Ambassador 4: Coming Home

by Jansen, Patty

  Evi helped me pick fragments of wood out of the wound, clean it, glue it and bandage it up. I scooped a bowl of water from the pool and washed Thayu while she lay on her side. She had fallen asleep.

  I left her to rest, briefly dived under the water, came back and lay face down on the bed in our bedroom.

  The next moment, someone was at the door.

  “Cory, get up. The military is here.”

  Shit. I rolled from the bed, feeling terrible. My face felt bumpy with the creases from the sheets. Eirani came in, complaining about fuss and all these people in the apartment without her knowledge.

  Thayu snapped at her, “You don’t have to feed them. Just let them wait.”

  She fussed with my clothing while one of the other staff brought breakfast. It was indeed getting light outside. Eirani very much disapproved of eating breakfast on the run, but it happened regularly, especially when the gamra assembly sat at awkward times.

  She also disapproved of my battle gear. “That is protection worn by guards,” she said of my armour, and she purposely avoided the guns on the table.

  Thayu was ready and came briefly into the room, stole a slice of bread off my plate and went back out.

  “The captain is ready,” she said.

  “What about Lilona?”

  “Not yet. You said you’d wait until we were about to go. Do you want me to go to the room and call her?”

  “No, I’ll do it.” I set the empty plate on the dressing table and rose.

  In the hall, I was met by two Coldi in dark clothing. Their faces were blank, their words few, their weapons clearly displayed. Asto military. Women both, I thought, but couldn’t be sure about that.

  They stood on either side of the antique bench that was only used for ornamental purposes, but where today Captain Kando Luczon sat with his companion. They had not bounds his hands, but both wore leg braces that would not allow them to run.

  The soldiers greeted me briefly, the captain and Tayron ignored me, as usual. The captain’s face was blank, but I couldn’t help suspect that he knew something was going on. We couldn’t discover how their readers connected with their ship, but they had to communicate with the ship in some way. I thought. I hoped. Because if the captain saw the size of Asto’s fleet, he might realise he could never win, even if he destroyed all of them today. There would always be more ships.

  I went down the corridor and knocked on the door to the guest room.

  Eirani hadn’t told me anything in particular about Federza and Lilona, and I presumed they had been asleep while we crawled through the mud.

  Why didn’t he open the door?

  There was no time to wait, so I rolled the door aside and went, Coldi-style, into the room.

  It was dark and stuffy inside, with the blinds over the window. These blinds were the ones that came with the apartment and I had removed them in our bedroom because I liked to wake up when daylight came.

  I knew that the large bed stood close to the window even if it was too dark for me to see it, but the staff had put a smaller bed against the wall near the door—and it had not been touched.

  My heart jumped briefly but then my eyes had adjusted, and the low light that filtered through the curtains revealed Marin Federza and Lilona Shrakar both in the large bed, sleeping, as Thayu and I sometimes did, spooned against each other. Federza’s arm, pale-skinned with the Trader Guild emblem tattooed on the shoulder, lay over Lilona’s side.

  He stirred briefly but relaxed again.

  Whatever I had expected to find, this wasn’t it. Yet in a heartbreaking way, it made sense. Here was a man whose world had been destroyed by the very people he had grown up with, people he had trusted. Here was a woman who was scared, escaping a situation akin to slavery, also having lost all that was dear to her.

  And I had come to destroy their fragile happiness—

  Lilona opened her eyes and squeaked. Federza rolled over and reached for his gun—which fell off the bedside cabinet.

  “Calm down, calm down!”

  He sat up and regarded me with blurry eyes. “Man, you gave me a fright.”

  “I’m sorry. Things are happening. I need her to come.”

  “Where to?” His voice sounded suspicious.

  I explained briefly to him what had happened. His eyes widened and as I spoke, he got up from the bed and faced me. His eyes blazed with anger. “So you want to return her to this dreadful man and hold her as hostage with them?”

  “I don’t really want to, but I see no other op—”

  In a huge step, he crossed the room. He grabbed hold of the front of my shirt and pushed me back into the tiny bathroom. I tripped over the rug. My backside collided painfully with the washbasin. “Hey!”

  The door rattled open and Thayu ran in, followed by Evi. I gestured that all was fine. They remained outside the room, but didn’t shut the door.

  “You can’t do that!” Federza hissed in my face. “Just now that she has been saved. She will think that we betrayed her.”

  “It’s not my choice either. Ezhya wants all three of them there. I can see his point.”

  “It is your choice. You’ve had plenty of times of speaking out against him. Of all the times you’ve spoken up against him, you choose this one occasion . . .”

  “Not today. I can’t speak up. This issue is much bigger than us. Look . . .” I was thinking on my feet. “I’m still hopeful that I might be able to negotiate a peaceful solution even if the ship turns up here. If she gets left behind, the captain will use her as bargaining chip against us.”

  “It’s all right, I have to go back anyway,” said a soft voice from behind us.

  Lilona had come out of bed and slipped on one of the loose bathrobes that Eirani kept for guests. Her hair hung loose over her shoulders. She resembled some elflike creature.

  Federza turned to her. He let go of my shirt. “I’m not having you go back to that monster.”

  “I have no choice. I’m bound to the ship.” She held out her arm, where little globs of light pulsed under the soft skin on the underside of her forearm. “It’s calling me.”

  Federza’s face hardened. He crossed his arms and stepped between me and Lilona. “Then you will have to take me, too.”

  Chapter 25

  * * *

  MARIN FEDERZA was not to be dissuaded, even though Lilona said that he should stay here. He said that if she had to go with the ship, he would come, but I suspected it wasn’t that easy. I had no idea what to do about it. I didn’t think Ezhya would be happy about this. But I was already arguing against him in my mind. If nothing else, some stupid, trivial part in my brain argued, we could use someone who spoke Aghyrian.

  As we went into the hall, even Lilona was trying to dissuade him.

  But Federza was adamant. “I’ve got nothing to live for. They took all my jobs, my safety, ransacked my business and ruined my reputation. I understand that we may die or that this tyrant—” He glanced at the captain. “—controls your life and will control mine as well, but I refuse to let you go alone.”

  I resisted the urge to groan. We really could not use this type of delay.

  And then I saw them lying there, against each other. I’d sometimes joked that I’d never seen Federza with a partner and all sorts of speculation circulated at the island about that.

  And I remembered that deep and dark place I’d traversed when I was convinced that Thayu had a contract with Nicha and was off-limits to me, and the light that entered my life when he told me she was his sister.

  Would I deny a man that happiness?

  And I was so fucking tired, and didn’t want to deal with it—couldn’t deal with it without bursting into tears because amongst all the hostilities and talk of war, love bloomed where it couldn’t, like it always had, since the start of humanity.

  Since the time that a scientist called Waller Herza had noticed trouble in the pods of one of the colonising race’s couples, had failed to save the man and had fallen in love wi
th the woman. Marin Federza and the Barresh Aghyrians were descended from their daughter, born a few days before the disaster. Those stories of love had been scratched into the walls of the aquifers where she had survived for years with her daughter, and then woken her fellows when the air cleared.

  I waved my hand. “All right, come with us then.”

  There was no way the Asto military would have Federza on their flight, so he’d be stopped at the airport. They’d do my job for me and separate the lovebirds. I was a fucking coward.

  We assembled in the hall, most of us still looking tired.

  “I don’t think it’s necessary for all of us to go,” I said. “There is probably not enough room for all of us on the shuttle either.”

  The silent military men in dark clothing nodded. One held up three fingers. This could mean two things: three levels of association, seven people, or two to the power of three, eight people.

  I glanced at Thayu, but she didn’t know. It depends on whether that’s part of military or civilian sign language. We could ask, but that would look silly so they probably wouldn’t even reply.

  I was going to be bold and guess eight people.

  Myself, Thayu. Nicha wanted to come, but I didn’t want him to.

  “You need to look after your son,” I said.

  “He’s in good hands with the girls.” He’d taken two keihu nannies who each did half of the day.

  “But imagine if something were to happen to you, would you want him to grow up with his mother?”

  He pulled a face. That argument settled it for him. He sent Deyu to represent him. Reida wanted to come, but Nicha said, “You’re going to be poked, prodded and provoked the moment you walk on board that ship and they see your clan. You’ll be learning how to handle it, but I don’t think you’re there yet, and don’t think it’s a healthy learning environment.”

  Reida nodded. Not a month ago he would have scowled, but he simply nodded.

  “I’ll take you to the firing range if we get a bit of time,” Nicha said, and Reida was, at least outwardly, happy with that.

  Veyada and Sheydu would come, since they were well-known in the military, having been part of Ezhya’s guard.

  The other numbers would be made up by the captain and his two companions. The eighth person who might or might not be refused would be Marin Federza. That way we wouldn’t be unpleasantly surprised if he wasn’t allowed to come down with a member of our team.

  It was time to go. Sheydu already had the hostages up standing near the door. Thayu stood next to me, a warm, heavily armed presence. I hoped her wound was better, although it would certainly have to be looked at later. I’d heard terrible stories about megon wood splinters.

  It was time for goodbyes.

  “Well, um . . .” I faced Nicha awkwardly. Just what did one say in a situation like this?

  Thayu glanced at me. You know what to say. Say it. Her expression was penetrating. Sometimes I think you’re doing this deliberately.

  Do what deliberately?

  Being obtuse. You understand Coldi society as well as any of us, but occasionally you’ll feign ignorance because you don’t like a particular custom.

  True. Surely they didn’t want me to—I was not a major leader.

  You’re the head of our association.

  All right then. No option, really.

  I said, “Iyamichu ata.”

  Nicha looked down in the subservient position. He replied, “Iyamichu ata.”

  I touched his shoulder, very formal and appropriate. I had always thought I would hate it, but there was something apt about the situation.

  Soldiers going to war, coming back either victorious or dying for the cause.

  He said, “Cory, be careful, please.”

  Then I hugged him. It was a human gesture, viewed by both soldiers with looks of deep suspicion, but then again, we had both grown up on Earth and hugging was a thing one did there, especially if one was going to war.

  It was time to leave. I followed Thayu, tired like my footsteps were dragging, like I desperately didn’t want to go—which I didn’t—fighting thoughts that I might never come back, and I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole, because I would lose it, and that would definitely be viewed as inappropriate by these career soldiers.

  The door thudded shut. We walked along the gallery. The last I saw of my apartment, just before going down the stairs, was a piece of Telaris’ dark-skinned arm.

  Back to the station, where the train still waited in the little space of rails beyond the platform, presumably built as a safety margin in case a train overshot the platform.

  The station guard had provided a proper driver—because one needed a licence to be a train driver in Barresh—and Deyu sat with us. On a bench this time, like normal passengers.

  She looked a little pale but oh so serious.

  Very little was said on the trip to the airport station. I sat next to Thayu, missing Nicha already. Federza and Lilona sat opposite us. They would occasionally meet each other’s eyes and their gazes would linger longer than necessary. Or he would touch her hand in a way ever so slightly longer and more intense than if the touch was accidental.

  Sheydu and Veyada were guarding our other hostages. None of them said anything during the entire trip. I suspected Sheydu and Veyada were communicating through their feeders.

  The train stopped at the far end of the platform of the airport station.

  The two soldiers led us away from the station, not via the regular path along the airport fence, but to the left, past the section of shoreline where the landing area joined the water, and up a little path on the other side. There was a gate where two more soldiers waited, as nondescript and genderless as the other two. They didn’t even greet each other, although the new soldiers greeted me, accompanied by a quick glance at my Domiri earrings.

  They nodded briefly at Sheydu and Veyada—both Palayi—and did a barely noticeable double take at Deyu, who was Omi, not at all a clan that populated the ranks of security officers or administrative assistants. They let the captain and Tayron through with steel faces. As if their height and lankiness were not enough to distinguish them, they both wore leg ropes and manacles.

  When Federza wanted to step through the gate, the guns went up. “Halt. What are you doing here?”

  Federza opened his jacket and showed them his Trader medallion.

  “What is he doing here?” one of the soldiers asked me.

  “He insists on coming here with the third member of the Aghyrian crew.”

  The soldier looked both Federza and Lilona up and down. He—or maybe she, whatever—did not show any emotion. Not a smile, not a single sign that Federza’s efforts to protect Lilona were worthy of hope or a smile.

  “We don’t take any external passengers on board unless under strict instructions.”

  “External” was a euphemism for non-Coldi. I guessed I fell under the “instructions” part. “He is a Trader.”

  Behind me, Thayu said, “Come on, can we just go through? We have work to do.”

  The second looked at me. His eyes had been distant when his colleague was speaking to me, but now they came back into focus. “Asha says you determine the team.”

  That meant that I would be responsible for mistakes, too. If there was trouble. If this developed into a full-scale war.

  I didn’t miss how Federza touched her from behind, a subtle and fleeting touch to the back. I tried to approach it from a logical perspective. She was the only ship Aghyrian that we’d had any type of useful conversation with. He was the only person to whom they were likely to listen.

  I closed my eyes. “He comes.” I would probably regret this. It would be a story I’d tell Ayshada when he was a teenager. Did you hear about the time I forced a military deep space ship to carry a non-Asto Trader representative?

  “They will be restrained aboard the main ship,” the soldier said.

  “I don’t care.” Federza put his chin in the air. “My
self and the lady are not criminals, but see it as you wish.”

  Damn the man. I was proud of him. I didn’t think that would have been possible.

  The craft on the other side of the fence was a lot smaller than the shuttle that Asha normally used. Just a simple shuttle with the bare essentials. Only four crew. Room for ten passengers.

  We climbed the gangplank which retracted the moment we were inside.

  The cabin had no luxuries whatsoever. The crew seats were behind a pressure door, half-shut, and the rest of the cabin resembled a cargo hold. Bare metal plates made up the floor, the walls and the ceiling. Bundles of leads were strung over support struts overhead and in corners.

  It looked like this ship was normally used for cargo. Two rows of antigrav couches had been moved in. They were big and bulky things, which was why there could only be ten in the ship.

  Federza and the three Aghyrians went in the back row and the rest of us in the row behind the pressure door.

  I sat directly behind the navigator, looking onto the pilot’s instruments. Once we’d taken off, the door would close and I would of course no longer be able to see that.

  I was given a mask, which, when I put it over my face, released a burst of hot air. I followed instructions. Lie down in the reclining chair. The soldier closed a lid over me. It had a little window through which I could see a small section of the control panel, the back of one of the pilots’ heads and a bit of window.

  Thayu was in as well.

  The craft shuddered with thumps of things being shut and secured. I sensed movement in the bench when someone took the couch next to me. Air hissed as the mask was turned on and there was a snap from the lid closing.

  My fingers on the armrest found a few buttons. One operated a light inside the pod. There was a lever to open it from the inside with dire warnings that it was not a good idea to do this in the event of a hull breach. Thanks for reminding me.

  A tinny voice came through a loudspeaker in my little capsule. “Crew, prepare for liftoff.”

  I turned off the light inside my pod and lay back in the couch. Through the little screen inside the helmet I could see the sky, which was starting to turn blue on the eastern horizon. Would this be the last sunrise I’d ever see?