James Carter was no less worried than any of the other delegates arriving at Human-Centauri II's embassy. Representing the entire star system of Sol was a monumental task in itself; the notorious contempt that Alpha Centauri and CN Leonis bore toward Sol's almost-entirely-human make-up didn't help. He narrowly avoided having a war break out at the last summit; the odds of succeeding again were even lower this time.
He entered the conference room at the same time as the other four representatives, eyeing them as feverishly as they eyed him. Holsteader, the Alpha-Centauri-A-III born representative of that same triple-star system, rotated his eye turret until one of his three eyes stared right at him — and, Carter feared, through him. Krammer, representing the leading clan of CN Leonis, was a new face to him, and was pudgy even for an Alpha-Centaurian. The four arms of this meter-and-a-third tall being betrayed his tension. Carter could almost hear what his thoughts must be: "Human scum, how dare your government even think of hiding your arsenal from us!"
At least Ivan Harlbjorg, the president of Sirius, was a human — albeit an enigmatic one. But of all the system leaders gathered there, it was Yukariah Heap, the decades-long president of Human-Centauri, that frightened him the most. Human-Centaurians — particularly Human-Centaurian politicians — had a reputation for sincerity that just didn't make sense from the standpoint of diplomacy. How could you expect to get along with another star system if you told them everything? Yukariah Heap had been at every interstellar summit since Carter had been born, and that gentle Alpha-Centaurian still shook him to his core whenever he was in his presence.
"Holsteader," "Krammer," and "Yukariah Heap." Alpha-Centaurians always did have weird names, Carter figured. Probably because those four mouths of theirs made their real names impossible for humans to pronounce.
In slow, wary steps, the five approached their respective places around the pentagonal conference table. They placed themselves, as usual, at the corners of the table which represented the actual positions of their star systems relative to each other in space. Carter sat to the right of Holsteader, who stood (a sitting human reached about the same height as a standing Centaurian, who can remain standing without tiring) to the right of Krammer, who stood on Yukariah Heap's right, who stood right of Harlbjorg, who sat to Carter's right. Carter wished that this "round table" arrangement had been thrown out of the planning office years ago; he could barely keep an eye on any two of the other delegates at once, much less all four. He felt it grossly unfair, at such times, that Centaurians had omnidirectional vision.
Now Carter had to get home . . . across two hyper holes and a billion kilometers of now-hostile Sirian space.
The Pentagon War is continued in chapter 5.
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