“You always assume zat you are ze one who is wrong,” Hrriss said with a gentle grin as he opened the door. “Let me suggest a little experiment. Ask zese folk what zey zink.”
Todd’s personal staff consisted of two Hrrubans and a Human, whose workstations were in the outer office. They looked up as Todd and Hrriss came out. The office manager, Kathy Hills, fluttered her long blond lashes at him in a demi-flirt, then stopped when she noticed his expression. Her large blue eyes filled with concern.
“Todd, what’s wrong?”
He wasn’t very sure how to frame the question. Anyway, these people were loyal to him personally. It was those who had no connection to him that he had to reassure.
“Er, Kath, are you comfortable with the idea of allying with the Gringg?”
“That’s a funny question,” she said, a little puzzled. “Sure. Why?”
“Well, I . . . would it trouble you to have them as permanent trading partners? Neighbors? Friends?”
Kathy laughed. “Well, I can’t imagine being closer to anyone than I am to my two best Hrruban friends. It’ll be a shade difficult,” she added with a giggle, “to be on the same level as a Gringg, but every one of them I’ve met so far has been polite and curious and really rather interesting. Need you ask?”
“Well, yes,” Todd said. “It seems I do need to ask. I should have done it before.”
Mrrowan, at the desk across the room, exchanged pitying glances with Kathy and Hrriss, and shook her head.
“Zodd, you can be so blind sometimes. We zrust yrrr judgment. We sure wouldn’t work so hard for you if we didn’t!”
Barrough, beside her, his jaw halfway to the floor in amusement, nodded agreement.
“We can’t be considered a good cross section in a random poll,” he said. “But we get out and about when you haven’t got us slaving over hot consoles here. So we do know that the majority will follow you and Hrrestan. We elected you to succeed Hu Shih, didn’t we? And most of the people I know”—he turned to get emphatic nods from the two females—“think you’re handling a difficult situation very well. Any fainthearts don’t know how good they’ve got it here.”
“Thank you,” Todd said, his shoulders relaxing somewhat, though the tight knot in his gut remained. “I needed to hear that. I was half-convinced that I’ve been ignoring what’s been going on right around me. I’m not going to bull it through without the approval of the people who live here.”
“And you are not,” Mrrowan insisted. “Rraladoon exists as it does because we’ve always helped each other. You have had help from many people zese long weeks of zeaching ze Gringg to speak our language. Zose are not disapproving. It has been a prrject we have all shared. And enjoyed.”
“Tom Prafuli’s emigrating,” Todd said, still ashamed of that disappointment.
“So?” Barrough demanded with a shrug. “He was never really a Rraladoonan. He only came here to hunt Snake. We can do without his kind.”
“And you’re letting that upset you?” Kathy demanded, screwing her face up in disgust. “You amaze me, Todd! Let it run off your back, the way you did the other stupidities that have been perpetrated. You’re on the right track. Don’t you doubt it!” Her expression turned fierce.
“I second that!” Barrough and Mrrowan chorused. “But it is nice of you zo ask,” Mrrowan added, dropping her jaw in a big grin.
“I zold him he was mad,” Hrriss said, his eyes alight.
* * *
“No, they’re not exactly disinterested parties,” Admiral Sumitral said when Todd consulted him on the matter, “but loyal enough to you to warn you if the matter was getting out of hand. So why are you letting one emigration give you second thoughts?”
“It just made me realize that not everyone agrees with the policy Hrrestan and I have been following. I mean, bringing the Gringg along as quickly as we can, opening our homes, our businesses, our lives, to them is good for interspecies relations, but are we doing the right thing for the greatest good of the people on the planet we administer?” Todd asked, and paused.
Hrriss grunted low in his throat, but it was Sumitral who answered.
“Would I”—the diplomat touched his chest—“have backed you so solidly if I felt you were not acting in the best interests of a planet which is very dear to my heart?”
That rhetorical query wrung a wry smile from Todd. “You’d be the first to set me straight, I guess.”
“If I hadn’t firrrst,” Hrriss said, twitching his nose and whiskers.
“I admit that it can be unnerving to see people carrying such unflattering banners round and round your office,” Sumitral agreed, “but surely you saw how many of them are not even residents?”
“It’s the ones who were that upset me. There were letters demanding that I step down. Kelly’s reported rumors all over the complaint board.”
“Pay no azzention to zem,” Hrriss said. “Zey do not speak for ze majrrity.”
“Do you, in your mind and heart, doubt the merits of what you’re doing?” Sumitral asked, leaning forward over his folded arms.
“No! Not for a moment,” Todd said. “Not for myself! But I’m not acting for myself anymore—or alone.”
Sumitral smiled. “You are acting for the good of Rraladoon and that has always been an instinct with you, and with Hrriss. Remember that. Ignore the dross. Myself, I have trusted very few in my life . . . a survival technique. But I trust you, and Hrriss, and certainly Hrrestan. And oddly enough, I also trust the Gringg. Call it professional instinct. That’s why I’m backing you. And, to give you a little encouragement”—Sumitral pulled up a file on his desk computer and swung the screen around for the two friends to see—“I’ll give you the straight facts from home world newsprints. Here’s the result of an opinion poll circulated by the Amalgamated Worlds Council on Earth. You see, in the beginning when the first data about the Gringg’s arrival began to circulate, a general poll showed seventy-five percent were against getting involved with them. But look at the demographics: most of them are oldtimers, who grew up when there weren’t even Hrrubans on the horizon, when settling space meant hardship and terror. The young people, between sixteen and twenty-five, were ninety-two point seven in favor of getting to know the Gringg better.
“Now, after the initial reports”—Sumitral allowed a tiny smile to touch his lips—“and I might add, after a little judicious salting of news programs with tapes of you two and other Rraladoonans interacting in friendly, nonthreatening activities with the Gringg, teaching them Middle Hrruban and playing with them, there’s a forty percent swing in the oldest demographics, and anyone under sixty is ninety percent or better in favor of forming a Treaty with the Gringg. This is what I based my platform on when approaching the Council, and that’s how I won approval to offer them both diplomatic immunity and a trade agreement.” Sumitral tapped the screen with a stylus. “Don’t doubt yourself, Todd Reeve. You’ve the backing you need. And an interstellar reputation as a fine example of Hayumankind and a role model for aspiring youngsters.”
“Zere, you see?” Hrriss asked, whacking Todd solidly on the upper arm with the back of his hand.
With such reassurances, Todd was finding it hard to hold on to his gloomy mood. Hrriss was grinning widely, his jaw dropped almost all the way to his breastbone.
“I’m not sure I like having an interstellar reputation,” Todd said in a low grumble.
“You should have thought of that when you were six,” Sumitral said, with the ghost of memory lining a smile on his face. “Now, come, take your optimism into the negotiating room with you. You can deal with the rumormongers when the job is done.”
* * *
In their dress uniforms, Sumitral, Todd, and Hrriss shouldered their way out of the building past the protesters and walked quickly to the transport grid. Ignoring the cries at their backs, Hrriss set the controls. The mist rose around
the three of them, obscuring the ring of dissident Hayumans and Hrrubans. Todd was never more grateful to see the plain white walls of the Federation Center. He nodded a greeting to the grid operator, a young Hrruban male with a very pointed face and narrow-striped tail.
“We’ll meet the Gringg on the landing pad,” Sumitral said.
As they emerged from the grid facility, they were surprised to see the crowds on the Treaty Center grounds. A handful of Alreldep regulars in their maroon uniforms stood guard on the concrete apron attached to the building, around a grand table with three pens and inkwells but only two seats, for the public signing of the Treaty between Terra, Hrruba, and Gringg.
Most of the Hayumans and Hrrubans waiting near the landing pad were Rraladoonans, waiting eagerly to view the signing. Many had brought seating, while others had spread blankets on the ground. There was a buzz of pleasant talk which stilled as the official escort arrived. To one side, however, Todd was dismayed to see yet another cluster of protesters. This bunch suddenly pushed their way through the scattered onlookers, right up to the boxy Gringg shuttle, waving their posters. These featured caricatures of Gringg, ill-drawn as well as defamatory. One showed a Gringg tearing apart a small body, obviously a Hrruban cub. Another featured a mass of Gringg, wearing extravagant collars and harnesses, trampling down both Hayumans and Hrrubans, exaggerated paws reaching toward a table heaped with food stuffs.
Ken Reeve, Jilamey Landreau, and Ali Kiachif immediately stepped up to the shuttle hatch, daring the mob to start something. A phalanx of the commercial space crews emerged from behind the shuttle, their hand weapons still holstered but ready, and formed a sort of barrier.
Jilamey waved to Todd and Hrriss and gave one of his outrageously cocky grins.
“Damn!” Todd muttered under his breath.
“Well, I didn’t expect this!” Sumitral muttered under his breath.
“I did, after the crowd around my office. Kiachif and Horstmann dragooned their crews into guard duty,” Todd replied out of the side of his mouth. “I’d hoped it was just talk. Damn ’em for using pictorial insults.”
“Since it’s all too well known that the Gringg have concentrated on spoken, not written language, that’s one way for them to make their points.”
“And Eonneh’s in the shuttle and has probably faithfully drawn what’s on the posters for posterity,” Todd said, his tone savage with frustration. Even as he’d been speaking, he’d been surveying the faces of the orderly Rraladoonans, estimating the numbers. “Wait a sec!”
He held up his hand to delay the others in the formal escort. Then he took a step toward the dissidents.
“You’re not citizens of this planet,” he said, rapidly scanning the protest group to find the leader. “You have no right of protest here.” Then he turned to the friendlier faces, and raising his voice, added, “I recognize a lot of you from previous Snake Hunts. How about removing the vipers in our midst? I think they need to go back to whatever hole they emerged from. Quietly! Out of respect for the rules of hospitality!”
Before the protesters could rally effectively to defend themselves, their posters were confiscated and their persons bodily removed by willing hands. Some loud and outraged cries drifted back. Todd waited a bit, grinning at Sumitral.
“All right, that’s out of the way. Let’s proceed with the scheduled formalities.”
* * *
As soon as Todd, Sumitral, and Hrrestan approached the Gringg shuttle, the door slid open. A buzz started, this time a welcoming one.
Waving cheerfully and with a pleasant smile showing all her fangs, Grizz alighted, her powerful legs making the long step easily. Todd sighed, hoping that the Gringg had not been there very long.
Honey and Kodiak followed Grizz, turning to help Teddy down the tall steps.
A hearty cheer rose from the crowd and some laughter. Grizz twitched her ears and seemed to scan the gathering, but her fanged smile remained in place—the same fanged smile that had been caricatured on one of the posters. Todd hoped that the Gringg might just dismiss those as bad Rraladoonan art. The Gringg and officials had taken no more than a few steps, when suddenly a fist-sized rock winged past Todd’s head, ricocheting off the side of the shuttle. A clatter of pebbles hit the ground around them.
Todd swung immediately in the direction of the assault. A man, tawny-skinned but with the sallow complexion that spoke of limited exposure to the sun, threw another rock straight at Grizz.
Anticipating its trajectory, Todd jumped up with one hand high and caught the rock. He swore as it stung his fingers. Teddy squealed with fear. The Gringg immediately closed about the cub, hiding him from any further attack.
There were cries of “Shame! Shame on you!” from most of the onlookers, and agitated movements in the crowd as a number of them chased after the assailant.
By all that’s holy, Todd resolved, I’ll find some punishment to fit this crime, all quite within my authority as co-leader. A glance at Hrrestan told Todd that the Hrruban had the same uncompromising opinion. The sharp chunk of granite he’d had caught would have done some damage had it reached its target, no matter how tough Gringg hide was.
“I’ll want to see that man when you catch him,” Todd said aloud and gestured to two of the crewmen to follow through.
Todd dropped the stone to the ground and, with his boot, ground it into the dirt.
“My sincere apologies, Captain,” he said in a ringing voice. “Let us proceed with the order of business.”
Then, flexing his stinging fingers, he raised his arms and gestured for the crowd to give way. A respectful aisle immediately opened up, wide enough for the Gringg and escort to proceed.
That such an incident had occurred at all rankled deeply in Todd, marring what should have been a great occasion.
With Kiachif, Jilamey, Ken, and Hrriss flanking the aliens, they marched toward the Center, the space crews forming a guard behind them.
* * *
The Treaty Chamber door swung wide to admit Hrrto’s erstwhile allies, the Hayumans from Spacedep. Of those expected at the noon hour, they were the first to arrive. Barnstable, in his dress blues, nodded sharply to Hrrto as he slid into the chair opposite, and surveyed the room. The only other occupant was Mllaba, who sat discreetly against the wall, allowing her senior to mull over his thoughts by himself. Greene waited patiently as Barnstable seated himself, then escorted Castleton to her chair on the other side of their senior commander.
“Well, Speaker Hrrto?” Barnstable asked. “Anything to report?”
“I have spoken to Hrrestan. Ze conference goes on unhindered, and a Zreaty seems imminent whether we will or will not apprrove,” Hrrto said, but his voice was distant. “If we are right, zis means zere are only hours left. I can do nothing more. Despite all advice to the contrary, the High Council wants to trade with zese Gringg.”
That was true enough, for once Hrrto had mentioned the existence of purralinium, the High Council would hear of nothing but an agreement—any agreement—that would augment the dwindling supplies.
Mllaba, in her chair by the wall, glared at the floor with glowing yellow eyes, but said nothing. Hrrto had not requested her presence at that High Council meeting and he knew she was certain that he had mishandled that meeting. No matter. His conversation with Hrrestan had caused him to alter more than one long-held opinion. He had even altered his desire to win the upcoming election: such crushing responsibility for all sorts of unexpected incidents had lost any appeal.
“Withhold your approval,” Greene said. “The Treaty will require signatures from all three governments.”
“I am not sure zat will be possible,” Hrrto replied. “Nor zat it will mazzer.”
“But it can,” Barnstable said urgently, his eyes glittering. “Think of it: the Gringg have given us a map of their systems. They have claimed hundreds of planets. If you don’t sign, all the provis
ions and the safeguards become null and void. Hrruba could take over valuable mining planets—even habitable worlds. Considering what they did on Fingal, the Gringg don’t deserve to colonize more worlds.”
“No,” Second said wearily. “I am too old for war. Nor am I one to take anozzer’s worlds. We Hrrubahs, too, have put such greed behind us. But ze others will sign ze Zreaty anyhow. It will not matter if I sign or not.”
“It will matter, Speaker,” Greene assured him. He held out a small datacube. “I have the tape from our exploration ship. It proves that the Gringg ship did fire on Fingal Three, destroying at least one of the cities, on the surface and several of the satellites. The weapons we have suspected all along must be hidden somewhere aboard that leviathan. Our combined fleets are hours away. They must not hesitate to attack.”
“Is zis wise?” asked Hrrto. “It is not us who will die.” And, he thought, we are so close to gaining new supplies of purralinium. He closed his eyes in despair.
“Too many will die if we don’t act. You saw that tape,” said Greene through gritted teeth. “These Gringg are deceivers and vicious killers. I can sense it every time I’m close to one of them.”
Grace Castleton, sitting by Greene, angled her body away from him. As close as they had been the night before, she felt uneasy about contact with him just now. She was weary of trying to argue with Jon. He kept on the same theme and would see no other logic. For the first time since she’d received her own commission, she found her command onerous, as her private opinions could not interfere with her obedience to orders from the Admiral. Barnstable was as rabid against the Gringg as Jon, wholeheartedly willing to believe evidence she found spurious.
“We need more time,” Mllaba said. “Just a few hours, and ze fleets will be here to support our views. We need a diversion. Now is ze time to show Rrev and Hrrestan zat tape!”
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