“Again,” Villainic said, “I have not yet been informed of these crucial details. I cannot make any decisions on Tamret’s behalf until I know more.”
“How about we let Tamret make decisions on her own behalf?” I suggested.
“Please, Zeke,” Villainic said, sounding a little frustrated. “I ask you to respect our caste customs. We’ve discussed the problems created when you try to interfere with our private business.”
“I’m not interfering with your private business, I’m interfering with Tamret’s, and I feel pretty good about that.”
“I will have to excuse what to me appears as rudeness,” Villainic said. “I’m sure it is simply your inability to understand our customs. I know, in my heart, that Tamret’s friend would never intentionally insult her as you do now.”
The colonel made a throat-slitting gesture with his finger. “Kill it. We don’t have time for this nonsense. And I’m afraid we also don’t have the means of looking for that skill tree. I know you want to help your friend, and I respect that, but there are too many unknown variables and too much risk. We need to escape, and on the best terms we possibly can. That means, in two days we tell this chief justice what Junup wants to hear. We suck it up, take our lumps, and get out of here in one piece.”
“There’s more to this than just helping Dr. Roop,” I said. “If we can find that skill tree, it will help the entire Confederation, and it will help us. Once we hand over the technology, people will be more inclined to listen to what we have to say. This could turn everything around.”
The colonel sighed. “I’m sorry, Zeke, but I don’t see that happening. If you find that software, Junup will take credit, and we’ll be back where we started, only worse, because now Junup will have one more reason to want us dead. I’ve listened to your opinions, which I take seriously, and I’ve weighed the facts, and I’ve made my decision. The matter is now closed.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but I could see everyone looking away. They wanted me to stop. They wanted to take Junup’s deal, and without their help I couldn’t do much of anything. I had come to Confederation Central to help Earth and to help Tamret, and it looked like I would be running away without doing either of those things.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
* * *
Something was buzzing, and that was never good. It was dark, I was awake, and I had no idea where I was. Then I remembered. Of course. I was on a space station run by a goat-turtle who hated me, and there was a lizard guy sleeping ten feet away from me. It was the middle of the night, which explained the darkness. And my data bracelet was trying to deliver an emergency message.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get them to focus, and then looked at my bracelet. The message was from Tamret, and I was suddenly wide awake. Open your door, you moron.
I scrambled out of bed and made it to the front door without tripping more than twice. I threw open the door, and there she was, standing in the light of the hallway. She wore a long nightgown and a bathrobe, and her hair was a little messy, but she looked like I remembered her, more than she had at any time since returning to the station.
“Can I come in?” she asked. Her voice was low but insistent. Her eyes were zeroed in on me. It was like the old Tamret had returned.
“Steve’s sleeping,” I said, not quite sure what else to say. My heart was hammering like crazy. Tamret had been ignoring me for two days, and now she suddenly wanted to talk to me.
“He can sleep through anything,” she said, and then pushed past me.
It was true that Ish-hi were notoriously deep sleepers. We had discovered that last year when we’d tried to wake him up for an emergency—without success—and I’d learned that all over again now, having him as a roommate
Tamret made her way into the room, turned on my bedside light, and sat on my bed with her hands in her lap. I sat next to her, keeping a few inches between us.
There was an excruciating sixty seconds of silence. Finally I broke it by being a jerk. Yay, me. “Are you sure the caste police won’t arrest you for being here?”
“That’s not funny,” Tamret said. Her ears were back, and her whiskers twitched, which was never a good sign.
“I know it’s not funny. Neither is your refusing to talk to me.”
She turned to me, her expression unreadable. I’d grown so used to being able to interpret every shift of her eyes or twitch of her whiskers. I felt like I didn’t know her at all now.
“When we get to Rarel,” she said in a flat voice, “we’ll have to follow local laws, so things might get tricky. The caste regulations say I’ll have to follow Villainic’s orders. But I don’t want to go with him.”
That stopped me cold. “You don’t?”
She shook her head. Her eyes were lowered, like she didn’t want to make eye contact with me.
“What do you want, then?”
She was still looking down. “Will you bring me back to Earth with you?”
I don’t know that she could have said anything that would have made me happier. I wanted to hug her, I wanted us to hold hands and laugh and for everything to be like it used to be, but she still sat there, quiet.
“What happened to you?” I asked. “Why are you engaged to that guy?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay? And I can’t stay long. He doesn’t snoop around all that often, but he’s allowed to enter my room whenever he wants, and he has checked up on me in the middle of the night a couple of times . . . that I know of. Just promise you won’t leave me behind, Zeke.”
“If we’re on Rarel soil, I don’t know if I can—”
“You can do anything,” she said, her voice quiet. “You promised me you were going to get me off Rarel, and you did.”
“It looks like I was too late.”
“You weren’t,” she said. “Not if I don’t have to go back. I’d rather spend the rest of my life in a Confederation prison.”
“Tamret, why don’t you just walk away from him? People break engagements all the time.”
“Maybe in your culture,” she said. “I don’t have that choice. I made vows. I am bound up with his caste, and its rules, forever. There’s no way out unless the promise I made conflicts with a preceding obligation. I’ve tried to figure out some way it might, but there’s nothing. I’m stuck, Zeke.”
“And you can’t just break your vow?” I asked hopefully. “I mean, it’s not nice to go back on your word, but sometimes you have to.”
“I can’t,” she said, her voice straining to convey the gravity of what she felt. “It was a holy vow, and I can’t break it.”
I liked that about her. She would break laws if she didn’t agree with them, but she regarded these Rarel promises as ironclad. Unfortunately, this left us with a bit of problem. “So how are you going to—”
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “But I’ll figure something out. Or you will. Just don’t leave me behind. Please.”
I swallowed. “I won’t. Of course I won’t. You know that.”
“Thank you.” She turned away and then wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands. “I need to go.” She stood up and moved toward the door.
“I miss you, Tamret,” I said quietly, not bothering to look up, to watch her leave.
“I’m right here,” she said.
“No, you’re not.”
She nodded. “You’re right.” She opened the door. “But when it counts, I will be.”
When she stepped into the hall, Villainic was standing there. He was an angry-looking Rarel, which is not something you ever want to see.
• • •
I was up and walking toward them, trying to look as tough as I possibly could, but given that I was wearing an Adventure Time T-shirt and a pair of boxers, I think I enjoyed only limited success.
“Get back to your room,” Villainic said to her, his voice quiet and restrained and, I thought, injured.
Tamret nodded, and she hurried off, her shoulders h
unched.
Villainic turned to me, and I braced myself for the worst. I’d seen his kind fight, and a mediocre Rarel could trounce a pretty tough human, which I was not. Things were about to get ugly, and there was nothing I could do about it. The main thing, I knew, was to deflect Villainic’s anger. I would let him put me in the hospital if it would protect Tamret.
He stepped into my room, slouched in defeat.
“I don’t know what to do about her,” he said to me, his voice heavy with wretchedness. “She is so disobedient, and, more importantly, she’s not happy.”
I could not help but notice he was not punching me in the face. “But you’re not hitting me,” I observed, too relieved to keep my mouth shut. “That’s good news.”
“Why would I hit you?” he asked.
“Well, your fiancée was in my room in the middle of the night.”
“Did you abduct her or force her to come here against her will?” he asked.
“Of course not,” I said.
“Then I have no cause to be angry with you, do I?
Okay, this was not a jealous boyfriend I was dealing with. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was enjoying the absence of face-punching.
“She’s your friend, Zeke. And I understand that’s why she came here, but I think even you can see that her behavior is unacceptable. You know her better than anyone here. Any advice you can give me would be really appreciated.”
“Advice about what?”
“How to get her to obey the rules,” he said, throwing up his hands in exasperation.
“That’s easy,” I said. “Take the rule book and get rid of everything she is not allowed to do. Then get rid of all the things she has to do. I think you’ll be okay then.”
“I realize you are making a joke, but it is not a funny one. My honor requires that she observe the traditions of betrothal, but if she breaks them the moment I turn my head, how can I trust her?”
“Did you even have a single conversation with her before you guys got engaged or whatever?” I asked. “Do you know her at all?”
“I hope to come to know her,” Villainic said. “She is very quiet and demure, which is something I like in a girl.”
“Are we talking about Tamret, or did the conversation change?”
“She was not quiet and reserved with you?” Villainic asked.
I was going to tell him that, no, she was loud and unhinged, she was wild and fearless and more than a little dangerous to be around, but I didn’t think that would do me, or Tamret, or even Villainic any good. “I guess it’s a matter of perspective.” I shook my head. “How did you guys even become, like, a thing?” I asked, waving my hands around, not wanting to say the words.
Villainic looked at me, his eyes huge round in surprise. “Did you just insult the honor of [the second-tier deity of domestic arrangements and livestock slaughtering]?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “Did I?”
“You did!”
“I’m going to be as honest with you as I can be and tell you I did not mean to do that. I’m just not sure why you would marry someone you don’t know. I mean, she doesn’t have a powerful family or own a lot of property and stuff. So why did you bring her into your caste? I don’t know much about your culture, but it sounds to me like people would see this as marrying down.”
“In my family,” he said, “Tamret’s condition is considered to be good luck.”
“Her condition?”
He made a gesture toward his face and arms. “You know. Her . . . appearance.”
He meant her white fur. The other Rarels I’d met had all been variations of brownish tan. Tamret had told me last year that a small percentage of Rarels were born with white fur, and that it was often considered unattractive on her world. It now seemed there were other options.
“Okay,” I said. “You basically saved her from prison so you could marry her in the hopes of someday having children with white fur?”
“Or grandchildren. It doesn’t matter. It is that I have increased the chances of having such progeny. Please understand, Zeke, that I am a fifth son. Do you know what that means?”
“That you got beaten up a lot as a kid?”
“Well, yes, but it also means that I had to be creative if I were to find some way to marry significantly. Women of stature or wealth would not want me, because unless my older brothers should all meet with accidents, I won’t inherit property.”
“I get it,” I said. “I understand entirely. You can hope your older brothers all die, but you can’t depend on it. In the meantime, you might as well marry a girl you don’t know because she might pass along some traits that your family considers good luck even if everyone else thinks they’re gross.”
“Exactly!” Villainic cried out. “I knew you would understand.”
I understood that Villainic was a complete idiot, but I didn’t think it best to say that. I needed to get him to trust me and, more importantly, to let Tamret act like herself around me.
“Here’s the thing,” I told him, like we were buddies now. “I really don’t want to be disrespectful, but it would help your chances of getting off this station alive if you could give Tamret a little more freedom.”
“It is clear to me that you have different ways,” Villainic said, “and it is not for me to judge those ways. I can only tell you that what you think of as ‘freedom’ will not be acceptable in the social circles she must soon inhabit. She must find a new way of thinking about herself so she can be a happy and successful wife. You are the only one she trusts. Will you help me in my cause?”
“I don’t know if I’m really the person to do that.”
“I can think of none better,” Villainic said.
“I don’t want you to be unhappy, Villainic,” I began, but that was as far as I got.
“And you don’t want Tamret to be unhappy. Therefore you are the best person to help us be happy together. Thank you, Zeke. You have cheered me considerably. Good night.”
I followed him out of the room and watched as he actually strutted down the hall as though all his problems had been solved and he had not a single care in the universe.
I turned back to my room. The door was open, and Steve was leaning heavily against the doorjamb, rubbing at one of his eyes with his palm. His sleeping tunic was wrinkled. “Are you aware,” he asked me, “that this sort of thing doesn’t really happen to anyone but you?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
* * *
The Movement for Peace was made up of a bunch of frightened, ignorant beings who believed that any sentients who’d evolved differently than they themselves had must be inferior. But not all Confederation citizens felt that way. Some liked species who’d evolved from predators and omnivores. They found these species interesting or charming or magnetic, like vampires in romance novels or something.
Whatever his reasons, Boridi op Xylliac, at least according to the news outputs, was one of those aliens, and so instead of conducting his interview in some “sterile government conference room,” as he put it in his message, he wanted to host us at his home. I’d never much liked the idea of being “hosted”—it smacked of being on your best behavior and having to clutch little paper napkins—but I also didn’t want to say no to a rare opportunity to leave the government compound. Besides, while the change of venue was presented as a request, I understood that we weren’t really in a position to decline.
I still didn’t know how I was going to play things in this interview. Everyone else had decided to give Junup what he wanted so we could go home. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand their position. As long as we remained on Confederation Central, with Junup in charge, we were in danger. Every minute I was on the station, I felt the need to get my friends out of harm’s way. The fact that Tamret wanted to come back to Earth with me wasn’t doing much to turn me away from this option either. I loved the idea of us being together, but I worried about what would happen once she got to Earth. She might be detained and shoved
off to some dark basement in Area 51. On the other hand, if we introduced her strategically, the government couldn’t make her disappear. She might become an international celebrity. That wouldn’t be so bad. I had to hope that Colonel Rage would help us make sure Tamret remained free and safe.
All of that assumed I went along with what the others wanted, but I didn’t know that I could bring myself to do it. Urch. Nayana. Captain Hyi. Ghli Wixxix. I could not stop thinking about them. They’d died because of the mutiny on the Kind Disposition, and Junup was behind it all. And then there was Dr. Roop, who insisted that everything depended on me going in search of this Former technology. I could have set the request aside if anyone else had asked it of me, but not Dr. Roop.
So, there it was. I had to choose between betraying one friend or betraying several friends. I was not looking forward to going to see Boridi op Xylliac. Plus, Ardov was coming with us, so that would pretty much make it the worst field trip ever.
• • •
We walked over to the shuttle landing pad flanked by four peace officers wearing Movement for Peace armbands. I didn’t much care for that, but they soon became a blur of alien forms and colors and body types. I had my eye on Ardov. He sat in the front of the shuttle like the school monitor and watched us as we strapped ourselves in, smiling at us like we were doing a great job and he was super proud of us. I was harboring secret fantasies of shaving him.
The one thing I could say in Ardov’s favor was that he hadn’t singled Tamret out for any special attention. They’d ignored each other, and Ardov and Villainic hadn’t done much more than give each other wary glances. I had to figure there was some sort of caste thing going on, and I didn’t understand it, but considering how cruel he’d been to Tamret in the past, I wasn’t complaining.
A couple of rows in front of me, Villainic was looking nervous. Tamret was showing him the passenger safety information on her data bracelet. Life preservers under the seat, just like in an airplane. Impact gel cushions. Inflatable life rafts, as our shuttle would be traveling over water. All kinds of things to keep him alive. I wanted to tell him that he shouldn’t be afraid of flying—he should be afraid of the beings he was flying with.