Ambassador 1: Seeing Red (Ambassador: Space Opera Thriller)

by Patty Jansen

  “He should. It was explained.”

  For all the great impression that would make. I could imagine the uproar in the corridors of Nations of Earth. And they bully us into giving this to them? Unfortunately, posturing was part of Asto’s tactics. Pomp and ceremony, and frightening shows of numbers. They were like peacocks, but Nations of Earth might well misinterpret their bluff for real aggression, and therein was real danger of the type that involved military aircraft and weapons.

  I said, “This material is of that much importance to Asto? To risk armed conflict?”

  His eyes met mine squarely. “Listen to me, Delegate. Conflict will follow for those who choose to mess with us.”

  Ezhya Palayi rose from the couch, indicating that the interview was over. “The material is ours, and we paid for it. The scientist had no business giving it to someone else, least of all to the president. That it might have been a factor in his death is unfortunate, but has nothing to do with us. I want you to go back there, Delegate, and let your president know that I want the material or there will be consequences.”

  I rose, too, and bowed. “With all respect, even if I go, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to retrieve anything. It is part of an investigation of justice.” A process Asto wouldn’t understand.

  He stiffened. “Get me that material and we’ll talk. I’ll be happy to provide you with protection.”

  “Armed personnel, you mean, your guards.” With all the wrong pronouns. Oh, I was overstepping my boundaries; I knew that, somewhere in between being terminally hot and damned annoyed with his posturing. For all I knew, he had been intending to build this settlement in the Sahara.

  He stepped so close I could feel his heat. He was about my height, tall for Coldi, and his eyes were extraordinarily gold-flecked. There was another moment of intense silence, of sizing me up. Too late perhaps, I realised that he had never fully relaxed after that initial eye contact.

  From the corner of my eye, I spotted silver-and-maroon figures entering the room: his guards were back.

  “You, Delegate, are impertinent.” And that was a very rare form of you that only Coldi of high rank could use.

  If he thought it intimidated me, however, he was wrong. I no longer cared. “If you want to deal with my entity in peace, you better get used to that.”

  * * *

  I didn’t realise how much I trembled until I stood on the gallery outside, where even the sultry Barresh breeze felt like a blizzard on my skin.

  I raked a hand through my hair. A large strand came undone from my ponytail. It was damp with sweat.

  I swore, loudly.

  “He does that on purpose, to intimidate people,” Thayu said, after a while. Her voice was soft.

  “Well I’m not going to be intimidated. I swear I’ll get to the bottom of this, I’ll—”

  “We, not you.” Inclusive, intimate we.

  I stared at her.

  “Don’t forget what you said a few days ago: we are in the same shit together. How about you let me in on what’s going on?” The anger shimmered through the restraint in her voice.

  I grabbed the balcony railing with sweaty hands. Please, I have no time for this now. Down on the ground floor of the building, a woman in a red robe led a group of girls across the hall. “They have school visits here?”

  “You’re changing the subject. You’ve been changing the subject on me all day.” Accusing-you.

  “No, I haven’t—”

  “You haven’t? Then what about that damaged datastick you have? You try to fix it? You couldn’t even find the right flap to load recharges for your reader. You don’t want me to see it, that’s all there is to it.”

  I opened my mouth, but she kept going, “No, don’t try to deny it. You remember what my position is? I’m your zhayma. I’m supposed to help you, but all you do is cut me out, block your feeder access, and now you’re not even wearing it anymore. Do you think I can work with that?” All accusatory pronouns.

  “Thayu, please—”

  “No. I think it’s time we had a good talk. Come.” She took my arm in a vicelike grip. Then she gestured to Evi and Telaris, who had waited at a distance. “Mashara.”

  I stumbled along with her, too sick to care where she took me, too sick to fight.

  After a blur of corridors, courtyards and stairwells, we arrived in a part of the complex where I had never been. Here, the thoroughfares narrowed and the walls on both sides blocked out light, especially because plants spilled over every inch of gallery railing on all four floors above us, filtering light to a muted green. The air was heavy with humidity.

  Thayu led me into an elaborate arched entrance which gave access to a cool hall, where our footsteps echoed against a ceiling I couldn’t see in the sudden gloom. Light streamed in through an open door on the other side. I caught glimpses of lush greenery.

  Thayu fished in one of her many pockets, produced her account card and went up to a counter in the hall with the words, “Just for two.”

  The woman behind the counter took her card.

  By now, I felt dizzy.

  Evi and Telaris stationed themselves in the shady archway. A man in a green shirt led us into a courtyard in which grew a veritable rainforest. Flowering bushes and mossy trunks. Steaming water in lush dark pools. People sat in the water, sipping drinks. In a basin in the corner a young man rinsed a middle-aged woman’s hair. The lower half of her body hidden in water, her ample breasts just tickled the surface. The attendant gestured at a pool surrounded by flowering bushes too low to completely hide the occupants from the rest of the courtyard.

  “Thank you,” Thayu said, and to me, “Come.”

  I stopped dead. “Oh no. Oh no, I’m not going in there.”

  “Yes, you are. You suffer from heat stroke, and you have some sort of problem. I am your zhayma, and although you seem to have forgotten that I am here to help you, I will, whether you want it or not. So you are going to take off your clothes, get in the water and then you’re going to tell me what’s going on.”

  “No, you tell me what’s going on. You work for Asto. You have some sort of loyalty to Ezhya Palayi. Just in case you hadn’t noticed back there, he’s knee-deep in this little tangle.” All my pronouns were of the accusatory form. I was reeling, not thinking clearly. I had never used accusatory pronouns when talking to Nicha.

  “Yes, I’ve noticed. I’m also guessing that he’s probably after that datastick you didn’t want to give me.”

  “Too right I didn’t. You’re a spy, aren’t you?”

  She planted her hands at her sides, glaring at me.

  “Trained by the Intelligence division of the First Circle Elite, if you have to know.”

  Holy fucking shit. The best spying organisation on Asto, maybe the best there was in the known universe. “Then why didn’t you just tell your big boss about the datastick back in that room?”

  “Because my contract is with gamra. Because Delegate Akhtari appointed me to work with you, and that’s what I’ll do, no matter how stupidly you behave!”

  “I don’t behave stupidly!”

  The people in the next pool had stopped talking and turned to us.

  She lowered her voice and grabbed my arm. “You don’t? Then why do you distrust me so? Because I belong to the side you love to accuse of invasion? You know nothing about us. You have no idea how to behave. You know nothing about imayu.”

  Her eyes blazed. She was so much like, no she was, Inaru. Fire and passion. Burning anger.

  “I don’t accuse Asto of invasion. And I know about shared loyalties, and imayu.” Yet, I had ignored this aspect. She had sworn loyalty to gamra and those types of loyalties were not easily violated. Those bonds were almost patho
logical and part of the Coldi biological make-up. I should trust her not to do anything that would harm me, even if she did report to this man I didn’t trust as far as I could throw him. Because that was how Coldi society worked. Tangled webs. Everyone was connected to everyone else.

  “What then? All you’ve done is keep me away. Just listen and translate, I’ll fix it myself, I want to bathe by myself, that’s all you do. By yourself. And get into the water. People are staring at us.”

  “Fine!”

  What the fuck did I know anyway? I was failing, coming apart at the seams, pretending to know what I was doing, but I knew nothing. In critical moments, I understood nothing of these people’s behaviour. Any of my attempts to pretend otherwise were a farce.

  I turned to face the bushes and tried to peel off my sweaty shirt, but my hands trembled so much I couldn’t negotiate the fiddly hooks of the fastening.

  She mumbled, “I don’t know how Nicha put up with this.”

  “Keep Nicha out of it.”

  “I’ll talk about whatever I want. Did you treat Nicha like this, too?”

  “No, if you really have to know. Nicha is . . .” a man.

  I let my shoulders sag, because that was ultimately where the problem lay.

  “Nicha is what? Is he better than me?”

  “Stop twisting everything. Just shut up!”

  I flung my shirt down. It flew past a branch with obscene pink dangling flowers. I felt like ripping the bushes out of the ground, like flinging dirt all over this lovely courtyard. Damn Ezhya Palayi and his brand of intimidation. Damn Thayu. Damn everything.

  The next thing a warm hand touched my shoulder. Her breath tickled my skin.

  “Hey, calm down, you.” That was a very intimate you.

  I repressed the insane urge to turn around and fling myself into her arms. Nicha would have touched me; Nicha would have offered comfort. Nicha could offer comfort.

  Her hand moved over my shoulder, massaging muscles that ached with tenseness.

  “Come into the water, seriously. Let’s stop this silly fight. You’re not well.”

  I stepped away, out of her warm reach, and slipped into the water, trying not to look at her. But while I was trying so hard, of course I saw everything. Her soft, completely hair-less body, her round breasts with black nipples. Muscles moved under the skin of her shoulders while she settled on the bench. I took deep breaths to dispel the roaring of blood in my ears.

  Face the problem head-on.

  “Thayu, this is the first problem you must understand. In my world, if you’re contracted to a woman, it’s not right to be convenient to another.”

  “Touching is convenient?”

  “It is. So is sharing one’s thoughts.” Of course, they weren’t just thoughts, not for me. Neither was Thayu just another woman. Neither could I tell her how I had doubted her professionally and shouldn’t have.

  “Oh.” A moment’s silence. “I’m sorry. You must care a lot about her.”

  I shrugged, not meeting her eyes. I had thought far too little about Eva lately.

  The silence lingered. Water rippled as she splashed it on her face, and glistened in diamond drops on soft shoulders. A young girl brought drinks, condensation pearling on the outside of the glass. I sipped, breathed out tension. The juice made a wonderful cold spot in my belly.

  Talk and laugher from the other patrons drifted through the courtyard.

  “Sorry I upset you,” I said. “I was stupid, really.” Stupid human reaction. I was not doing very well.

  She gave me the most gorgeous look I had ever seen. Bright eyes with golden spots in the irises, even white teeth—no canines, full, dark-skinned lips. “Does that mean I’m no longer on your suspect list?”

  I sighed. “No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made you feel that way.”

  She sat back and sipped from her drink.

  My face glowed; my ears glowed. I kept hearing Amarru’s voice. If you can’t trust your zhayma, you distrust the entire basis of the system. She had said that in the second week of my training.

  But damn it, I had Thayu imposed on me.

  Just as much as Nicha hadn’t been my personal choice either. He’d been there; gamra had matched our personalities and he had loyalties to them.

  No difference between him and Thayu, because gamra would have matched her to me, too. We fitted together in this job; we were complementary; it had always been designed that way.

  Shit. Another near-fatal mistake, Delegate Wilson.

  She said, “All right. About your datastick . . . Maybe I can fix it, or maybe not. It’s hard to say. I need to scan the matrix for irregularities. Maybe a single cleanup will do it, but I suspect not. I suspect there are more sequences embedded in the document, and I will need to run it through a parser. Any data that has been overwritten will be hard to replace. We may lose part of the information.” She figured all that from a single look?

  A grim expression crossed her face. “It might be quicker to find someone else who holds a copy of it.”

  “That’s what Ezhya Palayi wants.” I closed my hands around my drink, balancing the bottom of the cup on the surface of the water, thinking how I’d had many such bathing sessions with Nicha and how relaxing they had been. I felt much better, and ashamed I’d behaved like such a prick.

  “I’m reluctant to do what Ezhya Palayi wants. I think everyone, not just Asto, has a right to know what this is about. Asto has something to hide, or he would not have sent Delegate Akhtari out of the room.”

  While I spoke, an idea formed in my mind. “You know that Danziger has given me notice to come back?”

  “I guess you want to use that opportunity to get the data.”

  Was there anything this woman didn’t guess correctly?

  “Maybe. It’s an option.”

  Her eyes formed into mirthful little slits. “That is . . . sneaky.”

  “A person has to be resourceful at times.”

  Thayu gasped and hauled herself out of the water. Stark naked, and with me not sure where to look, she rummaged in the pile of clothes and returned with her comm unit. “I forgot to tell you. I received a message about a job.”

  She turned so I could see the screen.

  I read. Come to the city wharf tomorrow. We have a paid contract to discuss with you.

  I frowned. “Who is this from?”

  “There’s only a number,” Thayu said. “I got the message when we were with Ezhya Palayi. I haven’t had the time to track it yet. I’ll do that right now.” Her fingers went over the control panel.

  “Is this the contact through Marin Federza?”

  “I can’t tell from this information.”

  “Where is the city wharf?”

  “On the main island.”

  “Meet there? Why? Is the employment in the city?”

  She stared at the screen.

  “Thayu?”

  Her eyes wide, she turned to me. “Don’t go—I think the number belongs to Renkati.”

  Bingo. He’d taken my bait.

  “Of course I’ll go. Don’t you see? Somehow, this man plays an important in this whole matter. He’s funded the movie, and he’s been far too interested in what I do. He probably knows I’ve spoken to Ezhya Palayi, and now he’s annoyed that he couldn’t listen to that conversation. This is my chance find out who he is and what he wants.”

  “But it could be a trap.”

  “Of course it is, but that’s why Delegate Akhtari gave me you and Evi and Telaris, isn’t it?”

  ‎

  Chapter 18

  * * *

  WITH A WHINE of metal on metal, the train whizz
ed on its track, away from the artificial gamra island. I stared out the window, where wan light reflected off the bits of water between clumps of reeds and the occasional tree.

  Fortunately, it had stopped raining, but low clouds scooted over the roofs of the main island of Barresh, hiding the rock cliffs of the escarpment that lay beyond. Monsoon had started. Water churned darkly under the train line. Another few days, and it would turn into a flood, flushing out paddies and destroying dams, dragging anything loose in its inexorable quest towards the ocean.

  Including dead bodies. Was I about to follow Seymour Kershaw?

  I shivered, even though Thayu’s heat radiated next to me.

  You’re fine?

  I nodded, clenching my hands to fight an urge to fiddle with the feeder, which once again sat in my hair. Whether or not reinstalling it was a good idea I didn’t know, but Thayu’s argument that we might need it when something went wrong was more powerful than my misgivings.

  Of course we’ll need it. Why do you keep fighting it?

  I met her perfect eyes, completely black in the low light.

  You wouldn’t understand.

  Hell, I wasn’t even sure I understood it myself. I was trying to keep my life in neat compartments, one containing my job, one containing Eva and the diplomatic set, back on Earth, the people I represented. To protect them, to protect Eva, because she would definitely not understand. What do you mean, you have to invite all these people to our wedding? That was another minefield of relationships. Eva’s family might tolerate Nicha’s presence, but Amarru’s or Thayu’s? Yes, they were colleagues, not friends. No, Coldi didn’t make that distinction. Gamra formality regarded these types of invitations as polite, the right thing to do. I could of course claim that Earth customs didn’t extend to inviting work colleagues to private functions, but Amarru would be offended. She’d never tell me in so many words, but she would. Coldi saw their life as a continuum of interlacing contacts that balanced each other. People on Earth preferred barriers.