But that was the whole problem with the atevi/human interface, and that was the problem with educating children of both species to get along without touching one another’s aggressive instincts. And that was the problem of a ship-culture that had a strong feeling of usand themand went armed to the teeth. Letting atevi under the ship’s armor was a hard, hard thing to do.
And just as well, if they had current ability to move about, that they move into the most sensitive areas and make the point they could do so without harm.
“The dowager wishes you a speedy recovery,” Bren said to Sabin, saying nothing about the movement of atevi personnel. “She accepts.”
“The captain of this ship wishes her in hell,” Sabin said dourly, holding a hand over her eyes, and the chief translator foresaw a very, very difficult duty on this ship. “Get me communication with the bridge. Not you. Kaplan.”
Kaplan threw a glance at Bren. Bren tried simultaneously to say go ahead and to look as if he wasn’t anywhere in the loop.
“Good you’re here,” Bren said to Ginny with a touch on the arm. “Want to drop by my quarters when you’re settled? Bring yourself up to speed?”
“That’s in the atevi section.”
“Atevi, Mospheiran… we’re all deck five. It’s going to be close quarters. We’re going to need to secure for motion, imminently, I think. When it’s stopped—when we’re inertial again—” He struggled to revise his earthbound thinking. “Drop by for drinks. Or I’ll come to you. I’ll present you to the dowager.”
“Deal,” Ginny said, and turned and took her own escort out of the crowded compartment. The dowager signaled her intention to depart.
Sabin was talking to someone, presumably Jase, on her personal com, hand over her eyes, wincing.
It seemed time to depart. Bren joined the atevi contingent on the way out.
“One will remain on watch, nandi,” Jago said as they rubbed elbows in the doorway—feet on the deck, the whole world restored to ordinary.
Jago meant that shetook this post, here, by the infirmary… logical choice. She would stand here claiming not to know a word of human language, in which she had a fair fluency.
There had been quiet words passed among atevi all the while he’d been talking to Jase and Sabin: bet that there’d been communications traffic and agents spread out through the ship, all of whom now formed an atevi network of presence. There always was, when an atevi lord moved into an area.
And Jase himself was an atevi interest. Absolutely he was under the dowager’s guard, seen or unseen.
“One agrees, Jago-ji.”
Banichi stayed with him. Jago stayed behind.
They reached the lift and rode it toward five-deck with the dowager’s entire party, and with Ginny Kroger and her crew. No one spoke. The dowager leaned on her cane with both hands, vastly content.
They reached fifth deck.
The door opened.
“ Bren-nadi.” The intercom in the lift-car, right in his face, scared him.
“Jase-ji?”
“ Will you mind coming up here?”
He drew a deep breath.
It wasn’t over.
The dowager meanwhile had left the car, with young Cajeiri. Ginny Kroger and her crew debarked. Cenedi held the door open.
“I’m requested to come to the bridge, aiji-ma,” Bren said.
“Escort him,” Ilisidi said, and Cenedi with a rapid gesture detached two men.
Two. Infelicity. Unless one counted Jase.
“Need help?” Ginny asked, from outside the doors.
“No. Questions from Jase, likely. I’ll give you a report.—Aiji-ma.” One owed last, parting courtesies to the highest rank present. “I’ll report.”
“Go,” Ilisidi said. The pair of men got in. Cenedi got out.
The door shut.
“Do you know what this regards, Bren-ji?” Banichi asked him.
“One isn’t sure,” he said. His mind conjured a dozen scenarios, most disastrous—even the bridge being held at gunpoint by Sabin loyalists. “I don’t thinkit’s a trap, nadi-ji. I think it’s Jase.”
Chapter 18
There was indeed an atevi presence on the bridge when the lift let them out—two men, felicitous three, counting Jase, the object of their protection: a better counter, perhaps, could have predicted it, with their infelicitous four.
Exceedingly fortunate seven. One wasn’t inclined to count the number of humans on the bridge, technicians and operations chiefs, and security… but Bren did. They were outnumbered, if not outgunned.
Jase stood amid the rows of consoles, reserved, serene, among crew at work. And spared him a glance.
“All quiet?” Bren asked in ship-speak, precisely because there wereeavesdroppers.
“Quiet here,” Jase said. “How is Captain Sabin?”
“Strong-minded.”
Jase quirked an eyebrow.
“In favor of the mission,” Bren amended that. “Anxious to see it underway.”
“We have section chiefs going through the corridors now, final check on stowage.”
“It’s the pilot that does this, isn’t it? All the technicals. I’ll assume things will work.”
“They’ll work,” Jase said. And shot him a less cheerful look. “Clear operations with me or with Captain Sabin. No installations we don’t know about. And where I don’t know the risks, I’ll have one of the technical staff pass on it.”
“Understood. We remember how humans got to this star in the first place. We’ve no desire to foul up navigation.”
“You understand. I want to be sure your staff does. I want to be sure the dowagerunderstands us.”
“I’ll attend to that.”
“Do.—Banichi-ji.”
“Nandi.”
“There’s hazard in moving about the corridors. Understand that, nadi-ji.”
“One understands, nandi.”
“There may be hard feelings. And suspicion, nadi. Very deep suspicion.”
“There’s something about being that sick, among strangers,” Bren said in Ragi, “that makes one re-evaluate the world.”
“I don’t count on it,” Jase said bluntly. And in ship-speak: “Mr. Hammond, take over while I make sure our guests reach five-deck.”
Not the deepest cover they could imagine, but Jase put a hand on Bren’s back and walked him to the lift, his bodyguard attending.
Jase punched five, inside. The doors shut between them and the bridge. The lift started into motion.
“Tell me this one,” Jase said. “Did you know?”
“I didn’t. I honestly didn’t. I don’t think it was sure until it went difficult at the table.”
“Dammit, Bren.”
“Dammit, indeed. But she and the dowager exchanged frank words. Very frank words. There may be communication.”
“We’re going out there in the deep dark with no agreement. With everything in flux.”
“Not wholly our doing. This limiting the dowager to fifth deck. This niggling away at the agreements started long before the dowager even came up to the station.” The lift reached bottom. The door opened. They couldn’t delay in conversation without provoking human suspicions. “You know Ramirez expanded agreements: you know he expanded them and you know he pushed, and you know the danger in that. He pushed Tabini into haste, and when he died, damned right we had an emergency. We had a council of captains without a useful clue attempting to change pace on the course we’d been following breakneck for years, all on human promises—”
“It doesn’t give you leave—”
“Not excluding Sabin all along being outvoted by the Ramirez-Ogun combination and Ramirez putting youin. That’s going to be with us. No, I don’t trust her, Jase-nadi. I don’t see a woman who’s open to strangeness, not now, not yet. I see a woman who shouldn’t be in charge of foreign contact, and yet that’s where she’s ended, and you and I know we’re in trouble.”