by Mark Wandrey
“You don't understand everything, Chosen.”
“Then we have more in common than I thought, First.” It took a phenomenal effort of will not to slam his door with her right arm hard enough to require a work crew to get it open.
* * *
“I don’t want you to go there.” Her daughter’s voice sounded like she was in Minu's small office in Steven's Pass instead of thousands of kilometers away in space.
“Lilith, it's the logical thing to do.”
“They might have spotted me. If they did, they would expect you to show up like this.”
“The Tog saved our people. Of all the myriad crazy species in the galaxy, they are the only one that I know is on our side.”
“Then why have they hidden the fact that they have starships from you?”
“They've probably hidden a lot from us. The damn Concordia is nothing but secrets.”
Minu glanced out the window. A hawk was lazily riding a thermal high above. The more of them moved into the deep woods, the less common howlers became. Would the noisy lizards be extinct one day like the little scrubber lizards and the moss they used to feed on? Would anyone miss them?
“More like lies.”
“So work on shedding some light on those lies.”
“I am. Pip is coming up tomorrow to help me.”
“I thought he was on leave with his son?” Minu asked.
“He said he is tired of the child and wants to come see me.”
Minu sighed and decided on a side trip. “Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.”
“I'm not worrying.”
Minu smiled. The glimmers of humanity were becoming more common as the years went by. “Tell you what, if you don't hear from my little FTL crystal walkie-talkie in more than twenty-three hours, you zip to Herdhome and pull my bacon out of the fire.” She tapped the crystal implanted behind her ear for emphasis.
“Very well. Twenty-three hours.”
Minu made a mental note not to forget, no matter what. She had no idea what her daughter would do if she turned up missing. Would the young girl lay siege to Herdhome? And if she did, would it bother her how many died?
* * *
An hour later she was standing outside a nondescript apartment on the east side of Tranquility. She'd only been here a couple times in the last six years. For a lot of reasons. She took a deep breath and rang the announcement bell. A second later Pip opened the door. He looked annoyed.
“Well you are the last person I expected just now.” A young voice screamed defiance inside.
“I can see why. May I come in?”
“I warn you, it’s not pretty.” Minu shrugged and slid by him.
The flat was no more than seventy-five square meters, and modest by almost any definition of the word. It was appointed as he'd rented it, two small couches, an old tattered easy chair, four seat dinette by the window on the far side of the room and a brace of cheesy pictures completed the ensemble. A four-year-old boy was sitting in one of the dinette’s chairs, various bits and pieces of food strewn about the area. He was taking drinks of milk and spitting it onto the table.
“I've seen worse,” Minu lied. She walked over to the little boy and knelt. “Don't you like the food?” The boy took a mouthful of milk. “Now don't—”
SPLURT! Right in her face.
“You've seen worse, huh?”
“Maybe it’s been a while.” She plucked a towel from the table and wiped her face.
Pip shook his head and shrugged. “Leonard, please finish your lunch.”
“I hate macaroni.”
“I didn't ask you if you liked it. I told you to eat it.”
“NO!”
Minu got up and went into the little kitchen, wiping the last of the milk from her face as she walked. Once there she went through the fridge and cabinets before returning to the table. Pip just watched as she sat opposite the little boy. Leonard looked a lot like his father, thin figure with narrow face, black hair, and green eyes. There was little sign of the mousy blond hair of his mother, and he was too young for acne. Leo, as he liked to be called, watched her intently as she sat down, pulling the remnants of his milk closer for a possible follow-up shot. “I bet you like strawberries, don't you?”
“Poppa won't let me have any more.”
“Well, I'm not poppa,” she told him with a conspiratorial smile. The boy beamed and smiled back. Pip gave her a less than pleased look.
“I told him he'd had too much fruit already today.”
“Sometimes with a child you have to win when you can.” She filled a bowl with fruit, cheese slices, and crackers then slid it across the table. Leo glanced at it suspiciously, instantly noticing the pair of strawberry slices sitting on top. Without further hesitation he abandoned the milk, scooped up the bowl, and went to town.
“But,” Pip said.
Minu stood up, put a finger to her lips to silence him, and then led him away towards the living room area. Once out of earshot she continued. “That bowl only has one strawberry sliced up.” He looked back over his shoulder to see his son digging through the bowl. Occasionally he would put aside a chip or a piece of cheese, but often they magically ended up in his mouth, along with the odd slice of strawberry.
Pip nodded his head in appreciation. “You always were good at unconventional tactics.”
“Mother’s instinct.”
“I guess I can buy that. You didn't come here to help me feed my troublesome child.” Pip led her to the little notch in the wall. It was intended as a place to put entertainment electronics, Pip used it as his office. The desk wedged in there was piled high with tablets and data chips.
“Lilith spotted another starship yesterday.”
Now that she had his full attention she described the events in full.
“I was wondering why she wanted me to come up and help her.”
“And you were more than willing to ditch your kid.”
He looked back at where Leo was finishing off his snack. He looked a great deal more satisfied, and the fact that Minu had done it so easily made frustration flash across his face. “I'm not cut out to be a parent.”
“Then why did you become one?”
“Cynthia wanted it so badly.”
“Want doesn't equate to need.”
Pip shrugged. “Who knew I'd be a worse parent than I was a husband.”
“Cynthia said you were a little over the top… sexually.”
Pip turned away and looked at his pile of computers. “I can't help myself.”
“You could try.”
“I do. She was my wife. She was supposed to do whatever I want, right?”
“How delightfully Rusk of you.”
His head spun around, a little flash of anger on his face. Throwing his heritage back at him was a low blow, but Minu let it stand. “You Plateau girls are more liberated than we're used to, I guess.”
“You were a perfect gentleman at one time, Pip.”
“That was a long time ago, and one plastic dart in the past, I guess.”
Minu looked at him for a long moment in which he held her gaze without blinking. Eventually she nodded her head. “We've all changed in some ways. It's just sad that there is a child and a woman’s broken heart involved.”
“Collateral damage. I've learned my lesson. There are plenty of girls who'll do what I want for credits, and I don't have to worry about another one of those.”
“Damn it, Pip.” Again he shrugged. “Okay, whatever. So when you go up to work with Lilith you'll know what's going on.”
A nod.
“Any luck with the Weavers?”
“Not to speak of. Of course I could have a breakthrough tomorrow, or a century from now,” he said.
“Let’s hope it’s the former. Oh, one more thing, Pip.”
“Sure.”
“Touch my daughter and I'll kill you.”
Pip searched her face for a smile and found none. “I'd never do that.”
�
�As long as we understand each other?” He nodded his head. “Good.”
Minu spent an hour talking with Pip about her trip to Herdhome. When Leo had finished the bowl of food he climbed down from the chair and trundled over to a footlocker near the window. Inside he removed some toys, cars and trucks mostly, and began to quietly play. He was methodical in his play, carefully controlling every movement of his toys and how they interacted with each other. There Minu saw another similarity to her friend. “Does he ever say anything about the plate in your head?”
“He likes to knock on it like a door when I put him to bed.”
“That's cute,” she said.
“Yeah, except it makes me a little dizzy.”
“Why don't you cover that thing up with prosthetic flesh?”
“It’s part of who I am.” Minu just nodded. Her right hand still only had four fingers. It too was part of who she was.
“Who knows how many species have starships? It really changes the dynamics of politics in the Concordia.”
“Only from our perspective,” Pip reminded her. “Jacob came to me last year talking about a mission to Enigma to get more of those ships.”
“That would be foolhardy at best, insane at the worst.”
“Exactly what I told him. Even though I wasn't conscious for the first part of the mission, I knew that the system carried a heavy T'Chillen presence. The only reason things have been so quiet is because the snakes blamed the Rasa for pilfering one of their toys.”
“A fact that I am not proud of.”
“The Rasa don't blame us for that. I've talked to Var'at enough to know it. They, the Rasa, have always played the Concordian game hot and hard. He said they'd almost been obliterated a dozen times in their history. It's the price you pay for wanting power in the Concordia. There are only so many seats at the top.”
“And lots of room at the bottom.”
A short time later he was showing her to the door. “Be careful, Minu. The Tog might seem to be our benevolent protectors, but they're still a higher order species of the Concordia. Remember what the Rasa probably went through trying to get there.”
“It looks like the Tog have been there all along.” Minu thought that she already knew the Tog were not guilt free. The memory of being told that her mother and father were forced to marry was never far from her thoughts.
As Pip opened the door it revealed Cynthia standing there, her hand frozen in reaching for the bell.
“Hi,” Minu said.
“Hello, been a while.” Minu nodded and looked uncomfortable. “I was coming to get Leo. Pip said he had to go work on a project.”
“Something is going on,” Minu told her, “I'm sorry I can't talk about it.”
Cynthia had grown up in the five years they’d been gone on their rescue mission, and continued to mature in the six years since they'd returned. Now a twenty-eight year old woman, she'd left her young soft body behind.
There were still traces of the acne that had haunted her, and she still had short mousy hair, but she was a good-looking woman in her own right with a well-shaped full figure. She wore the now common loose cut jumpsuit civilian designers had modeled after the Chosen uniform, well accessorizing it with a colorful sash and a ribbon in her hair.
She took in the fact that Minu wore her jet black uniform and nodded in reply. “I understand. I was married to a Chosen, if only for a short time.” She didn't try to hide the bitterness from her voice, but it didn't drip like it had in years gone by. Minu had brought back Pip as she'd asked, but it wasn't the same shy and retiring kid she'd expected. Minu was at the wedding when things seemed to be going so well. And saw him after the divorce only a year later.
“Well I better go. Take care.”
“Good bye, Minu.”
As she went down the short flight of stairs towards where she'd parked her car, Minu could hear Leo yelling. “Momma! The pretty lady gave me strawberries!”
Chapter 5
Julast 17th, 533 AE
Human Liaison Office, Capital City, Herdhome, Tog Leasehold
It had been three weeks since she'd last set foot in the little office on Herdhome, and nothing had moved from where she'd left it. Out the window in the distance was one of the seemingly endless plains of swaying grassy marshes only dimly visible under the bluish anemic sunlight.
Herdhome had almost no axial tilt, producing a growing season that never ended. Armed with the information she'd learned from Lilith, now she understood a little better that this wasn't just a perfectly suitd leasehold for the Tog, this was where they'd evolved. It was their home world.
The planet was once bathed in perpetual gloom from cloud cover and volcanic action. When they'd learned science and climbed from the swamps the Tog altered their world into a bountiful paradise. And then joined the Concordia on an equal footing, not as refugees like the humans they'd rescued.
Now in her office once again, she sat in the comfortable seat and started to put together a list of questions she'd ask. Planning the strategy she'd use was one of the hardest parts. It was something she'd been working on for almost every waking moment since she'd decided to come here. The plan Jacob had provided was carefully stored in a garbage can back on Bellatrix. Her own plan was more intricate, and more dangerous. Unfortunately she wouldn't have time to think on it any more.
“Welcome back, Chosen Alma.”
Minu looked up to see a Tog standing in the doorway. She'd naturally seen thousands since coming through the Portal Spire an hour ago, but this one was instantly recognizable by its color patterns and way hse cocked hser head in an almost human expression.
“Thank you, P'ing, but it is Groves now.” The head tilt became more pronounced. “I have not seen you in my duties here in years. I have since married.”
“Oh, this is good news. Our Chosen fail to reproduce far too often. It is a good thing that they reproduce.”
Minu felt her face turning red and coughed. Oh, she'd reproduced alright. “I'm glad you came by, I was hoping to talk to you.”
“Of course, that is why you are here days ahead of your schedule.” Hse gestured with a single finger at the two stars on her sleeve. “Your new rank ended your assignment here, we were informed by our First, yet you continue to come back for years now and have not requested a replacement.”
Minu looked into those almond shaped black-on-black eyes and tried to ken what was going on in that powerful brain. Some words from her father's journal came back to her. “Never for a minute assume you know what a Tog is thinking!”
“I am indeed here for a specific reason, but first I'd like to ask you a question.”
“You have been a powerful servant to the Tog, please ask.”
Interesting qualifier, she thought. “How old are you?”
P'ing was silent for a moment and Minu wondered if she'd crossed some cultural taboo. Almost nothing was known of Tog culture, or if they really had one at all. Then hse answered. “I am six hundred, ninety two years in reference to your world.”
Naturally Minu was stunned. But the ancient Tog wasn't done.
“In this body.”
“This body? I'm sorry Concordia master, I don't understand.”
“There is a basic fact of our species that you have never been told of. There are only two hundred, fifty five unique individual Tog. We reproduce through a process known as budding. Two individuals exchange genetic material, which includes chemically coded memory engrams, and one then gives birth to the new young Tog. A very long time ago as we became fully sapient, and perhaps as part of that process, those parings were more carefully limited to increase and pool memories and abilities. By the time we joined the Concordia, there were only some four hundred individuals left. That number slowly decreased to where it is now.
“The vast number of Tog you see are versions of these individuals, each with small unique qualities that will eventually be folded back into the line through selective reproduction. Some lines have many thousands of individual
s, some only a few. Often a line is specialized in an area of work or social function such as science, agriculture, or diplomacy.”
Suddenly, through the confusing shock, something made sense to Minu. How accounts of how her father spoke of P'ing seemingly in two places at once. It was not only possible but likely that just such a thing would happen if there were multiple copies of that very individual running around. “What is your specialty, P'ing? And how many of you are there?”
“Our specialty has long been diplomacy in dealing with client species such as yourself. Also we are historians and the keepers of the collective records of our species going back to the beginning. There are seven of us right now.”
Hse'd said some lines were many thousands. Yet P'ing was only seven. Lilith said the ancient records which referred to the Tog called them P'ing. “You were there, at the founding of the Concordia, with The Lost.”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember, I mean yourself, as an individual? Can you see in your mind those first species with yourself who created this galactic empire?”
“Yes.”
Minu burned to ask more questions, to push the boundaries of human knowledge back much farther, but P’ing had other plans. “Now you have asked more than one other question. Tell me why you have returned.” Minu nodded and took out a tablet from its sheath on her belt. P'ing's head moved down and instantly locked on the machine even before she turned it on. “Where did you get that?”
“This? It is just a tablet.”
“No, it is not, and you are very aware of that!”
Minu was taken aback by the rare display of emotion from the normally stoic Tog. It wasn't until she looked down at the machine that she realized it was different from the many thousands of others on Bellatrix. This one was from the Kaatan.
“I forgot,” she said silently and cursed herself for not thinking about it. The machine was noticeably slimmer than a normal tablet and made entirely of the same crystalline material as the bots on the Kaatan. She'd carried one since returning from the rescue mission and often got compliments on it back home. Usually some admirer asked where they could obtain one, or where it had come from.