The Crucible of Empire (59 page)

Jihan might—but Caitlin had already come to the conclusion that Jihan was an exceptional individual. She was certainly exceptional for a member of an
elian.

Still . . .

When Caitlin Kralik and Caewithe Miller returned to the assault craft, they were both smiling widely.

"She's a genius, sir," Caewithe reported.

"I already knew that," said Tully. He waved down Caitlin's sputter of protest. "What'd she do? Organize them into a union?"

Miller shook her head, as she began removing the bulky outerwear. "Not exactly. I really don't think the word would mean much to them, even if they'd learn to pronounce it right inside of twenty minutes. . Any more than—meaning no offense, sir—words like 'justice' and 'equality.' "

"She's right, Gabe," said Caitlin, struggling with her own outerwear. "The notion of a 'trade union' pre-supposes exactly what these people don't have, which is a pre-existing notion that all Lleix share some sort of equal rights. We got that in our own history from a host of influences, including the Enlightenment, the Reformation and—when you get right down to it—some of the basic premises of the world's great religions."

Tully waited patiently. Once Caitlin kicked into her Professor Kinsey mode, she'd insist on beating around the bush for a while. Not as long as Kinsey himself would, of course.

Seeing the expression on his face, she smiled. "Some things really can't be explained in sound bytes, Gabe. But I'll make it short. What I decided I
might
be able to do was persuade the
dochaya
people that the work they do of organizing themselves every day into a labor force ready, willing and able to provide the
elian
with whatever assistance they need is
itself
a specific skill." Her smiled widened into something very close to a grin. "In other words, I proposed a new
elian.
I suggested they call it the Workorganizers."

She hooked a thumb at Miller. "When they looked dubious, I told them that we humans had such an
elian
, and that she'd once belonged to it."

Caewithe shrugged. "I did, too, sorta. I'd get work as a casual laborer whenever I needed some money. I didn't formally belong to the union, but the dispatcher didn't care. Not with a brother, an uncle and two cousins in the same local."

Tully had never worked on the docks himself, but he knew people who had and understood the setup. Longshoremen didn't work for any specific stevedoring company. They all got work out of the union-run hiring hall, to which the companies applied whenever they needed laborers.

"In other words, you convinced them that the
dochaya
oughta be a hiring hall—and because a hiring hall is under the control of the workers instead of management, it amounts to its own kind of business. And so it damn well oughta be allowed to join the local Chamber of Commerce."

He started chuckling. "God, girl, on Earth you'd get laughed out of court. And I'm not sure who'd be laughing harder—the chambers of commerce or the union movement."

She and Miller were chuckling too. "Probably—but we're not on Earth. Once the
dochaya
people were told that the idea had of-fi-cial human approval, that was good enough." She stopped chuckling and gave Tully a nod that was almost deep enough to be called a bow. "All that stuff you said to them wasn't really a waste of time, Gabe. I think it laid enough of a groundwork to make them receptive."

By now, she and Miller had removed their outerwear. Caewithe began storing it away in the locker next to the hatch. "I think what's more important, probably, is that the
dochaya
folks have figured out that there's a new sheriff in town."

Tully had come to the same conclusion himself. "Yeah—but I'm not the sheriff, any more. Never was, really, just the deputy. And now Sheriff Ronz has arrived. Who's also known as a Preceptor of the Bond of Ebezon—and the Jao don't recognize trade unions any more than the Lleix do. So what's
he
going to think?"

Caitlin and Caewithe looked at each other. Then Miller smiled coolly and said, "Oh, I figure Mrs. Kralik can sweet-talk him into it."

Tully's smile matched hers. "Yup, so do I. So hop to it, Mrs. Kralik."

"Why me?" complained Caitlin.

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Caitlin? Like it or not, you're the human race's premier diplomat when it comes to dealing with Bug Eyed Aliens. Bemmies, for short."

"Neither the Jao
nor
the Lleix are 'bug-eyed,' Major Tully," Caitlin said reprovingly.

"See?" Tully said to Miller. "She's already being diplomatic."

Ronz was somewhat skeptical. But . . .

Caitlin Kralik's skills as a negotiator were a matter of record. And while the Preceptor doubted that Caitlin's maneuver would work for very long, it really didn't have to. Just long enough to get the Lleix aboard the ships and transported to Terra.

Ronz was prepared to use force if necessary to accomplish that, after all. So why not try Caitlin's scheme first? If it didn't work, Ronz could always fall back on the use of soldiers.

He'd brought human jinau for that. Using Jao troops, given the history, would have almost certainly guaranteed that the Lleix would resist bitterly.

"Very well, Caitlin. We'll try it." He turned away from the comm station to consider the commander of those jinau troops.

Who was, of course, Caitlin's very capable husband.

"And what do you think, General?" he asked.

"My wife is smart about these things, sir."

"Yes, I know."

Ronz turned away, and began pondering that truth. Time he did so, he thought. If her scheme worked, as had her scheme to solve the human-Jao conflict by forming a new taif . . .

Once, might be chance. Twice, no.

Grijo departed the Dwellingconstructors'
elian
-house for the Hall of Decision as soon as the Humans requested the meeting. The wind was fierce that morning up on the mountain, running hard before an incoming storm, and the deep chill cleared his head. That day, for the first time in his long life, he had traveled out into the solar system on one of the Lleix's increasingly few ships. Now, his feet had hardly touched the ground of home again before the aliens were clamoring to speak before the Han. It was a disquieting request. Supposedly all matters between their species had already been settled.

Everything was disarrayed. No one was behaving as she or he ought. In the Children's Courts, younglings were not being taught. The
elian
had put aside their crafts and services to instead prepare for abandoning this world. Some of the unassigned still sought employment, but most had fallen into unmitigated sloth, lounging about in the
dochaya
to whisper among themselves.

Was this what it was like each time the Lleix fled a colony world just ahead of the Ekhat? If so, it was a wonder his kind had not simply lain down and surrendered their lives. The constant physical and emotional turmoil exhausted his old mind.

After exiting the transport, he trudged up the stony path, step by careful step, and found the Hall's immense doors thrown open in readiness. Both of the resident Hallkeepers waited at the entrance, making themselves respectfully small as Grijo passed. His bones felt brittle and his aureole could barely stir. This day, with all its attendant problems, had fallen to him. If the crisis had waited just a few more seasons, he would have been safely dead and the weight of all this would have been someone else's to bear.

He settled his bulk into the ornate seat with its traditional discomfort and then watched as the rest of the colony's Eldests filed in after him and arrayed themselves in orderly ranked rows, the most aged closest to him, comparative youths in the back.

Finally, Jihan entered with several Humans and two Jao. The young Jaolore crossed the hall to stand at the foot of his raised chair and gaze up at him.

Was she going to misbehave yet again? "Take your seat, little Eldest," he said. His hands gripped the carved armrests of the chair, seeking for a comfortable position when he well knew there was not one.

"I will stand with these," the Jaolore said, sweeping an arm back toward the aliens. "I deserve nothing more."

That did not sound promising. "What have you done or left undone, littlest," he said, "to say such a thing?"

Jihan's aureole stilled. Her eyes glittered. "I stood aside and said nothing when untruth was presented to the Han," she said. "Only hear what these have to say and then you will know."

The slightest of the four, the one called "Caitlin," a tiny Human with golden fluff on her head, stepped forward and spoke. Jihan translated.

"Eldest-of-All," the Human said, huddling into her heavy outer garment as though she found the day's pleasant chill oppressive, "a mistake has been made, one which we regret. When Jihan, Lliant, and Hadata were rescued from the Ekhat ship, one of our Jao crew told them an untruth." The creature gazed around at the assembly. "She said that Jao were Human slaves. This is not true and indeed has never been true."

Grijo blinked. All around him, aureoles stiffened. Murmurs of shock ran through the assembled Eldests. A deep dread suffused him.

"The Jao who said this thing thought she was being
funny
," the Human said. "I do not think she ever considered that her words would actually be believed."

Jihan had rendered the Human word without translating it. "What is this term
funny
?" Grijo said.

"I do not know, Eldest," Jihan said, bowing her head. "I have learned a great deal of English in the time the Humans have been among us, but I have not grasped that particular word."

Grijo studied the two Jao who had accompanied this small Human. They did not seem to feel the chill as deeply, though they did wear foot covers and swathe themselves in blue cloth. "If the Jao did not think we would believe," he said, trying to make his startled brain think, "then why did she say this untrue thing?"

"Humans and Jao find the construction of humorous tales relaxing," Caitlin said. "It is a form of recreation. To explain further now would take too long, and we must make haste. As we discussed before, we have brought ships to transport your people to Terra. We need to make plans with you to evacuate the colony."

Grijo sat back, considering. Throughout the great hall, eldests craned their heads for a better look and murmured to one another. Fear dried his eyes so that they ached, made his old hands tremble. They were not safe after all. This breach of an already fragile trust was yet another sorrow heaped upon their many past sorrows. It seemed to be their fate. The Lleix found nothing but obstruction and loss whichever way they turned. The
Boh
had indeed deserted them.

He leaned back in the seat as though he could distance himself from this unwelcome news. "Did the Jao compel you to let them tell this untruth?"

"No," the lithe little creature said through Jihan's translation. "But we knew the Lleix feared the Jao with good reason. When the untruth was presented, it seemed a way our three species could become acquainted without the Lleix worrying that the Jao would attack as they did so long ago."

"They drove us from our homes over and over again," Grijo said. "They rained death down upon the
elian
and most of what we once were is now lost. Because of the Jao, we are but a sliver of our former selves."

"They did all of those things," the Human said, "but that was long ago under the direction of the Ekhat and no one present here today took part in the atrocities. Now, as you can see, they have committed a huge amount of time and resources to transport the Lleix to safety and in some measure atone for what their ancestors did."

"Present the truth," Grijo said. His mind was spinning with contradictions. "Now, in this sacred place, all of it." They must know the worst before they could decide what to do.

Caitlin bowed her head, seeming to compose herself, then told a startling tale, translated by Jihan, of the Jao coming to Terra and using their mighty ships to conquer an already divided blue and green world. It was a terrible war, she said, involving many ships and lasting several orbital cycles. Much of Terra's roads, factories, domestic habitations, and agricultural concerns were destroyed before Humans yielded. Even then, she said, some pockets of resistance continued fighting whenever they had the opportunity. In the time that followed, it was never more than an uneasy conquest until the Ekhat attacked Terra itself, forcing Jao and Human to learn to fight together.

"Now, we have taif status among them," Caitlin said. "We are considered equals by the Jao kochan."

Again, Jihan did not translate several of the alien terms. Grijo assumed the young Jaolore did not understand them.

The Human gripped her small hands together in what seemed a gesture of strain or distress. "They recognize Human culture as having strengths of its own, which when combined with those of the Jao, make us stronger together than either would be struggling against the Ekhat alone."