The Whisper of Damkina Part 71

April 8th, 2019  |  Published in Whisper of Damkina  |  1 Comment

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A/N: Sorry it’s a little short and rough. I have had a headache all day.

The next morning Amanpreet woke early only to discover that the council had already gone into an emergency session over Kayla’s evidence and the attack on Merit. She couldn’t get a pass to actually view the session in the chamber at such short notice but, fortunately, all the Council’s deliberations were streamed everywhere on Altheia for those who wanted to watch. So she grabbed a bowl of cereal and settled down to watch.

It was possibly the most argumentative session she had ever watched, not that she had watched many. Still she’d never seen a councillor, one of the human ones, get so angry they punched through the first layer of glass that protected them from the far hotter and more acidic Ishtari section. Fortunately her colleagues restrained her before she could break through. A breech would likely be fatal for both sides. Not that she could have got through the shield reinforced glass of the middle layer. It would have stunned her unconscious if she touched it.

“What in the world!”

Amanpreet looked around to see Niobe was up and was standing just behind her staring at the screen.

“What’s wrong with her!” Niobe continued. “Was she trying to die.”

“I only turned it on in time to see her launch herself at the glass. She looked really angry.” Amanpreet brought up the livefeeds from various journalists. “Ah, it seems she was one of the councillors trying to send Kayla off on this foolish mission and she was less than happy that it had been found out. She was calling Councillor Krna a coward when she hit the glass.”

“Doesn’t explain what she thought she was doing, though,” Niobe said.

“I’m sure they’ll find out,” Amanpreet said. “For now let’s see if her being removed calms things down.”

It did, at least slightly, though it was very obvious that tempers were still frayed. Amanpreet could read Kska and Tkin body language pretty well and she had never seen either the Ishtari species so royally pissed off before. When she mentioned that to Niobe the linguist nodded.

“The Mez councillors seem pretty upset as well, but have you noticed the people behind this idea seem to be solely human.”

“Hmm?” Amanpreet looked at the screen then checked the voting groups. “You’re right, and only a minority there. That seems a little odd.”

Eventually the debate did calm down enough for Councillor Krna to make the suggestion that they could attempt to make contact with the enemy via their communication system rather than anything as potentially counterproductive as attempting a kidnap. There was very little debate after that and a vote was called. Amanpreet found herself chewing her nails as she waited for the result to flash up.

It was only a few minutes but it seemed like hours before it finally did and Amanpreet let out the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding in an explosion of relief. The result was pretty much a unanimous yes.

“Well, that’s good,” Niobe said. “I suppose they will be dealing with what happened to Merit next?”

“I guess…” Amanpreet clicked on the schedule. “Oh, it looks like they did that before we got up. The Councillor for Kinzoku was censured and removed from his position as the first order of business. He apparently had links to the security guards who kidnapped him and there was evidence he employed them. He might well face criminal charges as well but they’ll need more proof for that.”

“Oh no! Midori will be so upset!” Niobe said. “She’s from Kinzoku and it’s not a large settlement yet so it’s likely she knows him.”

Amanpreet did a quick calculation to check what time it would be on Talis Station and then checked her balance. “Hmmm… I’m not sure I can afford a real time call from Altheia to Talis. Let’s send a message instead.”

“That’s a good idea,” Niobe looked around as Kayla came back in with her security. “You okay? Looks like that was intense.”

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One Response to “The Whisper of Damkina Part 71”

  1. torvawk says:

    Becca,

    This was short? I mean, yes there is a lot going on and you can only cover so much of it in one chapter/part. Still, lots to find out.

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