"There's no love lost between myself and Dr. Kang," said Mitzner "But when he's right he's right. The people of Manticore deserve the right to self governance. We should be helping these rebels in any way we can."

"It's just no feasible for a rebellion to succeed under these conditions," said Gibson "Manticore has no orbital defenses. The Al-Qaum starfleet could render the planet a lifeless ball of slag from space in a matter of hours."

"They're not going to do that to one of their agricultural worlds while they're in the middle of a food criss," retorted Mitzner.

"They will if it sets an example for the others," said Gibson "A large scale rebellion among their agricultural worlds would be a death knell for Al-Qaum, and they know it. They're going to want to put down any rebellion as quickly and as brutally as possible to send a message to the others."

"Commander Gibson is right," said the Captain "We'd be setting these people up to fail if we tried to help them take on Al-Qaum."

"Not if the help we gave was military," said Mitzner "The Armstrong could be their orbital defenses. There isn't a ship in their fleet that could take us on."

"Perhaps not," said Gibson "But it's highly unlikely that they will decide to engage us one ship at a time. They have at least five Sultan-class Starcruisers that we know of. Three would possess sufficient firepower to puncture our shields."

"A thousand years ago maybe you would have been right," said Mitzner "I doubt that those floating museums have been very well maintained, though. They won't be operating at optimum maneuverability. They might have the theoretical capacity to penetrate our shields but they'll have to hit us first."

"If this comes to a space battle," said Captain Littlecrow "Everyone loses. The Armstrong would be destroyed, but not before crippling their fleet. The few transports they have left would be easy prey for the pirates, and people of Al-Qaum would starve to death. We need a better option."

* * *

Dr. Kang met his transport ship at the rendezvous point near the collective farm, along with his two assistants. They were ferried back up to the Armstrong, where Captain Littlecrow was waiting. She said nothing when Dr. Kang arrived.

"Yes, yes, I can read your social cues," he said "You're quite upset with me. You're even more upset by the fact that you know I'm right. So what's it going to be? The brig? Confined to my quarters?"

Dr. Kang had the worst shit-eating grin.

"I'm authorizing you to go back to Manticore and finish the tachyon relay station as soon as you've gathered supplies," said the Captain.

"I thought so," said Dr. Kang.

"And I'm sending Commander Gibson down with you to supervise."

"Just wait a minute now," said Dr. Kang "I don't need Gibson standing over my shoulder asking obvious questions. I work best alone."

Behind him, McAfree and Wagner silently fumed.

"I wouldn't want you to be put into a situation again where you were the only officer on-world and forced to make command decisions," said the Captain.

"This is petty," said Dr. Kang "This is vindictive and petty. You're wasting the Commander's time and mine as part of your petty little revenge against me for showing you up."

"Meet Commander Gibson at the Shuttlebay once you've gathered what you need," said the Captain "I'm assigning your group the Vostok until you're finished."

"I hope this pathetic display of abusive authority soothes your wounded ego, Captain," said Dr. Kang "I really do. I'll try in the future not to succeed in such a way that it makes you feel bad."

"Get your equipment, Doctor," said the Captain.

And with that, Dr. Kang stormed off, with McAfree and Wagner struggling to suppress laughter as they followed behind him.