Chapter 4

Ishaan listened to the fighting and stared at the glowing figure in front of him. The hologram, if that’s what it was, had said some truly extraordinary things. The planetary council hadn’t stopped screaming at each other about it for the last week since the thing had been found. He walked away from the yelling and walked out through the doorway and out into the garden. The light pollution above him obscured the stars for the most part, leaving only the brightest heavenly bodies visible. Still, he stared skyward and wondered if there was actually another species out there that wanted to talk to him, to them. Was there a whole group of people up there that needed a place?

He shrugged and shook his head, looking back over his shoulder at the council chambers and sighed. Something had to break the screaming deadlock over what to do. The planetary council was deadlocked between speaking to them, ignoring the message, and blasting them out of the system entirely. Ishaan was firmly in the first camp. The woman in the hologram was young, unarmed, soft looking and was clearly scared. Not that he thought they should throw their borders open and accept them without limits. He only thought that they should speak with them, acknowledge their message, see what they were like.

He was a curious man, by nature and because of what he did for a living. He was the science adviser to the planetary council and the representative from the Thirteenth Circle of the planet. He stepped up to the speaking podium and waited both to be acknowledged by the Speaker and for the rest of the council to shut up.

Eventually both things happened, and Ishaan nodded to the speaker and to the rest of the council. “Esteemed council, I would put forth that I volunteer to speak with these people. I will, if it pleases the council, travel to them and judge if they are sincere in their need.”

There was a momentary explosion of talk, but it was just talk and not screaming so Ishaan relaxed a little bit as currents of words flowed around the chamber. Eventually the Speaker signaled for silence and nodded at Ishaan. “The council will vote on your proposal, counselor. Step out of the chamber and await our decision.”

Ishaan bowed and stepped out, going back to the garden, and looking up at the sky again. He hoped that he would be able to meet these people. Something about the young woman had drawn him in, something about her face and her plea had squeezed his heart. Mostly though, mostly he was curious about them, the way that they functioned, the way that they structured their government. The image had requested an audience with their soul. He was ragingly curious about what that could mean.

He stood outside for a while longer, face turned to the night sky, thoughts going a hundred miles an hour. When the glass door slid open behind him, he nearly jumped. Instead of a summons back to the chamber, the person that emerged from the glass was his friend Damien. The other man was looking at him like he was crazy, a nervous half smile on his face.

“You kicked a hornet’s nest in there, my friend.” Damien said, “what possessed you to offer yourself on the altar?”

“I had to stop the yelling somehow?” Ishaan said, lips curving upward. “That and rampant curiosity. These people may need help and we’ve left their message unanswered for more time than could be considered even vaguely polite.”

“So, you’re going to go up there and put your neck on the block?” Damien walked over and put his hand on Ishaan’s shoulder. “Come to dinner, my friend. They will argue over this all night.”

He did, going back to Damien’s apartment in the city and having a rather nice dinner and a much more casual discussion then what was happening over at the council chambers. The summons back came in the middle of the night, and he had to gently disengage himself from Damien’s limbs to answer the call. Damien mumbled and tried to cling, but Ishaan ran his fingers through his friend’s hair and moved away. The call was exactly what he thought it would be. Just a summons back to the chamber to hear the decision of the council.