by Robin Roseau
“I can prove you need me.”
She folded her arms. “Go ahead.”
I smiled. “You shouldn’t be the one to spend her time on a lowly new employee. You shouldn’t be the one to talk about tea and coins and how to learn Talmonese. That is my job!”
“I don’t have new employees, except you. Every other person on my staff has been here at least as long as I have. And I don’t have the budget to hire the people I really need. Oh, I could pay all the local money I want, but do you think an imperial doctor is going to work for local credit? It’s worthless off planet, and there’s not one thing anyone wants to export from Talmon. I can’t find one single thing worth shipping across the stars.”
“You’ll have the things you want,” I said. “Aunt Anna told me. You’ve already built the rejuvenation center.” I paused. “I flew past it!”
“Probably. It’s down the coast twenty kilometers.”
“You’re going to have doctors and technicians and engineers and all those other people, and they’re all going to arrive knowing nothing. You. Need. Me.”
“I need someone who speaks fluent English, Maddalyn. And fluent Talmonese.”
“Fine.” I switched to English. “No more German. I will practice my English. It’s already good enough I am understood. And I understand if people speak carefully. I’ll get better. I made promises to Anna White. Are you going to break my promises? You need me. You don’t need someone who speaks English, Governor Grace. You need someone who cares enough to stand here and beg you to let me do my job. If you can do better than me, why isn’t she already here?”
She stared at me, and then Sartine stepped to her side and whispered quietly. Cecilia listened, and her gaze softened.
“What did she say?”
“She said you are full of passion and begs me to give you a proper chance.”
“Are you going to?”
“You had your say,” she said. “And now it’s my turn. I didn’t want this job. I am the only person who is based out of Indartha. The embassy is here. I do not need someone to fetch tea for me. I do not know if you are the right person, but if I need someone to handle the things we’ve discussed, she needs to stay here. And she needs to do what I already told you to do: learn Talmonese. Learn the customs. Learn the people. Learn Sudden. Learn to ride a horse! Visit the rejuvenation center and learn your way around. Learn what we’re trying to do here. If I need someone to shadow me around, frankly, I need someone who I could send across the street to retrieve my cleaning. A local. If I need an Imperial assistant, I need her right here. If you get sick of learning, offer help to the other people working here, then don’t complain if they give you unpleasant tasks.”
“Promise you won’t send me away.”
“If you do what I’ve said, I’ll find a way to use you, but it won’t be following me around. You will not be based in Indartha. I am not turning that into the imperial capital. That is right here. Am I clear?”
“Promise you won’t send me away.”
She made a disgusted sound. “Learn Talmonese fluently, and I won’t send you away.”
“That will take time. Is there a time limit?”
“No, but if you aren’t pulling your weight, you’ll get paid in local currency only. You have until the next shuttle before I can make that little change.”
“I’m not here for a paycheck, Cecilia.”
“No. You’re here for an implant.”
“I begged for the job before I knew an implant was available. The only thing that changed was the length of the contract. I’d be here with or without one, but I bet I’m more valuable to you with one.”
She nodded. “Undoubtedly.” She paused. “Fine. Don’t use that tone with me again.”
“Were you going to abandon me here and ship me back on the next shuttle?” She didn’t answer. “That’s what I thought. I’ll be as sweet as that fruit juice if you let me do my job.”
“Your job is to learn.”
I smiled sweetly. “Have a very nice flight. But Governor, I am still your assistant, and that means you need to let me know your plans.”
“I am returning to Indartha. I have nothing else scheduled, although I’m working on a trip home. I’m due, and Sartine is going to have her first rejuvenation. We’re leaving with the next shuttle.”
“In four months.”
“Yes.” She smiled sweetly. “Do you intend to insist on following me?”
“I think I’ll remain here,” I said.
“Good.”
She turned and began walking, but Sartine stepped to me. “Welcome to Talmon,” she said with a smile, then hurried after her wife.
Indispensable
Over the course of the next week, I met the other members of our delegation. Including Governor Grace, there were ten of us on the entire planet. Ten of us were attempting to help this entire planet join the empire. And that part wasn’t really that hard. They had already joined the empire.
But they didn’t have the things a member of the empire should have. They didn’t necessarily need all the technological conveniences, but electricity, and with it lighting, heating, cooling, refrigeration, and safe water were considered necessities by the entire empire. Access to rejuvenation and other forms of modern medicine were just as high on the list.
For what it was, Talmon was actually rather affluent. The planet was rich in food, although I imagined that hadn’t always been true, and with such a small population, there weren’t any population pressures, not even in the bigger cities. Most of the people lived in the more temperate portions of the planet, away from extreme heat or cold. Pollution literally did not exist. They understood about sanitation, and because even their biggest towns were small, there was little pressure caused by that, either. The towns and villages were clean and safe.
But there were ten of us to help the planet acquire modern technology. We had a budget, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the needs, and we produced nothing for export, not one thing.
And from her reports, while she never stated it in so many words, I thought Governor Grace believed that would remain the case.
And so, the only income available to the planet was either through the generosity of Anna White’s state department, or tourism. And that was a concept unknown to the Talmonese.
I learned all of this, and I cursed myself. Frantzland could, and hardly notice the cost, provide everything Talmon needed. Frantzland could readily provide all the medical equipment, all the solar power production and storage, all the heating units, refrigeration units, everything Talmon needed. It could all arrive with the next shuttle. They wouldn’t even notice.
But I cursed myself, because I had been one who wondered why we should help other planets. Didn’t we have enough troubles of our own?
I thought about myself, living on Frantzland. I thought about how I hadn’t even realized, not truly realized, what standing under a naked sun was like. I never intended to live on Frantzland again. Never. I didn’t know if I’d stay on Talmon. I didn’t know if I’d even be welcome. But if Cecilia kicked me off the planet, she’d ship me back to Tarriton. Job or no job, Aunt Anna or no Aunt Anna, I could stay on Tarriton. No one starved or went without a home on the modern planets. And I’d find a job, if Aunt Anna wouldn’t have me.
With my employment contract. I wasn’t actually worried about a job.
But I thought about someone from Frantzland. What would I have paid to come here?
Interstellar travel is neither cheap nor easy. Someone like me could never come here, not with a sizable portion of money to spend. Oh, I could have gotten here, I think. I could have worked for a shipping company of some sort. I could have arranged a berth here, somehow, if I’d known I would want one.
But I would have arrived with very little off world funds and no way to make more, so I would be another mouth to feed, one who didn’t know how to grow my own food.
And on Talmon, people worked if they wanted to eat. Everyon
e worked.
But I knew Governor Grace wanted to reverse that. She wanted to bring in everything necessary so that farms could operate themselves. The people who worked farms could pursue other choices. Most farming is easy to automate. Oh, it requires human oversight, but on a modern world, there are no humans driving tractors up and down the land. That is what machines are for. The machines turn the soil and plant the seeds. The machines harvest the food and then more machines transport the raw foods to even more machines, that package as necessary, that transport further, that eventually make those foods available to humans.
But that was on a planet that was capable of making those machines. And while Talmon wasn’t void of minerals and metals, they were not easily mined. Even if resources could be found, it would take generations before an industrial base could be built, and there was no sign the required elements were available in amounts that were feasible for extraction, or at least without causing massive environmental problems.
And no one wanted that.
Solving these problems, of course, was not my job. But solving the far lesser problems, freeing Governor Grace to work only on these big problems: that was my job.
And for that, I had a lot to learn.
And I was sure I was against a deadline. I might escape banishment on the next shuttle, and Governor Grace wouldn’t have time to decide I should be expelled when she returned on the following one, or perhaps the one after that, but then she had four more months to decided, and if I hadn’t proven myself, I was sure I’d be gone.
I had a year at most to make myself utterly indispensable.
With Governor Grace rarely in residence, there was no reason I should take a space outside her office. I wasn’t doing anyone any good there. So I moved to the embassy reception area, freeing the rotation of people who took that responsibility. I might not speak fluent Talmonese, but I spoke enough to great people and discover who they wished to see, and then I could summon the necessary person.
I took care of other duties. I cleaned up and filed reports. I checked the weather and issued weather reports daily, the best I could. I took over responsibility for tracking supplies, referencing past usage so I could track trends. When anyone needed a spare pair of hands for something, I offered mine.
In short I did everything I could to help the other members of the delegation. In between, I spoke only English, as best I could, although apparently no one was impressed. And I learned Talmonese, but Cecilia warned me not to practice on the other members of the delegation. “You may practice with Sartine and me,” she said. “And in town, of course.”
I thought about that. Cecilia lived with Sartine, a native of the planet. The others didn’t. I thought about someone learning English from me. And I thought perhaps their Talmonese wasn’t the model that Cecilia wished me to follow.
I studied hard, and I was constantly translating between three languages, and at the end of each day, I was tired and my head hurt, and I just wanted to go home and close my eyes.
And I didn’t realize that was the second mark against me, in the eyes of my coworkers, with the first being how I arrived, perhaps coupled with the knowledge I would be filing my own reports to Aunt Anna.
I looked up an English word I heard spoken behind my back: Nepotism.
And so, how did I get along with my coworkers, in spite of all my efforts? Well…
* * * *
It was the end of a long day. My head hurt, as usual. I heard voices, jovial voices, approaching from deeper inside the building. After a minute, half our delegation appeared, talking so quickly I couldn’t understand them.
But they clustered around my desk. “Hey, Maddalyn,” Erica said, speaking carefully.
“Hello, Erica,” I replied. I nodded to each of them.
They hovered for a minute, and then Mallory nudged Erica, who said, “We’re going into town. Would you like to go with us?”
The thought of spending an evening struggling to understand didn’t fill me with joy, especially in a noisy environment.
“I am very tired,” I said.
“But-”
“Come on,” Blaine said, tossing an arm over Erica’s shoulders. Then he said something quickly, too quickly for me to catch. But I heard two words I’d begun hearing from them.
Hatchet Face.
I stilled my features, trying to show it didn’t hurt, or letting them believe I didn’t understand. But I had looked up the first word, and I knew the second.
They thought I was ugly, and weren’t afraid to call me ugly to my face.
I said nothing as they stepped past me, laughing and enjoying each other’s company, talking too rapidly for me to understand.
But they hated me. Not a single one had protested what Blaine had called me.
And the name spread.
* * * *
I went home. I did what I could to relax. And I resigned myself to a simple fact: they had decided I was a horrible, ugly person, and my efforts to prove them wrong weren’t going to help.
I didn’t recognize it was partially my fault. It was not the way on Frantzland to assume friends from coworkers. I didn’t even realize there was a difference in views. They didn’t like me because I was Aunt Anna’s spy, even though I wasn’t. And they thought I was ugly and resented needing to speak more carefully around me if I were to understand.
I was getting better, but apparently not quickly enough.
But I steeled myself. I didn’t need them to like me. They were my coworkers, not my friends, and Aunt Anna never said it was going to be an easy job. I could do my job, friends or no friends.
And I was convinced I was helping. I was thanked for the things I did, sometimes, anyway. What I was doing wasn’t necessarily significant for any one person, but I did a little here, and a little there.
And so, I did my job, as much as anyone would let me. I did my job, and I went home at night, closing my eyes and listening to gentle music.
But trying to learn two languages at once was taking a toll, and I wasn’t progressing properly, or at least I didn’t think so. Apparently, no one else did, either.
I began thinking Cecilia Grace was entirely correct, and when she sent me back to Aunt Anna, it would be in well-deserved disgrace.
New Friends
I’d been on Talmon for three months before I met Sudden Vendart’s daughter, and I failed in that meeting as much as I did anything else.
What I knew at the time was simple. A local woman dressed in leather and carrying herself with an air of importance came to a stop in front of me.
“Good afternoon,” I said in Talmonese. “May I help you?”
She offered a long answer. I heard Cecilia’s name, but I didn’t understand. She saw my expression and tried again, this time speaking more slowly. I thought she wanted to see the governor, but didn’t catch her name, and so I asked, “Who are you?”
“Chaladine,” she said quickly. The name meant nothing to me. “I am the vendart’s daughter.”
That I understood. I tried to ask her why she needed the governor. She didn’t seem to understand the question, only repeated that she needed to see Cecilia.
I may not have been that good at Talmonese, but I had spent several years working for Frau Langenberg, and I recognized someone who thought she was someone important. This woman thought the governor would fly down from Indartha to meet with her, probably over some trivial matter.
I tried again to discover why she needed Cecilia. Instead, the woman asked to see Erica, then Mallory. Then she went down the list, asking for name after name. Finally she reached Blaine.
“Blaine here,” I said. “Busy.”
“Tell Blaine that Chaladine is here.” She said the words very carefully. I frowned. Talmon grammar is quite different from German grammar, and I puzzled at it for a moment before I realized what is quite obvious, when written in English.
And so I cocked my head and sent a message to Blaine. He replied after a few seconds, telling me “Be nic
e to her. I’ll be there shortly.”
I told Chaladine that Blaine was coming, then I kept an eye on her. I didn’t trust her. She looked like someone who thought it was perfectly acceptable to wander deeper inside the embassy, looking into who knows what?
She asked a question I didn’t understand, and so I gestured her to a seat and repeated, “Blaine will come.”
Blaine really had been busy. The local woman kept giving me strange looks, and I wondered if she resented that I did my job, protecting the governor from intrusive local women. But Blaine eventually appeared, and he greeted the woman quite cordially, speaking in a far friendlier tone than he had welcomed me the day I arrived.
They spoke too quickly for me to understand. I heard Cecilia and Indartha and Anna White. That was said with a glance at me, and I knew it was his version of my presence that was being offered.
Another person who could hate me.
Finally Blaine finished his conversation with the woman. She kissed his cheek and seemed far happier having talked to him than having to talk to me. I stared after her as she walked away, then Blaine stepped to the desk I now thought of as mine.
“That is Chaladine,” he said in English. “She is the Sudden Vendart’s daughter.”
“She thinks she is important.”
“She is the future vendart, so she is important. Furthermore, while it isn’t necessarily still true, she was once Cecilia’s best friend here on Talmon. If she comes again, give her whatever she wants.”
He walked away without further discussion.
I would not see Vendart’s Daughter Chaladine for another several months.
* * * *
The shuttle came. Cecilia and Sartine left with it, along with a fresh diplomatic pouch containing all the reports, including mine.
I’d offered it to Cecilia. I didn’t know at the time, but she barely glanced at it, far too focused on other issues. If she’d read it, she wouldn’t have been impressed. I told Aunt Anna that I was learning Talmonese, but struggling. I told her that Governor Grace felt I was worthless and would remain so until I was fluent, and that the only duties I had were the ones I picked for myself, and learning Talmonese.