Chapter 20
‘Good Day, Supreme Advisor’ said the Admiral, as the Advisor and his team were ushered into the room that had been cleared, with tables set up and food and drinks laid out. Despite their best efforts, space was limited and the room was still somewhat drab, despite the bright red tablecloths. The most comfortable chairs they had on board were dotted around the edges of the room.
‘Greetings, Admiral. Please call me Greg’ replied the Supreme Advisor, in perfect English.
‘That’s a relief, Greg. I had expected that we would need to use translators to communicate. Please feel free to call me Reeds. Let me introduce my Commodore, Ellie Powell, the ship’s Captain, George VanDelden and the man who was captured briefly by your General Gott, Will Hunt. Unfortunately, George will need to leave us imminently to supervise the departure to our reality.’
The Advisor shook hands with everyone as they were introduced and then replied ‘I think you mean the Former General Gott, Reeds. He is currently awaiting his fate, helping us to identify his traitorous colleagues, not entirely of his own free will. Unfortunately, the effects of some of our interrogation techniques leave permanent scars, both physical and mental. Not that it matters, as he will die within the next few weeks, once we have all the information we need and his co-conspirators imprisoned with him and their fates decided. Anyway, let me introduce my aides, Tomasz Whitehorn and Win Probert. I hope you will find our English satisfactory, Reeds. We have dealings with an English-speaking planet on a periodic basis and all the delegates from both systems need to be bi-lingual so that trade agreements can be produced that both our teams of legal advisers can accept.’
‘Excuse me, I must go to the bridge. For the benefit of our guests, I need to inform you that the transfer process will make you feel as if you’re falling and slightly dizzy. Please be assured, however, that the feeling only lasts a few seconds. I will make an announcement shortly before we make the switch, so that you can sit, should you so wish. You may watch the switch on the monitor, if you like, so that you will know when we arrive in our home system. For information, we will be moving to a restricted part of our space that has been set up to allow us to move between systems without endangering anyone who could otherwise be in the way when we arrive. This is just above one of the planets in the system. We know it as Astraeus 5’ interjected Captain VanDelden before leaving the room. As he left, he acknowledged the two guards in the corridor outside, who had moved quietly into position as soon as the door had closed after their guests had entered.