154 North made sure that his wives got copies of
the shows and showed them to the children. When he brought the Wik
droid home on leave, even Spearina acted like a child around him. The
little droid became an intricate part of their lives as I.S. had become.
155 The Fleet was finally ready to move out. Two-hundred ships expertly
trained that fought almost as a single unit, ready for the first time,
to take territory from The Goddens, not just retrieve their own.
156 But the taking would be easier than North had thought. They leaped
into the first system that he had designs on and found themselves
opposed by only fifty Imperial vessels. The vessels came out and took
up position as if to fight, but to everyone's surprise sent out a
parlay signal.
157 North made contact with their Leader and when he saw the symbol on
the wall behind him, wondered what the man wanted, for it was the sign
of The Purists' Party. "You're under a signal of truce," announced
North, "but I don't want to speak with you any more than necessary.
What do you want?"
158 "We want," said The Purist, "to keep our world, all that we have
built, and to keep our society as we want it. We have no love for you,
we will admit that, but we have no love for The Empire, either. They
brought us out here and dumped us in these two systems with only
one-hundred old wrecks to defend ourselves. They thought we would fight
against you, to the death, which we will do if you are not reasonable,
I guarantee!
159 We are not fools. Two-hundred ships against fifty.....we know we'll
lose but you also know you'll pay a price for our lives. We think
you'll be willing to bargain. We'll give you this system and the next
one where you're going, all except the one world where we live. All we
ask is that we be allowed to stay there, live in our own way. We will
not bother you. You will not