“They would be censured and lose their voting rights and will pay a debt to the clan they ignored.”
Danielle looked again at Tong-Gee and said while looking him directly in the eye, “We Humans have a saying; it is worse to suspect a friend of wrong than to have them actually do it. If one has to live their life in constant distrust of everyone they encounter then everyone will distrust them. Now I ask you Excellency, can your race be trusted?”
Tgon-Gee looked Danielle in the eye and said, “No.”
Danielle smiled and said, “You’ve just taken the first step toward being trustworthy. I know what that answer cost you. You came here to see which direction you were going to go; with us or the Alliance. You’re trying to find which one is the better choice to help your race. If you report this relationship to the Alliance, it might help your standing in their government. If you find a way to defeat our technology, your race would be a rising star.”
“If you know this, why did you agree to meet with me?”
“Because you don’t like what you see in your race. You want at some level to be able to be an ally. You look at how close the Cainth came to total destruction and you see your own ultimate destruction by one of the races you’ve treated unfairly. You look at us and you don’t know what we’re capable of doing. You don’t see any way we can defeat the Alliance, but we could defeat you to the point of destruction. All we need do is to weaken your military and there will be a line forming to finish the job. That’s why you’re here.”
Tgon-Gee looked down at the table and then looked at Terl and Admiral Dorg and said, “Everything she has said is true. My race doesn’t have the clan structure you have. The only real commonality we have is Loyalty to the Crown.”
“What is the Crowns responsibility to its subjects?” Danielle asked.
“To ensure that the people are protected and cared for and to make sure that justice is done in major disputes between our various nations. The crown also sanctions disputes and rules on the outcome of two zones warriors fighting to resolve their issues.”
“Excellency, if Humans and Cainths were your subjects; what would be your responsibility to them?”
“I would be responsible for their protection.”
“And if you agreed to become a subject of the Cainth, what would happen then?”
“I would still be responsible for their protection.”
“I think we have a way to make agreements,” Danielle said.
Tgon-Gee looked for a long time at Danielle and said, “I would never agree to become a subject of the Cainth.”
“Why not,” Terl asked?
“Because I’ve seen too much of your history and what you have been in the past. I just wouldn’t be able to place my people’s safety in your hands.” Then he looked at Danielle and said, “I would however agree to my people and me to become subjects of this Human Female.”
Danielle’s mouth fell open. She was speechless. Terl looked at the other Clan Leaders and they were nodding at him. Terl turned and said, “The Cainth Empire will also become subjects of Mrs. Danielle and swear to protect any of her subjects as if they were our Clan Brothers.”
The Director stood and said, “Mrs. Danielle Gardner is already the leader of our Race. We would also accept her as our sovereign ruler over any interspecies affairs and accept any of her subjects as our allies.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Danielle stammered. “I don’t know anything about ruling. All I know is when I see the truth, that’s all I can do. I have no idea of being any kind of ruler.”
Tgon-Gee said, “Seeing the truth is often a rare thing. I’ve seen how you see me and my people for who and what we are and you still want to establish a peaceful, productive relationship with us. The price of Royalty is heavy and the responsibility is high, believe me I know. I will agree to work out a relationship with the two of you, Cainth and Human, but only if she is our ruler and I mean our queen. I suspect that each of our worlds will want to run the everyday affairs of our societies, but when it comes to issues between our races, our Queen has the final word. She will not be an honorary queen but one that truly rules. This is the only structure my people will accept. She will be what binds us.”
Director Nicole looked at the SFT and they were nodding at the suggestion. She then turned and said, “We have royalty in our past and it worked. That is always true when you have a good ruler. I think we can all agree here that we have chosen the best. But we need to hammer out succession to the satisfaction of all of us. Tgon- Gee, can you accept her as your ruler and your people give her the loyalty you have from them?”
Tgon-Gee bowed to one knee and said, “I place the future of my people in her hands and pledge my loyalty to her.” The glod Fleet Admiral bent down on his knee and said, “I also pledge my life and family to you, my queen.”
At once, everyone in the room bowed and swore their allegiance to Danielle. Even Tag was on his knee and when she saw him smiling at her she mouthed at him, “Help.”
Tag stood up and said, “I also agree with you. My wife has amazed me with her skills at seeing the truth of any situation. It’s her gift. I know she is humble and does not wish this to be thrust on her, but sometimes history finds the right person at the right time. We have chosen well. I would recommend that we meet again three rotations from now and hammer out the details of this. We also need to move some orbital fortresses to the Glod Home World to insure their protection. We currently have eight that are being charged next to our sun that we were going to add to our own fortresses, however, it’s just a matter of time until the Alliance gets wind of our relationships. Tgon-Gee, you also need to send 500 of your warships to one of our facilities to convert then to power cell technology.”
Dorg was watching Tgon-Gee closely. When Tag spoke Tgon-Gee stood to see him. Now Dorg had no doubt; Tgon-Gee was stunned when he looked at Tag. He seemed to be actually showing fear. What’s going on here?” Dorg thought. “What is he seeing that I don’t?”
Tgon-Gee looked away from Tag and collected himself then looked at Terl and said, “I know you’re short on ships, we’ll be glad to send you some for defense.”
Terl smiled at him and said, “Tgon-Gee, we already have 1,400 of our ships converted and are building an additional 600 in our facilities. Let me show you one of them, Excellency.”
The screen on the wall came on and there in the middle of it was a dreadnaught that looked like nothing he had ever seen. It was parked close to a small asteroid that was about one seg wide. The dreadnaught suddenly fired a beam that blew a hole 1,200 degs wide thru the middle of the asteroid and exploded it. Admiral Dorg said, “Excellency, we have 700 of those ships.”
Tgon-Gee looked at the awesome ship and knew that the Humans had totally defeated more than 4,000 ships with only 600 of their small ships. Then he looked at the Human Female and asked, “My Queen, how many ships does your race possess to defend your realm?”
My own people have 7,876 at last count and the Cainth will soon have 2,000. That’s a total of almost 10,000. How many ships do you have in your fleet Prince?”
“We have 3,600.”
“We should have all your ships converted within ninety rotations. Could you get the first 500 there quickly? I suspect that we might need your help after the next battle.”
Misty Nicole looked at Danielle and said, “You will be the first human queen whose realm will not only rule earth but will span the stars.”
Danielle looked at Misty and said, “Perhaps we should name our new alliance the Stars Realm.”
Everyone was silent for a moment and Tgon-Gee said, “I agree; that sounds like a good name for our new relationship.”
Terl said, “Then Stars Realm it is. A great name for a great new entity.”
Tgon-Gee looked at the Human Female and for the first time in his life respected and trusted someone completely. His new government will possess more than 13,000 of those demon ships. He knew he had chosen the right course for his people. It wouldn’t take much contact with these Humans to shame his more violent subjects into seeing how stupid they were and they will get the message in a manner that they will find acceptable. For the first time since the Glod and Cainth lost that initial battle, he felt secure that his races future looked more promising than he had ever suspected.
“Tag, I can’t be queen. I just can’t. I’m not qualified, it’s too much responsibility.”
Tag took her in his arms and said, “Yes you can. You have to accept. Don’t you see the Clan suggestion is just a stopgap? We won’t allow the Cainth to pass laws that we have to obey and neither will they accept ours. We
