Hotel Andromeda Part 21

"Then you shouldn't look so shocked, Ms. Arrowsmith.

You will receive a commendation from Galactic Services for risking your job and contacting us. The Minaran will be re- turned to its rightful home, and the guilty parties will stand trial for this."

Candice's gaze caught Bern's. She opened her mouth as if to speak to Bern. but then another officer called her away.

Beth watched for another moment, saluting the little Minaran mentally. "At least," she whispered, "one of us is free."

viii The Inlergalactic Police took only three hours to remove the Minaran and clear the lobby. Hotel workers dismantled the cu- bicle, and by afternoon, the s.p.a.ce housed a banquet room again.

Belh watched through a double-paned window as a shuttle took the woman who had kidnapped the Minaran away.

Maybe the little creature would go back to its family.

Maybe it would find someone to love it, to hold it, to give it the comfort it needed ...

A hand touched her shoulder. Beth jumped. She turned and saw Candice standing behind her, face ashen and worn with the stress of the day.

"My office," Candice said quietly.

Bern followed her in there. The normally neat office had papers strewn about Screens on all four walls bunked with waiting messages. In addition to the strain of talking with the GLa.s.s WALLS 151.

officers, Candice's neural net was probably going crazy-she had all her superiors to answer to.

She closed the office door and slumped in her chair. Beth remained standing. She didn't know what Candice could do, but she would do something. Still, out there, the little Minaran was going home.

"I saw your face when they came in," Candice said. "What were you thinking?"

Beth knew better than to play dumb. She knew about the other things they had installed in her net, in the pain centers, things they promised to remove when her contract was up. "I knew they wouldn't believe me, even with all the evidence in front of them. That woman was rich, wasn't she? Rich enough to have the entire hotel at her feet."

"So you used my name."

Beth shrugged. "I figured you'd get in trouble otherwise, if someone else reported the violation. This is the first time I've ever seen the hotel party to such a big crime."

"And you have the right to place a moral judgment on the rest of us? Did this come from your experience on the penal ship?" Candice didn't move, but her words had the force of blows. Beth resisted the urge to duck.

"I know what it's like to be trapped, with no escape," Beth said. "Like that Minaran. There's no worse thing in the world."

Candice remained quiet for a long time, refusing to meet Beth's gaze. Beth continued to stand, unmoving, until Candice signaled that it was all right.

"You know I can never offer you a position of authority here again," Candice said.

Beth nodded. "I could never exercise authority," she said- She wouldn't punish or she would be too harsh. She would run in fear of some creatures and worship others. And she would never, ever, allow a creature to imprison another, no matter how much money was involved.

Candice sighed. "Leave me now," she said. "I have a mess to clean up."

IX.

Beth spent the next three days in her room, leaving only to eat. She received no summons from Roddy, no word from 152 Kristine Kathryn Rusch Candice. The other staff would not speak to her, and even the robotic units kept their distance. If Candice had wanted a way to punish Beth, this was it.

Finally, someone knocked on her door. Beth grabbed a robe, and sent her bed up to the center of the room. Then she let the door slide open. Willis was there, bouncing from foot to foot, slapping papers against his hand.

"Orders from above," he said. "You're supposed to come with me."

Beth stared at him for a moment, heart hammering. The last time, they had dragged her away from John, still naked, kicking and screaming. The time before that, they had taken her off the planet with the other children, promising them that they would be taken care of. They were taken care of, all right. a.n.a.lyzed, tried, viewed galaxy-wide, then sent on sep- arate penal ships to parts unknown.

She hadn't done anything illegal. The hotel had no right to send her away.

"Get dressed," he said, "and pack up. It's okay. I'll turn my back."

His smile faded as she still refused to move. "It's okay," he repeated. 'They're setting you free."

He handed her the papers, and she saw her name all over them, with "completed" stamped across the pages. She sepa- rated them out, ran her fingers across them, wondering, wish- ing, it was all true.

"You need a proper net," he said. "If you had a proper net, you wouldn't have to look through the doc.u.mentation. We'll see what we can do once we're away from the hotel. We got to remove those pain receptors, anyway. Now get dressed."

He stepped outside and let the door close, true to his word.

She packed numbly, touching the papers from time to time, feeling her hands shake.

When they had let her out of solitary-late one night when the other prisoners were asleep-she had refused to crawl out of her comer. She believed that once she put a foot on the real floor, the guards would beat her for trying to escape. She be- lieved she wasn't worthy of emerging. She believed she could live nowhere else than that clear plastic hole.

She glanced at the bed, at the empty walls, at the room that GLa.s.s WALLS 153.

had been her prison since she arrived at the hotel. "I didn't do it for me," she whispered, knowing Candice couldn't hear her.

But Candice didn't have to hear. She knew. She spent her life in the job she had offered to Beth, reading aliens, under- standing their needs, pleasing guests and making sure that even unspoken wishes were granted. The one time she had made a mistake-allowing that woman in with her Minaran prisoner to broker a sate-she had received an out. Beth had saved her. Beth had freed the Minaran.

She took one small case, and kept her papers clutched in her hand. Then she slid the door open.

Willis was still there, back to the door, shifting from foot to foot.

"Where're we going?" Beth asked, the words almost stick- ing in her throat. She remembered the feeling of near-surface panic, and had to prevent herself from searching for guards.

He smiled and took the bag from her. "Wherever the lady wants."

Wherever she wanted. The concept was beyond her. Once she had had dreams of seeing other places, other lives. But she had left those dreams on Bountiful, with the Dancers. Since den she had wanted nothing but to be left alone.

"Don't worry," Willis said quietly. "You'll think of some- place you want to be."

And for the first time since she arrived at the hotel, she fa- vored someone with a real, heartfelt smile. Willis flushed, and started down the hall, keeping his physical distance, saying nothing, but walking beside her in companionable silence.

Anyplace she wanted. Thank you, Candice, she thought, and wished that she had a functioning net so that she could send a true message. But Candice wouldn't want to hear. She wanted Beth to disappear in the chaos following the arrival of the Intergalactic Police. She wanted Beth gone so the incident would blow over and go away.

Beth gave a little skip. Anyplace she wanted. She gazed out of one of the hall portals at the darkness of s.p.a.ce, a view she used to ignore. Anyplace she wanted. Or no place at all.

"I'm joining you, little guy," she whispered to the Minaran.

"We're free."

FACE TIME

Jane/ Kagan

"Time and a half, Gemmy," said Feirus. "And maybe you*H I get your mug in the newsgrams." The tentacles surround- ing his eating orifice were rigid, so Gemmy knew he was stressed out. "Please, I need you! You've got a lot of experi- ence with Terrans."

"Sure," said Gemmy. "But you said this is all about a Mopelling delegation.... I don't know the first d.a.m.n thing about serving drinks to Mopellings."

Ferrus drooped an eyestalk. "Who does? They just made contact about five years ago. As I hear it, it took the Terrans a full year to explain to them what a diplomatic delegation was and another two years to explain why they should send one to Terra." The other eyestalk stiffened, to focus its bril- liant vermilion pupil straight at Gemmy's navel; that was a bad habit of Femis's. "So n.o.body but n.o.body knows the proper way to serve drinks to a Mopelling but, by Itchy Palms, I intend to give the Terran reception committee the 155.

156 JanetKagan proper treatment."

He brought the other eyestalk to the level of the first.

"Double time," he said- The offer of extra money wasn't what convinced Gemmy.

What convinced Gemmy was that Ferrus always looked him in the navel. Only Balanced Plates, the patron saint of waiters, knew why. But if Ferrus eyestalked some Terran female's na- vel that way, the Bulbous Beet Bar would be under new man- agement within a Lemptak year-about ten Terran days.

So Gemmy'd said yes and, consequently, he was already serving drinks and reading up on what little was known about the Mopellings when the Terran with the toy rabbits came in.

It wasn't the rabbits that caught Gemmy's attention first; it was the Terran himself.

His smelter looked familiar. Perhaps the man had stayed at Hotel Andromeda once before? Gemmy'd gotten quite good at Terran faces: you had to look at the bitty tufts of hair, that helped (when they didn't change them often on you), and you had to took at the smellers. This one had a very familiar- looking smeller. For guests who stayed at the Hotel Androm- eda frequently, Gemmy could often match the smeller to the favorite drink and offer it before they asked-the trick got him a lot of big tips. But he couldn't place this one.

"What can I get for you, friend Terran?"

The Terran looked him right in the eye-which was so un- usual that Gemmy knew at once he'd never served this fellow before-and said, "How about jing Jang? Can do?"

"Can do," said Gemmy. "With or without leaves?"

"Oh, I think definitely with."

"Coming right up."

He was tall for a Terran and settled himself along the back wall with a kind of sprawl that made Gemmy wonder once more how bipeds managed to balance at all. As he prepared the drink, Gemmy looked at the Terran again. Definitely a fa- miliar smeller. Now why?

The Terran plopped a package onto the table and brought out two furry objects. Gemmy set the drink carefully beside them. "Rabbits." he said. "Am I right?"

"Rabbits is right. How'd you ever team to recognize Terran rabbits?" The Terran showed his teeth; Gemmy knew that was a good sign.

FACE TIME.

157.

"Movies-no, that's the wrong word-cartoons. I watched Terran cartoons. Some of them had creatures with ears like that."

More teeth showed. That made the smeller seem even more familiar. Gemmy said, "Forgive me for asking, but have you stayed at Hotel Andromeda before?"

"Nope, first time. Why?"

Gemmy knew enough about Terrans not to mention the smeller. "Your face looks familiar."

The Terran showed still more teeth. Gemmy hoped he wouldn't do that in a room full of Ressenians-he'd cause a riot, sure enough. At least the teeth weren't pointed, but Gemmy did have to remind himself occasionally that tooth display was a friendly gesture from a Terran. This being more tooth display than he was used to, Gemmy looked at the rab- bits. "Are these real rabbits? Do they hop?"

"Well, I'm sorry to say, they're not real. They're a present for my nephew-toys." The Terran waited to see if Gemmy understood the word. "But they do hop. Though I wouldn't want to try them in here." His glance swept the bar. "I was a.s.sured they could hop twenty feet! I'd love to try them be- fore I gave them to the boy. Hate to disappoint a kid, you know."

Gemmy knew. He also wanted very much to see the rabbits hop.

"Need lots of s.p.a.ce, though. I don't suppose you know of a place ... ?"

Gemmy gave it thought. The Terran reception committee wouldn't be here for some three hours. The Bulbous Beet was, for the moment, practically deserted but for the two Gillspuns in the drinking pond-which took care of them quite nicely, thank you. Milly, the Terran waiter, would be here in a few minutes....

The Terran with the familiar smeller said, "I saw a big room just down the corridor-wasn't anybody in it-maybe I could try the rabbits out there. Think anybody'd mind?"

"1 don't think so." Gemmy turned and waved to the bar- lender. "I'm just going to give the gentleterran a quick tour, Dubs; I'll be right back."

"You'd better be," Dubs said. She held three of her hands 158 Janet Kagan aloft, tendrils splayed. "Thirty minutes, you've got, before the Terran reception committee shows up thirsty."

The Terran downed his drink and-one rabbit in either hand-rose to follow Gemmy.

The corridor was packed with new arrivals, all dragging various forms of luggage behind them. Judith the bellboy must be peeved, Gemmy thought; another one of those cheapie tours where they hate to have their bags carried.

Three Hepetellists goggled at the Terran and pointed and whistled.

"First-timers," Gemmy said to his companion. "I am sorry they have such bad manners." He thought for a long moment and said,' "Let's take the back way. No need to-"

'To expose a guest to another guest's bad manners?" the Terran suggested helpfully.

"Exactly," said Gemmy. He trotted back into the Bulbous Beet and opened the access door that led down to the formal reception room.

"Wow!" said the Terran, following him inside. "I didn't know this was here."

"Staff only," Gemmy said. "When we have to serve drinks at a reception, it's nice to have a shortcut."

"Nice, indeed," said the Terran, showing his teeth again.

A few yards later, Gemmy opened a second manual door and the two of them stepped into the Atmosphere Three Re- ception Room. Gemmy, recalling his grand tour line, made an expansive gesture and announced: "The Privilege of the Grand Potentate Room."

The Terran looked suitably impressed; at least, his mouth opened wide. Then he showed teeth again. "That's some mouthful. I'll bet that's not what the staff calls it."

"You're right there; the staff just calls it At-Three."

"1 knew it." He took a long look around. "Looks like you've got it all set up for somebody special."