She planted her eyes on the ground at her feet. There, at least, it was simple and calm. Deep breaths. Slow breaths. The noise was growing louder.
Wait a minute. Sounds, voices. Cheering? Were people cheering?
She looked up again, flinching from the intensity of the crowd. Further afield she saw rectangles floating in the air, screens that held vast images in motion. Images of the people around her. Images of her. Mostly her, she realized.
What were they cheering for? Her? Really? She dug her gaze into the ground again, wanting this to be over. There were too many people. Blood rushed past her ears, and she felt something on her back.
Sanako’s hand was pushing her forward through the deafening mixture of voices and loudspeakers roiling around her head, and as she glanced up, briefly, she saw a single long slash of emptiness cut through the crowd. They were headed towards it. Odd vehicles, a bit like haulers but with wheels, stood lined up between more black-clad guards. Their rides out of here, presumably. A larger one, white and red, was already speeding off in the distance.
Ada leaned towards Sanako. “Why are all these people here?”
Sanako looked up at her, eyes drifting back to Alan briefly. “Well, they want to see you. The earthling.”
So many people here, just to see one estranged cousin from a long-derelict planet?
Alan was still speaking. “And so this is just the beginning. We still know little about life on Earth, but we do know - there is life on Earth. There are people on Earth, human and mirran. The coming weeks will surely be filled with exciting stories and discoveries, and I, as well as President Serresk, stand with you all in your anticipation. But for now our new friends need to rest. I am told Daneer is a bit overwhelming compared to the villages of Earth.”
The crowd, that churning sea of people, seemed to have a mind of its own. It laughed, it cheered, it rumbled with thunderous applause. It was a great, huge morass, and the only thing stopping it from swallowing Ada whole - like everyone already inside it - was a few meters of empty space.
Ada’s eyes darted to the haulers. “Sanako can we get the hell out of here please?”
Felisha spoke up behind them. “Ensign Oshimi will not be accompanying you the rest of the way. We’ve picked an experienced handler with an appropriate background to help you from now on.”
Fear welled up inside Ada’s gut. Already she was losing the few people she was getting to know. “No, can’t she just -”
Felisha held up a hand. They had arrived at one of the wheeled haulers, and there was another woman standing in front of it, dressed in compact, heavy clothes that looked a bit like armor. “Sanako can visit you later once her shore leave has been approved.” Ada didn’t know what that meant, but Sanako nodded optimistically and patted her shoulder as though she were some kind of pet. Felisha gestured to the new woman standing there. “For now, I’d like to introduce you to Lieutenant Elsa Ines Carrera. She will be your bodyguard and handler.”
Ada looked at this Elsa; she certainly seemed a more physically competent type, but Ada didn’t understand why she might need a bodyguard or a handler. Elsa was taller than the other two women present, deeply tanned with a fit and youthful bearing that seemed broadly unusual among colonials. She was also armed, and staring testily at Ada with pale hazel eyes. After a moment she extended a hand.
Remembering what the president had said, Ada reached for the hand itself and squeezed it, but the subtle annoyance and wince that crossed Elsa’s face told her she had done something both incorrect and painful. Still, the lieutenant maintained a straight face. “Miss Liu, pleasure to meet you.”
“It’s Ada.” She turned around, but found that Felisha was already leading Sanako and the last of the crewmates into a separate vehicle, leaving her alone with this stranger. She turned again and cocked her head. “What did they tell you?”
Elsa’s eyes flicked to the wheeled hauler next to them, and she spoke in a slightly lower tone. “That you’re difficult.”
The honesty surprised Ada into a smile. “I would be a lot nicer if any of this made sense.”
Again, Elsa glanced to the vehicle. “We’re going to dinner - hope you’re hungry - and there will be delegates from the twelve here to meet you. It’s a political show. It won’t be fun, but I need you to behave. Understand?”
Ada didn’t like commands. She crossed her arms. “I’ll behave if I feel like it.”
Elsa took a step closer, and there was something in her eyes Ada couldn’t quite read. If she was trying to be threatening, her shorter stature undermined her, but she still had a practiced steely gaze. “ Feel like it. Admiral Ashur is in the car.”
She had a generous second to process that, then Elsa opened the door to the vehicle - the car. Inside were four seats, two in front facing the two in the back. Senjat Ashur and somebody Ada didn’t recognize were sitting in the back seats, and Elsa climbed into one of the front ones, dragging Ada in with her. Ada scowled at the man across from her, daring him to say something objectionable.
Instead, Senjat ignored her entirely and looked at Elsa with an air of spite. “Lieutenant Carrera, you’ve met your charge. Assessment so far?”
“Just a brat, sir. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Both Senjat nor Elsa looked strained, but clearly weren’t addressing it. Deciding that a brat must be something demeaning, Ada started weighing her options and flexing her fingers. But cracking a window and jumping out into the city when nobody had actually attacked her seemed like a recipe for problems down the road. There would be better opportunities.
The vehicle suddenly started moving. This was far worse than a hauler; it jerked and jittered and shook a little. It wasn’t floating, Ada realized - it was like a wagon without a horse, running on its wheels. Why wasn’t it floating?
A hand was on her leg. She jolted, looking over, to find Elsa patting her knee. What? Why? The bodyguard spoke in a deep voice. “Don’t freak out. It’s just moving.”
She leaned her head against the darkened window, wishing she could speed up time somehow. She looked at the floor but she couldn’t turn her ears away from the crowd outside, or hide from the quiet gazes of every other human in the car. She wanted to make them go away, but how? She reached into her pocket and pulled out the locator stone. It was still dim, its twin gone or forgotten.
She rolled it around between her palms, trying to bring her mind to a more familiar place. Isavel. She should have brought Isavel. She should have insisted. Damn the gods and their stupid dangled promises - Isavel should have come with her, instead of staying on Earth to chase answers she might never find, answers to absurd religious questions that might not even be answerable at all.
But Ada had come here for her own answers, and might never find them either. Maybe she had made the mistake.
Isavel should be with her, either way.
She rolled the stone between her fingers, traced the inert code on it with her eyes, trying to think of nothing else. It was just a small rock; Isavel could have crushed hers easily. Isavel had strong arms, smooth-skinned but muscular, and a strong grip, more than capable of all sorts of things. She was a monolith herself, powerful and indomitable. It was a cold, harsh world and a dark night, but Isavel had been a bastion for her, if only briefly. Safe.
Memories swam past her eyes, phantom feelings trailing across her skin.
She didn’t know how long it took, but eventually the car pulled to a stop and everyone was getting out. Senjat and his aide stepped outside, but Ada froze when she saw a crowd lining a long red walkway up to a door. People were staring into the car, and she reflexively backed straight into Elsa. Elsa shoved back. “Come on, get out! Just do what you’re told.”
Ada turned around and glared her in the eyes. “I hate being told what to do. It’s why I’m here. You think I got here by following rules?”
Elsa paused, her eyes flicking between Ada and the world outside the car, and suddenly she reached for something in her belt - a flask. “
Here. Have some of this.”
Ada eyed it, tucking the locator stone away safely. It was a small, glassy bottle with an amber-coloured liquid inside it. “What’s that?”
Elsa brought the bottle to her lips and took a swig, then nodded outside. “My favourite. Helps with the nerves. Trust me.”
Ada hesitated, then took the bottle of what she could only assume was alcohol. The words on the bottle were meaningless, but it couldn’t hurt to try. She brought it to her mouth. It was sweet, slightly fruity, and very, very alcoholic. She swallowed, trying not to sputter. “That… was strong.”
Elsa smiled faintly. “Like I said. Let’s go, girl. Walk fast and stick to me, and you’ll get as few people telling you what to do as possible. Got it?”
Ada took a deep breath and nodded. Isavel probably would have played nice. “Fine.” They stepped out of the car together, and people immediately swarmed them with strange devices pointed at her face. Guns? Ada raised her hands, but Elsa grabbed her wrists and shoved them down.
“Don’t freak out, it’s just the media. Cameras.”
Media? She had never heard the word before, but she could guess what cameras were. She wasn’t liking this, but she got the feeling she wasn’t intended to like it either. Maybe she should like it, then, to spite them. She shook her head; too much to worry about right now.
She stuck close to Elsa along a reddish carpet leading to great door in the face of a stone building that turned to metal a few floors up. The doors slammed behind them once they were in, and things turned quiet. Manageable. She exhaled.
None of this was good - there were too many people, too many names, too many rules and relationships at play that she didn’t understand. Zhilik was somewhere else, and the only colonial she had connected with on any level had been held back. Here she was again, with more strangers.
“Ada.”
Elsa was taller than the other humans here, but even she was shorter than just about all the adults Ada had ever met. Ada felt out of place. “What?”
“This is going to be boring.” Elsa started making incomprehensible hand gestures that Ada tried to ignore. “It’s supposed to be a short meet and greet. There are rules - a few universities and other organizations send delegates, and they’re going to ask you questions. I think it’s two each, but I’m not sure. There’s food, so eat if you’re hungry, but the faster you answer their questions the faster you can leave.”
Ada shook her head. “Look, Elsa, I just want want to speak to your scholars. I don’t understand why -”
Elsa looked her straight in the eyes, seeming undaunted by the height difference. “Ada, nobody here gives a shit about you. I’m sorry, but all they want to do is poke at you for answers. They won’t care about you unless you make them.”
The words stung, but Ada had seen them played out in the expressions and the words of other colonials. The mirran admiral had grown evasive when she said she had questions, after all. Maybe Elsa was the only honest one. “How much more of that drink do you have?”
For the first time she saw the bodyguard grin. Elsa handed her the bottle. “Take as much as you want. I’ve got more.”
“Why are you carrying alcohol? Does everyone do that?”
Elsa bit her lip. “Not supposed to, but I convinced my SO it might be useful. Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Ada took another swig. It burned, the fire outshining the nerves and confusion. She could get through whatever stupidity they had planned - and if she couldn’t, she could blow the whole place up. She handed the bottle back to Elsa. “Let’s get this over with.”
They entered a brightly-lit room, and she quickly counted twelve groups of three or four people standing in a row, four empty tables behind them. Most looked elderly, an unusual number were male, and they were all human. Alan Niu was among them, smiling as he led her and Elsa down the line to introduce these delegates without so much as explaining what was going on. Perhaps that had been Elsa’s job.
“Ada Liu, this is the Freyjan delegation, starting with...”
Names cascaded over names, and Ada shook a great deal of hands without caring much for the people on the other end of them, forgetting almost all of them immediately. Instead, she looked at them as a species, noting the persistent oddities. They came in a variety of hues and colors and shapes, but they were so short and so old-looking, like their entire race had been struck by premature senility. There was also an unpleasantly friendly air to them she distrusted.
The first who was neither old nor off-putting in manner took her by surprise enough that she noticed. He had a broad, golden-hued face and very short black hair, with the stocky build of a warrior. He grabbed her hand with a fairly strong grip and looked intently at her face, more so than the others had. She frowned.
“Is there something wrong with my face?” Aside from its scowl, her face was fine.
He looked suddenly embarrassed. “No, no, my apologies. My name is Chiu Turou, I’m an assistant program manager at - well, I’m from Chang’e. I was just curious, Miss Liu, may I ask where you are from?”
He looked excited, in a boyish sort of way. She couldn’t imagine why. “From? I’m from Earth.”
“But your family name?”
“Uh, from my mother?” Where else was she supposed to get a last name?
He started fiddling with a device in his hands, but Alan reached out and interrupted him. “Mister Chiu, your questions can wait. Let’s get her settled.”
He looked a bit crestfallen, but nodded. “Yes, sir, of course.”
Suddenly Ada was being whisked away again, across the delegates, until she had apparently met all of them. Chiu Turou was the only name she remembered, perhaps in subconscious recognition of his strange interest in her own. She was seated at a round table, between Elsa and Alan, and as everyone sat, people clad in black and white emerged from inconspicuous doors. It reminded her more than a little of that ridiculous ball in the Mayor’s tower in Hive. She hoped there wouldn’t be any dancing.
Food. They were carrying food.
Her nose suddenly filled with smells, spices and fruits and meats. She couldn’t identify most of them, but they quickly ended up in front of her on platters. Small plates of bewildering variety stared up at her and invited her to feast. Alan leaned in and pointed.
“We have no idea what you eat.” He seemed to find the thought of earthlings eating amusing. “Our chefs tried to be creative. Let us know if there’s anything you need.”
She looked at Elsa. “Anything I should know?”
Elsa frowned at the food. “What, do you have allergies?”
“Whats?”
Elsa shook her head. “Just eat.”
She looked at the utensils available. There were knives, forks, spoons. She frowned. She nudged Elsa, and made a pinching motion with her hand. “Where are the chopsticks? ”
She must have used the wrong word; Elsa corrected her with another. “Oh, chopsticks? You want - you don’t use forks?” She pointed at the fork.
“I’ve seen them, but we don’t eat with them much.” She recalled old ones being reserved for special occasions at the Institute, which she was rarely invited to. Rumour had it they were decent stabbing weapons. “Chopsticks are easy to make. They’re everywhere. Nobody bothers making forks.”
Elsa nodded and beckoned one of the food-servers over, whispered something to him, and in moments a pair of chopsticks made of some kind of dark stone was handed to her. Much better. She was just about to dig into something that looked like fish and vegetables when Alan Niu spoke up, his voice sounding across the room through some mechanical enhancement.
“Ada Liu, before we begin, I’d like to briefly explain -”
She nodded. “Everybody’s getting two questions, yes. I got that. Can I eat?”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Elsa smirk, and a round of laughter went around the room. Alan nodded. “Of course, of course. Just a little introductory ritual, really. All these people here w
ant to talk with you in great detail, but we thought it might be easier to start with some simple questions around a meal, to get a sense of your grasp of the language and your background. I believe the Athenian delegation has the first pick.”
Somebody at another table stood up, but she was already grabbing a hunk of what looked to be fish in her chopsticks and bringing it up to her mouth as he introduced himself and his home city or clan or something. The question that followed was an odd one.
“Miss Liu, what kind of traditions do you keep to?”
She frowned as she put the fish in her mouth, staring at the man. What a strange question. They would have to learn that she did things at her own pace, though, and -
Oh gods.
Oh gods, it was spicy.
She swallowed everything she had with a gasp as tears started streaming from her eyes. She coughed, reached for water, drank the water, it didn’t help. Shit. She saw some of the colonials smirking as she coughed again.
Elsa grabbed her glass, brought it under the table, and poured something into it, all without looking. She handed it back to Ada and whispered. “Swish before swallowing.” Ada downed as much of the burning, sugary-sweet alcohol as she could, sloshing it around in her mouth before letting it go down. It stung in its own way, but nothing like the spice, and bizarrely it did feel better afterwards.
A little better. Just a little. Her face was reddening, her ears were hot, and her eyes were still misty. Now, would her voice speak or break?
“Sorry.” Thank the gods, her voice was fine. “To answer your question, the most sacred tradition on Earth is warning your guests about how fucking spicy the food is.”
Laughter burst out across the table, apparently good-natured surprise she had picked up curse words. She crossed gazes with Turou, the young man from Chang’e, who smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. It seemed positive. She leaned towards Elsa, holding her own thumbs up. “What does this mean?”
Elsa’s eyes flicked back and forth, and made a crude gesture with her own thumb and her other hand clasped in a circle. “It means he wants to go to bed with you.”
The Broken Third (Digitesque Book 4) Page 5
