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Playing God(135)

By:Sarah Zettel


The Queens were there to meet the shuttle when it landed at their single, heavily guarded port. The place was obviously for military use: armored hangars, no planes out in the open, guard towers and heavy guns in place all around it.

He came down the ramp with his staff. The air around them smelled of heat, damp cement, and tension. The Queens, and their guard and a host of what he assumed to be either nobles, or politicians, although he wasn't sure, waited in patient, dignified rows just to the side of the ramp, so he had to turn straight toward the sun to face them. He'd only had a few hours to bone up on the Paeccs Tayn. He didn't even speak the language and would be stammering through it, reading off his implant, which was not something he was looking forward to.

However, Keale had told Lynn it was vital that the Paeccs Tayn be reassured that the Humans hadn't decided to abandon the Dedelphi, or that they might join the (hopefully) stalled war between the Getesaph and the t'Theria. Nobody asked why Keale was so sure, but he was sure enough to convince Lynn, and Lynn had been sure enough to convince David. The plague had already taken sixty percent or more of the Paeccs Tayn, so it was decided that more than a veep, or a senior manager, or a security expert, the Paeccs Tayn needed to speak with a doctor.

One of the Queens, the First Queen Oran ji Ufa, his implant reminded him, stepped briskly up to him. Her earrings clinked as she moved. She spoke, and his implant scrolled the English words for him.

“You are Dr. David Zelotes? You are here to help us? This is what we have been told.”

David subvocalized the reply he wanted to make, and read the words off as they passed, mangling the pronunciation as he went. “I am. My staff and I are here to help in whatever way we can, and to assure you that we will stay until the work is done.” Maybe they'll learn to appreciate the strong silent type.

She leaned in close to him, as if trying to read his implant. “You are not afraid of the t'Theria and the Getesaph?”

More than you know. David worked hard to keep that thought out of his face, and to not step back. The Queen's breath steamed his helmet. “There is more to the world than the t'Theria and the Getesaph.”

“Ha!” Queen Oran stood back, folding her hands across her pouch in what David had always taken to be a sign of extreme satisfaction. “It is well said, isn't it? Some days I wonder why we let them forget that.” Her ears stilled “I dunk we will like you, Dr. David Zelotes. You will come with us?”

David bowed his head. “Gladly.”


Arron sat at the comm station in his sparsely furnished guest quarters. Cabal had been installed three doors down on the same level. There had been no problem getting them both space. Over a public comm station, Arron had asked Lynn for two cabins. She'd paused for all of thirty seconds to listen to him before saying, “Sure, whatever you need,” and cut the connection. The Base AI had taken care of the remaining details.

Arron had walked Cabal to his cabin. Cabal had stalked around the hexagonal space once and grunted. Then, he plunked Arron's portable down on the table, saying that the first thing he'd have to do was see who was paying attention out there. Arron had left him to it.

Arron watched the blank screen of his own comm station and rubbed his forearms. Walking through the Base corridors had felt strange. This was the first time in years he was literally surrounded by Humans. Part of him wanted to run, and part of him wanted to touch everyone he saw. It was so… wrong to see everyone standing politely distanced from each other. Wrong and unnatural. Feeling that reaction inside himself made everything worse, so he'd retreated to his cabin to wait for Cabal.

Since then, he'd been totally ignored. Lynn and Bioverse had many more important things to worry about than him. Things that were also more important man finding out what was really going on aboard the Ur. He'd tried to ask Lynn about it, but she'd just shaken her head and said that was all up to Security Commander Keale. She'd sworn she'd talk with him as soon as things got into motion. That had been three days ago.

Whatever Lareet and Umat thought they were doing had gone unaddressed. Hadn't anybody here thought to try to ask them what they were afraid of? What had driven them to this extreme? And what in the name of the World Mothers had made them turn on him?

Arron took a deep breath. This probably wouldn't work. This couldn't possibly work, and there was no way for him to make it work, and he had nothing more to give Cabal to get him to make it work. But he had to try.

“Room voice, thread me through to the city-ship Ur.”

“Completing request.”

Arron waited for a security lockout, the alarm, at least a validity question from the AI, but none came. The station cycled through the addresses, and he waited, his heartbeat slowing down each second nothing unusual happened. Apparently the higher-ups at Bioverse couldn't conceive why anybody would want to call the ship, and their security chief had been too busy to think of it for them.