The captain took another long drink of soup, one of those imposed silences, in which she needn’t speak, needn’t answer. It took the globe down to a quarter.
We’re in it now, Bren thought. And if she’d honestly be persuaded to reason, on her own, and we’ve done this…
“Mr. Cameron,” Sabin said, utterly redirecting to him, on the other side of the table, “what do you think?”
“I think the presentation of those tapes would be a gesture of good will.” He should say something. He should.
“I think I made my position clear. You’re passengers. Not command personnel. Evidently you’ve received a briefing from my brother captain. But this is an internal matter of ship’s records, and no more is forthcoming. You can convey thatto the aiji’s grandmother.”
Or maybe not.
Cajeiri had lost a drink globe, and reached suddenly to retrieve it. Bren’s nerves jumped. Jase’s surely did. They were the only ones who might understand both sides of the conversation—give or take, Banichi, Jago, and the chance of one of Ilisidi’s young men understanding; and he didn’t put it past her limits. His advisors knew at least sketchy details, and hadn’t intervened, hadn’t given him a signal—nothing.
“I can’t urge enough,” Bren said, “that we are a resource to the ship, a well-disposed one, and it would be a very, very bad decision to breach agreements that brought her into this mission. Is that what I understand you’re doing?”
“Mr. Cameron, the Mospheiran delegate will be boarding about now. And I’m sure shehas her expertise—hers happening to be technical, with the robots, and if things don’t go well, and possibly if they do, her expertise will have its moment. And at that time, with the thanks of us all, she will do her job. Now that is a useful talent. Exactly what the dowager does besides observe isn’t exactly clear to anyone, but she will be free to observe to her heart’s content. I’m sure it’s a useful talent, but it’s not one I need underfoot right now.”
Absolute reversal of agreements, Bren thought in dismay. He saw Jase’s distressed frown, and knew if he did translate, all hell would break loose.
“Surveillance and security, captain, andcommand-level decision-making equal to the ship, equal to the island. As for Jase’s expertise, and mine, finessewith those who think they’re going to have things their way, to assure that we don’t miscalculate and make a mutually regrettable mistake. I urge you, I strenuously urge you to cooperate with your allies, captain.”
The air was chill, even yet. But a sweat had broken out on Sabin’s face.
“Well, you haven’t persuaded me, Mr. Cameron. And I don’t need your aliens underfoot. So you’re not that good, are you?”
“Captain,” Jase interposed.
“No, no, no,” Bren said. He’d been horrified a moment ago. Now, heart and soul, he stood back from himself, took a sip of his yellow globe, and told himself it wasn’t at all human to be content with what he knew. Or it might be. And that somewhere in Sabin’s mind there was a serious difficulty with their program. “The captain’s quite right. We aren’t able to persuade her that there’s a difference between aliens out there, or people defending their planet. So let me propose that you and the senior captain view the tape together, and determine what’s on it, and then let us reach a reasonable decision.”
“Mr. Cameron,” Sabin said, “let me break some news to you. You don’t control what happens on this ship.”
“A modest proposal,” Bren said. While the sweat increased.
“It’s cold in here,” Sabin said suddenly, distracted. “Is this the temperature your people prefer?”
“It doesn’t seem cold to me,” Bren said. “—Does it to you, Jase?”
Jase threw him a look. It became a stark, a comprehending look. “Face!” Bren said in Ragi. And Jase did what Jase, over years on the planet, had learned to do, and totally dismissed expression.
“Aiji-ma,” Jase protested. “ Bren.”
“Aiji-ma,” Bren said evenly. “Jase-aiji expresses grave concern for this accident. As do we both. And most earnestly assume it isn’t lethal.”
“The tapes,” Ilisidi said. The dreaded cane had been at rest. Now she banged it hard against a table leg. “The tapes, nadiin-ji.”
Sabin attempted to leave her place, to drift free, not quite in control of her limbs. Cajeiri froze in place, young creature in a thicket, as Jase sailed free of his chair to overtake Sabin, to seize her in his arms.
Bren pushed free as well.
“I’ve been poisoned,” Sabin said. “Damn you!”
“Not lethal,” Bren said to Jase in Ragi. He wasn’t that utterly confident, but he said, in ship-speak. “I fear it’s a reaction to something you ate, captain. The sauces. The sauces can be particularly chancy.” Sabin was passing into shivering tremors, angry and incoherent in the chattering of her jaw. “Not generally fatal. It happened to me, once.” On purpose. At the dowager’s table. For just such reasons. “I’m very sorry.”
Sabin reached for her communications unit, but her fingers had trouble with the button.
Jase took it, about to use it himself, but Bren shot out a hand onto Jase’s and prevented that.
“You’re in charge,” he said to Jase in Ragi. “Not likely fatal, nadi, believe me. But you and I and our security are all going up there, to attend her to sickbay.”
“We can’t have done this!”
“Insulting the dowager at her own table? You can’t have done that, either—which I assure you is far more dangerous to the peace than the soup. Disabling the opposition is a moderate response, a limited demonstration, in this case.”
“Demonstration, hell! Not likely fatal. You don’t know that. She’s not young. She could die.”
“Then stop talking and let’s get her up there to the medics.”
“Your agents going all over the ship—” Jase tried for composure, and Sabin had by now fallen into a tremulous semi-consciousness. “Damn you,” Jase said hoarsely. “Damn you, Bren. I trusted you.”
“You cantrust me,” Bren said. “Move. Fluids are going to be a very good idea, very soon now.”
They were floating mostly above the dining-table. Ilisidi had drifted up, dislodging a stray drink-globe, formidable cane in hand. Cajeiri followed, very, very cautiously, eyes completely wide.
Somehow, meanwhile, Cenedi had arrived from the serving-room, the back way—Cenedi, and then Banichi, together: a number usually unfortunate, but it was a pacifying unity here, with lords at loggerheads.
Perhaps even a human returned to ship-loyalties could feel that shift in the odds.
“She isn’tTamun,” Jase said. “She pulled back from the coup.”
“That’s all very well. You changed the agreements, youwanted us confined to quarters, youstarted imposing conditions on the atevi representation on this mission, conditions I’m not sure would be quite as extreme on our still-to-board humandelegates—”
“That’s your suspicion, Bren.”
“I’m afraid it is. But the odds have shifted. You know what’s at stake. She’s not dead. She’s in reach of medical care you’re keeping her from, nadi, and I’d suggest we get moving right now, no conditions, no maneuvers on your side. Let’s see she stays alive, nadi, before we have the association blow up in our faces.”
“All right,” Jase said in ship-speak. “All right.”
“One recommends fluids,” the dowager said, “a great deal of fluids, very soon. A blanket, for wrapping. Quickly now.”
Servants moved.
“We shall visit our guest,” Ilisidi declared. “We are of course distressed.”
“Let’s go,” Bren said. “Your security’s outside. Calm them. I’ll go with you. We won’t let this break wide open, Jase.”
“You’re not taking this ship.” This, in ship-speak.
“I earnestly hope not.” And in Ragi: “We’re sitting here at dock, we haven’t gone anywhere, and I’m not letting you pull this ship out of dock with the dowager and Tabini’s son aboard until we have some kind of cooperation and until the dowager is satisfied. Atevi act for their own interests, and it’s their planet, their sunlight you’ve been borrowing. If you want admission, Jase Graham, negotiate, because the way Sabin-aiji’s gone at it is shaping up to a disaster.”