I was certain I’d go hungry until at the end of the table I discovered some rations, which I thankfully consumed. While eating as far from the disgusting table as possible, a Po with yellow wristbands appeared.
“Your luggage,” it said with an accent, though how it managed to have an accent talking with hand boxes was beyond me.
“Luggage?” I asked.
It left without responding, and in its place, dozens of Po quickly deposited the contents of my ship. The delfiblinium.
It was still enclosed in its containers and looked untampered with. I was all alone in some inner room of the world-ship with countless tons of the ore. I needed to think.
And do other things.
Using the bathroom on the world-ship reinforced just how ill-conceived our original plan was. It’s true I didn’t know the capabilities of delfiblinium, but was it possible it could do any damage to this installation? I had been acutely afraid of the bathroom toilet mashing me into a singularity by its sheer awesomeness.
I hoped that was the toilet, anyway.
I was really on a planet. And not a planet made from water or gas or loose soil, but one composed alternately of solid crystal and metals.
My great fear was that exploding the metal would merely destroy a few dozen rooms and maybe collapse a hallway, necessitating a little remodeling, but nothing else.
I came to the conclusion that my original mission was void. I needed to stop this vessel some other way. I wasn’t going to blow it up, that much was certain.
CHAPTER 46
I hadn’t realized how tired I had been until the purple Po woke me up to tell me there was a meeting and I was invited as emissary of the Colmarian Confederation.
I tried to make myself look important in my monogrammed, yet sissy-colored, bathrobe.
The conclave was held in a large room—well, large by normal room standards, but normal by world-ship standards. There was a circular table around which sat the aliens I had seen earlier. In most cases there were several representatives for each race sitting close to one another.
In the center of the table was a hole that was occupied by the purple Po, as if he were directing traffic from the various species.
The whole thing was very similar to a gang meeting.
Sitting closest to me were Rettosians. They were one of the furthest species from Belvaille—but so were the Dredel Led, and that hadn’t stopped them from hanging around. The Rettosians were an ancient species. Colmarians thought of them as decadent, preferring only the finest of finer things, but who knows if that stereotype was true.
Physically, they looked like melting Colmarians. Or oozing. Their bodies secreted…something that was reabsorbed and then secreted again. Each individual varied in color, but they were vibrant blues and reds and greens and yellows. Their wardrobes highlighted their condition by having little spouts and producing tiny waterfalls and fountains. While it sounds kind of gross, it actually was a rather attractive effect, though I couldn’t imagine touching one.
The purple Po called the meeting to order.
“We need to address the last concern of the Qwintine representative regarding the division of trade in the ZT38-P4 system.”
The Qwintine were here as well. Physically, they were a thin species. They were twitchy and insect-like. And they hadn’t advanced as much as the other great empires because they had a low life-expectancy. I think they lived only fifty or so years, which really didn’t lend itself to galactic exploration.
There were five jittering around at the other side of the table. The one seated front-and-center had a dull complexion and didn’t move nearly as much as the ones behind it, who were colored more brightly. I wondered if they shipped over dozens of diplomats and let them die off. What a weird species.
“Excuse me,” I said, raising my hand.
The purple Po turned to me. Or at least more of its appendages did.
“I’m kind of new here, but I’d like to get this ship stopped. How do I go about doing that? It’s going into our territory.”
There was a slight cacophony of sounds at the table that was most disturbing. It took me a moment to realize the various races were laughing.
On my other side was a cloud of red gas “seated” at the table. It swirled with varying shades of red, and little ripples of electricity pulsed through it. It was a Keilvin Kamigan, the only gaseous race in the galaxy. It had the enviable position of being able to occupy the planets that were uninhabitable by anyone else. Though as I recall, you only need a little kid with a rock to kill one, as that’s all it took to rupture their membrane.
The Keilvin Kamigan used its own chemistry to activate a voice box on the table in front of it.
“We have already settled that years ago, Colmarian. This ship’s course is set.”