Flidoring The Early Wars Read Free Page B

Contention
    Mussslant, Timsssack, Tessslan, and a host of other delegates, including some from other cities, all stood in a protective glass bunker at the side of the receiving platform. They were expecting the arrival of the Electerian ship at any moment. Mussslant, being the oldest generation of Fessslanders, would be first to greet the newcomers. However, he had determined that Timsssack, being younger and wittier, would handle diplomatic relations and the eventual drafting of a peace agreement.
    The receiving platform was a well lit, five hundred foot diameter, flat circle of steelwork that stood fifteen feet into the air. Dozens of ten-foot-thick steel pylons, which could sustain the weight of a small city, supported it. Around its edges there were bunkers made from reinforced glass. The Graznosians designed them to protect the delegates and workers from any debris kicked up by the ships blast jets. Among other workers were the light controllers, the docking clamp attendants, and the emergency personnel. From above the platform, the incoming ship would see a series of colored flashing lights in circular formation. The pattern started from the outside edge of the platform having three consecutively smaller red circles, followed by three yellow ones, and then five green ones ending with a single neon colored blue disk at the center of the platform to help guide the landing ship.
    As the Electerian ship approached the platform, everyone watched in awe at the spectacle. Some of the Graznosian delegates were trembling at the sight. Timsssack felt his tail rattling on the floor. Tessslan was trying to hold back tears while his jaw was quivering uncontrollably. When the ship came within several feet of the platform, great swirls of dust and gasses from the blast engines blocked most of the view from the glass bunkers. Just as the large pads on the bottom of the landing-legs touched the platform, all the swirling came to a quick end. The docking clamp attendants pushed a series of buttons that raised the huge steel clamps up over the pads and anchored them down. Within seconds of the clamps locking in place, all the delegates, led by Mussslant, exited the bunkers onto the platform.
    Inside the ship, Bellmus had been practicing what he would say to the Graznosians until he thought it was perfect. The trip between the two worlds took them seven Electerian days, which are slightly shorter than the Graznosian day. In that time, Bellmus had managed to disrupt everyone’s peace-of-mind with his constant reminders of the proper procedures that he wanted them to follow on Graznos. His desire to have everything go smoothly, for the history books to record, was creating a very stressful atmosphere.
    Just as the ship touched down, Bellmus, in his most diplomatic voice said, “My fellow Electerians, we are no longer just leaders of cities. From this day forward, we are Ambassadors from the world of Electerus. Let us bravely and boldly step out into this new era, and let us create a future of which our forefathers would have been proud.”
    Right at that moment, the seams around the door hissed as the pressure equalized to the outside. The door swung open and out stepped Bellmus. Immediately, he had noticed that it was hard for him to draw in a good breath of air. It reminded him of being in the high mountains on Electerus. The air is much thinner on Graznos, but it was breathable for the Electerians. Bellmus started down the ramp with his emissaries behind him. At first sight of the Graznosian lizard people, he gasped, as his two hearts seemed to skip their beats. He thought that the Graznosians looked very threatening, and he wondered if he had made a mistake in pushing to lead this mission.
    Bellmus noticed that the Graznosians were not wearing clothes, which reaffirmed his notion that they might be dangerous. He was wondering how beings that look so much the little sand lizards on his own world, could have evolved into a technological