Spheres of Influence

by Bob Mauldin

  The alien watched this process with intense scrutiny. She reached out and took the cup from Rentec. “Water,” she said. The sound was not intelligible, but the action that followed certainly was. She raised the cup to her lips and mimed drinking.

  The elder woman, just entering her seventh decade, clapped her hands in joy as if a small child had just said her first word. “I think she and her mate, if that’s what he is to her, are afraid of us. We’ve been able to learn their names, but that’s about all, with the exception of basic concepts like ‘cold’ and ‘hungry.’ ‘Water’ is the first word either of them has learned.”

  Rentec picked up a towel lying to the side and began to absentmindedly mop up the spilled water. “If I’d been taken from my people and subjected to the kind of treatment that led up to the condition we found them in, I’d be wary of strangers, myself, Your Grace.”

  “And how would you suggest we proceed from here, Minister?”

  The feeling of traversing a narrow, lipless bridge over a deep chasm while blindfolded came to Rentec. “You ask me, You Grace? I’ve barely had time to get used to the fact that these aliens exist.”

  “Yes, I ask you, Minister,” Linnas des’ Harras said regally. “Of all the people at the meeting where Policy Minister sel Garian introduced these beings, only you made comments that showed your grasp of alien mentalities. I will grant you,” the woman went on, “that your comments were about the Korvil, but if you can make those assessments about a race with whom we’ve had so little contact, then you should be of immeasurable use to us now.”

  Rentec looked at her sharply. His comments that night had been for his cousin and not much above a whisper.

  At the mention of the Korvil, the alien woman jumped up and began to speak for the first time since Rentec had walked into the room. Nothing was understandable, of course, except for the word ‘Korvil,’ but it was obvious she was agitated.

  “Perhaps, Your Grace, we should try to reassure ther’a Spencer that we are truly friends. How are they housed?”

  “Housed?” she asked. “In a private apartment down the hall where they won’t be disturbed.”

  “And doubtless they are under constant surveillance?” Rentec asked.

  “Of course,” Linnas retorted. “For their own protection, of course. Where are you going with this, Minister?”

  Rentec hesitated. “I realize I may be overstepping my bounds, Your Grace, but if we want to win their trust—and, through them, the trust of their entire race at some time in the future—we need to give them some measure of respect, the same respect we’d give to any member of our own society. First, all surveillance devices should be removed from their private quarters. Second, it’s time for all of Shiravi to learn of their existence. This will make it easier for them to be accepted by our people when we start taking them around our world and showing them what we have to offer.” As an afterthought, he said, “And someone should start to learn their language.”

  Linnas des’ Harras stood up and started pacing the room, constantly being followed, Rentec noticed, by the eyes of the alien woman. “Why?” she asked after a time.

  Startled from his circumspect study of the alien, Rentec asked, “Why, what, Your Grace?”

  “Why all of it, Minister? Except the privacy part. That I can understand, and it shall be as you say.” She turned to an inconspicuous young woman at the side of the room. “Sitha, you will see to the removal of all surveillance devices in the private apartment of our guests immediately.” Anticipating the question that was to come next, she said, “Of course, you’ll leave all exterior devices in place.”

  “Yes, Your Grace. Right now?” the woman asked with concern in her voice.

  “Yes, right now. I’m sure Minister do’ Verlas and I can take care of ourselves while you get the process started.” The matriarch turned back to Rentec. “Now, continue, Minister. The question was, ‘Why?’”

  “These are matters of policy better left to those who are wiser than I, Your Grace, but it seems to me that our people should know that there’s another race out there with as much reason to hate the Korvil as we have. It will give them a new spirit, I think. I hear the talk when the secretaries think I’m not there. If their conversations are any indication of the populace at large, we don’t have a lot of support for this war. Allies would make all the difference in the world.”

  “Continue, Minister. I would hear more,” des’ Harras urged.

  “Consider their side of things, Your Grace. We are the second race these people have seen. And in both cases, they are caged. Our cage is plusher, I would think, than that of the Korvil, but in my estimation, a jail is a jail no matter how well appointed.” Rentec stopped for a time to marshal his thoughts. “Allowing them access to our world and people is a way to show they aren’t captives, and that we have nothing to hide. And finally, Your Grace, to have someone learn their language would be a sign of respect. Of course, they should learn ours. There are only two of them, right? Much easier for them to learn ours than to have a translator around all the time. But again, it seems to me—who knows nothing of these things—that it would be possible to gain valuable insights into these people if we knew how they spoke. Hasn’t the same been said of the Korvil? Learn to think in their language and you learn to understand the people.”

  The young woman chose this time to return to the room. “The devices are being removed as we speak, Your Grace.”

  “Thank you, Sitha. Would you escort our guest back to her room? I would speak privately with Minister do’ Verlas”

  Motioning Rentec to a pair of chairs on a balcony overlooking the plains, Linnas des’ Harras poured a sweet wine into two subtly carved kemwood cups. “How is your mother these days, Minister?”

  “My mother, Your Grace?” he asked, surprised by the change of subject. “She’s fine. Recovered from the surgeries and beginning to get back to work. She only spent a few weeks in a healing chamber. Still mourning my father, of course.”

  “As do we all mourn the tragedy. A voice was stilled well before its time, and it was a loss to all Shiravi. When next you speak to Tira, tell her that her absence has been noted, and I would enjoy the pleasure of her company should she ever choose to visit here again.”

  “Again? I hadn’t known she’d ever visited here, Your Grace,” Rentec said with confusion.

  “Your father was a frequent visitor here, and he often brought Tira along with him. You take after him in many ways, not the least of which is your outspoken manner.”

  Rentec blushed. “My mother says the same thing, Your Grace.”

  “Still a woman of infinite insight, I see. And what will become of your consort-to-be now that her ministry post has been dissolved?”

  “Ra—Ramannie?” Rentec stammered. “She has no close family, Your Grace, merely her clan affiliations. I had thought to move her out to the family holdings until our matrimonial. It seems a perfect solution.”

  “Perfect to a male, young Rentec. How about to Ramannie and especially to your mother? No matter. It is a time when we must all make sacrifices.”

  Rentec would have reason to remember that phrase in the days to come.

  “Now, if you will forgive me,” Linnas said, draining her small cup. “I have one other interview before my day ends. Please make my home yours for the night. Sitha, if you would, please?”

  After Rentec was led away by the attendant, Linnas stared out over the darkening plains of her ancestral home for a time before speaking to the figure standing in the shadows behind her. “Well, come and sit and tell me what you think,” she ordered.

  “I think you will do what you will do, as ever, Linnas,” grated the mechanical voice of sel Garian, “and only historians will be able to call you fool or savant.”

  “It is my job to see that we have historians, Manura,” she replied quietly.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lucy Grimes sat watching the morning sunlight wash over a b
are desk in her office at the Terran Alliance Embassy, Zurich, wondering what to do next. With a staff of four in the outer office and some forty other personnel from the Niven acting as temporary building staff, she still felt lonelier than she had in a long time.

  It has to be because Galileo is gone, she thought, along with the Niven’s sister ships and almost everybody I’ve come to care about.

  Comm calls were possible, of course, but when it took a message minutes to reach its destination and the same length of time to return, gossiping was an exercise in futility. Add to that the Alliance’s still uncertain status with the U.S., where it wasn’t exactly advisable to travel at present, and the feeling of isolation fed upon itself. Lucy wasn’t unaware of what she called the “incongruous irony” of her situation. She’d made three trips to the asteroid belt and helped build humanity’s first three deep-space installations, and the fact was that she felt trapped in one of Earth’s most beautiful countries.

  She looked down at the barren desktop and muttered, “If I don’t find something to do, I’m going to go crazy. And the Galileo hasn’t been gone a good hour yet.” Reaching a decision, she called in Rukia Kimura and Lloyd Pike. “As soon as our phone lines are up and running, we’re going to be swamped with calls twenty-four hours a day. First, we’re only going to be taking calls for twelve or fourteen of those hours, like any other business. Second, I want an after-hours message put on the phone lines directing people to call back the next business day. Come up with something appropriate and get it set up, will you?

  “That’s the easy one,” she said as she plopped a stack of folders down on the desk. “Here are the complete lists of all personnel aboard all four ships. The bases will send their info as soon as they get it compiled. We need to get all this entered into the computer. We’ve got name, home address, education, shipboard job, which ship, interests, and special knowledge on each person we’ve recruited. You two know this. You filled out one of these, just like I did.”

  Rukia screwed up her elfin features and reached for the stack of folders. “Well, I guess this is my job,” she said. “It’ll give me something to do, and it is the work of a secretary.”

  “You’re right about it being the work of a secretary, which I don’t consider you to be. Not for a minute. Official title, yes, and you’ve served in that capacity so far, but I have more in mind for you than that. Right now, pick out a few people and get them started on this, then get back here. You may wish for something as simple as data entry before this day is over.”

  She watched Rukia leave and turned to Lloyd. “You’re my aide because you’ve had more experience out in the real world than a lot of us. What do you know about hiring people for sensitive jobs?”

  Lloyd hesitated for a few seconds. “My father was a contractor for the government for several years. We produced some equipment for Gulf Storm. I’m still not sure what they were, but I do remember that he needed to hire people with a reasonable certainty that they weren’t flakes or totally inept. There was a test he brought home.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I wish I’d known I was going to be asked questions like this,” he said with a weak grin. “I’d have paid more attention. As it was, I took the test, along with about twenty of Dad’s most trusted and well-known employees. To see if the test was valid, you know? It was a kind of word-association thing, like ‘which of these words does not fit with the rest?’ and you get four or five to choose from. Pretty good results as I remember.”

  “Good! That’s just what I want,” Lucy said. “Get with Baron von Schlenker and see if you can locate one. If it goes to things like reliability, aptitude, and things like that, I want it. I think it’ll be necessary for you, me, and Rukia to do the initial testing and evaluations, so I want to practice on our people here, like your dad did. We need to get managerial and secretarial types to man the embassies first. Then we can look to filling shipboard slots. We’ve got about a week before I expect to be doing those first tests for real. We’ve got all those reporters out there to spread the word for us about the tests, plus our pet reporter, Sarah Parker.”

  “We’re going to be up to our asses in people,” Lloyd predicted. “We need to make sure that when the report of this hits the news, people are told in no uncertain terms that the trip is at their own expense, as well as their accommodations and meals. We aren’t footing the bill for that, and the Swiss won’t take kindly to a shitload of indigents wandering around one of their tourist attractions. Also, let ‘em know that we’re just taking applications, not accepting volunteers.”

  Lucy looked speculatively at Lloyd. This was the first time she’d heard a curse word come out of his mouth. As a matter of fact, there was a rumor that he didn’t know how to use a contraction, and here he was, cussing and contracting! Dear god, there’s hope for this guy yet!

  “We should probably have some kind of press release made up,” Lucy said, “stating those facts in detail and stressing the fact that there will be no shipboard assignments for some time. We can probably farm that out to Parker to be disseminated to the world at large and have copies for anyone who comes through the door.

  “Oh, yeah! Here’s another one!” Lucy exclaimed. “Project Vesta is nearing completion—at least the hollowing-out process. We’re going to need people to man that, too. There’ll be deep-space observatories, zero-g experimentation, a supply depot, a rest and relaxation center, a real home office (if we decide to do that), and so much more. I envision it as a home-away-from-home for those who, for whatever reason, want off the ships for a while but still want to serve the Alliance in space. I asked Marsha to stop by and check on the progress so we can get a better idea when we can get started on the interior construction. My idea was to have the Galileo construct another habitat with construction module immediately after finishing Taurus. And using Taurus to help build it will cut down the construction time. The Galileo can tow it into position, leave it and a crew there, and return to Earth. It’ll add a bit to her away time, but it really should be worth the effort.”

  Lloyd built on the preceding ideas. “How about a daily press release? Or not so much a press release but a jobs list. When we have a new ship about to arrive, we could put out a list that says we need one ship’s captain, four cooks, and so forth. We could have a section that never changes much, like scientists and janitors, and one that reflects whatever we need at the moment.”

  Weeks turned into months. Mid-November arrived and gripped Switzerland in one of the coldest winters in history. A massive low-pressure system stalled over the area, held in place by the sheer mass of the mountain range it had run into.

  Lucy drove her skimmer, as they were now referred to, into the brightly lit, heated garage and left the depressingly overcast afternoon behind her. Elation banished her unconscious irritation at the lack of sunlight as soon as she settled the antigrav auto in its space.

  She commed Rukia and Lloyd. “Meet me in my office in ten minutes, please.”

  She hadn’t expected either of them to be readily available this late in the day. The embassy had settled into a routine that had finally begun to feel normal. Lucy, Rukia and Lloyd only fielded the most persistent or high-ranking callers these days. The volunteer staff, mostly locals now, went home at five p.m., at which time visitors and applicants were turned away at the main gate. This left the building sparsely tenanted, sounds echoing eerily through the darkened rooms and corridors.

  Her meeting at Freddie’s had gone on longer than expected, but then, so many of them did these days. Still, she walked into her office smiling. What would stuffy Lloyd think of her coming in reeking of wine? The truth was, she’d stumbled while accepting a glass for a toast and spilled her glass all over herself and the Japanese Ambassador.

  Not one of my better moments, she thought, her smile fading a bit.

  She plopped into a chair and looked at her two friends, crooked grin still in place.

  “Okay, Luce,” Rukia asked, “what do
you know that we don’t?” Rukia Kimura had learned to read her boss pretty well over the last several months, but this was just too obvious.

  “First, let’s recap the dailies, Okay? Fill me in.”

  “Now? I was just going to dinner! Oh, all right.” Her pique at not first hearing Lucy’s news passed, and Rukia said, “All three bases report everything on schedule and even a little bit ahead. Seems like the infusion of some new people and the removal of some unhappy ones has caused a production increase. Mambas and torpedoes are being built right alongside whichever ship is in the yard. With the addition of extra Sundivers, courtesy of Adam Gardner out on Gemini, we have power cores and missile heads to spare. The Galileo reports that the construction of Taurus is a bit ahead of schedule. Their Sundiver returned, and they’re ready to power up the habitat section, and the Galileo has taken on new power cores. Kitty’s condition appears unchanged, but Dr. Jeffers says Simon’s mental state is slowly improving. He’s never personally seen a depression that deep, and can’t predict the progress in any case,” She shrugged her shoulders and sighed. “Simon blames himself for Kitty’s condition, you know.”

  “Yes, but true or not, he’s got to learn to live with it.”

  “I don’t know how I’d handle something like that, or even if I could handle it. Let him alone, you two,” Lloyd said caustically. “If he comes around, great. If not, you’re doing fine.”

  “Don’t be such a kiss-ass, Lloyd,” Rukia said. Lately, there’d been no love lost between her two senior staffers.

  “I’m not a kiss-ass, and I resent you saying so. She is doing fine. So what if it hasn’t been just exactly like you think Simon would have done it? The result is still the same.”

  Lucy stepped in to separate the two. “Don’t make me pull this car over!” Her comment was ludicrous enough to get through to the two antagonists. “Good. Now that I have your attention,” she said, “it’s time for my news.” She felt the quivering tension in the air and savored it for a moment. “It will be announced at Baron von Schlenker’s soiree later tonight, but I thought you’d like to know first.” After torturing them for a few more moments, she said, “We got the Japanese embassy!”