December Page 24

  *

  The next morning brought an angry pounding on Ted’s door that woke him from the depths of sleep. “Hold on,” he said sleepily, reaching over for his pants. In spite of his words, the pounding continued. Ted wasn’t sure if his voice had been too quiet for the visitor to hear him, or if the person outside was just that impatient, but the meticulous pounding was giving him a serious headache. “All right, all right! I’m coming!” he yelled angrily, rolling out of bed, yanking his pants on, and answering the door.

  Opening the door revealed Hoguh standing outside in the hallway, and Ted had to resist the urge to slam the door in his face. Hoguh was not someone he was wild about dealing with that early in the morning.

  “Would you care to explain yourself to me, Ted?” Hoguh said so angrily Ted had a hard time figuring out what he was saying.

  “About what?” Ted asked, rubbing his temples. He was to go to Earth today to meet Kenneth and he really didn’t have time or the patience to deal with this.

  “You know damn well what.” The Kolean word that Ted would translate to “damn” was a much stronger curse than its English equivalent, so Ted was a little taken aback. “I’ll remind you that you are not in charge of military operations on this mission in any way, human.”

  “I know I’m not,” Ted said patiently. “But Vandoraa was taken prisoner on my ship. Therefore, he’s technically still my prisoner.” He was thinking aloud and not fully awake, so he wasn’t sure his argument was even comprehensible, let alone that it would work.

  To his surprise, it did. Hoguh wore an expression of pure murder on his face, so much so that Ted was fearful for a moment that the Kolean commander might actually strike him. Instead, he said, “Are you trying to undermine this entire mission? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to take that Drevi with you to the surface? More than likely he’ll turn on all of you. If you’ll give him to me for a few hours, people’s lives could be saved!”

  “Maybe, but,” Ted said, his voice wavering a bit. “Vandoraa promised me his cooperation, and I think he can be useful.”

  “If this mission fails, it won’t be my planet that has to live under Drevi rule,” Hoguh said harshly before storming off.

  Now awake, but sincerely wishing he wasn’t, Ted retreated back into his room to shower and drink copious amounts of coffee.