Guard Fic 4.1
They were taken to a different room this time, larger, though again with the same baffling array of foodstuffs. King noticed they again had a large plate of Tau’s bollocks (as the unit, in the juvenile spirit of guardsmen across the galaxy, had christened the small chewy ball things he had acquired last time), which was at least something which he knew to be edible, should they get a chance later.
The seats were a mix of normal chairs and strange lumps like rounded off mortar shells which the Tau happily perched upon. All in all there were around a dozen Tau: Poro Tauna and two other Robes, one taking notes on what was presumably the Xenos equivalent of a dataslate, one waiting so patiently it seemed like a statue. Scar - Shazzo Shakelar - also had one next to it also taking notes, and there were the usual escort of fire warriors standing around the walls on ‘being obvious’ duty. There were also four humans: he recognised one, a short pinch-faced man, from the briefing documents he had received. That one had once been the governor of the settlement, now reduced to lackey of a Xeno power.
Rossaria walked in with confidence, it was only because King knew her that he was aware her stride was shorter than normal. Her coat was unbuttoned and hung open around her, giving the impression of a dramatic red frame like a warp rift behind her, her bright red sash swirling around her legs and adding to the drama. She hadn’t redone her high braid - King had asked about that once and received a sarcastic reply about having forgotten to pack a hairbrush to the battlefield - but even the flatter plait lying perfectly aligned down her spine was impressive. She flicked out her coattails and sat, crossing her legs in the image of ruthless efficiency.
At her side King marched as though there were a legion behind him, letting himself catch every gaze as a reminder that he was watching them. His every stride was measured and he sat without looking at the chair, as if confident that every aspect of this room was set up for him. They did not come as prisoners, nor as ambassadors nor diplomats: they came as envoys of Imperial justice and anyone finding themselves on the wrong side would know their decision had been noted. It was a statement of some little power, given their situation, but both the human traitors and the fledgeling Tau Empire had reason to fear the might of the Imperium and even with no other cards in their hand, that fact alone gave their enemies pause.
Across the table, Scar pointedly continued its discussion with the one it was talking to, but King could see that their entrance had been noted. The humans, to a man, looked away and avoided eye contact. Well may they fear. Poro Tauna stood and walked to join them, offering a handshake in greeting, continuing the illusion that this was an agreed meeting.
“Thank you for speaking with us.” It began as King reluctantly took it’s rough, leathery hand. “I appreciate that these are not the best circumstances and I am grateful for your agreement.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Rossaria commented mildly as she likewise shook it’s hand. “But I do not feel that anything will be gained by continuing to go over the circumstances by which we are here. Let us be frank: why are we here?”
She waved away another one of the Robes that was offering refreshments: King accepted what it was offering, a small but deep plexiglas bowl half full of liquid. He set it down on the table. Poro Tauna nodded in agreement to Rossaria.
“Of course, you will be keen to start.” It took its seat and steepled its fingers in a disturbingly human gesture, made all the more disturbing because it didn’t have enough fingers to begin with.
“You say you have come to this planet to assist your colony, but I feel we can dispense with this pretence if we wish discussion to continue. It is clear to all that your only interest is in the grav ship discovered by the colony shortly after our arrival. Yes?”
“No.” King responded immediately. “Not at all. The colonists sent out a request for help: we responded. Is that unusual where you come from?”
“Of course not, it is admirable.” Poro Tauna accepted. “But you must surely now see that this help is no longer required and so the only reason for your continued presence can only be the grav ship.”
“We see nothing of the kind, this is I presume where the confusion lies.” Rossaria replied smoothly, leading King to suspect that she had more experience with this kind of diplomacy than he. Or maybe she just had more experience of keeping her temper during aggressive meetings. “What we see is a colony led away from their people, misled into abandoning their faith and treated as servants by an alien power. While I do not deny that recovering our Imperial technology is important to us, particularly when it is in a warzone, the situation with our colonists clearly shows that our help is required now more than ever.”
It was, to King’s mind, a sign that Rossaria was right when none of the humans present interrupted to defend their beliefs. Instead they stood silent, waiting for their masters to speak for them.
Listening to the back and forth wordplay, King was feeling extremely out of his depth with the idea of polite discussion with Xenos. War he could deal with, war he knew well and war was what he was trained for. Diplomacy to him meant explaining to a superior why he was wrong without actually saying so; or just occasionally it was a poncy civilian coward that needed escorted somewhere. The thought of actually being the diplomat was extremely new territory for him, and from what little he had experienced so far in this meeting, he suspected that he would rapidly be longing for those happy carefree days a few years back when the Wordbearers had broken into their transport vessel.
“But surely Commander King will recognise the value of the Greater Good.”
King realised with a start that he’d been drifting off. Fortunately, losing focus during boring briefings was something he’d been trained to deal with and here he was back on familiar territory.
“I strongly refute that accusation!” he shot back, immediately alert. “It is quite clear to me that when you speak of the greater good you refer only to the Tau interests, and even in this you are distinctly misled.” He made a show of calming down before continuing. “The Tau is a young society from what I know of you, so it’s not surprising that you are falling into the same mistakes that humanity did in the dark times when we were at the same age. We were fortunate to be rescued from that time by our glorious Emperor and we have learned that vague ideals and fine plans do not equate to fine society and firm achievements. Society can never move forward without a clear figurehead in the form of our glorious Emperor and your greater good does nothing but mislead you and those who follow you.”
Scar started speaking as soon as the translation was relayed, a loud outburst of alien syllables that left all the listeners in no doubt as to the sentiment behind it before the translator could even begin.
“Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or says this is because you understand nothing. You are barbarians fighting and killing because you know no better. Your Emperor is noth...”
King and Rossaria had leapt to their feet and onto the table, Rossaria via a small step on her chair, sending it scattering across the floor, both ready to tear Scar and his translator limb from limb if it completed such a vile sentence. There was the whine of pulse rifles suddenly powering up but if the pair even heard them, they gave no sign. Even one or two of the traitors seemed ready to react. Por’O Tau’Na cut across the conversation, speaking rapidly to Scar in the Tau language. Scar stopped immediately, leaving the room poised on a knife edge.
“I am sorry.” Poro Tauna continued, in low gothic once more. “Please understand that for us, an insult to the Tau’Na, the Greater Good, is as fundamental to us as an insult to the Emperor of Humanity is to you. Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or retaliated in haste and we apologise. This is a misunderstanding between our cultures, nothing more. Please, let us continue with discussions.”
There was a long, long moment before King took a step backwards, and that was largely because it had occurred to him now how impractical a continued assault would be now the moment had passed. One of the traitors braved the run forward to straighten Rossaria’s chair and the crunch of Plexiglas beneath his boot showed King that he had broken his drinking vessel (he knew no better word for it) as he charged. Fortunately the liquid had scattered sideways and become someone else’s problem. Jumping lightly down, he offered his hand to Rossaria to help but it was ignored as she stepped off the table and landed with only a slight stumble as her injured leg impacted. They returned to their seats, injured pride on display as they reluctantly agreed to continue with the meeting. King had decided to concentrate on trying to sneak off some of the larger broken shards, maybe they could be used as crude weapons, but it appeared the discussion was to remain centred upon him and he had to watch helplessly as the precious opportunity was tidied away by a helpful traitor.
“We think your words are because you do not understand the true meaning of the Greater Good. Our studies of you show that you already have an instinctual rudimentary grasp of the philosophy and so this is when we realised that dialogue may be possible with you and your people.”
“I don’t see how you could have got that idea.” King retorted, stung by the idea and also intensely aware of how badly things would go for him if Rossaria believed that for a minute. Execution would be the least of his worries then.
In answer, Poro Tauna simply inclined its head. “If you will wait a moment.”
It touched a button and the centre of the table suddenly lit up with a pale yellow glow. King frowned, he hadn’t even been aware that it was tech and he had run across it. Clearly either the Xenos techpriests weren’t so devout as Imperial ones, or they must be extremely subservient to the water caste’s ideals of peace, because none of the Tau seemed bothered by their accidental desecration.
It seemed that miraculously he and Rossaria had not damaged the tech however, because after a few more moments’ work from Poro Tauna King heard his own words speaking back to him, echoing forth from the glowing centre of the table, the crackling sound of a vox transmission diminishing as the words grew stronger.
“...f all but one of us die getting back to base but that one carries the message, then we’ve died saving billions of lives. That’s what Bill is out there dying for, and we will not cheapen his sacrifice by jepordising those billions. The entire Imperium is an interconnected network of people all relying on each other, and today they’re relying on us. We count for nothing against that. Do you understand?”
That was the second time in 48 hours that someone had quoted back that particular speech to him to make his life more difficult. He was distinctly going off the idea of command: fortunately, that at least seemed that it would not be a problem for much longer. He turned instead to Rossaria.
“How did they...?”
She gave a slight one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t know.”
Poro Tauna turned to them “Here you have outlined clearly the ideals of the Greater Good: your desire was to save your friend, but you knew that giving in to this desire would make things better for him, but worse for everyone else. You sublimated your desires and the needs of your friend for the needs of society as a whole. You did the same again when you agreed to peace to save the lives of those around you. In the Tau culture, you would be lauded as a hero for your actions. In your culture, you were scorned and accused of being afraid. This is why we say that you would understand the Greater Good: because you have demonstrated that you understand much of it already.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“No!”
The two voices raised in unison were King and Scar, finally in agreement on something. King stopped, allowing Scar to continue. It switched back to its own tongue, ‘no’ presumably being close to the limit of Gothic that it understood, and its translator explained quickly, almost certainly toning down the original language this time.
“Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or feels that to say that a barbarian human could understand the Tau’Na without learning is offensive. He says that Commander King knows nothing but war and that if we wish to honour him it should be as a worthy opponent, not an ally. To consider him as Gue’vesa is worse than a mistake, it is an insult to our own people!”
Before Poro Tauna could put a no doubt far more positive wording on this speech Rossaria stood in the manner of one taking charge of an unruly mob.
“Gentlemen.” She began, using the term in its very loosest sense. “It is clear that neither your side nor ours are prepared at present for any such discussion and I would suggest that we withdraw and reconvene another day, when you have had some time to decide your position.”
King also stood, rising from his chair to a commanding pose. “I agree. There is no point in further discussion between us when you clearly have matters to arrange amongst yourselves. There’s no reason for us being here.”
“Indeed.” Rossaria concluded, clicking her heels and bowing to a minute degree. “I thank you for your time, and bid you good day.”
In unison she and King turned from the table and began to walk from the room. He wasn’t sure if their guards were keeping up with the conversation sufficiently to follow them but sadly (though unsurprisingly) they reacted quickly to escort the pair back to their cell where King was planning a very pointed conversation with Bill.
The seats were a mix of normal chairs and strange lumps like rounded off mortar shells which the Tau happily perched upon. All in all there were around a dozen Tau: Poro Tauna and two other Robes, one taking notes on what was presumably the Xenos equivalent of a dataslate, one waiting so patiently it seemed like a statue. Scar - Shazzo Shakelar - also had one next to it also taking notes, and there were the usual escort of fire warriors standing around the walls on ‘being obvious’ duty. There were also four humans: he recognised one, a short pinch-faced man, from the briefing documents he had received. That one had once been the governor of the settlement, now reduced to lackey of a Xeno power.
Rossaria walked in with confidence, it was only because King knew her that he was aware her stride was shorter than normal. Her coat was unbuttoned and hung open around her, giving the impression of a dramatic red frame like a warp rift behind her, her bright red sash swirling around her legs and adding to the drama. She hadn’t redone her high braid - King had asked about that once and received a sarcastic reply about having forgotten to pack a hairbrush to the battlefield - but even the flatter plait lying perfectly aligned down her spine was impressive. She flicked out her coattails and sat, crossing her legs in the image of ruthless efficiency.
At her side King marched as though there were a legion behind him, letting himself catch every gaze as a reminder that he was watching them. His every stride was measured and he sat without looking at the chair, as if confident that every aspect of this room was set up for him. They did not come as prisoners, nor as ambassadors nor diplomats: they came as envoys of Imperial justice and anyone finding themselves on the wrong side would know their decision had been noted. It was a statement of some little power, given their situation, but both the human traitors and the fledgeling Tau Empire had reason to fear the might of the Imperium and even with no other cards in their hand, that fact alone gave their enemies pause.
Across the table, Scar pointedly continued its discussion with the one it was talking to, but King could see that their entrance had been noted. The humans, to a man, looked away and avoided eye contact. Well may they fear. Poro Tauna stood and walked to join them, offering a handshake in greeting, continuing the illusion that this was an agreed meeting.
“Thank you for speaking with us.” It began as King reluctantly took it’s rough, leathery hand. “I appreciate that these are not the best circumstances and I am grateful for your agreement.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Rossaria commented mildly as she likewise shook it’s hand. “But I do not feel that anything will be gained by continuing to go over the circumstances by which we are here. Let us be frank: why are we here?”
She waved away another one of the Robes that was offering refreshments: King accepted what it was offering, a small but deep plexiglas bowl half full of liquid. He set it down on the table. Poro Tauna nodded in agreement to Rossaria.
“Of course, you will be keen to start.” It took its seat and steepled its fingers in a disturbingly human gesture, made all the more disturbing because it didn’t have enough fingers to begin with.
“You say you have come to this planet to assist your colony, but I feel we can dispense with this pretence if we wish discussion to continue. It is clear to all that your only interest is in the grav ship discovered by the colony shortly after our arrival. Yes?”
“No.” King responded immediately. “Not at all. The colonists sent out a request for help: we responded. Is that unusual where you come from?”
“Of course not, it is admirable.” Poro Tauna accepted. “But you must surely now see that this help is no longer required and so the only reason for your continued presence can only be the grav ship.”
“We see nothing of the kind, this is I presume where the confusion lies.” Rossaria replied smoothly, leading King to suspect that she had more experience with this kind of diplomacy than he. Or maybe she just had more experience of keeping her temper during aggressive meetings. “What we see is a colony led away from their people, misled into abandoning their faith and treated as servants by an alien power. While I do not deny that recovering our Imperial technology is important to us, particularly when it is in a warzone, the situation with our colonists clearly shows that our help is required now more than ever.”
It was, to King’s mind, a sign that Rossaria was right when none of the humans present interrupted to defend their beliefs. Instead they stood silent, waiting for their masters to speak for them.
Listening to the back and forth wordplay, King was feeling extremely out of his depth with the idea of polite discussion with Xenos. War he could deal with, war he knew well and war was what he was trained for. Diplomacy to him meant explaining to a superior why he was wrong without actually saying so; or just occasionally it was a poncy civilian coward that needed escorted somewhere. The thought of actually being the diplomat was extremely new territory for him, and from what little he had experienced so far in this meeting, he suspected that he would rapidly be longing for those happy carefree days a few years back when the Wordbearers had broken into their transport vessel.
“But surely Commander King will recognise the value of the Greater Good.”
King realised with a start that he’d been drifting off. Fortunately, losing focus during boring briefings was something he’d been trained to deal with and here he was back on familiar territory.
“I strongly refute that accusation!” he shot back, immediately alert. “It is quite clear to me that when you speak of the greater good you refer only to the Tau interests, and even in this you are distinctly misled.” He made a show of calming down before continuing. “The Tau is a young society from what I know of you, so it’s not surprising that you are falling into the same mistakes that humanity did in the dark times when we were at the same age. We were fortunate to be rescued from that time by our glorious Emperor and we have learned that vague ideals and fine plans do not equate to fine society and firm achievements. Society can never move forward without a clear figurehead in the form of our glorious Emperor and your greater good does nothing but mislead you and those who follow you.”
Scar started speaking as soon as the translation was relayed, a loud outburst of alien syllables that left all the listeners in no doubt as to the sentiment behind it before the translator could even begin.
“Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or says this is because you understand nothing. You are barbarians fighting and killing because you know no better. Your Emperor is noth...”
King and Rossaria had leapt to their feet and onto the table, Rossaria via a small step on her chair, sending it scattering across the floor, both ready to tear Scar and his translator limb from limb if it completed such a vile sentence. There was the whine of pulse rifles suddenly powering up but if the pair even heard them, they gave no sign. Even one or two of the traitors seemed ready to react. Por’O Tau’Na cut across the conversation, speaking rapidly to Scar in the Tau language. Scar stopped immediately, leaving the room poised on a knife edge.
“I am sorry.” Poro Tauna continued, in low gothic once more. “Please understand that for us, an insult to the Tau’Na, the Greater Good, is as fundamental to us as an insult to the Emperor of Humanity is to you. Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or retaliated in haste and we apologise. This is a misunderstanding between our cultures, nothing more. Please, let us continue with discussions.”
There was a long, long moment before King took a step backwards, and that was largely because it had occurred to him now how impractical a continued assault would be now the moment had passed. One of the traitors braved the run forward to straighten Rossaria’s chair and the crunch of Plexiglas beneath his boot showed King that he had broken his drinking vessel (he knew no better word for it) as he charged. Fortunately the liquid had scattered sideways and become someone else’s problem. Jumping lightly down, he offered his hand to Rossaria to help but it was ignored as she stepped off the table and landed with only a slight stumble as her injured leg impacted. They returned to their seats, injured pride on display as they reluctantly agreed to continue with the meeting. King had decided to concentrate on trying to sneak off some of the larger broken shards, maybe they could be used as crude weapons, but it appeared the discussion was to remain centred upon him and he had to watch helplessly as the precious opportunity was tidied away by a helpful traitor.
“We think your words are because you do not understand the true meaning of the Greater Good. Our studies of you show that you already have an instinctual rudimentary grasp of the philosophy and so this is when we realised that dialogue may be possible with you and your people.”
“I don’t see how you could have got that idea.” King retorted, stung by the idea and also intensely aware of how badly things would go for him if Rossaria believed that for a minute. Execution would be the least of his worries then.
In answer, Poro Tauna simply inclined its head. “If you will wait a moment.”
It touched a button and the centre of the table suddenly lit up with a pale yellow glow. King frowned, he hadn’t even been aware that it was tech and he had run across it. Clearly either the Xenos techpriests weren’t so devout as Imperial ones, or they must be extremely subservient to the water caste’s ideals of peace, because none of the Tau seemed bothered by their accidental desecration.
It seemed that miraculously he and Rossaria had not damaged the tech however, because after a few more moments’ work from Poro Tauna King heard his own words speaking back to him, echoing forth from the glowing centre of the table, the crackling sound of a vox transmission diminishing as the words grew stronger.
“...f all but one of us die getting back to base but that one carries the message, then we’ve died saving billions of lives. That’s what Bill is out there dying for, and we will not cheapen his sacrifice by jepordising those billions. The entire Imperium is an interconnected network of people all relying on each other, and today they’re relying on us. We count for nothing against that. Do you understand?”
That was the second time in 48 hours that someone had quoted back that particular speech to him to make his life more difficult. He was distinctly going off the idea of command: fortunately, that at least seemed that it would not be a problem for much longer. He turned instead to Rossaria.
“How did they...?”
She gave a slight one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t know.”
Poro Tauna turned to them “Here you have outlined clearly the ideals of the Greater Good: your desire was to save your friend, but you knew that giving in to this desire would make things better for him, but worse for everyone else. You sublimated your desires and the needs of your friend for the needs of society as a whole. You did the same again when you agreed to peace to save the lives of those around you. In the Tau culture, you would be lauded as a hero for your actions. In your culture, you were scorned and accused of being afraid. This is why we say that you would understand the Greater Good: because you have demonstrated that you understand much of it already.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“No!”
The two voices raised in unison were King and Scar, finally in agreement on something. King stopped, allowing Scar to continue. It switched back to its own tongue, ‘no’ presumably being close to the limit of Gothic that it understood, and its translator explained quickly, almost certainly toning down the original language this time.
“Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or feels that to say that a barbarian human could understand the Tau’Na without learning is offensive. He says that Commander King knows nothing but war and that if we wish to honour him it should be as a worthy opponent, not an ally. To consider him as Gue’vesa is worse than a mistake, it is an insult to our own people!”
Before Poro Tauna could put a no doubt far more positive wording on this speech Rossaria stood in the manner of one taking charge of an unruly mob.
“Gentlemen.” She began, using the term in its very loosest sense. “It is clear that neither your side nor ours are prepared at present for any such discussion and I would suggest that we withdraw and reconvene another day, when you have had some time to decide your position.”
King also stood, rising from his chair to a commanding pose. “I agree. There is no point in further discussion between us when you clearly have matters to arrange amongst yourselves. There’s no reason for us being here.”
“Indeed.” Rossaria concluded, clicking her heels and bowing to a minute degree. “I thank you for your time, and bid you good day.”
In unison she and King turned from the table and began to walk from the room. He wasn’t sure if their guards were keeping up with the conversation sufficiently to follow them but sadly (though unsurprisingly) they reacted quickly to escort the pair back to their cell where King was planning a very pointed conversation with Bill.