Ambassador 4: Coming Home Page 12

  To sum up, there was not a great amount of information known, but the more I thought of it, the more likely it seemed that the Barresh Aghyrians weren’t the only group that the ship had been communicating with. How long had this been going on? If they had indeed been sending information about how to produce Tamerians, then it must have been at least twenty years. The thought made me dizzy.

  More drinks arrived at the table. I didn’t even remember who ordered them.

  Asha seemed happy. He got into gamra politics, and women—concerned, apparently—that I hadn’t tried out enough of them.

  There was a block of time, in between stumbling out of the courtyard, and arriving at the gamra island, that was erased from my memories.

  I had no idea how we got back. I vaguely remembered stumbling into the bedroom where Thayu was already asleep. I vaguely remembered lying in bed feeling like I was on a ship on a rough ocean.

  Chapter 12

  * * *

  I WOKE UP with a shock, with bright daylight streaming into the room. The curtains were open, the side of the bed empty and the room tidied.

  Well, what the. . . ?

  I sat up, looking around, confused.

  Ouch, my head.

  Ouch, my eyes.

  I stumbled from the bed into the bathroom. A look in the mirror confirmed that my eyes were red, a by-product of the zixas fumes I had breathed last night.

  My feeder must have signalled activity to Thayu, because she came into the room, wearing her gamra uniform.

  She smiled at me. “Big night out?”

  I groaned.

  “I can smell zixas.”

  “Seriously, I didn’t touch the stuff. That stuff is pure poison. It would kill me.” I must be the first person to get a hangover from breathing the fumes of someone else’s drink. Damn it, I felt terrible.

  “I’ll let you recover.” She headed back to the door.

  “No, Thay’ don’t go.”

  She stopped, raising her eyebrows.

  “It’s . . . not good. I need to talk to you. Call Nicha. Veyada, too. Sheydu as well. I need ideas.”

  She frowned at me. “Call them in here? Like this?”

  I looked down at my pale chest, where the laser had missed some hair follicles and a few dark blond hairs stuck out of my pale skin. I would have to go back to the clinic in New Zealand to get regrowth on my face and chest removed. At some point, a diet would probably also be a good idea. “Tell them to come to my office. Let me get changed first.”

  “Reida is still out. Should Deyu be there?”

  “Yeah. All right.” I’d not yet discovered much use for her. She seemed timid, but since she was in my association, she should probably be there, too. “Oh, and I want Evi and Telaris, and Devlin. But give me time for some breakfast.”

  Thayu left and I scrambled for clothes and to make myself presentable. I tried eye drops from the medicine cupboard, but they stung like hell—I said a few interesting words—and made my vision blurry. Great. Go to save the world while having the universe’s biggest hangover. Wasn’t I just a model picture of the patheticness of humanity?

  Apparently, Eirani was running some errands in town, so I had to do my own hair. Eirani would do this plait from the back that captured all the stray hairs, but I could never manage more than a loose ponytail. I went down to the kitchen myself. The cook was just lifting a tine of fresh megon nut bread out of the cooking bath. The tin sat, still steaming, on the bench. He used gloves to undo the clamps, releasing the heavenly smell into the kitchen. He cut a big piece for me, which I sprinkled with herb oil. I sat at the big, flour-dusted table in the kitchen to eat it, being careful not to burn my fingers. It was heavenly.

  He made me manazhu as well, without complaining that it was not a local drink or that it stank or any of the things Eirani would say about it.

  I took the steaming hot cup back upstairs. It was time to dump on my faithful association the seemingly insurmountable task I’d agreed to last night: get Kando Luczon or his companions involved in a productive negotiation or face having them forcefully interrogated by Asha’s soldiers.

  In the light of the morning this task seemed even more ambitious than it had last night.

  My office was the first room to the left at the top of the stairs.

  The sound of voices came from inside and I found Thayu, Veyada and Deyu already in the room. The latter sat in the big chair that faced the desk. Thayu and Veyada stood next to the chair. I’d told Deyu several times to stop making subservient greetings to me, but she was always awkward with that order. The instinct was very strong in her. There had to be a reason for the odd pairing of her—Omi clan, from very modest business background in Eighth Circle—to Reida—one of the very few remaining Ezmis at Asto, strongly affiliated with the zeyshi—but I hadn’t found the reason yet.

  Devlin came in after me, as well as Evi and Telaris and Sheydu.

  Nicha entered last, carrying his son in the sling. He shut the door and the rattling of slats as the traditional Barresh door, unrolling, made the baby squirm. Nicha patted the lump in the sling until he settled.

  I looked around the circle of serious faces. They were my trusted team, and I hated dropping on them what I was about to tell them.

  I started telling them about the things that Asha had told me last night. Several times there were sharp intakes of breaths. I spotted Thayu shaking her head in a most worrying fashion.

  I ended with, “The short story is that we absolutely need to get agreements out of these Aghyrians and we need to start talking with them. If Kando Luczon is not going to cooperate, and it doesn’t look like he will, we must get it from his two companions. First, we must find reasons to separate the two from their captain, and to get them to talk. We know nothing about these people, their wishes or fears, and I’m afraid there isn’t the time to be either nice or subtle about this. I want your thoughts on how we should go about this in a manner that we get the cooperation we need, and that is least likely to start the first-ever one-hundred-year intergalactic war. I’m asking you because my mind is blank. I’m a diplomat and I talk—far too much some say—but talking is my thing. Talking has failed us so far.”

  To my surprise, Deyu was the first to speak. “Reida would know.”

  I nodded. Yes, he might, and it was a pity that he was still in town, but the work he was doing there was also important to me.

  Sheydu said, “I can do bombs, if you need them.”

  Deciding whether or where I needed them was, apparently, my job. Fair enough.

  Thayu looked like she was thinking, Nicha stroked his son, also in thought, but it was Veyada I was watching, because out of all of the team, I counted him as significantly more intelligent than the rest of us.

  But it was Devlin who spoke. “The two companions are guards of some description, right?”

  I shrugged. “I might have pushed them in that position. I don’t think they were originally. I’m not really sure that aboard a ship like that one needs guards.”

  Thayu said, “When we were at the ship, I saw the woman working at that stasis facility. She’s more likely to be a medical worker of some sort.”

  That would make sense, that with the majority of crew in stasis, personnel awake included a medical team to perform maintenance operations on their human cargo.

  “Hmmm,” Devlin said. “I thought we might interest them in a security problem, but if they’re not security workers then that’s not going to work.”

  “Shouldn’t we then present them with an interesting medical question?” Deyu said. Her voice sounded quite young. In Earth years she would probably have been only eighteen or nineteen. Coldi started mentoring at thirteen and people became legally adult at seventeen.

  Everyone looked at her. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only person in this house whose ears betrayed them.

  She continued in a slightly nervous voice. “My father started his business running a workshop that makes and repairs furniture. He
said his early years were hard. He didn’t get enough customers and he spent a lot of time touting his business, his skills and craftsmanship. He never did very well until he realised that all those people in the area where he lived just weren’t interested in his nice furniture. He says, ‘You can’t sell furniture to people who don’t have a house,’ and that’s true. The area in Eighth Circle where he lived was very poor, and many people lived in such cramped conditions that there wasn’t room for furniture. My father grew up there, so that’s why he had stayed in that area. After he realised that, he went to another area where people have bigger houses. Another tactic for my father would have been to start selling something else, but he chose to move because he likes furniture-making. He’s doing all right now.”

  Her cheeks went red. It was the most I’d ever heard her talk. From memory, Deyu’s father had gone on to become involved in the Sector Council, and was regarded as an influential honest man in his small part of the mega-city of Athyl.

  Deyu went on, “That’s what we should do: move somewhere else, even if only in speech. These Aghyrians aren’t interested in talk and negotiations, so we don’t try to sell them negotiations. Are they even interested in ever settling on a planet again? We don’t know. But they are interested in genetics. So we talk genetics. They know as little about us as we know about them.”

  Sheydu said, her voice dark, “The reason that no one has said anything important to them is because we’re afraid what they would do with the information.”

  Deyu’s ears went even redder. She looked down at her lap. “Well, it was an idea.”

  “It was not a bad idea,” I said. “I happen to think that offering them something that might interest them could be a good tactic.”

  Sheydu sniffed.

  “We’ve already taken them through the regular questions, like where they came from, what they want, what they know, and haven’t gotten anywhere, so it’s worth a try. But we must find a question small enough that it only interests the woman and not the captain. Not something that affects entire races. Something personal.” And as I said that, I got an idea. I looked at Thayu. No, I couldn’t possibly do that. On the other hand . . . “Thay’.” I gestured to her. She rose and came with me to the corridor.

  I spoke softly to her. “I’ve got an idea I want to run past you to make sure you’re all right with it. We’ve got to interest this woman with genetics and it has to be something personal, so I thought I could tell them that we wish we could have children, and is there any chance she might know about a way that we could?”

  Thayu stared at me.

  My heart was hammering. Next thing, she was going to get angry with me and accuse me of using our personal suffering for a public aim to embarrass her, or something like that. To be honest, the move felt a bit tacky to me as well.

  Thayu enfolded me in a hug so strong that I had trouble breathing. I managed to say, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I won’t do it if you don’t like it.”

  She let out a tiny squeak. “But I do want you to do it.” Her eyes glittered. “They know so much more than we do.”

  “Oh Thay’, you know there is very little chance that they can change anything in our situation, and you do understand that this is not the aim of the exercise?”

  “I do.” She wiped her eyes. “But if there is any question left to ask about our chances, I want it asked.”

  The Coldi mind continued to find ways to surprise me. Somehow, I seemed never to have understood that the only emotion the Coldi truly lacked was that of embarrassment.

  Chapter 13

  * * *

  WE MADE A PLAN.

  Thayu and I would go to the apartment together. We would wear no uniforms and take no guards, although they would stay in close proximity, of course. We would ask for advice on a personal issue in an informal, almost secretive way.

  Our past experience indicated that Kando Luczon was thoroughly uninterested in people’s private struggles, so we guessed that he would listen for a bit and then withdraw himself from the conversation.

  Hopefully the woman Lilona would continue.

  If it looked like we were having success in drawing her away from the captain, we would try to make her leave the apartment. She might want blood samples taken or need to use certain equipment. We would offer to do that at the hospital. We would pounce and ask her some forceful questions about the ship and their intentions once we had her out of the apartment. After we asked the questions about fertility, Thayu insisted.

  Sheydu and Veyada took the speculation a lot further than I liked, talking about making direct threats to her, and to the captain, and about taking her as a hostage.

  I so very much wanted to tell them that this sort of thing was not on, but I couldn’t.

  All the planning brought us to lunchtime, and while lunch wasn’t much of a feature in our house, certainly not on the scale it was in town, I didn’t want anyone fainting on the job, so I asked Eirani to supply us with a good meal. We sat at the table in the living room, a big varied and noisy team.

  Ayshada had decided that he’d behaved well enough for today, and demanded noisily that he be fed. This was done by Nicha, and when he had to eat, by Sheydu. Ayshada remained very much awake after he finished his milk, and Sheydu proceeded to tickle him, to which he responded by making gurgling noises. It was the oddest sight ever, a fierce killing machine cooing at a two-day-old baby. But she had given birth at least once, and obviously cared enough about Veyada to pair up with him. The fact that he lived with her also meant that it had been her contract and her decision to have him.

  It occurred to me that Xinanu’s departure was the best thing that had happened this week—no, make that this year—and that I would be utterly happy to withdraw my claim against the Azimi clan so that I never had to deal with them again. I wasn’t going to ask Devlin if they had responded yet. It would be great if that issue could stay out of my hair until after the Aghyrian crisis was settled.

  When lunch was done, we went to the bedroom to change. We would wear informal clothes. We would not carry weapons in visible places. I didn’t want to take any at all, but knew that was a battle I’d never win.

  “Light armour,” Thayu said, tossing the rigid body-hugging vest onto the bed.

  I picked it up. It was heavy and hot. “Is that necessary? These people have thousands of ways to kill us that don’t involve shooting a projectile or charge at high speed.”

  She just glared at me. Like the gun, I knew this was a losing battle as well. Her plain tunic and loose trousers hid her armour well. The pockets and folds of the garments probably also held all manner of guns.

  I got dressed and we met up with the others in the hall.

  While we went to talk, Evi and Telaris would casually hang around the fountain in the atrium a few steps from the door of Kando Luczon’s apartment. They often relaxed there, but this time they would be ready to take action if necessary.

  I felt sweaty and shivery when walking up to the apartment’s door. Probably an aftereffect of last night; but with every step we took, I became less sure that it was such a good idea to exploit our painful personal situation to get what we wanted. Thayu might say she had no trouble with it, but I had a hard time believing that.

  Thayu knocked on the door.

  It took a while before it was opened by the young man Tayron. He raised his eyebrows, looking from me to Thayu. “You didn’t let us know that a visit was planned.”

  It was hard to discern any kind of emotion from his voice. He could be annoyed, or happy or surprised.

  “We’re not on official business. We have a deeply personal issue we like your advice on.”

  He looked over his shoulder where Kando Luczon came into the hallway and eyed us with his usual hawkish suspicious look. He wore the loose robe that he had also worn on the ship, complete with the broad armbands that seemed to have some sort of electronic function, but probably wouldn’t work here. Not for the first time, I wondered what the three of
them did when they were by themselves in the apartment.

  I nodded to him. “Excuse us for disturbing you without notice. As I told your companion, we’re here for personal reasons. We have a question that I hope you or your staff can help us with.” Thayu had been happy to let me do the talking. She said that she would likely be too rude.

  I could see hostility warring with curiosity on his face. No, I hadn’t messaged him as I usually did. I didn’t want to advertise my actions to Delegate Namion.

  Then he glanced at Tayron, who stepped back, opening the door further. “Come in and ask your question.”

  We followed him to the living room on the far side of the apartment. I went first and Thayu behind me. The broad hallway bisected the apartment, with all the rooms to either side. The ones on the left backed onto my downstairs storeroom and staff office. The apartment’s main living room was at the end of the corridor. The windows, overlooking a neatly maintained garden, were on the western side, which made it quite hot, like my own living room and our bedroom. Yet he seemed to have all the vents that brought cool air from the atrium closed and the window and garden doors were closed as well.

  They had moved the furniture around: the dining table now stood at the far end of the room, the couch and one of the armchairs against the wall. A second armchair stood in the middle of the room, like a captain’s chair on a ship. This was where Kando Luczon took his place, leaving us to find seats at the table. The woman Lilona already sat at the table. She met my eyes, but said nothing. She didn’t greet us. She didn’t get up to offer us drinks.

  Not that I really wanted any, just having had lunch, but in any other house, a visitor would be offered refreshments.