by Jean Johnson
“Ambassador, please,” Captain Superior V’Kuria interrupted, speaking over her. “I am not authorized for most of this discussion. You may sound V’Dan, but without video confirmation, I cannot be sure of that. You are suggesting I take Sh’nai holy stories as the absolute truth, and I cannot.”
“I reassure you, I am not asking you to take those holy stories as complete and total truth,” Jackie stated. “I don’t even know most of those stories. I am admitting, however, that there seems to be a grain of truth at their center. We are both the same species, we will need to watch out for bacteria and viruses that may have evolved far enough to cause problems, and we are willing to cooperate and work with your people to hopefully ensure that they don’t. Because the third point of all this, Captain . . . is that you do need at least some of what we have. It won’t be given away for free, but neither will we gouge you needlessly.”
“I’m going to have to think about this, Ambassador. We all will.”
“Take as much time as you need,” she told him. “I’ll set this frequency to await a signal from your ship if you need me. If not, I will go greet our arriving guests, and put you in contact with Captain Ma’an-uq’en directly within a short while—we don’t know the exact conversion rates for seconds, minutes, hours and so forth, but we do know from what our guests have observed that our day cycle is close to what they’re used to knowing. Since we both apparently use twenty-four-hour time units . . . I’ll be back in touch within an hour. In the meantime, please leave the communication satellite alone. It would be a pity if you broke it before our guests had a chance to hear a fellow V’Dan speak to them after so long.”
“. . . Understood.”
“Ambassador out.” Tapping the controls, she stared at the monocular view of that ship, then sighed and removed the headset. Her free hand rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “First Contact. One of the messiest constituencies I have ever been assigned.”
“Even after having served as Councilor for all the fiddly factions of Oceania?” the Scots technician, MacLeod, asked her.
“Even after that. Thank you for setting everything up and for keeping it all monitored,” Jackie stated. “I’m going to go up to the spindle to welcome our guests.”
Mokope pointed at the headset still in her hand. “You should keep that on, in case they call again.”
“Right. Itchy things,” she muttered, fitting it back into place over her right ear. “Particularly this model.”
“It’s what we have on hand, Major,” the commodore told her, spreading his hands. Jackie suspected the use of her military title was to remind her that the Space Force couldn’t always pick and choose what it got in supplies. “You want something more comfortable, go pick it up on Earth.”
“Then I’ll keep it in mind for when we put together the embassy’s supplies.” With a wave of her hand, she headed out of the room, on her way to the nearest spoke.
CHAPTER 18
Master Sonam, discreet and kind soul that he was, kept the others on the shuttle so that Li’eth could disembark first. Pulling himself through as soon as the shuttle crew confirmed the seals were good and unlocked the hatches, Li’eth soared into the far corridor, hands reaching out for the woman waiting for him. The moment Jackie caught him, skin against skin, fingers gripping forearms, an odd sort of shock rippled through his system.
It wasn’t anything painful, but it did feel like some sort of inner component clicking into place. A misaligned joint regaining its proper position. Like the damned guanjiball game inside of him was finally tumbling to a stop. He wanted to wrap himself around her, to drink in her scent, her warmth, her presence, as if it were the waters of life itself.
(Easy, I got you,) she murmured mentally, steadying the force of his forward movement with body and mind. Their bodies touched in a floating, awkward hug, but their inner senses, those intertwined like tangled vines. (I feel the same way. I just can’t . . . I can’t let go of you. That . . . Wow, I didn’t realize how strong this would be. Damn—here come the others. We need to move, Li’eth. We shouldn’t do this in public.)
(Why not? Or rather, why in private?) he asked. Instinct had him bending his elbows, pulling his body closer to hers. His stomach muscles tightened, adjusting his torso to be in line with hers.
(Because Shi’ol is going to kick up a bootload of feces all over us if we touch like we apparently need to,) she warned him. (I want to wrap my legs around you, to just meld with you, but that’s too intimate for public, even if it’d be fully clothed.)
(She needs to grow up. I feel like I need to press my whole body against yours, too. Strip both of us naked, and just . . . It’s not sexual,) he asserted. (It’s just a . . . a need. I mean, there is sexual attraction there, but this is deeper.)
(It’s the Gestalt bond. Our personal kinetic inergy fields probably need to realign or recharge or resomething,) she muttered mentally, trying to think through what they needed versus what they could get away with. He was wearing a short-sleeved tee shirt; she, a long-sleeved dress shirt. Jackie concentrated on the buttons of her cuffs. (Let me roll up my sleeves. Wrists to wrists, elbows to elbows. That should be enough skin contact without making the other V’Dan uncomfortable.)
“What are you doing?” Shi’ol demanded within moments of coming into view. Predictably.
“They are repairing the holes in their souls,” Sonam replied poetically, coming to the rescue. Or trying to. “I believe Miss Dai’a referred to it as a ‘holy pairing,’ the highest of blessings for holy ones in the Sh’nai faith. Our people call it a Gestalt, and it is very important to the Terran military because of the various advantages it brings. This way to the lifts.”
“She shouldn’t be touching him!” the green-spotted blonde protested.
Jackie drew in a breath to speak, but again her old mentor beat her to it.
“To interfere in this pairing is to go against the will of your Saints,” Sonam stated, his gentle tone turning stern, even chiding. “Not to mention it goes against several dozen precognitive visions on the Terran side, and prophecies from your own people that are literally older than your entire bloodline, young lady. Keep moving.”
That made Jackie relax, glad she didn’t have to look away from Li’eth’s eyes, one gray, one burgundy. Forearms bared, she laced her fingers together with his, palms and elbows pressed, her telekinesis holding them carefully still, and carefully out of the way of the others. Repairing a hole in her soul might be a bit poetic, but something was easing the tension that had kept her hands fidgeting and fumbling within days of Li’eth’s absence.
“She still shouldn’t . . . wait, I’m moving—how am I moving?” Shi’ol protested, drifting past the alcove where Jackie and Li’eth floated.
“I may not be the very strong telekinetic that the Ambassador is, but I can still throw around my own weight mentally,” Sonam clarified, moving both of them out of the airlock zone. “On the ground, back on Earth, I could not fly. Here, in zero gravity, I can even make you fly. And here you are, free to soar like a bird, or plummet like a brick. I should like to hope you are not as thick as a brick, Miss Nanu’oc . . .”
(Don’t think of her. She’s not important,) Li’eth dismissed.
That made her smile a little. (No, she’s not. Though she is still an annoyance. I’ll recommend strongly to the Council that she be banned from being allowed to set any policy involving the United Planets or its citizenry. Not even if your own mother commands it.) She nuzzled his nose with her own, then hugged him closer, breathing in the scent of his braided hair. (I missed you unbearably.)
(I missed you, too. Maybe now I can sleep through the night. I had too many nightmares when we were far apart . . .)
Another voice intruded on her ears, words spoken in a mutter. “So. You’re just like her after all.”
It took her a few seconds to process what had been said. By the time Jackie pulled her gaze away from Li’eth, Lieutenant Brad Colvers had already disappeared into the doorway th
at led to the spindle’s lifts.
(What was that about?) Li’eth asked.
( . . . I think he just compared me to the fiancée who dumped him for a fellow psi. But she had a choice. I don’t.) Jackie met his gaze, feeling his undercurrents rippling at her words. (You know I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just . . . this isn’t something we choose as free-willed beings. It just . . . happens, sometimes. We will have to deal with it, first before the Council, then later, before your mother and her people.
(In the meantime . . . first, we have to deal with the captain superior of a certain warship. We’ll confirm whether or not we’ve found your home system, then I’ll need a little while to confer with Commodore Mokope on setting up a series of resupply points on the way to your people. After that . . . I have a very small but private cabin.)
(I don’t feel comfortable engaging in sexual . . . oh. You just mean getting enough time to just hold each other, without the others thinking it is some sort of sexual embrace,) he corrected himself, catching a little more of her underthoughts. (Not that I wouldn’t eventually like that, ah, sort of thing, eventually. Because I would, but . . .)
(It wouldn’t be politically wise,) she agreed, finishing his thought for him. (Self-restraint and self-control are marks of maturity. Adulthood.) Bringing their clasped fingers to his cheek, she rubbed the slightly stubbled skin with the edge of her forefinger. (We also don’t know each other well enough. We may both be Human, and I’m pretty sure it all works the same way . . .)
He blushed and chuckled softly, ducking his head at her gentle teasing. (I’m pretty sure it does, too. But it’s not about that. Something like that can wait. We just have too big of cultural gaps between us, still. And too many responsibilities to ignore them. We do have that in common, our sense of duty.)
(Then we’re agreed.) Jackie sighed, disappointed but determined to be responsible.
(Duty before pleasure,) Li’eth confirmed. (We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other better, both here in your system and when we finally get to mine. In the meantime, I have a ship to contact, don’t I?)
(Yes, you do.)
(The relay-satellite thing—can their ship move it? I keep getting the image that—) He fell silent when she shook her head.
(Too many safety features. Instead, we’ll send in a ship with a spare relay and drop that into your home planet’s nearspace. Once we have permission to do so, and only when we do. The one that’s out beyond the second asteroid belt, we’ll leave it there for now. If nothing else, it’ll be a backup in case the closer one gets destroyed by the war.)
(Contingency plans for everything,) Li’eth mused, disentangling one hand so that they could pull themselves—or rather, soar with her telekinesis—toward the doorway that led to the lifts. That was much more convenient than trying to use one’s arms, he had to admit. (Is there a scenario you haven’t got a plan for, in all of this?)
(Me, personally? Plenty. I try to look over everything, make sure all the major points of concern have good core plans laid in advance, then plan for flexibility beyond that because that’s all you can do. Anticipate the major stuff, try to be ready for the most likely minor stuff, then get ready to be flexible. Come on, I’ll take you straight to the scanner room, where they’ve got the connection set up with the relay probe.)
—
“And that . . . is all I can do,” Li’eth sighed, switching back to Terranglo. Removing the headset, he placed it on the console table on an unused spot, then reached for Jackie’s hand. She clasped it willingly enough, which helped him to relax. “The V’Cotse will be on its way to V’Dan within the next few minutes, where, after a few hours of transit, Commodore V’kuria will be able to make his report to the First Tier officers in his chain of command.
“They will no doubt come back to the probe in due time with a whole host of questions, but since I gave V’kuria a special code that will alert my family that I am indeed the real thing, and still safely alive . . . you’ll be able to begin preliminary negotiations within just a few days’ time. That means not only will we be returning with your help, but we’ll be returning with an official Terran embassy ready to begin negotiations between our peoples.”
“It’s a good day’s work,” Mokope agreed. “I’ll call up Admiral Nayak personally with the good news. Unless you’d rather do it, Major?”
“Captain Ma’an-uq’en and I still have Gestalt recalibrations to perform,” Jackie hedged. “Master Sonam recommended we do so up on the life-support ring, so that’s where we’re headed next. Something about the healing energies of plant life making it easier to rebalance our inner senses.” She shook her head. “It makes me very glad I focused on languages, not on teaching.”
The commodore nodded and eyed the view of the V’Dan ship. Sure enough, it was now firing its attitude thrusters, turning itself slowly around so that it could head back to the inner system. “You two go on ahead, then. I haven’t dealt personally with a Gestalt pair before, but we do have one psi on the Array team—she’s good at intuiting mechanical failures—and I do remember the briefings on what to do with Gestalts.
“I’ll contact the Admiral, then keep an eye on this ship of theirs while we process more stereoscopic data on that system. Then I’m going to see if we can prod the teams working on decrypting the V’Dan video feeds into working a little faster. Not that I have a cattle prod that’s two AUs long and can go straight through the Sun to reach Earth,” Mokope added wryly, hands on his hips, “but I’ll do what I can verbally. Audio is okay, but there’s a reason why the old cliché is called ‘seeing is believing.’”
Jackie nodded in farewell and guided Li’eth out of the operations room. It didn’t take long to reach the nearest lift, though they did have to wait awhile for the car to make its way back down to the full-gravity level. On the Array, unlike MacArthur Station, there were two small life-support bays in the main ring, with a midway ring holding the most food and so forth, plus a selection of living quarters that could be used in an emergency. If anything went wrong all the way out here, it would take a lot of effort to evacuate the station. More than that, the midring helped supply a lot of food for patrols on the far side of the Sun from Earth; the life-support and aquaculture system aboard the Array was therefore huge compared to the MacArthur.
All of that, Li’eth had learned in the lectures they had been given while traveling to this place; the Terrans were methodical about giving information and instruction for each new living space they visited. As soon as they emerged on the midring, seeing the bays thick with greenery and the colorful foods being grown, hearing the clucking of edible fowl, the water trickling and splashing and draining from upper beds to lower ones, he had to appreciate the ingenuity of these Terrans. They did so many things differently from the V’Dan even though both cultures had similar greenery spaces on their ships.
It was also a popular place for people to go, he realized. Benches lined the tiled, curved floor, spaced here and there for station personnel to use. There were even a few joggers following a winding track among the planting beds . . . and more than just joggers, he realized. Tugging on Jackie’s hand, he halted her before they could get very far along the right-hand side of the upper level, spinward. (That looks like Shi’ol in the distance, on that bench. Someone’s with her.)
(Well, it’s a big station, she’s welcome to go anywhere that doesn’t say “Restricted,”) Jackie pointed out. She blinked, frowned, and peered. (Huh. That looks like Brad sitting with her.)
(Strange. I would’ve thought she wouldn’t want anything to do with any of you,) Li’eth mused. (Particularly after he put her through her paces while she was being disciplined for triggering the incident.)
(Except for Dr. Du,) Jackie pointed out. (She liked the doctor. But Du went back to Earth to work on coordinating and monitoring the vaccine-distribution efforts.)
(Maybe Shi’ol’s finally learning to get along with the other Terrans?) Li’eth offered. He tugged her away
from the pair, back toward the left.
(Maybe. Though she did throw a little fit when you boarded the station,) Jackie pointed out.
(I am still an Imperial Prince, and she is a Countess, whereas you are not even a member of the Empire. She probably feels some impropriety between you and me because of that.)
(Hey, if you go back far enough, I am related to royalty,) Jackie told him.
(Really?) he asked. (How far back? I thought you got rid of all your royals a couple hundred years ago.)
(Most royals, but not all. Father’s side of the family is related through the French bloodline to the famous King Charlemagne from over a thousand years ago. And my mother’s side of the family . . . they don’t count it by the centuries, but rather by the generations. If you go back eighteen or so levels in the genealogy, I’m descended from a royal princess. The mokupini, or island, of O’ahu was originally divided into six moku, or sections of the island as determined by water availability and the ability to support a population. My mother’s family comes from all over the Isles, but the royal bloodline was from a moku on the east side, very lush and green, very easy to make a living. I might have time to show you the valley watershed where the princess was said to have lived and worked.)
(Eighteen generations ago?) he asked. (That’s a long time, but I suppose it’s closer than a full thousand years.)
She nodded, nudging him toward a bench that had a good view of three sets of “waterfalls” from a trio of growing shelves set side by side. (Don’t make me recite the whole lineage—my mother’s lineage. I can only do it from memory if I’m doing a hula at the same time, and I haven’t practiced that one in a while. My father’s side of the family, I’d have to find a copy of the family tree. They never had a history of orally preserving family lines of descendance, though they did have an extensive written history at certain points.)
