Homeward Bound Part 27

A few reporters did wait outside the imperial palace when she and Atvar were driven up to it. She wondered if it was built like a fortress to hold them at bay. She wouldn't have been surprised. "How does it feel to be the second Tosevite granted an audience with his Majesty?" one of them called as she and her sponsor got out of their car.

"I would rather think of myself as the first Tosevite citizen of the Empire granted an audience with his Majesty," Ka.s.squit answered.

"How did you become a citizen of the Empire?" another reporter asked, while the camera crews came closer and closer.

"I was only a hatchling at the time. You would do better to ask Senior Researcher Ttomalss, who arranged it," Ka.s.squit said. "And now, if you will excuse me, I must proceed. I cannot be late for the audience."

They could not have cared less whether she was late. All they wanted was a story from her. Her being late and being disgraced would make as good a story as her audience. It might make a better one, since another Big Ugly had just come before the Emperor. Sam Yeager was a wild Big Ugly, of course, not a citizen, but would the male or female in the street care? One Tosevite looked just like another, as far as the Race could tell.

She ignored the further shouted questions from the reporters, and walked into the entryway by which she'd been told to go in. An involuntary sigh of relief escaped her when the closing door shut off their queries.

"You did well there," said a male waiting inside.

After reading his body paint, Ka.s.squit bent into the posture of respect. "I thank you, Protocol Master."

"You are welcome. You earned the praise," Herrep replied. "Reporters will eat your life if you give them half a chance-even a quarter of a chance. So . . . are you ready to proceed with your audience?"

"I hope so, superior sir," Ka.s.squit said. "I shall do my best not to embarra.s.s you or myself or Fleetlord Atvar, who lent me so much help."

"I thank you," Atvar said. "But I believe you would have done well without me, too."

Herrep made the affirmative gesture. "I have confidence in you," he said. "I have heard excellent reports of your preparation, and the American amba.s.sador's audience left nothing to be desired. Your species may differ from ours in many ways, but you seem competent. Not knowing your kind, I was hesitant before. Now, though, I see my qualms were as empty as a hatched egg."

He did not seem like a male who said such things lightly. "I thank you, Protocol Master," Ka.s.squit said again.

Herrep's only reply was, "Let the ceremony begin."

Unlike Sam Yeager, Ka.s.squit not only had to come before the imperial laver and limner but counted doing so a privilege. She gave them the ritual thanks. The soap the laver used to remove her everyday body paint was harsh on her soft skin. So was the brush with which the old female rubbed off the last traces. Ka.s.squit would have endured far worse than that to come before her sovereign.

The imperial limner was even older than the laver. She poked with a fingerclaw one of the glands intended to produce nutritive fluid for a Tosevite hatchling. "How am I supposed to get the pattern right when you have these b.u.mps here?" she complained.

That wasn't ritual. It was just ordinary grumbling. Ka.s.squit wondered if she dared answer it. After brief hesitation, she decided she did. "Please do the best you can. I cannot help my shape, any more than you can help yours."

"I do not have this trouble with Rabotevs or Hallessi." The limner heaved a sigh. "Oh, well. Might as well get used to it. I suppose more and more of you Big Ugly things will come see his Majesty." She might have been old, but she was an artist with the brush. Despite Ka.s.squit's shortcomings in shape, the pattern for an imperial supplicant rapidly covered her torso.

"I thank you, gracious female," Ka.s.squit said when the limner finished. That was was ritual. Getting back to it felt good. She went on, "I am not worthy." ritual. Getting back to it felt good. She went on, "I am not worthy."

"That is a truth: you are not," the limner agreed, and added an emphatic cough. "You are granted an audience not because of your worth but by grace of the Emperor. Rejoice that you have been privileged to receive that grace."

"I do." Ka.s.squit used her own emphatic cough.

"Advance, then, and enter the throne room."

"I thank you. Like his Majesty, you are more gracious, more generous, than I deserve." Ka.s.squit bent into the posture of respect. The limner did not.

When Ka.s.squit and Herrep paused in a jog in the corridor before she went out into the audience chamber proper, the protocol master said, "Fear not. Your talk with the limner will be edited before it is broadcast. She has done so many of these ceremonies, they have lost their grandeur for her."

"Really? I had not noticed," Ka.s.squit said. Herrep started slightly, then saw the joke and gave her a polite laugh. Ka.s.squit asked, "May I proceed, superior sir?" Herrep made the affirmative gesture, and she stepped out into that vast, shadowed, echoing hall.

For a moment, awe almost paralyzed her. This was where the Empire became the the Empire upon the unification of Home. This was where the Rabotevs and Hallessi acknowledged the Emperor's sovereignty and made the Empire more than worldwide. And now, in a smaller way, she too was becoming part of imperial history. Of itself, her back straightened. Pride filled her as she walked toward the throne. Empire upon the unification of Home. This was where the Rabotevs and Hallessi acknowledged the Emperor's sovereignty and made the Empire more than worldwide. And now, in a smaller way, she too was becoming part of imperial history. Of itself, her back straightened. Pride filled her as she walked toward the throne.

She almost gasped when the Emperor's gray-painted guards suddenly appeared out of the shadows and blocked her path. Ka.s.squit gestured with her left hand, declaring, "I too serve the Emperor." The guards silently withdrew. She advanced.

In the spotlight, the Emperor and his throne blazed with gold. Ka.s.squit averted her eyes from the radiance as she a.s.sumed the special posture of respect before her sovereign. From above her, the 37th Emperor Risson said, "Arise, Researcher Ka.s.squit."

Her name in the Emperor's mouth! She held the posture, saying, "I thank your Majesty for his kindness and generosity in summoning me into his presence when I am unworthy of the honor." Ritual steadied her, as she'd hoped it would.

"Arise, I say again," the Emperor replied, and Ka.s.squit did. The Emperor's eye turrets swung up and down as he examined her. He said, "I am greatly pleased to welcome my first Tosevite citizen to Home. I have heard that you are very able, which gladdens my liver."

"I thank you, your Majesty," Ka.s.squit said dazedly. No one had told her Risson would say anything like that that! When he made the gesture of dismissal, she might have invented antigravity, for she did not think her feet touched the floor even once as she withdrew.

Along with the rest of the Americans, Sam Yeager watched Ka.s.squit's audience on television. "She goes through all the rituals of submission you talked them out of," Tom de la Rosa said to him.

"For her, they're all right," Sam answered. "The Emperor's her sovereign. But he's not mine, and I wasn't going to pretend he is."

"Looks like she's got all the moves down pat," Frank Coffey remarked.

Sam nodded. "I'm not surprised. Jonathan and I met her years before we went into cold sleep. She's not quite human, poor thing, but she's plenty smart." He dropped into the Lizards' language for a one-word question for his son: "Truth?"

"Truth," Jonathan agreed. He didn't add an emphatic cough, as Sam Yeager had thought he might. But then, Karen was sitting right there next to him, and wouldn't have appreciated any such display of enthusiasm. As far as Karen was concerned, Ka.s.squit was entirely too human. But Sam had been talking about the way she thought, not the way she was made.

Linda de la Rosa said, "The Emperor paid her a nice compliment there."

"That's the point of the audience," Sam said. "He wants to show everybody-the Lizards here on Home, and eventually Rabotevs and Hallessi and humans, too-that they're really just one big, happy family. The Race isn't as good at propaganda as we are, but they've got the right idea for that."

"What did you think of Risson, Dad?" Jonathan asked.

"We all right?" Sam asked Major Coffey. Only after Coffey's nod showed electronics were foiling the Race's bugs did he go on, "He impressed me more than I figured he would. Most of what he said was stuff he had to say, but the way he said it made me sit up and take notice. He's got brains, I think. He's not just sitting up there because he's descended from the last Lizard who had the job."

"The succession is about the only place where family ties really matter to the Race, isn't it?" Karen said.

"Looks that way to me," Sam agreed. "The Emperor has his own-harem, I guess you'd call it-of females, and one of the eggs one of those females lays hatches out the next Emperor. And how they go about deciding which egg it is, they know and G.o.d knows, but I don't."

He laughed. Back before he went into cold sleep, he'd never worried about how the Lizards dealt with the imperial succession. It hadn't seemed like anything that could matter to him. Which only went to show, you never could tell. He laughed again. It wasn't as if he hadn't already known that. His whole career since the day he met his first Lizard-a slightly wounded prisoner somewhere south of Chicago-had been a case of you never can tell. you never can tell.

The door hissed for attention. Sam didn't know about the rest of the Americans, but he missed a good, old-fashioned doorbell. His knees ached as he got to his feet. He wondered if the Lizards were going to complain about the bug suppressor. If they did, he intended to send them away with a flea in their hearing diaphragm. Bugging amba.s.sadors' residences was impolite, even if it happened all the time.

But the Lizard who stood in the hallway wore the body paint of an a.s.sistant protocol master. Sam recognized it because it was similar to Herrep's but a little less ornate. "Yes?" he said, as neutrally as he could. "What can I do for you?"

"You are the amba.s.sador? Sam Yeager?" Lizards had as much trouble telling people apart as most people did with members of the Race. If Sam hadn't been the only human on the planet with white hair, the a.s.sistant protocol master wouldn't have had a chance.

I ought to dye it, he thought irreverently. But heaven only knew what the Race used for dyes. He made the affirmative gesture. "Yes, I am the amba.s.sador." he thought irreverently. But heaven only knew what the Race used for dyes. He made the affirmative gesture. "Yes, I am the amba.s.sador."

"Good. You will come with me immediately."

"What? Why?" Yeager was primed to tell the a.s.sistant protocol master that he still had a thing or two-dozen-to learn about diplomacy. You didn't order an amba.s.sador around like a grocery boy.

But he never got the chance, for the female said, "Because you are summoned to a conference by the Emperor."

"Oh," Sam said. A sovereign could could order an amba.s.sador around like a grocery boy. He gave the only reply he could under the circ.u.mstances: "It shall be done." order an amba.s.sador around like a grocery boy. He gave the only reply he could under the circ.u.mstances: "It shall be done."

"What are they up to, Dad?" Jonathan asked in English.

"Beats me. This one isn't in the rules, or not in the part they showed me, anyhow," Sam answered in the same language. "If I'm not back in two days, call the cops." He was joking-and then again, he wasn't. His own government had kidnapped him. It wasn't completely inconceivable that the Race might do the same. If the Race did, though, he was d.a.m.ned if he knew what the humans here could do about it-this side of starting a war, anyhow.

The a.s.sistant protocol master hissed. For a bad moment, Sam feared she understood English. Some Lizards here did-even that Rabotev shuttlecraft pilot had. But the female said only, "Please be prompt."

She led Yeager out of the hotel and into a car with darkened windows. No one looking in could see the car held a human. No reporters waited at the curb. None waited outside the imperial palace, either. Sam was impressed again. Whatever this was, it wasn't a publicity stunt.

"This will be a private audience?" he asked the a.s.sistant protocol master.

"Semiprivate," the Lizard replied. "And it will be a conference, not an audience. Ceremony will be at a minimum."

"All right. I am sure it is a great honor to be called like this." Sam didn't say whether it was an honor he wanted. That was part of diplomacy, too.

"You are the first amba.s.sador so summoned in more than a hundred thousand years," the a.s.sistant protocol master said. The Race hadn't had any independent amba.s.sadors come before it in all that time. Yeager thought about pointing that out, but forbore. Diplomacy again.

He almost laughed when he found the conference room nearly identical to those in the hotel back in Sitneff. All across the USA, such rooms looked about the same. Evidently, that also held true on Home. The walls were a green-brown not far from the color of a Lizard's hide. The table in the middle was too low to be quite comfortable for humans.

There were a couple of chairs more or less made for people in the conference room. Yeager sat down in one of them. A few minutes later, Ka.s.squit came in and took the other. "I greet you, Amba.s.sador," she said politely.

"And I greet you," Sam replied. How many conferences back on Earth had featured a naked woman? Not many-he was sure of that. Jumping out of a cake afterwards, maybe, but not at the conference itself.

When the door opened again, the Emperor came in. His gilding marked him off from his subjects. Ka.s.squit sprang out of her chair and a.s.sumed the special posture of respect. Sam followed suit more slowly. He did everything more slowly these days.

"Rise, both of you," the 37th Emperor Risson said. "The reason I called you here was to see whether we could progress toward settling the differences between the Race and the American Tosevites."

He didn't think small. In a sovereign, that was, or could be, an admirable quality. Sam returned to the chair that wasn't quite right for his shape. "I hope we can, your Majesty," he said. "That would be wonderful."

The 37th Emperor Risson turned one eye turret toward him, the other toward Ka.s.squit. "Which of us is outnumbered, Amba.s.sador?" he asked.

"Both of us," Yeager replied. "Two Big Uglies, one male of the Race. Two citizens of the Empire, one American."

"No Emperor has ever been outnumbered by Tosevites before," Risson said. Even though Sam had used the Race's slang for humans, the Emperor was too polite to imitate him. Risson went on, "And yet, Tosevites have occupied the Race's thoughts, and the thoughts of the Emperors, for a good many years now."

"Well, your Majesty, we have been paying a fair amount of attention to the Race ourselves lately," Sam said in a dry voice.

He wondered whether Risson would catch the dryness. When the Emperor's mouth dropped open in a laugh, Sam knew he had. Matching dry for dry, Risson said, "Yes, I can see how that might possibly be so." The Lizard leaned forward. "And now, can you tell me what you American Tosevites require from the Race, since it has drawn your notice?"

"Yes, I can tell you that," Sam Yeager answered. "I can tell you in one word, as a matter of fact. We want equality."

"Do you not believe you should wait until you have earned it?" the 37th Emperor Risson returned. "Eighteen hundred years ago, when we first discovered your kind, you were savages." He spoke a word of command. A hologram of a knight sprang into being in the air.

Sam had seen that image a thousand times. He was, by now, good and sick of the blond Crusader. "I have never denied that the Race was civilized long before we were," he said. "But that male is long dead, and I sit here on your home planet talking with you, your Majesty. I came here in my not-empire's ship, too."

"If we fought, you would lose," Risson said.

"If we fought, we would hurt you badly," Sam said. "We have been able to hurt you badly for some time now, and grow more able every year. But I thought we were here to talk about peace."

"So we are," the Emperor said. "Equality? Do you truly know what you ask?"

"Yes, your Majesty. I think I do," Sam answered. A j.a.panese might have understood the demand-might have made the demand-more fiercely. The Empire looked at the USA the way the USA and Europe had looked on j.a.pan when she muscled her way into the great powers. The j.a.panese weren't white men. They were wogs, nothing else but. After they got strong enough, though, it stopped mattering.

Yeager shook his head in slow wonder. The day after Pearl Harbor, he'd tried to join the Army and fight the j.a.ps. (Because of his false teeth, the Army turned him down then, though they'd been glad enough to take him when the Lizards came a little more than five months later.) Now here he was, sympathizing with j.a.pan. Life could be very strange.

Ka.s.squit said, "Your Majesty, I understand the Race's pride, the Empire's pride. Do you fully understand the Tosevites' pride?"

"The Tosevites' Tosevites' pride?" By the way the 37th Emperor Risson said it, that had never once crossed his mind. Sam wasn't surprised. The Race did look down their snouts at Big Uglies, just as Americans and Europeans had looked down their noses at the j.a.panese. But Risson went on, "Researcher, it is possible that I do not. I thank you for pointing it out to me." pride?" By the way the 37th Emperor Risson said it, that had never once crossed his mind. Sam wasn't surprised. The Race did look down their snouts at Big Uglies, just as Americans and Europeans had looked down their noses at the j.a.panese. But Risson went on, "Researcher, it is possible that I do not. I thank you for pointing it out to me."

"I am pleased to serve your Majesty," Ka.s.squit murmured. Sam smiled. Her face didn't show anything, but if that wasn't pride of her own, he'd never heard it.

"Equality. Pride," Risson said, perhaps half to himself, and then, "I am glad I had this talk. It has given me a great deal to think about." That was dismissal: polite dismissal, but dismissal even so. As the Lizards whisked Sam back to his hotel, he found he too had a lot to think about.

Ttomalss was one of the few members of the Race who understood what being a parent involved. That was what all his patient years of raising Ka.s.squit from a hatchling had got him. And now he was going through the part of parenthood that seemed strangest. The hatchling he'd raised had taken wing on her own. Not only had Ka.s.squit enjoyed an audience with the Emperor, but she'd also conferred with him in private.

Because the conference was and stayed private, the male in the street never found out about it. To most members of the Race, Ka.s.squit remained just another Big Ugly. But a female at the imperial court let Ttomalss know. "Are you not proud of what you accomplished?" she asked.

"Yes, I am. Very much so," Ttomalss answered, and broke the connection in a hurry.

It wasn't that he was lying. On the contrary. He was was proud of Ka.s.squit. All the same, he also felt himself surpa.s.sed, and that was an odd and uncomfortable feeling. It wasn't so much that Ka.s.squit had had the audience with the 37th Emperor Risson. Ttomalss saw the propaganda value there. But that Risson had summoned her back to confer . . . Yes, that got under the psychologist's scales. proud of Ka.s.squit. All the same, he also felt himself surpa.s.sed, and that was an odd and uncomfortable feeling. It wasn't so much that Ka.s.squit had had the audience with the 37th Emperor Risson. Ttomalss saw the propaganda value there. But that Risson had summoned her back to confer . . . Yes, that got under the psychologist's scales.

Ttomalss had never won an imperial audience himself. He didn't particularly expect one. He was prominent, but not that prominent. He thought he might have been worthy of consultation, though. If the Emperor thought otherwise, what could he do about it? Not a thing. Not a single, solitary thing.

Yes, Ka.s.squit had spread her wings, all right. They had proved wider and stronger than Ttomalss ever expected-maybe wider and stronger than his own. He knew Big Uglies often had this experience. He wondered how they stood it without being torn to pieces. It couldn't be easy.

Of course, they had biological and cultural advantages he didn't. They knew such things were liable to happen. Some of them even hoped their hatchlings would surpa.s.s them. Under other circ.u.mstances, Ttomalss might have admired such altruism. He had more trouble practicing it himself.

To keep from thinking about Ka.s.squit and her triumphs, he telephoned Pesskrag. Getting hold of the physics professor wasn't easy. Returning calls might have been a custom from another world, as far as she was concerned. Ttomalss hoped she was busy in the laboratory, not off to the South Pole with friends. Her messages would follow her either way, of course, but she might be more inclined to answer them if she was working and not out having a good time.

When she didn't call back for two days, Ttomalss began to get not only annoyed but worried. He wondered if something had happened to her. He called her department chairfemale, only to learn that that worthy had just gone into the hospital with a prolapsed oviduct. Excesses of the mating season, Excesses of the mating season, he thought sourly. No one else in the department seemed to know anything about where Pesskrag was or what she was doing. He wondered if he ought to get hold of the police. he thought sourly. No one else in the department seemed to know anything about where Pesskrag was or what she was doing. He wondered if he ought to get hold of the police.

Pesskrag finally did call him the next day. When Ttomalss saw her image in the monitor, he still wondered if he ought to get hold of the police. Her nict.i.tating membranes were swollen and puffy with exhaustion. She looked as if she'd just escaped a kidnapping attempt. She said, "I apologize for being so very hard to reach, Senior Researcher," and then she yawned right in Ttomalss' face.

Seeing that teeth-filled gape of jaw made Ttomalss want to yawn, too. That desire to imitate a yawn was almost a reflex in the Race. Idly, Ttomalss wondered if the Big Uglies had anything similar. That would have to wait, though. It would probably have to wait for years. This, on the other hand . . . "What have you been doing?" Ttomalss asked.

"Experimenting," Pesskrag said, and yawned again. This time, Ttomalss did yawn back. The physicist shut her mouth with an audible snap. She pointed at him. "And it is your fault, too-yours and the Big Uglies'."

"All right. I accept my share of the blame," Ttomalss said. "Do you have any results from your experiments yet?"

"Only very preliminary ones," she answered, and gave forth with another yawn. She seemed on the point of falling asleep where she sat. Gathering herself, she went on, "Full computer a.n.a.lysis will take some time. It always does. Preliminary results do suggest that the Big Uglies probably are correct."

"How interesting," Ttomalss said, and Pesskrag made the affirmative gesture. The psychologist went on, "You are the expert in this matter. If the Big Uglies are are correct, what are the implications?" correct, what are the implications?"

"Again, much of this will have to wait for full a.n.a.lysis," Pesskrag replied. Ttomalss impatiently lifted a hand. The psychologist opened her mouth again-this time for a laugh, not a yawn. She might have been drunk with weariness as she continued, "But we are going to see some changes made."

"What sort of changes?" Ttomalss asked.

"How should I know?" she said. "Would you judge a hatchling's whole career when it is still wet from the juices of its egg?"