Harbinger/13

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Christopher was speaking to Daniel. "Sarlena is actually not that bad at--er, interspecies communication. I mean, even though she had a light mess-up every now and then, with the result of disorienting and angering the Protoss with the peculiarities of our language, culture, and arts, she's been able to tell them much about what we value as humans."

"Yeah, I've started to notice that for myself, and I'd agree, she's definitely valuable towards that regard. In fact, I'm thinking of keeping her on Korhal indefinitely, allowing her to constantly meet and message with Tealdarin."

"The Protoss are quick learners, aren't they?"

"Yeah, well with the minds of how many millions or billions of Protoss out there to rememeber every single word she says, it's not like they will forget anything, and they can process and review things even when Sarlena has long been off to sleep."

Christopher nodded in agreement, even as they walked in step. "Indeed, they've learned what the average second-grader knows about human technology already. I won't be surprised if they will have completely finished learning all our technologies and knowledge within the month."

"Don't sweat it, at least if Sarlena does finish early, there's so many other things this base needs to accomplish, that it shouldn't be much of a problem at all..." At this, Christopher also concurred, then the two fell silent for a while as they neared their destination.

They were walking down the corridor of the Hyperion to the mess hall; the walls were utilitarian and, as far as Daniel knew, not all that thick. Hyperion was now floating in low orbit around Korhal, its geographical information systems scanning in circles around the planet surface for any signs of activities, civilian or hostile, as were the Protoss ships, now that the crew had managed to discharge all of the construction-materials to the planet surface.

The pair of commanders entered the mess hall, and immediately proceeded to get their share of food--rationed, as was nearly everything in Travincal. The base was effectively facing a shortage of everything, since Daniel was demanding so much.

It had already been over a month since Travincal had been established on Korhal IV, gradually turning a radioactive dust-bucket into a thriving base of operations.

The Protoss had ceased to construct anything else on the planet after the initial building spree on day one, and the Terran facilities were now beginning to catch up, with a few dozen buildings either finished or in progress. In the center stood a proud, compact starport, half a mile long in diameter and easily eclipsing the already impressive size of a Behemoth Battlecruiser. A trio of factories were placed at balanced intervals around the starport, and various lesser buildings, including nearly a dozen barracks, surrounded those. The base was bristling with missle turrets, though the key points were the mobile military. Christopher's plan, announced nearly a month ago, was now in full swing, and the various construction facilities of Travincal were turning out copious amounts of them, whether it be Bot, Viking, Shrike, or Thor. They milled around the base, waiting idly as per the commands of the AI system that ran them gave them bland jobs, waiting for the situation to become dire.

For in Christopher's system, only when the people in the orbiting fleet--those commanding the robots--were actively using their consoles, would the military actually become ready for battle.

"I'm tired of thinking about fighting wars," said Daniel, after he and Christopher had sat down at a longtable especially reserved for them, Raynor, and Sarlena.

"Yeah, it's been such a long time of a peaceful life, without the worries of death and destruction, and nothing but continuous growth of our proud colony, that it just wouldn't feel quite right," said Sarlena.

"Why of course, for You it would be strange, since you're preoccupied with relations with the Protoss. But you didn't lose your family to the Zerg."

Daniel knew what was about to transpire next, so he abruptly put open palms in front of both of them, urgently telling them to stop, then broke off onto a different topic altogether in the hopes that Raynor would forget his desire to seize revenge against the Zerg invaders of the past.