and Sovereigna Eula, demanding to know why two of our battle cruisers — not transports — battle cruisers, and two of them, insisted on docking despite the fact they refused to identify themselves and were denied permission!”
“No, I was not aware of that, Sire. I do apologize for the inconvenience, Sire.”
“Inconvenience? How about the intra-universal incident you have caused. What about all the alerts that went out when it became clear that the Cruestaci were approaching on battle cruisers?”
“There was no incident, Sire. I give you my word, all concerns were addressed. We were given access to my mate, and all misunderstandings were explained. All is well, Sire.”
A chime could be heard in the background of Zha Quin’s vid com and he listened for a moment before giving his full attention to General Lo'San again. “Chairman Bartholomew is waiting for me on a different com. Standby,” Quin ordered.
“We are departing now, Sire. We will be there shortly,” Lo'San responded.
“Just standby!” Quin ordered.
“Yes, Sire,” Lo'San said.
A few minutes later Quin was back on the vid com with Lo'San. “Kidnapping? You accused an Ambassador of the Consortium Defense of being complicit in the kidnapping of your mate?” Quin asked.
“No! I did not. I said she was kidnapped. Then Rokai implied that there may be a chance that anyone hindering us from saving her may be complicit. Neither of us directly accused anyone other than my family,” Lo'San said.
Quin pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose as he usually did when highly stressed.
“My mate was stolen from me, Quin!” Lo'San said, breaking from formality and addressing his Sire and Commander as his friend. “What would you have done if Vivi was taken from you? Even if by your own flesh and blood, she was taken from you and you were made aware of exactly where she was?” Lo'San asked passionately.
“You were denied permission to dock!” Quin insisted.
Lo'San shook his head resignedly, stared right back at