Fire with Fire(167)

He felt her arms go up either side of his back. “Good. No reason to lose tonight worrying about tomorrow.”





Chapter Forty-Eight

ODYSSEUS

“So—are you worried?”

Caine glanced at Trevor. “Me? No,” he lied.

The other galleries became transparent—except for the Arat Kur’s and the Slaasriithi’s. Alnduul’s voice announced the outcome of the second day’s first item of business: “The Accord is pleased to announce that its member states have unanimously elected to extend the Hkh’Rkh an offer of membership, and will expect a formal response at the next Convocation, to be held in one year’s time.”

First Voice rose, his spine-fur almost touching the ceiling of his gallery’s canopy. “As First Voice of the First Family, I give my formal response now. The Hkh’Rkh accept this offer.”

Alnduul made a waving gesture. “We acknowledge, but cannot recognize, your acceptance at this time. It must wait until the next Convocation. Now, we call for a vote on the membership of—”

The yellow quatrefoil winked on. “Uh oh,” Trevor sat up. “Here it comes.”

“The Arat Kur must insist that before the vote on the human candidacy may be called, a matter of territorial violation must be addressed.”

Visser came to stand alongside Caine. “Just as the Ktor told us: 70 Ophiuchi.”

Alnduul was pressing on. “We must remind the Arat Kur delegation that this matter is on our agenda for the afternoon—the agenda that was unanimously agreed to.”

Zirsoo’s voice sounded somewhat ragged. “The Arat Kur originally agreed to that agenda based on the presumption that there would be no vote, since the human dossier would surely be rejected on the first day. Since that did not occur, we are compelled to raise this issue now. The humans’ violation of their permitted pathway of expansion is clear and unequivocal. They must agree to vacate the 70 Ophiuchi system before the Accord can justly vote on their candidacy.”

Visser nodded at Caine, who stepped into the communications node. “We wish to extend our greetings and apologies to the Arat Kur delegation. However, we must point out that we entered 70 Ophiuchi before we were contacted, and thus had no knowledge that we were violating your space.”

“We acknowledge this; the fault is not with you, but with the Custodians. However, we insist that the border correction is mandated before human candidacy is resolved.”

Alnduul held out his arms. “This cannot be. I remind the Arat Kur delegation that neither the Accord nor the Custodians are empowered to discuss, much less mandate, Earth’s territorial policies until it has been confirmed as a provisional member.”

Zirsoo’s voice was singularly flat. “Then the Arat Kur member state must call for an immediate suspension of the proceedings of this Convocation, until the following three issues have been resolved.

“Firstly, the failure of the Custodians to convene the Accord to consider the question of human membership before the humans settled the system they designate 70 Ophiuchi.

“Secondly, the failure of the Custodians to suspend these proceedings pending an investigation into the failings and prevarications in the human government’s legitimacy documentation.

“Thirdly, as a consequence of the preceding, an investigation into whether the Dornaani should be allowed to continue as the Accord’s Custodians.”

Alnduul rose to a fully erect posture. “These charges will be considered for inclusion on next year’s Convocation agenda. However none of them are grounds for suspending the proceedings of this Convocation.”

After a long pause, Zirsoo’s voice announced, “It seems you refuse to hear us. Under these circumstances, we cannot participate in this stage of the Convocation’s proceedings. Accordingly, we shall withdraw.”

“With apologies, we must become involved.” The voice came from Wise-Speech’s image. “There is only one way to end these disagreements, because there is one common thread that binds them together. The fault does not lie with the Custodians, or with the humans, or with the Arat Kur. The culprit here is not a living creature but a document: the insufficiencies of the accords themselves.

“Consider how all these insufficiencies are brought into sharp relief by the current crisis concerning 70 Ophiuchi. The Custodians are empowered to censure member states that refuse to comply with the accords. However, there is no definition of the punitive dimensions of such censure. There is no legal mechanism whereby the Accord may address possible abuses of power by its Custodians. And there is no way to convene an unbiased commission to promulgate the necessary corrective emendations to the accords themselves, since the Custodians have the procedural right to ban such initiatives as groundless obstructions.