Amid the Crowd of Stars
Page 8
“Always and forever friends.” Angus’ toast was echoed around the room, all of them emptying their own cups, Saoirse—belatedly—among them.
Outside, the wind continued to howl its mournful song.
* * *
In the common room, Ichiko could hear the rain hissing against the windows of First Base. The storm had been blowing for two full days now. Sitting at a table near the wall with a cup of tea and a warm scone both steaming in front her, Ichiko put her hand on the outside wall and felt it shivering from the wind gusts. “I wouldn’t worry too much,” she heard Chava say behind her. “First Base has been sitting here for centuries now, and it hasn’t blown away yet.”
Ichiko smiled over her shoulder to the lieutenant, who was holding a tray with a mug of coffee and two doughnuts. “Have a seat,” Ichiko told her, gesturing to the empty chair across from her. “You’re right, but my AMI is telling me winds are gusting to over 100 kph at Dulcia and even higher over the Storm Sea—that’s hurricane strength.” Ichiko glanced down at her finger. No matter how hard she pressed, the contact remained active and glowing. She was almost used to it now.
Chava put her tray on the table and scooted her chair forward. “Sure, it’s a nasty storm. I’d also tell you that, according to the weather instruments that were still recording when we got here, this is also just your basic run-of-the-mill big storm for the planet, since there’s a lot of potential energy between starward and spaceward side of the planet for the weather systems to use. I wouldn’t worry about your friends out there; the Canines are used to this.” She picked up one of the doughnuts and took a bite.
“I wish you wouldn’t use that word, Chava,” Ichiko said, the words tumbling out before she could stop them.
“Canines?” Chava shrugged. She put the doughnut down again. “Fine. I’ll watch what I say since you and I are friends and I know it bothers you, and anyway the brass up in orbit don’t like it. But it’s not like there are any Lupusians”—she lifted her hands to put air quotes around the word—“here to be offended. Pretty much everyone on First Base uses the C-word when they talk about the locals. Are you going to try to correct everyone? Because that’s a hopeless task, and you’re just going to piss people off.”
Ichiko could feel heat rising in her cheeks. She looked at the scone on its plate before her. “No. It’s just . . .”
“Hey, it’s nothing at all,” Chava told her. She patted Ichiko’s hand. “Just understand that First Base isn’t Odysseus. And neither is anything the Cani . . .” She smiled apologetically. “. . . the Lupusians have made of this strange place. Did you get to talk to the commander the other day?”
Ichiko nodded. “For a few minutes. We were both tired.”
Chava picked up the doughnut, dipped the end in her coffee, and took another bite. “So I’ve never asked you, and I know it’s really none of my business, but how did you and Commander Mercado manage to . . . ?” She left the last half of the question unspoken.
“I’m not really sure myself,” Ichiko answered. “Lieutenant Commander Tinubu—Nagasi—is in charge of my section; he and Commander Mercado are good friends and Nagasi asked me to give a report to the commander, which I did. The commander and I just started talking afterward about nothing at all in particular, and . . .” Ichiko lifted a shoulder. “There’s a saying in Japanese: sunzen wa yami—the world is dark in front of you. In other words, who can see the future? What about you? So after Geoff, have you . . . ?”
“I’ve had a few lovers on our trip. I’m an officer, so my options are limited at best, especially since I’ve been assigned to First Base. The regs forbid me doing anything with anyone below officer rank, there aren’t any civilian staff here other than you, and there are only a few other officers. And I really only like sleeping with guys, so . . .” She shrugged. “But there’s been nothing serious or long-term—just enough to occasionally take off the edge, if you know what I mean. For that matter, there’s not that large a pool on Odysseus either, no matter what your preference might be, and the locals are completely out of the running. Consider yourself lucky you’ve found someone.”
Ichiko didn’t respond beyond a tight smile, and she covered even that by taking a sip of her tea. In her head, AMI remained judiciously silent. Chava cocked her head as she sipped her coffee, as if listening to something Ichiko couldn’t hear.
“Ah! Listen, are you thinking of heading back down to Dulcia today? My AMI tells me the storm should be starting to subside in another ship-hour or so.”
“You’ve never been there?”
Chava shook her head. “Not really. I went there once for a couple hours when I was first given this post to meet with Minister Plunkett. Since then, the most contact I’ve had with Dulcia is talking to Plunkett over vid. I’m very familiar with the back wall of his office but not much else. Otherwise, I’ve been too busy here, but I’m off duty until 06:30 tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind the chance for a change of scenery and to use my bio-shield for more than outside maintenance. Unless you prefer not having company while you’re working . . .”
“No,” Ichiko said. “I’d like that. It’d be good to be able to get someone else’s take on things. We all bring our biases to this kind of work, and I’m no different.” Ichiko smiled at Chava. “Let’s finish here, then we’ll get the flitter ready—and hopefully the weather will have gentled enough by then.”
* * *
The storm had left behind damage throughout the village. Everyone was out repairing roofs, shutters, and fences, finding belongings scattered by the wind, or looking for sheepers and milch-goats that hadn’t been gathered in before the storm. One of the house roofs in Clan Craig’s compound had blown completely off, and several of the uncles and aunts of both clans were there putting up a new one. Two of the currachs had snapped their moorings and broken their anchor chains, allowing them to be taken out to sea by the swirling currents; several of the young cousins had bailed out three of the remaining ones and taken them solas—sunward—in hopes of finding the drifting boats intact, while Rí Angus and Liam had gone to the Sleeping Wolf to talk to the arracht. The sea, in the wake of the storm, was glass-smooth, a rarity, and there were great rents in the clouds overhead that allowed glimpses of the sun huddling eternally near the horizon.
Saoirse was helping the young ones climb up among the roof beams to find the chachalah nests deep in the thatching and gather their eggs. She had commandeered a quartet of stepladders to help in the process; they already had a bowlful of the orange-and-blue-speckled shells on the main table. Saoirse heard Uncle Angus talking to her mam outside, then the Rí opened the door and stepped into the room as she was helping Gráinne down from the ladder with two eggs gathered in her skirt. He was wreathed in a trailing cloud of pipe smoke. “Hey, Uncle Angus. I heard yeh and Liam had gone over to the Sleeping Wolf. How’d the arracht manage in the storm?”
“They were largely unbothered, as usual. They also rescued one of our lost currachs,” he answered, speaking around the pipe stem still clenched in his mouth and rubbing the plotch on his arms, “and they told us the other was tossed high on the rocks on the dorcha side of High Inish; I’m sure yer cousins will find the wreckage and determine whether it’s repairable. But I was wondering if yeh wanted to come with us to Dulcia.”
Saoirse felt a burst of excitement at the prospect. I might see Ichiko again, and I can tell her what Mam said . . . “Yer going over to Dulcia again? So soon?”
“We need to get more supplies to deal with storm repair, and the arracht have let me know the bluefins will be shoaling today out by the Stepstones. We’ll fish a bit first, then hopefully get a decent price for the bluefins from Fitzp
atrick’s to pay for the supplies we’ll need. Only if yeh want to come, that is.” He looked at the other stepladders in the room and the young ones still prowling through the thatch.
“I want to come, too,” Gráinne interjected. “I can help with the nets.” Saoirse glanced at Angus, who shrugged. Saoirse took the eggs from Gráinne’s skirt and put them in the bowl. “Yeh go and ask Mam, then,” she said. Then, to Angus, as Gráinne ran outside to find the Banríon: “Let me get the little ones down and settled, and I’ll meet yeh and Liam at the quay.” She went to the nearest ladder, calling up to the child there to start climbing down, when she saw that Angus hadn’t moved, still smoking his pipe. “What?” Saoirse asked him.
“There was one other thing the arracht said to me,” Angus told her. “It was very simple: ‘They shouldn’t know about us.’ I think we both can guess who ‘they’ are.”
Saoirse sniffed at that. “Uncle, if ‘they’ want to come out here, we can’t stop them. That’s not possible—and yeh know it.”
Angus took the pipe from his mouth, looking at the bowl reflectively. “Nah, we likely can’t. But we can be careful about what we share with them when they ask about the arracht.” Saoirse heard the warning in his voice—which meant that her mam had evidently told Angus that she’d agreed to let Ichiko come to Great Inish.
Saoirse managed to hide the smile that threatened. “In that case, isn’t it better if just one of them comes here, on our terms and not theirs?”
“Mebbe,” Angus grunted. He put the pipe stem back in his mouth. “I hope so, anyway.”
To Have Met With Such Bodes Little Good
THE STORM MAY HAVE BEEN “run-of-the-mill” for Canis Lupus—to use Chava’s words—but Ichiko could see immediately that it had done a fair amount of damage in Dulcia, nonetheless. There was activity everywhere in the town, with people up on ladders and out on the streets repairing houses and stores, the quay littered with tackle, buoys, and nets tossed up from the bay, and a fishing boat deposited halfway up the flank of Dulcia Head with a massive hole in its side.
The sight of the damage was a contrast to the quiet natural tranquility in the wake of the storm. The clouds above were fluffy and sparse, reddish sunlight flooding in from just above the solas horizon, and the bay itself resembled a mirror with only the slightest swell, as if the sea itself was quietly and calmly meditating after the tumult.
Minister Plunkett met their flitter at the quay. The man seemed out of breath and exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes. “Ah, Ichiko. And is that Lieutenant Bishara with yeh? It’s good to meet yeh face-to-face again, even if Dulcia isn’t in perfect shape for yer visit, as I’d like. How did First Base fare up there in the mountains?”
“First Base is just fine,” Chava answered. “We lost a few antennae that we’ve already replaced or repaired. But our work in renovating First Base has paid off. It would take a much stronger storm than this one to seriously worry us at this point.”
Though Plunkett nodded, Ichiko saw a quick frown pass over the man’s red-flushed face at the underlying implication that Terran technology was far superior to that of the Lupusians. Ichiko grimaced at the tone-deaf lack of diplomacy in Chava’s remark and hurried into the conversation. “We know how resilient and tough your people are, Minister,” she said. “I wanted Lieutenant Bishara to witness how quickly and effectively Dulcia responds to adversity, so she can relay that in her report. Would you mind if we walked around and talked to some of the people here, so Lieutenant Bishara can hear from their own mouths how proud they are of what Clan Plunkett and the other clans are accomplishing here in the wake of this storm?”
The frown morphed into a careful, political smile. “Why, certainly,” Plunkett said. He swept his cap from his head and ran a hand through his sweat-darkened gray hair. “I’d go with yeh, but . . .”
“I completely understand, Minister,” Ichiko told him. “And I wish you could accompany us, but it’s more important that you’re here to supervise and manage repairs. We’ll make do without you.”
her AMI commented.
Ichiko ignored that. “By the way, Minister, have you heard from the archipelago as to how they fared?”
The Minister’s smile faded as he tugged his cap back on. “Those Inishers don’t have enough infrastructure to worry about,” he said. “They probably huddled in caves on Great Inish during the storm. We have enough to worry about here without concerning ourselves with the problems of the archipelago.”
Plunkett grunted. “I appreciate that,” he said. “And we’ll let yeh know if we need anything. Lieutenant Bishara, I hope yeh enjoy yer visit, even if the town looks a bit like a blind cobbler’s thumb after this storm . . .”
“We’d be happy to help?” Chava asked Ichiko as they walked down the quay away from the minister. “Are you sure?”
“No,” Ichiko answered honestly. “But I’d think we’d want to help, if only for appearance’s sake.”
“Then if they ask for repair supplies from First Base, I’m expecting you to make a personal plea to the commander for me,” Chava said, “no matter what you have to promise him in order to get it. I’m sure you have some compelling inducements to offer.”
She grinned as she said it.
* * *
In the inside pocket of Saoirse’s oilcloth jacket was a letter her mam had handed her before they left. “If yeh happen to see that Terran yeh talked to, yeh can give her this letter to pass on to the captain of their ship. If not, give it to Minister Plunkett and he can do the same.” She’d smiled then. “And if yeh want to invite yer Terran to Great Inish, if she’ll come alone and in the Rí’s currach, then aye, yeh can bring her out here.”
Saoirse felt in her coat for the reassuring lump of the letter as they sailed out past the White Strand and into the open sea, with the mainland a humped gray-blue line on the horizon.
The arracht had been right about the bluefins, but then they were invariably right in matters of sea life and fishing. Their boat, and two others that the Rí had told to follow them (one from Clan Mullin and one from Clan Craig), were sitting low in the water from the weight of the fish they’d caught near the Stepstones. The Rí sent the other boats back to Great Inish, where the bluefins would be distributed among the clan families, the bulk of the catch to be salted and stored for later consumption. The Rí had Saoirse raise the sail; they tacked against the wind toward Dulcia, where the Pale Woman pointed to the entrance of the harbor from Dulcia Head. With a calm sea and little spray, Saoirse could keep her spectacles on.
This was Gráinne’s first trip where actual fishing was part of the experience. Saoirse needed to remind her more than once that getting slimy and dirty from handling the nets and the bluefins was to be expected, and that the briny smell of them was also an inevitable consequence. “But I’m sure that Uncle Angus will give yeh a few shillings once we sell the bluefins, and yeh can buy whatever yeh want with it. There’s a little candy shop up on the High Road, and Murphy’s Bakery has some delicious sweetbuns.”
Gráinne had managed a smile at that thought. Then Saoirse had her assist with the sail, demonstrating how they had to swing the boom to keep the wind, as otherwise Uncle Angus and Liam would have to row them across to Dulcia. “We
want to keep their arms strong for when we need them.”
As usual, the wind died as they passed Dulcia Head and entered the protected bay. Saoirse noted Ichiko’s flitter parked down near Plunkett’s Pub but said nothing, though she was certain that Uncle Angus saw it as well. She showed Gráinne how to furl and lash the sail as Angus and Liam took to the oars to bring them in to the quay near Fitzpatrick’s. Saoirse jumped out of the currach as they reached the dock, helped Gráinne out, and the two wrapped the bowline around the nearest cleat.
Their arrival had been noticed, as Johnny came out from Fitzpatrick’s with his cart. “Didn’t expect to see yeh so soon after the storm, Rí. The bluefins still running?”
“They are and we have a fine, fat catch of ’em for yeh,” Angus told him. “How’d the town fare?”
Johnny shrugged. “We have several houses and stores damaged. Mam’s business took some water in from the bay at the height and we lost some product as a result, but nothing too awful. Yeh might have seen the wreckage of one of Clan Delaney’s motorboats over on Dulcia Head. From what I hear from the other clans, it’s about the same everywhere up and down the coast—lots of wind damage in the towns. How was it out on the archipelago?”
“It was true lashing out there, but nothing we couldn’t deal with or fix afterward,” the Rí answered. “But it’s all pure barry on the sea now. Like glass, ’tis.”
Johnny nodded. “Aye. All the Dulcia boats went out this morning toward the Usk Horn, hoping for a good catch.” He glanced into the boat. “They’re not likely to do as well as you’ve done. That’s a fine haul; I’ll have to bring out a second cart for them all.”
“Let’s get started, then. Saoirse, Gráinne, help Johnny. Liam, let’s start lightening the boat.”