Ambassador 5: Blue Diamond Sky (Ambassador: Space Opera Thriller Series)
Page 26
Eventually, the matter went up to Margarethe and she had to send someone to rescue us from the bureaucrats. Had I not been at the place that used to be my home and had I been less familiar with the situation, an altercation might well have taken place. I was so fed up with this rubbish.
As we followed the guard into the big assembly hall, I remembered Veyada’s words back when we were in Taysha’s apartment in Athyl and we’d spoken about Coldi protocol in the case of writs. Veyada had explained the whole legal process, and then I’d asked if that was what he and Sheydu would do if Taysha insulted them as he had insulted me, and he’d said, “No, we’d just have gone to his quarters and shot him.”
I’d come to appreciate Veyada’s down-to-earth view on matters, but it was a strange memory to come to my mind as I was walking through the hall, on the main floor were I had never set foot, watching the various delegations in all tiers of seating around me. The hall was not unlike the gamra assembly hall—and, to be honest, how many more ways were there to organise two thousand people in a conference hall? The inner council, including Margarethe, sat on the circular arrangement of tables on the main floor, each section backed up by countless technicians and interpreters who read over the computer translations and corrected as necessary.
It occurred to me that I could have appealed to give my address in Coldi. That would have annoyed the living daylights out of them.
I ignored the people who whispered and pointed at me. Thayu and Nicha walked on either side of me, Veyada and Sheydu in front of us and Deyu and Reida behind us. It was a classic defensive formation. I didn’t think too many people would pick up on the fact that a Coldi leader feeling comfortable would walk at the head of his association. Margarethe looked up at me. She might know some of the very subtle messages Coldi used by altering their appearance or stance. Her eyes widened briefly. If she had assumed that my submitting to her voice coach meant that I was going to behave like her woman wanted, she knew me poorly.
My association reached the dais intact.
There were some guards on the floor but looked uncertain of this alien invasion of their domain. Margarethe had probably let them know that we were allowed through, but happy about it, they were not.
I stepped up to the dais, and an employee came to turn on the light. Thayu and Nicha remained on the floor in front of me, the others took up position behind me.
I looked into the darkness of the hall, at all those thousands of largely hostile faces, and started speaking.
It was not the best speech I’d ever written. Margarethe had let her speechwriter read over it and he had removed a good number of statements he considered too controversial or too strongly worded.
In addition, Isla was a poor language in which to deliver a speech. At gamra, when holding a speech in Coldi, your most powerful weapons were pronouns. Isla only had one version of you we, I, he, she. So my speech amounted to little more than a simple recount of what had happened, what I had done and what my conclusions were. I could not poke any faction by using a polemic pronoun, or mollify another faction by using a friendly pronoun. To be honest, I was unfamiliar with the factions and where they sat. Margarethe had given me a rundown of the politics, but as I stood there, I had never felt more out of my depth or more alien.
I didn’t belong here anymore. Possibly, I had never belonged here and it had taken me this long to see it.
There were lots of questions when I finished. Some of them were legal, and I referred them to Veyada. Some were in relation to security and I gave them to Sheydu. Others related to spies and I let Thayu deal with those.
I translated for them.
Some questions related specifically to Robert’s case, some were about Gusamo, but many were about gamra in general. I was happy that the questions were not so much about the technicalities as they were about the politics of gamra, how membership would be received and what mutual benefits could be.
Some people wanted to stir up controversial topics, but I was well-versed in deflecting these questions.
But it seemed that the cogs of the huge bureaucratic machine were turning and that people here were starting to see potential benefits of joining.
* * *
I saw Margarethe in her office after the meeting ended.
“That was a very good speech,” she said. “Thank you for doing that.”
“These people have no idea what a good speech is,” I said, sitting down. “Next time, I’ll give the speech in Coldi.” Although that wouldn’t change the fact that Isla only had one pronoun form with which to please, annoy or insult someone.
“You and your assistants looked very impressive. You are really more Coldi than human.”
“We’re all human,” I said.
But I knew what she meant, and I would have to accept that she was right.
We spoke about the impending court case. Lawyers had charged Robert with some sort of bureaucratic offence with the aim of keeping him locked up until we had gathered enough evidence and witnesses for the murder case. Margarethe was going to relax visiting rules for offworld people for the purpose of the case. I guessed that if and when Abri was called to testify I’d have to come with her to coach her and avert disasters.
It would be interesting.
I walked next to Thayu on the way back to our accommodation. We’d stay for a few more days to organise and prepare, but then we needed to go back to Barresh for the election there.
“Is your father hanging around in orbit somewhere?” I asked her.
“I truly have no idea where he is,” she said. “Why are you asking?”
“I’d like to accept his invitation to have a ceremony to accept me into the Domiri clan. I’m also going to see Lilona as soon as we’re back. And I need to speak to Amarru. I’m going to officially ask for a Coldi identity.”
She stared at me. “Are you sure? I thought you were still thinking about it.”
“I’ve thought about it far too long already. I’m done with thinking.”
“Well . . .” she said, and then she said nothing for a long time. But she took my hand as we walked through the snow.
A Word of Thanks
THANK YOU very much for reading Blue Diamond Sky.
As author of this book, I would appreciate it very much if you could return to the place where you purchased this book and leave a review. Reviews are important to me, because they help readers decide if the book is for them.
In book 6 of the Ambassador series, The Enemy Within, Abri and the Pengali witnesses are called to testify at Nations of Earth. The court case reveals a deep political divide in the Nations of Earth assembly. Find out about The Enemy Within here.
Also be sure to put your name on my mailing list, which I use to notify subscribers of news and new fiction. For everything else, please visit my website at pattyjansen.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
* * *
Patty Jansen lives in Sydney, Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her story This Peaceful State of War placed first in the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest and was published in their 27th anthology. She has also sold fiction to genre magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Redstone SF and Aurealis.
Her novels (available at ebook venues) include Shifting Reality (hard SF), The Far Horizon (middle grade SF), Charlotte’s Army (military SF) and The Icefire Trilogy consisting of Fire & Ice, Dust & Rain and Blood & Tears (dark fantasy).
Patty is on Twitter (@pattyjansen), Facebook, LinkedIn, goodreads, LibraryThing, google+ and blogs at: http://pattyjansen.com/.
MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
* * *
In the Earth-Gamra space-opera universe
The Shattered World Within (novella)
RETURN OF THE AGHYRIANS
Watcher’s Web
Trader’s Honour
Soldier’s Duty
Heir’s Revenge
The Return of the Aghyrians Omnibus
&nb
sp; The Far Horizon (For younger readers)
AMBASSADOR
Seeing Red
The Sahara Conspiracy
Raising Hell
Changing Fate
Coming Home
Blue Diamond Sky
In the For Queen and Country universe
Whispering Willows (short story)
FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY
Innocence Lost
Willow Witch
The Idiot King
The For Queen and Country Omnibus (Books 1-3)
Fire Wizard
The Dragon Prince
The Necromancer's Daughter
In the ISF-Allion universe
His Name in Lights (novella)
Charlotte’s Army (novella)
Luminescence (short story)
The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang (short story)
Shifting Reality (novel)
Shifting Infinity (novel)
Epic, Post-apocalyptic Fantasy
ICEFIRE TRILOGY
Fire & Ice
Dust & Rain
Blood & Tears
The Icefire Trilogy Omnibus
Short story collection
Out Of Here
New Horizons
Shorter works
Looking For Daddy (absurd horror novella)
This Peaceful State of War (Writers of the Future winning novella)
Visit the author’s website at http://pattyjansen.com and register for a newsletter to keep up-to-date with new releases.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Title Page
Copyright page
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Back Matter
About the Author
More by this Author