“Girritt, that might have been the case a month or two ago, but no longer.” The four delicate manipulative digits of a truhand reached out to brush against her forearm. “You haven’t heard about what happened yesterday on Dawn?”
“Dawn?” Her expression twisted. “What has that colony got to do with what happened on Comagrave?”
“Directly, nothing. Coincidentally, perhaps quite a good deal.” He gestured meaningful apology. “The details will not arrive through regular diplomatic channels until tomorrow morning, but I could not be certain of what you knew and what you did not without asking.” He gestured meaningfully. “Our mutual confidants have their own sources. Because of what happened on Dawn, the Bwyl can now spew any tales they like. Whatever their superficial veracity, they will not be believed. Dawn has destroyed their credibility as a responsible clan. Anything they choose to say from now on will be regarded as a fabrication.”
Fanielle mined her memory. “I remember reading something about Dawn recently. The usual mundane fodder that those of us in the diplomatic service are expected to assimilate. Wasn’t some kind of elaborate seminar or multispecies conclave going to be held there?”
“You are scurrying down the right burrow, but to the wrong destination,” he corrected her with utmost finesse. “The term you are seeking in Low Thranx is drim!!ata.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She remembered now. “A fair. Something to promote interspecies harmony and understanding while hopefully making a little money on the side. It was to be quite a production, I recall now. The locals were putting everything they could muster into the effort, hoping it would raise their profile on the colonial scene. Planetary promotion, investment opportunities, tourism—that sort of thing.”
Lyrkenparmew gesticulated sharp irony. “If it was attention they were seeking, they more than achieved their objective. But not for the reasons you might think.” Emphasizing the importance of what he was about to say, he switched seamlessly to speaking in High Thranx. “Fan’l Anju, this has been an eventful succession of correlative time-parts. It seems that elements of the very same renegade clan that attacked you and Haflunormet at the Retreat of Xer!kex planned to disrupt this fair, setting off bombs and shooting visitors indiscriminately. By coincidence, the identical notion appears to have appealed to a group of similarly xenophobic humans who call themselves the Preservers.” He gestured confusion. “I am always astonished at the organizations and individuals formed to promote destruction who identify themselves with names like Preserver, or Savior, or Rescuer, and the like.
“Unaware at first of each other’s existence and aims, these two groups apparently learned of their parallel intentions and presence sometime before attempting to carry them out. The scheme propounded by the human group was particularly insidious.” He leaned toward her, bowing slightly from his thorax.
“That both of these antisocial organizations were found out and reported just in time for the domestic patrollers to prevent widespread disaster was due to the good work and intervention of a pair of theologians, or padres as they call themselves, who notified the local authorities. As a consequence, many hundreds of lives were saved and a diplomatic disaster was averted.” Lyrkenparmew executed a gesture involving his entire upper body that Fanielle recognized as indicative of extreme regret. “Unfortunately, both of these heroic ecclesiastics perished in the course of the operation.”
“That’s too bad,” she remarked sincerely.
“For them, yes. And personally, I would prefer they had survived.” He straightened. “But since they did not, their unintentional sacrifice, combined with the debacle on Comagrave that has been ascribed to the AAnn, presents us with an exceptional opportunity.”
She rested her hands in her lap. “I don’t follow you, Lyrkenparmew.”
Compound eyes glittered in the sun as the envoy drew his protective warming garments tighter around him. “One of these ill-starred padres was thranx. His companion was human. Don’t you see? Thranx and human give their lives to save humans and thranx.” He gestured first-degree significance. “The cause of unification has, inadvertently, acquired its first martyrs.”
She considered the possibilities. They were striking. “Did they intend to become martyrs, these two?”
“Most probably not, but it will not matter to the general media that serve both our kind. Among humans, they will be remembered as having given their lives to save babies and innocents. Among my people, they will be thought of as two brave soldiers who sacrificed their bodies to seal a critical opening into a vulnerable burrow. It comes to the same thing. A report filed by two human patrollers who barely survived the final encounter corroborates the details of the matter.” He gestured diffidently.
“The fringe belief system to which this pair belonged calls itself the United Church. A grandiose appellation, crrk!k, for so modest an organization—though I am told it is gaining adherents at a surprisingly rapid rate. Despite the fact that the sacrifice of their two disciples on Dawn will bring them a considerable amount of beneficial publicity, the leaders of this religious order interestingly want nothing to do with the promoting of it. They are sorry for the death of two of their own, but their doctrine apparently does not believe in or sanction the concept of martyrdom. They say there is no future in it.
“As long as they don’t directly oppose our efforts to promote or make use of this sacrifice, be it intentional or otherwise, their indifference won’t affect the results.” Much intrigued by everything Lyrkenparmew had told her, Fanielle’s active brain was starting to rev with possibilities. “And with the Bwyl utterly discredited, as you point out, by their actions, Haflunormet’s investigation of the events on Comagrave becomes just one more apocryphal rant against closer cooperation.” For the first time in many days, a smile began to spread across her suntanned countenance.
“This is wonderful!”
“Yes, ri!t, wonderful it is, Fan’l.” Moving closer, he extended his b-thorax in order to be able to reach and caress her forehead with both antennae. The touch was so light as to be nearly imperceptible. “I have been in frantic consultation with our supporters inside the Great Hive. They agree that now is the time to make an all-out push for amalgamation. Our supporters on Earth concur. A formal recommendation based on our earlier proposals is to be made in your government sometime during the Second Season of Gathering, when the publicity from the incidents on Dawn and Comagrave is predicted to have achieved maximum visibility. Both political efforts will be closely coordinated.”
She was nodding understandingly, her face lit by rising excitement. “I’ll do everything I can to help from my circumscribed position, of course.”
“It may not be so circumscribed as you think. You are to be elevated in status. Raised to a higher level of significance within your profession.”
She eyed the insectoid uncertainly. “I’ve heard nothing about a promotion.”
“Sources,” the thranx explained with admirable tact. “Do not reject the advancement. It will be useful to our mutual interests.”
“Of course,” she told him. Reaching over, she plucked a carrot from a row of green sprouts and showed it to the agent. “You can digest some of our food just as we can eat some of yours, so long as it’s plant-derived. Have you ever had a carrot? Fresh grown. From my own little patch here.” She extended the vegetable.
Taking it in his truhands, Lyrkenparmew inspected the yellow spike uncertainly. “How does one eat it?”
“Raw or cooked. Your mandibles will have no trouble with it. Go on,” she urged him. “Try it. I know its composition lies well within the tolerances of your internal chemistry. I wouldn’t offer it to you otherwise. Break off the root first and eat it from the bottom.”
Hesitantly, the agent followed her instructions. Placing the end of the carrot between his mandibles, he bit down with all four, snapping off a piece between them. Having nothing to chew with, he had to wait for it to make the journey to his upper, grinding gut. The release of exotic, alien juices
followed.
“That is . . . delightful,” he finally was able to tell her. “A c’rt, you called it?”
“Carrot,” she corrected him. If she could learn the two principal thranx dialects, then the agent could master Terranglo. Although c’rt had a nice, succinct ring to it. Perhaps the word could be compromised. Another addition to that strange multispecies patois its adherents were calling symbospeech, she decided absently.
“Whether it wants to or not, this United Church is going to gain a number of new followers as a result of all the fanfare. I suppose I’m going to have to study up on it further in case I’m asked to comment.” She let out a resigned sigh. “These faddish creeds come and go, especially in an era of galactic exploration.”
“Yes,” Lyrkenparmew agreed. “Such caprices are common among the thranx as well. The great majority are inevitably defined by their transitory nature. I’m sure that when the incident on Dawn becomes part of the public memory as opposed to an item of current interest, the same fate will befall this sect as well.”
She nodded as she fondly surveyed the rest of the garden. “It certainly sounds like an eccentric little philosophy. Maybe there will at least be a laugh or two to be had from looking into it.”
“Hopefully,” Lyrkenparmew added. “For professional reasons only, of course.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “What else?”
From above, the benign sun of Hivehom shone down on their friendship, on the little garden in the diplomat compound, on the rest of the human settlement called Azerick, and on the dawning of a great many unknown but exhilarating possibilities that were fraught with promise.
22
Lord Naasab IV was brooding in the gallery when Eiipul II approached him. Below, the magnificent Great Hall of the People, the center of Blassussar and the locus of the Empire, was clearing out, the crowd of notables apportioning a babble of hissing conversation in their wake. The emperor himself had long since departed, leaving his constituents in the form of their representative nobles to debate and discuss any remaining business. It was the business that was not resolved, that could not be resolved, that troubled Naasab and left him pensive and ill at ease in mind and belly.
A gesture of greeting from Eiipul indicated that his fellow peer felt similarly. As if to further confirm his visitor’s mind-set, one pair of eyelids remained half closed as he spoke.
“I fear, rssst, that regarding a certain matter too many of our colleaguess refusse to pull their headss out of the ssand.”
Naasab was glad to see that, if nothing else, he was not alone in his concern. “We sspeak of the ssame certain matter, I am ssure.”
Eiipul gestured second-degree concurrence. “Many feel there iss nothing more we can do, yet we cannot jusst ssprawl idly asside and concede to the inexorable. My family did not reach itss pinnacle of prominence by ssquatting alongsside the water hollowss and watching otherss catch the swimmerss.”
His counterpart gestured almost impertinently. Eiipul forgave the discourtesy because he understood Naasab’s distress. It was no less than his own.
“Let the otherss vacillate and fight with wordss if that iss all they can do. The emperor iss no fool. If we can proposse a coursse of action, he will ssee that it iss implemented. What ideass have you?”
Eiipul slapped his stomach with the tip of his tail, a sharp, smacking sound that did not travel far in the enormous, gold-toned gathering chamber. “Nothing sspecific, gtssk. As you know, I am on the committee that iss trying to undersstand what happened on Vussissica. We have yet to ressolve the many contradicting reportss. Thuss far the one point that everyone can agree upon iss that it hass been a complete and utter diplomatic dissaster. Chasstissement sshould already have been meted out, but no one can agree on who iss ressponssible for what. In every asspect, a truly unssettling epissode.”
Naasab gestured agreement, rapidly blinking both sets of double eyelids. “My concern liess more with our notable failure on the disstant human world they call Dawn. A continuing run of bad luck. If not for the intervention of the two sstupid sspiritualisstss, all might have gone as planned. Now, that enterprisse alsso liess in ruinss.” In his anger, he parted his jaws to show his tongue as well as all his teeth. “The combined effect of thesse two recent dissasters hass been to bring the bugss and the ssoftsskinss much closser together insstead of driving them apart, as we dessired.”
Moving to the edge of the overlook, Eiipul gazed down at the now nearly empty gathering chamber. Glorious episodes from the history of the AAnn—from the race’s humble beginnings as barely organized bands fighting for control of herds in the plains of Blassussar, to the wars of unification eventually won by Keisscha the First, to the rapid rise of technology and the eventual expansion of the Empire to other worlds—lined the walls in the form of mosaics fashioned from gemstones and rare metals. Strong light illuminated every corner of the impressive hall, and the sand that formed the floor was fashioned of specially ground synthetic corundum that gave it the appearance of a single multifaceted jewel. The dais where the emperor sat was as empty as the rows of individual reporting stations, and no informative holos floated free in the dry, heated air.
“Doess a closser union of the two lesser sspeciess really pose ssuch a threat? Are we perhapss not overreacting, my friend, and thosse of our compeerss who have jusst departed are the oness in the right?”
Naasab gestured his unhappiness. Was he about to lose his strongest ally among the members of the Imperial Gathering? “No one sshould forget what happened to the Pitar.”
“That sspeciess received what they desserved. I wass never comfortable conssidering them as alliess. An unsstable race.”
“Agreed. And now they are no more—thankss to the effortss of humanss and thranx fighting together. My greatesst fear, my friend, iss that thesse two sspeciess cojoined may ressult in ssomething far more powerful than the ssum of their individual partss.”
“I, too, am concerned, as you know. But it may be that this propossed union of theirss, thiss Commonwealth, will be like a human mating: the living together more contentiouss than the courtsship.”
Naasab gestured admiration for his counterpart’s knowledge. He would not have suspected that the quiet Eiipul might be the master of arcane alien erudition. It was often the quiet ones, he reflected, who hid in the sand to spring on the unwary from behind. Henceforth, he would measure his comments with more care lest he reveal something that in the future might prove personally damaging. Eiipul would do no less, he knew. By such means did the ever-competitive AAnn acquire status and gain advancement. For the moment, however, the truce relationship between them was sound. As lords of the Empire, they could advance no farther—at least until the emperor began to show signs of mental or physical weakness.
“What of our dissappointing ssupporterss among the humanss?” Eiipul was asking.
Naasab hissed resignedly. “Many dead or captured on thiss Dawn world. Not all, I am told, but enough to prevent them from attempting anything ssimilar in the immediate future. I have taken sstepss to ssee to it that their organization continuess to receive the necessary funds to susstain them. They will go to ground until the furor over the incident on Dawn hass died down, then attempt to ressume their activitiess on our behalf. As for their thranx equivalentss, you know that we have no influence among them. No bug will accept assistance from an AAnn. That doess not mean they will not be usseful to uss in the future; only that we will, as alwayss, have no control over their actions.”
Eiipul gestured understanding. Though he had much work to do, he continued to linger. Naasab always had interesting information to impart, and it was always good to know what so resourceful a rival was up to. Besides which, they shared many similar interests.
“If thiss union comess about, we will ssimply have to deal with it. It doess not pressage the end of our expanssion. Nothing can prevent that.”
“Truly,” Naasab agreed, adding a gesture of first-degree assent. “But it could make eassy
thingss difficult, and ssimple undertakingss complex. Better to avoid complication where possible. It certainly would make harder bringing the obsstinate bugss to heel.”
“You will ssee.” Eiipul wished to depart on a positive note. “The bugss and the humanss will not get along. They are too different, far more sso than the humanss and oursselvess. Even if it should come to pass, this Commonwealth will collapsse of itss own inherent contradictionss. I am confident in that.”
Wellness for you, Naasab thought. He wondered if he would live long enough to see Eiipul’s prediction come to pass. He hoped so, because he sincerely feared the consequences for the Empire if it did not.
Truly, fsssst . . .
There was so much to do. Integrating colonies was one thing. Merging two entirely different political and social systems developed over thousands of years by two very different species reduced the complexities of the former task to insignificance.
Ordinary folk on both sides would notice no change for some time. Average citizens did not travel between worlds, did not participate in interstellar commerce or politics, and cared little for anything beyond the realm of their daily lives that did not impact on them directly. Politicians would be affected, and business folk, and of course the military. The latter would have perhaps the easiest time of it. Not only did warriors of different species possess an innate understanding of a profession whose basic tenets did not vary widely because of mere shape, but they had already cooperated closely with one another during the Pitarian War.
Changes would first manifest themselves in the largest, most cosmicpolitan cities. Humans would be able to move freely through the teeming thranx burrows, while their eight-limbed counterparts would no longer be restricted to a few specific locations on Earth and a couple of its more populous colonies. Without endless inspections and dozens of restrictions, trade would expand exponentially. Cultural exchanges of the kind that had taken place on the world of Dawn could proceed without reams of government paperwork, on scales both larger and more intimate. Integration did not happen overnight, but happen it would.
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