Time and Tide

            Senior diplomat Ancaster strode down the hallway with his typical arrogant strut. He would usually rein it in when meeting with a planet’s delegates, but this time he decided not. A show of confidence and power would be the best course on this occasion. An aide dodged around the enthusiastic security details that ran up and down the halls in that inexplicable military need to rush.

            “Your Grace, the automated shuttle has departured. The delegates should arrive soon.”

            Ancaster nodded dismissively. He was thinking ahead to his great diplomatic coup, and what it would mean for the empire. The aide kept pace for a moment, and then fell behind, just enough to not be underfoot. He was replaced almost immediately by a large man, made even larger by powered armour, the hiss of his hydraulically enhanced movements punctuating his powerful strides.

            “Captain Haalboom your grace. I am here to confirm security protocols.”

            Ancaster sighed. “This is a diplomatic mission. We are here to speak with them.”

            Haalboom didn’t reply immediately, picking his words carefully. The extra foot or so of height conveyed by his battlesuit combined with his own position also made him feel no need to jump to answer a diplomat’s questions. “I will keep it to a reasonable minimum sir, but our presence will be…noticeable. I will have 6 other men in armour in the room. We will also have our visors darkened so that no eye contact can be made. No flesh will be exposed, and all weapons will be powered up. As near as we can tell, these monsters aren’t immune to a good plasma burst, but I’ve had flame projectors added to the outfits of the team.”

            “Captain, we are expecting three to six scraggly vampires. Their planet has been cut off for 200 years. A functioning spacecraft is almost as much of a show of force as required.”

            Haalboom shook his head. “Sir, I am responsible for your safety. I have the authority to beef up the protocols as I see fit. If you want I will keep my men behind you, but they will be there.”

            Ancaster was irritated at this captain’s lack of courtesy for his position, but a lot can be forgiven in a man who is pulling out all the stops to see that you survive the day. “Fine. Anything else?”

            “Yes sir, two things. If you close proximity, at least two of my men will step up to a comparable distance. Secondly, I require you to wear a sealed suit.”

            This irritated the diplomat. He liked to see and smell the nuances of his opponents. It was the nature of diplomacy. “I assure you I have been fitted with filtering contact lenses and a puncture proof second skin for everything below the ears. These aren’t the only dangerous things that I’ve ever negotiated with captain.”          

The Captain thought for a second as he looked at the man who could crush his career. According to his practical military calculations it would be worse for his career if he brought back a dead diplomat. “I must insist, sir.” He said, and then dropping to a lower voice. “These things give me the creeps.”

            The tall civilian laughed. “These things were just fairy tales as far as any of us knew until they overran this colony. With all due respect to your ‘creeps’ captain they over fed, blasted their ecosystem to bits and have been barely struggling along for longer than either of us has been alive. They need us, far more than we need them.”

            “I understand sir, and certainly we’ve seen our fair share of planets ‘blast their eco-system’ during colonisation; but this is the only colony that blasted it by eating its own colonists. We’ve had colonists poison their water, foul their air, hunt, log and harvest anything and everything to extinction, but I don’t think that there is a single other bunch of colonists with one half that ate the other.”