“Excellency Aughskold,” said the consul, rising to a startling height even for an Omkem. She wore trousers and a tunic, though it was an outfit that struck most Hwaeans as far too casual for serious business matters. Ingray guessed she wanted to be very conspicuously Omkem just now. “How kind of you. This whole situation is quite unfortunate. I cannot make the deputy chief understand that Excellency Hevom could not possibly have been involved in the death of Excellency Zat. On the contrary, the very reason Hevom was here to begin with was that he was the one person Excellency Zat knew would never harm her.”
Danach frowned, distracted, it seemed, from the matter of Ingray’s entrance not going the way he’d probably hoped.
“Of course he couldn’t harm her,” agreed Ingray. “He couldn’t even speak to her.”
“Nor even touch her.” The consul did not sit. “I will admit, Zat could occasionally be quite abrasive, and she had her enemies. But Hevom could not possibly have been one of them.”
Ingray thought of Hevom’s words at Eswae the day before. It’s a waste of time. So many other important issues to worry about, and this is what we should expend so much on? “You surprise me, Consul. How could Zat possibly have made such enemies?”
“It would be difficult to explain, without first summarizing decades of Omkem politics,” said the consul, with a smile. “I suppose we should be grateful that Hevom hasn’t been detained. But he cannot possibly stay here alone. He ought to at least be able to come up to the Omkem Chancery on the station. Frankly I’m disappointed your excellent mother isn’t here to bring some pressure to bear on the deputy chief. The timing of all of this has been very inconvenient.”
“It has,” Ingray agreed. “Have you had a chance to see Excellency Hevom? He was sleeping when I left, and of course I didn’t want to disturb him, but I knew that Danach would take good care of him.” She didn’t look to see if Danach reacted to that condescension and assumption of authority. Was quite sure, in fact, that he wouldn’t, not visibly.
“I understand he’s only just now ready to receive visitors,” said the consul. That explained why she hadn’t sat back down. “I’ll be going up to see him in a moment.”
“Of course, Consul,” said Ingray. “Please don’t hesitate to call on anyone in the household if you or Excellency Hevom need anything.”
When the consul had left the room, Danach, still sitting, said pleasantly, “Of course, that’s not why you went to Planetary Safety this morning. Has Pahlad turned on you yet?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” said Ingray. She considered sitting down but decided she didn’t want to get trapped in a long conversation with Danach. She turned to leave, but then reconsidered. Danach would never miss an opportunity to snipe at her in private, but he would always cooperate when the family’s interest was at stake. “Did it seem strange to you when the consul said that Hevom might be the only person Zat would be safe from?”
“That wasn’t exactly what she said.” Danach’s voice was scornful. “And if you’d been here instead of off doing who knows what for the last month or two, you might have had a chance to actually talk to our guests. Zat considered herself to be above politics. She was only interested in the truth, or so she said. But her project here wasn’t as apolitical as she liked to think.”
“Yes,” agreed Ingray, before he could lecture her on the topic. “There would be political implications to evidence that the Omkem were here before we were.”
“There would be,” Danach agreed. “Zat believed that the Omkem—at least, the Ewet Omkem—stopped here on their way to their eventual home system. But quite a lot of Ewet believe that, in fact, Omkem is the original home of humanity, that they—the Ewet—were born there and have always been there.” Ingray frowned. Danach continued. “They can’t both be right. Actually, I’m fairly sure neither of them is right, but I’d never have said it in front of Zat and I won’t say it in front of Hevom or the consul. But if Zat was right, if we can be convinced she was right, the Omkem might have some extra leverage in getting us to let their fleet through our Byeit gate. Which the Omkem Federacy has badly wanted for several years now.”
“I don’t think that would give them leverage, though. Not with us.” Ingray thought a moment, and saw Danach smirk. “It’s not just us they care about, is it. It would also be about the Federacy justifying their actions to their own people.”
“Probably,” agreed Danach. “If nothing else, it lends legitimacy to a certain faction of Omkem.”
“And if Zat was proved wrong—or if she was prevented from ever being able to prove she was right—then that faction loses political and moral leverage.”
“And any other faction that might gain leverage from it,” Danach agreed, “won’t be able to use that leverage against Hwae so easily. Zat wasn’t just spending her own money on this—she was rich, but not that rich. She’d been granted Federacy funds.”
Surely the Federacy knew those funds would ultimately go to Netano. “They thought if they could help Mama become a prolocutor she’d owe them favors,” Ingray suggested. Did the Omkem Federacy—or a wealthy faction in the Omkem Federacy—really think that Netano as one of Hwae’s four prolocutors would help them bring their fleet through Hwae’s gate to Byeit? “Among other things.”
“Among other things. Mama was certain Zat wouldn’t find what she thought she’d find. She wouldn’t have agreed to any of this otherwise. But maybe someone from the Federacy wasn’t so sure, and didn’t like the idea of Zat finding any proof the Ewet Omkem were the first people here.”
“So aside from Hwaeans who seriously objected to the parkland being dug up …”
“There are some number of those,” Danach put in.
“Of course. But if any of them had been near the parkland yesterday the deputy chief would have brought them in. So, besides them, the only people who would have wanted Zat dead were from the Omkem Federacy.” And likely only people from the Omkem Federacy could have operated Zat’s Uto. But there wasn’t yet proof that Uto had been involved, and Ingray didn’t bother saying it to Danach. “Hevom was the only other Omkem anywhere near.” And the Federacy consul seemed strangely anxious to get Hevom off the planet. “So why hasn’t the deputy chief brought him in?”
“If you ask me,” said Danach carelessly, “it’s because Deputy Chief Veret is Hatli, from Lim District. They still claim that some of the Arsamol vestiges in the System Lareum were stolen from them. It wasn’t Netano who put them there, and they don’t have the Aughskold name on them, but they’re still associated with us, and you know how the Hatli love to pretend they’re disadvantaged.”
Every year a delegation from Lim District arrived to ask for the return of those vestiges, and every year Netano refused to bring the matter to the System Lareum. “So you think the deputy chief is just being difficult, delaying arresting the one real suspect, just to give the Aughskolds trouble? But it’s trouble for us no matter what e does about it, or when.”
Danach gestured unconcern. “In the end e’ll let Hevom leave.”
“But if it was Hevom who killed Zat? And if we protect Hevom and the consul takes him out of the system …”
“The deputy chief will just pin it all on Pahlad. Which will hardly make any difference to Pahlad emself, considering. So it’s let a murderer get away with it in the hope that Zat’s money will still be coming …”
“It won’t, if what you say is true,” interrupted Ingray.
“Or arrest and convict Hevom and send him to Compassionate Removal. And make enemies with the faction that’s apparently protecting him—and which might be on its way to pushing the faction that supported Zat out of power, now she’s gone.”
“We should talk to Nuncle Lak,” Ingray said.
“We?” asked Danach. “If I were you, I wouldn’t want to meddle in this. After all, I don’t imagine you warned either Nuncle or Mama that you were going to Planetary Safety. That conversation can only go badly for you. And besides, I’m t
he one of us who actually knows something about this situation. And you’re going to have your hands full once Prolocutor Budrakim realizes that you were the one who brought Pahlad back to Hwae. I don’t think Mama’s going to like the results of that, not just before campaign season.” He smiled maliciously.
Before Ingray could reply to that, an orange emergency alert flashed in her vision, and something thudded against the door to the sitting room. The door opened, and in stepped a spider mech, a terrified-looking servant right behind it. “Ingray Aughskold,” whistled the spider mech. “Where is Tic Uisine?”
Ingray blinked, and stared. “Ambassador?”
A pause; the Geck ambassador motionless for nearly a second. Then she knocked one claw against the floor, a gesture Ingray had seen on the docks at Tyr Siilas. “Where is Tic?”
“I … I don’t know where the captain is, Ambassador. I haven’t seen him or heard from him since we … since I left his ship, days ago.”
Another second passed. The ambassador struck her claw against the floor again, three times, hard. “Where is the other one? Where is Garal Ket? I cannot find em.”
“Ambassador, how did you get here?” Ingray asked. There didn’t seem to be anyone with the Geck ambassador except that one frightened and worried Aughskold servant standing anxious in the doorway. No Planetary Safety officers, or diplomats, or politicians, or anyone who might be the ambassador’s own security, though Ingray supposed security wasn’t so urgent when it was only a bio mech and not the ambassador herself.
Another motionless second. Of course—the ambassador herself was in orbit, far enough away that there was a delay between her and her mech. “Do not concern yourself with how I came here,” whistled the ambassador. “Where is Tic Uisine?” She raised one weirdly jointed, hairy limb and pointed it at Danach, who sat speechless and staring. “Who is that?”
“That,” said Ingray, “is my brother Danach. Danach, may I introduce the Geck ambassador.” She blinked, silently summoning the groundcar again. It had just dropped her off at the front entrance; it couldn’t have gone far.
“What,” said Danach. After a pause, the ambassador turned all but one of her stalked eyes to look at him. “Ambassador,” he said, recovering himself and rising, “an honor to meet you.”
Pause. The ambassador’s eyes swiveled back to Ingray. “Take me to Tic Uisine. He stole those ships. You know. You were there, on Tyr Siilas. I have been in the company of humans many times and I see you now, I see you. You will try to tell me a thing that is not so and maybe you will succeed and maybe you will not. I see you.”
“Danach, give me your jacket,” said Ingray.
“What have you gotten this family involved in, sis?” Danach demanded.
“I do not care about a jacket,” whistled the ambassador. “I want Tic Uisine.”
“Toss me your jacket, Danach,” Ingray insisted. Hoped frantically that this would be one of those occasional moments when Danach behaved like a brother and not a competitor.
Every one of the ambassador’s eyestalks strained toward Ingray. “Captain Uisine.” She knocked her claw against the floor again. “Where is Garal Ket? Garal Ket will know.”
“Truly, Ambassador,” said Ingray, “I don’t know where Captain Uisine is. And I think your being here without any escort”—or likely any permission—“may be a breach of the treaty. Danach, the jacket.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” said Danach. And pulled off his jacket.
After a second, the ambassador’s eyestalks relaxed, but she still kept all her eyes focused on Ingray. “Not a breach of the treaty, but near it,” she whistled. “I know the treaty well.”
And a message blinked into Ingray’s view to tell her the car was again waiting out front. “I recall you saying that. Maybe you should go back to your ship?” How she was supposed to do that without anyone finding out that she’d been here, Ingray had no idea. But the ambassador had managed to come all the way here, apparently without being discovered. Ingray thought of the gelatinous way Captain Uisine’s mechs changed their shape, or sprouted extra limbs, and shivered.
“I will go back to my ship after you show me Tic Uisine,” insisted the ambassador.
“Ambassador,” replied Ingray, trying to keep her voice calm and reasonable, “Captain Uisine is a citizen of Tyr. You don’t have any authority over him, and if he wanted to talk to you he’d have done it back at Tyr Siilas.”
At that moment Danach stepped quickly up behind the mech and dropped his jacket over its eyestalks. “Oops,” he said. “I was trying to throw it to you, Ingray, just like you asked.”
She couldn’t thank him, or stop to think, but dashed out of the reception room, the servant in the doorway jumping, startled, out of her path, and Ingray ran through the entrance hall and out the door to the waiting groundcar. “Take me to Mama’s office!” she cried as she got in, as though she were a child again and didn’t have the implants that would let her control the car without speaking. “And tell Nuncle Lak I need to talk to em right away.”
Lak Aughskold was actually with Netano’s staff in the capital—several hours away by flier. But e kept an office here in the Arsamol District seat. It was a small room, the only vestige an entry card for the first Netano Aughskold’s first session as an Assembly representative in a plain, narrow-bordered case that hung on otherwise undecorated dark brown walls. But there was no mistaking the plainness for austerity—the two low chairs that faced the display wall were cushioned in gold brocade, and the table between them had been cut from a single block of green-and-white-veined stone.
“Wait,” said Lak Aughskold’s image on the display wall, though Ingray had asked em not to interrupt until she had given em the whole catalog of the day’s events. Nuncle Lak was short and stocky, and eir size and quiet calm often led new acquaintances to underestimate em, though not for long. To all appearances e was just a few meters from Ingray, sitting in one of two low gold chairs facing her, with another polished green stone table between them. But she knew e was thousands of kilometers away, and the wall behind em, and the colors and to some extent the shapes of those chairs and table, were custom generated to match the room where Ingray sat. Nuncle Lak continued. “You went to Planetary Safety and asked to speak to Pahlad Budrakim? It’s bad enough you brought em into the system to begin with. With a false identity that …” E sighed. “What was that for, Ingray? I expect this sort of thing from Danach, but you …” Partway through eir last few words the door to the office where Ingray sat opened and her nuncle fell silent, the expression on eir round, dark face suddenly blandly cheerful. A servant came in with a cup of serbat and set it on the glassy green-and-white surface of the table beside Ingray. When the servant had gone again, Lak said, “I don’t think this is one of the rare occasions when you and your brother are working together.”
“No, Nuncle,” Ingray admitted.
“I never expected trouble from you, Ingray.” Withering disapproval in eir voice.
“I’m not done!” Ingray protested, though she really wanted to flee, out the door of the office, out of the building, into the street … but then, where after that? There was nowhere to go. “Pahlad asked me to be there when eir father came to talk to em. E was very sure Ethiat Budrakim would come, eir father, not eir sister. And I agreed. And then …”
“Oh, that might be helpful.” Finally, cautious approval in Lak’s voice. E took off eir peach silk jacket, laid it on the back of the chair e sat on. Pushed a stray braid out of eir face, and picked up eir own cup of serbat from the table beside em. “Maybe this isn’t all bad, then. Go on.”
“And then I went home,” Ingray continued, the sensation that she was in freefall suddenly overtaking her, “and the Omkem consul was there …”
“Yes. Your mother has already heard from the consul. At length.”
“The consul was very concerned about getting Hevom off the planet. I know he’s family to Excellency Zat, and she’s—she was—very influential, but i
t seems odd, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not like Hevom is under arrest, he’s staying at the house, and the staff has orders to make him as comfortable as possible.”
“Mmm,” said Lak, and took a drink of serbat. “Indeed. Go on.”
“So anyway, I told the consul I’d gone to Planetary Safety to talk about Hevom. Which was a lie, I went there to talk to Pahlad.” No change of expression on Lak’s face when she said that. “And the consul said she was unhappy that Netano wasn’t here, and then she went up to see Hevom. And then.” Just the plain fact of what came next was enough to stop her speech for a moment. “And then the Geck ambassador came into the house.”
“So it really isn’t as bad as I thought it was at first,” observed Nuncle Lak, after the briefest silence. “It’s worse.”
“Yes,” agreed Ingray. “The ship Pahlad and I came home on was a little cargo carrier owned and captained by a Tyr citizen called Tic Uisine. And while we were at Tyr Siilas, the Geck arrived and saw his ship and thought it was one that had been stolen from them. Captain Uisine had all the documents to prove he’s the legal owner of the ship, but the ambassador didn’t want to believe that. And I guess they followed us here. The ambassador kept asking me where Captain Uisine was. But I don’t know! And I don’t know how she got as far as the house without anyone knowing she was here, either. I mean, she’s just a mech. Or, the ambassador herself is somewhere in orbit, because there’s a delay, talking to the mech. Anyway, she kept asking me where the captain was, and I don’t know! And then she asked me where Pahlad was, or Garal, that’s the name e was using at the time. And then …” She thought for a moment what would be the best way to explain what happened next. “I asked Danach for his jacket, he was in the room …”