His tone, if not his presence, was apologetic. As apologetic as an AAnn could manage, she decided.
“What the hell are you doing here? How did you get into my room?”
She tracked him warily as he sidled slowly to his left—and sat down on the bed. The juxtaposition was openly ludicrous: Had he been a human male, her anxiety level would have gone up. The end of his tail flicked against one of the two pillows, which she then and there irrationally determined not to use for sleeping. The AAnn might be a pugnacious species, even as treacherous as Haflunormet and his hive mates claimed, but they were exceedingly clean in their personal habits.
“I have been unable to esscape the feeling that our previouss encounter went badly, and ever ssince have ssought a meanss by which I might redress any lingering awkwardnesses.” Reaching up, he scratched at an exfoliating neck scale with the index claw of his right hand. “When I went looking for you to requesst a ssecond meeting, I learned that you had departed the compound at Azerick.”
“Not through the usual channels, you didn’t.” Willing herself to relax, she found that her muscles remained tight. Her specialist training proved unequal to the task of countering the atavistic urge to retreat in the face of subdued lighting, sharp teeth, and long claws—even though the latter belonged to an educated, multilingual member of another species’ diplomatic corps.
“Truly.” The acknowledgment was accompanied by a second-degree indication of recognition tempered with irony. The subtleties of the gesture were lost on Fanielle. “It wass not difficult to learn where you had gone.” He indicated her lodgings, a hand movement sufficiently obvious that it needed no translation.
“Or to bribe or force your way into my private quarters, evidently.” Along with the fear, some of her initial fury was beginning to fade. That did not lead her to unbend, or to relax her vigilance for a moment. She could not see a weapon or other threatening device, but their visual absence was hardly conclusive. The diplomat wore a standard-issue vest replete with pockets over the usual loose-fitting swirls of feathery opaque material, sandals, and muted tail makeup. Small pockets could conceal large surprises.
“Tsstt,” he admonished her. “I did no more than bend a few housse ruless, not break them.” There was nothing reassuring in the diplomat’s expression. “That iss no more than the nature of our profession, iss it not?”
She strove to establish some sort of command of the situation. “Good old Jorge. I knew that he favored the AAnn above the thranx, but I never dreamed—”
“Do not be too hard on your colleague.” The smile widened. Sophisticated and educated or not, the envoy’s teeth were very pointed, and very sharp. “He iss compossed of lesser material than yoursself, and iss ssubject to flattery and manipulation.”
“Don’t think you’re going to escape the consequences of this break-in with flattery,” she warned him.
“I have already apologized.” Preed hesitated and gestured simultaneously for emphasis. “For intruding upon your ‘vacation.’ “ The gesticulation that accompanied his pronunciation of the last word was as sharp as it was unmistakable. “A relaxing few dayss in the ssuccoring ressort city of Daret. From what I know of your kind, thiss sstrikess me as a mosst peculiar choice of desstinationss for taking one’ss easse.”
“I’m a peculiar sort of human,” she shot back.
He indicated comprehension. “Peculiaritiess can have their virtuess. I admired your professional and intellectual qualitiess during our previouss meeting. I ssit in praisse of them now. They are why I have gone to ssome painss to meet with you in thiss fasshion.”
She considered. The route to the door remained unbarred, and the envoy was seated with his legs facing in the opposite direction, watching her over his left shoulder. How high could a middle-aged AAnn leap? How fast? She took a couple of casual steps in the direction of the doorway. Preed did not move.
“All right. I won’t call for Security—yet. You certainly have gone to a lot of trouble. Not to mention exposing yourself to possible prosecution, diplomatic immunity notwithstanding. Say what you have to say.”
The AAnn responded with a gesture of unsurpassing elegance. “That iss very politic of you. As I ssaid, I have admired your sskillss from the sstart. It hass therefore been thrice disstressing to me that our earlier encounter ended sso poorly. Even sso, it wass clear to me at the time that you are perhapss immoderately fond of thesse thranx, and thuss inclined to take their sside in all matterss, be they large or small. I would be grateful of the opportunity to assk that you do no more than keep an open mind on the subject where my kind are concerned. Someone of your sself-evident erudition musst perforce be aware that a certain amount of hisstory exisstss between the bugss and my people, and that not all of it iss pleassant. Thiss undersstandably colorss their ssentimentss toward uss.”
Haflunormet was right, she reflected. An accomplished AAnn could make gravel taste like butter. Preed was by far the suavest emissary she had ever encountered, either in person or via tridee.
“Alsso,” he added while she mulled his words, “regardless of your perssonal feelingss toward my kind, or toward me, you should resst assured that I intend you no perssonal harm. Had that been my intention, I could have torn your unprotected flesshy form to sshredss while you sstood unawaress, contemplating the sstinking forest outsside.”
“Or maybe not,” she countered. “In tests comparing the respective physical abilities of different sentient species, humans consistently surpass AAnn in strength.”
His gesture she could not interpret. His words were quietly chilling. “Truly, that iss sso. But the sscales comprissing your epidermal layer are ineffectual in combat, your clawss are frail even when not overly trimmed, and your teeth are dessigned for grinding and biting, not sshearing.” He had the grace, she noted, not to smile when he said this.
“But why sspeak of unpleassantnesses that will not happen? Will you at leasst, in the sspirit of fairness, impart ssome value to my wordss?”
She ought to order him out, she knew—if only to test the veracity of his promise. She ought to make a break for the door, or shout aloud the personal lodging code she had been given at check-in. The room’s sensors would pick it up, relay it to the appropriate station, and Security would arrive on the run. That she did not do this spoke more for an innate sense of tolerance than for any feeling that this emissary or any other could convince her to change her opinion of the thranx or the AAnn.
“All right. In the interests of impartiality, I promise to consider what you’ve said. And as long as you’re here uninvited, why don’t you tell me what else the emperor’s manifold cheerful subjects want from me?”
Either Preed did not detect her sarcasm, or else he tactfully chose to ignore it. With an AAnn, it was always difficult to tell. She really did not expect the envoy to reply at length, much less to provide specifics.
“All the People of the Ssand wissh from humankind and itss coloniess iss a certain degree of resspect.”
Professional interest was beginning to supplement, although it could not entirely replace, her initial fear. “You enjoy full diplomatic relations with us. The Empire is treated on an equal basis with the two other major interstellar powers we know: the thranx and the Quillp.”
“Truly.” Preed gestured acknowledgment. “Yet sstill we feel our petitioningss diminisshed in the ssight of the bugss. We are concerned, and have been from the time of firsst contactss, that your government continuess to favor them above uss.”
For that complaint she had a ready rejoinder. “First of all, you’re wrong. My government, and the average citizen of Earth and its colonies, does not prefer the thranx to the AAnn. Indeed, among many of my kind, the reverse is true. This despite the invaluable aid the thranx rendered to us in the Pitarian War.” Slitted eyes blinked back at her, the double lids adding an oddly feminine fluttering to the action. “You are accorded equal treatment, both formally and otherwise.”
One clawed hand described an intricat
e succession of curves in the air. She noted that the envoy was wearing no special supplemental attire. The air-conditioning that kept the muggy Hivehom night at bay must be chilling him to the bone. This realization did not upset her. Though she could have done so, she made no move to adjust the temperature.
“Why then have our propossalss to esstablissh reciprocal ssettlementss in your Ssonoran and Ssaharan desertss been refussed? You grant thiss intimate privilege to the thranx but deny it to uss.”
“Truly,” she told him, utilizing the soft AAnn word, “I don’t know. Personally, it strikes me as unfair, and contrary to the spirit of the treaties that exist between our two peoples. But that is only my opinion. As a minor diplomat assigned to this world, I have no voice in the making of policy.”
“But you would perssonally ssupport ssuch an exchange?” For a moment, his interest struck her as going beyond the professional. Here was a matter in which the AAnn envoy took a specific interest.
“Of course,” she lied facilely. “Why not? The regions you refer to are to this day little utilized or visited. Why shouldn’t the AAnn have the same rights of reciprocal settlement as the thranx?”
His tail switched from side to side. “It sshortenss my journey to hear you ssay that.” Had he believed her? She couldn’t tell. “Truly, if only your people would recognize what to uss is sso blatantly obviouss. That we have far more in common with one another, both in sshape and attitude, than your kind ever could with thesse pesstilential bugss. That we sshare sso very many ultimate aimss and interessts. That a closser alliance between our peopless would permit the resultant political force to permanently dominate this one modesst portion of the cossmoss, to our mutual benefit. Perhapss, with time, thiss may come to pass.”
“Perhaps,” she responded noncommittally. It was not a lie. Who knew what the future would bring? No one could predict the course of interstellar relations. The way contact between humankind and the thranx had developed—accidentally, unpredictably, and in defiance of careful diplomatic procedures—had already proven as much. That she intended to do everything in her power to prevent the scenario Preed had just laid before her from ever coming to fruition was something she kept wholly to herself.
His unannounced nocturnal visit only served to confirm everything she already knew or had ever heard about the AAnn. They were sly and cunning, skilled sycophants, adept students of other cultures. All of which made perfect sense. One did not have to be a professional diplomat to realize that if one species wished to dominate another, learning everything there was to know about one’s quarry was a prerequisite for ultimate success.
The AAnn were devoted scholars of other cultures. She had no doubt that Preed was well versed in the fragmented, frequently unseemly history of humankind. Like others of his kind, he would employ that learning to exploit any discernible divisions within human government and society to the eventual benefit of the People of the Sand. She did not condemn him for this. It was his job as well as his nature. Feint and retreat, test and examine: That was how Haflunormet and the other thranx diplomats she had spent time with had told her the AAnn operated. That was the AAnn way. Avoid far-reaching, open confrontation. Poke and probe and wait for the victim to bleed to death.
That was not going to happen to humankind, she knew. Any chance of that, any naÏveté on the scale of interstellar relations, had vanished in the macabre upheaval of the Pitarian War. What might have happened had her kind first encountered the subtle, duplicitous AAnn and not the Pitar, she did not know. The most dangerous, the most ominous explosives did not always produce large, easily visible fireballs in space.
He was playing to her, ever the urbane and accomplished diplomat despite his rather fearsome appearance. Gazing back at him, she did indeed see a being much closer to her in appearance than any thranx. Only when one looked deeper did one begin to discern the insidious nature and intent that lurked beneath every AAnn and that, insofar as she had been able to discover, was absent among the thranx. What was it the ancient writer Melville had written? “Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.” In the context of future relations, of humankind’s ultimate destiny, she had become convinced some time ago that the interests of her kind would be far better served by lying down with oversized, aromatic insectoids than upright, sharp-toothed reptiloids. If there was one lesson her people should have learned since venturing into deep space and making contact with other intelligent species, it was that physical appearance counted for nothing.
But all too many of her kith and kin had not yet mastered that lesson. Hence the continued need for diplomats, for subterfuges, and for the kinds of lies she was all too often forced to live.
“I wonder,” he murmured, interrupting her thoughts. “I wonder truly how much of what you have jusst told me you believe, and how much you have sscribed for my benefit. Equivocation and invention iss, after all, your vocation.”
“As it is yours—truly.” She met his stare unwaveringly. Let him accuse her of lying if he wished. He could prove nothing. Her only real fear was that, having tracked her down with such apparent ease, he might somehow also have become aware of the meeting she was due to have tomorrow with Haflunormet and their arriving friend. Though he had given no indication of cognizance, she knew the possibility would trouble her until the meeting was concluded.
Concentrate on the moment, she told herself. One small galactic step at a time. For right now, it would be enough to get him out of her room.
“We undersstand one another, then.” Gesticulating gracefully with both hands, he tilted his head down and slightly to one side. “As before, I sstand in admiration of your sskillss, and can only hope that all you have told me arisses from the inner depthss of your true sself.” Straightening, he approached until he was standing closer to her than formal diplomatic protocol required. She held her ground. Easier to do in the room than elsewhere, she reflected nervously, since there was a wall not far behind her and she could not retreat anyway.
His bright yellow eyes with their vertical pupils peered down into her own. He was of average height and build for an AAnn, slightly taller than she but not proportionally as massive as a comparable human male. But there were those teeth, bequeathed from a wholly carnivorous ancestry, and those hooked, knifelike claws.
Reaching up, he let the sharp, pointed tip of one talon graze her right cheek. His hissing voice was a singular whisper. “Sso profoundly, abssurdly pliant. It is a curiossity to uss how your sspeciess ssurvived ssuch fragile integumentss long enough to develop intelligence. Truly, the universse iss full of wonderss.” To her considerable relief, he let the clawed hand drop, holding it in front of his chest parallel to the other in the familiar resting position of his kind.
“I hope we can meet and talk like thiss again. I have already sspoken of you to otherss of like mind. Their interesst matchess mine.”
“I have no objection to meeting with or talking to anyone,” she admitted truthfully. “Provided that next time, certain minimal courtesies are observed.”
He acknowledged her outrage without argument as he backed toward the door. “Truly. Until then, I wissh you, Fanielle Anjou of Earth and not of Hivehom, ssafe sstriding and ssmooth ssurfacess under your feet.” As the door responded to the shrouded covert electronics that had gained him entrance, he added, “And may your pending offsspring emerge into the world sslick of sscale and free of blemissh.”
He was out the door and gone before she could ask him how he knew of her pregnancy. But of course, she realized when he had left, he could have found that out from the garrulous Sertoa, or many others at Azerick Station. One hand dropped unconsciously to her upper belly as she saw the door shut. She resecured it as best she could. To her surprise, she found that her heart was racing and her lungs were pounding against her chest. All the tension, all the pent-up anxiety engendered by the AAnn’s unexpected appearance, now raced to the fore.
Stumbling into the bathroom, she rummaged through her gear until
she found the bottle she wanted. One—no, two—of the pills accompanied by hastily gulped water slid down her throat. Leaning back against the glassy wall, she wondered if she ought to change rooms. That would not be easy to do. Not in the middle of the night, on a thranx world, in an establishment dedicated to providing adequate accommodation not only to visiting humans but to representatives of many other species who frequently had very different lodging requirements. Besides, if Preed could gain entry to one room, there was no reason to assume entering another would present him with any insurmountable obstacles.
In the end she settled for the bath that had been her initial goal. After a while she managed to stop glancing in the direction of the outer room and the doorway beyond. She needed to be rested and alert for the meeting tomorrow. Haflunormet would want to know all about the intrusion, of course. Steps could be taken to prevent a recurrence.
Raising a hand, she touched her cheek where the diplomat’s claw had lightly depressed the flesh. Did rather well at that moment, she complimented herself. No shuddering, no trembling. Toroni and the rest of her colleagues would have been proud of her, standing up to a carnivorous AAnn like that, alone and unarmed. She smiled hesitantly, relishing once more the memory of the small triumph.
Then it all hit her at once, and she finally began to shake.
14
“Don’t tell me—it is not possible.” The short, dark human was gazing at the two padres with eyes that were a little too wide and muscles that were taut to the point of twitching. His chest had begun to heave. “It is not bad enough to see untainted humans congregating in this place and mixing together with filthy bugs and dirty bug activities: Now you are trying to get people to worship with them! What will come next? Bugs teaching human children? Preparing our food? Sleeping in the same rooms with us?”
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