by neetha Napew
“I assure you, Sam, that Madanie’s nephew is in need of my healing powers.” That syrupy voice could only be Madame Flaubert.
Ford tried to open his eyes, but lacked the strength. He heard something creak and the rustle of layers of clothes.
“His aura reveals the nature of his illness: it is seated in the spiritual house of his darkest sin. Through study and prayer, I am equipped to deal with this. I will need quiet, peace, and absolutely no interference. You may go.”
Ford struggled again to open his eyes, to speak, but could not even twitch. Had he been hypnotised somehow? Given a paralytic drug? Panic surged through him, but even that did not unlock his muscles. For the first time, he realized that he might actually die here, in a luxurious stateroom in a private yacht, surrounded by rich old women and their servants. He could not imagine a more horrible death.
Even as he thought that, he felt a plump, moist hand on his forehead. Fingernails dug into the skin of his
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right temple just a little. His mind presented a vision from his nightmares: a scaly clawed hand about to dig in and rip his head open. The scent of Madame Flaubert’s cologne mingled with the imagined stench of a reptilian, toothy maw; he wanted to retch and could not move.
“You may go,” she said again, somewhere near his left shoulder. Evidently Sam had not gone; Ford hoped fervently he would stay, but he could not move even a toe to signal him.
“Sorry, Madame,” said Sam, sounding more determined than sorry. “I think it would be better for us all if I stayed.” Something in his tone made Ford wish he could smile, a hint of staunch rectitude that implied Madame Flaubert had known—proclivities, perhaps? At the thought of her hands on his body, he actually shuddered.
“Your voice hurts him,” Madame Flaubert said. Quietly, venomously, a voice to cause the same shudders. “You saw that twitch. You had better go, or I will be compelled to speak to your mistress.”
No sound of movement. Ford struggled again with his eyelids, and felt one almost part. Then that hand drifted down his forehead and he felt a thumb on his lid.
“Madam gave me permission; she agreed it was best.”
An actual hiss followed, a sound he had read about but never heard a woman make. The thumb on his eyelid pressed; he saw sparkling whorls. Then it released, with a last little flick that seemed a warning, and the hand fell heavily on his shoulder.
“I can’t imagine what she means by it.” Now Madame Flaubert sounded almost petulant, a woman wronged by false suspicions.
“She has such . . . such notions sometimes.” A soft scrape, across the room; the sound of someone settling in a chair. “She has not forgotten why you are here. Nor have I.”
Madame Flaubert sniffed, a sound as literary as the hiss, and as false. “You forget yourself, Sam. A servant—“
“Madam’s cook.” The emphasis was unmistakable.
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Madam’s cook—her loyal servant. Not Madame Flaubert’s. And she was someone he tolerated on his mistress’s behalf?
Ford wished he could think clearly. He knew too little about whatever loyalties might exist in such situations. If this were Fleet, those overtones in Sam’s voice would belong to the trustworthy NCO of a good officer. But he could hardly imagine his Auntie Q as a good officer. Or could he? And why was Madame Flaubert here, if neither Auntie Q nor her faithful servant wanted her?
“Well. You can scarcely object to my seeking healing for him.”
“As long as that’s all it is.” Sam’s voice had flattened slightly. Warning? Fear?
“Those who live by violence die of its refuse,” Madame Flaubert intoned. Ford felt something fragile touch his face, and had just decided it was a scarf or veil when Madame Flaubert drew it away. “I see pain in this aura. I see violence and grief. I see the shadow of wickedness in the past, and its unborn child of darkness ...” Her voice had taken on a curious quality, not quite musical, that seemed to bore into Ford’s head and prevent thought. He could almost feel himself floating on it, as if it were a heavy stream of honey.
“What’re you trying to do, make him feel guilty?” Sam’s voice cut through hers and Ford felt as if he’d been dropped bodily from several feet up. A spasm went through his foot; he felt the covers drag at it.’ Before Madame Flaubert could move, Sam’s strong hands were kneading it, relaxing the cramp.
“Don’t touch him!” she said. “You’ll interfere with the healing flow, if it comes at all with you here.”
“He’s been still too long. He needs massage.” Where Sam’s hands rubbed, Ford felt warmth, felt he could almost move himself.
“Impossible!” Her hand left his shoulder; he heard the rustle as she stood. “I can’t be expected to do anything with you treating his legs like bread dough, stirring his aura, mixing the signs. When you’re quite finished, you will have the kindness to inform me! If
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he’s still alive, that is.” An odd sound followed, a complex rustle, then she said, “And I’ll leave this protective symbol with him.”
It was cold on his forehead, icy cold that struck straight into his brain; his breath came short. But she was leaving, the rustle diminishing, and he heard the door open and close. Instantly a warm hand removed the thing, whatever it was, and a warm finger pried up one eyelid. He could see, somewhat to his surprise. Sam’s face stared down at him. The man shook his head.
“You’re a sick man, and no mistake. You should never have tried to outfox your great-aunt, laddie . . . you aren’t in her league.”
Chapter Five
“This was not a good idea,” muttered one of the medical team as they stumped wearily off the shuttle at Dipfo’s only fully-equipped port. Lunzie didn’t care who’d said it: she agreed. Her variable-pressure-support garment clasped her like an allover girdle. When the control circuitry worked correctly, it applied a pressure gradient from toes to neck without impeding joint movement . . . much. Over it, she wore the recommended outerwear for Diplo’s severe winter, light and warm on a one-G world, but (she grumbled to herself) heavy and bulky here. She could feel her feet sinking into the extra-thick padded bootliners they had to wear, every separate bone complaining slightly of the extra burden.
“Winter on Diplo,” said Conigan, waving a padded arm at the view out the round windows of the terminal. Wind splashed a gout of snow against the building and it shuddered. Snow, Lunzie reminded herself, would feel more like sleet or hail. Their shuttle had slewed violently in the storm coming in. She had heard something rattle on the hull.
At least they were through Customs. First on the orbiting Station, and then in the terminal, they’d been scrutinized by heavyworlders who might have been
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chosen to star in lightweight nightmares. Huge, bulky, their heavy faces masks of hostility and contempt, their uniforms emphasizing bulging muscle and bulk, they’d been arrogantly thorough in their examination of the team’s authorization and equipment. Lunzie felt a momentary rush of terror when she realized how openly arrogant these heavyworlders were, but her Discipline reasserted itself, and she had relaxed almost at once. They had done nothing yet but be rude, and rudeness was not her concern.
But that rudeness made the minimal courtesy shown them now seem almost welcoming. A cargo van for their gear, the offer of a ride to the main research facility. None of them felt slighted that their escort was only a graduate student and not, as it should have been, one of the faculty.
If Lunzie had hoped that Diplo had not yet heard about her experience on Ireta, she was soon undeceived. The graduate student, having checked their names on a list, actually smiled at her.
“Dr. Lunzie? Or do you use Mespil? You’re the one who’s had all the coldsleep experience, right? But the heavyworlders in that expedition put you under, didn’t they?”
Lunzie had not discussed her experience much with the others on the team; she was conscious of their curiosity.
“No,” she said, as calmly
as if discussing variant ways of doing a data search. “I was the doctor; I put our lightweights under.”
“But there were heavyworlders on Ireta ...” the student began. He was young, by his voice, but his bulky body made him seem older than his years.
“They mutinied,” Lunzie said, still calmly. If he had heard die other, he should have heard that. But perhaps the Governor had changed the facts to suit his people.
, “Oh.” He gave her a quick glance over his shoulder before steering the van into a tunnel. “Are you sure? There wasn’t some mistake?”
The others were rigidly quiet. She could tell they
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wanted her version of the story, and didn’t want her to tell it here. The graduate student seemed innocent, but who could tell?
“I can’t talk about it,” she said, trying for a tone of friendly firmness. “It’s going to trial, and I’ve been told not to discuss it until afterwards.”
“But that’s Federation law,” he said airily. “It’s not binding here. You could talk about it here, and they’d never know.”
Lunzie suppressed a grin. Graduate students everywhere! They never thought the law was binding on them, not if they wanted to know something. Of course, it might be that the rest of Diplo felt that way about Federation law, which was something the FSP suspected, but just as likely it was pure student curiosity.
“Sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “I promised, and I don’t break promises.” Only after it was out, did she remember something Zebara had repeated as a heavyworkler saying: Don’t break promises! Break bones! She shivered. She had no intention of breaking bones—or having her own broken—if she could avoid it.
Their first days on Diplo were a constant struggle against the higher gravity and the measures they took to survive it. Lunzie hated the daily effort to worm her way into a clean pressure garment, the intimate adjustments necessary for bodily functions, the clinging grip that made her feel trapped all the time. Discipline could banish in her some of the fatigue that her colleagues, Tailler and Bias felt, at least for awhile, so that her fingers did not slip on the instruments or tremble when she ate. But by the end of a working day they were all tired, and trying not to be grumpy.
To add to their discomfort, Diplo’s natural rotation and political “day,” were just enough longer than standard to exhaust them, without justifying adherence to Standard measures.
Lunzie found the research fascinating, and had to remind herself that her real reason for coming had nothing to do with heavyworlder response to coldsleep. Especially as she only had a limited time to make contact with Zebara. She had been able to establish that
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he was still alive, and on Diplo. Contacting him might be difficult and enlisting his aid was problematic. But Zebara was the only option. He’d be at least 80, she reminded herself, even if living on ships and low-G worlds would have improved his probable life expectancy. They had trusted each other at one point: would that old trust suffice for the information she required of him? If, that is, he was in a position to help at all.
At the end of the first week, the team had its first official recognition: an invitation to a formal reception and dance at the Governor’s Palace. The team quit work early. Lunzie spent an hour soaking in a hot tub before she dressed. The need to wear pressure garments constantly meant that “formal dress” for the women would be more concealing than usual. Lunzie had packed a green gown, long-sleeved and high-necked, that covered the protective garment but clung to her torso. Wide-floating skirts hung unevenly in Diplo’s heavy gravity. She’d been warned, so this had only enough flare to make walking and dancing easy. She looked in her mirror and smiled. She looked more fragile than she was, less dangerous: exactly right.
The team gathered in Tailler’s room to await then-transport to the festivities. Lunzie asked about the Governor’s compound.
“It is a palace,” said Tailler, who had been there before. “It’s under its own dome, so they could use thinner plexi in the windows. With the gardens outside, colorful even in this season. It’s a spectacle. Of course, the resources used to make it all work are outrageous, considering the general poverty.”
“It wasn’t so bad before,” Bias interrupted. “After all, it’s the recent population growth that makes resources so short.”
Tailler frowned. “They’ve been hungry a long time, Bias. Life on Diplo’s never been easy.”
“But you have to admit they don’t seem to mind. They certainly don’t blame the Governor.”
“No, and that’s what’s unfair. They blame us, the Federation, when it’s their own waste—“
“Shhh.” Lunzie thought she heard someone in the
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corridor outside. She waited; after a long pause, someone knocked on the door. She opened it to find a uniformed heavyworlder, resplendent in ribbons and medals and knots of gold braid. She could read nothing on that expressionless face, but she had a feeling that he had heard at least some of what had been said.
“If you’re ready, we should leave for the Palace,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Lunzie. She could hear the others gathering their outer wraps. Her own silvery parka was in her hand.
Within the dome, the Governor’s Palace glittered as opulently as promised. Around it, broad lawns and forma! flowerbeds glowed in the light of carefully placed spotlights. The medical team walked on a narrow strip of silvery stuff that looked like steel mesh, but felt soft underfoot, like carpet. A news service crew turned blinding lights on them as they came to the massive doors and the head of the receiving line.
“Smile! You’re about to be famous,” muttered Bias.
Lunzie had not anticipated this, but smiled serenely into the camera anyway. Others blinked away from the light and missed the first of many introductions. Lunzie grinned to herself, hearing them stumble in their responses. Such lines were simple, really, as long as you remembered to alternate any two of the five or six acceptable greeting phrases and smile steadily. By the time she was halfway down the line, well into the swing of it, with “How very nice” and “So pleased to meet you,” tripping easily off her lips, the back of her mind was busy with commentary.
Why, she wondered, did the heavyworlder women try to copy lightweight fashions here, when everywhere else on Diplo they wore garments far better suited to their size and strength. Formal gowns could have been designed for them, taking into account the differences in proportion. But no heavyworlder should wear tight satin with flounces at the hip, or a dress whose side slit looked as if it had simply given way from internal pressure.
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One of the men—the Lieutenant Governor, she noted as she was introduced and put her hand into his massive fist—had also opted for lightweight high fashion. And if there was anything sillier than a massive heavyworlder leg with a knot of hot pink and lime-green ribbons at the knee, she could not imagine it. The full shirt with voluminous sleeves made more sense, but those tight short pants! Lunzie controlled herself with an effort and moved on down the line. The Governor himself wore more conservative dark blue, the sort of coverall that she’d seen so much of since she arrived.
Refreshments covered two long tables angled across the upper corners of the great hall. Lunzie accepted a massive silver goblet of pale liquid from a servant and sipped it cautiously. She’d have to be careful, nurse it along, but she didn’t think it was potent enough to drop her in her tracks. She took a cracker with a bit of something orange on it and two green nubbins that she hoped were candy, and passed on, smiling and nodding to the heavyworlders around her. Besides the medical team, the only lightweights were the FSP consul and a few consulate staff.
She recognized some of the heavyworlders: scientists and doctors from the medical center where they’d been working. These clumped together to talk shop, while the political guests—high government officials, members of the Diplo Parliament (which Lunzie had heard was firmly under the Governor’s broad thumb)—d
id a great deal of “mingling.”
Hie green nubbins turned out to be salty, not sweet, and the orange dollop on the cracker was not cheese at all, but some land of fruit. Across the room a premonitory squawk from an elevated platform warned of music to come. Lunzie could not see over the taller shoulders around her. As the room filled, she felt more and more like a child who had sneaked into a grownup party.
“Lunzie!” That was the Lieutenant Governor, his Wide white sleeves billowing, the ribbons at his knee jiggling. He took her free hand in his. “Let me introduce you to my niece, Colgara.”
Colgara was not as tall as her uncle, but still taller
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than Lunzie, and built along the usual massive lines. Her pale yellow dress had rows of apricot ruffles down both sides and a flounce of apricot at the hem. She bowed over Lunzie’s hand. The Lieutenant Governor went on, patting his niece on the shoulder.
“She wants to be a doctor, but of course that’s just adolescent enthusiasm. She’ll marry the Governor’s son in a year, when he’s back from ...” His voice trailed away as someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned away, and the two men began to talk.
Lunzie smiled at the girl who towered over her. “So? You’re interested in medicine?”
“Yes. I have done very well at my studies.” Colgara swiped at the ruffles down the side of her dress, a nervous gesture that made her seem a true adolescent. “I—I wanted to come see your team at work, but you are too busy, I know. Uncle said you must not be bothered, and besides I am not to go to medical school.” She glowered at that, clearly not through fighting for it.
Lunzie was not sure how to handle this. The last thing she needed was to get involved in a family quarrel, particularly a family of this rank. But the girl looked so miserable.