by Kate MacLeod
The woman’s smile wavered. “We do the best we can to understand their requests,” she said diplomatically.
“You know they should be moved to a neutral territory,” the man said again.
“Stop it,” the woman snapped.
“What’s neutral territory?” Emilie asked. “I mean, I know what it means, but where would it be in this case?”
“That’s the trouble,” the woman said. Her look of concern was no more convincing than her smile. “The only neutral ship in the area would be the tribunal vessel, and that won’t do.”
“Why not?” Scout asked.
“Their ships are . . . unnerving,” the man said.
“They are unnerving,” Emilie said, looking up at the group of tribunal enforcers still looking at the floor. “Do they never speak? I mean out loud? That would drive me mad.”
“That wouldn’t be the first thing to drive you mad,” he said. The female lawyer rolled her eyes. Somehow, she managed to do it loudly. Or perhaps after observing the tribunal enforcers conversing, every gesture suddenly struck Scout as being loud.
“Many people travel on tribunal vessels without going insane,” she said patronizingly.
“Explain,” Emilie said, out of patience.
“The ships are invisible,” the woman said.
“Made of a sort of crystal,” the man corrected.
“Which is invisible,” she said.
“Pellucid.”
“I get it,” Emilie said. “You’re in a ship, but you can’t see the floor or the walls or the ceiling.”
“Nothing but stars,” the woman said.
“With the added thrill of seeing everyone else in the ship with you and everything they are doing at every moment. And they can see you.”
Scout and Emilie traded a glance and a shiver.
“So you can thank me for taking that off the table,” the woman said brightly. “And just to be clear, I represent the Months.”
“She didn’t take it off the table out of kindness to you,” the man said. “The Months had first access to you. They have an unfair advantage. I do hope you’ll take that into account when conducting your interviews.”
“Interviews,” Emilie repeated. “This is starting to sound a lot like homework.”
“They have Seeta,” Scout said, and Geeta finally came out of whatever mental place she had sunk down to and looked up at the lawyers.
“We’re working on that,” the man said. “Their doctor insists it isn’t safe to move her. Second opinions are going to be tough all the way out here, but we’re trying to get one. Clearly, the doctor is biased.”
“Because she’s a Tajaki?” the woman scoffed. “She’s as much related to your client as to mine.”
“Which is to say not at all,” the man agreed. “It’s a common enough name. But she’s a vested employee to your clients. That makes her partial.”
“You accuse her of putting her employers’ monetary interests ahead of her own patient’s health?”
“Please,” Emilie said, putting up both of her hands in surrender. “Clearly, the two of you can argue all day. But we’re anxious to get back to Seeta. May we go?”
“Of course,” the woman said, and this time her smile came scarily close to being genuine. “I do believe that beds have been put in that room for your use. I hope we didn’t assume too much, but it seemed like you would prefer to stay near her?”
“Yes, thank you,” Emilie said after a glance at Geeta showed she had lapsed back to quiet brooding.
“I know you’ve had a very long day,” Bo said, not taking a step closer to them but letting the acoustics of the hall carry his sonorous voice to them. “Rest. You’ve earned it. I will call on you in the morning.”
He bowed to the three of them semiformally, smirked at Mai watching from her chair, then turned and walked out of the room, his ménage of tribunal enforcers and lawyers falling in behind him.
15
Scout slept very little that night. Shadow, who always liked to sleep as close to Scout’s belly as possible, would not stop licking at the site where the doctor had injected the nanite. Every time Scout got him settled and just started to drift off herself, he would wake back up and get back at it. He was so persistent it started to annoy even Gert, who slept curled against the back of Scout’s knees. She popped her head over Scout’s thigh to make a protesting sound that Shadow just ignored.
Scout woke in the morning to the sound of someone opening the door and opened one eye to see an orderly pushing a hover cart into the room. On top of the cart were a couple of carafes with mugs lined up beside them and plates filled with fruit and pastries.
“Good morning,” the orderly said when she saw Scout watching her.
Emilie sat up on her cot, scratching at the chaotic mess that was her bed head. “Smells good,” Emilie said, sounding like she was still more than half asleep.
“This one is tea, and this is coffee,” the orderly said, pointing to the carafes. “And I also have something for the dogs.” She bent over to open a small cabinet on the side of the cart and take out two shiny bowls filled with meat and gravy.
The dogs immediately snapped awake, diving off the bed to get at the delicious-smelling food. Scout had to sit up in a hurry, pulling her arms out of the way before she got scratched up in the mad dash.
“I think you’re all set,” the orderly said. “Remember, if you need anything at all, just ask out loud. The room will hear you.”
She smiled and exited the room.
“Nothing creepy about that,” Emilie said, looking around the room as if she could see listening devices. The opaque walls that had darkened while they were sleeping were back up to full glow now that they were awake. Aside from the light from within, they were completely featureless.
“Geeta, how are you doing?” Scout asked.
Geeta looked up from her sister, her face drawn with weariness. She was still in the chair she had pulled close to the coffin the day before, the cot behind her neatly made. Scout doubted she had slept much, and what little she had slept she’d been slumped in that uncomfortable chair.
“There’s food here. You should eat something.”
“Maybe avoid the coffee though,” Emilie said, getting up to join Scout at perusing the contents of the cart. She leaned close to whisper to Scout, “If she doesn’t get some rest today, I’m going to talk to them about giving her something. She needs sleep.”
Scout nodded. Geeta wouldn’t do any of them any good pushing herself so hard, least of all her sister.
Scout had just settled down in a chair with a plate of toast and fruit, a cup of rich-smelling coffee in her hand, when the door chimed.
“Are we supposed to give permission or something?” she asked, looking up from the cup she had been about to sip from.
“The hospital employees come and go as they like. It must be someone else,” Emilie said. She stuffed the last half of her croissant in her mouth, then, voice muffled by the food, said, “Come in.”
The door slid open, and Bo Tajaki swept into the room. He was in all black that morning, although the black of his tunic had the same tracing of pattern in black thread as his ivory tunic had had the night before. He smiled at them each in turn, then looked down at the food-laden cart and did that little nose-wrinkle thing he did, like none of it was to his taste.
Then he saw the dogs licking the last of the gravy from their bowls and dropped to a low squat, holding out his hands for the dogs to smell before carefully petting them around their ears.
“You like dogs?” Scout asked. Her voice had an aggressive edge she hadn’t quite meant, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“I’ve known a few in my day,” Bo said, moving from Shadow to Gert at her frantically pawing insistence. “I love all animals. These last six years in space surrounded only by humans have been a bit of a trial for me.”
Emilie just choked back a snort, turning to help herself to another croissant as Bo looked up at her
quizzically.
He had that same ageless look as the Tajaki sisters, but Scout would guess they were about the same age, somewhere in their early twenties. Scout wondered if being part of a trade dynasty came with extra responsibilities, making one look older than one’s years, or if the opposite were true and money shielded them from the need to take on any responsibility at all.
“I’ve come to invite you to tour my ship if you like,” Bo said. He stood back up despite the dogs’ objections at the sudden loss of his attention, although he couldn’t help smiling back down at them again.
“I’m not leaving my sister,” Geeta said.
“At least eat something,” Emilie said, pushing the plate she had already loaded up and brought to Geeta just a little bit closer.
“I completely understand,” Bo said. “You do realize we can care for your sister on my ship just as well as she is being cared for here.”
“If there’s any risk at all, however small, I won’t move her,” Geeta said.
“I won’t press you,” Bo said. “I do hope you will talk with me though. I only ask for a fair hearing.”
“Fair hearing,” Scout scoffed. “There is nothing you can say that will explain away the assassins you’ve got roaming the surface of Amatheon and up in space.”
“Assassins?” Bo said. He sounded genuinely surprised, but Scout was having none of it.
“Assassins,” she said again. “Twelve-year-old kids with body mods and an array of poisons.”
“And a woman with even more mods and a penchant for poison darts,” Geeta said with deep loathing.
“I honestly don’t know what you are referring to,” Bo said.
“They aren’t here with the Months. They must work for you,” Scout said.
“I assure you there are no assassins in my employ,” he said. “If you would come over to my ship, you can search it from top to bottom to satisfy yourself on that score.”
“Just jump right into your trap,” Scout said.
“You know the tribunal enforcers will not allow any of you to be harmed,” Bo said. “I would give you my word I know nothing of these assassins, but I don’t think you would consider that compelling.”
“You said you wanted a fair hearing, but I don’t know what could possibly be fair about it,” Emilie said. “We have no way of verifying the truth of what either you or the Months tell us. I hardly want to spend three days deciding which of you spins the prettier lies.”
“I don’t want you to make any decisions flawed by ignorance either,” Bo said, walking back to the door. He poked his head out into the hall where a cluster of shadows could just be discerned through the opaque walls. Then he came back inside with a small black box in his hands. It was shiny in the bright hospital lights but otherwise quite featureless.
Like most of the marshal equipment on the belt Scout wore.
“Here,” Bo said, placing it into Emilie’s hands. It felt like a practiced gesture, as if he had done similar exchanges with dignitaries or heads of other dynasties or something. Like it was part of a show, but no one was there to see it save the three of them and two dogs.
“What’s this?” Emilie asked, turning it over in her hands.
“Try it with your glasses,” he suggested.
Emilie looked at him, then picked up the glasses she had left folded on the little shelf under her cot before going to bed the night before.
The moment she had them on, her face lit up in glee.
“What is it?” Scout asked.
“It’s an access node,” Bo said when Emilie failed to answer, too caught up in all that she was seeing and navigating through with little twitches of her hands over the box. “It gives her full access to all of the galactic central archives in my ship’s library. I thought I would have to explain to her how to work it, but I guess she’s a quick learner.”
“And self-learner,” Emilie said, her eyes darting rapidly back and forth as she scanned. “This is far beyond what I could ever find on Amatheon Orbiter 1.”
“It would be,” Bo said mildly. “That ship left galactic central centuries ago. This connects to my library, which is current as of this morning and will be refreshed every morning. Not that I think you’ll want to catch up on galactic central news, but you can if you wish. You also have access to the official versions of my family’s history, every law book ever written—anything you could possibly need to verify anything I tell you.”
Emilie lifted her glasses to give him her complete attention. “It’s plausible you could doctor this to match whatever you say,” she said.
“Indeed,” Bo agreed. “I recommend asking the Months for access to their ship’s libraries to compare. That also gives you access to anyone on the network in the entire galaxy, if you want to find a legal expert to advise you.”
Emilie took a long moment to think that over. “We’ll see what I can find,” she said at last, dropping the glasses back over her eyes and getting back to her frantic search.
“She’s shockingly easy to win over,” Geeta said.
“Oh, I don’t think she’s won just yet,” Bo said. “Three days is such a short time to cover so much territory. Really, I should fire my lawyers and get some better ones.”
Scout suspected he was joking, he spoke so offhandedly. And yet wouldn’t someone for whom such things were a matter of course speak the same way?
“I don’t think I can offer you anything if you won’t let me care for your sister,” Bo said regretfully. “Can I send my own hospital chief here to evaluate your sister and Dr. Tajaki’s claims?”
“You can,” Geeta said. “I don’t think it will change my answer.”
“Still, you should have a second opinion.”
“A second biased opinion,” Geeta said.
Bo picked up the plate of food on the chair next to hers to sit down beside her. Then he held out the plate to her.
“If you’re going to be your sister’s advocate, you have to take care of yourself,” he said. “That means adequate food and rest and at least one break a day to get away from this room.” He moved the plate a little closer, and she gave in, taking a slice of some rich red fruit Scout had never seen before.
“Do you want some of this tea, Geeta?” Scout offered.
Geeta, still chewing, gave a weary nod.
“I’m not sure who came up with this meal plan,” Bo said, looking over the plate of food. “You really should have some protein here.”
Geeta held his eyes for a long moment, not even glancing at Scout when she handed her the steaming mug of tea. Then she took a wedge of toast off the plate and took a bite before saying, “Room, can you bring us some protein?”
“On the way,” said a disembodied voice from above.
Bo gave Geeta a pleased smile. He continued to offer her bits of food until the orderly returned with a covered plate in her hands. She removed the dome and presented the plate to Geeta. There was an array of meats, from bacon to slices of turkey breast, but she reached for the bowl of lentils in the center of the plate. The orderly smiled and handed her a spoon.
“Any for you?” she asked, offering the same plate to Scout. Scout took a single slice of bacon and immediately had the full attention of her dogs focused back on herself. “I’ll just leave it here in case you want more later,” the orderly said, making room on the cart. She picked up the dogs’ bowls and set them back inside the cart’s cabinet, then set down a larger bowl filled with water, clucking her tongue as if chiding herself for forgetting it before.
Then the three of them were alone again with Bo.
Bo seemed engrossed in watching Geeta eat. “You look quite strong for your size,” he said.
“I do okay,” Geeta said between bites.
“You worked security back on colony ship Tajaki 47, didn’t you? I’m sorry, I meant Amatheon Orbiter 1.”
“Yes,” Geeta said. “I was an ensign.”
“Did you like that work?”
Geeta shrugged.
/> “You know, once this court case is settled, you will all be properly back in the fold of the Tajaki trading dynasty. You won’t be out here all on your own anymore. Your job prospects won’t be confined to what one space station orbiting a developmentally delayed planet can offer you. You’ll have an entire galaxy full of possibilities open to you.”
Geeta swallowed a mouthful of lentils and took a sip of tea. “That’s true no matter which side of your family wins this little battle.”
“Well, yes and no,” Bo said. “I want to develop this place, to see it reach the potential it’s capable of with just a little support. You would be amazed at what I can accomplish in a single decade. Actually, you can see it for yourself if Emilie finds the details for you. I like improving people’s lives. The more I can improve with a single action the better.”
“But the Months are, what, evil?” Geeta asked.
“I was going to say self-serving,” Bo said. “Again, the news stories are all there in the library. When they acquire planetary rights, they like to strip the planet of everything of value as quickly as possible. It’s devastating for environments. It’s murder on the people.”
“I’ll have her check,” Geeta said. “In both libraries.”
“Do that,” Bo said, then stood up and set the plate back on the chair. “I’ll leave you now to care for your sister. Please be sure to get a little sleep. A short nap will do you wonders. And if you have trouble getting to sleep, just ask the room for help.”
Geeta made a noncommittal sound that Bo seemed to take for agreement. He gave her a bow of farewell that she answered with a dismissive wave. He bowed again to Emilie, who noticed him not at all.
Scout watched him head towards the door without a glance at her and felt her cheeks burning. It was like that first call from the Months all over again, like she wasn’t even there. Shouldn’t she be as much a Tajaki employee in their eyes as Geeta and Emilie? Or did they consider her a mutineer like the Space Farers did just because she was from the surface?
But Bo paused in the doorway to look back at her. “Scout, won’t you come with me?”