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to talk to, but I tried to maintain an open mind. After
     all, in this war it was the biotics against the machines, and all living things needed
     to stay on the same side—even if some of us were obnoxious.
    I got some coffee and stirred it, looking at everyone with bleary eyes. I wasn’t overly
     tired—marines full of nanites and Microbial edits rarely got a full night’s sleep,
     and I was edgy. Even after all our modifications, our brains still needed to sleep
     and dream.
    “Have we attempted further contact with the incoming ship? What exactly do they want?”
    “The incoming ship still won’t answer any detailed queries,” Welter said. “They just
     say they’re coming to provide us with “enlightenment”, whatever that meant under these
     circumstances.”
    The Crustaceans were a snooty race that fancied themselves to be the best thinkers
     in the universe. They were highly competitive in this regard, and delighted in pointing
     out the foolishness of anyone else’s statement. In this case it seemed they were being
     cryptic as well.
    I felt confident in the military capacity of my battle station, of course. Any single
     ship the Crustaceans were sending would be no match for our weaponry, should they
     be foolish enough to attack. The Crustaceans had built themselves an impressive-looking
     ship and probably just wanted to brag about how much more advanced their design was
     when compared to ours.
    So, we waited. There were only fourteen humans aboard the battle station. Most of
     my people were out flying a ship around somewhere or serving in a marine assault squad.
     Fourteen was more than enough to operate the station due to the centralized control
     setup I’d built. I’d purposefully designed the station to be manned by over a thousand
     if necessary, taking a cue from the Macros in layered control systems. But the guns
     could operate without gunners. They could all be targeted from the bridge. If I’d
     had the crew, and the bridge had been knocked out, individual batteries could also
     be manned at the turrets themselves.
    “We’re just going to let them fly in here and dock?” Commander Welter asked for the
     tenth time some hours later. As the alien ship kept creeping quietly closer, he seemed
     to be unnerved by it.
    “Yeah,” I said. “What else are we going to do? We’ve scanned the ship, and I see one
     lonely Lobster aboard. I’m not going to fry a diplomat for just flying here to talk.”
    “What if he causes trouble?”
    “Then you can load a pellet in the primary railgun batteries and personally blow him
     to atoms, Commander.”
    Welter smiled at that idea. Several more staffers joined him in his amusement. No
     one was terribly fond of the snotty Crustaceans.
    We watched and waited. Just after the six hour mark, our second scout ship flew back
     to our side of the ring and the pilot made his report.
    “The ship is about to come through, Colonel.”
    I nodded at the viewscreen. “Good. Now, get back out there and watch them do it.”
    “Colonel,” Commander Welter said, “I recommend we contact Earth and make an official
     report.”
    I thought about it. Earth hadn’t bothered to even acknowledge my reports lately, but
     it was supposedly our job to report things like this. “We will—after we figure out
     what the Crustaceans want.”
    Commander Welter looked unhappy with this decision, but he didn’t say anything further.
     While we waited, the fifteenth member of the battle station’s crew made his appearance.
     Marvin snaked into the room dragging his bloated metallic body with a dozen whipping
     steel tentacles.
    “Is the messenger here yet?” he asked.
    “Any time,” I said.
    “Very good. Everything should be clear to us soon. I’m going below decks if you don’t
     mind, Colonel.”
    I frowned at him for a moment. I noticed he had a large number of cameras on me, meaning
     that he was intent upon my response. Today, he’d configured himself with