Galactic Empires

by Neil Clarke

  Anash waved. Toni gave herself an inner shake and returned the gesture.

  “I am glad you did not have to wait,” Anash said. “I was afraid business went longer than expected.” She looked at Sam curiously, but he said nothing, just lifting the back of his hand to his forehead in the gesture of greeting.

  Kislan said something rapidly to the women of his family in a low voice that Toni couldn’t understand. She looked away, hoping her face wasn’t as flushed as she felt.

  The room Anash led them to in the common house was smaller than the one where they had met on Toni’s arrival, but it was a comfortable, sunny room with large windows facing a central courtyard and lace hangings decorating the walls.

  “My colleague Samuel Wu has brought you a gift in hopes that relations between you might begin in a spirit of harmony and trust,” Toni said in the Mejan language as they took seats on upholstered brocade sofas. This was the first time on Christmas she’d seen furniture covered in anything besides leather, and she wondered if this room was usually reserved for special occasions.

  Kislan sat down beside her, and Toni felt her pulse quicken and her cheeks grow hot. She really had been living too long among ants.

  Anash addressed Sam directly. “Sha bo sham, Samuel. We thank you, both for the thoughtful gesture and the respect that goes with it. We will be happy to tell you of Mejan ways. We too are curious to hear about the ways of the people of the stars.”

  Sam got the bottle of denzhar out of his bag, while Toni checked the AI at her wrist to make sure she’d set it for record mode. Across from her, Thuyene pulled a crocheting project out of her own bag, and Toni suppressed a smile.

  “Sha bo sham, tajan,” Sam said, leaning across the table and presenting the wine to Anash. “I am honored to be able to speak with you and hope that my gift is welcome.”

  It appeared they had chosen well. A pleased smile touched Anash’s lips as she accepted the bottle, and Toni almost sighed in relief.

  Sam began by asking about the specific rules governing interaction between men and women. They soon learned that in addition to the disrespect shown if a man not of a woman’s family spoke before being spoken to, there was a whole battery of taboos concerning what was appropriate when and with whom and at what age. It reminded Toni vaguely of what she had read long ago about Victorian England—except for the group marriages, of course.

  While the conversation was fascinating, at least as far as Toni understood it, they never came anywhere near to the topic of sex proper, and the group marriages practiced on Christmas in particular. Sam was obviously doing his best to tread carefully, and open discussion of sexual practices was taboo in the majority of cultures in the galaxy.

  “Boys move into the house of men when they are weaned, correct?” Sam asked.

  Anash shook her head in the affirmative. “Yes.” Toni felt the heat from Kislan’s body next to her.

  “Is there any kind of ritual associated with the move?”

  “To leave the mother is to leave the sea, so there is a celebration on the beach called mairheltan.”

  Kislan spoke up. “It is the first memory I have, the mairheltan.”

  “What does the ritual consist of?” Sam asked.

  “The boy who is to leave the house of women goes into the water with the mother and comes back out by himself,” Thuyene explained. “Then there is a feast with fish and dashik, and the child receives a leather cape and a length of lace.”

  She used the term “roda ag fashar” not “rodel” when she spoke of lace. Toni remembered the dictionary entries she’d been working on the other day and couldn’t help asking an off-topic question. “What exactly is the difference between ‘fashar’ and ‘rodel’?”

  Thuyene lifted up the crocheting she was working on. “This is ‘rodela.’” She pointed to a wall hanging just past Kislan’s shoulder. “This is ‘fashar.’”

  It was all lace to Toni, but she was beginning to see the difference. “So ‘fashar’ is the piece when it is finished?”

  “Not always. The ‘fashar’ given to a boy when he joins the house of men only begins. The women of his house can add to the ‘fashar’ he is given as a boy.”

  Toni would have liked to find out more about the words, but Sam was asking another question himself. “If a boy has already begun to talk before he leaves the house of women, how is it he doesn’t learn to speak the women’s language?”

  Anash chuckled. “His mother corrects him if he speaks the language that is wrong.”

  Sam laughed and looked at Kislan, who smiled and shrugged. Toni could see how that would be a very effective method to keep boys from learning the women’s language.

  The meeting continued until the light through the windows began to grow dim, and ended with a promise to show Sam around town the next day to see some of the places where women worked in Edaru. Anash couldn’t accompany him herself, but she would see to it that one of the women of her house met him tomorrow morning at the Mejan equivalent of a café in the main square. Of course, he still was not allowed to visit any of the houses of women, but his enthusiasm at the sudden progress in his research was obvious in his voice and posture.

  Toni had learned quite a bit herself that afternoon. It was surprising what you could discover if you only knew which questions to ask. Anash and Thuyene had been astonished at some of the things they told them about their native cultures as well, in particular the institution of marriage, which they only seemed to be able to understand in terms of property, of one partner “belonging” to the other.

  She’d done her best to suppress her awareness of Kislan beside her, but the discussion of different forms of partnership unfortunately had quite the opposite effect. As a human male of Kailazh, Kislan was both familiar and exotic at the same time. A very desirable male, especially after she had spent all too long on a world full mostly of giant ants. All the senses in her body were screaming “potential partner” for some primordial reason, and she had the uncomfortable sensation that Kislan was aware of her in a similar way—even though he was part of some kind of group marriage with the women across from her.

  He didn’t speak much, and neither did she. Instead, they sat there, the lovely view of the red fern and coral-like vegetation visible through the window across from them.

  On one level, Toni was relieved when Anash called an end to the meeting. On another, she wished they could continue to sit there and talk for hours, learn more about social arrangements on Christmas, find out how the Mejan viewed their own history. And on the primal level, she was humming. Feeling that kind of physical attraction again after so long, almost knee to knee and elbow to elbow, was mind- and body-racking.

  She barely looked at Kislan as they took their leave, mentally kicking herself for the way she was responding to his physical presence.

  “Their reaction to marriage forms in Terran culture was interesting, don’t you think?” Sam said when they were out of earshot of the common house.

  “You mean in terms of property?” Toni asked.

  “Exactly. I wish we could find out more about their history. It makes me wonder if slavery might not be too far removed in the Mejan consciousness. Oh, and thank you.”

  “What for?”

  Sam smiled that slow smile she had learned to like so much from the vids they had sent each other. “For giving me a crack at half a society.”

  13

  The Legend of the Three Moons

  Once, in the early days of the Mejan, after the Great War, there was a very attractive young man, more handsome than any other in all of the thirteen cities. When he came of age, Zhaykair, mother of the house of Sheli, asked if he would join their family, and he came willingly. The house had a good reputation for the fine lace it produced, and the women of the house were beautiful, their necks long, their shoulders wide, and their skin glossy.

  A sister of the house looked on the man with desire and wished to have him for herself alone. The husband saw her beauty, her hair
the color of night and her eyes like a dashik flower, and he swore to do anything for her; she made his blood run hotter than any woman he had ever seen. The sister went mad at the thought of him lying with other women, and she made him promise he would resist all others for her sake.

  Zhaykair saw what her sister was doing and how it poisoned the atmosphere in the house. She went to the councilor to ask what he thought should be done with the young man.

  “We will bring them before us and ask them what is more important, the peace of the house or their love.”

  So the sister and the husband were brought before the council. The mother gazed at the sister with sadness and said, “I cannot believe that you would disturb the peace of the house this way.”

  The sister began to cry. The husband jumped up, his hand raised against Zhaykair. When the sister saw what he intended to do, she threw herself upon him, but not before he had struck the mother.

  By law, the husband had to be given back to the sea for striking a mother. The sister refused to let him go alone, and they returned to the sea together.

  Zhaykair could not bear the thought of what had happened in her house and the sister’s betrayal, and she followed them soon after. The sea in her wisdom wanted to make a lesson of them and gave the three lovers to the sky.

  And now the sister, who never wanted to share the young man with another, must share him with Zhaykair every night. Sometimes it is the sister who is closer and sometimes the mother, but only for a short time does the sister ever have him to herself.

  14

  The next day, Toni met with the women on their own turf again. She was shown into the central courtyard by a beautiful young woman wearing the colors of Ishel and Railiu in the dark braids scattered through her heavy hair. The air was crisp and the sun bright, and they wandered among the houses, Anash and Thuyene pointing out more of the complex.

  The first contact team referred to the residences of the families of Edaru as “houses” for the sake of simplicity—in actuality, they consisted of several buildings, with the young girls living in one, the mothers of the youngest children with their babies and toddlers in another, and the grown women with no children below the age of about three standard years in a third. There was also a smaller version of the Edaru common house, with a family refectory and rooms where all could gather and talk, play games, tell stories. Perhaps on the surface the setup did resemble a harem, but it obviously wasn’t one.

  “I hope you did not lose much in the pirate attack,” Toni said during a lull in the conversation.

  Anash looked grim. “Too much.”

  “This is the second ship attacked this summer,” Thuyene added.

  Suddenly, Toni realized how she might be able to get the Mejan to agree to the AIC treaty. Anash was obviously one of Lanrhel’s main advisers, and he would listen to what she had to say. “So you also have a problem with pirates,” she said casually.

  “Why do you say ‘also’?” Anash asked.

  “There are many pirates among the stars too. That is the purpose of the Allied Interstellar Community—to form a common defense against the pirates of the sky.”

  Of course, that wasn’t the only purpose: interstellar trade and research were at least equally important, with the emphasis on “trade.” But Toni doubted she could interest anyone on Kailazh in trade with distant points of light that figured prominently in stories told in the evening to pass the time.

  “But why should we fear them?” Thuyene asked. “We do not travel the stars, so they cannot attack the ships of the people.”

  “It’s not that easy,” Toni said, suppressing thoughts of how the other woman might be spending her nights—in the Ishel main house with Kis-lan. “They might come here.”

  Anash started. “Attack Edaru? From the sky?”

  “Certainly from the sky.”

  In their surprise, Anash and Thuyene didn’t think to lower their voices when they began discussing rapidly in the women’s language, and Toni was able to capture a lengthy conversation on her wrist unit.

  Finally they turned back to her. “How can that be?”

  “As soon as Kailazh was discovered, the news of another culture was known to all the worlds with access to the network of the Allied Interstellar Community.” But, of course, the word she used in the Mejan language wasn’t actually “network”: the term the first contact team used to approximate the interstellar exchange of information referred to the trade of professional couriers who traveled between the thirteen cities, dispensing messages and news.

  “I see,” Anash said. “And in this way, we become a part of this community before we even give permission.” She used some kind of qualifier for “permission” which Toni was unfamiliar with, but she didn’t deem it the right time to ask what it meant. Anash lifted the back of her hand to her forehead, and Toni’s heart sank—she was being dismissed.

  “Thuyene will see you out of the house,” Anash said and turned on her heel.

  Together they watched her stride back to the central building. “You should have told us sooner,” Thuyene said quietly.

  “I didn’t know it was so important.”

  “I believe you. There is much we still do not know about each other.”

  That was certainly true.

  When she returned to Contact House One, Toni found Sam sitting tensely in his desk chair and Repnik standing next to him, his arms folded in front of his chest.

  Repnik turned, not relaxing his defensive posture. The stress lines between his eyes were even more pronounced than usual and his face was pale. “I’m glad you have finally arrived, Donato. I hear you took Sam to meet with the women yesterday without my authorization.”

  Toni blinked. Sam didn’t need Repnik’s authorization. Certainly, Rep-nik had seniority, but the experts of a first contact team were free to pursue their research however they saw fit. She, by contrast, was only second linguist, so it was a bit more logical for Repnik to boss her around.

  “Uh, yes.”

  “I won’t have it. I’ve already told Sam that he is not to meet with the women again unless I arrange it.”

  Which meant never. The women refused to negotiate with Repnik, that much was clear.

  She looked at Sam, his lips pressed together and misery in his eyes.

  Toni at least didn’t have much to lose. She could put her neck out where Sam obviously wasn’t willing to. “But he’s chief sociologist.”

  “And I’m head of the first contact team.”

  She couldn’t believe it. Either he was so fixated on maintaining complete control of the mission that he had lost it—or there was something he didn’t want them to find out. She looked him in the eye, her hands on her hips. “Maybe we should see what Ainsworth has to say about that. Computer, open a channel to the Penthesilea.”

  “Access denied.”

  “What?!”

  “Access denied,” the computer repeated, logical as always.

  “Why?”

  “Prof. Dr. Hartmut Repnik has restricted access to communications channels. I am no longer authorized to initiate off-site communications without his permission.”

  The completely mundane thought darted through Toni’s mind that she would no longer be able to participate in the AIC discussion groups. As if that mattered right now.

  “I don’t want you visiting any of the houses of women without my approval, either,” Repnik continued, addressing Toni.

  “But we’re here to learn about these people.”

  “And the two of you have been conducting unauthorized research. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have AIRA business to attend to.”

  When Repnik was out of the door, Toni turned to Sam. “Unauthorized research?”

  Sam shrugged, looking wretched.

  Toni dropped into the chair next to him. “So, you still think I’m overreacting?”

  Sam didn’t respond to her attempt at a joke. “We’re stuck, you know. He’s going to tell Ainsworth some story about us now.�
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  She propped her chin in her hand. “You must have done something to set him off. Can you think what it might be?”

  He shook his head. “I just told him about the meeting with Anash and Thuyene yesterday.”

  “So he doesn’t want either of us speaking directly with the women. But why?”

  Sam shook his head, and Toni got up and began to pace. “Look, Sam, he can’t get away with this. If Repnik really does contact Ainsworth about us with some fairy tale, then we’ll also have our say, and it should be obvious that he’s giving orders that hinder the mission.”

  “And what if he lies?”

  “We have to tell Gates and Moshofski what’s up.”

  “They won’t be in until tonight.”

  They stared at each other in silence for a moment. “I think I need to take a walk.”

  Sam gave her a weak smile and waved her out the door. “Go. I’ll hold down the fort.”

  Toni walked, long strides that ate up the stone-paved streets. She had devoted most of her adult life to AIRA, and she didn’t know what she would do if they threw her out. Given the number of interstellar languages she could speak, there would always be jobs for her, but if she went into translating or interpreting, she would no longer be involved in the aspect of language she enjoyed most, the puzzle of an unknown discourse.

  At least she wouldn’t have to work with any more ants.

  The weather was turning, appropriate to her mood, the gray-green sky heavy with the threat of rain. Toni made her way through narrow side streets to the sea wall at the south end of town. The green ocean below crashed against the wall, sending shots of spray up to the railing where she stood, and the wind tangled her hair around her face. She pulled her leather cape tighter around her body and gazed out to sea. The lacy rings of sunset probably would not be visible tonight, blocked out by the coming storm.

  She heard a footstep behind her and turned. Kislan. He gazed at her with eyes that matched the sea, and she realized she had come out here close to the docks hoping they might run into each other.