She halted the recording. Timan. The ore receiving orbiter belonged to Timan Nisak. And the "specially prepared quarters" were old, used.
-Mitzak in the Chirn Kovah on Draco.
"This is strange."
"What’s strange, Mitzak?"
The Ninth Quadrant study committee voted down the invitations-"
"Just as you said they would."
"-but the vote was very close. Much closer than I expected. And Hissied 'do Timan-delegate from Timan-was the only abstention." Mitzak was silent for a long time.
"What are you thinking about?"
A pause, then the sounds of Mitzak rearranging himself in his chair. "I don’t understand the reason for this abstention."
"Who can figure a Timan, Mitzak? Most of them are so wrapped up in wheeling and dealing…"
…They were one of three intelligent races that had evolved upon the planet Timan. They were called Timans because the other two races-although more numerous and physically more powerful-had been eliminated…
…completely disproportionate to their numbers, the Timans were an economic and political power in the Ninth Quadrant Assembly…
The Timans were completely non-violent; however, the Timans knew how to use rules…
Rules.
Nicole reached out her hand and felt the work surface around her terminal. It was nicked, scratched, old. Before the negotiations, neither humans nor Dracs had reason to be housed in the orbiter. Only the Timan crew had quarters there. But the compartment was constructed and appointed in the Drac manner. The compartment had been waiting for her for a long time.
She looked up at the darkness surrounding her.
Are we that predictable?
She rubbed her eyes. The compartment had been waiting for a long time, but a Drac should be staying there, not a human. She smiled. And not a human who had been groomed to think like neither human nor Drac. It was a fine net of cause and effect; but Tora Soam had ripped it by bringing a human instead of a Drac.
But there was another rip in the net. Somehow Heliot’s death was a mistake-perhaps an accident.
What advantage does the Ninth Quadrant have in making a failure of the peace negotiations? War is similar to a contagious disease. And no one in the Ninth Quadrant wants to catch it. The entire purpose of the Ninth Quadrant, and of the United Quadrants, is peace.
"But peace is a word, and never trust a word." The Ninth Quadrant would like to have peace. But more important, the Ninth Quadrant would like to have the United States of Earth and the Dracon Chamber as members…
But when it had come to a vote, the study committee had voted down the membership invitations. Hissied 'do Timan had abstained. And now Hissied 'do Timan was a member of the Ninth Quadrant observation team. And there was another Timan member: Jerriyat-a-do’Timan. Two out of five committee members…
Nicole sat back as the dark outlines of an all-encircling talma formed in her mind.
The size of it; its cruel sense of purpose; the meaninglessness of so much death and destruction; the horror-
Nicole rejected the thought. It was too bizarre; the tortured, terror-driven shrieks from the mental snake pits of a paranoia ward-And from its perspective of almost ninety-five hundred years, the secret Talman Master, Ayden of the War of Ages, spoke to her mind:
"If talma points toward an answer, the horror of which causes you to reject the answer, then blindness is both your tool and your goal. Greatness of any kind-be it theory, plan, or horror-is not comprehensible to the mind of limits. To understand all, one must be able to accept all."
Nicole touched the hilt of her Blade of Aydan and thought of the ancient Talman Master who had made war into science. She keyed the communications link and placed a call to Tora Soam. Aal Thaya, Tora Soam’s servant, answered. "The Ovjetah is in meditation, Joanne Nicole."
"Well, blast it out. Thaya. I think I have some of the answers the Ovjetah has been looking for."
"Wait please."
The link hummed for a moment, then Tora Soam’s voice answered. "Joanne Nicole?"
"Yes. Ovjetah. There are some arrangements you must make. First, is the Cueh still docked with the orbiter?"
"Yes."
"Then you must arrange for Ambassador Rafiki, Jetah Indeva, Tora Kia, Mitzak, and yourself to meet with me upon the Cueh."
"It would be easier to gather this assembly here in the orbiter-upon neutral ground."
"Ovjetah, there is no neutral ground."
"No neutral ground?"
"None. And, Ovjetah, you must have the central commercial and historical computers in the Talman Kovah tied into the screen room. The human equivalent to this information must also be tied in."
"I am certain Rafiki will resist. However, I will see what I can arrange. Do you know the factors governing Heliot Vanes death?"
"I have theories. Now they must be tested."
There was a pause. "I see… May the many mornings find you well, Joanne Nicole."
It knows. Tora Soam knows.
"Ovjetah, that too is a theory to be tested." She keyed off the communications link, reached out, and deenergized the terminal. She sat silent for a moment, thinking. Audio surveillance is undetectable. Therefore, anything said in the compartment, anything that went through the terminal or the communications link is known.
But visual surveillance still requires a lens. The Drac Mission’s security sweep team would have detected the equipment for visual surveillance.
Nicole stood up, moved to the nearest wall, and began feeling her way along its surface. Her hands touched the warmness of a lightbar, and she gasped and wrenched it from its receptacle. Gently placing the lightbar upon the floor, she moved on to the next.
After she had removed all of the compartment’s lightbars; satisfying herself that the room was dark, she placed the sleeping platform between herself and the compartment’s door. She bunched up the covers on the platform and felt the form of herself that she had made.
Crouching down behind the platform, she unsheathed her Blade of Aydan and tested its point and edges with her fingers.
"Be prepared to accept all. But test the truth by forcing it to lie; test the lie by forcing it to be true."
The sounds of talking came from outside the compartment, then her communications link crackled to life. "Joanne Nicole, this is Ninth Officer Eaatna, your duty guard."
Nicole reached back and keyed the link. "What is it?"
"I have been ordered to report to the commander of the watch. There are other guards in the corridor, your door is secured, and I should be back soon."
Nicole moistened her lips. "Very well."
As the guard’s footsteps moved away from the door, Nicole keyed off the link, squatted down behind her bed platform, and waited.