"The picture of Teculpas fighting Heereen was found on a world outside the known border, not fat from this sector"

We were all on the bridge of the Queen Charlotte, suited up as the ship had to depart in seconds. That wasn't our intention, running away from Coriolanus would be very bad diplomacy thing, but situation suggested us to stay ready in every moment.

"So you're saying Heereen were here long before now. They just... returned" asked captain Valtair. It seemed a bit bored by Cassandra's debriefing about what we found, but I couldn't blame her, I was a bit tired of it too.

"We have no other traces of Heereen, this picture is the only one available. This suggest they weren't here, they just... came here for a while, a short period of time. In that period Teculpa-Origin declared war to them"

"That's more plausible than you think" I added.

"And that outpost should be our next stop?"

"We should..."

"Not so fast" I was burning about reaching that outpust and moving away from that boring base, but I was also in charge of all the adult, sensible decisions of the crew, so I had to disapprove the idea. "We must assume that all the intel we gathered from Teculpa's library is in our hands as in the hands of Hiraku. Teculpa-Ryon should be leaving for the ancient outpost as we are going to do, so we will probably meet them there. It's something we should manage"

"How?" asked Valtair.

"We should ask them to join us"

Valtair's face went from white to red in few seconds. "That's something will not happen on my ship and I know it's someway also against our protocols. We are not so friends of Teculpa"

"Actually, captain, speaking about Ryon family, we are. And I know many ways I can make it acceptable for your precious protocol. The same protocol that you ignore every time you speak loud to me"

I saw in the eyes of Indira the desire of retaliate, but she didn't know how. It's something that happen when you try to challenge a well experienced diplomat that's ready to play dirty on you.

"What about the fleet?"

Ok, the human fleet was my weak point. "I said Yarn I'm coordinating with Teculpa. If they decide to go there, following them is a decision I could take"

"And you're going to say to them also why they're heading that system?" asked Cassandra, full of innocence.

"That's complicated, I don't think the Senate is interested in archeology, they're just hunting marauders, they're still believing the theory of pirates, so I don't want to confuse them with too much information"

"You're taking this personal, aren't you?" asked Valtair, still looking for a way to return fire.

"How can it be personal?"

"There's something in you, something that makes this a war you want to fight on the front line"

I didn't talk with my people about the dialogue I had with the Heereen. I knew I should, but something about that made me uncomfortable. It was like Heereen told me all those things just to... poison the reality of us.  At the same time, I felt that their mission was important, not just for them, but for me too, because their war against the Teculpa-Origin was something bigger than just a skirmish between two far away races. And thanks to them, I was the only one knowing important elements like their obsession for time. I felt like I was responsible of something, something I didn't understand yet.

I tried to avoid the matter. "All is decided. We will depart from here after I speak with Hiraku about our deductions. If he will formally ask me to join the mission I'll formally accept it and some of his guys will probably come on board with us. We all agree?"

Cassandra was a little suspicious, but she just stayed silent. Captain Valtair wasn't ready to fight more and she had enough common sense to know that my plan was good so she just kept her angry face and nod.

Few hout after that I was talking with Hiraku, again.