The Blockade

by Jean Johnson

  Jackie nodded. “But let’s check in with the Tier Advocates directly, via hyperrelay, as well as with my people, the V’Dan military, the Empress, and I don’t know who else at this point. We can use Captain Charboli’s ship to relay since he’s still up in orbit, yes?”

  “Ready and waiting, Ambassador,” the captain confirmed.

  “Then that’s good news. Let’s tidy up so we can get going,” A’sha agreed, moving to help Nakko with the rubbish of their meal. She paused after a moment, though, craning her neck to look up at Jackie. “You know . . . you’re handling all of this rather calmly, Meioa Ambassador. A sudden translocation of light-years within an instant would probably find me feeling more than a bit hysterical. Add on top of that all of us nearly dying multiple times on our way down here . . . you are remarkably calm, given all of that.”

  “I’m not too surprised. Terran soldiers are trained to think through and past our emotions,” Paroquet told her, gathering up his share of the empty containers and stacking them together.

  “So are V’Dan soldiers,” A’sha replied dryly, arching her brow. “Do you doubt it? But even the best of training can be forgotten in the face of an unbelievable shock.”

  “We do believe your people have the same training. But for one, I already knew such a thing was possible, if not necessarily over that distance. For another, I’m also exhausted, too tired to react strongly to anything right now,” Jackie confessed wryly. “If I stop to think about it, yes, I start to feel extremely weird about it. But as there is literally nothing I can do to change the situation, nothing anyone can do to put things back as they were . . . and several reasons to let things stay as they now are . . .

  “Well, the best thing I can do is breathe deeply, let go my unnerved feelings, and just accept that this is my current reality. It is unnerving, yes, but I am here, and I have to deal with what is, not what I want to be.” She looked at Li’eth. “On the bright side . . . I’m no longer feeling like half of my whole universe was ripped from my side.”

  “That’s . . . actually a little bit romantic,” Paroquet offered, tipping his head.

  “It’s actually a pain in the spine, not nearly so romantic,” Li’eth replied tartly. He handed over his eating utensils to be tucked into the shuttle’s self-cleaning storage compartment.

  “Okay, that is un-romantic. What do you see in this v’kon-shin?” Nakko asked Jackie.

  “Uhh . . . I’m not familiar with that word,” she hedged. Tired as she was, Jackie could not dredge it up out of her vocabulary

  “It’s a slang for . . . ah, the closest Terranglo epithet would be ‘bastard,’ even though it technically means something entirely different,” her Gestalt partner explained. “And we both acknowledged long ago that our Gestalt is more problematical than helpful, given our respective political positions.”

  “Suffers to be you, then,” Nakko muttered. “No offense intended, just sympathy.”

  “None taken,” Li’eth replied. “Let’s finish getting this shuttle prepped for lockdown, so we can take you with us.”

  After reassuring the Premiere back on Earth that she was alive and well, if several light-years away from where she was supposed to be, Jackie managed a vidcall to the Winter Palace on V’Dan. During that call, the Empress was visibly relieved that Jacaranda was alright. And grateful that her son was safe and sound. Hana’ka confirmed that her daughter’s orders regarding Imperial Prince Kah’raman were now officially and fully revoked but agreed grimly that it was up to the Tier Advocates as to what happened next with her thirdborn child.

  Hana’ka did, however, expedite the matter by arranging on her end for the Advocates to be gathered as quickly as possible for a group conference. It took over half an hour to be contacted by them, but they did eventually call. While they waited, the Terrans of the Embassy 14 entertained the two V’Dan officers by giving them a tour of their shuttlecraft. They had to be quiet in the crew cabin because the off-shift pilot and gunner were sleeping on narrow air mattresses on the floor, but Jackie and Li’eth could hear them exchanging questions and answers in low murmurs while moving from cabin to cabin beyond the open cockpit door.

  (Getting tired,) Li’eth warned her while they waited. He rubbed at his eyes, and stifled a yawn. (I could sleep for two days, I think. Maybe five.)

  (We’re just one jump out from V’Dan,) she pointed out, stifling one of her own. (Two extra seconds won’t exceed the safety limits on a single hop.)

  (I think . . .) Light flickered on the console in front of her; Li’eth blinked at it, losing his train of thought. Jackie looked as well.

  Jackie tapped a few commands on the console, then slid out of her seat, allowing Li’eth to take her place. Leaning over, she tapped a couple more controls. A composite image appeared on the screen. Split vertically in thirds, with the outer thirds split in half again horizontally, each section showed a V’Dan Tier Advocate member.

  Two men and three women, all of them visibly middle-aged or older. The youngest, a brown-skinned male with sapphire-blue lightning stripes similar to the forked lines squiggled across Li’eth’s skin, looked to be maybe in his midforties at most. The eldest, a gray-haired grandmother with large cyan blotches on golden skin, sort of like a colorful cowhide effect in Jackie’s eyes. She had to be in her seventies or eighties, if not older, if her many wrinkles were any indication.

  The elderly woman was the figure in the center screen. Seniority among the Tier Advocates was not based upon the Tier rank but upon sheer seniority, and this woman had quite a bit of clout. Li’eth greeted her politely. “Third Tier Advocate Che’en Shu-Plik. Thank you for the honor of answering my call.”

  “Imperial Prince Kah’raman Li’eth Tal’u-ruq Ma’an-uq’en Q’uru-hash V’Daania,” she replied, her voice quavering a little with age though her expression was rock-steady sober.

  (She just used your full name,) Jackie observed silently. (That’s a bad sign in most Terran cultures. I take it you’re in deep trouble in V’Dan culture, too?)

  (Probably.)

  “You claim to have placed yourself under our authority,” the Tier Advocate stated flatly. Her companions looked equally sober; the woman with the dark brown skin and short, light gray stripes in the upper-right corner even frowned a little though she stayed silent, letting the eldest speak for all of them.

  “Yes, meioa. Imperial Princess Regent Vi’alla acted against the best interests of the V’Dan Empire and interfered with the will of the Saints,” Li’eth stated. “She ordered the Imperial Elite Guard to stun me unconscious and drag me out of the home system for no reason other than she did not believe that Grand High Ambassador Jacaranda MacKenzie and I are true holy partners. She did so after refusing to acknowledge the sovereign and separate rights of the Terran nation. She chose to insult the customs, expectations, and courtesies of our prophesied potential allies, causing them to close their embassy and withdraw their support and assistance in our war against the Salik rather than remain and continue to be insulted, dismissed, and bullied by our people under the then-current policies of the Empire.

  “The Imperial Princess Regent’s orders were to keep me sedated while I was removed far away, causing Imperial officers to bring harm to a member of the Imperial Tier from the initial stunning, and harm again from the separation from my holy partner. All out of nothing more than pride and in ways that caused grave harm to our good relations with the Terran Empire. I place myself under the authority of the Tier Advocates in the name of what is good for the Empire,” he stressed. “Separating me from my bonded partner, their chief ambassador, is not good. Denying the Terrans their right to be treated with respect is not good. Refusing to heed the needs of all of our people by clinging to her rank and her pride is not good for the Empire.

  “Empress Hana’ka has since resumed command of the Empire and revoked all of the Imperial Princess Regent’s orders regarding not only the Terrans
but me as well,” Li’eth continued. “She did so by citing that they are not what is best for the Empire at this time, and she is right. I should therefore be released from Advocate jurisdiction to resume my Empress-appointed duties as liaison to the Terrans. Which is good for the Empire.”

  The gray-striped woman spoke, her words crisp and carefully measured. “Imperial Prince, you placed yourself under the jurisdiction of the Tier Advocates in the name of what is good for the Empire. Explain how not being a provably competent starship captain is good for the Empire.”

  It was a fair question. “When the Grand High Ambassador was attacked by those robots,” Li’eth stated, “I was within the Imperial Wing, exercising. Sensing her in mortal peril, I somehow transported instantaneously to her exact location in the Guard Hall outside the North Embassy Wing. Palace security footage confirms this instantaneous transfer, which took place over a laser-line distance of approximately 635 mitas.”

  He had looked up the distance while Jackie had been recovering from her wounds. The Tier Advocates frowned a little, two of them looking skeptical, but nodded to let him continue.

  “Just a couple hours ago, sensing that I was in mortal peril here in the Ton-Bei System, the Grand High Ambassador transported instantaneously over a distance of roughly sixteen li-yet to my location. This, too, is confirmable as fact, as she vanished from a live broadcast and reappeared on board the shuttle carrying me,” he stated. “I have two Imperial officers as witnesses, the shuttle’s internal recordings, and the timing of her broadcasts shortly thereafter to her own people to have them contact the Terrans on V’Dan as confirmation of this event. Additionally, the Ton-Bei System buoys will confirm there were no incoming or outgoing Terran vessels anywhere near the shuttlecraft carrying me at the time. These things verifiably happened.”

  “What is the point of mentioning them?” the elder of the two gentleman stated. His tight, dark curls were salted with both gray and peach, matching the peach rosettes dotting his brown face.

  “My point, Advocates, is that no matter what others may wish, the Saints have ordered the universe so that we will be together in times of peril. Since the process seems to exhaust our holy abilities, it makes more sense for the two of us to stay together so as to preserve our abilities for more important matters . . . and as she is the Grand High Ambassador of a separate nation, it is not appropriate to expect her to serve in the Imperial Army at my side.

  “There are many other officers throughout the Empire who are competent enough to lead a ship. There are only a few citizens who have the social status, grasp of politics, and military competency to serve as a liaison to the Terrans. There is only one, myself, who can communicate in full thoughts as well as mere words, allowing far greater understandings to be exchanged and avoiding a large number of mistranslated misunderstandings. It therefore makes sense in multiple ways for me to be at her side, both for the advantages brought and the disadvantages avoided.”

  Their gazes shifted slightly, each Tier Advocate looking at one of the others on their own screens. Finally, the eldest, Chu-Plik, spoke. “We are pleased that we have seen similar points. However . . . we do not wish to release you back into the Imperial Tier at this time.”

  That took Li’eth aback. He blinked twice. “You do not? What reason or purpose do you have?”

  Her gaze did not waver. “We would like to appoint you as a subadvocate of the Tier Advocate Council . . . to the Terrans.”

  (U’V’Shakk!)

  Jackie, standing in the aisle between seats, jumped a little at that mental yelp. She stared at Li’eth, whose eyes had widened so much, she could see the whites of the sclera all the way around his burgundy-and-gray irises. (What’s wrong? Li’eth?)

  The Tier Advocates did not seem upset or curious at his reaction; they merely waited patiently for a reply. Li’eth knew that they knew what they were asking, that they had considered the ramifications in advance. Jackie could tell the five people on the screen were far too politically canny not to have considered all the ramifications in advance. No doubt that was the true cause of the half hour it had taken to go from being contacted by the Empress’ staff with his whereabouts and claim to actually reaching out to him, time needed to hash out What To Do, and Why.

  Whatever those ramifications were, Jackie didn’t know. But Li’eth did, and it shocked him to the core. (I . . . The Advocates . . . They are . . . They’re kicking the Prime Root!)

  (They’re . . . what?) His subthoughts seemed to be some sort of sports analogy, one Jackie didn’t grasp.

  (They’re cheating politically,) Li’eth managed to explain, lifting a hand to scrape his hair back from his face. The physical sensations grounded him a little. (Kicking the Prime Root directly in a guanjiball game to make it chime, instead of letting the goraball strike the root post—they’re not supposed to grasp for political power with outsiders! It’s not illegal,) he added quickly as she started to frown, offended. His subthoughts carried the information that kicking the Prime Root in an actual guanjiball game was against the rules, but this technically was not. (They do have this right . . . but this . . . The Empress must respond to this.)

  “Have you nothing to say, Your Highness?” the eldest Advocate finally asked, raising a brow in a skeptical movement shared not only by the Terrans and the V’Dan, but by the Solaricans as well. Even the Gatsugi used it occasionally when talking with those groups though their eyebrow analogs weren’t quite as flexible.

  “Ah . . . What you want requires careful thought,” Li’eth managed to reply, mind still racing. “Would it be permissible for me to discuss this with the Empress before such an advocacy appointment is formally settled on me?”

  Chu-Plik smiled slowly. “We have anticipated this request. Please do speak with her. Report back to us immediately. Be well, Highness.”

  The Advocates vanished from the viewscreen. Li’eth sat there a few moments, just trying to absorb the political implications. He reached for Jackie, appreciating her confused patience but needing her to understand. This was going to affect her government, after all, not just his own. Her people swore daily oaths in their government offices to always consider the needs of those their own people interacted with, after all.

  (The Tier Advocates are . . . are trying to go around the authority of the Eternal Throne to negotiate with outworlders. They do have authority to . . . to liaise with non-V’Dan,) he added. (Tier Advocates are the grease that keeps clashing cultures from grinding down and locking up the machinery of our interactions with the rest of the Alliance. Particularly in how our various Tiers are treated by outsiders.)

  (But . . . ?) Jackie prompted.

  (But she specifically said advocate, not liaison. A liaison facilitates, explains, smooths things over. They are fluid in that liaisons can represent both sides to each other in the attempt to translate intentions and meanings, but their words are not the final word in any matter,) he explained. (An advocate, on the other hand, represents. They are not fluid, they cannot bend to carry out the wishes of the other side without strenuous negotiations, they cannot . . .

  (No, they are nothing like your Advisor’s Council,) he corrected her straying underthoughts. (They don’t act as go-betweens, cushioning your civil servants from special interest groups attempting to lobby or bribe their way toward favorable changes to laws and rulings. They’re more like the representatives of the special interest groups themselves, save that this is a political/governmental thing.)

  (How does that differ from diplomatic envoys?) Jackie asked. She corrected herself a moment later from his underthoughts. (Ah, they represent specific points delegated to them by their superiors, and cannot stray outside those boundaries into vastly different or even just more generalized requests.)

  (Exactly. And that’s the danger inherent in this request,) Li’eth told her. (They want me to go to my mother and say that the Tier Advocates, who advocate for each Tier they rep
resent—the population they represent—these Tier Advocates want me to represent them to your people. Not to represent the V’Dan government, which she represents, but the people of the Empire.)

  Jackie, knowing he was leading up to that, still sucked in a sharp breath anyway the moment he clearly thought out his explanation. (That’s . . . yeah. That’s a damning political move. But they are giving her a chance to save face, aren’t they? By letting you “discuss” their intentions before actually implementing them?)

  (Yes, by the Saints’ grace. They’re giving her a chance to salvage the whole situation, yes,) he agreed. (If she can. Either she represents the will of the people, not just the will of the government, or they shall do it. Instead of her. And Jackie, they have that legal power,) he warned her. (They can, at the behest of the people or on behalf of the people, make alternative arrangements with other governments. They rarely do it, but they do hold that kind of political power, to check and halt uncaring ambitions in the highest Tier of the realm.)

  (In Terran sports, this would be called an end run, I think,) she agreed. (Running around the opposition through their own territory in order to get on a clearer path to their goal, or something like that.)

  (That . . . is actually a closer analogy than kicking the Prime Root,) he agreed, sampling her subthoughts. More and more as they interacted telepathically, it was getting easier to share such things. He started to say more, but a yawn cracked his jaw. Smothering it behind his palm, he shook his head—as much to clear out the reflected undercurrents of her own triggered yawn as to remove the dust of sleep settling over his mind. (I will contact her now, while I still can. Help me stay awake a little bit longer?)

  (I’ll try. Thank goodness Mamani’s setting up some air mattresses and bedding in the lab compartment for us, so we can sleep undisturbed. Which we can do as soon as you let everyone know what’s going on,) she said.