Maybe I should have angled for some diplomatic time at the Court of St. James, she thought ruefully.
She had always specialized in the space program; she got along fine with scientists and engineers.
The group of Four Worlds representatives entered the big sitting room. When the quartet walked, the decorations and bells and beads in their fur clicked and jingled.
Europa’s sandals squeaked, but Androgeos walked silently, barefoot. He curled his toes against the warm stone tiles.
“Just like home,” he said.
“J.D. mentioned the warmth of your starship’s ground —” Ruth said.
“I meant at Knossos,” he said. “We used to warm the floors at Knossos.”
Sharphearer flopped onto her belly and looked over her shoulder at Late. The Smallerfarthing lifted his anterior edge, suckers extended, quivering. After a silent communication with Sharphearer, Late slid from the Largerfarthing’s back to the floor. He spread himself across the stone. Except for the faint ripple of his breathing, he lay perfectly still and silent.
“What’s he doing?” Ruth asked.
“Appreciating your artwork.” Sharphearer rose gracefully to her feet.
The room held only a few of the paintings it had been designed to display. None of the art glass had been shipped into orbit. Ruth regretted all over again her government’s withdrawing its support for the deep space expedition.
“Which pieces does he like?” Jag asked.
“The floor.”
“Eh — ?”
“He can explain,” Europa said, “if you communicate directly. It’s hard to describe. He can help you perceive what he experiences. Imagine the sun on your skin, tracing patterns — but we humans aren’t physiologically fitted to experience it first-hand.”
“I’ll settle for an inadequate description,” Jag said. He stood in the doorway, apart from the group.
Is he scared? Ruth thought. I’ve never seen him scared, not about anything.
Ruth gingerly opened her link and listened. Europa explained about heat gradients and thermodynamic patterns. Ruth felt in her mind the sensations that Late perceived as art. It did not affect her as art; the faint mental prickles of the heat flow tracings made her edgy and uncomfortable.
Ruth let her link close.
We should have brought the alien contact department with us, she thought. J.D. didn’t deserve a brush-off: “You’ve done your job, now we’ll take over.” She might not understand why the floor is a work of art — or maybe she would — but she’d ask gracefully about sleeping arrangements for two kinds of aliens. I don’t even know whether to put Europa and Andro together.
“Can you cover the windows?” Europa asked.
Ruth touched Arachne. The windows darkened and polarized. The white slash of the sun tube dimmed and blued; colors faded across Starfarer’s hills and lakes and meadows.
“I mean manually,” Europa said pointedly, “as you will not allow us access to your computer.”
“The backup is voice activated,” Ruth said. “I’m sure we can teach it to respond to all of you.”
“This is much better,” Quickercatcher said. He moved sinuously forward into the center of the room.
“We live our lives at dawn and dusk,” Longestlooker said. “Your living space is so bright —”
“And hard.” Sharphearer extended her claws and tapped them on the floor.
Fasterdigger added, “Do you have any nest material?”
“The bedrooms are... er... softer,” Ruth said. “The rooms for sleeping. They have pillows and blankets and —”
Sharphearer and Fasterdigger each swarmed up a spiral of stairs. Sharphearer’s serpentine body curved up the nearer stairs. Fasterdigger, stockier and more muscular, rang the twin staircase with his footfalls.
“Are they tired?” Gerald asked Europa.
“It’s rest time,” Europa said, which did not exactly answer the question.
Pillows rained from one staircase. A moment later, bright blankets tumbled down the other. A white featherbed fell with a soft thump, and two purple sheets fluttered after it. One of the sheets draped onto the railing.
Sharphearer loped headfirst down the stairs, balancing pillows on her back. As she passed the sheet, she grabbed it with her free hand and dragged it after her. On the other staircase, Fasterdigger thundered down the treads, festooned with the upstairs rooms’ blankets.
“The other soft things are too big to move by myself,” he said.
Quickercatcher joined Fasterdigger and helped him carry the blankets and pillows to the center of the room. They pulled cushions off the sofas and piled the bedding on top of the cushions. Longestlooker settled on the carpet to oversee the nest construction. Absently, she freed three glass baubles from her fur, added a silky tuft of scarlet fuzz, and unfastened a tiny earthenware vial.
“The mattresses aren’t meant to be moved,” Ruth said. “They’re to sleep on. While they’re on the bedsteads. Wouldn’t you... like to try that?”
“We’re always willing to try new things.” Longestlooker arranged the miniatures on the corner of the coffee table.
“Oh, no, sister,” Fasterdigger said, “there isn’t room for every person.”
“Not on those little platforms,” Sharphearer said.
“We’ll put a place right,” Quickercatcher said.
“Some other nap, we’ll try your way,” Longestlooker said kindly to Ruth. Without looking at her minute shrine, she opened the vial, poured out a drop of liquid, stoppered the vial again, and tied it back into her fur.
“There’s room if each person sleeps on a different bed,” Ruth said.
The three glass ornaments nestled in a bed of scarlet down. A sharp smoky scent rose from the arrangement. Once it was finished, Longestlooker paid it no more attention.
Quickercatcher smoothed his hands down the sides of his neck, sleeking his soft cotton-candy fur.
“That wouldn’t be very comfortable,” he said. “All spread out?”
“We do want you to be comfortable.” Jag’s tone was dry.
Fasterdigger piled more blankets on top of the pillows and sofa cushions. Late luxuriated in art appreciation.
“This will do,” Longestlooker said. “Though it’s rather sparse.”
“It’ll be fun,” Fasterdigger said.
“Like a camp-out, the way Zev described,” Quickercatcher said.
“In the wild,” said Longestlooker in response to Ruth’s quizzical glance.
“Zev probably had something a little rougher in mind,” Ruth said. “I hope you can swim.”
Quickercatcher snuffled sharply. “I sink,” he said. “My fur is so long. Will we have to swim?”
“That’d be my first thought, if Zev was involved,” Ruth said.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Jag said.
“Good,” Longestlooker said.
“I think,” Gerald said, “that you’d do better to let an adult expedition members show you around. I’ll arrange a tour.”
“We would like to see the fossils,” Longestlooker said.
“Certainly,” Gerald said heartily. “We’ll arrange it with Crimson Ng as soon as possible.”
Sharphearer loped in with more bedding balanced precariously on her back. She tossed it onto the heap, kicked her hind feet like a young horse, and leaped onto the tumble.
“Look here!” Gerald said. “Have you left any beds for Androgeos and Europa?”
Sharphearer poked her nose out of the blankets and gazed at Gerald.
“Can’t they stay with us?” she asked, stricken.
“Of course we’ll stay with you,” Europa said. “The chancellor and the senators aren’t familiar with our customs.”
“They are,” Jag said, “unusual.”
“Perhaps to you,” Europa said. “Where Andro and I come from, the members of my household would sleep with me. It was companionable, and I was responsible for them. What better way
to insure their well-being?”
“We have different outlooks,” Jag said easily. “I’d consider the propriety of the situation.”
“We do have different outlooks.” Europa smiled. “In Knossos, the head of the household protected vulnerable members — and promoted good matches for those who wished them.”
Jag coughed to cover his startled, uncomfortable laughter.
Androgeos joined Sharphearer in the pile of bedding; he leaned against the Largerfarthing, one arm over her forward shoulders. They bent their heads together; Sharphearer twisted one of Andro’s thick glossy ringlets around her long pointed finger, then pressed her nose beneath his chin. Andro tickled Sharphearer’s frizzy goatee.
Longestlooker blinked, rose, and joined Sharphearer and Androgeos.
“Travel disarranges one’s rhythms so badly,” she said, curling around a pillow. One of the meerkats pattered over to the nest and burrowed under a blanket.
“I’ll leave you to your rest,” Gerald said.
“You’re welcome to join us,”
“It’s been a long morning, perhaps you’re tired too,” Fasterdigger said.
“No, thank you, I never sleep in the middle of the day, and I have a great deal of work to do,” Gerald said. “Senators, a moment of your time?”
“Certainly,” Jag said.
Ruth smiled. This is irresistible, she thought.
“It has been a long morning,” she said. “Thank you, Longestlooker, I will join you. Mr. Hemminge, I’ll be glad to talk to you later. It isn’t critical?”
“Urgent,” Gerald said. “But... no. Not critical.”
As he and Jag left, Jag glanced back at her. His disbelief shaded into disapproval. Ruth barely kept from laughing.
A little embarrassed, Ruth sat on the edge of the nest. Quickercatcher paused before her.
“May I sleep beside you?” Quickercatcher asked.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
Quickercatcher curled sinuously behind her and settled himself. Ruth cautiously leaned against the Largerfarthing, between his forward shoulders and his central shoulders. His sweet spicy scent no longer struck her with cloying strength. Quickercatcher’s soft fur brushed the back of her neck. The Largerfarthing clasped Ruth’s hand. His inner and outer thumbs circled her palm. The bare bright skin was very warm. Nearby, Europa settled down beside Longestlooker, who laid her head in Europa’s lap and closed her eyes. The alien human unbraided a lock of the Largerfarthing’s hair, unstrung the decorations from it, and gently separated the curled strands.
Outside the resting nest, Fasterdigger tickled Late’s front edge with his sharp-clawed toes.
“Late, Late, wake up, it’s time to go to sleep.”
Late’s back rippled, exposing his poison spines. Fasterdigger snuffled sharply and pivoted away. The Largerfarthing leaped into the nest, landing lightly for such a massive creature. He sprawled between Longestlooker and Sharphearer and rested his head on Androgeos’s muscular thigh.
“What did Late say?” Ruth asked.
“He is appreciating the artwork, and does not care to be disturbed.”
“You shouldn’t have teased him about being asleep,” Sharphearer said.
Longestlooker let out her breath in a long sigh and fell asleep. Her breathing trilled softly, a musical purr.
Quickercatcher laid his head on his neat front feet and closed his eyes. His hand slipped from Ruth’s grasp.
Exhausted but not sleepy, Ruth let herself relax. She entered the same state she used when she had to pull all-nighters back home, when she had to shepherd an important bill or develop a last-minute legislative strategy. With a few minutes’ rest, she could gather herself for a long stretch of work.
Back home, she thought.
A pang of homesickness, loneliness, grabbed her by surprise. Tears filled her eyes and her throat clenched, hot and tight.
Oh, god, I miss Dan, she thought.
She and her partner had a commuter relationship. Ruth went home to Bellingham when she could; he visited her in D.C. When Congress was in session, they saw each other only a couple of times each month.
But they spoke together every day, projecting their images cross-country. They joked that they had perfected making out on the phone. Once in a while they used VR techniques to be together, but usually they did not even need to.
She had not spoken to him since he saw her off at the space plane. She had planned to call him at just about the time that Starfarer, its communications cut by the military carrier’s interference, had plunged into transition.
During their last few minutes alone, risk spiced the sudden burst of desire between them. A minor risk. They had thought.
Everything’s going to be all right, Ruth said fiercely to herself. It’s got to be all right.
The smoky scent of Longestlooker’s shrine hung heavy in the air.
A silver thread probed from Quickercatcher’s soft mauve shoulder.
The mutualist twined across Quickercatcher’s fur. It touched Ruth’s arm. Ruth recoiled. The biter writhed away, snapping its clawed jaws, shaking its eyeless head.
A rush of nausea surged in Ruth’s throat. She lunged out of the nest and ran to the bathroom. She barely made it to the sink before she threw up.
Her stomach finally emptied itself. The taste of bile burned hot and sour. Ruth turned on the faucet and let the water run, rinsing the sink. She washed out her mouth, drinking straight from the tap. She splashed clean cool water on her face. She felt hot and weak.
“Let me help.”
Europa came into the bathroom and closed the door.
Ruth grabbed a towel and wiped her mouth. “I’m all right.”
“Of course you are. That doesn’t mean you don’t need a bit of help.”
Ruth froze.
“I don’t —”
“It’s perfectly obvious.” Europa chuckled. “My dear child.”
“No one’s called me ‘child’ in a good long time,” Ruth said, masking fright with annoyance.
“You’re all children, to me,” Europa said easily. “Even Andro... especially Andro. You’re all my responsibility.”
“I’ll be responsible for myself, thanks all the same.”
“I’m concerned. If you stay in Civilization for long, this could present a serious problem.”
“It’s nobody else’s business.”
“It’s bad manners to reproduce in a star system not your own.”
“Then I’ll be rude!” Ruth snapped.
“It isn’t that easy.”
“Is anything? Is anything easy, or simple, or straightforward — in your Civilization?”
“Very little.”
“What happens?” Ruth asked in a conciliatory tone. “When someone’s rude?”
“That depends.”
“Doesn’t everything?”
Europa smiled. “You’re beginning to understand.”
“This is serious!”
“Yes. I didn’t mean to make light of the situation. The most common reaction to unacceptable behavior is economic sanction.”
Ruth shrugged. “We aren’t exactly anyone’s trading partner.”
“But you are,” Europa said. “Through my efforts. If you have your baby in the Four Worlds system, the people will be shocked and embarrassed. Earth is, after all, their first client.”
“We never asked to be their client!”
“Do you want to join Civilization or don’t you? You cannot, without being someone’s client.”
“Will they do anything beside being shocked and embarrassed?”
“The Largernearlings will boycott Earth’s work. The Largerfarthings will shun you. The Smallerfarthings will fine you. The Smallernearer is indifferent.”
“This is crazy,” Ruth said.
“Without it, the population —”
“Listen to me, Europa! Back on Earth, government coercion and social pressure and ignorance and compulsory pregnancy and forced abortion and even fam
ily bullying never worked to balance the population.”
“I know that,” Europa said. “I feared... but you did bring yourselves under control. I’ve wondered how.”
“I’ll tell you what worked. Giving control to individuals worked. Giving us — you, me — the power to decide yes, it’s time for a child, or no, the time isn’t right. Women died to get that power. No one gets pregnant anymore unless she wants to! Nothing the Four Worlds can do will force me to —”
“Dear child, I had no such thought!”
“You said —”
“I meant — Starfarer would have to take you to your own system. Home.” Her expression changed from one of reassurance to one of consternation. “They would do that — would they not?”
“And be stranded?” Ruth said. “I... I don’t know. The people on Starfarer agreed it wasn’t to be a colony ship. They agreed not to have children during the expedition. But I —”
“You weren’t meant to come along.”
“No. I wasn’t meant to be pregnant, either. I wasn’t, when I got to the spaceport. Then —” She blushed furiously. “We’ve been trying for so damned long, we never thought —”
Ruth burst into tears. Europa came to her and enfolded her.
Ruth cried. Europa murmured to her in a strange, melodic language. The embrace of her wiry arms was remarkably comforting.
“Don’t tell,” Ruth said.
“Shh, shh,” the alien human said. “We’ll think of something.”
“It probably won’t matter.” A long dark wave of grief and depression washed over her. “I miscarried —”
“Shh! Shh, don’t think such a thing.” She rocked Ruth back and forth.
Finally Ruth stopped crying. Europa wiped her face with a cool damp towel and led her back into the darkened sitting room. She bedded her down next to Quickercatcher and tucked a blanket around her.
I shouldn’t let her do this, Ruth thought. I don’t need to be pampered, this is pathetic. I should get up and go find out what Gerald Hemminge thought was so important...
Quickercatcher shifted gently in his sleep to make a space for her, and nuzzled her beneath the chin. Europa patted her hand.
“Shh, shh.”
The Starfarers Quartet Omnibus Page 108