The Foreign Office alone couldn’t authorize it—so the officer in charge claimed,
“FO, I’m sitting here talking in Mosphei’ with a half a dozen extremely high-ranking atevi providing me this link on their equipment. I’d say that’s a fair amount of trust, FO, please relay to the appropriate levels.”
Atevi didn’t have a word for trust. The Foreign Office said so.
“They’ve got words we don’t have either, FO. Go with Hanks or go with me. This is a judgement call I’m required to make. We needthe aiji’s permission to be on this planet, FO. Then where’s Phoenix’complaint?”
The Foreign Office thought they’d talk to the President.
“Do that,” he said. “Much nicer if my call to Phoenixgoes out through the dish on Adams. But the intersat dish on Mogari-nai is the aiji’s alternative, and I think he’ll use it, directly. Atevi could deal without me in the loop. If they wanted to. Do you understand? Tabini’s government is under pressure. That’s the disturbance in Maidingi Province. That’s where I’ve been. Tabini has to make a response to this ship. He’ll offer Mospheira a chance for input in that response. United front, FO. I think I can get that arrangement.”
Three hours, the Foreign Office said. They’d have to talk to the President. Assemble the council.
“Three hours max, FO. We’re inthe Western Association, let me remind you. Tabini will act ultimately in the best interests of the Association. I earnestly suggest we join them.”
The Foreign Office signed off. The computer exchange tailed off. He shut his eyes, felt a little twinge of human responsibility. Not much. He’d be human after the hasdrawad met. After he’d talked to Tabini. He’d get a plane to Mospheira… trust the hospitals there to know where to put the pieces.
“Nand’ paidhi,” Banichi said after a moment.
They couldn’t have followed that exchange. Banichi might have followed every third word of it, but none of the rest of them. Damned patient, they were. And very reasonably anxious.
“Tell Tabini,” he said, “prime the dish on Mogari-nai to talk to that ship up there, tonight. I think we’ll get the one on Allan Thomas, but when you’re dealing with Mospheira, nadiin, you always assure them you have other choices.”
“What other choices,” Ilisidi said, “do we tell that ship up there we have?”
Sharp woman, Ilisidi.
“What choice? The future of relations between atevi and humans. Cooperation and association and trade. The word is ‘treaty,’ nand’ dowager. They’ll listen. They have to listen.”
“Rest,” Jago said, behind him, and brushed his hair back from his forehead. “Bren-ji.”
Didn’t want to move for the moment. It hurt enough getting up here to the cockpit.
Figure that Tabini probably knew everything they’d just said—give or take the computer codes; and don’t bet heavily on that, once the experts got after it. Anything you used, numerically speaking, to get past atevi, you couldn’t go on using.
But peace was in everyone’s interests. Certainly it was in Tabini’s. And in the interest of humans, ship’s crew and planet-bound colonists a long, long way from the homeworld.
He’d told Djinana they might walk on the moon. Lay bets on it, now, he would. Granted Malguri was still standing.
He made an effort to fold up the computer. Jago shut the case for him, and disconnected the cord. After that—the necessity of getting up.
He made it that far. Ended up with Banichi’s arm around him, Banichi standing on one leg. The dowager aiji said something rude about young men falling at her feet, and go sit down, shewas in command of the plane.
“Let me,” Jago said, and got an arm about his middle, which stabilized the aisle considerably.
Banichi limped after them. Sat down beside him.
“Long distance, is it?” Banichi said. “If you go up there, we go, nadi.”
He couldn’t say he understood Jago orBanichi, orTabini.
Couldn’t say they understood him.
Scary thought, Banichi had. But he suddenly saw it as possible, even likely, when negotiations happened, when Mospheira got that lift vehicle, or the ship up there built one in order to deal with them. Atevi were going into space. No question. In his lifetime.
Baji-naji, The lots came down, Fortune and Chance made their pick. You weren’t born with your associates. You found man’chisomewhere, and you entered into something humans didn’t quite fathom with an altogether atevi understanding.
But in the way of such things, maybe atevi hadn’t found the exact words for it, either.
Pronunciation
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A=ah after most sounds; =ay after j; e=eh or =ay; i varies between ee(hh) (nearly a hiss) if final, and ee if not; o=oh and u=oo. Choose what sounds best.
-J is a sound between ch and zh; -ch=tch as in itch; -t should be almost indistinguishable from -d and vice versa. G as in go. -H after a consonant is a palatal (tongue on roof of mouth), as: paidhi=pait’-(h)ee.
The symbol ’ indicates a stop: a’e is thus two separate syllables, ah-ay; but ai is not; ai=English long i; ei=ay.
The word accent falls on the second syllable from the last if the vowel in that syllable is long or is followed by two consonants; third from end if otherwise: Ba’nichi (ch is a single letter in atevi script and does not count as two consonants); Tabi’ni (long by nature)—all words ending in -ini are -i’ni; Brominan’di (-nd=two consonants); mechei’ti (because two vowels sounded as one vowel) count as a long vowel. If confused, do what sounds best: you have a better than fifty percent chance of being right by that method, and the difference between an accented and unaccented syllable should be very slight, anyway.
Also, a foreign accent if at least intelligible can sound quite sexy.
Plurality: There are pluralities more specific than simply singular and more-than-one, such as a set of three, a thing taken by tens, and so on, which are indicated by endings on a word. The imprecise more-than-one is particularly chosen when dealing in diplomacy, speaking to children, or, for whichever reason, to the paidhi. In the non-specific plural, words ending in -a usually go to -i; words ending in -i usually go to -iin. Ateva is, for instance, the singular, atevi the plural, and the adjectival or descriptive form.
Suffixes: -ji indicates intimacy when added to a name or good will when added to a title; -mai or -ma is far more reverential, with the same distinctions.
Terms of respect: nadi (sir/madam) attaches to a statement or request to be sure politeness is understood at all moments; nandi is added to a title to show respect for the dignity of the office. Respectful terms such as nadior the title or personal name with -jishould be inserted at each separate address or request of a person unless there is an established intimacy or unless continued respect is clear within the conversation. Nadior its equivalent should always be injected in any but the mildest objection; otherwise the statement should be taken as, at the least, brusque or abrupt, and possibly insulting. Pronunciation varies between nan’-dee (statement) and nah-dee’? (as the final word in a question.)
There are pronouns that show gender. They are used for nouns which show gender, such as mother, father; or in situations of intimacy. The paidhi is advised to use the genderless pronouns as a general precaution.