Foreigner - Explorer. Part 4

"Oh, you're fairly well on the track. He kept nosing about until he found trouble and until trouble found us. Then he had the notion of going back to Alpha colony. And when we did go back, and when he found what he found, it set him back, oh, for about an hour. By then, of course, we had limited options. And no fuel. And we knew that the island was founded by rebels against s.h.i.+p's authority; and that the atevi continent-having all its drawbacks-had natural resources the island didn't. So right from the start we had our problem-and we weren't that sure the trouble that hit Reunion wasn't coming on our tails. I didn't vote against refueling at Reunion. I didn't vote against refueling at Alpha. I didn't vote against cooperation with the atevi, for that matter. It was all we had left. It's all we still have left. I tell you, if I ever have to plant a s.p.a.ce station, I'll do it in a populated, civilized region, not out around some remote rock with a disputed t.i.tle, where you don't know who the owners are."

"That's what happened?"

"We haven't a clue what the aliens think. We're pretty sure we went where they objected to us being. Violently objected. As far as I'm informed, they didn't consult the s.p.a.ce station to lodge an objection: they just hit it, took out half the mast and did major damage to the ring, fortunately missing the fueling port. End report. We hope, in the nearly ten years we've been building a s.p.a.ce program and refurbis.h.i.+ng Alpha Station, that Reunion has managed to patch itself up and gather in a load of fuel for us. If, as you say, worse isn't the case. That's the truth, pretty much as it's always been presented. Except the fact, evident to me, at least, that our chances of finding the station in one piece are minimal, for exactly the reason you cite, and our chances of convincing the crew we ought to give up on that station are nil until they know there are no surivivors. We are are a democracy, junior captain, at the most d.a.m.nedly inconvenient moments." a democracy, junior captain, at the most d.a.m.nedly inconvenient moments."

"I'm glad to hear it's not worse."

"Oh, it can easily be worse, sir. I a.s.sure you it can easily be worse."

"What was was Captain Ramirez up to when he had me born?" Captain Ramirez up to when he had me born?"

"Stani kept his own counsel," Sabin said. "Or he confided in Jules." That was Ogun, who was sitting back at the atevi station, managing a small number of s.h.i.+p's crew in technical operations-and in the building of another stars.h.i.+p. "Frankly, Stani had a lot of pipe dreams involving what we could build out here. I'm more pragmatic. Where Where we are is we are is what what we are. And Taylor's Children aren't anything better than what we are. And Taylor's Children aren't anything better than what we we are." are."

"I'd agree, ma'am. Quite honestly, I would. What I do have for a resource is unique training."

"And, curiously enough, a certain divorcement from the past-as well as unique entanglements. You're Stani's pet project." From hostile, Sabin had become downright placid. "And by your own qualities, you're liked. It's occasionally useful to have a captain the crew likes."

"Crew's gotten rather fond of you, as happens. And they'd take the truth from you-now, if not before."

"Bull."

"Crew knows how you work, senior captain. Doing my job and yours. And they're grateful."

"You'll have me shedding tears."

"Truth. It's my my skill, remember, to figure out what people are really saying about the powers that be." skill, remember, to figure out what people are really saying about the powers that be."

"Doesn't matter what the crew thinks."

"I differ with you on that one."

"Differ all you like. You say you just know what people think. Fine. You don't figure me or you wouldn't have to ask."

"You're not simple, captain."

"I don't play your games. I don't give a d.a.m.n. And don't plan to." don't play your games. I don't give a d.a.m.n. And don't plan to."

"Yet you took a chance and sponsored Tamun into office. You believed in him."

"He was qualified."

"And collectively, Ramirez and Ogun agreed and voted him in. And he turned on you. I take it he turned on you."

"You're asking if I sponsored the mutiny."

"I'm asking if you have any special clue why he turned the way he did."

"I'm a lousy judge of character character."

"I still suspect it was about these tapes."

"You want to know the deep-down truth, second captain? I don't know and I don't give a d.a.m.n at this late date. Tamun turned out to have an agenda I didn't know he had, and Stani and Jules didn't know he had. They took my advice. It was bad advice. A bad decision approved by all three of us. And since he's dead and the ones still with us that followed him have stepped sideways as far as they can, it doesn't matter these days, does it?"

"I hope it doesn't," Jase said. "I truly hope it doesn't. I want us to get there, grab any survivors we can find, and get out of the neighborhood forever, as fast as we can."

"And if there's other occupancy?"

"Just get out of the neighborhood as fast as we can."

Sabin leaned back, cup cradled in a careless hand. "You really want your question answered, why you were born?"

"I'm curious."

"It's possibly germane. Stani had a notion of contacting the civilization he thought he'd found. But it contacted us us, didn't it? So much for reason and diplomacy."

Contacting the civilization, Bren thought, and felt cold clear through. Jase's instincts were right, if not his exact suspicions. Stani Ramirez had stepped far far outside Guild rules-long before he returned to Alpha. outside Guild rules-long before he returned to Alpha.

"I hope not to do that," Jase said, "contact the other side, that is."

"I'm glad you hope so," Sabin said, "because where we are and what we're doing, and where we're meddling, can bring all h.e.l.l down on our heads. The short answer is-Ramirez had a plan. You You were to advise him in his projected alien contact, whenever the chance came. And that didn't ever happen, did it?" were to advise him in his projected alien contact, whenever the chance came. And that didn't ever happen, did it?"

"I'd say," Jase said quietly, "that I never had the question posed. Ever. And if I had had it posed to me, senior captain, maybe things wouldn't have gone the way they did."

"You were a green kid. You couldn't do anything."

"And a year later he dropped me on the atevi planet. The point is, senior captain, he answered without me. Anything he did with the aliens was an answer. Leaving the scene was an answer. Maybe totally the wrong one. And anything we do in the future is under the same gun, with a bad start, because of things Captain Ramirez did that we may not even know about. I need need to be on the bridge when we arrive in system. And log records that might tell us to be on the bridge when we arrive in system. And log records that might tell us what what he did would be extremely useful." he did would be extremely useful."

"Oh, now you want to give the tactical orders."

"In no way, senior captain. Advice. First thing I learned in the field: you don't have to speak to strangers to carry on conversation. Staying's an answer. Running's an answer. Shooting's a statement or an answer. Before the conversation gets to missiles, the s.h.i.+p needs a second observer. Another opinion. I may not belong in a captaincy-but I was competent enough in Shejidan that at least you don't have a war with that that species. You need me there. You need Bren." species. You need me there. You need Bren."

Sabin listened, give her credit. Bren found himself holding his breath, wondering dared he say a word, when a woman who controlled their s.h.i.+p, their movement, and the decisions the s.h.i.+p would make, considered all possible options.

"He's right, is he?" Sabin asked Bren suddenly.

"He's quite right," Bren said. "A good translator and an experienced cultural observer. The dowager's side of this agrees with him, and you, and I a.s.sure you we have no interest in exacerbating the situation."

"Gratifying."

"It would be a good idea for me to be on the bridge when we reach our destination."

"No."

Deep breath. Reasonable tone: carefully reasonable tone. "If you should confront a situation you don't expect, captain, you might not have time to send for us and brief us. If everything's as you expect, you don't need us and we'll know that. If it isn't, you'll have a second immediate a.n.a.lysis from me and from Jase, with what we we know about talking to strangers, granted we have no choice. My immediate advice is... don't talk without a.n.a.lyzing the situation." know about talking to strangers, granted we have no choice. My immediate advice is... don't talk without a.n.a.lyzing the situation."

Sabin raked him up and down with a glance, turned to Jase. And back again.

"And if we have to move suddenly, rather than talk, Mr. Cameron, you can dent the wall. You stay belted in belowdecks until we call you."

Amazing. Astonis.h.i.+ng. That That was an agreement. was an agreement.

"My staff would likely agree with that, Captain. But expert advice in a dicey situation-"

"After we arrive. We'll come in far enough out, we'll be searching for our destination. Plenty of time. Take it or leave it." we arrive. We'll come in far enough out, we'll be searching for our destination. Plenty of time. Take it or leave it."

"Accepted, captain." He had had won access, unexpected, and a good thing, in his own summation: time to stop asking. Time to get out of the crossfire. won access, unexpected, and a good thing, in his own summation: time to stop asking. Time to get out of the crossfire.

"So, Captain Graham," Sabin said.

"Ma'am," Jase said.

"You're going to offer your sage advice."

"I appreciate that, senior captain."

"You were always supposed to be the expert. You and Mercheson's kid." Yolanda. "Taylor's Children. Nice symbol. The completion of the s.h.i.+p's mission. The holy mission to spread human culture. Ramirez didn't trust what might have happened at Alpha. Not because of the aliens-because of the humans. Because they hated the Guild. Because they'd be numerous, if they'd survived at all, and they'd be hard to direct. If he'd gone to Alpha in the beginning, everything might have been different, but he didn't. He had this notion of controlling controlling the change he was going to make in human affairs. He had this notion of keeping his maneuvers secret-and it couldn't be a secret if he took the s.h.i.+p back to Alpha and opened up that old issue. Guild would find out where he'd been and they'd want answers. Controlling the contact of aliens with the Guild-sitting in charge of everything-that was his notion. Quietly becoming a power the Guild couldn't control. But his venture brought retribution down on the station, and he ended up going precisely the direction he didn't want to go-toward Alpha. This was the set of decisions that put us where we were. And he and his faction still ran the s.h.i.+p. You ask about Tamun. Tamun sounded good, to answer your question. He was my chance to get another no vote on the board, a counter to Ramirez and Ogun. But when a captaincy came up, no, the situation out here wasn't one of those pieces of information we immediately discussed with Pratap Tamun. We were more concerned with problems where we were-the battle to keep some kind of balance against Ramirez's unilateral decisions. Maybe I should have raised the Reunion issue with him before he got the seat. I didn't. What I did know-he didn't accept where Ramirez had led us. He wanted separation from non-human influences." the change he was going to make in human affairs. He had this notion of keeping his maneuvers secret-and it couldn't be a secret if he took the s.h.i.+p back to Alpha and opened up that old issue. Guild would find out where he'd been and they'd want answers. Controlling the contact of aliens with the Guild-sitting in charge of everything-that was his notion. Quietly becoming a power the Guild couldn't control. But his venture brought retribution down on the station, and he ended up going precisely the direction he didn't want to go-toward Alpha. This was the set of decisions that put us where we were. And he and his faction still ran the s.h.i.+p. You ask about Tamun. Tamun sounded good, to answer your question. He was my chance to get another no vote on the board, a counter to Ramirez and Ogun. But when a captaincy came up, no, the situation out here wasn't one of those pieces of information we immediately discussed with Pratap Tamun. We were more concerned with problems where we were-the battle to keep some kind of balance against Ramirez's unilateral decisions. Maybe I should have raised the Reunion issue with him before he got the seat. I didn't. What I did know-he didn't accept where Ramirez had led us. He wanted separation from non-human influences."

"Separation from the atevi?"

"Separation from the atevi. Building up the Mospheirans. Helping humans take over the mainland."

Appalling. Evidencing a vast lack of understanding. "Mospheira wouldn't have any interest in ruling the mainland," Bren said. "They wouldn't have the manpower to run the continent if they had it handed to them, and they don't see any reason to want it."

"The way they didn't have any interest in fueling the s.h.i.+p or maintaining the station."

"They're farmers and shopkeepers," Bren said, "and no, their ancestors didn't have any interest in doing that for your ancestors. They still don't."

"Which is why atevi are running the place," Sabin muttered. "Which is all well and good. At least someone's running things. And not doing a bad job of it, as turns out. But Tamun was a humans-only sort, vehemently so. I've come toward a more moderate view, but in an unfriendly universe-I still don't trust books or faces I can't read."

From hate and loathing to pragmatic, even educated, acceptance? No, it wasn't an easy step. More, Sabin had always shown a canny awareness of that ambiguity of signals that was so, so, dangerous between two armed species. In her way, Sabin had dealt intelligently with the hazards of interspecies cooperation, reasoning out a caution the Mospheiran fools trying to yacht over to atevi territory in friends.h.i.+p or on smuggling missions didn't remotely grasp.

"Was Tamun Guild?" Bren asked bluntly.

"He never said. What mattered in the long run was exactly what you originally said, Mr. Cameron. The man was so blinded by his agenda that he couldn't count. He couldn't get it into his head that atevi had all the numbers, and when it turned out atevi would do what we needed and get us operational and that we could could deal with them, he couldn't change his views. That change was where deal with them, he couldn't change his views. That change was where I I stopped voting no, as you may have noticed. When it came to getting the s.h.i.+p up and running, when it came to the station having power and a viable population, well, then I stopped voting no, as you may have noticed. When it came to getting the s.h.i.+p up and running, when it came to the station having power and a viable population, well, then I could could deal with my personal reluctance-my deal with my personal reluctance-my regret regret that some of those historic human skills you were born to learn, Captain Graham, were, in that very process, becoming irrelevant. But I wasn't so regretful for dead languages and lost records that I'd kill the last chance we had to keep the s.h.i.+p alive out here. I wasn't that enthusiastic for the Archive, that that some of those historic human skills you were born to learn, Captain Graham, were, in that very process, becoming irrelevant. But I wasn't so regretful for dead languages and lost records that I'd kill the last chance we had to keep the s.h.i.+p alive out here. I wasn't that enthusiastic for the Archive, that I I had time to sit down and learn old languages, so in the end I suppose they don't matter that much." had time to sit down and learn old languages, so in the end I suppose they don't matter that much."

"One person can't can't learn the Archive," Bren said. "But one person can save it. learn the Archive," Bren said. "But one person can save it. Ramirez Ramirez saved it, when he sent it down to the planet. And you know that the part of it Jase knows saved it, when he sent it down to the planet. And you know that the part of it Jase knows isn't isn't irrelevant. A language freights its history, its culture, inside itself. Its structure is the bare-bones blueprint for a mindset. Know one, gain insights into another. That's how we repair the damage Ramirez did." irrelevant. A language freights its history, its culture, inside itself. Its structure is the bare-bones blueprint for a mindset. Know one, gain insights into another. That's how we repair the damage Ramirez did."

"Blueprints for another stars.h.i.+p. That's the relevant part of the Archive," Sabin said. "A stars.h.i.+p and the guns to defend ourselves from Ramirez's mistakes."

"As a last resort," Bren said.

"I'm only interested in one thing," Sabin said harshly. "Running through this charade of a rescue mission as fast as we can, having our look around and convincing crew to give up, without dragging an alien armada back on our tail. If I was going to lie, gentlemen, I could lie lie to the crew without going all the way in there. But we will go in. I want this question actually settled and done with. If they're dead, they're dead, and we go on." to the crew without going all the way in there. But we will go in. I want this question actually settled and done with. If they're dead, they're dead, and we go on."

"The Archive at Reunion," Jase added, "has to be deleted. No matter what."

"We do what we can."

"Senior captain, a piece of history, one of those irrelevant bits: Earth had a very famous piece of rock called the Rosetta Stone, a translation key that put two languages together in the same context-one known, one hitherto undecipherable. If the aliens get a live human and that record, captain-and we don't know what they have, at this point-"

"h.e.l.l with your rocks. If some batch of aliens track our wake, we're dead and Alpha is dead. End of relevance to anything. We take out the Archive if we can. We have a look around and we go back to Alpha. It's the recent knowledge that matters. Getting the s.h.i.+p refueled, finding out what's going on there and getting out un.o.bserved is number one priority. Granted there's fuel convenient, which I personally doubt. I'm not an optimist."

"Can we reach Gamma?" Jase asked.

That drew a quirk of the brow. "Maybe. Maybe that's that's been hit. So, between you, me, and our guests," Sabin said, on that sober note, "if I have to form a completely cheerful concept of where we're going, it involves a functioning station with a full fuel load and nothing more exotic, thank you. So you can remain irrelevant. So we can rescue enough people to make the crew happy. Or prove it's impossible. This always was a crack-pot mission, purely on crew pressure, nothing more.-Mr. Kaplan, another, if you please." been hit. So, between you, me, and our guests," Sabin said, on that sober note, "if I have to form a completely cheerful concept of where we're going, it involves a functioning station with a full fuel load and nothing more exotic, thank you. So you can remain irrelevant. So we can rescue enough people to make the crew happy. Or prove it's impossible. This always was a crack-pot mission, purely on crew pressure, nothing more.-Mr. Kaplan, another, if you please."

"Yes, ma'am." Kaplan moved instantly, filled the cup, gave it back.

"So if you ask me what you haven't pressed, would I fake a tape? No. But I'll use this one. Am I going to deal politically with the Pilots' Guild if we find anyone alive? d.a.m.ned right I am, and if we're lucky enough to have fuel, we're going to be very correctly Guild until the s.h.i.+p's fueled and ready. Do we have that, Mr. Cameron? If we do find a live station, you're going to take orders and keep your alien aristocrats under tight orders and out of sight."

"I perfectly follow your reasoning, captain. Though I'm not the one who gives the orders in that department."

"I deal with you you. What's your diplomacy worth if you can't persuade your own side?"

"Point taken, captain. Meanwhile-can we get the log record from the incident that sent your s.h.i.+p running off to Gamma?"

"Second, we're not disseminating log records among the crew. Or to the Mospheirans. That's my my diplomacy. Hear me?" diplomacy. Hear me?"

Somehow Sabin had rather well hijacked their agreement. Their security already knew and wouldn't talk. The dowager was the soul of secrets. Gin would inevitably find out. That left only the s.h.i.+p's crew still in the dark. And Sabin was still the autocrat she was determined to be.

"Give us the log records, captain. I'd think you'd want all the information you could get out of that incident. We can extract it. We can possibly give you information you don't know you have."

"We're in transit, headed for a s.h.i.+p-move, Mr. Cameron. Am I going to abort that operation for some piddling records search?"

"You might well," Bren said levelly, "if informing your own resource people what you might have done wrong the last time saved you all those small inconveniences you name."

"We'll see," Sabin said.

We'll see, by experience, could take forever. But it was what they had. Sabin sipped her tea and talked about the day's schedule as if there was nothing in all creation out of the ordinary, a rapidfire series of hours and acronyms that made only marginal sense to an outsider, but that Jase seemed to follow.

"Well," Sabin said, then, reaching the bottom of the small cup, "some of us go on duty at this hour." She set down the cup, got up and gathered up her security. "Thank you for breakfast, Captain Graham. Good night to you. Good morning, Mr. Cameron."

"Good morning," Bren murmured, as Jase murmured the same, at the edge of his night. Foreign habits. Planetary habits. Sabin used the expression consciously, in irony, Bren was quite sure, and after the door shut, with Jase's security and Sabin and her security on the other side of it, he realized he'd just held his breath.

"We're alive," he said.

"Don't joke," Jase said.

"Do you believe believe that?" Bren asked. that?" Bren asked.

"That she took it that well? I don't. Meanwhile what you do with the tape is in your discretion. I trust you."

They'd reached, as Sabin had observed, the end of Jase's day and the dawn of his. The information was in his hand. The map and that record and the pieces of information he'd gathered were going to keep his staff and the dowager's very busy for the next number of hours. If only, G.o.d help them, they could get those log records on what Stani Ramirez had done. But if he went on pus.h.i.+ng Sabin, they might lose the cooperation they did have.

"This the last time I'm going to see you before we move?" Bren asked.

"Likely." Jase offered his hand, a quick, solid grip. "We'll work on it. I'll nudge her about those records, much as I can. Likely one more day's work before the move, but unless something comes up, I'm going to be seeing to details up here on one-deck... for days."

"Same below," Bren said, and let go the handshake-wis.h.i.+ng, after a year of numbing tedium intermittent with bone-shaking anxiety, that they'd had this information at the start of the voyage, not at the end. At the start, back at Alpha, things had seemed cut-and-dried simple: go back, fulfill what the crew thought was a plain promise of rescue of their stranded relatives, if the station survived, and pull the old Guild off Reunion, destroying all sensitive records in the process. Only on the voyage the wider truth of the senior captains' a.s.sessment of the situation began leaking out, bit by bit, incident by incident. The only senior available to them here was Sabin. The other, Ogun, was back managing things at Alpha-presumably not pus.h.i.+ng relations with the atevi further or faster than prudent.