I knew I was right about the situation just hearing Balthor holding his breath for a second. It was just a second, but that second brought me to a safe place, away from the risk to be shot down by Rafkin fleet. At least for a while.

"That's an absurd theory. We were friends with the heereen, we were leading the diplomatic talks with them!"

"And you were friends of us, too. Then the Teculpa-Tau came to you and all changed. What did they say to you? What did they offer?"

"You think you changed your position enough to interrogate me? We're still aiming you with hundreds of guns and you're still there, as a sitting duck, hidden behind a lot of false words about heereen menacing us. Why would they save you, diplomat Callus?"

That was not just a Balthor's question. Cassandra turned her head to me, asking the same with her eyes. I was arrived to that point talking very few about the meeting I had with the heereen so what I said was just a fantasy coming out of the blue for all of them. But diplomacy is fantasy, according to the books of Loranna Artell.

"They don't trust you and they don't trust any Teculpa clan so they asked me to be a trait d'union with all the races of the quadrant. I visited their ship"

"They didn't tell us when they tried to shoot us to death"

"I'm telling it now, official way. No more secrets about it. If you want to ask heereen to let you go it's better if you start talking with me"

Balthor went offline. I heard Cassandra sigh, thinking of it as a prelude for our destruction. I had a different idea, I correctly thought that the situation was becoming too complex for Blathor by himself and he had to bring back my words to the Citadel. In the meantime, nothing in the space changed, except Valtair that came back on board and returned to the bridge, still with her EVO on.

"Cassandra debriefed me while you were dealing with Balthor" she said, panting "But what now?"

I was staring at the signals from the Rafkin interceptors. In that moment they weren't my problem. Rafkins were taking their time and I had to leave them by themselves. I was just worried about what Yutan and his ships could do of stupid enough to get free.

Teculpa-Ryon had quite a chance to escape. They were little but still warships and probably able to take few hits before being defeated, enough to break through interceptors and try to overcome them in velocity and firepower. If they tried something like that, however, Queen Charlotte would be caught in the middle and crashed before we could say anything more. I knew Yutan already consider us expandable, so real question was: how much did Hiraku like me? I didn't want to ask Yutan directly to avoid provoking him and he wasn't exactly trying to reach me for a talk, so I had to keep my curiosity.

Fortunately, the Rafkins came back online before any other action, a voice different from Balthor, one from the Citadel, probably. "What do you really know, diplomat Callus?"

All-in. Again. Deeper. "Teculpa-Tau and the marauders, that we know as Teculpa-Origin, are allied"

Something like an hiss, irritation or regard? "How you know?"

"Few laws work about Teculpa diplomacy, but one you can always trust: when a clan is not on your side, he is supporting your enemy. Teculpa-Origin attacked a Ryon base and Tau are definitely not on our side so it's just an easy deduction"

"How arrogant!"

"This also means that you're with the Tau and the Origin so it's easy to understand why the heereen shot you"

Another moment of silence. Probably the Rafking wasn't alone. Balthor was probably behind him, with other members of the Citadel. "I'm not here to confirm or deny... but you should know that our position now is far beyond trust and politics and your words are just words"

Another pause. This time a pause made just to be sure words would be correctly understood. "We're going to destroy your ship, diplomat Callus"

The Rafkin went off-line again, probably forever. Captain Valtair, again on her chair, started to shout "They're preparing to shoot! Evasive maneuvers! Find my a way through that fur ball!"

I couldn't do anything more. I was sure that nothing could be done to save us. I closed my eyes, scared.

"New contact, medium range!" said Cassandra in that moment. "It's the heereen ship!"