On the main computer of the MEEP, an incoming third-party signal was received and the first person who heard it from the crew was Tomaka. He immediately gathered the entire team closer, in the command room, to discuss further actions.
The robot negotiator was allowed, after mandatory security procedures, to go up to the MEEP. Where immediately, they determined a common language for communicating with the arrived, unknown guests.
The robot negotiator drove into the MEEP, stopped in front of the crew and everyone saw, in the air, a translucent air man, shimmering blue-blue, clearly the commander, and immediately heard, from the laser visor translator: – I, Space Commander Kaaran, under the Emperor Maront! How dare you here arrange the extraction of our minerals, without our permission?
The Space Commander of Kaaran had spoken of fossils, but Tomaka sensed that he was being deceptive. He needed something other than a threat and a simple trial.
Although the situation, in the literal sense, in the air was now tense, the crew for some reason, did not feel an obvious threat. It was most likely a feeling of some confusion. After all, according to everyone, there should be no one here on Malonga first, except for Tomaki's crew.
"I, the commander of Tomaka space expedition," Tomaka said. "We came here, on the intergalactic ship the Flying Ferix, to work on mining. According to our agency information, this planet is not inhabited by people and does not belong to anyone. And since the rights to it have not been previously claimed, then you are now violating the law of galactic property, using your superiority over us. Restricting us and our labor, in freedom and labor activity.
– The Space Commander of Tomaka, – Timba joked softly, prefixing the word" commander"with"cosmo.
– What rights and laws are you talking about? We suggest that you voluntarily open our military access, for your escort, to the place of temporary isolation, for further negotiations, – the Space Commander of Kaaran urged the crew of Tomaki.
Tomaka looked questioningly at the Pythons, the latter only helplessly raised and lowered his shoulders, there was no point in arguing with Space Commander Kaaran, in any case, he would have to obey.
– You can't come in here and tell us what to do, – Tomaka said.
– If you don't open it and let us in, we'll have to destroy you, – Kaaran said, in a promising, military voice.
Tomaka made the tough decision to let Space Commander Kaaran into the MEEP.
– Security system, disable entry-exit protection, – Tomaka commanded, and a moment or two later, armed soldiers entered the MEEP. The mining operation immediately stopped, and Space Commander Kaaran ordered that several fast-flying, lightly armed aircraft be left on guard. The rest, departed to the side where it turns out, before arriving on the planet Malongu first Tomaki, lived standing and flying near the MEEP, the military in their fighters.
– You have violated our borders, Commander Tomaka, – Kaaran said.
– But our maps, as I said, don't show your presence here, we didn't know about you, – Tomaka said.
– This does not excuse you, you wanted to take our farm, we will now take your farm, – said the satisfied Kaaran.
– But we won't give you anything, or we won't be able to fly home from here, – Tomaka said.
–Then we'll kill your crew and take what we need ourselves, – Kaaran said menacingly.
– What do you want? – Tomak asked, in an ostentatious, calm voice.
– We need your element, which is why you came here, – Kaaran said.
– Not an element, but elements. Yes, they are in our spaceship and some of them are in our capsules, but to give them to you means to leave us without everything, – Tomaka said.
– You are already without, now, without everything, and nothing prevents me from killing you, – Kaaran threatened.
– I understand that you need the elements, but our pods are hidden and covered with invisible shields, you can't find them, and your equipment can't get to our ship, so it's not profitable for you to kill us.
– Ok, then you, become our prisoners, please go out, – said Tomake, already displeased Kaaran.
– I can come with you, – Timba joked.
Kaaran didn't know Timba's humor, so he didn't understand it.
Tomaki's crew left the MEEP, under the supervision of a convoy. Everyone reached the military escort ship, settled in it, and went to the base, the mountain city of the Emperor Maront.
It took about an hour of flight, local time, and then, over a huge platform, spaceships began to land, among which was the one where Tomaki's crew was. Half an hour later, all the military personnel were drawn up in two lines, like a security fence, from the hatch of the escort ship to the hangar gate, which had already been opened long ago.
The arrested, "voluntarily", in handcuffs, were led between two lines of soldiers, in the direction of the hangar, who stood in white military clothes and closed, white helmets, with black and armored glasses. This brought a strange smile to Tomaki's face.
The hangar was completely empty, except for a huge black square in the center of the white room.
Space Commander Kaaran, Tomaki's crew, and several other escorts stood in the center of the square. The floor immediately became an elevator, with protective handrails at the edges, a control screen, and a computer consultant, in the form of a man, on solid glass. Space Commander Kaaran entered a code on the control screen and turned to the glass, saying to the smiling man on the same screen, – To the hall of justice.
– Your identity is confirmed and the command will be executed, – the man on the screen replied, and the black square fell neatly down into the void there, and through the air channel, under the dim light from the gloom, carried everyone to the hall of justice. If there is an entrance, then you can find an exit, so here, in the hall of justice, there was the same black square, it has now changed to a replaceable state and instead of it, there was another one, which was sent here by a man, from a glass screen.
– Good technology, for an extinct civilization, – Timba said, looking around at what they saw.
The hall of Justice was a large room. In the center, as it is already clear, there was a black square, but everything else was done in the style of mixed eras. There were also statues of warriors a hundred times the normal height of people, apparently defenders of good, frozen at the moment of battle, with no smaller size devils and demons seducing the forces of good. And broken, stone, and somewhere iron columns, lay against the walls, the general picture of which, beat a thin blade on the nerves, showing that death and chaos are always near. Two of the walls were closer to the black square, and two were farther away, creating a certain perimeter. And now, in one of the far walls, there was a stone throne, gray with cracks. From the ceiling behind him, the canvases descended, not man-made and frozen in time, the top of which went into invisible blackness.
Many sipurians were convicted here, and some, of course, were acquitted by local laws. Lies and truth penetrated the body, terrible visions, confused thoughts that were confused in the head. Huge pictures, misty and airy, moved everywhere, forcing fear on people. The hall came alive around Tomaki and everyone else. Ancient and modern, harmoniously merged into a single whole.
This was indeed the hall of justice.
While Tomaki's crew was looking at everything, he didn't see the most important thing, that someone was looking at them. It wasn't Chief Justice Gret, who is usually the main person in the judgment room in this hall of justice, but Emperor Maront himself. He stood on the opposite side of the throne, near the wooden gate, and watched carefully as the people arrived on the black square. Usually, at the time of the proceedings, there were always at least fifty noisy defenders and prosecutors in the courtroom, the absence of which, at such an important moment, now embarrassed Kaaran himself.
