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I have to protect him, Jace thought.

You must complete your mission, the Osiris said.

I can do both.

We shall see.

“Staed, we’d be honored to be escorted to Haseon,” Jace said with a cool smile. “I've been looking forward to seeing your planet.”

The Power of Language

Jace, Davies, Gehenna, Dr. Hayter and Khoth took their places in the dropship. Thammah was in the pilot’s seat. It had been decided that only the six of them should go to the surface of Haseon for the moment. At least, until some kind of formal agreement was made and it was safe for others to come.

Dr. Hayter looked like a man whose Xi was about to explode. He had been allowed to accompany them as the only civilian crew member, because Jace wanted him to have as much access to the Thaf’ell language as possible. Khoth found this odd because they would all be using their universal translators and only when a party decided to block translation would that not be in play. And he, not Dr. Hayter, would be the one to translate then.

Jace’s expression up until the point he saw Gehenna had been neutral with moments of tensity. He was, Khoth knew, disappointed by the Alliance’s decision to meet them with warships. Staed had not fired, though his weapons had been at the ready, and his fleet had simply flown beside the Osiris as the much more massive ship gracefully entered orbit around Haseon. The ship with the general and Jace’s mother would not arrive for at least another few hours.

As Jace clicked his seatbelt shut, he said, “Tell me the plan again that required Gehenna to look like a Star Wars astromech droid?”

Khoth sat beside him while Dr. Hayter and Davies sat opposite them. Gehenna could not take a seat as she was ball-shaped with a small domed head that rolled around between them. He doubted that the astromech droid in Star Wars had her outer skin, which was made of calcanth and had the ability to shift to match her surroundings. She could literally disappear, which likely was the point.

“She’s cute, right?” Davies asked.

“She’s adorable. Disney knows how to make cute droids like BB-8 here… or is it GH-8?” Jace grinned.

Gehenna beeped happily at them as she rolled over to Jace and pressed her round body against his legs like an eager animal wanting to be petted. Jace did, in fact, stroke her shiny sides, which had the single red light on the domed head glowing brighter with excitement.

“I checked with Flight-Commander Thammah and confirmed that even the Thaf’ell find this form non-threatening,” Davies said.

“She’s adorable on a universal level,” Jace agreed.

“Like Dr. Hayter, we want them to see her as non-threatening and barely pay attention to her at all until...” Davies sent a meaningful look at Gehenna.

The smooth ball of calcanth suddenly burst apart. Eight legs tipped with vicious points emerged while the headlamp became a laser. Everyone jumped as the suddenly “not cute” droid moved sinuously on the dangerous limbs. Gehenna lifted one of those limbs up and Khoth saw that it was geared with a saw, a spike and other weapons. Each limb was an army of one.

“Okay!” Jace laughed as he awkwardly patted Gehenna’s head. “I think the general is going to like this form even more than the Terminator one.”

“And, of course, Gehenna was kind enough to explain to me that she can hack into Altaeth tech so that their weapons should be mostly useless against us, or if they decide to imprison us, they won’t be able to hold us very long,” Davies said.

The Osiris also had this capability, though Khoth wondered if there was some kind of distance limit. But, regardless, both AI were available to them when they landed.

“Quite impressive. Both of you,” Jace said as Gehenna became the adorable ball once more and beeped lovingly at him.

“I dare say, how am I like Gehenna in this situation? She is quite impressive, but I only have one form!” Dr. Hayter blinked.

He reached for Gehenna too. She wheeled towards him and he laughed as she spun around in front of him

“I am curious about that too, Lieutenant-Commander Davies,” Jace said.

His eyes were bright and Khoth wondered if Jace really didn’t know the connection that Davies had made between the linguist and Gehenna.

“Yes, while on the outside Dr. Hayter appears to be an eager, slightly naive scholar, the truth is that he is highly skilled at reading and interpreting body language, even that which is far different than your own,” Davies remarked. “I’ve read your file, Dr. Hayter. Your ability to learn languages and psychologically profile the person speaking is impressive.”

Khoth discreetly looked at the linguist’s file. While he had concentrated on the positive qualities that Jace was looking for in a crewmate--someone open to new experiences, cultures and people, among other things--the truth was that Dr. Hayter had been in the military and had worked extensively in psy-ops. He had a whole set of skills that Jace hadn’t seemingly cared about, yet now Khoth wondered if Jace had cared about them very much and not just for this mission. Perhaps this was the reason that the linguist was truly along.

“Oh, yes, that’s very true. I studied everything from your standoffs with High Councillor Voor, Pilot, and, of course, I’ve been studying Commander Khoth extensively.” Dr. Hayter beamed.

Khoth frowned slightly. “You’ve been studying me, doctor?”