Envoy to Earth (16 page)

It was stated as a question, but
the man just tapped a little pouch on the side of his white robe.

"I stand ready. Are we to
leave right now?" He looked over at Gerent, as if that was all the
information he needed.

"A few hours. Ten, I think.
We haven't even put my ship up. I should probably go and help get this one
loaded too. I hadn't thought about that." He wasn't tired anymore, thanks
to that little magic thing that Ali had given him.

Mrs. Baker, since they weren't
dating or anything. He needed to make a point of keeping to that kind of thing
too.

Patty followed him and Erid to
the ship, which they immediately had to leave, since Sara was ready to take it
up, into orbit, to wait for him to get his ready. That seemed like it would be
a problem, not having a ship yet, but the instant the one Sara had was out of
the way, a tiny sphere appeared where it had been and Tiera waved him over, her
clothing having changed to look workman like, all in brown, and plain, not
having any decoration.

She walked him through what to do
carefully, but it wasn't hard. The functions were mainly built in, and while he
could change them on command, he didn't really need to worry about things like
air circulation, or sanitation, unless he was on a long trip. He would need to
get some water, if he were doing that, or living in space, she informed him,
and some material to use for the other devices she had for him in a giant case.
It was about three feet deep, but nearly that wide and thick too. A square that
was, when opened, not filled with magical treasures at all. There were some, in
cloth bags, but most of the things inside were papers. Letters that people
wanted to send to the folks back home.

As the box followed them down the
hallway to his room, or at least the space closest to the bridge that seemed
convenient for that to him, she explained it all.

"There are three food units,
but keep one for yourself. Another for crew if you have them and a third
because chances are one of those will be stolen at some point. Maybe all of
them, but I can give you more, if you need them later. Three Makers too. I'll
show you how to use that. If you hook it up to sanitation you can... Well, you
know, use the byproducts of the crew to make whatever you want. It's a little
gross, but once you get past that, it works pretty well." She held up a
hand. "Yes, Maker is a stupid name. I didn't come up with it. Try not to
let those out on Earth. It will ruin economies. You can make gold, silver,
jewels, whatever you want. If someone stupid gets one of these, then... yeah,
that won't work too well. Everything will end up being worthless there."

"Except new things? Magic
and art? That kind of thing?"

"Exactly. But coin? We can't
even use that here. Everything is free, so people just give away their labor.
The hardest thing to come by is a job. Say, um... I heard that you wanted
people to help with the allocation of things? We can get you some, if you wish?
A crew too. People will volunteer for things like that. This is
important."

He nodded.

"I can use the help. I...
Erid... High Servant Erid? Who started people loading right off back there? I
don't know if you know him?"

"Sure. Old friends."

"Can you have people report
to him? If they want to volunteer. I don't think we should take regular
passengers back and forth yet, but in a few days we can start that? Call it
four, so that I can make the trip a few times."

It seemed like a plan, and after
six hours of running around and helping to make certain everything was working
right, they had the whole thing loaded up. Not that they could leave yet, since
there was, it turned out, more to come.

Tor and Tim were still working on
whatever they had for things.

Terry, however, was there with
six large floating cases for various magics, all taller than he was, and cutely
enough Taman had a box too. She looked at the stuff that Terry had a bit
enviously.

"He's worked really hard,
for nearly a year, on all this. I just have some odds and ends. Some of my
newest craft, mainly. For people in other places? We... Most of the Builders
here are from Noram, and we all tend to forget that this thing has hurt a lot
of people. I know it isn't much, but maybe it will help someone?"

Gerent smiled, and felt real
tears come to his eyes.

"More than a little, I bet.
This is really nice of you, Tam. You too, Terry. Of course we'll probably need
twenty times more of everything, so if you two and the rest of the kids can get
on that? Food units first. Radiation shields and cleaning things too. Soam and
Austra..." He didn't go on, but Terry nodded, understanding why that was.
No one even really knew if there was anyone left alive in Soam. Not on their
west coastline, at least. It hadn't had a lot of people, compared to some
areas, but the bombs had made a lot of it unlivable.

Tim had some devices there to
clean things up, but that would take a long time. Decades, at the very least.
Wiping his face a bit, he made sure to take the special cases and put them in
his own room. It didn't leave a whole lot of space, but it was more than enough
for him. Petra... Well, she'd be going back to her real life soon, he thought.

That part was interesting to him.
How were you supposed to act, when engaged? Did he need to visit regularly, or
was it all basically just the wedding that was needed? He should try to get
some advice on that part of things. Really, who he should ask was Patty, since
she was brilliant with things like that. Noble things, and protocol. It wasn't
kind of him to push at her, with his feelings, like he had been. He understood
why she didn't care for him, and it had nothing to do with his looks or even
personality.

 Just him failing her, being too
small and weak. Even being larger now didn't change what had happened there,
did it? Nothing ever could. When the bigger, stronger, men had come to take
her, all he could do was flail at them weakly. Being raped himself, to shame
him, as they took her. As if that could leave him with
greater
shame
than letting them touch her? That she didn't hate him for not doing what he was
supposed to was probably more than he deserved.

There was a buzzing from his
pocket, which made him slap at it, shocked. He hadn't been ready for anything
like that. The new communications units did that, as their default state. Tiera
had explained it to him, before he tucked the thing away, to play with later,
if he ever had time. Apparently he had that just then, according to whoever
wanted his attention. His guess would be Tiera, checking to make certain he
could make it work, but it wasn't her at all. It was Patty. Her face showed on
the front of the thing, moving and looking at him, seeming happy.

"There you are! Tim just got
finished, and wants to get things moving here. New large scale food units. Lots
of them. I don't know if Tor is around yet, but I'll go check on him. We should
be there in... Call it fifteen minutes? Timon said that he wanted to talk to
you? Um... I do too, if you... I know that you may not want to. That's fine,
but... I don't want to lose you as a friend, Ger." She seemed to be holding
her breath, and he didn't know what to say. He didn't want to let her go
either, but holding on to a person that didn't want you was madness.

"Sure. That should be all
right. I won't be leaving for a while. Oh! I... That man, that came with us,
Ridley Dens? Is he going back do you think? Or... How would you know, right?
I'll check with Captain Debri. Thanks. I... I missed having you with me,
Patty." That was as close as he could let himself come to saying he loved
her. It was probably too much.

"Me too. Still, at least now
I get to see you every few days. You can stay over too? I know that everyone
expects you to live here, at least part of the time. Petra was shocked by that,
since it means she's included. I still can't believe that she landed you. That's
a real score. Not that she isn't a peach, but I would have figured that you'd
end up-" She didn't say anything else, and he understood why that was.

It had always been what he'd
thought, too.

"Alone? I know, it's a
change up! Caught
me
off guard. Anyway, thanks for letting me know
what's going on. I'll be at the entryway." That required running, since
the ship had been made almost full size, which was about a quarter mile long.
It wouldn't have been that bad, but he got lost. On his own ship. The layout
was a little different than a Space Fleet vessel, so it took about five minutes
longer than it should have to get into place. Tim was already loading
everything, a long train of floating cases following him. There was no sense
that he realized Gerent was in the loading bay, until the last box was in
place. They looked like shipping containers made of wood, and shaped to go into
the back of a wagon.

That was what he was thinking
when Tim looked at him, drawing the outline of a box in the air.

"They fit in the back of
Taman's new craft. Two of these will. I have a loading key for it. Once you
leave the area they'll just be boxes though. Here." It was a complex thing
with a lot of lights, but it was pretty easy to use, once explained. You just
tapped the crates you wanted, and then basically thought about what you needed
each one to do.

Then the boy looked at him,
almost dead in the eye, being that they were both that tall now. Both
dangerously thin, too. Timon was actually shorter, by a bit. Growing like a real
person, not catching up all at once. He waved a bit, which had some secret
meaning, no doubt, but Timon explained, smiling, knowing that he wouldn't
understand what he meant otherwise.

"The new food units make
more things, including whole products. Bread, cheese, yogurt, milk, that kind
of thing. Different fruits and all that. About a hundred in all. A hundred and
eight, to be exact. Otherwise they work the same way. I labeled things in each
of the main languages by the correct sigil. They don't make containers, but if
you put one in the production hopper, it will fill it accurately." There
was a tired look, which meant the boy had worked with no sleep for days to get
this done, he didn't doubt. They all did that kind of thing.

"This is an amazing effort.
All I brought were some plants. Which got taken somewhere, but..."

"Heh! I heard about that!
There are already teams volunteering to care for each plant. We should try
seeds up here, if we can get them. Some people have gotten things to work, so
it isn't impossible or anything. So... Petra Ward?" He grinned and then
shook his head a little. "She's one of my favorite people, you know."

They moved back, into a far
corner of the loading bay. The boy was a man now, married, and if only
fourteen, that would have made him legally capable of owning his own home in
Noram. He'd done it earlier than that, but everyone was considered an adult at
that age. That meant he had a right to know, didn't it? For a moment Gerent
considered just not mentioning anything about it to him. There wasn't a lot
that Tim could do to help. Not this time.

"Petra... When Count
Rodriguez held her, his men... they... Didn't just torture her."

Gerent didn't know what kind of
response to expect, but what he got was calm, collected, and reasoned. The
younger man just stood, and nodded a few times, his face placid and calm.
Meditative. Probably from all the work that he'd been doing.

"She lied about that, to
prevent her family from declaring all out war?'

Gerent nodded, not even amazed
that Timon had gotten to that point already. He was one of the smartest people.
If not
the
most intelligent. Not a lot got past him.

"That's right. So Collette
and a few of the others, Counts and Countess's, we're going to find the
guardsmen that did that and punish them." He didn't add how, but Tim got
that one, he bet, even if the others all thought that it was going to be taking
heads.

It was going to be different than
that, if he had his way. Which he would, even if it meant doing it all himself.

"What do you need me to do?
I can add magical support. I have some funds there still, just building up. Or,
I can call on King Richard, using the new device that Terry is giving him? Has
he been informed of this, yet?"

"Yes. He's part of it."
That might have been a little bit too strong a characterization, but Tim
understood that.

"That's about all that can
be done. That, and unmanning Count Rodriguez. The old one, not his heir, unless
he had something to do with this?" There was a look then that was far too
hard for fourteen.

"Not that I've heard. I'll
check into it. I... Don't know if I can get that part done. He'll likely be
dead first. The rebellion..."

Timon stared at him for a long
time and then shook his head, slowly.

"You can handle them. Go and
explain this to them, and describe what you have planned. They'll give their
blessing. No one wants their wife or daughter treated that way. It was foolish
of the man. He probably didn't order it, but allowing
that
to take
place... He should have known to control for that kind of thing. Well, handle
it. I'd do it, but I can't."

"Because of me." He
felt guilty, but there was a soft slap on his arm, along with a somber
expression.

"Brother, it was
my
device you used, at the behest of many of those that were killed that day. I
was simply saying that this time it can't be me. Anyone not realizing that
you're a force to be reckoned with... My guess is they soon will."

That didn't seem too likely, but
he patted the boy back, a slap to the arm in return. Manly. Big.

"Patty said that she wanted
to talk to me about something. Any clues?"

There was a soft smile then.

"Sure, a lot of them. I
don't think I'll give you all of it. Here's one though, she's going to be the
spy master for Noram someday, and isn't planning to lose her contacts, so
anyone she wants you to talk to is probably a spy. Just because you might need
to know this, I'm taking over the Assassins Guild. If a person from the Sorvee
Merchant house comes to you for help, please do so with minimal questions. Not
everyone has the resources that you do."