“While,” Dain jumped back in, “keeping your colonies safe. Allowing you to update your fleet accordingly so the Kahls can’t surprise you again.”
Titus cleared his throat. “I’m not exactly authorized to… to make this happen.”
“It’ll be easier coming from you and us than just us,” Dain said. “We’ve done this before. That’s the mission of the Brekka. We help other cultures come over while performing special missions. The kind that have the potential to win the war. We can do whatever it takes to bring down the enemy.”
“I have yet to contact my high command…” Titus looked at Anders. “What do you think they’re even going to say?”
“It’s going to blow their minds,” Anders replied, “and there could be some administrative nightmares.”
“Yes, usually there are.” Dain smiled. “We’ve seen that before too. So what we do is get this ship upgraded. Pump resources into it. Bring our techs in to work with yours. Make it happen. Turn over the schematics, the resources, everything else. You repopulate this thing and we make some things happen.”
Niva nodded. “This way, your culture sees the benefit of working with us. They understand we’re on your side. And at the same time, you discover the fact that you can win.”
“After they see this data,” Titus said, “they’ll be ready to try anything, I’m pretty sure.” He let out a deep breath. “How long would it take to do these upgrades?”
“Weeks,” Dain replied, “maybe a little longer. All depends on the internal systems. But we’ve got the people and the tech to make it quick. We need a dry dock, time, and dedication. I say we talk to the most influential person you know and get them to push some things through for us. No matter what we have to do, this needs to happen fast.”
“What do you think?” Titus asked Anders. “You’ve been in the service longer than me.”
“I think we’ve got compelling arguments,” Anders said. “And if we talk to the TCN Agency, we’ll get the push we need to make it happen. It’s just a matter of reaching out ASAP. I’d almost suggest we contact them first. With these two, if you both don’t mind. They’ll have a lot of questions.”
“They always do,” Niva said, “but we’d like to ensure we are moving forward. So when we’ve finished basic repairs here, we need to return to a friendly port… somewhere that’s equipped but not a core world. Somewhere they’d have to send someone to bother us. We’ll undergo the upgrades immediately.”
“That… I don’t know.” Titus didn’t want to jump too far ahead. “How do we know…”
“That we can be trusted?” Dain interrupted. “I guess at the heart of the matter, you have no clue. But we did just save your lives. We have the technology to conquer your homeworld tomorrow if we wanted to. And we haven’t. Because we genuinely want this alliance. We want a free universe where you can explore without threat of annihilation.”
“I should point out,” Niva added, “that my department considers you as partners. Your tactical experience from internal fighting makes you ideal to work with us. We need more warriors. We have no intention of betraying you. Which is why we’re giving you the schematics. I’ll transfer them to your technical people right now if you’d like. They can look them over.”
“And while we head back to your base,” Dain said, “they can see if we’re lying.”
“That seems fair.” Titus turned to Anders. “What do you think?”
“I’m a trusting guy,” Anders replied. “We’ll have to sell it, but I think we can do it.”
“Then… okay.” Titus nodded. “We’ve at least got a tentative plan. We’ll reach out to the appropriate people. Make the connection. Start the dialogue…” He rubbed his chin. “Did we… are we essentially at war then?”
“For lack of a better term,” Dain lifted his shoulders, “yes. But they don’t know about you yet. They’ll never see you coming. Believe me. I’ve looked forward to saying that for a long time.” He clapped his hands. “Anyway, you’ve got comms to send and we’ve got schematics to share. Let’s plan to get out of here in, say… two hours, yes?”
“The ship should be ready by then.” Titus stood.
“Then we should return to our shuttle,” Dain said. “We can get all the data sent over from there. Maybe get one of your tech people to visit us so we can coordinate our interfaces. That won’t matter once we upgrade your computers and such but for now, we’ve got a few compatibility challenges to overcome.”
Titus summoned the guards. “Please escort them back to the hangar. I’ll be along shortly. They’re our guests. Treat them accordingly.” He waited until they left before speaking again. “I trust them… even if that’s insane or stupid, I simply do. I mean… well… what do you think?”
“You saw what their ship could do,” Anders replied. “Do you believe they could take out Earth? Would we stand a chance against them? Or even this new enemy?”
After the Brekka entered the fight, they had torn through the Kahl ships. He’d been shocked by how easily they had ripped through the shields and how quickly they’d lit up the hulls. Especially after the Triton’s weapons did nothing. That was the answer to the question, and it acted as a grim look at the future.
“They can. We don’t.” Titus shrugged. “I guess I’d like to know what you’d think in my place. Would you trust them? Would you give them a chance?”
“I wouldn’t have a choice.” Anders patted his shoulder. “And neither do you. Let high command decide about trust.”
“But by the time they even think about what’s going on, we’ll be upgrading the Triton… if we follow
