Resilient - Evolution

Chapter 13: A Meeting of Minds

"Lady Nina," Ram said, "Before you go, there is a message from the Cossig. They want to meet with whoever is in charge."

"Meet where?" she asked.

"You now have a good-sized base put together at the ISS," Ram said. "There are several biodomes, and one of the domes that were part of the facility was in the ocean trench. These have all been linked with the ISS. Duke has left the ISS and is clearing the vicinity of the ISS of any space debris that could become problematic in the near future. The Cossig want to meet in the semi-neutral space of the space station."

Nina thought for a moment and said, "Can we do this without causing an issue with the ISS personnel that may not be able to survive contact with other people?"

"They are willing to meet in the dome from the ocean base. It is habitable for Humans, but this one has not been cleaned and sanitized yet, so it is still off-limits to ISS personnel," Ram said. "The Cossig are afraid that they would be fired upon if they entered the atmosphere at this point and want to meet where they can escape if they need to."

"Did they say what they want to talk about?" she asked.

Ram said, "It was not completely clear, but it has something to do with the Glaxis."

She had all the fighters and drones that were already in Saint Louis stand down until she got back with them. That was still some business that needed to be taken care of, but when a coalition of aliens is willing to meet in space, it might be something that sets a bigger priority.

"Eric ... are you listening?" she asked.

"You have an update from Saint Louis?" he returned.

"Not yet ... haven't even gone yet," she said. "I want you to go with me to the ISS."

"What's up?" he asked.

"Ram says that the Cossig want to have a sit-down," she said. "I can't think of anyone I would rather have at my side when I meet some aliens for the first time."

"Are we going packed, or are we trusting your posse to protect us?" he asked.

"Let's let the posse handle it," she said. "They have more firepower than we could ever carry anyway, and I don't want to look like we want to pick a fight."

"What do I need?" he wanted to know.

"Your armor and your own fighter," she said. "We're going to the dome that Ben sent up with the rest of the ships for the ISS. Ram says that it still hasn't been sanitized, so the ISS people won't be in there. The Cossig are supposed to meet us there."

"Okay, meet you here in the hangar," he said. He knew this would happen at some point, but it was still exciting. To actually meet up with the group of aliens that had been working with his father might yield more information than he'd been able to rustle up on his own.

Nina was already in her armor, so it only took a moment to get ready. She had Ram give her another pod of ten fighter drones so it wouldn't look too intimidating. They would ride piggyback on the two fighters, and her posse would fly as an escort.

When Eric met her in the hangar, she melted into his arms and just held on for a moment. "Are you ready for this?" he asked.

"Is anyone ever ready for something like this?" she said back. "I think I'm trembling."

"I feel you," he said. "Or maybe that's me."

"Holy shit, Eric," she said. "We're finally going to meet them. I hope it's not like the meeting between the Human representative and the Cylons on that Battlestar Galactica show. That didn't end too well."