by Lyn Gala
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Appendix
Loose Id Titles by Lyn Gala
Lyn Gala
AFFILIATIONS, ALIENS, AND OTHER PROFITABLE PURSUITS
Lyn Gala
www.loose-id.com
Affiliations, Aliens, and Other Profitable Pursuits
Copyright © November 2015 by Lyn Gala
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eISBN 9781682520024
Editor: Kierstin Cherry
Cover Artist: Mina Carter
Published in the United States of America
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This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Chapter One
The large room felt like a temple gathering space even though it didn’t have any of the drapes or billowing fabrics Liam had come to associate with the temple. It was larger than any space in a human ship, except perhaps for the cavernous holds of the transports. Elongated beams rose to join in an intricate network above his head. It was as if some architectural spider had spun a web, and the temple was in the center of it. Drapes had been replaced with tall lines of light focused in tight beams. The brightness gave the illusion of walls that did not exist. So many hard surfaces meant any sound echoed through the temple.
The pattern of support beams created a series of geometric shapes: triangles and trapezoids and pentagons. Some of the open spaces had triangular windows that looked out into space. The ship was in hyperspace now, and the long streaks of stars left bright lines in the dark of space. Because the temple was in the forward midsection, all the stars streaked in the same direction. On human ships, the most important space, the officers’ meeting areas, were in the nose of the ship with the bridge in the more protected midsection, but as far as Liam could tell, the forwardmost section was storage.
Just like in the Prarownt temples, the Rownt Grandmothers wandered the area. The younger Grandmothers rarely sat, but Liam wasn’t sure if that was a function of their size or restlessness. There were also several other high-ranked individuals in the room—tuk-ranked traders and engineers. Unlike most of the Grandmothers, the oldest one, a large Rownt with heavy features and wide shoulders, sat on a low bench. With Rownt, one could figure relative age rather easily. While the young could be slightly taller or shorter than an individual of a similar age, a Rownt never stopped growing. So in general, taller and wider meant older and more likely to have earned a high rank and respect.
So the largest Grandmother was the eldest. The younger Grandmothers whispered to a tuk-ranked individual here and gathered near a wall of light there. Liam watched nervously. In this group of elders, Ondry looked tiny. His seven and a half feet left him significantly smaller than any other Rownt, and Liam and Susan Diallo were half the mass of the average Rownt in this room. Liam felt dwarfed.
Liam glanced toward the only other human on the ship. Colonel Diallo looked calm. He hated her a little bit for her ability to hide her anxiety, if she even felt any. Liam had lived with the Rownt for longer, and he had official status as the palteia of Ondry, but his stomach was tied in knots. He wanted so much.
He wanted these people to recognize Ondry’s tuk status, and he hoped Diallo could explain humans to the Rownt. Liam wanted peace between humans and Rownt, and some assurance that the human military would avoid doing anything monumentally stupid. When Command nearly went to war with the bellicose Anla, humans had the benefit of knowing the Anla had similar technology. In some ways, Earth ships were more efficient than the excessively competitive Anla. Humans didn’t have a similar advantage with Rownt, but Liam wasn’t sure the officers in Central Command understood that.
The Rownt were the opposite of flashy. They didn’t show off their ships and weapons and technology. On Prarownt, they lived in two-room houses and small towns. The communities looked rustic compared to the huge cities of Earth, but the longer Liam lived with Ondry, the more he understood Rownt had amazing and powerful technology.
Add to that Liam’s fears for Diallo, the human who Command had sent to try to “manage” the Rownt, and this audience was giving Liam heartburn.
Ondry wound his tail around Liam’s leg and tugged on him. When Liam looked up, Ondry watched with wide eyes. Liam gave him a small smile before leaning closer, and that must have been assurance enough because Ondry huffed and curled his fingers around the back of Liam’s neck. When Ondry started to gently stroke the place where Liam’s shoulder and neck met, Liam put his arm around Ondry’s waist. Ondry had such strength, and yet Liam never had cause to fear it.
Ondry might not be the first lover Liam had submitted to, but he was the only one Liam trusted to protect him.
“When will the audience start?” Diallo asked softly. Clearly she didn’t understand that the Grandmothers were already judging them, and that negotiations had begun long before anyone spoke.
Ondry ignored her, but then she had nearly gotten Liam killed, so Liam wasn’t surprised. Ondry had promised to be angry for a few centuries, and he seemed to be living up to his promise. While Liam should encourage Ondry to forgive and forget, especially since Diallo had apologized, it felt good to know someone loved him enough to be irrationally furious.
“It already has,” Liam said. He hoped she didn’t make a bad first impression. She wanted to prevent a war, a goal Liam approved of, and she had the education and rank to get Earth to listen to her. She was a good person, and he didn’t know many of those. He sometimes wondered if he would have a different view of humans if so many of the people he had met weren’t struggling with either poverty or war or fear
of death. Maybe it was the struggle that turned people into something less noble.
Diallo moved to the closest bench and sat where she could see the eldest Grandmother. A number of the younger Grandmothers shifted closer to the elder.
In true Rownt style, the eldest began the conversation without any warning or signal. “Your people have shown a reluctance to engage us in conversation.” The statement was such a simple one. However, danger lurked in every word. The refusal to engage in conversation was illogical, and being illogical was, by definition, dangerous.
Diallo spoke, her voice slow and cautious. “My people are reluctance.” She corrected the Grandmother while showing off her own poor Rownt grammar. She was learning, but the language was difficult. “They are well aware different species sometimes struggle to communicate with one another. That is the primary reason I was sent.”
“Is that not the reason Liam was sent?” The eldest looked toward Liam, her eyes wide with curiosity. Ondry’s fingers hesitated and then returned to tracing small, soothing circles against Liam’s skin.
“My leaders do not trust Liam the way they trust me,” Diallo said.
That was an understatement. Liam had been sent to do little more than negotiate simple trades and facilitate the movement of goods between Rownt traders and the human base on their planet. Instead of doing his job, he had somehow managed to get involved in a personal relationship with a high-ranked trader, get himself claimed as a palteia, and end up the voice of humanity to the Rownt. Given Liam had a few issues with humanity in general, a lack of formal education, and a history of abuse, he wasn’t sure he should be the voice of anyone, much less his whole species. That was especially true given he didn’t like most people.
One of the younger Grandmothers spoke from the shadow behind a divider of light. “Do your people distrust Liam because they understand he speaks for his chilta, or have they always distrusted him?”
“I’m honestly not sure,” Diallo said, her voice showing no emotion, at least none Liam could detect. Who knew what the Rownt in the room might smell. “I know he does not have the training required for the sort of negotiation that my people prefer.”
“Do you have this training?” yet another Grandmother asked.
“I do,” Diallo said. “I have learned many more languages, I’ve studied cultures, including another alien culture, and I have lived with that species. I don’t even pretend to understand the Rownt as well as Liam, but my people trust me more because I have more experience.”
A younger Grandmother shifted closer. “How does an understanding of another species benefit you in trying to negotiate with us?”
Liam held his breath. Diallo had most of her experience with Anla, and the Rownt considered that species hopelessly childish and illogical. If she hinted that an understanding of Anla could apply to Rownt culture, this interview was over, and Liam hadn’t even thought to explain the danger. He’d told her how the Rownt perceived Anla, but right now that seemed like a poor substitute for a clear warning.
Colonel Diallo tilted her head in the direction of this new Grandmother and paused. The silence filled the air as Diallo seemed to gather her thoughts. “To know different languages is to know different ways of thought. I think my people expect me to be able to learn Rownt language and culture more quickly. It took Liam many years to gain his knowledge of Rownt, and I do not pretend to know as much right now. However, I suspect I shall be able to learn information more quickly.”
Liam wasn’t going to argue. He’d struggled to be able to pronounce words correctly, and he’d failed to even recognize Ondry’s desire for him. Given that Liam had missed a courtship lasting several years and realized he was in a relationship only when he had woken up chained to a wall, he could very well believe someone else might learn the Rownt culture more quickly than he had.
“So you acknowledge Liam is superior in language skills to you?” The Grandmother looked confused now. Rownt didn’t have the same sort of formal schooling as humans, so the idea of one person having more education and another person having more skills in the field didn’t compute. An individual sought training only as his experience allowed. Diallo’s statement likely translated as another piece of illogic.
“Right now? Yes, I do believe he is more skilled.” Diallo graced Liam with a smile, and Ondry’s nostrils narrowed. She quickly focused on the Grandmothers again. Clearly she’d learned the meaning of that gesture. “Command ordered me to make Liam feel endangered by attracting a local predator, and I saw the value in such a plan. Looking back, that was a grievous error. I believe that if Command had ordered Liam to carry out the same plan, he would have understood the dangers. I believe he would have stopped, and I believe he would’ve avoided putting anyone’s life in danger. However, I was confused about the realities on the ground, and I made a serious error. I am very willing to admit if Ondry were not both very strong and very forgiving, one or more people would have died out there in the field.”
Liam felt a flash of pride that Ondry was finally getting some recognition. The Rownt on the ship had avoided any mention of status, which made sense given Ondry was in a strange no-man’s-land between two potential statuses. Liam suspected Ondry would’ve been happy to go back to being Ka-Ondry, but he wouldn’t disrespect the Grandmother who had awarded him the higher tuk rank. When the elder, huge and stooped with age, had called Ondry by tuk status, that had stripped Ondry of his pride in earning ka status at such a young age. After all, Ondry was only two hundred. Few Rownt reached the status of ka before four hundred, but now Ondry had a taste of what it might feel like to be one of the youngest tuk-ranked individuals ever. Liam knew his chilta, and Ondry had enough status pride that he wanted to be Tuk-Ondry, even though he’d never say it out loud.
The eldest Grandmother studied Diallo for a moment before she stood. She looked at Ondry. “Do you agree with the female’s assessment?”
Without hesitation, Ondry answered, “Yes.” He didn’t elaborate on his feelings, but then these Grandmothers knew the whole story. They knew Diallo had intentionally attracted the attention of an apex predator in order to try to forge some sort of alliance between herself and Liam. Danger was supposed to make him turn to her for protection and break the emotional bond between Liam and Ondry. The Grandmothers also knew Diallo had grossly underestimated the power of that predator and had nearly gotten both Liam and herself killed. Ondry’s early return had saved their lives and ended her scheme.
A different Grandmother moved forward now. She rested her hand against an arching strut and looked at Ondry. “Do you not wish to kill the female after she placed your palteia in such danger?”
Ondry looked at her with his nostrils more than halfway closed. “Yes. However, I am not so young as to place personal preference above status or profit.”
That was a direct score. The Grandmother’s nostrils snapped shut. Liam seriously hoped her disgust was for herself at suggesting Ondry would make such a disastrous choice. Even if his status were still ka rank, he would never put his personal feelings above profits and practicality. To suggest he would kill Diallo simply because he wanted to was unfair. Hell, Liam liked her, and he still wanted to kill her on a fairly regular basis. She’d nearly got him turned into cat food. He tended to hold a grudge over things like that, even if he understood why she’d done it.
The eldest no more than shifted, and the entire room turned their focus to her. She was looking at Diallo. “What error in judgment did you make during the incident in which you placed yourself and Palteia Liam in harm’s way?”
Diallo was silent for a moment. Folding her hands in her lap, she traced the edge of one fingernail with her thumb. “I believed the intelligence provided me by my people, which I would not normally consider an error in judgment. However, I believe my people made an error regarding the true danger of the local wildlife. I suspect Liam would have understood this danger better than I did. Humans are used to a certain exaggeration in storytelling. When my people
received information about the dangers on your planet, they assumed your species had the same propensity toward exaggeration. But I erred in accepting their judgment without further investigation. It was also an error for me to assume Liam’s loyalty to his chilta was caused by anything other than a deep heartfelt emotion between them. My people likely still believe Liam’s loyalty is the product of damage caused by individuals who treated him poorly in the past.”
Liam blushed. He didn’t need anyone to remind him that Command believed he was brainwashed. It also occurred to him that her vocabulary was too perfect. She had never struggled for a word, which suggested she had prepared her speech. Liam leaned back, and Ondry wrapped his arms around Liam.
“Palteia Liam, do you agree with this assessment?” the eldest Grandmother asked.
“Yes,” Liam said. If he were a Rownt, he would have left it there, but as a human, he felt like that would be attacking Diallo. “She acted under orders, and she did make mistakes about the home world; however, she also chose to disregard her orders and follow a wiser course when she realized her mistake.”
Several of the tuk-ranked individuals shifted, and Liam suspected he had said something particularly un-Rownt-like.
“Do you rate her skills as acceptable for the task of negotiation?” a younger Grandmother asked him.
“I believe she has a better understanding of human motivation, and I trust her to listen and learn about the Rownt,” Liam said. Ondry’s gentle stroking paused again, only for a second, before he continued. Liam would ask him why later.
“Ka-Diallo,” the eldest said, “we appreciate your honesty. When we encounter a human ship, we will allow you to facilitate understanding.” She turned toward the spiral stair in the back of the room. If this were a traditional temple in the center of a town, the upper levels would have areas where the Grandmothers worked and lived together. It seemed the ship was organized in a similar manner because the other Grandmothers waited until the eldest had started up the stairs before they began to move. Many followed her up. Others headed out the doors that led to the rest of the ship.