Envoy to Earth (31 page)

"Would you be willing to do
such work? I know not what it will entail, at this point, but you've seemed
sufficiently intelligent when we've met in the past." She paused and bowed
a little, getting the move almost right. "I also have enjoyed your
company."

Bonita blinked a few times and
smiled.

"I think I can do that. Yes.
It sounds important."

Blue regarded her without
expression for a half moment, speaking quickly.

"It is."

That left people that he had no
clue about, as far as their reactions. Looking at the nearly thirty individuals
in the small space, he took a deep breath and then jumped in.

"Um... Tor? I... put you in
charge of Vagus." He said it as if it had all been his idea, which, even
if it were a joke at the time, it
had
been. He made a face for a few
seconds, and then looked at Gerent rather sourly.

"You did? Why?" That
got everyone else to look at him as if he were stupid. Tor that was. Kolb just
snorted.

"You started a major
building program there. See it through. If we're taking the whole world into
this new line of advancement, that's the place that will be hardest to
transform."

That got the muscular bald man
glared at, as if Tor was being petty, but after a moment he sighed.

"Fine. I can do that."

Eto bowed to him, and smiled,
getting one in return almost immediately. She moved over to him carefully, her
red robe bright and clean, her face looking youthful and vibrant.

Then she started talking to him
in Vagish, which to Gerent's amazement, was returned in kind. They chattered
for a bit, and finally Tor nodded to her.

"Mage Eto has volunteered to
be my aid there, until I can go myself." That didn't handle the new
students, but this didn't seem like the time to discuss
that
portion of
things.

"Um... Afrak. Farlo
Ross?" He had to look around for her, having met the girl before, but only
a few times and never to do more than exchange the briefest of words with. She
stood and bowed to him, and then everyone else.

"Honored." She looked
at Princess Abbey closely, her face closed off, but a bit scared around the
edges, as if the woman was going to leap up and throttle her for taking the
position.

Well, lying being habit forming,
he shook his head.

"No, Abbey needs to focus on
the living things. For all the worlds, and space ships. Well, the
animals
.
I'll do the plants? We can work together on it?" It was a bit of a plush
job, he realized, getting to play with that kind of thing all the time, but no
one yelled at him for suggesting it. He liked plants, most of them could
probably see that.

The dark skinned, nearly true
black, woman stood, her tiny form upright and proud. Her hair was a sharp red
and her eyes reminded him of the summer sky, they were such a light blue.

"That is an honor, Prince
Gerent. A vast responsibility as well. Thank you. I look forward to working
with you." She seemed more pleased, based on her smile, than her deep
words had sounded like. She beamed at everyone then, and Alphonse seemed happy
for her. He looked hopeful too, but Gerent shook his head.

"
Sam Builder
is
responsible for Noram." The words came out quietly and instead of seeming
upset, Alphonse, his sisters and Smyth all stood and turned to bow to the boy,
who jumped up, yelped and returned the movement, going very low.

Gerent needed to get some air
soon, before he got to the hard ones, but so far no one seemed to want to do
that. There was a time schedule, after all.

"Princess Veronica? Would
you be willing to act as his voice there?" Gerent tried to sound humble,
and since he had a lifetime of experience doing that, it came out right. The
girl, who had her little daughter on her lap again, not wanting to let her go,
nodded.

"I can come here to get my
assignments?" She looked over at him, not Sam. As if he were the one that
needed to give her permission for it?

"That sounds like a plan.
You should all do that, most likely. So... That's most of them, only the hard
ones left. I... Please don't hit me. Thank you." He bowed low and held it
for a while, and after a moment Tiera did the same, her eyes downcast. Since
they weren't married it was pretty clear that she was saying that his decision
in this was hers as well. Everyone got that, but Timon stiffened, his eyes
going wide, which was rare for him. Unflappable was more like what Gerent
expected from the boy.

"Oh... That's... I
see." He probably did, but that didn't inform anyone else.

"Tellerand... It's a real
problem area. We weren't able to deliver food magics to them. They chased us
off, throwing rocks. They need the help, so it's going to take a lot of real
work, starting as soon as possible. Terry? We're leaving that to you. If you
need anyone else's help, any of us here, including Orange, then just ask, and
it will be done."

The boy did
not
look at
all happy to be put in charge. In fact he looked at Gerent as if it were a
joke, but Tiera caught his eye before he could speak about it.

"This
isn't
a prank,
Terry. You understand them as well as any of us, and have dealt with them more,
in the last years. We'll help you, but... I think that you should
decline."

That got a snort from the
handheld speaking device as Alice made a few choice comments.

"That's not likely for him,
is it? Terrence can do it. It's not the job for a boy, but in time he won't be
one. Who else is going to do it? Kolb? That bunch of book thumpers would end up
dead in that case. Me? The same thing would happen. I say you grab a few of
your brothers and sisters and pull them in now too, but do the job." She
didn't add anything else, but the old woman to his right did.

She spoke with a dreamy, drugged
sounding, voice. It was pleasant to listen to, and not all that old sounding at
all. Gentle, really.

"I fear I must agree, Terry.
Of all of the people present that can do the task, only you have both the
courage and patience to do this one correctly. Your siblings will have work to
do as well." She gave the boy a bow, but he just nodded, and left the
room.

He simply walked out the door,
after unlocking it.

"I need to get started,
then." He called back. That was all.

Gerent looked over at the older
woman, and thought that he understood her plan. She was trying to make certain
that all the other kids, the little ones, wouldn't be left out. That was very
sweet of her. Except that he thought he had a better plan.

Then, didn't everyone always
think their plan was the best?

Being daring, which had never
been that much of a problem for him for some reason, he looked at Taman.

"Soam is going to Taman. That's
the hardest one to fix and may take... Centuries or longer. Again, we'll all
help. I can't do it, and honestly..." He nearly said he wasn't certain if
it could be done at all. Only time may be enough, in the end, but the girl gave
him a nod, and didn't stand up. Her parents didn't either, though Laurie looked
a bit concerned.

So Gerent looked her straight in
the eyes and prayed that this didn't end with him being kicked out of his new
family.

"It's the most damaged land,
so Abbey and I will be working with her. It will take a lot of education, for
all of us, and time. She has that." It wasn't a very good reason, but how
did you explain that you thought the seven year old girl was smarter than
almost anyone else in the room? Tim looked over at him and then stood, his six
and a half foot plus frame moving over to his little sister. Then he patted her
on the shoulder.

"I have some anti-radiation
plans. Nothing perfect yet, but we should get together and go over that. Soil
cleaning and some other things." He looked over at Gerent, and nodded
slowly, getting what had just been dumped onto the tiny shoulders in front of
him.

Still, who could do more than
her?

Since no one lynched him on the
spot, or was even glaring, he moved on.

"Alice has Space Fleet, but
we need to get her some jump ships for exploration. We need some of those space
stations too, both here and other places. You have those Tim?"

The boy smiled and gave a big
nod. It actually looked fairly happy.

"A hundred of them, all
nearly big enough to hold fifty times the population we have here."

They were running out of young
people to foist jobs on, he realized, but spied a tall thin man in the back who
looked likely for it. Before Gerent could ask who was who, having forgotten the
names, people started to nominate others.

It was decided that each of the
three major space stations would have an overseer, being that they were nearly
as large as some small lands. In internal space at least. After a few moments,
pretending to think, as if he knew any of the people being put forward, he
nodded.

"So, Sherri Bonner, Guide
Eastgreen and Mark Sorenson. You'll probably need to get with Alice on that,
since she'll know more about where to put them and all that kind of thing than
any of us. Um... Tiera get's this place and Karina is responsible for Mars.
Past that... Well, I think that if we go to another star system, that Alphonse
should do that one. The colony there. He'd have to abdicate the throne of Noram
first, but..." He said this in an offhand way, trying to be teasing, but
several people, including the red headed giant Prince, seemed to think that
sounded about right.

It would, Tor pointed out, be a
while before that happened anyway and gave them someone solid to see to that
remote of a duty, if the job ever came up.

That was all he had planned, and
really, since he'd kind of figured on just dumping some Mages on Tor, it was a
lot more than that. Dorgal stood near the far left side, and hadn't spoken at
all, but as soon as Tiera announced that was all for the first meeting, he
moved over to Douglas, which had about half the room doing the same thing.

He bowed, his black outfit still
plain, compared to the rather fancy brown and green that Douglas wore. It was
more merchant style than noble, with leather trousers and a soft silk shirt
with a leather vest over that. There were tool marks too, showing the thing to
be real, though that was silly. It had to be magical, since they were on the
Moon and doing anything else would be a mistake. He really doubted that Douglas
Baker made a lot of those.

He looked younger than Dorgal,
but wasn't, and smiled when the boy stood up, and got to his own feet. He was
shorter than the other man, but only by about four inches. Seeing them side by
side he realized that they looked similar. Like they might be brothers. That
was an illusion however, he realized, since the older man was far too advanced
in years for that to work out.

"Uncle Douglas? It was
suggested to me that I introduce myself if I ever got the chance. We actually met
before, but I didn't get an opportunity to speak to you at length. At my
wedding?" He seemed grim for a moment, since his wife was dead, and
Douglas tightened his face in response. Then the man stuck out his hand and
they both shook, clasping forearms. It was strange looking. It probably marked
them as being assassins, or maybe just Sorvees.

"I didn't know that. I mean,
when I heard the family name, I realized that you were one of us, but I didn't
know you were Donald's boy. I saw him there, at the wedding. I wasn't supposed
to let anyone know about things, back then. I guess that's changed now however.
How is everyone?"

They spoke for a bit, as the rest
of the Baker family worked into place. It was enlightening to see who knew
what, however. Tenet and Tess both bowed, and spoke to the man in a friendly,
but slightly distant fashion.

"Pleased to meet you,
cousin-" Tenent, who was nine, Gerent thought, stopped then, so he filled
in the rest.

"Dorgal. Dorgal Sorvee. Of
the merchant house." He thought he had that much right and didn't add the
rest of what Tim had mentioned to him. If they needed to know about assassins,
then that was something they had to find out on their own.

It was strange, but Taman just
bowed, as if she already had the whole thing worked out, and Alphonse smirked a
bit. Then shook his head, as if it all made sense suddenly.

Tor was the one that looked half
ready to freak out. In fact his eyes went so wide it was nearly insulting. He
did manage to get his face under control, going blank, a few moments later.
There were a lot of people standing around after all. If he looked bad then,
these people might well be around for a very long time to make fun of him over
it.

"Cousin? I..." He
looked about ready to become angry, when Dorgal bowed low, from the waist.

"I beg forgiveness. I was
unkind and surly, treating you poorly when I should not have. I didn't know
that we were related at the time, but this only compounds a grievous
error-" The polite response would be to either let the man go on, or to
take his shoulders and help him right himself, but Tor didn't really do either
of those. He held out his right hand, and then sort of froze for a while.

"Um, yeah. Okay. I need time
to adjust to this one. I... Dorgal Sorvee is family? That
can't
be right."
He looked over at his father who shrugged, but it was Timon that spoke, his
voice deep for a boy his age.

"Count Lairdgren sent mother
into hiding with father to protect her. Da was a Sorvee back then, and... Well
there's more to the story, but Lairdgren pretty much runs the Sorvee Merchant
House, after a fashion. So, there was a name change, but your school bully
turns out to be your cousin. I think that about sums it up." He looked at
everyone else, as if expecting them to say he was correct.

Which, naturally, he was.