A Galaxy Unknown 10: Azula Carver (10 page)

"So, all is well, even if some of the GA Senate delegates are a bit grumpy. I guess most of them had established themselves on Earth and didn't really want to leave. But it is part of the job that they go where the GA Senate assembles. They can always resign their position at any time, if they wish.

"Jen, I know it's only been three months, but I'm wondering if you've reached any decision. I'd love to hear back from you, even if you haven't. Please don't forget about this old space dog.

"My love to the family.

"Brian Devon Holt, Vice-Admiral, Region Two HQ, Quesann. Message complete."

Jenetta tapped the record button and began talking.

"Message to Brian Devon Holt, Vice-Admiral, Region Two HQ, Quesann. Begin message.

"Brian, I could
never
forget about you," Jenetta said with a smile. "Even though I've been gone from Quesann for three months, I've only been home for one month. So far I've been enjoying my time here. I guess I've been so busy that I haven't had time to miss Quesann, which is not the same as saying I haven't missed you and all my other wonderful friends.

"So far I haven't formulated any long-term plans. Hugh was supposed to join me on Obotymot, but his planned leave was cancelled because Captain Simpson had to travel home on emergency leave. It seems Marie's parents were both killed in a tragic accident. A giant sink hole opened up beneath their home and swallowed the entire house, which was then covered in hundreds of tons of dirt when the sidewalls of the hole collapsed onto the house. There was no warning, and there had never been any problems like that in the area before. Marie won't be back until the end of November, and then Hugh will be able to leave, unless some other emergency interrupts our reunion.

"I'm glad you're enjoying a period of relative calm. The problems with the Senate are to be expected when you make a major geographic move like that. Once they settle down to real work, the pressure on you should ease up— but you already knew that, you old space dog, and probably better than me.

"In the vidMail to the Admiralty Board where I broke the news that I wouldn't be in Quesann to greet them, I strongly suggested they consider isolating the Uthlarans to travel only within their own solar system, as we were forced to do with the Tsgardi. You might want to suggest that to the Board as well. I feel certain the Uthlaro will never stop trying to recover their empire and overthrow the GA.

"I'm glad you called, and that I'm not forgotten. I'll try to vidMail once each month, with additional messages if I have something special to report.

"Be well, Brian.

"Azula Jenetta A. Carver, from the Palace on the Family Carver Estate, Obotymot. Message complete."

Jenetta spent the next two hours responding to the other vidMails. She also sent one off to the authorities on Taurentlus-Thur, thanking them for allowing the export of the male Jumaka so her female Jumakas would be able to breed.

With her required work completed, she logged out of her computer and went to check on the translation work with the Jumakas. It had been slow going so far. Cayla would usually start the day off, followed by Tayna. If Thor felt in the mood, he would take a turn. So far, Nicky had wanted nothing to do with it, but he was content to sit or lie with the others and listen. Berl and Arturo wanted to play with the kitties and were disappointed each day when Auntie Jenetta had to tell them that they were needed in the laboratory. The boys had twice tried to sneak into the lab and been promptly escorted out by Mr. Wilkerson.

"How goes the work, Mr. Wilkerson?" Jenetta asked as she entered his laboratory in the cargo container.

"I'm still mired down with semantics and intent. I know now that the Jumakas don't converse in carefully constructed sentences, as is the norm for most sentient species. They speak in single words strung together to convey what they want to communicate. For example, they might say, 'Danger. Behind. Bushes. Attack.' where a Terran or most other sentient species might say, 'Watch out, there's something in the bushes behind you. I sense extreme danger. Something is preparing to attack us.' Now, one might think that such a simple way of speaking would lend itself to easy conversion, but not so. The translation device never knows if the Jumaka is warning of an imminent attack and that they should all run away, or if it means the Jumaka is about to attack whatever the danger is in the bushes. This is an extremely simple example. It can get very complex."

"How about if, initially, we just concentrate on building a dictionary that contains every word they use? If the translator says to me, 'Danger. Behind. Bushes. Attack,' I can make a judgment call on the level of potential danger."

"Aye, I can do that. And then work on the full translation of the messages with sentence structure later."

"Just remember that while the translation devices we currently use with alien species are wonderful for basic conversations, live interpreters are still used for all important business meetings and government negotiations because of language nuances usually communicated by tonal quality. There are so many interpreters in the GA Senate, they outnumber the delegates. And that's in an institution where it's mandatory that all delegates speak Amer."

"Yes, Your Grace, you make a very powerful argument for taking this slowly instead of trying to jump ahead to a finished translation device. I guess I'm just so excited because I've spent most of my working life on Taurentlus-Thur studying Jumakas and the other indigenous species, and now I feel like I'm so close to achieving my dream of actually conversing with a Jumaka."

"I understand, Mr. Wilkerson. For so long I've wanted to understand what my girls were saying, and now we're so close it would also be easy for me to let my exuberance get the better of my good judgment. Let's progress in an orderly fashion so when we're done, the research will be beyond question by detractors."

"Detractors? You think there will be detractors?"

"In my experience, there are
always
detractors. People have different agendas, believe that their own research is more accurate, or simply want to prevent colleagues from being recognized. Whatever the possible reasons, let's make sure we don't give them anything they can use to belittle your research."

"Yes, Your Grace. As Aesop wrote in his story about the tortoise and the hare, 'slow and steady wins the race.'"

~     ~     ~

"Commander, there's an SCI officer here to see you," Christa's com unit said as the message scrolled up on the screen.

"I don't recall having an appointment to meet with SCI," was Christa's immediate reply, which scrolled up on the screen of her aide in the outer office.

"No, ma'am. He arrived without notice."

"Send him in," Christa said as she returned to reading the report on her computer. When she looked up, an SC commander with an SCI insignia patch on his collar was standing in front of her desk. She stood up and extended her hand. "Lt. Commander Christa Carver, sir. How can I help you?"

"I'm Commander Von Dresdelle. SCI has learned of an agreement between the Dakistee president and a Raider-owned corporation named Trigenetics Galactica Pharmaceutical."

"Have you?" Christa looked down at her computer monitor, then turned the small camera mounted on top to face across the desk. "Computer, confirm the identity of my visitor." Christa gestured towards the small camera. "Commander?"

The officer bent down so the camera could study his right eye, then stood up when the computer beeped.

"Identity confirmed as Commander Wilhelm Von Dresdelle, of SHQ SCI."

Christa turned the camera back to its former position, then gestured toward a chair and said, "How can I be of help to SCI? I'm sure you know far more about any agreement than I do."

As Von Dresdelle sat down, he said, "The king of Nordakia submitted a full report containing all information collected by his intelligence people."

"Yes, I was rather surprised when I learned that Nordakia had undercover intelligence operatives on Dakistee."

"You knew of the operatives?"

"My sister stopped by a few months ago after first visiting Nordakia. She told me of the alleged pact."

"And have you learned anything since?"

"I paid a visit to the president. I told her I'd heard a rumor that she might be negotiating with TGP. I informed her that the company was suspected of being owned by the Raiders."

"And?"

"She said she was working to cure the sterility problem that was killing the people of her planet and she couldn't be concerned with mere allegations. I told her that if it turns out TGP
is
Raider owned, she would not be held responsible in any way for any
financial
arrangements made before said allegations were proven."

"So, in effect, you were telling her you knew about the arrangement where the Raiders were promised they would get access to cloning technology and Dakinium manufacturing technology?"

"I never said anything about cloning or Dakinium, but I was hoping she would make the connection. I wanted her to be aware of the dangerous ground she was treading if she was considering such an arrangement. Madu is the leader of her people, and while I would not hesitate to arrest her if she was ever suspected of any crime that violates GA laws, I hoped that knowledge of the consequences might prevent any possible attempt to actually transfer such information. My job here is to function both as an administrator and an ambassador for the GA. It would be far better for the GA if I didn't have to arrest the planet's president and throw her in jail. However, as I said, I would not hesitate to issue an arrest warrant if I believed she was actually guilty of such a crime, or if I was ordered to arrest her."

"I see. Perhaps in the future you can avoid warning potential seditionists that we might be watching them."

"I thought a goal of the SCI was to always make potential seditionists worry that we're watching them so it might stop potential seditionists from actually becoming seditionists."

Von Dresdelle grimaced, stood up and said, "Good day, Lt. Commander. Thank you for your time."

Christa also stood up. As Von Dresdelle turned to leave, she said, "Drop by any time, Commander."

~     ~     ~

Minister Sltuvyck stuck his head into President Ptellewqku's office and said, "Got a minute for me?"

"Yes, but just a minute. What's up?"

"I thought you'd like to know. One of our intelligence operatives spotted an SCI commander going into the SC Administration Building on the Marine base."

"How does the operative know he's SCI?"

"He cleverly concealed his identity by wearing a distinctive insignia on his collar. He was SCI all right. And the level of rank suggests he was there to see Commander Carver."

"Damn. I told you she knew. By now she's probably told him everything she knows."

"What could she know?"

"She's a Carver. A clone of Admiral Carver. She probably knows more than you do."

"More than me? Well, that's possible. You've done all the negotiating and left me in the dark."

"You said you didn't want to know. You said you couldn't betray what you didn't know."

"I wish I didn't know even as much as I do. So what are we going to do?"

"What can we do? We wait."

"For them to put a noose around our necks and pull the lever that drops the floor from under us?"

"Hopefully not. I'm hoping TGP can't come up with a successful formula."

"You signed an agreement with them hoping they would fail?"

"I've only begun hoping they would fail since I learned Christa knew about the agreement. I thought no one would ever be able to trace the leaked data back to us. I hoped they'd think one of the archeologists on the planet found a buried cache of papers and sold them for a small fortune to a Raider buyer."

"Maybe we should get an assassin to kill Carver."

"That was tried once, remember? She has more lives than a rignoo. Besides, it's obvious that others know now."

"Then why haven't they arrested us?"

"Because we haven't actually committed a crime yet."

"No? What about conspiracy to commit sedition?"

"Since we haven't been accepted yet as a member nation by the GA, we can't be charged with mere conspiracy about anything. We actually have to turn over documents. I checked the law to be sure."

"There has to be something we can do. Let's cancel the agreement."

"I tried. TGP said that if I don't follow through they'll allow the signed document to fall into the hands of the media."

"But you just said the GA can't charge us with conspiracy."

"They can't, but they can make the allegations public. It would ruin our careers overnight. We'd be recalled from office and disgraced. We wouldn't be able to get a job sweeping out the offices."

"That's a sight better than a date with a noose."

"I'm trying to find a way out that lets us miss any appointment with a hangman and gets us the solution to the sterility problem."

"And what have you found so far?"

"Nothing yet, but I'm still working on it. Now get out of here and let me think. Your minute was up five minutes ago."

~ October 28
^th
, 2288 ~

"Perfect, Your Grace. You're right on time."

"Did we have an appointment, Mr. Wilkerson?"

"Uh, no. But I'm glad you're here. I've just put the finishing touches on the first experimental collar with the translation circuitry fully incorporated into the collar. It's a bit bulky, but it's the best I'm capable of producing with the equipment I have. I've built a new receiver as well. Cayla and Tayna have been incredible. Thor has helped considerably. And even Nicky has finally begun to participate. I think he might have been a little embarrassed that everyone else was helping while he just sat back and watched."

"Is this the new receiving unit?" Jenetta asked, pointing to a large metal box on the table.

"That? Oh, no. That's a power supply for a micro laser cutting tool. " Wilkerson held out a tiny bit of plastic that had a curved extension attached. "Here's the new receiving unit. It fits over the ear. Try it."