The Breakout

Director Nathers leaned back in his chair and templed his fingers. It was a good fallback position. Emperor Qetimong would sit that way a lot when addressing the public, so most people were fairly familiar with it.

It was a position he felt made him look attentive and confident. With the entire school having been down for days, he needed to reassure the clients that all was in good hands.

Surprisingly, etiquette was the most difficult part of his job. Every world had its own scruples and taboos, and little of it was intuitive. I mean, how can you guess what body language an amorphous cloud of gas might find soothing and which it might find offensive?

Nathers' own people communicated mostly through scent, a habit he had forced himself out of over the years after being told that his traditional Freteonite greeting smelled like feet.

The conversation before him was particularly vexing. He was talking to what appeared to be a finely crafted pink sculpture of himself, as if someone had commissioned an artist to make an exact replica of him out of cotton candy.

Zurinites were like that; they preferred to take the form of whoever they were speaking to, in order to make them feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, it tended to have the opposite effect. When his doppelgänger templed his fingers as well, Nathers tried to hide how creepy he thought it was.

"I want you to understand the risk I am taking," his pink twin went on. "The Bertulf are beating their war drums. The shipyards they have leased are operating at full capacity and they've already built up their forces well beyond what the treaties allow."

"Surely you don't think they mean to attack you, Senator."

"We both know they only joined the Alliance because of the threat the ArchTyrant posed to their little empire. He's been gone a long time now, so there's no longer anything to keep them in check."

Nathers nodded sympathetically. "What happened to your people is a tragedy. We can only be grateful that your kind is able to reproduce so quickly when the situation calls for it, else there might be none of you left by now."

The pink sculpture looked away solemnly. "Once, my people lost everything because we were too trusting. Never again, that is our motto. Our new homeworld is right on the border with Bertulf colonies, so we are taking this matter very seriously."

Nathers cupped his hands. "So what do you plan to do?"

His copy did the same. "I'm making a presentation to the senate later on today. I'm sure the Bertulf will be less than pleased with the evidence I've found of their military buildup."

Nathers scratched his chin. "I think I see your point. Sending your daughter away at such a tense time politically makes her safety a real issue."

The pink clone also scratched his chin. "You do see my point. I lost her once, I'm not going to lose her again. I wouldn't put it past those bone-lickers to target my daughter as a political hostage."

"But daddy, I want to go!" A feminine voice complained from off-screen. "If he's there then I want to be there!"

"Not now, Honey, daddy is haggling with the nice administrator."

"But daddyyyyyyy!"

"I said not now, Zurra! Now go clean up your litter bucket!"

"Awwwwwwwwww."

Nathers failed to keep the grin off his face as the senator tried to compose himself. Her grades were below the normal cutoff, of course, but her father was one of the most powerful politicians in the Alliance, and right now the Academy desperately needed a healthy injection of prestige, so he was willing to look the other way.

Senator Immestria returned to task. "I'm concerned about the Bertulf. Word has reached me that they have an agent in your school already."

Nathers tapped his fingers together. "Ilrica Faolan? No, she's just a student, albeit a fairly poor one. Besides, Bertulf don't use spies. They never have. They can't; it would violate their entire warrior code. Everyone knows that."

Senator Immestria's eyes narrowed. "A Bertulf is a Bertulf. I don't trust them and neither should you. Just having one of those wolves in your school makes it less than safe for my daughter. Not to mention the fact that pirate attacks around Central are becoming more and more frequent. There have been, what? Three this week?"

Nathers leaned forward and rested his hands on his desk, a position he was taught looked very sincere. "Well, I'll give you the honest situation. We've got eighty percent of the academy functions up and running again. The defense grids are back up. I can personally assure you that there will be no danger to your daughter or any of the..."

A second window flickered to life with Engineer Valan's mucousy face it in.

"Sir, we've got a problem."

"Ugh. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a call?"

"This won't wait. Something broke out of the zoology lab."

Nather's looked at senator Immestria and forced himself to smile. "Well, I'm sure our security staff can take care of..."

"No, they can't," Valans insisted.

Nathers' eyebrow twitched. He glanced back at Senator Immestria, who looked furious.

"It's called a Vlukkia," Valans went on. "It's the kind of thing that could kill five scientists without even leaving its jar."

Nathers' composure snapped. "Well, if it is so blasted dangerous, why do we even have one in the first place?!"

"Professor Inters'ia uses it in her psychic defense course. Normally the thing is kept in the vault under stasis. When the virus brought the systems down the backups should have kicked in to keep the fields up, but they didn't."

A big drop of sweat rolled down the side of Nathers' face. "Um, Senator, I'm going to have to call you back."

"Don't you dare hang up on..."

Nathers waved his hand and the window snapped shut. "I want the school evacuated immediately. Have the teachers escort their classes to the quad per the emergency plans."

"Yes sir."

"And I want your sock collection gone by the end of the week."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me."

His long tongue hung down in disappointment. "But... why?"

"Because you may have just cost me a new student. Use a private line next time, you croaking idiot!"

"Hey, that's racist!"