Coordinate Oola and Dux Simmons arrived on the Armstrong on separate shuttles. Oola was already seated in a white hoverchair, her hands folded on the conference table, when Simmons arrived. Each was escorted by two handpicked guards but a general peace was kept by several Armstrong crew with ion weapons. Littlecrow had promised everyone her protection and that was not a promise she made lightly.

As Littlecrow made her way down the hall to the meeting Gibson and Mitzner buzzed around her.

"I just don't believe there is a realistic solution to this conflict," said Gibson "Unless we were to evacuate the Libertines to a new planet, which could take years."

"Why should the Libertines have to go?" asked Mitzner.

"Because there are less of them," said Gibson.

"We should petition the Foundation to recognize the Libertines as the legitimate government of the planet," said Mitzner "Let's see the Alliance try to wipe out their culture then."

"That's absurd," said Gibson "We should obviously recognize the Alliance as the legitimate government that it is."

"I've heard enough from both of you," said the Captain "If that's your attitude I don't want either of you at this conference. I'm disappointed."

Captain Littlecrow brushed the two aside and entered the conference room. Oola and Simmons were already arguing.

"-trying to hold us all accountable for the crimes of a few!" shouted Oola.

"You shelter the bandits and murderers among you. You hide them from justice. You have no laws yourselves so none of your people are ever held accountable for their attacks against us! We are acting in self-defence!" shouted back Simmons.

"That's no excuse to try to wipe out our culture!" screamed Oola.

"You can't call having no laws and no respect for life a culture," yelled Simmons.

"Be quiet, both of you," shouted Littlecrow.

This got their attention.

"I have some good news for the two of you. You can stop arguing because your argument doesn't matter anymore. Your war doesn't matter anymore. If either of your is entertaining the slightest notion that anything that resembling either of your societies as you know them is going to survive after what the Foundation is about to bring you should disabuse yourself of it. Whether you join the Foundation or not the galaxy is reconnecting. You aren't just a world anymore, you are one planet in a galactic community. Everything is about to change and both of you are going to learn the hard way you have a lot more interests in common than you have differences. In a word, your conflict is now obsolete."

"That is absurd!" said Dux Simmons.

"No, Dux, you are absurd," said Captain Littlecrow "The New Era has made it's way to your doorstep and you're killing each other with glorified sticks over past grievances."

"You can't dismiss the history of what has been done to us so flippantly!" shouted an outraged Coordinator Oola.

"You should talk of history!" snarled Dux Simmons.

"I think you have both more than established your identical arguments." said Captain Littlecrow "Now we can spend what little time my ship is going to spend orbiting your planet continuing our discussion about why you shouldn't be murdering one another or we can start hammering our a plan for your planet to join the Foundation and raise your standard of living so much that the lifestyles of your nobility will seem like destitution in a few years. You've seen what our technology is capable of. That's up to you two."

Oola and Simmons exchanged glares of pure, undiluted hatred. The two seethed for a long moment. Finally Oola offered her hand to shake with such anger it seemed like a parody of the gesture. Dux grabbed it violently and the two shook hands.

* * *

Both Gibson and Mitzner sat in the Captain's office like chastised children in front of the principal. The Captain sat at her desk, arms crossed.

"I'm disappointed in both of you," she said, after letting them stew a while "Getting involved in a local conflict like that is unprofessional and, frankly, childish. Mitzner you gave weapons technology to a primitive culture, I can't even tell you how many laws you've broken."

"Four," said Commander Gibson.

"Don't start Commander," said Littlecrow "You were in charge of the mission. That's how you represent the Huxley Foundation? Involving yourself in both sides of a war?"

"I apologize," said Commander Gibson.

"I'm sorry too," said Mitzner "I made a bad call in the heat of the moment. It won't happen again."

"If you two have taken it upon yourselves to make up for the lack of chaos being caused by Dr. Kang you can rest assured I'm going to allow him to go on away missions again. So you can go back to being the responsible intelligent officers I know you to be."

Mitzner really would have liked to make a snarky remark about Dr. Kang but she didn't feel like pressing her luck.

Sides: End

Which character would you like to see as the spotlight character in the next episode? Is it Gibson? It's probably not Gibson.