He felt much the same. “What would getting caught accomplish?” Erik asked. “If it’s not distraction, there has to be another goal.”
“One goal might be to rescue a fellow terrorist,” Jia suggested. “Maybe the police have someone, but he’s under their radar.”
“Ok, that’s a viable possibility. In this scenario, Caron asked for me just to get more time?” Erik’s gaze flicked between the flitters in the air. They formed a simple stream rather than the torrential competing rivers of Neo SoCal’s airways. Any of them could contain a terrorist. “Do we know anything about where she’s being kept?”
“She’s kept away from the general prisoner population,” Emma reported. “It’s briefly noted in her arrest records. They have her in solitary right now, with her food being brought directly to her cell.”
“It’s hard to rescue your friend when you’re in solitary.” Erik ran through other possibilities in his mind. She could be the weapon herself, but her intake scans would have picked up any explosives, even sophisticated nanotech-based designs. “Everything is circling back to distraction as the goal. We’ll have a better idea once we talk to her tomorrow morning. For now, let’s just get some food and rest and see if we can find anything in the files that Emma might have missed.”
“Excuse me?” Emma scoffed. “How would you possibly find something that I missed?”
“You might be able to process a lot more information, but you don’t have the gut instinct that comes with being human. We’re the original pattern-matching computers.” Erik grinned. “We’ve got to prove we still have a few advantages. Otherwise, in a few decades, there won’t be any reason to have us around.”
“Oh, you’re a lot cheaper than me,” Emma replied in a sarcastic tone. “That’s one reason. Not a good one, but it is one.”
“I just hope our human gut instincts can figure it out in time,” Jia murmured.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jia downed a bit of her grilled hogfish sandwich, enjoying the sweet, mild flavor. She could see why it was so popular locally, or at least, the waitress and menu claimed it was.
She wouldn’t put it past the restaurant to insist on that just to hoodwink tourists.
When she looked up from her food, Erik was staring at her, his brow wrinkled in thought. There was no hint of the playful façade he threw up at times and that she was now learning was more a tool he used than a true reflection of the complicated and wounded man underneath.
She swallowed and took a sip of tea. “Is something wrong? You worried about Jeanne Caron?”
“No, just thinking about food,” Erik replied, focusing back on the here and now. “I have a lot of time for that lately, so I do it too much.”
“How does one think too much?”
Erik snickered. “I would have thought you, of all people, would already know the answer to that.”
Jia raised an eyebrow, not amused. “Very funny, Erik.”
“Yeah, I thought so.” Erik gestured to her plate. “Enjoying your fish?” He’d already downed most of his salmon. “I know the name doesn’t mean anything, but it’s hard to hear a name like ‘hogfish’ and not expect something that tastes a bit like pork.”
Jia laughed, and the crinkle of the paper she was holding the sandwich with punctuated the conversation. “I won’t say it’s the best fish I ever tasted, but it’s good for the price. It’s something I would consider eating back home.” She paused in thought. “But I can’t remember ever seeing it on a menu, not that I’m an expert on all things fish.”
She expected Emma to chime in with a possible place in Neo SoCal, but the AI remained silent. That had been happening more and more of late, as if Emma was content to listen without comment. Jia half-suspected it was a conscious strategy that depended on the idea of the humans forgetting she was there.
The idea of Emma always listening vaguely bugged her, but not enough to complain. She supposed that with all of the dumb devices that were always listening, it shouldn’t be a big deal. However, when you knew a massively powerful AI was listening in, it changed the dynamics.
“I’ve never had hogfish.” Erik leaned back and folded his arms over his chest, a thoughtful look taking over his face. “Have you? It sounds like you haven’t.”
Jia thought it over. “I’ve had a lot of different types of fish, but this is my first time with hogfish that I can remember. I think I would have remembered something with such a colorful name.”
Erik pointed to her. “That’s it, and that’s what is bothering me. It doesn’t make sense when you think about it.”
“What doesn’t? Hogfish? But you had salmon.” Jia examined his plate to confirm his fish hadn’t spontaneously changed.
“It’s what hogfish represents.” Erik released his arms to gesture at her plate. “It’s part of a regional cuisine. That’s what I’m getting at.”
Jia frowned and glanced down at her fish. “What doesn’t make sense? People aren’t all the same, and different people have different tastes. There are a lot of things I grew up eating in Neo SoCal that you might not like, being from the Midwest, even if you have flown all around the UTC.”
Erik stared at the fish as if it would come back to life, his mouth curved in faint amusement. “You’re right. I’ve been all over the UTC, both core planets and colonies. There’s a lot of strange cuisine out there, all of it heavily dependent on where people came from. And that’s before you get into the strangeness of some of the colonists finding it easier to raise livestock, so real meat is both a luxury and something for poor hardscrabble people on the frontier. But that’s not what’s bothering me. It’s a weird thing to think about, but it’s always surprising to me when I remember that different people eat different things depending on where they live. So many other things have unified. It’s hard to find someone in the UTC who’s not reasonably fluent in both English and Mandarin, for example, but not everyone eats the same things. Even if they eat the same types of things, they get differences. Like this fish, which is why neither of us has had it before.”
Jia blinked. “That all makes perfect sense to me. I don’t understand why it doesn’t make sense to you. If anything, I would have thought you would be more tolerant of that kind of thing.” She grabbed a napkin and cleaned a bit of the sandwich from her cheek. “I’m surprised to hear you talk about it that way.”
“I don’t believe there is a crisis that needs to be solved. It just got me to thinking.” A playful grin appeared on Erik’s face. “Let me put it a different way. Where do you think they got this fish?”
Jia shrugged. “Considering the price, I assume it’s produced meat. If it were natural, they would be losing a lot of money. And I’m sure they would have stressed it if it were natural meat, but I will say the texture and flavor undertones are good, so I’m fairly certain it’s not printed meat. If it is printed, it’s unusually good, so I can’t complain too much.”
“You’re missing my point,” Erik replied, although his tone remained light. “I don’t think it’s printed. It’s just weird. On core worlds or the colonies that have the infrastructure and resources for it, most of what people eat is produced meat, so it’s not like they have to use local ingredients.”
He gestured to the fish, and she looked down before returning her focus to him as he continued explaining.
“I’ve never had hogfish before, and the only reason it’s on the menu here is that it’s something they’ve eaten in this area for centuries. But there’s nothing stopping a restaurant in Neo SoCal from sourcing hogfish from a local seafood or meat factory, right? I’m not an expert, but considering all the different types of meat and seafood we have in Neo SoCal, it can’t be that hard to tweak a process.”
Jia returned to eyeing her fish. She’d cared more about the flavor than where it had come from, but she had decided to try it because she’d never had it before. “I see your point. Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it a lot. There are so many different cuisines and foods in N
eo SoCal that I could eat at a different one every day for the rest of my life and still not manage to eat everything available. Even if I do tend toward favorites, it’s not unusual to have something I haven’t eaten before, so it doesn’t seem that strange to me to find something new when I’m in a new area.”
“That’s true, and I get that there are billions of people on this planet, and it’s not like every single type of food can be easily available, but I guess…” Erik looked around for a moment, glancing curiously from table to table. “Individual countries used to be a big deal, and the insurgents on the frontier might fight because they don’t want someone lightyears away telling them what to do, but it’s not like anyone on Earth is seriously trying to break away from the UTC. You read about a few who grumbled back in the early years, but here no one seems to care, not on the same level that random colonists on a backward frontier world might. Sure, the UTC could crush them if they tried, but no one cares enough to try.”
“Why would they?” Jia asked, confusion in her voice. “For all its flaws, the UTC currently provides benefits for its members that exceed its costs. It might not have wiped out crime and corruption, but it’s practically wiped out war on Earth. I know you have a much lower opinion of many things than I do, but I doubt you would have stayed in the UTC Army for thirty years if you didn’t believe in it on some level. It had to be more than a paycheck.”
Erik grunted. “Don’t know about that.”
Jia set her fork down and tried not to scowl at her partner. “What are you saying?”
“Don’t get too spun up, Jia. I’m not saying the UTC is bad. You’re right, I spent decades fighting insurgents and terrorists, and not just because of esprit de corps.” His eyes looked haunted for a moment, remembering Mu Arae, perhaps. “I believe in what it represents, even if I’m not as convinced humanity is as far along as you think.”
“Then can you clarify for me what you mean?” Jia insisted, her voice tense. She might as well get it settled early in her partnership. Accepting that Earth wasn’t perfect wasn’t the same thing as questioning every last aspect of modern human existence.
While she didn’t demand that Erik bare all of his soul to her, she knew there were things he was still holding back—important things. Her gut told her so and had for a while, but she didn’t want to push him.
Erik put his hands up in a placating manner. “You’re reading too much into my comment. I’m just saying there is a lot of corruption out there, and we can’t ignore it or how it’s adding to problems from insurgencies to dangerous politicians on Earth. The more the top stinks, the less people at the bottom will care about smelling bad.”
Jia sighed. “I won’t disagree, and have always believed that. It’s something my parents stressed, and I continued to believe it even after I left home. It’s one of the issues I had with our old captain. I don’t think what you mean is any more complicated than leading by example.”
“True,” Erik replied, his voice quiet. “Again, you’re reading too much into all of this. Mostly what I was getting at was that you would think that everyone would get used to eating certain common types of food. Some sort of cuisine convergence, but it hasn’t worked out that way. People and what they eat remain different, no matter where they are. Everyone might belong to the UTC, but even something as simple as food is different not only from planet to planet, but from country to country on Earth, or even within the same country…well, sort of the same country. How unified is the United Terran Confederation when people don’t even eat the same things? Not a huge deal, but just something that crossed my mind.”
“Cuisines are a type of tradition, and while humanity might all fall under the UTC now, that doesn’t mean people don’t want to maintain the cultures and traditions they are part of. Arguably, the UTC is strong because of that cultural flexibility. It’s trying to help people, not force them to all be the same.”
Jia took another bite of her fish as she continued articulating her thoughts. “Cultures might spread and change, but different people are going to have different preferences. I don’t think it’s a problem as long as people remain peaceful. Earth might be imperfect, but it at least demonstrates that peace between different cultures is feasible, which is what makes the separatists and insurgents all the more frustrating.”
“I haven’t fought insurgents who were angry about a specific food option being taken away, but yeah, it’s not like it’s never happened in history. The most minor of things can set off a rebellion at times.” Erik tapped his plate. “You’re right. Food is tradition, and food is a powerful symbol of culture.”
Jia finished her fish and swallowed, pondering the power of food for a moment before finally asking, a small smirk growing on her face, “Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Cosmic Universalists are mostly interested in alien food?” She smiled. “I wish it were that simple.”
“Uhhh,” Erik mused. “That’s a reason to fight.” He leaned forward, a glint of humor sparkling in his eyes. “Maybe the Leems have a great sandwich with ingredients no human has even thought to consider. I mean, we’ve got everything from snails to Century Eggs on Earth, but there have to be combinations that no one would think to try, let alone ingredients from alien worlds. Think about it. The Zitarks could be the galactic masters of barbecue.”
Jia couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. Her mind conjured an image of one of the reptilian aliens wearing an apron reading The secret ingredient is human blood. It might be unfair. As far as she knew, despite being carnivorous, the Zitarks hadn’t demonstrated any desire to eat humans, but they also hadn’t had much opportunity to expand their palates with such morsels yet either.
“Maybe.” Jia looked at the picked-over fish sandwich on her plate and Erik’s salmon. “Everyone thinks we know so much about the other races, but in truth, we barely know anything; just the barest surface facts. Broad strokes. It’s much different than most of human history, where even if a culture was different, at least they were human and had certain commonalities. We had a range of reactions we could expect.”
“I don’t think that’s a problem,” Erik suggested.
“You don’t think having a better handle on the alien races around us is a problem?” Jia stared at him, looking for signs he was joking, but found none.
“We need to get our own house in order before we worry about the aliens. Right now, the only thing we really need to know is that they’re mostly staying away from us, and as long as they do that, there isn’t any reason to know more. The big Zitark scare last year was just that—a scare. Let the diplomats and spies try to figure all that out. There’s no Zitark or Aldran Mafia camped out in Neo SoCal.”
Jia didn’t respond as the waitress appeared to refresh her tea and take away her plate. Erik was still working on his salmon.
“There’s no way we won’t have to deal with them soon,” she offered after the departure of the server. “I don’t mean a few skirmishes or high-level diplomatic meetings. I mean much greater interaction. It’s inevitable.”
“Is it?” Erik poked his fish with his fork. “I’m not convinced of that anymore. The only reason we’ve managed to spread as far as we have is that the UTC really pushed it. It’s not like our planets are filling up and we need more space or we’ll all starve to death. We want more space and resources, but if the UTC never moved beyond the current systems, we would be fine for centuries. It’s human to want to push farther and farther, but that’s not the same thing as being necessary. You’re right, though—all it would take is a few politicians getting stupid, and we could have trouble.” His face took on a troubled expression that faded after a few seconds.
Jia noticed the expression. “It’s not just stupid politicians, who are prevalent in all forms of government. A real problem is that we don’t know enough about other races and their motivations.” She put up fingers for each of her next four points. “They have different physiologies, psychologies, religions, and philosophies. I read a book recently abou
t the Roswell incident, and it discussed how the Leems don’t have the same concept of space and ownership as we do. Think about trying to understand and relate to something like an Orlox.” Jia shrugged. “I kind of think something happening is inevitable. I just hope it’s not going to be trouble. We’ve managed to avoid a true interstellar war, and I can only imagine how horrific one would be.”
“You never seemed this worried about aliens before.” Erik thought for a moment. “Is this because we’re working on this Grayhead case? Or is this something else?”
Jia nodded. “I suppose. It’s just got me thinking about it. Before, I didn’t worry about this kind of thing as much because I had more confidence in human institutions, but now, with all that’s happened, I’ve grown…” She shrugged. “I hate to say it, but I guess you could say I’m growing cynical. Yeah, don’t laugh.” She eyed him, but he showed no slip of a smile. “I know I’m one woman among billions, but in the end, all solutions come down to people playing their individual parts.”
“A little cynicism never hurt anyone. If you always expect the worst, you’ll generally be pleasantly surprised. That was how I approached my military career. The key is to not let cynicism take over to the point where it becomes self-fulfilling prophecies of pessimism.” Erik stared out the window for a moment, an annoyed look on his face. “The question is which should we apply to Jeanne Caron tomorrow?”
“Mild cynicism,” Jia suggested. “She’s stalling. I think that much is obvious. The question is, why? The more I think about it, the more confused I get. And that makes me worry. There’s something we’re missing, and I wish I could figure out what it is.”
Shattered Truth Page 21