by G. Howell
“She has been quite involved with you,” another said thoughtfully. “She knows you as well as any. A lot of people might be wondering just what she knows. Perhaps something overheard.”
“Perhaps something told in confidence,” another offered.
“Just pebbles of knowledge that might not seem important to you.”
Involuntarily my mind flashed back to those little lessons I’d been giving her; those English words I’d taught her; demonstrating how to use the encyclopedia and search functions on the notebook as I showed her glimpses of my world. There was a whole beach of pebbles there and it was all I could do not to let anything show in my expression.
The chairwoman inclined her head, just a little. Her eyes were amber and black, glittering in the lamplight, and her expression was as completely opaque as I’d hoped mine had been. Her tail was sweeping slowly from side to side with a metronomic regularity. “Those are things we would like to know more about,” she said. “Those, and other issues that have been raised. You know what they are?”
“That I’m a spy?” I ventured.
A couple of ears twitched. The chairwoman, however, didn’t flinch. “That was one of the considerations,” she said. “That issue, however, does seem rather unlikely. The concept of you as a spy is, quite frankly preposterous. Some may say that is what makes it so likely that you are an agent, but really that is just tying logic in knots. There are far more… subtle ways to go about intelligence gathering. And has been pointed out, spies don’t usually try and kill themselves due to emotional instabilities. It rather negates their purpose.
“No, we don’t believe you are a spy. Exactly what you are though, that remains to be seen.”
“I’ve never claimed to be anything other than what I’ve said I am.”
“We understand that. We don’t think you know what else you are.” She scratched at her jaw delicately with a single clawtip and then gestured toward the laptop. “How much of what that shows is true?”
I glanced. “What you are seeing there is an entertainment. Like a play. Not true; it never pretended to be true.”
Ears flicked back and she blinked at the frozen screen. Indiana Jones was clambering over the back of an old truck. “All of that, an entertainment?”
“It is a big business.”
“And things like that… that vehicle. That and the flying machines, they’re also fictions?”
“No. They exist. Existed. They’re quite old. They’re simply... props in the story being told. A historical fiction.”
“Huhn, and all the other plays and images on this box, how many of them are also fictions?”
“There is a mixture. That machine was a tool for my work so there is research material, but there is also entertainment: books, plays, music. There is quite a great deal stored on there.”
Another hiss of air and she tipped her head the other way. “Books and plays and music. Being able to capture a song to listen to over and over again. You see, that is part of the issue.”
“You’re with the RIAA?” I muttered under my breath.
“Was that remark relevant?” she all but snarled, her ears back, teeth bared and even her tail interrupted its smooth side to side sweeping.
“No, Ma’am,” I swallowed. Like all Rris she was so much smaller than me, but when they looked like that it just flipped a primal switch somewhere deep inside that was connected to some part of the hindbrain that remembered being hunted by things like that.
“Do you realize how serious all this is? How much trouble you have caused and are in? You are trying to make things worse?”
“Ma’am,” I ducked my head once, then met her eyes again. I saw her bristle, her jaw muscles twitch at the presumption. “Ma’am, I’m still wondering if I’m to be maimed or executed. There is a punishment worse than that?”
Her nostrils flared and for a few silent seconds her tail was motionless. “That is an interesting question,” she said quietly, in matter-of-fact tones. “If you keep along those trails you may just find out.”
“And that isn’t helping,” I said, then added, “Ma’am.”
Another second, and then her tail lashed again and she snorted. “I can see what the constable meant when he referred to your attitude. You can be your own worst enemy, you know that? Yet you have people – good people - standing for you. Strange that.”
“Perhaps they’re also good judges of character?”
One of the other tribunal members made an amused noise. The chairwoman’s ears twitched back a notch. “Usually, they are. So is his lordship. However, neither your personality nor intentions are issues at this moment. We don’t care what you think or what you fear, we only care about what you are. Do you know what that is?”
“A threat to your Guild?”
None of them flinched, and that in itself was a sign. I’d touched something there.
“Can you explain that?” she asked.
I swallowed and thought back to things I’d been told and things I hadn’t. “Your Guild charter, your authority and existence, it all relies on your reliability. The idea that the Guild might... fracture would not be a popular one.”
“The Guild has no fractures,” another of them stated, making it a fact. “That isn’t an issue.”
Anymore, I thought to myself, but out loud I just said, “Of course not,” quietly.
No, that wasn’t a problem for them, not any more. Not since... Something prodded at the back of my mind, but I didn’t have an opportunity to figure out just what it was. The spokeswoman’s eyes narrowed a little, looking at me as if she was working out just how much I did know. “No, not the Guild,” she said. “The greater peace. The effect your presence will have upon the balance between the countries, that’s what his lordship referred to.
“Since your arrival there have been...changes. We saw them, but didn’t notice just what was happening. Everyone was so focused on you, that not a great deal was paid to what was happening around you. Now we look at Shattered Water and we see things that didn’t exist only a couple of years ago. There are engines that power entire manufactories. There are new metals, new vessels on the lakes, new ideas circulating among scholars. Metal trails for steam carriages are being laid between cities; reaping machines are drawing huge harvests, doing the work of dozens in mere days and rendering the seasonal laborers superfluous.
“And what’s to come? What you show us on that machine... that’s what offered, and what would it do to our world? Being able to carry a song with you, what does that do to minstrels? The playhouses... how would they cope with people having their works available at any time? The transportation guilds, the coaches, the shipping, the hostelers, they would all would rage over private vehicles like those. And of course we’re not the only ones seeing this.”
One of the others - the one with the glasses - said, “The kingdoms of the world aren’t blind. It’s difficult for them to miss this. And what they see makes them... envious.”
“And nervous,” another Mediator added. “They see a neighbor with whom they have had past altercations arming themselves with new weapons. What are their options? Do they trust in goodwill? Do they arm themselves? Do they strike before the neighbor fully avails themselves of the new tools?”
The chairwoman spread both hands out before her. “In the past we’ve been able to gaze down a road and see where it might be taking us. These new ideas open so many trails that it’s becoming impossible to see where they may go. Perhaps it is better for us to lean with favorable winds.”
I swallowed, “Ma’am, that means you want to go with popular opinion?” I ventured.
“A,” she said.
“And that would be to... get rid of me?”
“To do something about you,” she amended. “And disposing of you is a popular option. Trite as it may so
und, we’ve found many times that the popular option is not always the best. Although, there are times when it can seem an expedient technique.”
I bit my lip. Was she getting political? “You’re saying... his lordship may be playing to popular opinion?”
“I said no such thing,” she replied.
“No,” I said. “Of course you didn’t.”
She held up a stubby finger, the claw a black crescent at the tip. “Now, disposing of you would solve a whole handful of problems. Some Guilds would clamor for a time, but after the fact there really wouldn’t be a great deal they could do, would there? There also wouldn’t be anything left that might make or tempt entities to do things they wouldn’t normally do. It would seem to be the logical and prudent course of action. However, we haven’t ever encountered a situation where removing the immediate source of trouble may potentially cause more and quite unforeseen difficulties in the long run. There are simply no precedents for such a situation.”
“Are you...” I ventured and looked from one face to another to see if there any signs that I was reading the situation correctly, “are you asking my advice?!”
“Not advice, no,” she said. “Your opinion. Can you tell us if, in your opinion, his lordship is correct in his assessment?”
I swallowed. I could tell them I was indispensable, I knew that. I could tell them they needed me and to kill me would be foolishness of the highest order. I knew that. But as I gazed around at all those impassive alien faces watching me with amber eyes, I knew that would be a lie. And I had a feeling that such a lie would be a fatal mistake
“His lordship,” I began and choked off. My hands spasmed, clenching and unclenching involuntarily. Taking a deep breath, I tried to compose myself.
“You said you haven’t had a... precedent for this,” I said, trying again.
“That’s correct.”
“My kind have. Of a sort,” I sighed and closed my eyes for a second, trying to get my train of thought in motion. When I opened my eyes again they were still there, still watching and waiting for me.
“My kind is spread all over the planet. We have been, for centuries. From before history was recorded. For all that time these various peoples were scattered. Civilizations on different continents grew and died without ever knowing of each others’ existence. They developed at their own paces, but of course some developed faster. They learned things that other peoples never did. They made discoveries and built and explored.
“And of course, inevitably, these cultures met... collided with one another. There came days when big ships of wood and metal, armed with big guns appeared off the coasts of lands whose occupants possessed only swords and stone walls. People who knew without a doubt that they were the greatest power in the world were visited by others whose empires spanned continents; to whom they were insignificant. In many instances there was fighting; in other cases trade was opened, but always when different ways of life came into contact with one another there could only be change.
“There were peoples who were devastated by that. Sometimes their world... beliefs were proven to be mistaken or outright lies by the outsiders. Sometimes the newcomers forced their way of life onto others who’d lived quite contentedly for a long time and would try to exploit them or even enslave them. Sometimes locals would try to grab what they thought they wanted from the newcomers, trying to use new knowledge to consolidate their own little power bases in their little corners of the world. Other times the locals would... go overboard? They would try to devour too much; to adopt too much of the newcomers way of life, drowning and forgetting their own world beliefs and ways of life.
“Those sorts of encounters would tend to result in nothing but grief. Especially for the locals. For the newcomers... it wasn’t such a problem. If there were difficulties, they could just leave. The locals had to live with the results, but so often just the knowledge that there was more to the world than they’d believed meant they couldn’t go back. The information was free and it was impossible to lock it away again.
“There were people, however, who struck a balance. They accepted the new knowledge. They used it as a resource, as one might use a seam of iron ore. They used it, but they kept their own... identity. They didn’t allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the new concepts. In some regards their society had to change, it was inevitable, but for the most part they kept their ways and... wove them in with the new ways to become even stronger. Some of those people are amongst the most powerful and successful nations in my world.”
“Huhn,” one of the Mediators mused. “It’s that simple?”
I felt a momentary flash of relief that he’d understood before I realized he was probably being sarcastic. “Ah... no. I think... ah, for an example, one of these nations had a very rigid and warlike internal structure. They were strong enough that they kept the initial contact at arms length. They took what they thought they needed and changed their nation. They become powerful, but they kept their old... ah... the way they thought didn’t change. They used this new knowledge as their ancestors might have, as a weapon to try and claim more and more, but they didn’t accept new… ways of thinking along with the solid artifacts. A great war was the result, greater and worse than you have ever seen. They were beaten back, their armies and navies destroyed, cities utterly flattened. They rebuilt and they changed their... focus. They are now one of the five greatest economies on my world, among hundreds of nations. What they couldn’t take by force, they bought.
“It’s not simple. I never said it could be. I’m pretty sure I’m not capable of thinking out all the complexities.”
There was another silence and they were all staring at me in a most disconcerting manner. Distaste or evaluation, I wasn’t sure. Another spoke up to ask, “You think that we are likely to be unable to handle the sort of knowledge you have?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Your kind thinks differently to mine. In some ways... you may be more resilient. I’m not sure that what applies to my kind applies to yours.”
“Thinks differently? In what ways?”
I hesitated. “Ummm, it is difficult to explain. I think... when something happens you ask yourselves ‘why did that happen?’. My kind tends to ask ‘who did that?’.”
Muzzles furrowed. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“I’m not sure I can explain it,” I ventured, dreading the idea of delving into things like religion. Humans descended from prey creatures: we fear the boogeyman in the dark. Rris descended from predators: they were the things lurking beyond the light of the fire. It does something to the mindset. “It confuses me, but I know you are different up here,” I tapped my forehead. “I can’t see exactly what will happen.”
“But you don’t deny that there could be incidents. That there could be upsets and accidents.”
I carefully tipped my hand. “No. I don’t deny that. I’m certain there would be. Just as I know there would be upsets and accidents even if I weren’t here. There are always floods, fires and famine, disease and illness. I don’t want to cause any of that, but what I know might help prevent it. “
“Huhn,” one of them grunted and looked askance at the one with the glasses. He tipped his head: “A virulent illness is sweeping through a town, causing many deaths. The [something] smell is heavy in several streets and even though the buildings are cleared and opened to blow the [miasma] away, the deaths continue. Your solution?”
I bit my lip. In these societies I guessed water-borne diseases would be the largest threat, but how could I give a definite answer? Did they have cholera? Didn’t that come from India? What was their equivalent? “It is difficult to say without seeing, but illnesses are not borne by bad smells. Gas perhaps, but not illness. The smell is a... result, not a cause. Look for something else first. There are sewers or drains?”
“Sewers. There
are new sewers underground.”
“They run near water ways or wells? Look for a leak. Is there a fountain or a public water place nearby or on the water route? Did the ill get water from one of those? I would investigate that first. You would be amazed at what lives in a drop of water. Otherwise vermin such as rats or pigeons: them or their parasites can carry disease.”
He ducked his muzzle and there were some sidelong looks. The spokeswoman’s muzzle twitched, then she told me, “All those who died had visited a series of fountains fed by a single waterway. That fountain was sealed. The illness stopped until a new well was sunk. They started again. Wells in that area are now forbidden.”
“Oh,” I said. If they’d known... “How many...”
“Seventy four,” she said flatly. “Including a visiting lord. Accusations were made. It could have been prevented? Cured?”
I nodded before remembering myself and cupping my hand. “Yes. You’ll probably find a sewer was leaking or seeping into the water table.”
“Huhn,” she coughed, amber eyes locked on me like a flame.
Another spoke up: “A storm blows a convoy of ships onto shoals and destroys them. Lives and property are lost. Could they have been saved?”
Of course I hesitated, wondering both what these questions were about and how to answer it. “Ah, weather is difficult, but there’s a good chance the storm could have been...predicted in the first place,” I replied. “There are some simple tools that can do that. Not perfectly, but they can be pretty accurate.”
“Could the cargo be recovered? It is non-perishable.”
“It is... possible,” I waved a shrug. “It depends how deep, but... there are devices that can make it possible.”
I couldn’t tell what they were thinking, but that studied motionless in their ears and body language made it obvious they were thinking something. A couple of them flashed glances between themselves, then one of them waved an affirmative in an exchange that meant nothing to me.