"Did he ever serve the Timans?" asks Zammis.
"No. The only connection with Timan I can find is that he does regular runs there, bringing in the few human and Drac passengers who need to travel there on business, and to bring in specialized instruments and equipment available only outside Timan."
"For Timan Nisak?" I ask.
"Yes. Among others."
I point at Sanda’s computer. "What of the crew?"
"The co-pilot is a female named Yora Beneres. When Moss was cashiered from the USEF she resigned her own commission. She’s been with Moss ever since. The engineer is a male named Ghazi Mrabet. He’s been with Moss for the past three years, and appears to be something of a magician with machinery." Sanda raises a disapproving eyebrow. "Prior to his employment with Moss, Mrabet’s principal notoriety was based on his well-publicized sexual liaisons with some rather well-known Dracs, most notably the artist Xian Ti."
"He knows Xian Ti, the sculptor?" blurts out Jeriba Zammis, thoroughly starstruck and quite missing Sanda’s point.
"Yes. Quite." The investigator pages down and says, "The remaining member of the crew, cargo master and steward Ernst Brandt, served with the Tsien Denvedah, becoming a seventh officer before he resigned to join the same mercenary unit for which Moss was fighting."
I am stunned. "A human in the Tsien Denvedah?"
Sanda looks at me as though I had recently emerged from beneath a rock. "Of course. Humans have been in the Denve for the past two decades. Dracs are in the USEF, as well."
"When in the Denve," interrupts Zammis, "did this Ernst Brandt have a specialty?"
Sanda taps a finger on its computer’s tiny screen, "Military intelligence. His nickname is Reaper."
"Reaper?"
"It’s an agricultural term the significance of which escapes me," answered the investigator.
"Among some humans," Zammis interrupted, "the Grim Reaper is a euphemism for Death."
I acknowledge the explanation with raised eyebrows and a sinking feeling.
Jeriba Zammis walks to a window and looks through it to the enclosed mall connected to the space port. A scattering of humans and Dracs walk slowly, pausing to look in the store windows while the moving walkways speed small crowds of pedestrians to their various destinations. "Tell me, Mirili Sanda," says Zammis. "If there were two ships available for this charter instead of just one, what are the odds of the second ship being similar to the Aeolus and its crew?"
"Charter work is something for which ships register when they can’t get anything else. I’ve seen worse ships and more disreputable crews, Jeriba Zammis, but not much better."
"What of this involvement with Timan Nisak?"
"A ship equipped to land on Timan gets that way because it travels to Timan. Nisak is the largest single interplanetary business concern there. Chances are good that if a human or Drac ship is used in business on Timan, it will at some time or other deal with Nisak or a subsidiary of Nisak."
Zammis turns from the window and looks at Sanda. "Then it is merely a coincidence?"
Sanda holds out its hands. "That is possible."
Facing the window once more, Zammis says, "Sanda, please post that information to the estate. Uncle might be back by now and Ty will show it to him. It’s Uncle’s decision, not mine."
"Back?" I inquire.
Zammis glances at me and returns its gaze to the mall. "Yes. Uncle went skiing this morning."
As I point out to myself that there is no point in asking why or with whom, Zammis asks Sanda, "Incidentally, what is the significance of the ship’s name, Aeolus?"
"Moss named the ship after it was refitted, and the name wasn’t English or Esper so I wondered and did some research." Sanda glanced at me and then told Zammis, "In ancient belief on Earth, among the tribe of Greeks, Aeolus was the god of the winds."
"The Greeks. Zeus, Athens, Aristotle and all that?"
"Yes."
I face Jeriba Zammis. "Humans often name their machines and other possessions. I have seen humans address weapons, helmets, luck charms, landtraks, flyers, cook stoves, and satellites with names of endearment. Usually the names are only a way to make an inanimate object something more: a friend or companion. There are no rules or customs, as such."
Zammis rubs its chin. "I have witnessed this same behavior on Earth. The chief executive officer of Baine Whitley refers to her computer as The Bitch. I can’t recall Uncle ever naming such things, however." Zammis looks at Sanda. "What are the names of Moss’s other ships?"
"The Max Stearn, named after a fellow USEF pilot of Moss’s whose ship and crew were completely destroyed in the Buldahk Insurrection shortly before Moss was dismissed from the USEF. The remaining ship is the Edmund Fitzgerald, named for a freshwater ore ship on Earth owned by the Columbia Line that sank with its entire crew during a storm in the Common Era year of 1975."
I look at Jeriba Zammis. "Jetah, I cannot pretend to know anything about business, but naming one of his ships after a pilot who died in a wreck and naming another ship after another wreck seems needlessly morose."
"It does tend to open one’s mind on the subject of travel insurance." Zammis nods and hold out his hands. "I’d prefer waiting the extra time and using one of the off-planet charters, but it’s up to Uncle."
TWENTY-ONE
When we return to the estate, Ty is directing a scarcely controlled chaos. Undev Orin, Mizy Untav, and the other retainers race from floor to floor and wing to wing, their arms piled with things. When I reach my rooms, all my things are packed.
I return to the main hall and track Jeriba Ty to its office, where Zammis is on the link issuing instructions and jumping from address to address. Ty is on the com finishing off some last minute instructions to someone. As it pauses to take a breath, I ask, "What is happening?"
For a moment Ty looks at me as though it is has no idea who I am or where I am located in the enigma of its current activities. When the eyebrows rise, signifying recognition, Ty says, "The Aeolus leaves tonight for Timan. There are approximately half a million things that need doing before boarding." Ty immediately begins punching a number into its corn.
"Why so soon?" Suddenly I am angry and touched by panic. "No one asked me when I wanted to go!"
"Quite correct," Ty responds as it finishes punching in the number.
"Well, what if I refuse to go?"
Ty studies me for a breath and says, "If you refuse to go, you do not go." Frowning, Ty leans forward and speaks quietly so that Zammis cannot overhear. "Yazi Ro, it is not my habit to give out unsolicited advice, but in your case I am making an exception. You really ought to get to know your Talman." With that, Jeriba Ty leans back and begins talking into the com.
For some reason I feel that I need to talk to the human. On the fly, Undev Orin tells me that Davidge is in the cave. The walk to the cave under the approaching night overcast confuses me. Friendship seemed like such a cold, forbidding place. Now that the prospect of Planet Timan looms before me, the melting ice, the blue strip between the blankets of gray in the sky above, the raging sea seem like indispensable luxuries.
Before, when Davidge and I discussed the possibility of following Zenak Abi’s talma to Planet Timan, I made up my mind to go. If peace is truly possible, that is where I have to be to make life with myself bearable. My outburst at Jeriba Ty had more to do with feeling caught in a current, powerless to influence the events before me. The fear, though, is real.