by Timothy Zahn
"Don't blame the colonel for that," McCollum warned. Beach patted the bed beside him in invitation; pointedly, she stepped past him and sat down in Faraday's desk chair instead. "If you weren't always in engineering or the EVA ready room getting conned out of your paychit—"
"Hey, I work damn hard at my job," Milligan snapped back. "Poker's about the only way to unwind around here that doesn't involve rotting your brain, your teeth, or your liver."
"Come on, everyone, cool down," Sprenkle said tiredly, looking around the room and then sitting down on the bed beside Beach. "It's been a long day, and our nerves are all a little on edge."
"Nerves on edge," Beach echoed, shaking his head. "Man, I love psychiatric jargon."
"I'm sure you hear a lot of it, too," McCollum put in. "Can we knock it off and listen, so we can get out of here? No offense, Colonel," she added, looking at Faraday.
"None taken," Faraday assured her. "I'll try to make this quick. I had a long talk with Mr. Hesse this afternoon, and heard some things about Arbiter Liadof that I thought you should know."
"Like Hesse would be a good, unbiased source on that," Milligan growled. "She is his replacement, you know."
"Yes, I know," Faraday said. "And I took the possibility of bias into account. I don't think Mr. Hesse's feelings come into this at all, except in regards to how Project Changeling could be affected."
"In your expert psychiatric opinion, of course," Milligan muttered under his breath.
"I'd be happy to let Dr. Sprenkle talk to him later, if you'd like," Faraday offered, lifting his eyebrows at Sprenkle.
"If it seems useful or necessary," Sprenkle said. "What exactly did he have to say?"
"Let's start with Earth," Faraday said. "It seems there's been a coup inside the Five Hundred."
That one finally got their attention. Even Milligan, who had been glowering at the floor, turned narrowed eyes on Faraday. "A coup?" McCollum echoed disbelievingly. "But—"
"When?" Milligan demanded. "There wasn't a word on the newsnets."
"It happened a couple of weeks ago, before Hesse and Liadof headed out here," Faraday told him. "And there won't be any public news about it, at least not if they can help it. The whole thing was very quiet, very peaceful. Civilized, almost. They've kept the same Council, just to keep up appearances, but there's now an entirely different group in the background calling the shots."
"This isn't just because of the latest protests on Mars, is it?" McCollum asked, still sounding incredulous. "I mean, that would be like..." She waved her hands, groping for the word.
"Overreacting?" Milligan suggested.
"Try lunatic," Beach offered darkly.
"The protests may have been the trigger," Faraday told her. "But it sounds like this has been brewing for a long time."
"I heard this morning that Sol/Guard Marines have been moved in against the protesters," Milligan said. "Sounds like a serious policy change has been implemented."
"I heard that, too," Beach growled. "Most of the commentators are saying the lockdown's just the beginning."
"You've got family on Mars, don't you, Ev?" McCollum asked quietly.
Beach nodded. "Mother and two brothers."
"Things must have been pretty rough for them," Milligan said.
Beach shrugged, too casually. "No rougher than for anyone else in the Solar System," he said. "Everyone's feeling the budget cutbacks."
"Yeah, but at least on Earth they don't have to manufacture their own air and water," Milligan reminded him. "Everywhere else, you crank down the support funding and things can get critical pretty damn fast."
"If you ask me, the whole thing is crazy," McCollum declared. "We're not even close to running out of room—not even on Earth, let alone anywhere else."
"It's this whole frontier mentality they've gotten themselves locked into," Sprenkle said. "They're so afraid of not having any distant place to send malcontents that everything except the current cutting-edge developments gets shortchanged."
"Pop psychology at its best?" Milligan suggested, a note of challenge in his voice as he looked at Sprenkle.
But the psychologist merely shrugged. "No argument from me," he said.
"And so the only way people figure they can get Earth's attention is to stage a riot," McCollum murmured.
"Something like that," Beach agreed. "Used to work pretty well, too, as long as the riot was kept to just a very loud protest. The Five Hundred came in long enough to fix the most critical of the crises, and you went back to watching them spend the bulk of their money someplace else."
"Until this new bunch got in power, anyway," Milligan said. "Sounds like they don't want to hear any noise, from anyone."
"Trouble is, all a lockdown accomplishes is to bottle up the resentment," Sprenkle pointed out. "Sitting on them just makes it worse somewhere down the line."
"Why do I get the feeling that's where Changeling comes in?" McCollum asked, looking back at Faraday.
"Exactly," Faraday agreed soberly. "Apparently, the new leaders realize they're sitting on a tiger, and that the only long-term solution is to find a new source of meat to throw to it."
"In the form of new worlds to conquer," Sprenkle said.
"As you said, their frontier mentality," Faraday said, nodding to him. "They also seem to have concluded that the original Project Changeling plan is moving too slowly."
He looked around the small room at each of them. "Arbiter Liadof has apparently been sent to move up the timetable."
"And how exactly does she expect to do that?" Beach asked contemptuously. "Launch an extensive search of all one point four quadrillion cubic kilometers of the atmosphere?"
"Mr. Hesse doesn't know the new plan," Faraday said. "But whatever it is, I doubt it involves anything as straightforward and unimaginative as a search." He hesitated. "And from what I've heard of Arbiter Liadof, I don't expect the approach to be a polite request to the Qanskan Leaders, either."
The other four exchanged glances. "And how exactly would Raimey fit into this new approach?" McCollum asked carefully.
Faraday frowned at her. There had definitely been something under the surface of that question. "Again, I don't know," he said. "Why do you ask?"
Another round of glances. "We weren't supposed to tell you this," Beach said. "But after you left, there was a Vuukan attack on Raimey and that group of Counselors he's been hanging out with."
Faraday felt something catch in his chest. "What happened? Is he all right?"
"Oh, he's fine," Beach hastened to assure him. "Got the tip of one of his tails bitten off, but that'll grow back. The point is that Liadof wouldn't let me warn him they were coming."
Faraday felt his mouth drop open. "Why the hell not?"
Beach lifted his hands helplessly. "All she said was that she was curious to see how he did against four predators. She hadn't seen firsthand how Qanska managed—"
"Wait a second," Faraday cut him off, his emotional balance teetering back and forth between stunned disbelief and black-edged outrage. "There were four Vuuka?"
"Four, count 'em, four," Milligan confirmed. "All about Raimey's size, too."
"Four full-grown Vuuka," Faraday repeated, trying to convince himself he'd really heard it correctly. For the moment, the stunned disbelief was definitely winning. "He managed to outrun four full-grown Vuuka?"
"Oh, it's better than that," Milligan said. "He didn't just outrun them; he actually took two of them out of the fight, right on the fly. After that, the other two gave up and went away."
"He hit the first one right over the lung sack," McCollum added. "Knocked all the wind out of him. I always wondered if he was paying attention during those physiology discussions we had way back when. I guess he was."
"Or else he's picked up a few new tricks along the way," Beach said.
"If he did, they're tricks we've never seen," McCollum pointed out.
"And neither have the rest of the Qanska," Milligan agreed. "Beltrenini and her gro
up about split their stripes when he showed up in one undigested piece. Impressed as hell. They practically rode him out to breakfast on their shoulders."
"Really," Faraday said, looking at Sprenkle as a sudden thought struck him. "Do you think...?"
Sprenkle shrugged. "Too soon to say," he said. "But it certainly looks promising."
"Yes," Faraday murmured. One of Raimey's biggest problems, Sprenkle had always said, was that in five years he still didn't really fit in with the rest of Qanskan society. Not even before his blowup with Drusni; certainly not afterward. Could this finally be the social breakthrough they'd been waiting for?
If it was, he would bet his pension that Liadof had missed the significance of the event entirely. She might know all of Changeling's facts and figures, but she had no feel for any of the more subtle stuff going on beneath the surface. "What did Liadof say afterward?" he asked. "Was she was suitably impressed?"
"Probably as impressed as her sort ever gets," Beach said sourly. "She basically just said 'interesting,' then made us promise not to tell anyone."
"Including me?"
"Especially you," Sprenkle said. "She said that if you weren't interested enough to stick around till the end of the shift, then you didn't deserve to know what was going on."
"Hmm," Faraday said, rubbing his chin. Insulting, but also revealing. So Liadof wasn't all that interested one way or the other in Raimey's survival. Less interested, apparently, than getting an entertaining live-nature show.
But at the same time, she didn't want to tip the cart over by letting Faraday get wind of it. Did that imply that Raimey was expendable, but that Faraday still had some influence on what went on here?
Or did she merely not want to bother with the kind of noise he could make with the Five Hundred? A Marine lockdown on Jupiter Prime, after all, would be rather counterproductive.
"So what's the next move?" McCollum asked.
Faraday shook his head. "I don't know," he said candidly. "Ideally, I'd like some idea what she's up to. Unfortunately, she's apparently the only one who knows."
"Does it have something to do with that eight-man tech group she's got working down in Bay Seven?" Milligan asked.
Faraday stared at him. "What tech group?"
"The one putting together a top-secret, high-end probe," Milligan said. "Rumor has it they've thrown all the station personnel out of the bay and support areas and taken the whole place over."
"You're kidding," Faraday said. He hadn't heard even a hint of this one. "Where did you hear this?"
"Where do you think?" Milligan threw a slightly smug, slightly injured look at McCollum. "Those poker games aren't just for the redistribution of wealth, you know. Someone has to keep tabs on what's happening around here."
"Consider us duly chastised," Faraday said dryly. "What else have you heard?"
Milligan grimaced. "Like I said, it's supposed to be top secret," he said. "The only reason I got anything is that the regular station guys are pretty sore at having been kicked out."
"Happens all the time on a space station," Beach grunted. "We must have kicked someone out of the Contact Room when we moved in, too."
"Yeah, but it was the way Liadof's people took over," Milligan said. "High-handed and stiff-nosed was the way one of the guys put it."
"Sounds like the sort of people she would hire," Sprenkle said.
"It does, doesn't it?" Faraday said, frowning. A new, high-tech probe. What could Liadof be doing with a new, high-tech probe?
"You don't suppose she really does intend to search the whole planet, do you?" Beach asked. "I was kidding about that."
"Never kid about politicians," Milligan advised him. "The more bizarre the joke, the more likely it'll come true."
"Still, I can't imagine them thinking anything that bizarre," Faraday said. "The range of current emscan technology... on the other hand, maybe someone's made a breakthrough they haven't told us about."
"Sounds like our first step is to find out more about this probe," McCollum suggested. "Does anybody besides Tom have an in with this group?"
"Hey, I don't even have an in with the techs doing the actual work," Milligan warned. "I just know some of the station engineering guys, and they don't know any more than the rest of us do."
"Then let's get to know Liadof's people," Faraday said. "Try to make contact, befriend them—that sort of thing. They must be feeling a little isolated, working down there all by themselves. Any idea what their timetable is?"
"One of them said Liadof's got the bay reserved for the next two months," Milligan said. "For a crew of eight, that's probably about right for assembly and testing a deep-atmosphere probe."
"So we've got two months," Faraday said. "Fine. Let's see just how friendly we all can be. And we can start by trying to coax one of them outside Bay Seven for some kind of social visit. Any kind of social visit."
He looked at Milligan. "Including a poker game."
"Sounds good to me," Milligan said blandly. "They talk more when they're winning, though. You willing to subsidize me a little?"
"Within reason," Faraday said. "In fact, I'll go you one better. I'll offer a cash bonus to the first person who gets one of them out on a social visit."
Sprenkle half raised his hand. "Colonel, what about Beta and Gamma Shifts? Are you going to bring them into this, too?"
Faraday hesitated. "Not right now," he said. "I don't know any of them nearly as well as I know you four; and I do know there are a couple among them who are very big on blind obedience to governmental authority. They might not be comfortable with this."
"I know which ones you mean," Beach said, making a face. "You're right, we'd better keep it here."
"At least for now," Faraday said. "Well. Does anyone have anything else to add or ask?"
There was a moment of silence. "Then that's it," Faraday said. "Thank you all for coming."
With a rustle of cloth and a muttering of good-byes, they got up and filed out of the room.
All of them, that is, except Sprenkle.
"You have a question?" Faraday asked him as the door closed behind the others.
"More of a comment, really," Sprenkle said. His posture was studiously relaxed as he sat on the edge of Faraday's bed, the sort of pose that put people at their ease. An old psychologist's trick, no doubt. "I just wanted to make sure you realized just how far out your neck is stuck on this one."
"I have a pretty good idea," Faraday said. "My question for you is whether it's stuck out there all alone."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that if push comes to crunch, are they going to stand with me?" Faraday said bluntly. "Or are they going to think only of themselves?"
"I would say that's partly up to you," Sprenkle said. "For whatever it's worth, I think you've taken a good first step here tonight."
"Which step was that?"
"Reinvigorating them," Sprenkle said. "You saw what they were like when they came in. Over the past couple of years this job's gotten breathtakingly boring. We know most of what there is to know about Qanskan society, and frankly Raimey isn't all that interesting to watch anymore."
"Is that why they've been picking at each other so much?"
"It's a common outlet," Sprenkle said. "But as I'm sure you saw, when they left here they left as a team again. You've given us something new to think about and work toward together."
He cocked his head. "Whether that's going to be enough for them to stand by you, I don't know. You have a name and a reputation that even the Five Hundred might hesitate to take on. None of the rest of us have that kind of armor plating."
"My name and reputation would be standing in the dock along with them," Faraday pointed out.
"True, but armor plating extends only so far," Sprenkle said. "It's easy to talk big and confident here in a private meeting. It's not nearly so easy to turn that talk into action. Especially not when you're facing the possible loss of your entire future."
"You think Liadof's got th
at kind of power?"
Sprenkle snorted. "I would say she could probably break any one of us with a five-minute phone call," he said bluntly.
"Even if we're following our legal duty and she isn't?"
Sprenkle's eyes narrowed. "I don't follow."
"Go back and reread Project Changeling's mission statement," Faraday said. "Paragraph four says explicitly that our legal duty is to protect Raimey's life, insofar as that's compatible with the objective of finding and gaining access to the Qanskan stardrive."
"Liadof isn't putting Raimey's life at risk," Sprenkle pointed out.
"She already has," Faraday countered. "She failed to warn him of a Vuukan attack. Endangerment through inaction is legally as damning as any other sort."
Sprenkle's lip twitched. "Perhaps paragraph four has been rescinded."
"Not in writing, it hasn't," Faraday said. "And until it is, the law says I have to assume it's still in force."
"Even if an Arbiter of the Five Hundred says otherwise?"
"There's no mention of verbal orders anywhere in the mission statement," Faraday said.
Sprenkle shook his head. "Technically, you may be right," he said. "But if it comes down to your push-and-crunch, with you against Liadof, I have to say my money would be on her. Sorry."
"No apology required," Faraday said dryly. "To be honest, so would mine."
He looked at the photo of Jupiter he'd set up over his desk. "But I was the one who talked Raimey into going down there in the first place. I can't abandon him just because the Five Hundred have decided he's unnecessary. Or inconvenient."
"No," Sprenkle said. "I suppose not."
There was a moment of silence. "You said whether the team stands together on this is partly up to me," Faraday reminded him. "What else does it depend on?"
Sprenkle smiled faintly. "Ironically, perhaps, Raimey himself."
Faraday frowned. "Raimey?"
"Yes," Sprenkle said. "You see, his socialization problems haven't just been with the Qanska. They've also been with us. Face it, Colonel: Raimey has hardly shown himself to be a very likable person."
