The Mandala Maneuver

by Christine Pope

  This time they were not in the grand semi-public chambers used for hearings, but in a smaller room located on the same level. One would have thought that the slightly more intimate surroundings would have made for a less intimidating atmosphere, but Lirzhan found it to be the reverse. Being in here with the four Council members, all of them radiating suspicion and worry but attempting to hide it, was far worse than standing out in the main chamber and delivering his report from a relatively safe distance.

  Worse still, they had asked to see him alone. That was their prerogative, and of course he was a grown man, used to making his own decisions and choices, but even so, he was new to Targus Station, new to its politics, and having Ambassador Trazhar at his side might have made this a little easier.

  “Ambassador Lirzhan,” said Lir Danos, “we thought it best to speak to you alone, where we do not have to worry about outbursts from the rest of the chamber.” Although his tone and expression were neutral enough, Lirzhan caught the flicker of his violet eyes toward the Gaian councilmember, one Gerhard Stolz, and knew at once that Danos was referring to Ambassador Castillo’s derisive comments at the hearing earlier that afternoon.

  “I understand, Your Honor,” Lirzhan replied. “I am ready to deliver whatever clarifications you might require.”

  “Excellent,” said the Zhoraani councilmember, whose name was Nelazhar. She leaned forward in her seat. “We would like more explanation of precisely how you knew what the crystal being mined was used for, if you did not see it actually being used. For by your own admission you are not a scientist.”

  “No, Your Honor, I am not.” Lirzhan deliberately kept his gaze fixed on the Zhoraani woman, although it was difficult to ignore Gerhard Stolz’s cutting blue stare. Unlike Alexa’s blue eyes, which were tinged with green and reminded him of the sky and the gentle oceans of his home world, this Gaian’s eyes were ice-blue, like the depths of a glacier that would never thaw. “However, when I was in one of the laboratories in the facility on Mandala, I came across some notes from one of the researchers there. In those notes it was quite clear that the intent of the crystal device was to disrupt a ship’s subspace passage and bring it into realspace, so it might be….” He let the words trail off and gave an eloquent lift of his shoulders. “Your Honors, I do not wish to speculate as to the intent of the researchers in terms of returning a ship to realspace at their whim. That was not written down.”

  “It did not need to be,” the Stacian councilmember, sen Barthran, said in his gruff voice. “It is clear enough that the Gaians are attempting to take control of all the shipping lanes. If they have this power, then they can charge whatever tariffs they wish to allow safe passage through subspace. And for those who do not comply….” He stopped then, his copper eyes gleaming fiercely, and shot a narrow glare at Gerhard Stolz before adding, “I should think the implications are clear enough to everyone.”

  “I protest,” Stolz said at once. “We have no evidence save this Zhore’s that such notes or devices even exist.”

  “‘This Zhore,’” said Nelazhar, “is of unimpeachable character, Mr. Stolz. If he says he saw something, then he saw it. He would not lie.”

  “My friends, we are here to judge the matter on its merits, and not how it reflects on our individual home worlds,” Lir Danos told them. He shook his head, although whether he did so because of the tension in the room, or the complications of the situation as a whole, Lirzhan was not sure. “I do believe that the matter requires further inquiry.”

  “As do I,” Nelazhar put in.

  “Of course you would,” Gerhard Stolz snapped, heavy bray brows lowering.

  She drew back, obviously affronted, and sen Barthran said, “I think there is an easy enough way to get more evidence. Ambassador Lirzhan here was not the only person marooned on that world. Let us question Ambassador Craig and see what she has to say.”

  “That does seem reasonable,” Lir Danos replied.

  It was the logical next step, but for some reason Lirzhan did not find it all that appealing. Taking care to keep his tone mild, he told them, “Ambassador Craig never saw the research section of the facility, and so she would be of limited use in corroborating what I saw there.”

  “Perhaps,” said the Stacian councilmember. “But she was on that flight with you, and so she still can tell us about her experience of being pulled from subspace and attacked, both while on the shuttle and on the planet’s surface, can she not?”

  No use denying that. “Yes.”

  “Very well, then.” The Eridani looked at his fellow councilmembers and nodded slightly. “We will send for Ambassador Craig to give her side of the story, and then once we have analyzed both accounts, we will decide whether to pursue the matter or whether it should be abandoned due to lack of evidence.”

  Gerhard Stolz looked less than happy at this prospect, but he did not offer up any protests. The other two councilmembers also indicated their agreement with this plan.

  “Thank you, Ambassador Lirzhan,” Lir Danos said. “That will be all. We will send for you if we need anything further.”

  “You are most welcome, Your Honors,” he replied, and bowed formally. Since there was nothing else he could say, he left the Council’s private chambers, mind churning, and wished more than ever for the opportunity to speak to Alexa. Not that he didn’t trust her to tell the truth, but at the very least it would be good to be able to convey to her what they had asked him, let her know about some of the undercurrents he’d sensed among the councilmembers, who, rather than the serene givers of wisdom he’d expected, were just as contentious and arbitrary as the planets they represented.

  Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much he could do at the moment…except wait.

  That last cup of coffee churned away uneasily in Alexa’s stomach. She’d taken a seat at the table as Ambassador Castillo had invited — or instructed — her before he left the room, and now she sat watching the other woman warily, and wishing she were someplace else. Anyplace else.

  Melinda Ono looked as if she didn’t have a care in the galaxy. Immaculately coiffed and dressed as before, she sipped at the cup of tea Chima had brought her and looked around the conference room with interest, from the old-style paintings of Gaian scenes on the walls to the startling contrast of the starscape outside the windows.

  At last she set down her cup and said in conversational tones, “I’ve been hearing some interesting things about you, Ms. Craig.”

  “Indeed?” Alexa doubted it could be anything good.

  “Indeed. Oh, Captain Marquand made a few rather…provocative comments, but I thought he must be exaggerating. But when Ambassador Castillo told me about your recent…activities…then I realized Marquand must have been telling me the truth.” She smiled, but her dark eyes were cold. “Tell me about your relationship with Ambassador Lirzhan.”

  Her hands felt like ice. Alexa swallowed, then said calmly, “I don’t believe that is any of your business.”

  “Oh, but it is my business, Ms. Craig. You see, your Zhore is in possession of information that could be very damning to the Consortium, and so we must all do our best to make sure that information is contained and, if at all possible, discredited.”

  Worse and worse. “I’m afraid that will be quite difficult. Ambassador Lirzhan is a very honest person. If he says something, it’s because it is true.”

  Melinda Ono’s smile only widened. “Oh, perhaps he does tell the truth…but does he tell the whole truth?”

  “I don’t see what you’re getting at.” Gone was the weariness of a few minutes ago; now Alexa felt alert, charged, adrenaline surging through her. She had no idea what the other woman was up to, but it couldn’t be good, not when she was sitting there and smiling like the proverbial cat that had eaten the canary. And that meant staying sharp, whatever the cost.

  “You two were alone together for what, five days?”

  “More or less,” Alexa replied, her tone guarded.

  “And I suppose
the ambassador was a perfect gentleman.”

  “He was more than that. He — ” She hesitated, then said, “I would be dead if it weren’t for him. He saved my life on more than one occasion.”

  “How very noble. And so of course you felt drawn to him out of gratitude.”

  “Again, my feelings for Ambassador Lirzhan are not a topic for discussion.”

  “I think they are.” Melinda opened a leather case lying on the tabletop and drew out a tablet. After bringing the screen to life, she tapped a button or two, then pushed it across the table to Alexa. “You might want to take a look at this.”

  Puzzled, Alexa picked up the tablet. Displayed on the screen was a pretty young Gaian woman with reddish-brown hair. She looked to be around twenty or twenty-one standard years old. “I don’t understand. Who is this?”

  “That is a young woman named Annika Jespers. Her family has a homestead on Lathvin IV.”

  “And?” True, the Gaians and the Zhore had been arguing over the rights to that obscure colony world for some years now, but Alexa couldn’t begin to see the connection between Lathvin and her current situation with Lirzhan.

  Melinda Ono sipped at her tea again. “Her family’s homestead was very close to a property owned by a Zhore named Sarzhin.”

  “I still don’t see the point.”

  “Then let me spell it out for you.” She set down her teacup and folded her hands on the polished granite tabletop. “We have gathered intelligence that not only did this Annika Jespers cohabit with the Zhore Sarzhin, but they also recently had a child together.”

  Well, that answered one question. Thank God she was up to date on her contraceptive shots. Alexa leaned back slightly in her chair and raised an eyebrow. “I suppose congratulations are in order for the lucky couple, but I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.”

  Melinda Ono’s smile returned. This time it had an oily quality that made the hair on the back of Alexa’s neck prickle. “Maybe it will be clearer once I tell you that for some time the Zhore have been experiencing a near-catastrophic collapse of their birth rates. They’ve done their best to keep the situation secret, of course, but there are limits to how much these sorts of things can be concealed. As far as we have been able to determine, the Zhore are now attempting to keep their race from slowly dying out by interbreeding with other races — especially Gaians.”

  Forcing her expression to stay neutral was one of the more difficult things Alexa had ever done, but she thought she’d managed it. Barely. “That is unfortunate for the Zhore. But if they were simply attempting to find another female to impregnate, surely I’m not a very likely candidate.”

  “One would think that, on the surface.” She pushed her teacup to one side and fixed Alexa with a penetrating stare. “However, the Zhore are patient…and choosy. We do not completely understand the mechanics of the process, but it seems they must have some sort of emotional bond with the mate they choose. What better way to bond with you than through days of hardship and isolation, where Lirzhan could function as a protector and guide, and conveniently ‘save’ you as necessary?”

  “That’s — ” Alexa broke off. She had been about to say “crazy,” because that’s what this whole situation was…completely insane. Drawing in a breath, she finished, “That’s not very plausible, Ms. Ono. Our ship was pulled from subspace and fired upon. Surely you’re not accusing the Zhore of manufacturing that entire situation?”

  “I am,” Melinda Ono replied without blinking.

  Somehow Alexa managed to prevent herself from bursting into laughter. “All so I would be driven into Lirzhan’s arms? Please — even if he does believe that he shares some sort of bond with me, how on earth could the Zhore have come up with such a plan at such short notice? We’d never even met before he stepped onto that shuttle!”

  “Not that you know of,” the other woman said darkly. “After all, how can you really tell the difference between two Zhore by just looking at them?”

  All right, she had a point there. Alexa had crossed paths with one or two Zhore on Eridani; it was the Eridanis who had given the enigmatic aliens subspace flight, and so you did see them around, although they were not great travelers and generally did not leave their home world. “So…what? You’re saying that Lirzhan saw me on Eridani, realized he could bond with me and therefore reproduce with me, and so the Zhore engineered the attack on the shuttle and our crash? Don’t you think it would’ve been easier if he’d just asked me out for a drink?”

  She hoped she’d injected the right amount of disbelief into her words without sounding too mocking. Exactly what Melinda Ono’s position was, Alexa didn’t know for sure, but clearly the woman had power, and influence, or she would not have been managing the facility on Mandala, and certainly wouldn’t have been allowed into the Gaian delegation’s sanctum here on Targus Station.

  “They’re aliens,” Melinda said, with a lift of the slender shoulders under her expensively tailored suit — a suit that had probably cost the equivalent of a month’s salary for Alexa. “We still don’t know very much about the Zhore. Their motivations can sometimes be very cloudy. But I’m guessing it would also have been a good test for their subspace disruptor.”

  “Their — so, what, now they’re the ones who developed that device? What about the equipment Lirzhan saw on Mandala?”

  “The equipment he claims he saw. What better way to obfuscate the entire issue than by claiming the Gaians were responsible for your shuttle being pulled from subspace? What Admiral Castillo told the Council earlier today was no more than the truth. What we’re mining on Mandala is basic, garden-variety quartz, although it is very high quality and requires less processing than the material we’ve found on most worlds. It will power your watch and your tablet and your computer, but it certainly doesn’t have any mystical quality that allows it to disrupt a ship’s subspace passage.”

  Everything Melinda Ono said sounded plausible enough. That was the problem. Alexa couldn’t tell how much was lies and how much was truth mixed with falsehood so you couldn’t begin to figure out where one ended and the other began. All this would be difficult enough to process on a decent night’s sleep, but now, when she’d been up for more than thirty-six standard hours —

  “If that’s the case, then why all the secrecy on Mandala? Why the people shooting at us? I can tell you that those mercs Lirzhan and I neutralized at the science station weren’t Zhore.”

  “You think the Zhore are above hiring mercenaries when it suits them?” The woman frowned. “And the heightened security was specifically because we’d had reports of outsiders in the area. That mining facility represents a significant capital investment, and of course we would take steps to ensure that it was protected.”

  Alexa’s head began to throb. There was something fundamentally wrong with what Melinda Ono was saying, but Alexa couldn’t put her finger on it. Everything made sense — if you began with the supposition that everything had been maneuvered by the Zhore to make it look as if the Gaians were up to no good. Not that difficult, really, since most of the other races would assume the Consortium was at fault in any given situation.

  “This Lirzhan was playing on your sympathies,” Melinda Ono said, her tone soft, persuasive. “And your weaknesses. The young woman raised in foster care, who had no true family, who had never been loved? Who better to exploit than someone like that? Given time, I’m sure the ambassador would have convinced you he loved you, that he wanted to give you a better life and sanctuary on Zhoraan. Then he would have been in a position to demand as many offspring as possible from you, once you were safely removed from your current situation.”

  “I can’t — ” The words seemed to choke in Alexa’s throat. “I can’t believe that of him.”

  “But you would believe instead that your own government would knowingly invent a device that would upset the balance of power in the galaxy?”

  “I didn’t say that — ”

  “You didn’t have to.
” Melinda Ono’s eyes might have been chips of polished jet, so black and glintingly hard they were in that moment. “You think he had you come to his apartments last night simply for a quick lay? He wanted you caught — wanted you discredited so you’d be vulnerable. I’m sure he was hoping Ambassador Castillo would dismiss you outright. Then you’d have no place to go…except back into that Zhore’s arms.”

  No. Alexa refused to believe that. And yet…it had been reckless of him to ask her to come to his quarters last night. She wasn’t so vain as to believe he couldn’t live another moment without taking her to bed. So he could have done so coldly, hoping their liaison would be discovered…indeed, expecting that it would be. But he hadn’t counted on Castillo being more or less forgiving, if grudgingly so. She’d been given another chance. The thing was, what was she going to do with it?

  Her jaw tightened, and she lifted her chin and stared squarely at Melinda Ono. “What do you need from me?”

  A wide smile, showing off the best teeth that cosmetic dentistry could buy. “Oh, that’s simple enough. The Council will call you in to get your side of the story. And when they do, make sure you tell them that the Consortium is an innocent party in this, and that it is the Zhore whom they should be investigating. Do that, and we’ll all be willing to overlook your brief lapse in judgment with Ambassador Lirzhan. After all, I doubt you want a promising career sidelined because of one mistake. Am I correct?”

  And although something inside her seemed to break as she replied, Alexa forced herself to nod, and smile, and say, “Yes, you’re correct. And I’ll do whatever I need to in order to fix this.”

  Miranda Ono’s eyes glinted, even as she leaned forward and replied,

  “Yes, I know you will.”

  Seventeen

  He couldn’t understand why Alexa wasn’t responding to any of his text messages. Calling her would be too obvious, but surely just a few words to let him know that she was all right weren’t too much to ask. Unlike the previous night, when he’d slumbered deeply following the lovemaking he’d shared with her, he hadn’t slept well at all the evening after he’d made his statement to the Council, as he found himself brooding over Alexa’s silence, and attempting to determine the reason for it.