by P H Campbell
"I can do that!" Looie declared as she hopped up from her cushion and headed into the comm room where the computers could crunch the numbers.
"She likes math," Ash mused as she watched her sister sashay out of the room. "And she's better at it than I am. But don't tell her I said that."
"My lips are sealed," Seren chuckled.
A few moments later, Ash came out, looking puzzled.
"I have the numbers, but it's really hard to count the leading zeros on it," she announced, handing Seren the tablet.
Seren looked at the number, and realized it was a fraction, and a minuscule one at that.
"Maybe using the total estimated value of the findings out there isn't the best way of doing that," Seren suggested. "How many ships the size of this one would it take to cover your expenses and fee?"
"More math," Looie declared and raced back to the comm room.
"She's very energetic, isn't she?" Seren observed.
"We both are," Ash admitted. "I'm just better at self restraint. It's the Methonian side of me."
Another moment later, Ash returned and said, "Six full holds of an average aggregate of minerals available will cover it, including the hired help, food and lodging."
"We'll add that as part of the payment terms," Seren nodded in agreement. "That way, you're not out anything for running us around and making sure we don't starve, and can collect your payment directly."
"You trust us to not take more than that?" Seren's seemingly open-ended permission to mine whatever kind of metal they wanted shocked Looie.
"Uh, Looie?" Ash poked her sister for her attention. "I don't think it's quite as open-ended as you think it is. If we make any agreements, there will be other people around to make sure we keep to our agreement."
Seren smiled, knowing that Ash was the more discerning of the two, and would understand the situation better than her sister, who seemed to be oblivious to how things would likely pan out for all of them.
Looie thought about that, shrugged and replied, "I'm okay with that. I was just surprised she'd trust us that much."
"You've explained how your system works well enough for me to know that if you go over what our deal is by too much…," Seren trailed off, leaving the unstated consequences to the imaginations of the other two.
Looie had to admit the Shade Alliance was, well, shady at the best of times, but they had a system which mostly worked most of the time. And she knew what the Shade did to people who broke contracts.
"This will help our people, too – assuming we can just behave," Ash added to what Seren had said. "Seren's good people. She's actually our kind of people. My loyalty to the Shade doesn't mean I can't hire out to be loyal to her, as long as my doing that right helps the Shade, too. The same goes for you. And we both get some very nice things out of it to boot. I can behave. Can you?"
Looie knew her sister was correct.
"Usually," she allowed, adding seriously, "Just don't get me drunk. I'm completely irresponsible when I'm drunk."
"That much is true," Ash nodded to Seren.
"Then you get to keep tabs on her alcohol intake," Seren advised Ash with a grin. "I'll put it in the contract."
"Not a problem," Ash accepted.
The three fleshed out the terms and conditions, laying it all down. Seren was specific in her conditions, and liberal in her payment. She knew that the only place their payment would go was to the Shade and expected nothing else. The Twins would take their cut off the proceeds one way or the other, and that was between them and the Shade. She already had a tentative plan ready to make sure the rest of the galaxy would not take advantage of The World. It remained to be seen if either side benefited the most from it.
Based on the details of the UGW deal with the Shade Alliance, and how that had worked out over the years, Seren expected the UGW would be up front, but wouldn't be forthcoming with detail, and wouldn't mention things that probably should be part of any negotiation. Like the treaty negotiation with the Shade, the deal said they could expand into unclaimed areas, but they said nothing in the treaty about claiming areas before the Shade could claim them.
That told Seren it would be important to be both specific and detailed when dealing with them. They were all nuance and concealment, without being overtly dishonest. She didn't condemn the UGW for that. She wondered why the Shade didn't notice the issues from the beginning.
The Shade would be dishonest, unless it was in their best interests to be honest, as long as being honest cost them less than the trouble they'd get into in being dishonest and getting away with it.
Seren understood both sides, more than they realized, but wanted to be sure about her impressions before she chose which side to go with.
"You've got a plan, don't you?" Ash accused Seren.
"Of course I do," Seren nodded. At their expressions, she added reassuringly, "I'm not out to screw over anyone. And I don't want to be screwed over by anyone. If we're all fair, honest, and reasonable then whichever side we pick can come to an agreement without too much problem in a way that helps everyone. That's why I need someone who's loyal who will tell me when something's not right, and point out how it's messed up, regardless of who's doing it.
"Failing loyalty, then I rely on friendship, and knowing the motives of those involved, so I don't tempt them to do things they'd later regret. I'd like for us to be friends first. I get where you two come from, at least to the extent of what motivates you. And I promise you I will work as much as I can to be as fair, honest and reasonable as I'm treated. I don't decide alone, though. That's why even if we can be friends, I need bodyguards and advisers and drivers and people I can trust, and that all falls on you two."
"Why us?" Looie wanted to know.
"She's got our number," Ash shrugged. "She knows we can be mercenary about things – especially you. She knows I'm more reasonable and even-minded. She knows what makes us tick. And she wants to wind our clocks to keep us ticking for her."
"If the Shade gets screwed over…" Looie warned.
'It'll be their own fucking fault,' Ash told her through mindspeech.
Looie's indignation faded. She knew all too well that was true.
"The question, really, isn't so much whether you're loyal to me, or if I trust you," Seren pointed out. "It's whether you think I'm out to screw anyone else at all, including you two."
"There are so many wrong ways to interpret that…" Looie grinned.
"I think she's just like us," Ash asserted. "She's defending her family. Just like we are."
Looie gave that some thought and decided Ash got it right.
"So, we know where we all stand," Seren shrugged. "With your help, that means my world can negotiate for services rendered in a way we all can live with, and decide what those services will be, and be sure we'll all live up to the agreement."
"That sounds reasonable," Looie admitted.
"I'm always reasonable, until I'm pissed off," Seren told her. "Then I have a reputation for being very unreasonable."
"Which one of us needs to make sure you don't get pissed off?" Ash wondered.
"I'll let you two work that out between you," Seren grinned.
"Any hints how to make you unpissed?" Looie casually inquired.
"If you have a spare Electrian in need of being thrown fifty meters, that usually helps calm me down," Seren replied.
The two looked at her.
"Fifty meters?" Looie whispered to Ash.
"I think she's serious," Ash whispered to Looie.
"That's what scares me about her," Looie whispered back.
"Prevention is the best remedy," Seren assured them. "I haven't been pissed off enough to toss an Electrian in years."
For the people on Seren's personal list of potential delegates to accompany her on her tour of the two galactic powers, everyone she had contacted showed a strong interest to join her.
Although Koreen had dropped Seren a message saying they were back, she'd not talked with them yet.
That was partially because of Seren being all over the map dealing with the Spacers. The other part was that she could barely even see Sasha, let alone anyone else no matter how close.
So Seren deliberately tracked down both Markov and Koreen to get a one on one with them, and to get introduced to their daughter Katrina.
"She takes after her dad," Seren noticed the blond hair.
"Yeah, but she's got my complexion," Koreen proudly insisted. Koreen was lighter than Markov, but not by much.
"Your message said you wanted us to accompany you on your trip around the galaxy, seeing what the two sides offer our world?" Markov broke in, knowing Koreen would talk Seren to death about Katrina if he didn't keep her on subject. "I do not oppose us going along."
"Yeah, but who's gonna watch Katrina?" Koreen asked, highlighting the biggest issue with them taking part in Seren's delegation.
"I'll check with the Twins and see what they have to say," Seren said, pulling out her pad and making the connection.
"Hi Seren," Looie quickly answered.
"Are you interested in a babysitting job?" Seren asked.
"Not unless you're okay with utterly selfish, self-centered amateur babysitters," Looie replied brightly.
The looks of confused concern on both Markov and Koreen's faces told Seren all she needed to know about their opinion.
"No, I think we'd need someone more competent," Seren declared.
"Hang on a bit and let me check stores," Looie told her. She turned away from the screen, and turned back again to say, "There's a nanny bot we can replicate for you."
"What's that?" Seren asked.
"It's a machine that most Humans get in the UGW to help them out with taking care of the baby," Looie explained.
The notion of a mechanical creation taking care of her baby both intrigued and concerned Koreen.
"I'll need ta see it, first," she insisted.
"I'll get one made today," Looie promised, the translator program taking care of Koreen's language, and vice versa. "They're reliable, but I know why you'd want to prove it to yourself."
"If you like it, you'll join us?" Seren asked her old friend.
The couple looked at one another in a silent conversation, then turned back to Seren.
"Sure," Koreen nodded, and Markov nodded his agreement.
Morlendrus was next and looked surprised when the offer was made.
"It would be my honor to accompany you," he agreed.
"I'm not putting you out, I hope," Seren smiled.
"Fortunately, the special divisions I've led during the crisis are winding down operations," he explained. "It has been a stressful year. The thought of going off-planet, even if it won't exactly be a restful period, as a chance to clear my head from the trials of the last year in preparation of going back to my former duties would be welcome."
"I'm glad you accepted, Morlendrus," Seren grinned.
It also surprised Majel to find herself as a candidate for the delegation.
"Why ya want me ta come 'long on this trip o' yers?" she asked having been told by Thoria that Seren would be by to discuss it.
"Your advice has always been sound, and you know our people better than I do," Seren shrugged. "I'd like your impressions of the places we're going from a Borderlandian point of view. I've gotten in the habit of looking at things from a wider perspective.
"Besides, you've been dropping hints that the cafe isn't doing so well."
"Oh, I got all th' credits I need," Majel waved it off.
"The council was generous buying off my apprenticeship," Seren nodded. "I twisted a few arms. But this is a good opportunity to make a big difference to our people."
"I heard 'bout that arm twistin'," Majel chuckled. Then her face grew less amused, and she said, "Truth ta tell, it's just kinda boring around here now. I could use a little change o' pace. Don't know 'bout makin' a big difference ta folks, but maybe it'll make me 'preciate what I got better."
"There's always that," Seren laughed.
Seren didn't even ask Sasha until the last of the patients were cured, or well on the mend and back home where they belonged. Because of the enormous number of them, it had taken a little under a two quads, instead of the two days Dr. Treah had expected, but that was mostly because of the logistics on The World's side of bringing the critically ill to the portal and readying them for transportation. Had the transportation gone faster, the two-day estimate would have probably been correct.
Sasha had a mixed reaction to the offer which surprised Seren.
"I'd love to, but I'm almost wanting to say no," she told Seren.
"Why?" Seren wondered.
"Think about it," Sasha challenged her lover. "I've been on this planet for almost no time at all, and almost all that time I've either been fighting an illness or dying of it. I haven't even gotten my bearings here, let alone be in any shape to think about other places."
"You and nine hundred other Colonists," Seren pointed out. "You're lost, confused, and don't have your bearings. That's why I want to drag you across the galaxy. You share that point of view with so many others who should have a say in their future."
"True," Sasha had to admit. "Does this mean you and I'll have some quality time together?"
"From what I've been told it takes a few days or quads to get from place to place, so I expect so," Seren gave her a knowing grin and added, "We'll each have our own personal quarters."
"I'm in," Sasha quickly agreed.
Within eighteen days of the Spacers' arrival, Seren and the rest were free of their crisis duties and ready to go on their next adventure.
The Council then told her who they had each selected. The Electrians sent a middle-aged male with an Electrian's usual cumbrous, lengthy and overly pretentious title. Everyone ignored it and just called him by his given name, "Gliff". The Magentians sent someone Seren was familiar with – her mother, Walentia.
Finally, the Borderlandians sent a light-eyed Electrian Breed who seemed unusually familiar to Seren, though she couldn't place his name or remember where she might have met him. They introduced him as Ronik.
"We done met once," Ronik admitted to Seren as he introduced himself to the group aboard the Twin's ship.
"I thought so," Seren concurred, "but I'm sorry, I don't remember when or where."
"Ya probably wouldn't," Ronik chuckled amiably. "T'was about five or six years ago, and I made Master Armbreaker a pile o' credits when ya threw me seventy paces one night after I done got uppity with one o' th' barmaids."
The group who spoke Common stopped and looked at Seren. This was all new information to most of them.
"Oh, that was after they hired me as a bouncer at the Dip 'n Gulp, and he began bets with the patrons how far I could throw someone," Seren nodded. "Seventy paces you say?"
"Full flight was sixty, and I rolled the other ten," Ronik admitted.
"I must have been more moody than usual that night," Seren confessed.
Ash and Looie had to get the translation of the conversation from the computer, though Markov followed it well enough, having more familiarity with Common thanks to Koreen.
"There are levels to you that defy reason, Seren," he mentioned.
"I'm always reasonable," Seren remarked brightly. "I can't help it if the universe isn't."
"Ya knocked some sense inta me, though," Ronik continued. "I went home, sobered up, an' figured if a youngster could do what ya did, I could do better'n what I'd been doin'."
"I didn't break anything, did I?" Seren asked. She recalled tossing rowdy customers, but never checked on them after they stopped rolling as long as they eventually got up on their own. Everyone she tossed had done so.
The Borderlandians bred a hardy people.
"Just broke a misplaced pride," Ronik assured her. "I ain't got no quarrels with ya. I'm a better person'n I was back then, thanks to ya."
"If you need to be thrown again, just let me know," Seren told him with a wink.
"Ha!" Ronik laug
hed. "Once was enough."
The others in the delegation, except the three she knew before Day of the Southern Sunrise, regarded Seren with bemused expressions.
Seren blithely ignored them.
"This is an unusually balanced mix of people," Markov observed of the group. "A male and a female of each society, plus you, Seren."
"I requested five of you, and the council filled in the rest, after I suggested they might want someone who wasn't a personal acquaintance," Seren replied. "I didn't expect the Magentians to pick Walentia, though."
"Padentrus is occupied with Council matters," Walentia explained. "The rest of the council demurred, and I was available."
"How many of these people do you know?" Looie asked Seren.
"All of them except Gliff," Seren admitted. "I don't believe we've ever met. And I don't know Ronik that well, even if we briefly met once. Walentia's my birth mother, Majel is my adoptive mother, Koreen is a dear friend, Markov is also a friend, and father to Koreen's child, Morlendrus is a trusted adviser and family, and you know about Sasha."
"Do you trust them?" Looie inquired.
"I trust all of them to look out for their interests," Seren replied. "Most of them I trust with my life."
"I'm going to have to start taking lessons from you in answering questions honestly without saying anything revealing," Looie observed.
"Not unless you want a career as a diplomat," Seren grinned.
"No, then I'd have to learn discretion, and that isn't me," Looie admitted.
"I used to be about as discrete as a battle tractor, and look at me now," Seren replied.
The others in the group had to read the translations of the conversation, since it switched between Common and English at the drop of a hat. Fortunately, they were all familiar with the pad which made following the conversation relatively simple. The Twins had offered newer translation devices to them, but they required proximity to the newer tech the Spacers had. The Pads also acted as readers and had other handy features the translation devices didn't offer. The Pads also didn't rely on a connection to anywhere else to do the work they could do.
With the delegation set, it remained to settle on the itinerary of places they'd go. The first thing the delegation decided by mutual agreement was that they'd visit examples of how each side lived. After some haggling, they agreed that they'd only visit three planets per side. The Twins had some bearing on that, helping the delegation understand what the travel times involved in the endeavor were likely to be.