"Yes, but that was then," Lee said. "I'm negotiating an agreement with Central, not the Claims Commission or any Earthies. I'm sure they are aware of the notice we laid on them, but this is something new and has nothing to do directly with Earth. It may be different for Badgers, but believe me, your standing right there beside me would have a psychological impact that making a reference to your support on a previous issue would not.
"But you don't want Singer too?" Talker asked. Was that amusement Lee saw?
"I see Badgers as the principal race of your civilization," Lee admitted. "You don't have to tell Singer that. We can spare his feelings. I see you representing all the minor races of your sphere of influence. But like Gordon I see that as more responsibility than privilege.
"Singer isn't given to saying much, and I admit I don't feel I know him as well as you, because he is so sparing with his words. I worry that he'll say something outrageous or damaging just from not knowing English very well. I'm much more confident that you can make clear that we have a broad interest in each other."
"Ahhh . . . You want to make clear we are allies, not just for that one agreement, but in general," Talker finally figured out.
"Yes, aren't we? Your presence would make clear it is a continuing thing and that Derfhome and Red Tree, and the High Hopes Exploratory Association and its Claims Commission are all a concern of the Badgers and their associated races," Lee elaborated.
"A concern . . ." Talker said, repeating it slowly. "You are a concern of my father and his household being associated. You are a concern of mine being my friend. Are you suggesting that these groups of people may touch each other with friendship? You know we value friendship greatly, but always as an individual thing. But you are using the words I associate with family and friendship between larger associations. Indeed simple trade associations of very different individuals whose lives don't touch outside their business relationship. I'm not comfortable with that. Clarify your thinking for me."
Lee looked alarmed. "No. Definitely no," she said absolutely. "Concern may have been a bad word to use. Perhaps interest, or connection? Gordon warned me not to abuse our friendship. I don't think people are good enough to be friends in large groups. It's hard enough between individuals. Humans don't have it in them to do that, and if you try to force behavior that isn't in our nature it will end badly in betrayal and failure. The Mothers had a formal treaty with North America and look how that ended. They couldn't keep their word even written out in plain language. There was nothing of friendship there at all."
"Good, I'm glad to hear that because Badgers aren't . . ." Talker stopped and checked his private dictionary, which he hardly ever did now. "High minded enough to do that either. Look at our rivalries even within our own kind. Timilo followed to undo everything I'd accomplished if he could shift the credit for it to his agency and himself. We're selfish," Talker admitted.
"You know I was raised away from people," Lee reminded him. "In all the books and videos and stuff I've read about Human society, they always say a person would have to be a saint when they are required to be noble and self-sacrificing beyond what you can believe. I don't think I have ever known such a person."
Lee stopped and looked thoughtful. "Not of any race. I'm starting to suspect it isn't a positive thing to be that selfless, although they try to make it sound desirable. It probably just lets all the normal people take advantage of you."
"Yes, yes, and they won't appreciate it," Talker agreed, nodding. "I've seen that even within family. But what then do you intend? How then would this association work?"
"Between leaders," Lee said, making the narrative up as she went along, because the whole line of thought was new, and happening this instant in her head. Talker had just given her enough insight to make the idea crystallize.
"We can direct our agencies to help each other based on mutual trust, not any detailed agreement. We don't necessarily have to have a falling out if we fail to agree on one thing, because it isn't an item for item written out contract or treaty about which we can argue over the terms. It's just asking - here's what I'd like you to do. Is it possible? Will your people let you do this? And as we talked about before, we need to honestly credit each other with favors done and owed. It can't get too far out of balance before one will object. It lasts as long as we treat each other well, but if one of us would die or leave their agency position it would end that aspect of the relationship. Friendship . . . that is greater, aside, and I hope more permanent."
Talker didn't say anything for quite awhile, and Lee was afraid if she said more it would start to be repetitive and counterproductive. She stayed silent though it was hard.
"I see a couple things," Talker finally said. "If your life extension works, and I hope it does, then the few precious friends we gain won't be lost so quickly. That means both friendships and relationships of business trust can last a long time. I hope it works for Badgers of course."
"We're working on Derf already," Lee said, trying to be encouraging.
"Also, I think I'm coming to understand what you are describing more than before. Since Gordon forced us to work closer with the Bills I've found Singer much easier to work with than I expected. He's not a friend mind you, nor a concern. But he doesn't fit the common stereotypes as closely as I expected. He's been very responsible, for a Bill. When I go with you to Central I think I'll leave him in charge of the mission. He's ranking, if you ignore race, and I'm finding that easier all the time."
Lee already had her mouth open, ready to continue convincing Talker. "When I go with you to Central," almost flew past her hearing among the other statements. She swallowed her ready words and just nodded. "I think he will watch both your interests," she said of Singer.
"This isn't directly about Earth," Talker quoted Lee, "Not aimed at Earth as a weapon, but really, it's totally about what Earth might do isn't it?"
"If Earth gets hostile with us, yes. We don't intend to provoke them, but we may not agree on where our interests end and theirs begin. That's the biggest known danger," Lee admitted. "We're also worried about other things. The Centaurs for sure, even the Caterpillars, because we could screw up and make them hostile out of sheer ignorance. We don't know enough about them. Even the Biters if they somehow get Human tech would be a huge, ugly problem. We've found so many potential problems given the little ways we've explored, we need partners, and Central seems to be the only potential partner stronger than us militarily.
"You know from my asking your help I have to frame it in the terms of the Mother's complaint at least initially. If I come back successful or rejected, and the Mothers ask me if I made their point of contention with Central, I'll have a big problem if I can't say yes. But I can improvise and be extemporaneous after that."
"And we Badgers? You don't rate us at all. Do we fall to either side as a danger or potential asset? Are you afraid of offending me by saying?" Talker asked.
"I see you personally as an asset," Lee said. "I really like a number of Badgers. You know I adore Tish. I can't see your race being a danger to us, but Timilo made me realize we may not be able to work with all of Badgers as easily as you personally. Don't let that bother you. I can't get along with a big chunk of my own race. But I think your man Musical may be key to our understanding this drive the Centralists possess. If that's the case it will be huge, and a mind like that is sufficient to make your entire civilization very valuable to us indeed."
"It sounds to me as if you are already intending to interpret the Mothers mission and purpose very . . . broadly," Talker said. He seemed more amused than disapproving.
"Says the guy who is a master at it," Lee shot back. "I don't intend to bring harm to Red Tree or even Derfhome, although that wasn't even asked of me. No more than you'd bring harm to Far Away or the Badger civilization. I'm going to be out there on the pointy end of things and you have to give your people room to maneuver. It's too far away to micro-manage them"
Talker jerked at a sudden thought
, and looked unhappy and concerned. "But if everybody has this fast drive, it's going make it a lot more tempting to try to impose central planning and management on a much bigger area."
"Yeah it is, isn't it? I don't see that as a plus either," Lee agreed.
* * *
"I'll be going back to Earth, to the Earth's Moon actually," Talker told Singer. "I'm looking to you to watch our mutual interests while I'm gone. You can deal with any local issues or interest while I'm gone. I'm instructing all my staff to direct any questions to you."
Singer showed some tongue, which was a sign of shock in a Bill. Then got control and snapped his bill back shut. "You are basically leaving me in charge?"
"Yes, why shouldn't I?" Talker challenged him. "Aren't you up to it?"
"I don't think it hinges on my ability," Singer said, somewhat defensively. "You do me honor, personally. But you gave us a home and cooperated to placate Gordon. He would be as pleased as can be to hear this. My boss however might look unfavorably on me assuming responsibility for the Badger mission, and your boss Timilo . . ." he was at a loss for words.
"Might gasp and fall on his face dead," Talker supplied. "Let's try it some time."
"You are horribly insubordinate," Singer accused.
"There must be a stronger word. I'll have to ask Lee," Talker said, unrepentant. "I've never asked you what your governments instructions were to you. Is there anything in your duty precluding you from being temporary head of a dual mission?"
"My friend," Singer said, and rattled Talker to his core with that word used so casually again. "I shall tell you exactly what I was instructed. I was never told not to share it because they couldn't imagine me doing so. I was told not to let the Badgers steal everything. There, that's the normal way my superiors think. I'm embarrassed to say that now, because I've moved away from those adversarial assumptions. However I'm still going to have to deal with them. If I try to change my superiors' attitudes too far I'll simply be removed. They could never have envisioned a dual mission. They would assume you'd give us the very least support with which you could get away."
"Remarkably, I just had a rather complicated long conversation with Lee about this very thing. We agreed that there are limits to how far you can smooth business dealings by trust and candor arising from a personal relationship." Talker couldn't bring himself to say friendship yet. That was still a leap too far. "One of the things she specifically mentioned was that if you did ask a favor, Will your people allow it?. That could be a significant problem."
"The girl is wise beyond her years, but in odd areas," Singer complained.
"Still, it seems to me your superiors would consider being handed even temporary control of the mission base far from allowing us to steal everything," Talker pointed out.
"As an official act, yes. Are you prepared to do so officially? Will you risk the eventual wrath of Timilo for doing so when he finds out? As much as I've grown comfortable working with you I won't run the place simply as a favor," Singer insisted.
Talker sighed, somewhat disappointed. "What would make it official in your eyes?"
"A letter, and you have to pay me," Singer demanded.
"Elaborate," Talker ordered, running thin on patience.
"It doesn't have to be fancy. You write English too, don't you? Or have your pad print it out. Something like, 'Singer is in charge until I get back,' would do nicely, and a silver dollar Ceres."
"A dollar?" Talker asked.
"It's pay. It's not the amount, it's the principle of the thing," Singer insisted.
Talker produced the right coin and flipped it through the air like he'd seen Fargoers do. Singer snatched it without any trouble.
"I'd send the letter to your com," Talker said. "You can print as many copies as you want. Frame one and hang it on the wall for all I care."
"Thank you," Singer said. "Have a good time if that's possible."
"Thank you, doesn't cut it either," Talker warned him.
"What else?" Singer asked worried.
"Thanks are for favors," Talker said. "You can jolly well send me a receipt."
Chapter 20
Lee had to filter her messages a lot. Even interstellar messages were cheap enough, added to ship mail, that she got all sorts of commercial messages from Earth offering goods and services. Her income from the claims commission was sufficient to put her in the top tenth of a percent of all earners in the Solar System. She imagined most rich people experienced the same com flood. Most of them however had secretaries, sometimes layers of secretaries, to throttle the torrent down to a manageable trickle.
A couple dozen people had her private address. Of those using her public com code perhaps one in a hundred had merited passing their message on to her bank or attorney or some official of the Claims Commission to act on. Lately it had deteriorated until it was one in several hundred. She'd felt horrible at first to sort messages by key word and delete them unread. Now it didn't bother her at all.
Drone messages were a different matter. It cost a lot to send a drone relay between regular ship passages, and even a regularly scheduled drone to where ship traffic was sparse was dear. A special drone was usually something only governments used. People or businesses who could afford an ounce of gold to send a fast message didn't waste it on birthday greetings or offering you vacation rentals.
Fargone got more traffic than Derfhome, so a message header that indicated it went to Fargone by ship, and was then loaded to a jump drone after the ship sold its data dump, was not unusual.
Drones have higher acceleration than a manned ship and could make the jump to Derfhome even before the ship docked. However, to get such a drone message and addressed to her private com code really got Lee's attention.
* * *
Miss Anderson,
"I feel as your counselor in past Claims Commission matters, and monitoring ongoing bids and payments in relation to those claims, I should make you aware of the direction of public discourse in regard to your recently failed applications to the Commission. My partners agree and gave me leave to send this message.
"After a period of angry accusations and recriminations over the support various junior members of the Commission withheld, there has been a significant restructuring. Some of this has been public and some only supported by rumor. Being 'in the trade' as it were, due to our firm's specialization in composing and presenting claims, we have had a number of private communications from those within the power structure that one might characterize as leaks.
"Unfortunately some of these messages were contradictory, and a case could be made that either of two opposing leaks were believed to be true by our contacts. We see this as indicating things within the Commission are still unsettled.
"Those leaks of conflicting details aside, the following is clear.
"The Claims Commission has reformed its core group to North America, China, Japan, and a sub-group of Western European nations. Russia and India are newly supportive while their allies and dependant states have still excluded themselves.
"All this is subject to change, but we see this new core acting quickly to assert itself because the economy is already slipping into recession, as much from the psychology the denial of a huge claim triggered, as any real slowdown in trade.
"Please do not consider this a criticism, but the public way your association, with you as spox, rejected any further dealings with the Commission was seen as a challenge by the senior members, and served as a sore point to heighten the internal dissent. If you had just silently withdrawn without any public policy statements it is possible that in another year or so they would have approached you to indicate they could process the claims, although with significant restructuring since the vast scope of your claims would have overwhelmed the system. Bidding and development would have to be done in stages to avoid price collapses and absorbing more liquidity that the world banking system could supply.
"Be aware trends make us expect the Commission to try to assert au
thority again without any limitations or boundaries, to include your area of the heavens. I can't predict if these offers will be made in a conciliatory way or more aggressively.
"In either case, or even if events unfold in unanticipated directions, we remain your loyal servants, and stand ready to assist you in any way we can within Earth jurisdictions. We have retained all your claims data safe, and stand ready to resume processing it, if that should become your will again.
Moore, Harper, Goldberg and McPherson, Attorneys at Law
Copy: Gordon of Red Tree
Well crud . . . Lee hadn't expected things to happen this fast. She needed to move before the Earthies started issuing ultimatums or sending more show the flag visits to Derfhome. One ship was an irritant, but if they sent a fleet it would be a thinly veiled threat, and Lee doubted Gordon would be amused by that at all.
When they were at Red Tree Lee and Gordon usually sent each other a text messages of low priority. The other's pad would vibrate and it would get looked at when they had a chance to do so discretely. Very few of the clan members had access to private com, and displaying such a luxury could provoke jealousy, or worse make trouble for the Mothers because their people wanted the same thing. Besides the expense, the Mothers were certain a flood of pocket phones would lead to neglected duties and wasted time. Lee had to admit they might be right.
Today, given how McPherson alarmed her Lee went straight to a video call with a normal ring tone. Lee was ready to lift right now. When Gordon answered there was Derfhome's Robin egg blue sky behind him. At least that's what Earthies told her. She'd never seen a Robin's egg and photos were seldom calibrated to absolute reality.
"Gordon, how soon can the Sharp Claws leave for Earth?" Lee asked without any greetings or small talk.
"Two days maybe, three for sure. What has you so upset and in a hurry?"
"Read this letter Stanley sent us. You must not have read your mail," Lee decided.
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