“I know,” she said. “It’s pretty much a disaster.” She reached up and pulled her veil off, picking out the pins and dropping them into her lap. “Maybe the smart thing is to leave it to the disaster makers.”
Josh’s mouth quirked up. “You don’t mean that.”
She shrugged. “Not really.” She wound the scarf through her fingers. It was real silk, a blazing paisley pattern. Amber, her next-to-youngest sister had bought it for her, for some birthday or the other. “What’s going on here, it’s stupid. If I can stop it, I have to.”
“Because it’s stupid?” he said quizzically. “Not because it’s right, or wrong, but because it’s stupid?”
He looked incredulous, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him. It sounded hard, even to her. She searched herself for an explanation. “You know why I do my act? My Vee-the-Temperamental-Artiste act?”
“I have a few ideas.” Josh leaned back on both hands. “Most of them have to do with getting attention.”
Vee waved his words away with the end of her scarf. “When I hit college, the beauty fads had cycled back around to tall, skinny, and pale.” She spread her arms wide. “Ta-daa. Suddenly, and for the first time in my life, I was it. I was the ideal. As a result, I had people sidling up to me and saying”—Vee leaned forward and gave an imaginary person a confidential nudge—“‘My dear, wherever did you get yourself done?’ I’d say I’d never been ‘done.’ This”—she gestured at her torso—“was just me. They’d look smug or sour, and not one of them would believe me. So”—she shrugged—“I started telling this long story about this bod shaper in the Republic of Manhattan and how much physical therapy I had to go through after he added ten centimeters to my height, and how he’d died last year in a boating accident, and I was just devastated because what if I needed to get short again….” She dropped her voice back to normal. “Nobody with a brain believed me for a second, but the ones without a brain….” She tightened her hands around the scarf. “Right and wrong can be difficult, but stupidity is easy to spot, and this situation is brimming with stupidity.”
The corner of Josh’s mouth twitched. “Must be a nice view from up there.”
“Maybe.” Vee looked at the door. It remained closed. “Will you help anyway?”
Josh dropped his gaze. A dozen different kinds of indecision played across his face, one after another. Did he have family on Earth? Vee wondered. She didn’t know. She’d never asked. She’d accepted the appearance of a bachelor researcher, without ties to bind or to anchor. The realization hit Vee hard. She’d become so used to being judged by her surface appearance, she’d somewhere started doing the same with other people.
And here was the one person of unquestioned substance in this whole gigantic mess, and he might be about to slide through her fingers.
Josh sighed, interrupting her thoughts. “I will help. I think we’d better start by talking to Michael Lum. He’s the steadiest member of the governing board, and has the fewest political interests.”
Gratitude rushed through Vee. “Thank you,” she breathed.
Josh studied her, looking for what she had not said. Maybe he found it. She hoped he did. She hoped there’d be a chance to say it later. “You’re welcome.” His smile was small, but it reached his eyes. “What do we do now?”
Vee considered. Much to her relief, ideas sparked quickly to life. “You need to go out there and make obeisance. Make sure she knows you’re still on her side so you can keep working on the mobile com drone. We may need to be able to talk to the people without interference.” She gave him a wry grin. “Nobody’s got you down as a troublemaker yet. You’ll be able to work the system more easily than I can.”
“All right.” Josh uncrossed his legs. “While I’m working behind the scenes, what are you going to do?”
Vee grinned at him. “Make trouble.”
“Ambassador Helen has with her own words condemned the New People’s distant family as insane.” D’seun flew with the Law Meet over the New People’s transports and his words were heavy with assurance. “They would hold back the spread of life if they could. Do we permit New Home to grow in the presence of this threat? Do we refuse to do our best to help this life with which we now share our new world?” This life which cannot survive without its distant family, unless they turn to us, and then we will have the control we need. Yes, all could still be made right.