Chapter 39

Ellax

O n the short flight home from the orbiting space ship outside Asterion's atmosphere to the skypad inside Korith, I mulled over my meeting with my fellow Lead Advisors.

***

Once I'd arrived on the Coalition's ship and perfunctory greetings had been made, we'd seated ourselves and gotten directly to business.

"Ellax," the host and most senior member of the Coalition, Ithrigor, from the planet Gorgathel, had opened the meeting. To lend weight to his authority, he clasped a slender golden rod engraved with the names of the twelve planets comprising the Interstellar Coalition. The rod was a symbol of power. Was he anticipating a difficult conference today? "Knowing you were on an important personal mission, to retrieve your wayward son, we chose not to alarm you with the whispers of an Asterion request. However, you have returned and the request has been officially filed; albeit not by you, to our surprise."

"Yes," I nodded, folding my hands on the chrome table before me. It was a circle, around which were seated the twelve Lead Advisors of the Interstellar Coalition, each member representing the twelve planets that comprised the ruling board. "The matter was conducted without me. However, though I haven't returned with my son, who has chosen to remain on Earth, I do have a new wife."

I kept my face carefully composed. Of course, the Coalition knew. Were they aware of the peculiar circumstances surrounding my marriage? How it had come to be?

"We heard," Ithrigor acknowledged. "And we were in agreement with your own planet's advice for you to remain married to the human female. It might prove beneficial in improving interspecies relations with the humans on Earth, and with other colonized planets."

Lucky Lorelai. Our drunken mistake would prove to be the shining balance from which interspecies' relations would now swing.

"Now that the matter of a female for you, and soon an heir, has been settled," Ithrigor went on, "we must discuss the request sent to us by the Asterion Council."

I'd a feeling I knew the request. I subtly clenched my fingers and remained silent.

"They wish us to deal with the wild humans on Earth once and for all," Gorb, from the planet Horeb, declared. His blue antennae, a striking color against the orange of his scales, waggled slightly as he spoke. "To send a strike force, headed by the Coalition's Unified Forces, and wipe them out wherever they may be found."

"Genocide," I said quietly.

Gorb chuckled, a wheezing, whistling sound. "Hardly. They are not asking to decimate all humans. Only the wild humans. And those in the region of Asterion's colony. Although," he admitted, "if the matter goes well, it is certainly a precedent that could be set for the Coalition's other colonies on Earth."

I clasped and un-clasped my fingers. Before I could speak, Drelor, from Satbey, the planet closest to Asterion, said bluntly, "I dislike it. It sets a terrible precedent. We decimate any rebel humans, and what? Will the species on other planets we wish to colonize fear the same? It will strengthen their resistance. Taking control in this manner will cost more bloodshed."

"Strengthen resistance, or melt it away, like ice in Asterion's twin suns," Gorb argued.

"Well, we've no way of knowing that, Gorb, do we?"

"No, Drelor, we do not. It is a new thing. But I find myself, having weighed the risks, willing to attempt it."

"I am not willing," Drelor insisted. "Ellax, what is your opinion? The request to utilize the Unified Forces came from the Asterion Council, yet your name was not on the official request. Do you disagree? Your son lives on Earth. You, of all the Lead Advisors, have visited there most recently. What did you observe?"

Here it came: my opinion on the situation. Did I stand with my fellow Elders? Or did I stand with Caide and his human wife? Did I stand with my own human wife? She had made her outrage at the plan exceedingly known.

I could not speak. I could not give an answer. I did not know. Normally, I was far more decisive. In fact, my reputation was that of a politician who would offer an honest opinion, no matter who it offended or who took umbrage.

For the first time in a long, long while, I found myself trapped. Every other matter we'd ever handled hadn't affected my son. Or my wife. And, by weight of consequence, me.

My wife.

Lorelai was thoroughly against it. And that mattered. Why did it matter?

You know why. She is your mate. You know that she is. Listen to her.

"Ellax?" Ithrigor prompted.

I shook my head, spreading my hands in apology.

"I need more time to weigh these matters," I said, my voice coarse from the battle waged within my soul. "I returned from Earth yesterday, and with a new wife. A human wife. There is…a great deal to be considered."

"A human wife," Briishan, from the planet Moriat echoed. Her three pink nostrils flared. "There we are. A human wife. Will this color your judgment? How could it not?"

I turned on her angrily, but Drelor spoke for me. "He has a right to consider his human wife, as it concerns her species."

"I thought we were all in agreement," Briishan replied, leaning towards Drelor. "Ellax's marriage to the human female is a perfect reason to send the strike team now. Those who need to be frightened into resistance will be frightened. Those who need to be exterminated, will be. And the rest? We will parade Ellax and his wife before them as a symbol of unity, a beacon of hope.

"On the one hand, we send a strong message that we can annihilate those who resist. On the other? If they comply, who knows to what heights they may soar?"

The same rhetoric my fellow Elders had spouted. I was weary of it. Angered by it. I slammed an open palm upon the tabletop.

"We are talking about thousands of human lives," I snapped. "Is their species beneath all of ours in every way? Possibly. Arguably. Yet I believe they deserve more consideration than merely a beacon of hope held out by a marriage entered into during a drunken stupor!"

I hadn't intended to admit the final part. Some eyes widened. Some dropped in embarrassment. I was beyond caring.

"Yes. You assumed I married the human female on a romantic whim? Or even to secure an heir? No. We both imbibed too much lyven, were drunk, foolish, and chose to be married. We'd have been separated already, had the Asterion Council and my fellow Lead Advisors not intervened."

It was mild-mannered Drelor who responded gently, "Whatever your reasons for marrying her, Ellax, you did marry her. This union could be a fine thing. However, I agree with you that the humans will not be so easily fooled as to comply with any future demands because of your marriage if we wipe them out first."

His piercing gaze looked around the chrome table, meeting each member, challenging them. Ithrigor was the final one. As the more senior Advisor, it fell on him to remain unemotional, no matter what. He did, rising from his seat, a sign that he was making a decision.

"This matter is too weighty to be settled in one day's time," he said. "Gorb? You will write a proposal for the matter. Drelor? You will write and present the opposing viewpoint. Ellax?"

Tension raced up my spine. "Yes, Ithrigor?"

"I will leave it up to you to propose an alternative viewpoint, if one is to be found."

My mind seized the possibility. An alternative viewpoint? How would I come up with that?

Ithrigor tapped his rod on the table, ending the meeting.

"We will convene again in two days at this same time, Asterion hours," he said.

It was over.

For now.

Nothing to do but get back on the space ship, return home to my planet, and spend the afternoon and evening crafting a reasonable alternative proposal to protect my son, his wife, my wife, and the innocent members of her species.

A strange pang filled me as I filed out of the meeting room. Some of the other members talked among themselves, discussing the day's events, the meeting, the three proposals that would be submitted. I should have been listening, trying to gauge who might be favorable to my proposal and which way each member might vote.

Instead, I could only think of my human wife.

How might she respond to this? She was a clever woman.

I will ask her to assist me in the proposal, I decided as I stepped onto the starship, piloted by the same captain who had officiated my marriage to Lorelai.

She could offer insight into the wild humans on her planet. And she would understand that I had no desire to wipe out a vast number of her species. Also, perhaps working together to save her people would, in some way, help erase the recent wrongs I'd committed against my son and his wife. If restitution were to be found, I could use every bit of my position as an Elder and Lead Advisor to discover it.