Assegai

by S J MacDonald

  Where quarians were concerned, though, that was at a whole other level again. For Jarlner and Bennet to meet Silvie would actually be their own first contact with Quarus, a very definitely alien world. And they had heard things about Silvie, that she could see into the hearts and souls of anyone she met, a truly terrifying prospect for the extremely dignified Samartians.

  ‘Could it be off the record?’ Bennet asked. ‘And private?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Alex said. ‘You can drop into the encounter zone whenever you like – I’ll come along too if you want, and just let Silvie know if you’d like to meet her there – one, or both of you.’

  It would be Bennet, he knew that. Quite apart from the principle of sending in the junior officer first to protect the dignity of the senior, Bennet was the more adventurous of the two.

  ‘All right,’ Bennet said, with an air of resolve. ‘If you think it advisable, captain…?’

  Alex nodded. ‘I’m not suggesting that you attempt any kind of formal diplomacy,’ he assured them. ‘Just, you know, say hello.’

  ‘I can do that,’ Bennet said, but in the next breath asked, with betraying anxiety, ‘Is it protocol to touch her?’

  ‘No – and Silvie will not come near you if you’re feeling that you don’t want her to,’ Alex said. ‘In fact, it has to be said, if you’re nervous, the chances are high that the encounter won’t last any longer than her sticking her head out of the pool, saying hi and dashing off again.’

  He knew that wasn’t going to happen. He had a very good idea, himself, of what the Samartians would look like to Silvie’s eyes, and he was as sure as he could be that she was going to love them.

  He wasn’t wrong. It was the next day when Bennet, nervous but determined, went with him to sit in the encounter zone. Alex spent a few minutes with her there before calling Silvie, giving her time to adjust to the extraordinary environment.

  ‘The colours are…’ Bennet couldn’t quite find the word. ‘Are all these plants real?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ Alex said, and with a gurgle of mirth, ‘The Assegai has had to take on a team of exo-biologists to take care of the gardens, and the fish. Though Silvie does most of it herself, the Admiralty would only approve it if there are qualified personnel aboard responsible for all the paperwork.’

  ‘It is… like being on an alien world.’ Bennet marvelled, and gazed with astonishment at one of the water features. It was a slender, glittering column on the top of which a globe of water was forming, growing to the size of a tennis ball which was then fired off on an arc to land around the garden, apparently at random. ‘How does it do that?’ Bennet asked.

  ‘Micro-filaments,’ Alex said. ‘They use them a lot on Quarus. They’re spun from a fibrous, slimy seaweed and woven into all manner of products from the finest mesh, which is what you see there, a micro-filament bubble holding the water, also used for hammock netting, all sorts of things, right up to industrial cables.’

  ‘Ah!’ Bennet was intrigued. ‘Really, from seaweed? Not siliplas?’

  ‘Quarians don’t use siliplas,’ Alex told her. ‘They know about it, of course, but they are a relatively small population with abundant natural resources and a fundamentally different approach to technology. Our worlds are all about innovation, a drive for development and economic efficiency. Quarians just don’t think like that – they are still using the same tech they had a thousand years ago because it works just fine for their needs, and they’re not even interested when we offer them more advanced systems because they don’t see the point of changing things just for the sake of it. They like slipweed filaments – it’s a readily available self-renewing source material which their robotic systems process into whatever forms they want. The fact that it takes a hundred times longer to do that than it would to make the same stuff with siliplas means nothing to them.’

  ‘Oh.’ Bennet watched again, fascinated, as another globule formed and was fired off to splash at the far end of the garden. ‘And – what is it for?’ She asked. ‘The water? Is it for the plants?’

  ‘No, it’s decorative,’ Alex said. ‘Actually, part of a sculpture – the metal curve over there, that jumble of sticks over in the corner, the tower and the water bombs are all part of one artwork. Silvie did try to explain it to me but apparently it only conveys its meaning when you look at it with three cognitive strands simultaneously. Which quarians can do, of course, perfectly normal for them to be thinking about five or six things at once, with their multi-cognitive intelligence. But for those of us with linear brains, all we can see are the separate elements.’ He smiled, seeing from her withdrawal into reserve that she was finding that disturbing. Which was understandable – there was very little art, literature or creativity in Samartian culture. Their favoured form of entertainment were live-feed reality soaps following the lives of people living in on-film apartments. There was no such thing as an art gallery anywhere on the planet. ‘Never mind,’ Alex said, making her smile again as she anticipated the rescue, ‘It isn’t important.’ He looked appraisingly at her. ‘So – enough for one day?’ he queried. ‘Or would you like to say hi to Silvie?’

  Bennet sat even more upright than she already was, giving a firm nod.

  ‘I am ready,’ she declared.

  ‘All right.’ Alex touched his wristcom. Silvie was actually waiting hopefully in the swim tube, just metres away. She’d been eager to meet the Samartians even before they’d come aboard ship, and had only stayed away from them at Alex’s request, waiting till they were ready.

  It was worth waiting for. Silvie came up out of the plunge pool, stepping out into the drying zone. The shipboard rig she was wearing fluttered around her for a moment as the air-blast did its work, but Silvie was already standing still, gazing at Bennet with an enraptured expression precisely mirrored by the way Bennet was gazing at her.

  Alex glanced from one to the other and smiled. This, he knew, was how he’d looked when he and Silvie had first met, that dazed moment where the rest of the cosmos had ceased to have any existence for him.

  Silvie sat down, right where she was, next to the pool, plumping down into a cross-legged sit without taking her eyes off Bennet.

  Seconds passed. Communication was happening; Alex could feel it. But he wasn’t part of it. That communion was happening between Bennet and Silvie, understanding without the need for words.

  Alex just sat back, keeping quiet, and watched as Bennet got up, quite slowly, walked through the gardens to the pool and folded herself down into a squat, facing Silvie, just an arm’s length apart.

  ‘Gorgeous…’ Silvie murmured, eventually.

  ‘Wonderful…’ Bennet breathed in return, at which Silvie gave her an impish grin, breaking the magic of the moment.

  ‘Oh, you are diamond,’ she said, and looked past to Alex, glancing back and forth between the two. ‘She’s just like you!’ She told him, with a note of astonishment. ‘I thought you were unique, but…’ she looked back at Bennet. ‘You could be brother and sister.’

  Alex grinned. He’d suspected as much, not only because Samartians were by their nature so honest, with the rock-solid principles and high integrity quarians found so attractive, but because of that odd sense of kinship he’d recognised himself when he and Samartians met. There was something there, he knew, beyond his own ability to analyse, but some kind of connection.

  ‘So beautiful…’ Bennet said, and then seemed to come back to herself, too, looking momentarily confused and a little abashed. ‘Oh, I…’ she started as if to apologise, then looked back at Silvie and relaxed again, grinning. ‘This is so weird… I feel like I’ve known you for ever.’

  ‘Uh huh,’ Silvie confirmed, and looking intently at her, ‘Are all your people like you? So clear, and so brilliant?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Bennet admitted. ‘I don’t understand what you see. But I’m not a special kind of person, so perhaps.’

  ‘Oh, wow…’ Silvie was entranced. ‘Imagine a planet full of diamonds!’ Sh
e was suddenly enthusiastic. ‘Please,’ she said, ‘send some of your people to Serenity, will you? Can you?’ She looked from Bennet to Alex. ‘Can we arrange that?’

  ‘We can certainly send an invitation,’ Alex confirmed, ‘And arrange transport.’

  ‘Okay, great.’ Silvie said, clearly happy to leave the details to him, and beaming back at Bennet. ‘My people,’ she prophesied, ‘will love meeting your people. And they will come, won’t they?’

  ‘Oh, I – can’t say,’ Bennet was suddenly aware that this was not in fact a casual invitation from a friend but an offer from the quarian ambassador to open direct relationships between their worlds. ‘I think… perhaps,’ was as far as she could commit herself. ‘I hope so.’

  ‘Okay.’ Silvie accepted that, understanding that Bennet had no remit to make such decisions on behalf of her people. ‘I hope so too,’ she said, and got to her feet, holding out her hand. ‘Come on,’ she said, keen to share the fragment of her world that was here on the ship, ‘I’ll show you around.’

  There was a slight delay while they fitted Bennet with a swim mask.

  ‘I can’t swim,’ Bennet mentioned, and with a glance at the pool, ‘I’ve never been in water.’

  ‘It’s just like freefall,’ Silvie said, and Alex nodded confirmation.

  ‘Think of it as a space-walk,’ he advised.

  Bennet had no problem with that. Samartian ships had no artificial gravity – they had never developed it – so she was used to spending two weeks at a time in continuous freefall, while leaving the ship to work on external systems was a routine task. Put into that context, getting into a pool with a swim mask on was not that big a deal. Bennet handled it well, exclaiming a bit at the strange sensation of the cool water, but more amazed than fearful as Silvie drew her gently under the surface. There, they paused for a few seconds for Bennet to orient herself, get used to the feel of water around her and confirm that her swim mask was fine.

  ‘Just kick your feet gently,’ Silvie advised, holding her hand to draw her along through the tube. Bennet went with her, totally trusting.

  Eighteen seconds later, though, she was getting out of that pool a great deal faster than she had got into it. She came out of the tube with a kind of flailing scramble, launched herself at the surface, grabbed the underwater steps and hurled herself out of the water in a roll that span her across the surrounding path to collide with a flower bed. She was breathing fast, tearing off the swim mask and gulping for air as she leapt to her feet, panting, but facing the pool like cornered prey turning to confront a predator in one last, desperate effort.

  They really should, Alex realised, have warned her about Ulric.

  ‘What the… what was…’ Alex had stayed in the encounter zone, happy to relax there for a while as Silvie showed Bennet around. But he was on his feet, now, hurrying over to the pool. ‘There was a fish!’ Bennet held her hands apart, a good three times more than Ulric’s actual size. ‘Huge! With a mouth, and teeth! Coming straight at me!’ She looked accusingly at Alex, and at Silvie, who’d come out of the pool after her and was looking frankly bewildered. ‘Is that a shark?’

  It took some time to convince Bennet that Ulric was a harmless pet, and to get Silvie to stop laughing. She had been all concern when Bennet was frightened, but found it hilarious when she continued to be frightened even after she was out of the water, as if she thought Ulric might launch himself out of the pool and go for her throat.

  ‘And these fish,’ Bennet said, several minutes later when a cup of tea and soothing explanations had had their effect, ‘All these fish… they are… urinating, and defecating, in that water?’

  Silvie nodded. ‘There is a very fast clean-up,’ she said. ‘Aqua-con filters the water constantly.’

  ‘But…’ Bennet was lost for words for a moment, then found them. ‘I love the wild,’ she said. ‘ Back home. I hunt, I sleep outdoors, I get dirty, it’s fine. But that’s in the wild. On ship is on ship, it has to be clean, clean, clean. You can’t, we can’t, we don’t, allow animals on ship.’

  ‘That is unusual for us, too,’ Alex said, remembering the bewilderment when he’d tried to explain the nature of Lucky’s role as a pet and mascot on the Heron. ‘But it is necessary for quarians to have a living environment, even aboard ship.’

  ‘I go crazy without it,’ Silvie confirmed. ‘And it is, I promise, totally safe – nothing there that can hurt you.’

  Bennet looked back at the pool, and Alex could see her coming to the realisation that she was going to have to get back in there. Not for diplomacy or to please Silvie, but simply as a matter of pride. She had been chased out of that pool by a fish, and had fled from it in panic. That was conduct unworthy of any Samartian, let alone a Caldai. So she squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and gave a short nod. I can do this.

  ‘Good girl,’ said Silvie, who was four years younger than Bennet.

  So Bennet got back into the pool. Alex went with them for moral support, and when Ulric started to swim up towards them again Silvie prompted him to turn around and go the other way. So, there was no panic this time. Bennet avoided getting close to any of the fish, but stayed calm, emerging into the aquadeck with a sense of dignity restored.

  ‘Before our people go to Serenity,’ Bennet said, firmly, ‘there will have to be swimming lessons, and wildlife familiarisation.’

  Jarlner had both before he met Silvie, so that introduction and tour of the aquadeck was achieved without panic. And Silvie, as delighted with Jarlner as she had been with Bennet, was exponentially more so at the two of them together.

  ‘The dynamic between you is amazing,’ she told them, gazing at them in frank wonder as they sat having tea after their swim. ‘Complete trust, respect, care – but not at all romantic.’ She surveyed them, considering. ‘The only other context I’ve seen anything like this kind of devotion is in people with profound religious beliefs. And it is, isn’t it? It’s like a sacred bond.’

  ‘We are brother and sister in the Service,’ Bennet confirmed, ‘but the Service is not a religion – a sacred trust, yes, to stand guardian and protect our world, our people, but we do not worship. We are a secular people now, we recognise that gods are created by people, not the other way around.’

  ‘With you on that one,’ Silvie commented, but was still studying them with analytical observation, ‘But isn’t it interesting that you look to Bennet as leader, to guide and protect you?’ She was speaking to Jarlner. ‘I wouldn’t have expected that, in such a hierarchical culture.’

  Jarlner and Bennet looked at one another and both looked away again, Bennet trying not to grin while Jarlner looked embarrassed.

  ‘Jarlner is in command – he makes the decisions, gives the orders,’ Bennet said.

  ‘I know, I know, you’re careful of his dignity,’ Silvie said. ‘But this is me you’re talking to, so don’t try to pretend you don’t understand what I’m talking about. He looks to you, when he’s feeling unsure or anxious he looks at you for guidance, and is reassured that you’re there to protect him. You speak for the both of you more often than not, so clearly the more confident. And that isn’t an issue for either of you, is it, because somehow, even though he’s higher ranking, this is how both of you expect things to be, that it’s natural for Bennet to be the more assertive.’

  ‘Oh.’ They glanced at one another again, and this time Bennet was apologetic. ‘I am sorry, beloved – those are not my opinions.’

  ‘I know – instincts run deep,’ Jarlner replied. ‘And you do not need to tell me that you are not genderist, beloved. You would not be Caldai, if you were.’

  Bennet nodded, and looked back at Silvie with a heightened tinge of colour in her cheeks.

  ‘Our society,’ she admitted, ‘used to be genderist – matriarchal. The beliefs of the time were that men were physically stronger but less intelligent, and that women were the more ferocious fighters – a biological reality, it was said, because females are genetically programmed to
be the more ferocious in defence of their young. For most of our history, men were the labourers while women held the military status. But we evolve. It is nearly two centuries now since the Gender Equalisation Resolution was passed, giving men the same rights and opportunities as women at every level of our society. It is very backward thinking now, unacceptable, for a woman to treat a man as inferior. And I do not, if it must be said, in any way, ever, think of Jarlner as my inferior. He is my superior in rank, a position he has earned, and is due nothing less than the respect a woman would expect in that role. And if I sometimes feel an instinct towards protecting him, that is a biological instinct I recognise, but do not allow to colour my thinking or my behaviour.’

  Silvie snorted, an oddly vulgar noise from someone of her elven beauty.

  ‘You can tell yourself that as much as you like,’ she told Bennet. ‘But don’t waste your breath telling me.’ She laughed at Jarlner, who had lifted his chin and was on maximum dignity setting. ‘And you know, don’t you, that it is no weakness to rely on her, but a strength, accepting that support without feeling the need to assert yourself as dominant.’

  Jarlner didn’t answer for a moment, evidently giving that serious thought, then the uber-dignity was set aside and he gave a little grin as well as a nod.

  ‘It may be old-fashioned of me,’ he admitted, ‘but I don’t like strident, over-bossy men, throwing their weight about as if they feel they have to keep proving they’re every bit as good as women. I don’t have to prove that. We are equal, as it should be. And I do not feel challenged by confident female subordinates…’ a little grin at Bennet. ‘I have earned my rank, I am secure in it. And if I look to Caldai Bennet for guidance in areas where she has greater expertise and experience, that is, as you say, a strength, a willingness to be advised.’

  Silvie gave them an approving chuckle. ‘You’re certainly a great team,’ she commented. ‘I could watch the two of you all day.’

  She meant that, Alex knew, and he chuckled too at the thought of Silvie following the Samartians around just as she sometimes came around with him. Her presence would certainly liven up the training sessions, as she was incapable of being a detached observer and would always join in. Her impact on their training, though, would be extremely disruptive.