The Marann (30 page)

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On the monitor, Marianne was alive,
herself, angry—and out of reach, for now. The Admiral pressed his
lips into a thin line. He should have ignored the Central Security
mole and let matters play out. Adeline had created a
disaster.

“The Sural requires Earth to leave
Tolari space,” Marianne said. “No one on board any Earth ship in
the system is permitted to return. Ever. He will allow Earth to
reinitiate contact in one Tolari year—
if
you leave
now.”

The Admiral swore. “Damn it, Marianne,
talk to him. Change his mind.”

“You tried to abduct me.”

“We thought we needed to pull you
out.”

“The Sural doesn’t see it that way. As
far as he’s concerned, you tried to kidnap his wife.”

“His
wife?
” Adeline
blurted.

Marianne’s eyes narrowed. “If you
don’t remove your ship from Tolari space now, it will be
destroyed.”

The Admiral scoffed.

“Admiral, I’m only going to say this
once,” Marianne said in her best schoolmarm tones. She leaned
forward toward the monitor. “
Tolar is protected by technology
more advanced than Earth’s,
” she whispered. She leaned back and
continued in a normal tone, “You can’t win this. If you don’t
leave, you won’t even see it coming.”

She meant it. A deep cold settled into
the pit of his stomach. “Very well,” he said.

“Thank you, Admiral. You’ve just saved
your crew’s lives.”

“Howard out.”

The screen went blank. Admiral Howard
left his office. Adeline followed him into the ready room,
protesting.

“You’re not going to take her
seriously, are you?” she cried. “The Tolari still live in stone
castles. We’ve never detected any evidence of—”

The Admiral turned and slammed a
button on the ready room’s conference table. “Security!” he barked.
Two armed marines entered the ready room from the corridor side.
“If Citizen Russell tries to follow me onto the bridge,” he
ordered, “throw her in the brig!”

He left her sputtering and strode onto
the bridge of his flagship. “Ensign, plot a course for Tau Ceti
station,” he snapped.

“Yes sir.”

“Comms, relay orders to the fleet to
rendezvous at Epsilon Eridani.”

“Yes sir.”

“Tau Ceti laid in, sir.”

“Engage.”

End of Book One

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