by D M Arnold
He shook his head. “She's not racist, korlyta. No one on this planet has ever seen an Asian. She would've deduced you were a naturida gone wrong.”
“Naturida?”
“You've seen how homogenous is Floran's population. Most children are conceived in vitro with genetic counseling to select specific traits. Some parents will opt for a natural child, conceived the old-fashioned way. It's considered a testament to the couple's love as they must accept whatever is born. We don't tolerate infanticide.”
“So, she thought I was a ... freak?”
Nyk nodded. “She thought by sitting you in this corner, she'd spare you uncomfortable stares.”
“I'm becoming accustomed to stares.”
“You know, Suki -- your genes remain scattered in our population pool.”
“I wonder if it's possible for Asian characteristics to surface on their own.”
“I don't know -- you'd have to ask Senta that.”
An attendant approached and Nyk placed his order. She returned with a basket of pencil-like objects and a portable scanpad. He pressed his wrist to it to pay for the purchase. “I thought we'd start with some euphoriant inhalers.” He picked one up, held it to his lips and inhaled sharply. He held his breath and exhaled.
“Looks like you're tokin' a joint,” Suki said. She picked one up, held it to her lips and inhaled deeply. She closed her eyes and held her breath for a slow count to ten, then exhaled slowly through her nose and smiled.
“You did that like an expert.”
“Just like tokin' a joint,” she replied. “This stuff feels really good. How long does it last?”
“Not long. Go ahead and take another hit when you feel like it.”
Suki picked up another inhaler, drew on it and set it down. “Oh! That feels REALLY good... Mmm...”
A musician took the stage with a multi-stringed instrument. He began playing a meandering melody, accompanied by chords, electronically enhanced. Nyk called over the attendant and she brought a tray with more inhalers.
“Try one of these,” he said. “This is a psychedelic inhaler. It's designed to go along with the music.” He took his hit and closed his eyes. The blackness dissolved into colored patterns, shifting and blending with the music.
Suki took her hit and closed her eyes. She smiled. “This is neat...” She giggled. “I can see it when I talk...”
The dancing colors faded and he opened his eyes. “Would you like to try an injectible?” he asked. “That way, you won't need to keep hitting on inhalers. One cartridge should last the whole concert. We can cuddle up and listen -- and watch.”
“It sound so hard-core...”
“Everyone uses them,” he replied. He called the attendant over again. She returned with a tray containing a plastic gadget and several small tubes with protruding needle guards. Nyk pressed his wrist to her scanpad. She presented it to Suki. “Scan your wrist,” he said.
Suki complied. The attendant reviewed the scanpad and set the tray onto the table. “What was that about?” Suki asked.
“I ordered some class-A euphoriant injectors as well as some psychedelics. It's a little out-of-character for me, but why not? The euphoriants are subject to abuse. She needed to see either of our profiles were marked psychological addictive -- if so, she'd have been prohibited from serving us.” Suki's lips formed an O. She picked up a euphoriant cartridge.
“Do you know how to use one of these?” Nyk asked.
She shook her head. “I never had the occasion.”
He picked up the injector and flipped it open. “This spring-loaded roller pushes the drug out.” He cocked the roller, dropped the cartridge into the device and snapped it shut. “This is the trigger.” He pulled off the needle guard and handed it to Suki. “Into the thigh muscle and press the button. The needle's so sharp and fine -- you won't feel a thing. And, it's coated with salve, so the wound closes immediately.”
She lifted the hem of her tunic and hesitated. “I can't do it,” she said shaking her head.
“Here...” He took the device, poked her thigh and triggered it. “Nothing to it.” He ejected the spent cartridge. “Massage the spot -- it'll distribute the drug so it absorbs faster.”
She pressed her thumb against her thigh and rubbed in a circular motion. “Yes -- I feel it coming on.” She closed her eyes and lifted her face. “Oh! That feels SO good... mmm...”
Nyk injected himself. “Now, try overlaying the psychedelic on top.” He handed her the injector. She paused for a moment, then jabbed her leg and pressed the trigger. He moved his chair close to hers and she leaned against him.
“This is wonderful,” she said. “So pretty -- so soothing... mmm...”
The musician played through a set of songs. Nyk glanced at Suki and smiled. Her dark hair shimmered with colors pulsing in time with the music.
She began to sway and hum to herself.
The musician finished his set and then left the stage. The colors in Nyk's mind were beginning to dim. Suki looked around. “Where's the music?”
“He'll be back -- he's taking a break.”
“In the meantime...” She picked up another euphoriant cartridge and loaded it into the injector.
“Be careful, Suki... I think two of those is your limit.”
She injected herself and rubbed her skin with her thumb. “Oh! Feels good!”
“Suki -- keep your voice down. You're drawing attention to us.” She picked up another psychedelic and loaded it into the injector. He put his hands on her thighs. “No more...", he said, sliding his hands along her thigh. She giggled, jabbed her left deltoid and triggered the device.
Suki picked up a euphoriant inhaler and took a hit, and then one of the psychedelics. She started giggling, then laughing. “It's so funny!”
“What's funny?” Nyk asked softly.
“Laughing...” She laughed more. “I see me laugh... I taste me laugh ... I feel me laugh -- all fuzzy and warm all over... I need another hit...” She reached for the basket and found it empty. “I need another hit...” She began drawing on all the spent inhalers -- then spotted the attendant and waved to call her over.
“She's ignoring you,” Nyk said. “You're behaving like someone's who's over her limit.”
“I'll get her,” Suki said, stood and swayed. She took two steps, tripped over her own foot and fell to the floor, toppling an empty chair on her way down. Nyk stood to help her up. “I need another hit,” Suki exclaimed in English.
The attendant came over to him. “I think your friend has had enough,” she said. Nyk nodded and helped Suki to the table.
“Suki -- korlyta... It's time to go home.”
“I don't want to go home... I want another hit!”
“Suki -- you've had enough. Come on -- fight it off.” He patted her cheek. She swatted his hand away. “Force yourself to think. Take a deep breath.”
“I want a hit! Give me a hit!”
The attendant placed a glass of cloudy green liquid on the table. “Maybe this will help clear her head.”
“Drink this, Suki.”
“I want a hit,” she hissed.
“Drink it.”
She picked up the glass, took a sip and glowered at him. Then she spat the fluid in his face. “I said I want a hit!”
Nyk wiped the liquid from his nose and cheeks. “Suki -- you'll get us into trouble. Public intoxication is an offense here. Now -- drink this -- drink it down like medicine. It'll help clear your head.” She picked up the glass and drained it. “We'll rest a couple of moments. Try to make yourself think.”
She folded her arms onto the table and rested her face on them. Nyk stroked her back. “Are you better?” She nodded. “Are you ready to cooperate?” She nodded again. “Okay -- let's try to walk. Stand up -- that's it -- one foot in front of the other...”
“I'm so dizzy...”
He put his arm around her and led her from the club. “You're doing fine -- concentrate -- we only need to go as far as the tubeca
r platform... Try not to appear incapacitated -- if an internal affairs officer sees you like this -- he'll give you a citation...”
He reached the tubecar lift and rode to the platform. There he ordered a car and gave the apartment tower address. She leaned against him as they waited for a car to arrive and slide back its cowl. Suki collapsed into the seat and Nyk sat beside her. The car zipped to their destination and he helped her out.
“Okay, korlyta -- we're home.” He scanned his way into the apartment. “You need to sleep it off.” He unfastened her lifxarpa and slipped her sandals from her feet. “Lie down .. that's it.”
Nyk undressed and lay beside her. He looked into her face and saw her pupils were fully dilated. “You hit your limit, all right. Cuddle up, korlyta.” He pulled her close to him and guided her arm across his chest. “Go to sleep.”
Her eyes began to brim. “Oh, Nykkyo... I'm sorry...” she began sobbing. “I'm sorry... I'm so sorry.”
“It's all right,” he said and kissed her forehead. “You sleep.”
“I'm so sorry,” she blubbered. Her sobbing became weeping which became wailing.
Nyk walked into the kitchen and opened a drawer. Senta usually keeps some here, he thought and picked up a cartridge and an injector. He loaded the cartridge and carried it to the bedroom.
“Suki...” She lay on her stomach, wailing into a cushion. “Suki -- this is a sleep aid. I'm going to poke you with it...” Nyk pulled off the guard, jabbed her deltoid, pressed the trigger and massaged her skin with his thumb. He stroked her arm and shoulder until she calmed, closed her eyes and her breathing became deep and regular.
* * *
Nyk slipped into his tunic and fastened his sandals. Suki emerged from the bedroom. “Good morning,” he said. “How are you today?”
“My head feels like it's stuffed with cotton,” she replied. “Other than that -- all right.”
He pinned the ends of his xarpa. “Do you remember anything about last night?”
“Most everything,” she replied. “In particular I remember making a complete ass of myself. I'm so sorry, Nykkyo -- I spoiled our evening out.”
“It's my fault for suggesting the club,” he replied. “Maybe there are differences in Floran brain chemistries that have evolved over the past five thousand Earth years.”
“Or, maybe it's me. I can't handle it. I make an ugly drunk, too. Don't ever let me go over my limit drinking.”
“It should be easy since alcohol is prohibited here. How would I know when you've hit your limit?”
“I shouldn't drink more if my cheeks turn red. I get a flush right before I hit my limit. Mom and Daddy used to know I'd been drinking when I came home with red cheeks. Just say, 'Suki -- you can't drink any more because your face is red.' I'll know to stop.”
“It's too bad your face didn't turn red last night.”
“It turns red now -- every time I think about it. Nykkyo ... tonight -- can we just stay here and make out?”
18 -- Detente
Nyk scanned his wrist as he entered the public entrance to the High Legislature assembly building. And attendant regarded the scanpad display and motioned him toward a vestibule. He passed through an arch, scanning his wrist again and found himself among a crowd. Andra's white hair caught his eye and he worked his way toward her.
He found her with Senta, Helsyn, Aahhn and Kronta. “Where's Sirk?” he asked.
“He's with the Altian delegation.”
“And Pring?”
“He'll be in the President's box.”
“Look at this mob.”
“There's a bigger one forming in the public gallery,” Andra remarked. “They know Wygann's due to speak. He's not popular in the HL, but his bombast makes for good theatre. It's enough to create a circus atmosphere.”
An archway into the High Legislature chamber was sealed by a pair of sliding doors. Nyk nodded in its direction. “Just think, Andra -- if things had worked out a bit differently, you might be behind that door now.”
“Nyk,” Kronta said, “I saw Wygann. I'm amazed he's recovered so quickly from that wound.”
“He was never injured. The assassination attempt was a ploy to buy time for that last shipment of vaccine. It was Janna's idea. Mykko thought it would be amusing to blame it on one of the Altian ore-workers -- to throw his opposition off-balance. Wygann enjoys a good game of brinksmanship.”
“Why didn't you tell me this?”
“We were disseminating information on a need-to-know basis, Illya. Remember?”
A tap on his shoulder startled him and he turned to see Dyppa with an older woman. “Nyk -- this is my mother.”
“A pleasure,” he replied.
“Thank you for helping my daughter,” she replied.
“Your daughter has helped herself. She's helped all of us.”
“Really?”
“Didn't she tell you how?” Dyppa shook her head.
“No, she didn't.”
“Ask her. Ask her how she came by that medallion she's wearing. Maybe some day she'll tell you. You're sitting with the Altian delegation, no doubt.”
“Yes -- I always travel with the senator. I was pleased to discover my daughter here on Floran.”
“Nyk and I returning to Earth together...” Dyppa started to say.
The sliding doors opened. An announcement quieted the crowd in the vestibule -- visitors would be seated by delegation. First the Altian...
“I'll see you afterward,” Dyppa said.
“You'll come to Sudal with us.”
“Of course.” She waved and turned to join the others filing through the archway.
Nyk stood with the others as the Deltan, Floran and Gamman delegations were announced. Then -- Lexal.
Nyk followed the others toward the door. He scanned his wrist and an attendant verified his credentials. Inside the arch an usher led them down an aisle.
The assembly hall was a semi-circle divided into terraces. Each terrace was cut into sections, one for each of the twenty-one colony planets and one for the homeworld. Inside each sector were desks for the planetary delegates, a larger desk for the head of each delegation and a podium. To the side was a gallery of benches for visitors. Nyk slid down the bench and sat between Andra and Senta.
“How are you feeling?” he whispered to Senta.
“I'm all right.”
Janna approached them wearing a jewel-studded long gown and an iridescent tiara. Andra stood, embraced and kissed her. “Mykko and I are so happy you could join us.” She worked her way down the bench, shaking hands.
Nyk scanned the hall. He leaned to Andra. “Look at all the ax'amfinen. Every delegate has at least one white-haired beauty with him. Can you tell from which school they come?”
“Not from this distance,” Andra replied. “I can always spot a Vebinad grad in person.”
“Maybe someone you know is here -- a classmate.” He glanced across the semicircle toward the Altian delegation. He saw Sirk conferring with an official. In the visitors' gallery there he saw Dyppa, scanning the crowd. He made eye contact and she waved.
Andra poked Nyk with her elbow and pointed to a circular area in the center of the hall. An older woman stood, flanked by two tall, pale young women with the characteristic oat-straw hair of ax'amfinen. “Isn't that the High Chancellor?” she asked.
“I can't see,” he replied. “It might be. She doesn't usually attend these, does she?”
An older man in off-world official dress stepped into the Lexalese box and took a seat in the visitor's gallery at the end of the bench. Nyk glanced at him. “Who's he?” he whispered to Andra.
“I don't know,” she replied. Mykko's wife approached the man and spoke to him. “Whoever it is, Janna knows him.”
A middle-aged man stood at a podium in the center of the hall. He pressed a control on the podium and a chime sounded. The crowd quieted. “This session is called to order,” he announced. Wall-sized images of him materialized behind the podium. “This se
ssion was requested by the Lexalese and Altian delegations to discuss mutual grievances.
“Before we get to that order of business -- I would like to make a statement regarding the recent terrorist attack on Lexal and the subsequent eviscerating of the organization known as The Seven. I'm sure all of you are aware of the details. I wanted to say, as President of the High Legislature, that all of us deplore violence, that terrorist acts will not be tolerated anywhere within the Floran Hegemony, and that we rejoice in the elimination of a terrorist threat.”
Polite applause filled the hall.
“The chair yields to Mykko Wygann, Chancellor of the colony of Lexal.”
The delegates and crowd murmured in anticipation.
Wygann stood at his podium, surveying the crowd and his image filled the screens. “Before I begin,” he said, “I want to take a moment to address some of the rumors swirling about. First -- regarding concerns about the treatment of offworld visitors on Lexal at the time of the attack: All I will say is anyone doubting Lexal's care and compassion for innocent visitors who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time should seek one out and ask him how he was treated.
“Second -- the report that Lexal is stockpiling the virus for use as a counterattack is rubbish. We deplore its creation and we believe no one has a legitimate reason to possess it. We will not rest until every trace -- every vestige of the virus is eradicated from Lexal.”
Wygann paused and manipulated his handheld vidisplay. “Now,” he said, “to the agenda at hand...”
Nyk leaned toward Andra. “Here it comes...” he whispered.
“As the honorable President indicated in his opening remarks, recently Lexal was the target of a vicious and unwarranted terrorist attack -- one which through the efforts of many was thwarted. However, I must differ with you, Mr President, on one issue. The actions of courageous individuals here ... on Lexal ... on Altia ... on T-Delta ... on Gamma-5 ... on Myataxya did not eliminate a terrorist threat. The threat has only been neutralized ... temporarily.
“The other day I had the opportunity to speak with one of those courageous people. I made the same mistake as you, Mr President -- I rejoiced in the elimination of a threat. 'No,' he said. 'You may eliminate these individuals, but until we solve the root problems -- it is only a matter of time before others step forward to carry on.'