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No one interrupted our vacation. There was an astonishing silence on the fronts, coming immediately after the battle of Iota Persei. The quargs never sent there a new fleet, which I estimate had every chance of successfully seizing the system, because we had too little strength left, and the lizards had yet to recover from the crushing defeat that destroyed their entire orbital infrastructure.
With the new allies, things turned out very interesting. The lizards were very clever creatures, they took our invitation to ride in the big troop transport with understanding, if not enthusiasm. We did not have to explain to them that here, on the ships of the friendly fleet, that appeared unexpectedly and very fortunately, they would not find anyone with whom to negotiate future relations of the races. The reptiles themselves realized that those who had come to Iota Persei in predatory metal ships and punched evil enemies were probably not trained in the art of diplomacy. The best thing they do in life is fight, not talk, and those who can negotiate, sit somewhere else, where they, lizards, are invited.
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“Good time, Lit-ta,” I replied, and with a hand gesture made it clear to the staff that the meeting was temporarily postponed, “Are you satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations?”
“I got what I came here forrr,” the lizards’ leader said, without going into the details, “There will be otherrrsss worrrking with people. I’m not a diplomat, I’m a goverrrnorrr-generrral, and I need to get back to my ssstarrr syssstem and rrrepair the damage. But I rrremember our converrrsssation about captivesss, Rrrearrr Admirrral. I had the time to think. What you asssked me might work. It’sss important, and I’m willing to ssspend my time worrrking with the quarrrgsss, but not more than two weeksss of your time.”
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