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Transcript
Panel 1:
Narration Box: Meanwhile!
Yeoman Bridget Janson: Hylia, do you have a moment?
Ensign Hylia: Sure, Bridget! But aren't you assisting our diplomat?
Bridget: He's on a private call. And this is kind of about that...
Do you have any way of checking his inbound and outbound calls since he's been on board?
Hylia: Well, sure. It all routes through ship systems. Let's see...
Panel 2:
Hylia: Wow, yeah... he's had quite a few.
Bridget: All with the surface?
Hylia: No... some of these are routed to long range relays. Back to Earth, it looks like.
Those seem to be only electronic outgoing messages. We're too far out for real-time comms with Earth.
Bridget: Can we read the transcripts?
Hylia: Sorry, no. They're all encrypted for privacy.
Bridget: Just for the sake of argument... if we HAD to decrypt them somehow...?
Hylia: Well... That's a bit beyond the scope of communications. Zack, though, I think has some experience?
Panel 3:
Lieutenant Zack LeRoux: Did I hear my name tossed around? Ooh... decryption, huh? That's a tough cookie.
Bridget: Could you do it?
Zack: Even with the speed of our main computer, decrypting without a cipher would take a few hundred years.
Bridget: Damn.
Zack: Unless, of course... you could find an unencrypted sample from one of the files. Even one sentence should be enough.
I could use that to generate a decryption cipher for the entire batch.
Bridget: Really...
Hylia: Colonel, we have a hail coming in. From the surface.
Panel 4:
Colonel Hank Reynolds: Onscreen.
Well, Mr. Advisor. To what do we owe the pleasure?
Panel 5:
Supreme Advisor: Let us skip the pleasantries. I believe you know why I've called.
Your little escapade has failed.
Panel 6:
Suupreme Advisor: Laughable that you sent only your commanders. Or perhaps just foolish?
Regardless, the queen remains here. And your officers as well.
Panel 7:
Supreme Advisor: As you can plainly see, they are now happily residing in... private guest quarters.
I believe you must agree that you have acted in terribly bad faith. And I, magnanimous as I am, should be congratulated for not sipmly blowing you out of the sky for violating our treaties.
Panel 8:
Hank: I thought you wanted to skip the pleasantries.
You've got us over a damn barrel. So what do you want?
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