“Amazing!” Gene said.
The egg was empty, very quickly, and Boji, much relieved, began grooming himself, very energetically. His guests were fascinated, watching every move, but staying far enough away not to scare him. Soon Boji, very tired from all the excitement, fell asleep, and they fell to exploring the sitting room, and the bedroom. He showed them the bath and the accommodation, too, which were down the hall.
When they came back to the room Boji woke up and set up a moderate racket, rattling the cage and wanting out. Cajeiri went over to quiet him.
“Can we take him out of the cage?”
“Very excited. He climbs. Not a good idea.”
“There’s a house down there,” Gene said. He had looked out the window, moving aside the filmy curtains. “Lots of rails. Look! There’s one of the mecheiti.”
He already had an idea what could be there, and he immediately came and looked out. Uncle’s stables had been set on fire last year, in the fighting. And it was all rebuilt as if nothing had ever happened. That was a wonderful thing to see. “Those are Great‑uncle’s stables,” he said in Ragi. And in ship‑speak: “Mecheiti live there. If mani lets us, we can go there.” Back to Ragi. “Maybe they will let us ride.” And ship‑speak: “Go on the mecheiti.”
There were apprehensive looks. He had told them about riding up on the ship. They had thought it would be a fine thing. Now–
“They’re awfully big ,” Artur said.
“I can show you. Even mani and Uncle may go. We can go all around inside the hedges. If they let us.”
They were far from confident about that.
“What do you do if they don’t want to do what you want?” Artur asked.
“Quirt,” he said, and slapped his leg. “Doesn’t hurt. They just listen.”
They all looked, for some reason, at Boji.
“We try,” Gene said then, in Ragi. “We do.”
“We try,” Artur said, not quite so confidently.
“We try,” Irene said last. Irene was scared of a lot of things. She was never sure she could do things. Irene had always said her mother would not let her do this, and her mother would not let her do that. Whatever it was, her mother would not let her do it. Cajeiri remembered that, and he found he understood Irene, now, a lot more than before.
“Well, you will not fall off,” he said. He became determined that Irene would get a chance to do lots of things her mother would never approve.
· · ·
Shedding the bulletproof vest had been first on the list. Changing to a simple coat and dropping into a plump chair was second, and having Jase across from him in a quiet chance to rest and talk was something they hadn’t enjoyed in a year.
Banichi and Jago, Tano and Algini all settled down to a quiet, comfortable rest right with them, standing on no ceremony. They’d all lived together. Polano and Kaplan, who didn’t speak Ragi and weren’t entirely informed of the political intricacies, had gladly opted for baths down the hall, and a quiet rest next door, in Jase’s suite.
Supani and Koharu kept the water hot and the teapot full–there had been a very nice service waiting on the buffet. They were on duty for the first time during the trip, while Banichi and the rest had seen nothing but duty since well before dawn.
“I’m doing pretty well,” Jase said, momentary lapse into ship‑speak, when he asked. “My spine’s almost quit popping, and if I can shake this headache before dinner, I’ll be great.”
Bren understood that. His own last shuttle flight had been as fast as they could make it, a hard burn from the station, to a fast dive and a landing on Mospheira. Jase’s flight this time had been far more conservative. “You certainly were a surprise. To all of us. And that’s unusual.”
Jase had said the captains had sent him. And that it was for the captains’ reasons–flatly that they were using the children’s visit. And hadn’t cleared it with Tabini or the dowager.
Assessing the situation on the mainland. He could well understand that.
“I have a little guess,” he said, “that the situation between the Reunioners and the Mospheirans on the station is making life difficult for the ship‑folk You’re outnumbered, even if you have all the power. I heard a little of this from Geigi. You and the Mospheirans and the atevi as a bloc can outvote the Reunioners on every issue. But now you’ve got them straining to break away from this station and establish a new colony out at Maudit.”
Jase nodded slowly. “That’s pretty accurate. It sounded good at first. Less so, considering the tone the Mospheirans have provoked out of the Reunioners. At first it seemed as if the Mospheirans hold the Reunioners personally responsible for the sins of their ancestors. But when the Reunioner leaders started calling the Mospheirans traitors–you’d believe the Mospheirans were right.”
“Is Braddock at the head of this?”
Louis Baynes Braddock. That was the Reunioner stationmaster–who’d resisted all reason when it came time to abandon Reunion.
Hadn’t liked relinquishing his power, not at all.
“Definitely. We could prosecute him for the things he did at Reunion. But with us voting with the Mospheirans on every issue, that action doesn’t look disinterested. There’s a lot of heated rhetoric. Now that the Reunioners are starting to splinter on the Maudit issue–and there is at least some balking on Braddock’s plan–these kids , with a peaceful, personal connection to the aiji’s son–they offer something you can’t turn into a political ploy. The contact makes the Mospheirans just a little nervous. They think, I guess, that the kids’ relationship will give the Reunioners some sort of special access. But they’re only three kids–and the Mospheirans have you for reassurance. That’s why I said it’s for our reasons, my being here. Braddock doesn’t want this mission to succeed. The moderates among the Reunioners, who have no clear leader, do. The atevi are calm about it all. The Mospheirans have had one anonymous wit say these three kids already show better sense than Braddock. That’s caught on–and Braddock isn’t happy. We are. Lord Geigi and the moderate Reunioners are watching this, not knowing quite what to hope–but hoping, all the same, that if there were Reunioner paidhiin–the Reunioners don’t remotely understand that word, really–that their influence might win out, not just in a decade or so–but now–over Braddock’s.”
“Did they explain the paidhiin tend to be shot at?”
“I don’t think they mentioned that part.”
His aishid found quiet amusement in that. He noted it. Probably Jase did. Jase had a sip of tea and said, in Ragi, and with a nod: “I told Lord Geigi. He said he thought it was the best decision. Then he added something else. That some Reunioners may think they can set up a colony and run it their way. But that, in the spirit of the agreement between humans and Tabini‑aiji, if we should go out to Maudit–Mospheirans, Reunioners, and atevi should have a share of it.”
“You know,” Bren said, “Tabini would surely appoint a lordship to oversee an atevi establishment there, if it were seriously proposed. But what Tabini more favors is the promised starship. The coup delayed it. He wants it. I’m sure he raised that point with Geigi. There is Reunioner employment.”
“Braddock is not in favor.”
“Poor man. He will not get all he wants.”