Foreigner - Explorer. Part 22

"So congratulations: you're in charge, Captain Graham. Remember we're very immaculately Guild and we follow the regulations until we know what our options are. And that means you you, sir-" A glance at Bren. "Get your tall, dark friends below-decks right now and keep them there. Aliens never left the atevi planet. Our own crew isn't putting their heads above two-deck to tell these inspectors differently. The inspection team will fill out their little check list, skip the log check, as per my orders, and go back to report they didn't get any more here than I gave the Guild chief on his request. That's the way it should work, Captain Graham. That's the way it's going to work. So get gran, there, the h.e.l.l below, right now."

One definitely hesitated to translate that small speech for the dowager's consumption. But it was time to translate, inserting proper courtesies.

"Aiji-ma," Bren said to her, "officials of this human Guild are very soon coming aboard to inspect the ship's credentials. Sabin-aiji suggests we go below immediately. Officials are arriving at any moment. We must not be seen."

"We are here to rescue these ingrates, whose station is in grievously unrepaired condition, who appear to exist in armed standoff with an offended enemy they have no power to talk to, let alone reach, and this incompetent Guild wishes to us to dread their displeasure?"

"They do seem to have one thing: the fuel we desperately need, aiji-ma, which they have rigged so we cannot get at it. Sabin-aiji being requested to board the station, she will do it with armed escort of her choosing, and she is not pleased. One hopes she can carry her point."

"She will go. Not Jase."

"Not Jase, aiji-ma."

Complete change of expression. In such an undemonstrative species, humans might not see it. But the dowager gave him a now sweet, sidelong look-golden eyes, dark skin with its fine tracery of lines-long, long years of calculation and autocracy.

"Well, well, we shall go below," the dowager announced as if it were all her idea, and stamped the deck with her cane. "Now."

"Nandi," Jase said, who had had caught the nuances. And understood the threat of atevi taking matters in their own hands. "There will be no foreign intrusion onto five-deck. Your residence will remain sacrosanct. One swears this, nandi." caught the nuances. And understood the threat of atevi taking matters in their own hands. "There will be no foreign intrusion onto five-deck. Your residence will remain sacrosanct. One swears this, nandi."

"One certainly expects it." A vigorous stamp of the cane. "Enough of this standing about? My bones ache. I want my own chair."

"Well? Is she going?" Sabin asked.

"The dowager is going below," Jase said.

"Very good," Sabin said. "Mospheirans, too, the whole lot of you, off the bridge. Nothing left behind. And stay quiet down there, Mr. Cameron. We have enough troubles on our hands."

"Yes, ma'am," Bren said, already determined he didn't consider himself under that prohibition. He He could change accents as easily as he changed clothes... and he had no intention of acquiescence in what the Guild and Sabin alone arranged. could change accents as easily as he changed clothes... and he had no intention of acquiescence in what the Guild and Sabin alone arranged.

Banichi and Jago were still with him. He overtook the dowager and Ginny and their company at the lift, got in just before the door shut and, between Banichi and Jago, set his back against the wall, heaving a deep sigh. His inner vision was all a kaleidoscope of crew on the bridge, locked fuel port, station corridors-those urgent problems and the marching dots of their communication with the alien craft. Which had to be finessed. Somehow.

The dowager was, at the moment, on remarkably compliant behavior. Cajeiri was, correctly sensing an armed grenade in his great-grandmother's quiet demeanor. Ginny very wisely took her cues.

"d.a.m.n Guild," was Jerry's opinion, and at a sharp look from Ginny: "Well, d.a.m.n them, chief. We come all this way..."

"Jerry," Ginny said, and Ilisidi paid the matter a quiet look.

Gran 'Sidi, as the stationers called her... Gran 'Sidi, the atevi force that swept into station affairs at critical moments and fixed things. And to this hour when Gran 'Sidi gave a look like that-silence fell among Mospheirans and ship-folk alike.

"Sabin has something in mind," Bren said ever so softly. "Just don't rock the boat yet. So to speak. We'll have our moment."

"Anything you need," Ginny said, and with a meaningful glance at the atevi contingent. "Aiji." She managed an atevi-style bow, a graceful escape out of difficult communications, as the lift reached five-deck and let them out.

"Good," Ilisidi said, acknowledging the communication-lordly acceptance. Ilisidi walked out, her staff with her, and Bren followed, not without a parting glance to Ginny and her team, a simple shift of the eyes toward the overhead, an advis.e.m.e.nt where he he meant to go. meant to go.

Ginny understood. Ginny-who could pa.s.s for crew, herself. She returned a firm, got-the-information kind of nod.

Ilisidi's guards opened the door to the atevi section. Ilisidi's guards, Ilisidi's servants, had all turned out along the corridor, loyal support, baji-naji, come what might from the strangers proposing to enter the ship on decks above.

The section door shut. Sealed. Ilisidi, walking with taps of her cane, issued her orders, quietly, matter of factly, while she moved among the staff. "An hour to rest, if if we are so fortunate. Security will deal with necessary issues. For the nonce, we shall not contact these intruders or become apparent to them unless they reach our territory. Bren-nandi?" we are so fortunate. Security will deal with necessary issues. For the nonce, we shall not contact these intruders or become apparent to them unless they reach our territory. Bren-nandi?"

"Aiji-ma?"

"You, personally, can manage the accent and manner of ordinary crew."

She didn't miss a bet.

"Easily."

They had reached the dowager's study door. Ilisidi stopped there, hands on the head of her cane, poised. "Interesting. Apprise us of any news."

"Yes, aiji-ma."

A waggle of the topmost fingers. "Let Sabin-aiji make her attempt. Let her learn what she can of the situation and perhaps return to us. Let these officers of the Guild come aboard and lay hands where they wish on the other decks. But not on ours. All these things we may tolerate, briefly, for expediency's sake. Otherwise-otherwise, Bren-nandi, see see to it. Use whatever resources you need." to it. Use whatever resources you need."

"Yes, aiji-ma."

And with that statement, and with a belated backward look from Cajeiri-a worried look, it was-Ilisidi turned aside and let Cenedi open the door to her quarters-into which she and all her company disappeared.

Her bones, Bren said to himself, did suffer with long standing. It was well past time she took a rest. But that mind didn't rest. She was far too canny in human affairs to attempt to deal with what her human a.s.sociates could far better manage. She deputed, and she sent. But she did not, one was sure, go off alert.

He walked on from that point into his own territory, with Banichi and Jago... who a.s.surely would not not approve his plans. Who had defensive skills he could never manage. approve his plans. Who had defensive skills he could never manage.

But no amount of skill and stealth could disguise what they were.

"Nadiin-ji," he said to them, "Sabin-aiji, who has met these station aijiin before, believes she can maintain her authority, discover useful information and gain their cooperation to refuel the ship. She has refused them free access to the ship's history. They persisted and she still refused. She surely knows there is some risk to her freedom to act as she goes onto the station. Her authority there on the station is yet to establish, and one hopes she succeeds. But one still fails to trust her entirely. There is that."

"A strong possibility, Bren-ji?" Baniichi asked.

"She can't compel their obedience." It might be superfluous to remind his staff what drove Sabin and the Pilots' Guild were different instincts, having nothing to do with the grouping-drive that motivated atevi, but it was still worth laying out. "We are not dealing with man'chi between her and this Guild, nadiin-ji. Each side has both merit and force to persuade the other to take their direction. But only Sabin has a ship, and I confess I wish she were staying on the ship and simply demanding they come aboard. She could compel that. She could announce her intent to the station population and create insurrection, but she refuses, and takes a security force to the heart of their establishment-perhaps for reasons of her own, perhaps that some sense like man'chi forbids she take the station apart in disorder. I fear they may ambush her-I fear Jenrette, for that matter. But she knows that from the beginning. I have speculations-even the speculation that she is is Guild and means to spill everything she bids us conceal, laying plans to take the ship once she gets aboard." Guild and means to spill everything she bids us conceal, laying plans to take the ship once she gets aboard."

"Do we count this likely?"

"She has has the ship already. She could easily invite the Guild in and turn the ship over to them without risking herself aboard the station. As likely that she means to walk in and simply shoot the Guild-aiji dead at his desk. I don't know what she intends. She has taken Jenrette as one of her guards. I don't know why. Perhaps because she is Guild, as I suspect he is-perhaps because she simply wishes to get him off the ship so he can't sabotage anything. She does not trust Jase to run the ship." the ship already. She could easily invite the Guild in and turn the ship over to them without risking herself aboard the station. As likely that she means to walk in and simply shoot the Guild-aiji dead at his desk. I don't know what she intends. She has taken Jenrette as one of her guards. I don't know why. Perhaps because she is Guild, as I suspect he is-perhaps because she simply wishes to get him off the ship so he can't sabotage anything. She does not trust Jase to run the ship."

"Do you so trust him, Bren-ji?" Jago asked.

"In matters of security, yes. And he has staff that can move the ship at need. We have not linked the ship within safe access of general population. A rush of population into the mast would put us in a position where we would have to open our doors or see them die of cold; and the presence of so many would increase ma.s.s that we dare not leave dock without refueling. On the other hand, if the station administration itself refuses to vacate the station, this would be a great difficulty. Sabin did reiterate to Jase the mission to destroy all the information the station holds. The computers that hold that information, on the station, are deep, and defended by the Guild. The alternatives remain-very bad alternatives. One hardly wishes to think about the possibility of blowing up the station with all those people aboard. One refuses to contemplate it."

"And what shall we first do to prevent this?" Jago asked. "Send you up undefended, Bren-ji, among officials of these strange aijiin? We protest. We very strongly protest this plan."

"Let us a.s.sist, Bren-ji," Banichi said. "We can move within the access tunnels. We can remove these troublesome individuals one by one."

He had no doubt, even given the likelihood of advanced communications and weapons. "I don't fear for my life or my freedom aboard, not with Jase in charge. I do fear the mood of the crew. We must not spread fear about-least of all any notion that five-deck intends to seize their ship and take over command. The good will of the crew is very important. And I, nadiin-ji, I am going back up there to protect Jase's authority. I have indeed learned a few things in your company. Prudence, among other things. Use of the communications equipment."

"Which they may detect, Bren-ji," Jago said sharply. "There are very many finesses to these matters."

"One will gratefully take whatever instruction you can give, nadiin-ji," he said. "I think it remotely possible that after a conference, and after reaffirming her ties to the station, Sabin-aiji may aim at getting the truth out of the Guild leadership, about the alien situation, and that would be helpful. But she remains at risk. She has refused my services and declared she is taking over the situation with the Guild herself, with armed force. One dares not fold one's hands and wait."

"One protects against threats as they come, Bren-ji." Ban-ichi's professional observation was low-key, consistently calm. And calming, too. Bren drew that sense into himself, belief that, against everything else unstable, he had a reasonable chance. He would not be utterly alone.

Not alone now. In their own territory in the corridor, Asicho still dutifully sat the security station, never taking her attention from the situation, while Narani and Bindanda and Jeladi had all turned out to welcome them, to open the door to his personal quarters.

"No time for rest, Rani-ji," he said on the way through the door. "We have a situation, a successful docking on the one hand, but a very troublesome local authority. Sabin-aiji has gone ash.o.r.e with ship security, ostensibly to try to deal with them, but rejecting advice. I shall need island clothes, Rani-ji, immediately without fuss, before some situation shuts down the lift system."

"Nandi." Narani asked no questions. The clothes would appear, with his staff's fastest cooperation. Doubtless, too, the dowager and Cenedi were entering on much the same endeavor, down the hall, explaining to staff and laying plans of their own, which he hoped didn't involve armed incursion into the maintenance pa.s.sages.

But if the Pilots' Guild should believe it could make a move on Jase and control the ship, he was very sure the dowager would move very quickly-benignly toward the crew, so be it, but all the same, no question but that Ilisidi would take all security, all decisions, all mission direction into her own hands. Ilisidi, absent Sabin, now saw no one to stop her, no one with whom to negotiate territories directly-and what came next was as basic as gravity, as fundamental as the history of the atevi a.s.sociations: a power vacuum did not last, among atevi, not ten minutes. Atevi wars most often happened by accident, when signals were not quite clear and contenders for a vacancy jammed up in a figurative doorway.

Which meant signals were already flying, humans all oblivious to the fact. Unless Jase took a strong enough stand to stand Ilisidi off in Sabin's name-it would happen. And that meant there was a very dangerous imbalance of powers developing, if he didn't get himself up there and plant himself in a position to maintain that balance between Ilisidi, the Guild, and ship's authority.

And what would would the Guild do if the ship they relied on as their heritage, their only lifeline to the universe, their protection and refuge, suddenly turned out to be in alien hands? the Guild do if the ship they relied on as their heritage, their only lifeline to the universe, their protection and refuge, suddenly turned out to be in alien hands?

And what would Phoenix Phoenix crew do, if atevi, threatening all those traditions, moved suddenly against the Guild-which the crew increasingly didn't like? crew do, if atevi, threatening all those traditions, moved suddenly against the Guild-which the crew increasingly didn't like?

Those last two in particular were questions he hoped not to have to answer before the hour was out.

He was exhausted despite his few hours of sleep. He wanted nothing right now more than a bed to fall into.

But he did a quick change into a blue sweater and a pair of matching blue pants little distinguishable from the crew's ordinary fatigues.

The hair-well, that was a problem. He thought even of cutting it off, though common crew had varying lengths-well, all shorter than his. But he had it in a simple pigtail, like Banichi's or Jago's, and made up his mind to brazen it out.

"A jacket, nandi?" Bindanda suggested. That had, he discovered, a pocket com. He shrugged it on over the pigtail and fended off Jeladi's well-meaning attempt to extricate his hair.

Just as Narani offered him a small-for-atevi pistol, an a.s.sa.s.sin's undercover weapon.

His own gun. After all these years-staff still had it oiled and ready.

"If necessary, nandi," the old man said. "If one should in any wise need it on floors above."

He hesitated. Thought no, of course not. Jase was in charge up there. He himself wasn't a particularly good shot, nothing like his bodyguard. He was possibly more danger to their side with it than without it, relying on his wits.

And then he thought, dare I not? Dare I not go that far, if need be? If he had to take cover and got to the service accesses-what more argument, then? What far more drastic situation could develop up there, with Guild investigators coming aboard?

He took the pistol. Of course it was loaded-grandfatherly Narani, a.s.sa.s.sins' Guild himself, was certainly not shy of such things-and went out to the security station, where Banichi and Jago doublechecked a wire antenna imbedded in his collar.

"Be quite wary of transmission near these individuals that are coming aboard, Bren-ji," Banichi said. "They may have means of noticing."

"I have the gun," he said, as if Banichi and Jago, in adjusting the connections, had possibly missed it. "I don't at all think I shall at all need it, nadiin-ji, but one supposes better to have it and never need it."

"Do use caution firing near conduits and pressure seals," Jago said solemnly, and Banichi added: "But do so if needful. Safety systems are generally adequate and quick. Look for a door you may shut if this fails."

When had his security tested that that theory? theory?

"Keep the communications open," Jago said from his left. "In the general activity all over the ship, a steady signal will be less notable than an intermittent one. Speak Mosphei'. That, too, will be less evident. We will will take this ship, Bren-ji, at any moment your safety or liberty seems in question." take this ship, Bren-ji, at any moment your safety or liberty seems in question."

"One will be very grateful at that point," Bren said in a low voice. "But one fervently hopes no such event will happen, nadiin-ji." Exhaustion had given way to a wobbly buzz of adventure. He was armed, wired, and on his own for the first time in-G.o.d, was it almost ten years?

He thought thought he could still manage on his own. he could still manage on his own.

Chapter Ten.

AQUICK CALL ON GINNY-that came first. And the simple act of getting into that section proved two rea.s.suring points: that Jase had taken care of business and that their section doors were indeed not locked to their personal codes.

He surprised one of Gin's men in the corridor. Tony, it was. Tony Calhoun, robotics.

"Mr. Cameron, sir."

"Doors are set, autolock from the outside, protection against our station examiners prowling about, but codes still work on the pads. For G.o.d's sake, don't anyone walk out and forget your hand codes. Is Gin available?"

"Yes, sir. To you." Tony thumped the door in question. Twice. Three times.

Gin answered the door in two towels. "Need help?"

"Just a heads-up. I'm up there to back Jase, if he needs it. You're down here to back me, if you'll do that-my staff's monitoring. If they need a simple look-see topside, one of your people can go up, too, right?... Banichi may want to take action, but I'm sure he'll appreciate an intermediate if he can get one. Meanwhile my staff may need a backup translator. Can you you do it?" do it?"

"Best I can," Gin said, holding fast to the primary towel. "Anything they need. Anything you need. Go. Get to it."

The airlock started its cycle, distant thump. Someone was coming aboard or going out. They involuntarily looked up. Looked at each other.

"See you," Bren said, and went back the half dozen steps down the hall and out to the lift, hoping that that system still responded to his code, and hoping it picked up no other pa.s.sengers. system still responded to his code, and hoping it picked up no other pa.s.sengers.

It moved. He punched in, not the bridge, but up to crew level.

Deserted. Crew was still awaiting the next shift-change and n.o.body had gotten clearance to enter the corridors, not for food, not for any reason.

Secrets, they didn't have on this voyage, not between captains and crew. But the lockdown had to chafe, and it couldn't any longer be a question of crew safety, not with the ship linked to station.

Not a good situation. Not productive of good feelings aboard, granted there'd been one mutiny on this ship as was. And Jase hadn't released them. Jase a.s.suredly didn't didn't want common crew available for any Guild inspectors to interrogate. He could imagine the first question. want common crew available for any Guild inspectors to interrogate. He could imagine the first question.

So where were you for the last nine years?

And the second.

What aliens? aliens?

Second cycling of the airlock. Bren found his heart beating faster, his footsteps a very lonely sound on two-deck.

Sabin was leaving with her guard, very, very likely, and not taking all the Guild intruders out with her. They couldn't be so lucky as a quick formality and a release of prohibitions. The Guild inspectors were aboard now, he'd bet on it, as he'd bet that Sabin no longer was aboard and that the ship's security had gone with her, leaving the techs, Jase, and that portion of the crew that routinely maintained, cleaned, serviced and did other things that didn't involve armed resistence. They were, to all the Guild knew, stripped of defenses.

Sabin, however, wasn't the only captain with a temper. Jase's had been screwed down tight for the better part of a year-but it existed. Guild investigators, up there, were going to pounce on any excuse, question any anomaly; and if they found anything they were going to have their noses further and further into business.