by Jenn Lyons
he’d ended up asking for my advice on colonial fashion. Was this khani too much? (Ditch the khani entirely, I told him, and go for something human males used to wear called a ‘tuxedo.’) I’d never seen any pictures of a tuxedo quite that shade of crimson in any of the old QZs I’d wandered through, but I thought the intent was close enough.
My own outfit turned out to be a matter of considerably more heated debate, since I had insisted on something that provided me with my full range of movement and Randolph had insisted I wear something that looked like I’d walked out of a Sarcodinay jewelry store. Jonathan hadn’t helped, as all his suggestions centered on the idea everyone should be wearing less.
Eventually I ended up in a violet body stocking with shifting patterns of sheer lace and gold jewels. The silhouette under the gauze was largely a lie—being much more voluptuous than my natural endowments—and allowed me to hide the fact I was wearing body armor. My natural blonde hair was hidden under a mane of thick chestnut curls, and I was counting on Cerberus to turn a blind eye when my name came up on the facial recognition scans.
There was little chance I’d succeed in smuggling in any weapons, and since I’d just used every single one of my smuggle balls to create a breakthrough in hyperspace technology, I had no way to send myself any equipment. No masers, no web gloves, and no more than a striped down version of Medusa’s link modified to look like something more harmless. I was going in naked.
Proverbially, anyway.
My only consolation, as I watched the human security team scan guests, followed by the Sarcodinay team, is that everyone was getting the same treatment. Even if Zaladin had somehow found a way in (which I had no doubt he’d done) he wasn’t going to be able to bring much with him.
They were, I noticed, checking for nanite disguises. Someone must have made them wise to that particular method of operation.
“ID?” The security guard asked. He looked attentive and not entirely unappreciative as he looked me over. Despite a more sexual interest, he studied my face plenty.
I wasn’t sure if people would notice if I used my telepathic powers, and by ‘people’ I meant one of the sixteen High Guards that the Emperor had brought with him to the station. My mind boggled at the idea of that many High Guards in one place, plus Kathanial and Tirris Vahn. Surely someone would notice if a human was suddenly controlling minds. They might not assume that I was really human at all.
Fortunately, he looked over at my ID and scanned through his files, nodded and handed the card back to me. “Thank you, Gala,” he said, moving to check Randolph behind me.
The Sarcodinay check went smoothly as well, and we were both handed a film with instructions on where to go to find our rooms, times, meeting places, and the location of the signing itself.
“What now?” Randolph said as he rejoined me.
I taped the film. “There’s a lounge—” I frowned at the map. “Did that used to be a gym?”
“It’s possible.” He wrinkled his nose. “This place smells terrible.”
“It’s the recycled air,” I agreed. “Anyway, next we go to the lounge and mingle. I need to find my uh...friend.”
Randolph gave me an uncomfortable look. “Are you afraid we’re being—”
“Yes,” I squeezed his arm. “So let’s talk about something else, and you can show me around, okay?”
“So what should we talk about?”
We headed down the tunnels, following the directions. “Let’s talk about Jonathan,” I said.
He looked startled. “Well, I...I mean, we’re not breaking any laws.”
“Oh Keepers, I don’t care about that. I just—” I squeezed his arm. “You’re helping me, so I’d feel bad if I didn’t return the favor. Just be careful with him, okay? He’s cute and charming, but I know his type. Rio, I am his type. We don’t settle down. In fact, commitment scares us like a Sarcodinay in a brothel.”
He frowned. “It’s not like that.”
“That may be. I wish you all the luck in the universe. I really do hope it is not like that.” I paused. “But...it is like that. So don’t get your hopes up that you’ve snagged the perfect guy this time.”
“Can we talk about something else?” His mouth thinned.
“Of course.” We followed the glowing mosaics pointing our way and our personal pixie lights led us into what had indeed probably been a gym before peace had become a word back in everyone’s vocabulary. Approximately a hundred people or so roamed around the room, which someone had made a hasty attempt to make look dignified, elegant and neither human nor Sarcodinay. Instead, it looked like exactly what it was, a last minute effort to fancy up a gym. The place still smelled of old sweat, even under layers of cleaner, perfume and incense. As I scanned the room, there was one person I couldn’t miss.
She still looked very nearly the same as the last time I’d seen her, when I was a child. Rust red hair piled in elaborate curls, braids and fantastic shapes, a crystal green gown decorated with gems of emerald, viridian khani robes parted to shown the elaborate embroidery and decoration underneath, standing elegant and regal as a statue, one hand upraised, holding up a glass of kalmara juice. Her face was beautiful and cold, a harsh and cruel smile on delicate, perfectly shaped lips. Her eyes were yellow instead of green, betraying that not all was calm under her otherwise poised surface.
“Tell me about Lisa Keiler,” I said to Randolph. “What’s she like?”
“Oh!” Randolph brightened, while I steered us towards the woman who had once ruled all of Sol, and was about to lose that position forever. “She’s nothing like what I expected, honestly. She’s so enthusiastic about this idea of democracy. Have you heard the word before? Democracy?”
I smiled. “I have spent time in the colonies, you know. I know what it means.”
“It’s hard not to be swept up in her zeal. Did you know that all of Liberty is a democracy? A real democracy? Every citizen on Liberty votes on all the laws. I thought that would be chaos, but she says it works rather well.”
“I’m not sure Admiral Szabo would agree with her,” I murmured. He was in the room too, the center of his own circle of military sycophants who hung on his every word. Occasionally he looked over at Tirris Vahn as if wishing he’d been allowed to keep his weapons.
I saw a Sarcodinay enter the room and move over to Tirris, and I straightened a little.
It was Gala-Mal Norus.
“I wish I could hear what Tirris was saying,” I whispered.
“What?” Randolph looked over. “Oh my. Yes, that’s the woman herself, isn’t it? Terrifying, isn’t she?”
I turned my head away as Medusa magnified the sound pick-ups in Tirris Vahn’s direction. I heard a male Sarcodinay’s voice say: “I checked the situation in FirstCity, as you requested.”
“Do you have some excuse?” Tirris did not sound happy.
“No excuses. The reactor should have exploded. It didn’t because—” He paused and gulped. “It’s gone.”
“Gone? Reactors don’t just stand up and walk away.”
I resisted the urge to smile.
“This one did, Kaj. I can’t explain it. The reactor, most of the control room—just vanished as if they’d been scooped out of the city.”
“That’s so very unfortunate. I wonder how he managed it.”
“I don’t think he did. There was an interesting report of a shuttle that landed illegally just outside the reactor—” I looked back in time to see him hand her a film and then I quickly looked away.
“Her. Keepers, I hate that little gaggig,” Tirris Vahn sighed. “Very well. So a change of plans is in order.”
“Very good, Kaj. If that will be all—” There was a tremor in his voice that betrayed a man on the edge of running from the room.
“No,” Tirris said. “I need you for one more...favor.”
“Yes?”
“Fetch me a new drink. This one smells like human sweat.”
“Which is why it’s so essential that you run throug
h the halls naked.”
I glanced back at Randolph. “I’m sorry, what?”
He smiled at me. “I was blabbing on about democracy and safeguards and the wonders of digital voting when I realized you weren’t paying the least attention to what I was saying.”
“Ah, sorry.”
“Learn anything interesting?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “I learned I have no idea what’s going to happen next.”
“Oh, I can tell you what’s going to happen next.” He pointed towards twin sets of High Guards who were marching towards the double doors at the end of the room. “The Peace Signing is about to begin.”
I wasn’t as pleased by that as I should have been. Distracted by Tirris Vahn, I still didn’t have a clue where Zaladin was, and I was pretty sure that was information I was very much going to need, fast.
“When things go wrong,” I said, holding on to Randolph’s elbow, “you take cover and stay there until it’s over.”
“You really think things will go wrong?” Randolph asked and then put a hand to his forehead. “What am I even asking?”
The guards at the door carried large ceremonial staves, which they slammed into the metal decking to thunderous effect. “Enter, enter and be seated.”
People began filing out of the room.
The show was about to begin.
TWENTYTHREE.Kathanial
The meeting room for the signing was a large octagonal chamber that, judging from the design, had been used previously as an actual lounge and for holo recordings of glad-fight matches, where the residents of the station could watch