In Arcadia (Touchstone Book 5)

by Andrea K Höst

  "Well, you have your answer," Laura said, after Tsur Selkie had once again politely taken his leave and departed. "Positively unflappable."

  "I didn't try anything really silly on him," Sue said. "But, yes, I don't think even cinnamon rolls would have gotten more than that brief 'ah yes, humour' smile. Sad."

  Sue didn't look sad. She looked smug, which always meant trouble. Laura eyed her sister thoughtfully, but was distracted by a vehicle strongly resembling a flying car zipping across her line of view and dropping toward the dock area. She sighed with unabashed envy, for personal vehicles were strictly controlled in an attempt to prevent citizens from joy-riding right out of the safe zones around the settlements, and into Muina's still very dangerous wilds.

  "Tsur Selkie travels in style. If they ever open those things up for civilian use I am absolutely going to get one, and I will refer to it constantly as 'my flitter', and pretend that I'm in an Andre Norton novel."

  "Norton novels always seem to involve arduous journeys through abandoned alien ruins," Sue said. "Cass has done enough of that for all of us."

  That was entirely true. And Laura thoroughly hoped that no-one she knew would ever endure such a thing again. Firmly putting Cass' trials aside, she continued to poke at the large and unwieldy prospect of Muinan-Terran trade.

  "I wonder how much of their technology they'll be willing to bring to the table? The Tarens are the ones who had all the advanced tech, and when they started trade with Kolar they deliberately kept them several steps behind so as not to lose an advantage. It might have become more relaxed now that they've settled Muina, and allowed nanotech on Kolar, but what if they take the same 'we'll only give you so much' approach to Earth?"

  Sue, while continuing to smirk obnoxiously, said: "Just confirming the existence of non-terrestrial life is huge."

  "So daunting to consider all the ways this could play out. Even if this doesn't start any wars, think of the impact on the world economy. The interface would devastate mobile phone providers. Medicine—old age—would never be the same. Factor those vat-food factories into food production for drought-afflicted regions. And infrastructure that grows itself will alter so many things. Even gardening robots. All these wonderful things that will either lift Earth to a post-scarcity state or..." She shook her head and looked at her sister. "The Luddite rebellion multiplied by...everything."

  Sue was now attempting to channel Spock, one eyebrow scrunched down and the other canted to her hairline.

  "Are you going to sit there pulling faces? Because if there's a shoe waiting to drop, you'll need to untie the laces."

  "You didn't even notice, did you?"

  "Notice what?"

  "That he's dying to get into your pants."

  This was so completely outside Laura's line of thought that she said blankly: "Who?" Then: "Tsur Selkie?"

  "You are so oblivious where men are concerned."

  Laura stared at her sister, then shook her head. "No. I was paying attention. He was entirely professional. You're imagining things."

  "I'll give you the entirely professional. He was on duty, after all. But only you would fail to notice that you had ninety percent of his attention, and he only looked at me when I was speaking."

  "I did talk more, didn't I?" Laura said, dry now. "Really, Sue, are you ever going to stop trying to set me up with people?"

  "Next week when he comes back, dress up a little."

  "Sue."

  "That whole most intense person in the universe thing he's got going doubles when he's looking at you. What's a good name to call him? Is there a non-negative word for a black hole?"

  "...gravitational mass?"

  "'The Pocket Event Horizon' is a bit long—but it kind of works. It certainly feels like an event when he shows up, and you can see the whole room being reshaped around him. And he is too so totally hot for you, Laura."

  "Now you're just making things up."

  "Okay, tell me this. How long had he been here before I showed up?"

  "I don't know. Maybe half an hour."

  "And it's not as if I was late back. This guy, by all accounts, is incredibly busy. Military big brass who gets chauffeured around to the point where his ride arrived to collect him the very moment he walked down to the dock. And yet he's shown up early twice now so he could sit around waiting to start. With you."

  "He hadn't even met me last time. He wanted to talk to Maze and Alay. And today...maybe he wanted to look Tyrian over?" Laura thought back over the afternoon, and saw only a reserved but comfortable-with-himself man helpfully making sure she understood the complications of her grandson's talents. She had enjoyed the talk, but had noticed none of the pressure she usually felt when someone was trying to chat her up.

  Admittedly, she had occasionally felt breathless, but that was only to be expected talking to a man of such concentrated presence. A Pocket Event Horizon.

  "Well, well. Who would have thought a serious soldier was your type? Always something new to learn."

  Laura was not blushing. She was just annoyed. "The conclusion you're jumping to is a mirage."

  "Yeah, yeah. Stop playing 'oh no, not me'. Let's look at some pros and cons instead. First pro, he's a total hottie. On the negative side, military man, might make you wake up at dawn and do push-ups."

  "I already wake up at dawn."

  "Pro: gainfully employed, and the job comes with a 'flitter'. Con: minimal evidence of a sense of humour. But I suppose that might go with your tendency to be painfully deadpan."

  "Isn't playing straight man of one comedy duo enough?" Laura said. "This is silly, Sue. Let it drop."

  "But you're thinking about it! You're picturing him naked. You're remembering all those stories you've heard about Sight Sight talents and Place Sight talents and just what that means for sexytimes."

  "Well, you've certainly now succeeded in making me self-conscious about talking to him again," Laura said, collecting their glasses and taking them back inside.

  "This is awesome," Sue said, following her with the half-eaten snacks. "You hardly ever bite when I dangle man-bait. I'm going to have so much fun."

  With considerable forbearance, Laura ignored this last and said, as she placed the glasses carefully on top of the cleaning unit: "Besides, I think he must be married. He has two daughters."

  "So look him up. The man's semi-famous—he's sure to have an entry in the Muinan version of Wikipedia." Sue put her tray next to the glasses, and made good on her own suggestion. "Here we go...Gidds Selkie. Widely regarded as the architect of the Setari program. Does that mean he's the one who had the bright idea of conscripting children? I'll put that in the 'con' column. Even if it did lead to saving this corner of the galaxy."

  Laura, who had not been able to stop her thoughts from following through on the 'picturing him naked' part of Sue's suggestions, found this titbit a functional cold shower. While there had been opportunities to leave the program, and none of the Setari saw active service before adulthood, there had still been accidents in training. Children had died.

  Could she ever really want to be with a man who had set that in motion, no matter how successful the program had been, or how many lives it had saved?

  Turning the cleaning unit on, she listened far more equivocally as Sue continued: "Born, urgh, Taren, Earth and Muinan years require too much maths to convert. He's around, oh, not quite forty. I didn't expect that. Looks thirty, acts fifty. If he helped set up the Setari he must have started just out of school. And...here we go, divorced from someone called Elezin Zadel. Involved in early Ena scientific projects. Hm. 'Survivor of the Tasken Outbreak'. What's a...oh, one of the bigger ionoth-monster killing sprees, back when incursions from the Ena first started getting serious on Tare. I'm not sure if 'tragic backstory' counts as a pro or a con."

  They both paused, as the glasses, jug and plates began to be pulled into the surface of the cleaning unit. Laura did have a sink, and still ran the occasional dish under the tap, but the nanotech cleaner�
��basically a vat of nanite goop connected to the waste system—was a true wonder. She could put anything dirty—dishes, clothes, jewellery—on top, and the goop would absorb the object, remove 'foreign particles', and then spit an astonishingly clean object back out. It had been designed for the water-poor planet of Kolar, but Cass said it had quickly spread to Muina and Tare as well. Laura loved it with a passion that she would not normally direct toward kitchen appliances.

  "I wonder if people on Tare stand around gawping at their dishwasher?" Sue asked.

  "I bet they do on Kolar." The glasses, which had barely been dirty, were already emerging—Laura's favourite part of the process.

  "They should add a little 'ta-dah!' sound effect for when they come out again," Sue said. "Kaoren, by the way, says that Selkie didn't come up with the idea of conscripting children. Yes, yes, I know you'd rather have a reason to put the scrummy soldier out of your head, but then I'd miss out on you at the next meeting, sitting there with a Sight Sight talent, trying not to picture him naked."

  "I think," Laura said judiciously, "that I'm going to go for a nice dusk-time walk."

  "Exit our heroine, stage left, in a state of some confusion? At least admit you're thinking about it."

  Laura rolled her eyes, and went to find a light coat, then took a stroll down to her favourite bench. To think about Tsur Gidds Selkie, naked.

  Chapter Four

  "Laura! Laura, listen to this." Sue made disbelieving faces as Laura stepped carefully over the pool's outfall. "They have uterine replicators and they don't use them!"

  When Inika Senez, one of the 'Setari extended family', laughed, her riotous gold and black curls sparkled like fireworks. "Is it so strange to choose to experience in-body gestation?"

  "Yes," Sue said firmly. "I particularly can't believe it of your daughter, and these other highly trained senior Setari who have been filling the islands with infants. Why in the worlds have they gone and put themselves through all the things that pregnancy does, if there are functioning uterine replicators?"

  "Oh, Mara wanted to know what it was like." Inika wrinkled her nose judiciously. "I doubt she'd do in-body again, even if she wasn't now sufficiently supplied with children, since it was a difficult pregnancy for her. Me, I enjoyed all but the last month or so of mine. But all the Setari—anyone with strong talents—also have to weigh the impact for inheritance."

  "What do you mean?" Laura asked, settling on the grass beside the two women.

  "Children of machine-supported gestation gain many advantages—their nutrient balance is much better managed, and medical issues more easily addressed—but they rarely have quite so strong an immune system, and they never gain the full strength of their parents' talent set."

  "They're weaker psychics?"

  Inika nodded. "That is a large decision to make. Though in the last few decades it is a factor that has pushed many toward machine-supported."

  "Because of the Setari program." Sue glanced at Laura, but she wasn't in such a teasing mood today—perhaps was reserving her ammunition for when Tsur Selkie arrived for his appointment that afternoon.

  "Yes. It is not an enjoyable thing to see your child only on holidays. Although..." Inika raised a shoulder. "I would still choose in-body, and have Mara be the woman she is, even though I had less time with her as a result. I could not deny her the things I relish being able to do, let alone the chance for greater wonders."

  She lifted one hand, and the air in front of her glimmered, and formed into an elaborate snowflake—which immediately melted in the muggy heat that had sparked an impromptu picnic around the cooling waterfalls of the Braid.

  "Are the replicators expensive to use?" Laura asked.

  "Not overwhelmingly. For a first child, costs are kept moderate so as not to prevent those on base level from accessing the option. Additional children, yes, the cost would be high—at least on Tare, where much was done to discourage us from multiple children. Didi and I were thinking of maybe a third child, now that we're on Muina and don't face the same restrictions. I am tempted—although with so many grandchildren, perhaps we will delay a while longer."

  Sue glanced at Laura, but did not pursue the subject, simply saying: "You have to tell me what it is you've done to your hair to make it sparkle when you move. I am completely envious."

  They talked lightly of high-tech cosmetics, until Inika headed down the slope to help her wife corral a few of the children chasing each other around Braid Meadow.

  "Thinking of cooking up a few?" Laura asked, watching Sen and Maddy run shrieking through a line of cascades.

  "I've too much world exploration to do at the moment," Sue said. "But...it's quite something to completely dismiss any phantom ticking of biological clocks. Not to mention that I could do it in a civilised and entirely sensible manner that doesn't involve barely being able to bend over for months at a time.

  "And you could probably get them custom-designed into the bargain."

  "I wish Mum could have seen all this."

  Laura glanced at her sister's profile, then sighed, and lay back on the grass, gazing into the brilliant blue of the sky. "Mum would still be alive if she'd had a chance to see this," she said, because if the Muinans could get Maddy running down hillsides in three months, they'd certainly be able to handle breast cancer.

  "And she would absolutely get herself a flitter," Sue said.

  Laura laughed, because it was true. 'Redoubtable' was only the most common word used to describe their late mother.

  "Mum would want to do the wandering through abandoned alien ruins, too. We are but weak echoes."

  "And she would be totally on board for some Serious Soldier seduction."

  "I expect she would."

  Sue leaned over and looked at Laura's face. "That didn't sound nearly hot and bothered enough. Only a few more hours until the Event Horizon. Where's the anticipation?"

  "You're determined to make something out of nothing, aren't you?"

  "I bet you're not even going to put on any makeup. Not that your failure to dress up is going to hide anything. He's still going to be able to see that you think he's tasty."

  "Let him," Laura said, serenely. "I expect he's used to people finding him attractive. But I, for one, did not see the slightest hint that he was dying to get into my pants, or any other item of clothing."

  Sue frowned at her, then wrinkled her nose.

  "I don't believe this uncaring act for a moment, and I point out, again, that he won't be fooled. Really, I can't decide if Sight Sight is a pro or a con."

  "You could consider it a convenience. No need to flutter eyelashes, or shake curls, or whatever counts as flirtation here. But even if Tsur Selkie notices any secret blushes, I guarantee he'll be perfectly correct. You forget he's working, and the sort who would consider romance a conflict of interest—at least until this report is done."

  "You are so dull. And after that?'

  "After that, well..." Laura shrugged. "For all I know, I'll never see the man again."

  They dropped the subject as Maddy and Sen raced up and insisted they join them in a race to the pool at the very bottom of the Braid. But Laura was not truly sanguine about the meeting, and did spend an excessive amount of time picking out a simple dress to wear that afternoon, while shaking her head at her own lapse into nerves.

  Sue, returning shortly before the appointed time, peered about, then sighed exaggeratedly: "He didn't show up early? And here I was trying to give you more alone time."

  "I'm surprised you denied yourself the entertainment," Laura said, turning up the air-conditioning and putting some glasses on the dining table. "The patio's not so tempting today. There's still not a speck of wind."

  "Are you disappointed? I think you're disappointed."

  "I think—." Laura paused as the Muinan equivalent of a doorbell sounded in her head. "Right on time."

  She triggered the front door and turned, saying out loud: "We were just talking about staying inside today."


  Tsur Selkie, as impeccable as ever, drew breath to reply, paused for a moment, and then said: "Yes. An over-warm day."

  Laura flushed. She wasn't even fully certain why she did it, because there could not be a more innocuous subject than the weather. It was, she decided as she turned quickly back to the table, the pause—a moment of complete stillness—before he spoke.

  Sue: Told you.

  Ignoring her sister, Laura poured cold water while he crossed the room, then said: "What would you like to cover today, Tsur Selkie?"

  "Resolute opposition. Any groups who would have strong reasons to reject any contact from Muina—who would violently oppose a Muinan presence."

  That was a complicated topic. On the whole, Laura thought the people of Earth would be cautious, but very interested, and keen for trade. She didn't know of any specific 'anti-extra-terrestrial' organisations or countries, and most religions were very adaptable. There were always extremists, of course, but which of these in particular might take against a Muinan envoy was difficult to predict.

  "Race will probably be a factor," Laura said, a little reluctantly, and then had the uncomfortable task of explaining white supremacy to this very serious man. The vast majority of the inhabitants of Muina, Tare and Kolar appeared to have descended from Asian stock—though with an admixture of other races—and she could not pretend that this would have no impact.

  Tsur Selkie, as usual, listened without commenting, and then asked a lot of questions. So they took a tour of Earth's races, with a pass through evolution, a side-order of sexism, and a history of conquest, slavery, and cultural imperialism.

  This was certainly not a conversation that lent itself to thoughts of romance, which made the session triply uncomfortable for Laura. She could not put Sue's suggestion out of her mind, and had to keep fighting off thoughts that were extremely inappropriate to the topic of the conversation. All while trying not to feel disappointed to see in him only a very professional man conducting an interview. She couldn't gauge how much of this his Sights made clear to him, but she felt transparent and foolish, and wondered how Cass and Kaoren had survived months of this IknowheknowsIknow business.