“Erik, Major Thakur,” she said once she’d exchanged smiles and handclasps with all the other marines. “I’d like to introduce you to a couple of good friends of mine — these are Timoshene, and Semaya.” She indicated the two parren who had come up the ramp with her. Timoshene was Domesh, tall, lean and better dressed for a hot day then the rest of them. Semaya was obviously female, though Erik had seen few enough of those. She wore a green-patterned tunic, loose pants and sandals, with a light, circular cap on her smooth, hairless head. “Timoshene was my personal guard in the Kunadeen, and Semaya was a member of the Togreth… the Togreth are…”
“Yes, we just met the Togreth,” said Erik. “They tried to arrange a duel.”
“Yes, we heard,” said Lisbeth, her expression suddenly earnest and sombre. “Erik, Timoshene and Semaya saved my life, they revealed their true loyalties when Aristan moved on Gesul and tried to kill me too. They killed my attackers and helped me escape.”
It had been that close, then. Erik stepped past Lisbeth, and extended a hand to Timoshene first. “I thank you. On the behalf of the whole UFS Phoenix.” Timoshene took the hand, cautiously. Then Semaya, with more grace.
“We serve Gesul, in truth,” Semaya explained through the translator. “Gesul has taken Lisbeth Debogande into his protection. We did as honour dictated.” Aristan had insisted that ‘honour’ was a word shared by humans and parren. Erik was beginning to suspect, however, that it meant vastly different things for each.
“Look, let’s sit,” said Lisbeth, and knelt upon the hard floor. Some marines fetched spare jumpsuits from a locker to fold and use as cushions. “I’m actually kind of used to it… oh, thanks Staff Sergeant,” as Giddy Kono handed her a jumpsuit, and Lisbeth placed it folded under her knees. Erik and Trace copied her, and Semaya did the same. Timoshene, however, remained standing, watching all cautiously. “Don’t mind him,” said Lisbeth. “He’s just protective.”
“Lis, what’s with all the flyers and shuttles?” Erik asked. “It looks like war’s about to break out.”
“Well I hope not,” said Lisbeth, without conviction. Erik didn’t find it reassuring. “Look… I’m with Gesul. It’s important that it stays that way, for now.” Her eyes searched Erik’s, looking for confirmation. “He says he values my counsel. I know things about humans, and about hacksaws. Both seem relevant at the moment.”
She waited for Erik’s agreement. “Go on,” Erik said instead. Being good at charm and persuasion himself, he’d never considered himself easily manipulated. But if one person ever could, it was Lisbeth.
Lisbeth took a deep breath. “Okay. Elsium’s government runs the whole sector.” She pointed up the vast flight of steps beyond the shuttle’s cockpit, toward the parliament building. “It’s House Harmony, like Tobenrah and Aristan. They were supposed to protect Brehn System, but they failed. I mean, obviously.” She glanced at Semaya. Semaya looked grim. Erik supposed that the deaths of more than forty thousand innocent parren civilians might have that affect on even the most impassive of these people. “Being an autocratic government like all parren governments, they can try and hush it up if they want to. Elsium administration want to. But Tobenrah won’t let them.
“The autonomy of the sector governments is important to parren. In House Harmony, the Togreth enforce those rules, and the division of powers. But Tobenrah has not just House Harmony space to worry about, it’s his responsibility to protect all parren space. If he fails that, all parren turn on him — all the other four houses. So he’s trying to tell the truth, but the local government aren’t happy with that…”
“How many ships does Tobenrah have?” Erik cut in. It didn’t take an expert on parren to see where this was going. Suddenly the reason for all the high tension and military overflights seemed clear, and it wasn’t just the presence of the UFS Phoenix, or the human assault shuttle landed on the steps of parliament.
“Not enough,” Lisbeth said worriedly. “For the Elsium government, admitting what happened in Brehn System will be the end of them. What you saw out there on the steps… we were all watching until the drones fell, and…”
“That guy who crashed the drones and was murdered,” said Trace. “He was a local government plant?”
Lisbeth nodded. “Yes. They don’t want anyone talking about Brehn System or deepynines. They’d rather pretend it didn’t happen.”
“Well they’re going to find out,” Erik said grimly. “Because I won’t be the slightest bit surprised if the deepynines follow us. They only backed off because they were massively outnumbered. When more of their ships arrive, they may come.”
“There are more than twenty House Harmony warships in this system,” Semaya said disbelievingly. “Our reports are that there were three alien ships in Brehn System, at the very most.”
“If they double that number,” Erik retorted, “they could take your twenty and more.” Semaya looked as though she didn’t know whether to believe him.
“Erik, we’ve got more immediate problems than deepynines,” Lisbeth insisted. “Tobenrah and Gesul suspect that Aristan is moving to support the local government, against Tobenrah.”
Erik stared. “To what extent? Militarily?”
Lisbeth shrugged helplessly. “We don’t know. If Aristan’s ships, and the local government’s, all join forces against Tobenrah and Gesul, then we’re outnumbered… what is it Semaya? Twenty-five to six?” Semaya still looked reluctant. “Semaya, you have to trust him. He’s the least of your problems, and he could help.”
“Twenty-five to six,” Semaya agreed, reluctantly. That made thirty-one — considerably more than what Semaya had initially said. “Seven, if Phoenix joins us.”
Ah, thought Erik. Now we come to it. His mind raced. “Okay, first thing,” he said. “Let’s clear this up. Gesul is working with Tobenrah?”
“Yes,” said Lisbeth. “Tobenrah would rather see Gesul as the head of the Domesh, obviously. Gesul has no interest in taking power for the Domesh. He believes that the division of parren among different houses and denominations is the natural state of things. He says there’s always been parren like Aristan, thinking that one faction should rule over all the others. It causes disaster, and Gesul wants no part of it.”
“Gesul wishes to see your drysine queen,” Semaya added. Cautiously, as though still uncertain if she were making a fool of herself by asking. “He believes that Aristan has misled the Domesh with tales of their history. If he could learn the true history of the parren, and the Domesh, things would be clearer.”
Erik doubted Styx had any more interest in truthful history than Aristan did, but saying so would not help them here. “I’m certain that Styx would be very pleased to meet with Gesul,” he lied. “It can be arranged.”
Semaya inclined her head. “Gesul will be pleased to hear it.”
“So what does Tobenrah plan to do?” Erik pressed. Lisbeth and Semaya exchanged glances. The parren made a small gesture toward Lisbeth, and Lisbeth made one of her own, perhaps expressing… gratitude? So well did his little sister understand these strange people, Erik saw with amazement.
“He has sent for reinforcements,” said Lisbeth. “Unfortunately, that puts us another ship down… but in the circumstances, reinforcements are the only chance. If Aristan and the Elsium administration join forces together against Tobenrah, and Tobenrah falls…”
“Then Aristan becomes the head of House Harmony,” Erik said grimly. And just like that, every parren’s worst nightmare, and that of many parren neighbours, would come to pass.
“Exactly,” said Lisbeth. “Aristan does not care about deepynines, he wants only power.”
“Well deepynines care about him,” Erik said with disgust. “And not in any way he’ll enjoy, if he deprives them of what they want. I think Tobenrah’s smartest move would be to abandon this system, and move to somewhere he’s stronger.”
“His Fleet advisors agree, but politically he can’t. The heads of the big houses must stand before foreign threa
ts. To flee would make him look like a coward, and a traitor to all parren. All House Harmony would suffer humiliation. Blaming the Elsium administration won’t help because they’re House Harmony too, which only makes Harmony look worse. He’s trapped.”
“Look, we can hold Aristan,” Trace said with calm deliberation, a finger point-down on the deck for emphasis. “He has to move before Tobenrah’s reinforcements arrive. But he wants the data-core, and we’ve got it. He does not want us destroyed… or at least, not until he has his prize. If we delay him that, he will not strike.”
“Unless he decides he’d rather see everything we have destroyed instead of letting it fall into Tobenrah’s hands,” Erik reminded her of her earlier warning.
“Well I’m pretty sure he’s not just going to let you sit on the steps of Parliament indefinitely,” said Lisbeth. “I was assured by Gesul’s military commanders that there are ways of removing this shuttle without you being able to get a shot off first.” She looked questioningly at Erik. Erik remained noncommittal, with the parren watching. But Lisbeth knew him well enough to see his lack of argument. “The reason Aristan or the Elsium Administration don’t do it is because it would look bad. Phoenix has gained some fame in the Spiral, which parren normally wouldn’t care about if it doesn’t happen in parren space… but now you’ve given Aristan a humiliation, and he’s even admitted so by challenging you to a catharan. Which you threw back in his face, quite spectacularly.” She glanced over her shoulder, as though trying to catch Timoshene’s eye, but he was too far back. “Some of us were quite impressed. So you have their attention now, you’ve made a statement of power and prowess, and it demands a similar display in full view of cameras. Simply dropping a missile on you from altitude would be a very poor show, they’d all be humiliated for not matching the spirit of the challenge.”
“Then the next move is his,” said Erik. “We’ve got days to wait until reinforcements arrive, maybe weeks, and we’ve got plenty of food and water. We declare we will fight with Tobenrah and Gesul, and we ensure Aristan can’t move against you, because he can’t see us destroyed as well. But we will require terms from Tobenrah.”
Semaya inclined her head, as though having expected nothing else. “What terms?”
Erik thought about it. Safe passage from parren space, was his first answer… but that seemed an option woefully short of the opportunity being offered here. An alliance, with the head of one of the five great parren houses. And possibly sealed in blood, if the worst came to the worst… in which case none of them might survive it, but it was the best chance they’d had in as far as he could remember.
“Alliance,” he said. “Against the deepynines, and their alo allies.” Semaya gazed at him, indigo eyes unreadable. “You have seen the threat they pose. Parren have died in their thousands. All parren are at risk. UFS Phoenix can prepare all parren to meet this threat. And we can assist Tobenrah to make House Harmony the great protectors of all the parren people. The other four houses will be envious.”
Lisbeth’s eyes flashed at him, somewhere between a faintly impressed smile, and a warning of going too far. Semaya merely inclined her head. “We shall convey your offer. Should these terms be granted, Phoenix will fight with Tobenrah and Gesul?”
“We will,” said Erik. And he refrained from swearing on his honour, given his difficulties with that word, among parren.
Semaya rose, and Lisbeth followed. “We will convey this offer to Tobenrah and Gesul.”
Erik realised that no sooner had he said hello to Lisbeth, he had to say goodbye once more. But she had an authority now, among these people, and he could not spoil that by hugging her once more. It was becoming abundantly clear that parren didn’t do that… at least, not at these high levels of power. Lisbeth smiled at him, eyes shining. Erik nodded back… and realised how proud he was. In truth, he didn’t know if he could have done what she’d done, having turned a position of such powerlessness, into this. Advisor to one of the most powerful rulers in all parren space. He was certain that pride showed in his eyes.
As they turned to leave, Timoshene paused to confront Trace, a dark-robed sentinel, and a full head taller than her. “This thing,” he said, via the translator. “Before your shuttle. This move. An extraordinary judgement of balance. It was seen by many. Some will not be impressed, but many were. You have my appreciation.”
Trace inclined her head, serenely. And looked askance at Lisbeth as she intervened to explain. “We were all watching when you shot their challenger,” she said. “They were astonished… parren couldn’t do it, you see. Parren have to worry about proper form, because these are contests of appearance more than results. A parren leader has to worry about losing newly-phased supporters to his opponents if he behaves badly. But you don’t have to worry about that, because you’re human, so you play by different rules. And Aristan’s people couldn’t wrap their heads around it until you did it… and then, there was nothing they could do. If they try to shoot you, PH-1 annihilates them, and if they kill the Captain in a firefight, you fire a nuke that destroys Parliament.”
“Maybe this is why parren would rather remain alone,” Erik observed. “A rules-based society only works when everyone observes the rules. Aliens screw everything up.”
Lisbeth leaned forward conspiratorially, a hand on Trace’s armoured shoulder. “Gesul laughed for a minute straight, when they left,” she whispered. “I mean, parren don’t laugh! Or not much, anyway. The funny thing is, breaching the rules is supposed to lose you followers, you’re not parren so you have no followers to lose… so the joke’s on Aristan! And you actually gained in their eyes, Major. Gesul said it was the most well-played he’s seen a catharan in ages.”
It wasn’t just in confidence and dress that Lisbeth had changed, Erik thought. Not long ago, the sight of a man shot in cold blood would have horrified her, alien or otherwise. Now, she found the amusement of the culture that had caused it.
22
Lisbeth stared out the window of the cruiser, at the red-tiled rooves of Chirese, and the straight, gridwork streets, baking in the hot sun. Chirese was a mostly administrative city, and traffic was light, particularly in the daytime. In the cool of evening the markets would open, where most parren still preferred to shop the old-fashioned way, in communal gatherings of sights, sounds and smells, unchanged since well before spacetravel. Lisbeth pondered how tavalai worshipped everything old, yet lived utterly modern lives, recalling their past only in symbolic reference… while parren continued many customs unchanged since ancient times. Chah’nas had little interest in their past, yet still retained some old customs, in modified forms. Humans were the only truly ‘new’ species in the Spiral. The only species unburdened by the long, continuing strands of historical memory… and yet, forever scarred by their loss.
The cruiser came lower as it approached the capitol palace, and Lisbeth saw armoured vehicles and parren soldiers on guard at the gates. Military weapons, with the firepower to wage wars rather than settle political grudges. Traffic passed in the street, but the cruiser was passing too fast for Lisbeth to see how the parren locals were taking that military presence. Surely everyone had heard of events in the Kunadeen. Lisbeth knew a lot more about how parren politics worked at the higher levels, in House Harmony at least, but she still had little clue how it all related to the lives of ordinary parren. Did the average parren here in Chirese have an opinion on what had happened to Gesul and his followers in House Harmony’s highest corridors of power? Did the rigid loyalty displayed by those in the leaders’ most immediate service — the household guard, the civil servants — translate to a similar fanatical following down there? Or did the average parren simply keep his head down, and go about his daily life in the hope that these tumults would not touch him directly?
The cruiser landed in a courtyard amid arches, beside a water fountain that looked invitingly cool in the heat. Lisbeth climbed out after Timoshene and Semaya, several more guards making a formation to accompany their mar
ch across the courtyard as the cruiser lifted once more into the air, engines howling. There were heavily armoured parren here also, standing guard in the arches that flanked the courtyard. These were from Tobenrah’s flagship — parren marines, or their equivalent. Warriors loyal to Tobenrah, in the service of the Kundiam, as House Harmony’s supreme authority of the Kunadeen was called.
Their armour looked good, but Lisbeth possessed enough technical knowledge to suspect it was not quite the equal of human marine armour. It was one of those things that humans simply took for granted — humanity had some of the best weapons in the Spiral, and was intensely proud of the edge it gave them over all potential rivals. Few stopped to think about it any more than that… like how parren had been in space, and in various wars, for forty thousand years longer than humans, and were no pushover when it came to high tech. It was only being out here, and seeing the age and power of parren civilisation, that had caused Lisbeth to think how odd it was, that humanity should have leaped ahead of such an advanced and capable people, in so little time. Humans did not want to think about how much help they’d had, in high-tech gifts from the alo, and the chah’nas. And most of the chah’nas tech, it was widely suspected, was actually alo tech as well.
Hacksaw tech, Phoenix now suspected. Deepynine tech. And even these gifts, it seemed, were not the best quality available.
Past the arches was an entrance to a great hall, clad in white tile and cooled by an airconditioned breeze. Administrators and staff hurried about, and ahead, beneath the great, high-valued dome where two great halls met, a procession blocked much of the way. Green-glad Togreth stood before some black-robed Domesh, and argued with blue-clad officials of Tobenrah’s Kunadim administration. By parren standards, the discussion was quite animated, with much waving of hands and scrolls. By tavalai standards, it was impossibly elegant and deferential.
Defiance: (The Spiral Wars Book 4) Page 32