Visitor: A Foreigner Novel

by C. J. Cherryh

  “We’ll do the rest,” Jase said. “And by the way—a note from just before I came down here— Gin Kroger’s told the senior captain she’s about to address the Reunioners.”

  That had to be done. On a fairly urgent priority.

  “I’ll send you the clip, when it’s available. Likely she will. Likely Geigi will. But just to be sure. And don’t worry about it. Other people can handle these things. Even the whole planet. Just let us. We’ll work things out. Got it?”

  “Got it,” he said. He had to smile a little. He knew his failings. Jase left, and he didn’t have the responsibility anymore.

  Not for Braddock. Not for Williams. Not for Irene. Not for any of the kids.

  He had, for now, only one problem, inward bound . . . still inward bound. He had notifications of every message cycle. And his notifications had faithfully continued, he found, even with the handoff to Mospheiran Central.

  Gin had seen to it.

  7

  “This is Virginia Kroger, your new stationmaster. Many of you recall my previous tour on Alpha Station as we set up mining and manufacturing. Others of you will recall me as technical advisor on the recovery mission to Reunion. So I trust I am not, to most of you, a stranger.

  “I am up here by appointment of Shawn Tyers, the President of Mospheira, to take command of Mospheiran station operations, not just during the kyo visit, but for a time afterward. I shall be cooperating with ship command, with the atevi stationmaster, Lord Geigi; and with the special delegation sent by the aiji in Shejidan. This is the same delegation which met the kyo at Reunion and peacefully secured the release of the entire Reunion population.

  “I have every confidence in the delegation’s ability to handle the current situation.

  “It is not likely that the kyo visit will have any impact on the ordinary citizens of the planet, or on ordinary citizens aboard this station. But because we wish to avoid any accidental false signal, we are asking everybody aboard to be patient, do their jobs, follow established routine, and, above all, not to attempt to view our guests or seek any contact with them.

  “We will do our best to keep you informed on this historic visit, within the limits of courtesy to our visitors. As you may understand, our energies have to be concentrated on the visit itself, and progress at first may be slow. Once we do have solid information, we shall be forthcoming. You should know, officially, that this visit is a planned event, called for in our first meeting. We met them originally in their territory. Now they meet us in ours. Our visitors are here, we hope, to see that we are as peaceful as we assured them we are.

  “We are aware that the status of Reunioner residents regarding station residency remains a question, and that this also underlies recent disturbance on the station. We believe that a year is far too long to have had this uncertainty going on. The simple truth is, I can’t fix everything this week, and some things will necessarily be delayed as long as we have kyo visitors to deal with, but I promise you I’m already working on a resolution, and Reunioners will see some immediate improvement in conditions, starting this hour.

  “I do regret to say a small number of individuals attached to the former Reunion administration have been apprehended and charged with actions against public safety and with attempted kidnapping of the children who lately visited the planet. Until we are sure we have identified and apprehended all individuals involved in this attempt, we are maintaining security at its current level.

  “To explain definitively what happened and why, I offer the following. Atevi authorities received an appeal for help from one of the children. Atevi personnel moved to intervene, and to arrest the individuals responsible. Reunion citizens were told that there was a lock malfunction. This was a ruse covering the rescue of the children and their families and their removal to a safe place on the atevi side of the station. Atevi authorities notified the President of Mospheira and the ship authorities during the operation, cooperated fully with the ship during the operation itself, and there is a consensus of all governments, first, that the atevi were within treaty rights, and acted correctly, for the protection of the children, who have been, since their visit to the planet, under the protection of the atevi government. Secondly, the three governments agree that Mospheiran and Reunion territory on the station should remain separated for the next number of days, until a thorough investigation has been completed.

  “This is for the safety of all individuals aboard the station. We have reason to suspect organization behind the recent riots and unrest linked to the individuals already in custody. To this end, we have set up a task force that will be both a clearing house for any information, and a source of protection for any who feel threatened. Contact information for this task force will follow.

  “This does not mean a policy of perpetual confinement of Reunion citizens. It means protection of both Reunioner and Mospheiran citizens, both to be treated equally under the law, and neither should want for supplies or reasonable living conditions while we work out a better arrangement than we have. By authority of the President of Mospheira, I declare there is one human authority aboard this station, and I promise it will be evenhanded and fair to both Reunioners and Mospheirans. We have enough supply of food and necessities. Where we lack, we will get enough. And where there is unemployment, there will be, within the next few days and even before the kyo visit has concluded, jobs offered to Reunioners, within the Reunioner areas, with station credit attached. We will be needing everything from manual labor to organizational skills to achieve our goal of better living conditions for everyone.

  “To begin to make those changes, I am asking that Reunion citizens in each section and each residential block choose representatives. These will meet within the next few days, regardless of activities involving the kyo visit. By secret ballot, these representatives will choose a director in whom they have confidence. This director will meet with me and with other Mospheiran officers, to work out a schedule for repair within the three sections, to appoint leaders for the construction, deal with resident representatives, and to work out an orderly procedure for reopening the section doors.

  “In the meantime, I am ordering Central to restore vid channels to Reunion sections, and to restore Reunioner com service to Central, so that residents can report any emergencies or problems in their areas. We will be working on full restoration of com service throughout.

  “Among early priorities will be improvement of services to areas of deficiency, whether in the Reunion or the Mospheiran sections.

  “In regard to the children removed from the Reunioner sections—the three the atevi government has declared under its protection, and one closely associated with them—the President of Mospheira will oblige the atevi government by providing a safe haven on Earth for them and their immediate families, as soon as the details can be arranged.

  “Matters currently under discussion on Mospheira include a lottery for a limited number of Reunioner citizens to gain residency on Mospheira, to provide a constructive link between Reunion folk and Mospheirans in general. This is a very exciting and unique opportunity. We are all human. We have a great deal to teach each other, from our vastly different experience apart. It will be a case of signing up as individuals or families, and your names being drawn. There will be a limited number of such slots, a number flexible only in the sense that families will not be separated. Individuals and families who are chosen in that lottery will receive settlement assistance, including a residence and financial support during the first year. There will be emergency return for any persons who prove medically unable to adjust. I’ll provide more detail about the operation as we work it out.

  “Now let me speak to the Mospheirans under my administration. We will be developing a new program for freight handling that will free down-bound shuttle space for passenger seats and decrease turnaround time for the shuttles. While upbound seats will always remain scarce, and, excepting emergencies, may require six months to a year on a wait-list, this does give us a
little more latitude for personnel who may wish to leave the station, particularly those who would wish to retire or leave the program. Such applications, however, necessarily depend on an extensive building campaign for unmanned heavy freight landers. I can promise you that jobs will not be lacking in Mospheiran areas, either.

  “I will provide a written copy of this message on the system, under my office information, and vid will re-run this message at the midpoint of every shift.

  “I am delighted to be your director. My last tour of duty here was a time of building and progress. I hope to equal or exceed that record. I am confident of the stability of our food production. I am confident of supply. I am confident of the programs we are instituting, including the building of a Mospheiran shuttle fleet. I am extremely confident that we will pass the meeting with our kyo neighbors and get on about our own business.

  “Thank you.”

  • • •

  The screen returned to regular business, the schedules. News. Music.

  A lottery.

  Brilliant, Bren thought. A possible benefit . . . and a scarcity of seats.

  A pilot program . . . random enough in selection to give a decent idea how Reunioners would adapt to the world; and generous enough to get attention.

  A year’s living. Safety. Reunioners couldn’t even imagine living on a planet. If they were rounded up, forced aboard a shuttle, brought down to an open sky and inverse curvatures, told they had no choice—they’d do the human thing: panic and object.

  Told there was limited seating and only the lucky few could win a ticket?

  Absolutely brilliant.

  There’d be sign-ups. At least enough to fill shuttle seats. Enough for a small community here, a small neighborhood there.

  Good reports from below would lure more takers into the next lottery.

  If it went well, they’d have people clamoring for more and more lottery slots.

  Diminishing the number of Reunioners aloft lessened the pressure up here.

  Gin had it all under control. Or was headed there.

  He sat staring blankly at the screen, at the channel that repeated endlessly, scrolling information past.

  A message flashed up.

  From Jase.

  I’ve gotten into the recovered records. The only record on Inez Williams is that of her boarding with her daughter. She is listed as “clerical” and skills include “records officer.”

  It actually would tally with Williams’ story about helping organize after the disaster . . . if one had a remote clue what a records officer did.

  Lists no surviving kin. That’s not uncommon, sadly so. Families that emerged completely intact from the kyo strike are less than ten percent of the Reunioner population. I’ll keep the inquiry going, but I don’t think we’re going to find more on Williams. No surprises with Braddock. No surprises with his assistants. They are what we knew they were.

  Brutal fact. The whole kyo encounter was a situation without remedy—it was what it was. There could be no “justice” where Braddock was concerned. Not for his decisions while in command of the station. Two species had gotten afoul of each other. Response had been extreme. People had died.

  It wasn’t the first time, and if they’d learned nothing else dealing with the atevi: why mattered. Why had the kyo fired on the station? Not the second time. The first time.

  Mistaken identity?

  Retaliation for a perceived wrong?

  Wrong moves from the station?

  Or simply a set of motives so far afield from human or atevi that they were never, ever going to make sense?

  Even as he reassured himself that communication with the kyo was not only possible, but actively desired, he had cold moments of asking himself why, and what if, and exactly who he had been dealing with at Reunion.

  In answer to that, he had the image of Prakuyo an Tep—which part was name, or title, or personal name, he never had figured out. An image of Prakuyo an Tep sitting quietly, gray, massive, immensely strong, sharing dainty teacakes with an atevi child.

  Prakuyo an Tep, whose face showed no expressions that a human could read. But then—atevi could be as unexpressive. Sometimes. When they didn’t trust a situation, didn’t approve, or didn’t want to commit to it. It was a control every paidhi had had to learn and one Bren found difficult to drop in recent days.

  He wasn’t sure Prakuyo an Tep’s face even had muscles that delivered the full range of expression humans and atevi could exchange. Bone seemed to lie very close to the skin. Prakuyo had been quite thin, after six years of incarceration, but the other kyo they’d met had had a similar boniness about the face. The gray skin was crossed with wrinkles below the chin, around the mouth and eyes, and, very faintly, on cheeks and brow. The skin itself was interesting: normally smoothly gray as fine polished leather, sometimes showing a dark gray freckling, a web work that came and went. Was that emotion? A blush? A circulatory surge? Or a color change wrought by the skin itself?

  The eyes blinked, the nostrils worked, the mouth moved. But the freckling appeared in moments of heightened attention. And once, once with what might have been a laugh. The kyo made resounding booms. Thumps. Was it laughter? Humming . . . that might have been sorrow.

  So many differences. Individually, Prakuyo an Tep read as a gentle fellow, a reasonable fellow, understanding kindness, responding to sweet flavors, reassured by a child’s innocence and curiosity . . .

  But what in hell had made the kyo ship, which had blasted thousands of hapless humans into oblivion—send in some of its people? And after a human ambush of the kyo shuttle, with at least one of their own unaccounted for—what had made them sit out there for six years, waiting?

  What feeling let Prakuyo an Tep, after enduring six years in a cage—gently respond to an atevi child?

  Were they one and the same kind of decision? Did it make sense, that behavior? Were they that patient—after having run in and blown hell out of the station in the first place?

  And the other side of the equation—what was the mentality of a Reunioner administrator—having suffered that devastating attack—who then sat pat and played power games with the only ship that could get him and his people out of there?

  Williams’ account might have made some sense of Braddock’s refusal to board—if Braddock hadn’t resisted removal a second time when the ship, under Sabin, came back for them.

  Had Braddock been that certain he could get the ship to accept conditions?

  As a negotiator, it was essential to his own job to calculate both sides of a chessboard.

  Jase chided him for involving himself in the Reunioner situation. Jase was taking steps, researching records, dealing with Braddock as a human problem.

  But the fact was, Braddock’s actions were wound intricately into the kyo-human contact. The question remained why Braddock had done what he had done—twice. That why was a human problem. That why didn’t matter for the kyo negotiations ahead . . .

  Why didn’t matter.

  But it did matter . . . in order to find out what. What happened had happened because of whys on both sides. On one hand, the kyo did things they couldn’t explain logically, because they didn’t yet have the kyo logic upon which to base the actions. On the other, they had a human administrator and a senior captain who’d done things they could explain, based on human logic, but which of the multiple options actually applied was dependent on a relationship they couldn’t figure, because one of the principal players was dead.

  Maybe Jase was wrong. Maybe Braddock had acted for two different reasons, similar but different, that just happened to manifest in the same way. The first time made no sense, unless Braddock had been as ignorant of the food capability of the ship as Williams. But logic would suggest he’d have expressed that fear to Ramirez and Ramirez would have set him straight.

  Which depended on him believing Ramirez, which in turn depended on him wanting to believe Ramirez, which would put them right back to Jase’s assessment of Braddock
’s motives.

  The second time . . . maybe after rebuilding and surviving with the situation for over ten years, Braddock had thought he’d won, that his station was going to survive. That any proposal to dismantle it and destroy all that work was insane.

  Maybe Braddock had just spent too much, tried too hard, believed too much in himself and had no faith at all in the ship’s captains . . . who, one had to admit, had run out on him.

  Braddock had convinced himself the kyo ship sitting in the system for six years was an unmanned drone. Maybe Braddock had had his own notions of making a crazy, silent peace with the kyo—in which light he might have blamed the ship for actions that, in his eyes, had brought the kyo back and started the whole problem.

  Phoenix had come back, renewing its order to evacuate, after the Reunioners’ ten years of work and survival. From Braddock’s point of view—possibly—the ship’s presence might stir up the kyo again, who’d sat there peaceably and might be, eventually, approachable.

  Or maybe Braddock had no trust of anything the ship wanted. No confidence, first, that he wasn’t still, directly or indirectly, dealing with Ramirez . . . and secondly, not trusting the ship’s motives with or without Ramirez.

  Bren rubbed his temples, trying to think. Playing both sides of the chessboard had its drawbacks . . . one of which was that one might give a scoundrel far too much credit for good motives.

  But it also, when overlaid on reality, pointed up where the problems lay in a given scenario. And primary among questions was the character of Braddock himself—trying to lay hands on four kids who could affect the relationship between ship-folk and atevi, making moves toward breaching those doors and possibly taking over the station—what had such a man done, regarding the kyo? Ramirez had been in command in the first encounter with the kyo. Braddock had commanded the second and third—the attacks and the actual face-to-face contact, once they’d taken Prakuyo.

  Ramirez had died with his secrets. They’d get no more from him.