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A/N: I’m sorry for another skipped week. I will try and do better. On the upside there should be a new chapter of Haventon tomorrow (If I get it typed in).

—

The next few days were quiet. The contact ship was passing messages between Corona and the Council, while Promise was negotiating his people providing transport for the Coronans. Both sets of talks seemed to be going well.

Amanpreet has returned to the Whisper to wait as she did not have much to add to the matter. She’d asked Kayla if she thought the Vaians could be behind the problems with Kiath and her newest navigator had frowned at the wall of her cabin for several minutes before replying.

“I want to say no,” she said finally. “But I have a horrible feeling that I’d be wrong if I did. On the one hand attacking and colonizing an already inhabited planet is so far beyond the pale of Masari’s teachings that’s it hard to believe even the Vaian Siblings could twist it that far. On the other hand they’ve managed to get the Vaian children to accept everything else.”

“I was afraid that you’d say that,” Amanpreet said. “From what I hear the Children of Masari on other planets detest the Vaians.”

Kayla nodded. “So I gather,” she said. “I have received so many apology messages from people who had nothing to do with what happened to me. I don’t quite know how to react to that.”

After that they’d sat in silence for a while, not sure what else to say, before Vanna had called for Amanpreet to come and discuss the latest engine diagnostics with her.

***

It was about a week later that the Contact ship signalled them that they had finally negotiated for a delegation of Coronans to come to Aletheia and speak with the Council of Planets directly.

“They will be travelling with me,” Promise said. “I will share my fee with you of course, Amanpreet, as my Employer.”

“No need,” Amanpreet said. “You’re welcome to freelance when I don’t have a job for you or it doesn’t interfere with your work for me. This won’t since we need to go to Aletheia to take our original passengers back anyway.” She paused then added. “But what are they paying you with? They don’t have a floated currency yet.”

“Some minerals that have a high resale value to humans,” Promise replied. “It should cover a reasonable fee according my investigations and calculations.”

“Oh! Clever!” Amanpreet said. “That works.”

“Are there any issues with possible biological cross-contamination?” Vanna asked.

“We’ve checked but as expected there is none,” Summer said.

“it would be so interesting if there were,” Rick added.

“So when are we leaving?” Amanpreet asked.

“Tomorrow,” Rick said. “We need to get the Coronan delegation aboard Promise first.”

“We should discuss our disposition in hyperspace as well,” Promise said. “We need to arrange our convoy to discourage attack by the Kiath.”

“Yes, that’s wise,” Mahir said. “When will your two friends join us?”

“They should be nearly here,” Promise said.

“Have we explained the current situation to the Coronans?” Amanpreet asked.

“Yes,” Rick replied. “We asked if they wished to wait until it was safe before sending their delegation but they were adamant they wanted to do it now, so we’re accommodating them.”

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