by Ed Charlton
He felt stupid and naïve. The agency would be a tough place to work in—even more than his old department. From Sharkey’s silence, he knew two things: the agency was bugging his apartment and Sharkey’s group was clandestine. He wondered if Tella knew about them. He wondered what they thought of Tella.
He got up and went into the kitchen to retrieve the device. He did not recognize the alien script. The sphere was surprisingly light and felt a little warm. It showed no sign of damage from its bounce across the floor. He tapped it again and it activated. He tapped it a second time and smiled. Sharkey may have done him an inadvertent favor.
Chapter Six
Jim and Tella set off in an agency flier in the early hours of the next morning.
“How much do you get involved with internal politics?” Jim asked Tella.
“Not much. I generally have to keep a low profile. Remember that the agency is highly segmented. Cross-boundary contact is kept to a minimum. Why?”
“I’ve already had a little welcome message from a cadre who don’t think I’m a good idea.”
Tella said nothing, studying Jim’s face.
“Any ideas?” Jim continued.
“That is unfortunate.”
There was a long silence.
Tella said, “Perhaps this behavior is like your schoolchildren. I have heard tales of how cruel your offspring can be to each other—to newcomers.”
“These are grown-up kids—the dangerous kind.”
“But I think the analogy holds. You must find something to deflect their negativity. You have to ‘prove yourself’ to them.”
“Great. It’s been a while since I tried peeing up a wall.”
“Excuse me?”
“Never mind. Have you ever seen one of these?”
Jim tossed the silver sphere across the cabin. Tella caught it and studied it.
Silver coloring spread across the Neraffan’s hand, and thin wisps of green laced around its fingers from the delicate writing.
“Remarkable.”
“Not made locally.”
“Nor recently.”
“How can you tell?”
“There is wear. The markings were once clearer, and their edges better defined.”
“Any idea what it does?”
“No.”
“Tap it once.”
Tella held it in one palm and tapped the top gently with the first finger of its other hand. The sphere blushed into its rainbow colors. Tella jumped up and dropped it to the floor. Several alarms sounded.
“Ow!”
“What’s wrong?”
“That hurt. Where did you get this?”
“What did it do to you?” asked Jim, picking up the sphere and deactivating it.
“It burns...no, more like an electrical discharge.”
“I didn’t feel anything from it.”
“That our skins are different should be no surprise.”
“True. Sorry.”
Tella turned to the control panels and said, “Several systems are resetting. Don’t activate that thing again.”
“Okay.”
“Tell me more about it.”
“It was introduced to me as a jamming device. That’s basically all I know.”
“It radiates a strong field. That was a reckless experiment, Jim.”
“Sorry, boss. It didn’t do any harm in my apartment. I guess I took its previous owner at his word.”
“He may have known no more than you.”
“Yeah, my mistake.”
Jim put the device into the pocket of his flight jacket.
Tella said, “We’ll have time to play with toys when we return.”
“Sure.”
***
Jim saw the Praestans Rapax drone through the flier’s window, black against the glorious spectacle of Jupiter. It was shaped like a torpedo. The white symbol neatly rendered on its hull identified it as an unmanned craft protected from interference under treaty. Few species used such craft. Most others, though, preferred to always have a living hand, or paw, or tentacle at the controls.
Three reconnaissance buoys hung motionless around the drone—dancers waiting for music.
The orbit of the Europa Biological Monitoring Station, allowing it famous and unrivaled views, was a gently arcing progression around Jupiter and its moon Europa. There were times when it seemed the station was alone, with an uninterrupted view of the giant planet’s swirling storms. At other times, it came close enough to the moon, the captive of both its gravity and its beauty.
The station itself was constructed of many separate units, joined and supplemented over several years as the knowledge of Europa’s biology had grown. The most coveted accommodation was in the modules that more often had the Jovian view.
***
“R546, this is EBMS Control. Please respond.”
Tella moved to the communications console and said, “This is R546. Is there a problem, EBMS Control?”
“Stand by.”
Jim frowned and asked, “A change of plans?”
Tella shrugged.
“R546, you are to dock at EBMS Bay 5 before proceeding. You will be met by EIA staff upon docking.”
Jim sighed. “I’ll stay here.”
“Why?”
“I...My brother and I don’t really get along. I haven’t been in touch with him for some years.”
“This is business. I would prefer that you come.”
Jim sighed again and nodded.
Tella turned the flier away from the drone and moved slowly toward the station. It, too, had a retinue of bright objects hanging before the black of space. These were larger than the buoys around the drone. These were the well-armed ships of the EIA’s tactical response.
Jim snorted. “All this muscle flexing for a dumb drone.”
***
Inside the docking bay there was a great deal of confusion over Jim. The EIA operatives had no record of him. No one had warned them Tella would have a companion.
Both Tella and Jim began to be a little annoyed.
“What’s all this noise? What’s going on here?” came a voice.
“Unauthorized passenger debarking from the EIA flier, sir!” reported a gray uniformed officer.
“Which one?”
A gloved hand pointed at Jim.
Jim looked up and said, “Hi, Matt, how’re you doing?”
“Jim. I might have guessed. There’s trouble and you’re in the middle of it.”
Matt Able shook his head and waved the guards aside. He and Jim were not alike. Where Jim had dark, somewhat unkempt hair, Matt had lost most of his, and the little left was white. Where Jim was trim and fit, Matt had had too many good meals and too little exercise.
“What are you doing on an EIA shuttle with an alien, Jim?”
“Working.”
Matt’s face showed surprise mixed with disbelief.
“I’d heard you were unemployed.”
“Second day on the job. Tella, here, is my boss. I’m EIA now.” He paused to smile. “Better treat me with some respect.”
Matt snorted and said, “Respect is something people earn.”
“Dr. Able?” Tella interrupted.
“Yes?”
“I am EIA Agent R546. I am authorized to bring my staff wherever I have occasion to work. I expect this matter to be resolved immediately.”
“Not here, and not during a Phase 3 shutdown. No one comes in or goes out without a proper review and my personal say-so.” He frowned and blinked a couple of times. “Bring them into the conference room.”
He turned and all discussion ended. Jim and Tella were escorted into the station.
Chapter Seven
In Tanna Jorr’s capital city, the park of ch
oice for a lunchtime walk was always Farg Huran, “Flower Nest” in Standard. Crowded and increasingly commercialized, it was the park of choice for Gritta Mel’s meeting.
Gritta, sitting on a bench, watched the delegate stride up as if she owned the whole park. As a representative of the global government—the source of all funding for public projects—in a sense, the delegate did.
“Auditor Latya, a pleasure to meet you.” She extended her paw.
“Professor Mel...”
“Please, call me Gritta.”
“Thank you, Gritta. I’m Cay.”
“Cay, please sit down. Or do you want to get something?”
“No, thanks.”
The delegate sat close to Gritta and dropped her voice. “I would welcome your telling me we are not being monitored.”
Gritta shook her head, the whiskers at the side of her short snout bristling. “There’s nothing I can do about that. I’m sorry.”
Cay nodded, extending and then retracting her claws in a gesture of resignation.
“Oh well. To business. The Overarch’s Office of Finance has begun to ask questions about your work—specifically with the boy Larc.”
“Again?”
“There are several old-timers who weren’t happy with the results last time. They are still convinced that any interplanetary cross will suffer cerebral instability.”
Gritta bowed her head and said quietly, “How serious are they?”
Cay leaned her snout in and said, “I think more so than before. Some of them genuinely believe that he should be in a special institution.”
Gritta snorted.
Rather than speak aloud for the security monitors, she spread her paws on her lap, extending her claws to tap on her lab coat, and shook her head.
“Gritta, I understand. You must understand too; we have to tell them something. I’m willing to help, but you’ll have to give me something to take back...to divert them with.”
The professor thought for a moment. “I’ll release his records for the first year.”
Cay calculated. “Seven years ago. That won’t do it. They’ll say it’s stale material. Why not up to last year? I could explain that this year is not complete yet.”
“No, it’s too much. I can’t have other people feeding me their political interpretations and clouding the science. I won’t have prejudice getting in my way.”
“You’ll have to give me six years’ worth at least.”
The professor turned one eye to her visitor, assessing her trustworthiness, deciding how far to go.
“Four years. The first four years—but it has to be marked for highly selective access. How about Departmental Bridges and above?”
Cay thought and nodded. “That would actually...take it over the heads of most of those expressing their concern.”
They nodded and smiled at each other.
Cay said, “I know Larc is very special to you.”
“Do you have children?”
“Three.”
“Then you know.”
They stood and walked a while through the park, their arms linked.
Chapter Eight
About twenty people were assembled in the conference room on the EBMS. Tella and Jim stood at one end of the long wooden table, guarded by six armed EIA tactical responders.
Matt Able joined them after several minutes. His face was flushed and his frown had deepened.
“Everybody out!”
His voice cut through the hum of conversation. He pointed at Jim and Tella’s guards.
“That includes you.”
With his other hand he waved Jim toward a chair.
“Sit. Let’s get this sorted.”
After the room had cleared, Matt sat at the head of the table with both Jim and Tella at his right.
“All right,” he began, “I’ll say it again. No one comes onto my station without my permission. That usually involves some advance notice. Why didn’t I get any?”
Tella spoke. “Perhaps a simple administrative oversight?”
Matt shook his head and said, “We have an unknown alien device within striking distance of Europa. There are grown men Earthside wetting themselves right now. No one is going to be slack about this.”
“You were told we were coming with contact codes for the drone, weren’t you?” Tella replied.
“No. We were told that R546 was coming. Not what it was, what it would do, or how it would do it. The tactical team was going to blow you away if you hadn’t responded to the order to dock.”
Jim looked at Tella. “Why weren’t our orders shared with these guys?”
“It is unusual,” Tella replied.
Matt waited in silence.
Jim brought out the small silver sphere from his pocket and placed it on the table. “Ever see one of these?”
“Bomb? Paperweight? Alien sex toy?” Matt almost smiled.
Jim laughed and said, “I hope not. I’d like to talk completely off the record, Matt. Do you mind?”
Matt’s frown returned, but he shrugged agreement.
Jim tapped the sphere. The conference room lights dimmed and the hum from the ventilation stopped.
Matt looked around the room and back to the sphere.
“Stuff me! Where did you get it?”
“That’s the point. I stole it from an EIA guy who thinks I’m a waste of a salary.”
Matt looked into Jim’s eyes and said, “I like him already.”
Unphased, Jim continued, “It may be that he and his cronies saw to it that our communications were messed up. It’s their style, I think.”
Matt frowned. “How long have you worked there?”
“Second day.”
“Something of a record, isn’t it? Usually you don’t get people’s backs up for a week at least.”
“Yeah, I’m really playing to my strengths on this one.”
The door opened at the end of the conference room. A worried technician looked in and, behind him, pressed several guards, weapons at the ready.
“Excuse me, sir. We lost contact with this and several nearby rooms.”
Matt waved his hand. “Out!” To Jim, Matt muttered, “I see it works.”
Tella said, “I think you might be right, Jim. The EIA doesn’t usually get things wrong by accident. This...mistake...had a purpose behind it.”
“Very well,” said Matt, “that I’ll accept. So, what are you doing here?”
Tella answered, “We have the contact codes for the drone. It is to guide us to a rendezvous, where we will start a mission about which we can say nothing at all.”
“Whose drone is it?”
Tella smiled and said nothing.
Matt shook his head. “What a waste of my time. I’ve lost days of work and had EIA troops crashing around here for what? So you two jokers can go on a joyride. Great! Listen, right now, the EIA is not my favorite agency. Oh, what am I saying? It never damn well was!” Matt brought his hand down on the table with a loud thump. He stood and walked toward the door.
“Matt, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, Jim, on your way out.”
“You got any spare modules?”
“Why?”
Jim glanced at Tella, who almost looked surprised.
“I’ve had an idea that might help.”
“Help me or you?”
“Yes.”
Jim smiled. Matt stood and waited.
“I’m going to be out in space a lot,” Jim said, still piecing his idea together. “I was just wondering if you have a spare module a traveler could make use of.”
“Never.”
“Wait! There’s more!”
Matt walked the rest of the way to the door and put his hand on the handle but didn’t open it.
Jim continued, “It might be advantageous to say you had an EIA agent regularly visiting the station. You’d be safe, and the EIA wouldn’t have to send anyone. Except, of course, that agent would be me.”
Matt laughed and muttered, “Safe? With you? I’d lose what little insurance I have.”
“Well...I’d need to clear it with my boss, of course.”
Tella looked from one brother to the other and said, “Are you sure you would want to share the same station?”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t,” said Matt.
“I wouldn’t be here much.”
“Either you’d be here, or you wouldn’t. Think it through, Jim. Either way, you’re out of your mind.” Matt shrugged.
Jim reached over to the sphere and tapped it.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Chapter Nine
Gror Dil Ajeer thought herself too young. She had been groomed, prepared, and trained—but not nearly enough. In her care was one lone soul and, with it, the inspiration of the world.
How did this come upon me? Oh spirit, blow through me and guide me!
She shook with anticipation and fear. He snorted and growled in his sleep. He was every bit as attractive as he had seemed from a distance. It had been no problem for Calna, being already the age of his third-mother, but for Ajeer, it might be a problem. She was too young.
She had waited outside for most of the meeting. The part that she had been called to had troubled her greatly. No one talked of the spirit; no one talked of the traditions. They ground their teeth over worries about sociological displacement, climate control, and the shortage of drinking water. Her training had not prepared her for their lack of faith.
Only once did they show any respect for the lives of the Luminants. When she had asked her question, they had replied with due deference. But she could see the shallowness in some of their eyes. She was young but not a fool.
“Is it your intention to provide me with every resource I need to be Luminant to the Gul-Raeff?” she had asked.
General Dol had taken the lead and spoken of the nobility of the work and the importance of the service. General Arn promised that the staff in place for Calna would remain at her disposal until she wished to make a change. This was a comfort. She knew them all—their weaknesses and their strengths.