Candidate (Selected Book 4)

by Robin Roseau

  "She is beautiful."

  "No. If this nephew of yours is going to leer at me, then find someone else."

  "What about your good parents, who will surely grow old and die?"

  "You weren't offering that price," I said. "And I bet I can get that handled, anyway, and not get leered at by some male."

  She squeaked. "You probably can, actually. There is no male cousin, and while she currently shares my household, I would expect her to establish her own household. Nearby of course. It's the space station, after all. How far away can she get?"

  "There's a base on Titan and aliens living on Earth."

  Squeaks. "Just so. But her work is on the station, and I believe she intends to stay there."

  "Except when she comes down to woo me?"

  "Yes, although I believe the excuse for the trip would be different."

  "Does she know you're trying to arrange a marriage?"

  "She asked about you."

  "About me? Specifically me? When?"

  "When she saw the video."

  I grew cold.

  "No, no, not that video. The one from the arena. Well, she's probably seen more than that by now. We talked earlier today. She asked then. I told her we were having dinner."

  "What did she ask?"

  "She just asked, I don't know. She asked about you."

  "Oh, that's a definitive answer." But I smiled. "Has she expressed interest in human women before?"

  "She's expressed interest in Catseye."

  "She's gay."

  "She is definitely, as you say, gay."

  "And you?"

  "Are flexible. She is not."

  "Do you have a picture?"

  She cocked her head, and a moment my visor told me I had new mail. I opened it and found someone who looked remarkably like Sugilite.

  "What's her name?"

  "Charoite." She sent me another email containing an image of a mottled purple gemstone. "She answers to Charo."

  "She's pretty," I said. "Would I like her?"

  "I don't know."

  "Is she smart?"

  "Brilliant."

  "What does she do?"

  "She hopes to lead a team to establish a proper colony here in human space. It is a long term project."

  "Where?"

  "That isn't determined. Possibly here on Earth. Possibly we will ask if we may have a portion of Mars. Possibly we will move something very large into Earth's L4 or L5 orbit."

  "Where are those?"

  "The same orbit, almost exactly, but 60 degrees before or after Earth's orbit. We won't do any of these without permission."

  "What does she do in the meantime?"

  "She is a multidisciplinary scientist. She studies your solar system. She likes to visit the various moons and larger asteroids."

  "The pieces she wants to move."

  "Or use to provide atmosphere and water. She could move a great many modest asteroids and then fuse them into a moon."

  "Long term project?"

  "A couple of centuries. We'd rather use a portion of Mars. Of course, we'd really rather be fully welcome on Earth."

  "What happens to her plans if we open our arms more completely?"

  "She'll figure something out."

  "She speaks English?"

  "Yes, almost as well as I do."

  "Would I be a human pet or a proper mate?"

  "A proper mate. Not a third."

  I paused then turned back to face Sugilite. "You need to decide what you want. I am not going to date her and then become your third. That is just too weird. I do not want to date you for a while if you intend to sample me, then begin dating your daughter. That is also too weird. I do not promise I will like her. I do not promise to terminate my agreement with Jasmine for her. But if you introduce her, and she asks me on dates, I would enjoy giving her an opportunity."

  "That was said far less hypothetically than our first conversation."

  "No, it wasn't, because I admitted I'd let you date me if you asked. But I'm not sure if I want to terminate my agreement for you, either. So it is what a human calls casual until I decide. If you don't like that, don't ask me out."

  "And so you are telling me to stop touching you?"

  "Oh, no. You may touch like that all you want until some other woman tells you that you have to stop."

  She squeaked. And I closed my eyes and let her touch. It felt very nice.

  * * * *

  I sent a message to Jasmine. "Call me."

  I received an incoming call seconds later. "You summoned?"

  "Like you weren't waiting for just that message," I said. "Invite me to your room. I'd rather do this in person."

  "Follow the bouncing blue lights."

  Ten minutes later had us in her living room. "You are dressed rather colorfully."

  "If it had taken you more than two minutes to call, I would have changed, before you could yell at me."

  "Of course. Do you know the significance?"

  "We had several conversations. First, she was effusive in her praise for you. Do you want details?"

  She waved a tentacle. "No, but thank you for telling me."

  "We had two hypothetical conversations. One regarded her daughter."

  "Charoite?"

  "Yes. Is she nice?"

  "She's brilliant and intense. I don't know if she is nice. I don't know her socially."

  "The other conversation covered the clothes and the concept of a Kitsune third."

  "I see," Jasmine said coldly. "Did you make promises?"

  "Yes. I promised if she introduced me to her daughter, I'd let her ask me on dates the same way I would any other female. I also told her that if Sugilite asked me on dates, I'd accept in the same fashion."

  Jasmine snuffle-laughed. "And her reaction to that?"

  "She suggested she doesn't share, but I told her if she can't handle casual while I figure it out, then don't ask. Jasmine, it was a hypothetical conversation, although it didn't feel hypothetical. She offered a significant bribe, and she also suggested my mother might be sick. Jasmine, is my mother dying?"

  "Oh, Andie." She pulled me to her. "If she is, I don't know it. Do you want me to find out?"

  "Can you?"

  "Yes. I'll take care of this, Andie. Don't worry."

  "How can I not worry?"

  "Did you ask if your mother were sick?"

  "She said it was hypothetical. If she were sick and needed to be cured."

  "Then I think she was using it as an example, but I will find out for you."

  "What if she is? You can cure her."

  "That isn't guaranteed, but it is likely."

  I pushed away. "I'm working with you on this. If my mother is sick, you will fix her."

  "If your mother is sick, we'll discuss it, and we'll come to an agreement."

  "You'll fix her."

  "There will be a price, Andie. I can't control that. I have to charge a price, and the price is a lot, lot higher when it's a woman your mother's age than if she were your 5-year-old child."

  "I'll pay it."

  "Don't say that until we know. And don't give up your negotiating position so easily. You might not be negotiating with me, and you already know I'd take advantage of such a blanket offer as that."

  "We're not letting my mom die, Jasmine. Please."

  "Let's find out what we're dealing with."

  "Tell me."

  "If it's late stage cancer, the price might be far, far too high."

  "How high?"

  "What if I said you had to marry a male Implac?"

  "You wouldn't?"

  "What if?"

  I looked away.

  "You know your mother would never let you pay a price like that for her. She would be horrified if she found out. You know that. You would, in effect, be offering to die for her. No mother would ever accept an offer like that. But what if."

  "That's not the price," I said.

  "Probably not. It was the most extreme examp
le I could think of that you could actually pay."

  "It won't be that price." I looked back. "Please, Jasmine."

  "Let's find out. I bet she's perfectly fine. I don't know how Sugilite could have such information. It's an example. But I'll find out."

  "How?"

  "Dark Skies will break into the proper computers."

  "Really?"

  "Really. And if we can't get it that way, I'll kidnap her."

  "You wouldn't!"

  "Oh, probably not. I might invite her to visit you. I'll get her into a chair. Do you doubt me?"

  "No. Thank you, Jasmine." I pulled myself tightly to her, and she held me for a while.

  We stayed that way for a while, then I said, "She offered to roll back their ages. Well, a hypothetical roll back. Am I selling myself to one of you too cheaply?"

  "I bet she's trying to get you to agree without any price paid at all."

  "Yeah, but if you can do that, and it's not that hard, why hold back?"

  "Because she doesn't want to buy you. She wants you willingly."

  "I should hold out then." I pushed away again. "Right? I should go for the best deal I can get."

  "You should aim for happiness, Andie. Humanity is on the verge of solving this."

  "Not in time."

  "Maybe. Your futurists are predicting 25 years. You are testing anti-aging drugs. I won't say if they show promise, but I will say this. We do not scoff at that 25-year estimate."

  "That's anti-aging. No one is going to want to freeze her age at 80 years old."

  "Perhaps not, but if they think they can do forever in 25 years, and they think they can slow it down in ten, then really it's not 80, is it? And who knows what you could arrange down the road? Do not sell yourself for this, Andie. Please, do not sell yourself that way."

  "What if she's dying?"

  "Then sell yourself to me, or make the two of us fight over you."

  "To you, personally?"

  "Well, not necessarily, but don't take her offer without including me in the conversation, unless you want her offer in the first place. She isn't your only choice. I promise you."

  I nodded. "Thank you, Jasmine."

  "Better?"

  "Yes. Thank you for seeing me."

  "There's a price."

  I laughed, somewhat raggedly, but I laughed.

  "You must let me taste."

  "You haven't been?"

  "You were upset." She wrapped around me, and then she held me. "These really are quite garish."

  "I know. Comfortable though, and you like the back."

  "I do. I like your legs bare though."

  "Voyeur."

  "Maybe."

  We sat quietly for a minute, then I said, "I learned something about you."

  "Oh?"

  "You're quite the important Catseye."

  "Ah, you're attracted to power."

  "Stop it," I said.

  "It is my position that carries influence."

  "She said no one would do a better job than you do. Although I will point out she also indicated I should relay the flattery back to you. Is that politics?"

  "Probably, but it's not the first time she's been supportive."

  "If she asked you for me, would you give me to her?"

  "If you wanted me to. I told you that you'd have a choice, and it ruins my experiment if I then override it."

  "Keep holding," I said. But I pushed away so I could look at her. "I'm not ready to go. We're doing something here, and I want to see it through."

  "So if Charoite comes to visit, and she's absolutely amazing, what happens?"

  "Maybe she'll let me finish what I started. If she's truly amazing, she wouldn't want me to quit after being here just long enough to stir things up."

  "If Sugilite demands an exclusive arrangement with you, unless you aren't interested, I'm going to let her, at last while you figure things out."

  "So power works in the Federation the way it works on Earth?"

  "Not always, but in this case, she was sending us both a message."

  "What is that?"

  "That we are allies, and it's not always power that determines these things, but relationships. Consider her and I as having a Boardwalk partnership."

  "All right," I said. "But if I don't take whatever offer she wants, then I may choose to extend our arrangement, because you're the one who interrupted my chance to get to know people, not me."

  "I'll agree to that. We'll talk more if it comes to it."

  "Agreed."

  "And if Charoite comes all this way just to see you, you will give her more than her share of attention."

  "All right, but see previous comment."

  "Understood. Andie, as long as I believe you're operating in good faith, I intend to give you time. Not as much time as a human might want, but time."

  "Thank you. Now please taste me however much you want before you send me back to my cell."

  And so she did.

  * * * *

  I'm going to jump ahead a few days, just to put this to bed.

  "Andie," said Dark Skies. "I can't find any evidence either of your parents is sick. They're starting to show their ages, but there's nothing to indicate they shouldn't live good, long lives."

  "Are you sure?"

  "An inability to find it isn't proof it's not there," she said. "I'm sure I didn't find anything. But if it's really new, isn't in the records of either of their primary physicians, and hasn't made it to their insurance company yet, then I may not have looked everywhere I should have looked. And it's even possible your mother was somehow scanned by one of our doctors, but there's no indication of that, either."

  "This is good news," said Jasmine. "It's not proof. I talked to Sugilite. She was expecting the call and said, 'I have no information on Andromeda's parents'. I believe her. But if you want to be sure, we can be sure."

  "I want to be sure. Can we be sure without actually kidnapping them?"

  "If they cooperate. You have a good relationship with them."

  "Yeah. Really good."

  "I'd let you call."

  I choked up and put my hand over my mouth, then nodded. "What price?" I whispered.

  "You don't get mad when I threaten you. You will say what we agree you will say. You will tell her you have taken a temporary job with us. You may say you are working for a Catseye. That's all you will say."

  "I will. I promise."

  "If you break this promise, Andromeda... I do not want to make this threat. I really do not. But I have no choice. If you tell them what is happening here, we're going to kill the three of you."

  "I won't! I won't!"

  "That threat did not come from me. It came from the council. Do you understand?"

  "This went to the council?"

  "Sugilite knew she freaked you out and had the threat waiting. It's not from her, either."

  "I won't tell."

  "I know you won't. You're going to practice your conversation with Dark Skies before you call them."

  "So, I call them. Then what?"

  "You ask. If they tell you they're perfectly healthy, then you can talk them into accepting an examination. It will be at the testing center there and we can do it tonight. They'll be back home by bedtime."

  "What can I tell them?"

  "It's public knowledge we do a medical exam. It's public knowledge we'll tell the people we test if they have something they need to know about. You may plead all you want. For them, it's a free exam, and they would be fools to decline."

  "There's a price for me."

  "Yes: those reparations you wanted from the Implac."

  "I'll do it."

  "I knew you would."

  "The Implac isn't paying for this, is she?"

  "No. I'm taking those reparations and keeping them. This is a small thing for me to do for you, but I am obligated to make it a big deal for you. I'm sorry."

  "It's fine. I wanted the reparations because I wanted her to pay. If she gave me
ten million bucks, I wouldn't have complained, but this is more important than money."

  We talked it over a little longer. Then Dark Skies and I practiced. And she worked hard to trip me up. But Jasmine cautioned me to speak slowly, and she said if it looked like I was getting into trouble, she'd interrupt the call. Once we were all satisfied I could make the call, Jasmine said, "Your parents are both home. They aren't currently on the phone. I will patch a call to your visor."

  A moment later, I heard ringing, and then Mom answered. "Hello?"

  "Mom!" I said. "It's Andie."

  "Andie! It's about time you called your mother."

  "I know, Mom. Long story."

  "Give me the Reader's Digest version."

  "I lost my job. The aliens gave me a new one. It's temporary, but it might become permanent. We'll see."

  "Well, that's brief," she said. "Doing what?"

  "More of what I did for Gerri. Personal assistant to one of the Catseye, although they call it something different."

  "And what do they call it?"

  "Hell if I know. She says it in Catseye."

  Mom laughed. "And tell me. Where is this job?"

  "Um. I'm not supposed to tell you. But winter is coming to Minnesota, and I'm working on my tan. You can envy me while watching Dad shovel the driveway. You know how the aliens are. They don't tell us any more than they have to."

  "What are they like, Honey?"

  "Strange. I don't know. Some of my coworkers are becoming friends. So is my boss, I think."

  "Well, that's good. You always had a good relationship with Gerri. What happened there?"

  "She got fired for something someone else did, and then they were going to make me work for, oh, about the worse guy in the entire company. So I told them give me a severance package I liked, or they were going to have sexual harassment lawsuits and bad press for years to come. Now, they're still going to have those, because he's a real horse's ass and needs to get fired. But he's sleeping with the boss's daughter, so he'll hold on long enough to cause problems. But I got my money and got out."

  "That's too bad about Gerri. She called, worried about you."

  "Well, tell her I landed on my feet, would you? I can't make many calls from here, but I needed to talk to you about something." Then I put my hand over my mouth. I hate crying.

  "Honey, what's wrong?"

  I took a deep breath. "Mom, the aliens know stuff, you know. Stuff."

  "What kind of stuff."

  "Health stuff."