What do I want?
He wanted to talk to Helen. He wanted her to see what she was doing, to herself, to Venera, to everybody and everything. But he didn’t know if she would hear him anymore or if she ever had. He saw the flush in her face as she addressed the crowd, as she finally made Venera truly her own. How could he reach past that? How could he make her hear?
God, God, God, what am I going to do? Jolynn, Chord, Chase—I can’t risk them. If I can’t make her hear, what do I do?
The image of Jolynn’s golden-brown eyes flashed in front of his mind’s eye, and he knew. There was one thing that might still reach Helen, and if it didn’t work, well, the Queen Isabella would be right there.
The engineers had grown a debating chamber for the Law Meet, but there had not been time to grow a very big one. The pink-and-cream shell was barely big enough to hold all the ambassadors who hovered in the air, finding still pockets between the currents of the distracted wind.
Eighteen ambassadors had been assigned to New Home. Each of the twelve specialties was represented, along with six seniors to act as administrators. D’seun knew only a handful of them, but that did not matter. He held Z’eth’s vote. The rest would follow along with them as soon as the formal debate was over with.
D’seun hovered near a speaker box improvised from some of Br’sei’s lacelike cortices and a frame of stiffened ligaments shielded by nothing more than sail skin. Through the light gaps in the shell’s side, he could see the joyous activity of the newly arrived engineers. Surveying expeditions were being set to ride the major latitudes. All the living highlands needed to be located and tested. The winds had to be gauged and mapped, along with as many of the cross-currents as possible. The wind seed that had sprouted needed to be analyzed in terms of growth and evolution so it could be determined what could be best layered on top of it.
So much work, so many minds and souls needed. So many complications, but soon those would be lessened. While all his colleagues listened, the speaker box pulled the record of Z’eth’s last conversation with the New Person, Ambassador Helen, and repeated it smoothly. Hearing it again, it sounded no better.
“There are those with whom we disagree about our rights to this world, and consequently yours.” The box used its own soft, unimpressive voice to repeat Ambassador Helen’s words, as it had no reference for how she really sounded. “They might attempt to cut off our supply routes from the other worlds. We may be forced to ask for a great deal of assistance in maintaining ourselves here.”
The final words died away and D’seun expanded himself, body and wings. No matter what promises he was certain of, he was an ambassador with a case to present.
But before he could begin, Ambassador T’taik rattled her wings. She was from the Calm Northerns, like T’sha, and had the red-and-white crest and burnished bronze skin to prove it.
“Ambassadors, I ask you to keep in mind two things,” T’taik said. “The first is that this engineer, Vee, has made no promises or exchanges for representational power among her people. She is just an engineer, trained in the use of tools, not of words. This Ambassador Helen is basing all she knows of us on potentially inaccurate information. This may have led to a poor choice of words. Second”—she raised her hands—“T’sha was in a similar position. Despite her title and power to promise, she is only very new at our work and if may be she misrepresented herself. Ambiguity can be seen for example—”
D’seun ruffled his crest and broke across her words. “You are too hard on our colleague, Ambassador. Her words made the situation abundantly clear. The New People are obviously composed of several different families. The ones who are our neighbors and offer us community are one group, and they are, probably, sane. But these others, this distant family, are not sane. They are greedy and seek to stop the spread not only of life, but of their own offshoots.”
T’taik swelled at his words. “Ambassador D’seun, you have been so ready to condemn someone as greedy or insane during this undertaking, I wonder at it.”
D’seun shifted his weight on the perches. “I have. I have been overzealous in my desire to claim this world as New Home. I admit this. If the Meet wishes to poll the members about my fitness to give opinion on this issue, I will not argue the question.”
It was a good strategy, and one that D’seun could be confident of winning. The ambassadors debated it briefly and the question was soon called. The consensus was that D’seun recognized his overzealousness and would not be denied a voice and vote in future.