Voices of Chaos (11 page)

A broad avenue led away from the banks of docking bays and plunged into tall yellow-green vegetation--bushes, trees, and flowering plants, all contributing to a breathable atmosphere, Magdalena knew. Long row-buildings with evenly spaced doors made five-sided figures with gardens in the centers--the Heeyoons had sent vid of that, and she could see as much in a single, unnerving glance overhead. They were all single-story buildings; Arekkhi knees weren't constructed for climbing stairs, elevators were nonexistent, and there wasn't enough room up here for ramps.

Some of the pentacles of buildings looked like living space, others might be shops or businesses---a few they passed had signs on the outer walls or goods piled on both sides of a door clearly marking them as specialty shops.

The Arekkhi don't

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know any other kind of business,
she reminded herself.
Yet.
Their tech might have moved into space, but their merchantile processes hadn't moved beyond the Earth Renaissance model.

There were only a very few Arekkhi in sight and none close by--just as Alexis had predicted--but she could sense eyes on the other sides of those doors: They were being watched. She glanced ahead where Alexis and Bhelan were talking animatedly--discussing Earth baseball and a similar Arekkhi sport. She crossed her eyes.
Baseball.
Poor David had been an ardent baseball fan; she'd never understood the thrill of watching team sports if you weren't part of the team. Still--good for Alexis, coming up with a subject she and the pilot could enjoy: Bhelan no longer had that slightly haunted look about his ears and whiskers.
He's good,
she thought appraisingly as they crossed a small square of yellow-green vegetation separating one avenue from another. The stuff was springy underfoot and released a minty, soothing odor as they stepped on it.
Khyriz might have
shown him holo-vid of us, but he's never talked to a human before this.

It was too much to hope that everyone they met would be as easy to talk to as this male. After all, he was Khyriz's pilot--he'd introduced himself to Alexis that way--and he was young. Magdalena knew from Khyriz about some of the more hidebound older and noble Arekkhi. More than she wanted to know, really; but since manners and good behavior counted for so much in this society, she wasn't worried that high-ranking nobles would be openly rude.

Privately offended by, or even afraid of--that she expected. Which was a large part of the argument against any alien group locating on the planet.

Supposedly, the normally unclothed Heeyoons had terrified and disgusted station Arekkhi, at first. Furless (if clad) humans would be at least as bad, especially if allowed to go wherever they pleased.

Or so the argument went.
But I don't believe it,
Magdalena thought.
Ordinary
beings adapt--especially if we don't have any other choice. Now, the
Prelate....
The Prelate didn't have to adapt to anything, if he chose not to. He barely had to answer to the Emperor, and only on certain matters.

She really didn't want to meet the Prelate; she could only

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hope any such meeting came soon and was behind her, so she could get on with being useful to Alexis.

But most religious beings here might not be as narrow of belief as all that: Human religious leaders often supported the CLS and StarBridge both. It was the fringe types, like Solomon Smith, who didn't want to adapt. Smith had used a spaceship to travel from Earth to New Am, and still preached that the world was created (flat) by God in the year 4004
b
.C.

She came back to the moment as Alexis laughed cheerfully at something Bhelan had said; the Arekkhi's whiskers touched and his ears flicked forward.
Khyriz chose us a good companion; let's hope he's as good a pilot.

Bhelan turned left just past the little park. "Apologies for the lack of moving walkways on-station, but they require energy that the station cannot afford...."

"It's all right, I need the exercise," Alexis assured him.

"The boundary for the trader's consortium is just here, at the greensward," he said. That meant the women were the first outsiders of any kind to walk through this part of station, Magdalena realized, and exchanged pleased glances with Alexis. Maybe it wasn't going to be so difficult after all.

Almost at once their surroundings became industrial: Solid flatbed hover-carriers fronted massive, squat buildings--warehouses and factories, Bhelan said.
The packers and transporters are inside the buildings,
Magdalena thought, with that strong feeling of being watched. The path to the shuttle down to the planet had been cleared for them.

They couldn't see far in any direction here, except overhead: Up there, Magdalena could make out more enormous buildings and plenty of activity--

but it was too far away to make out much detail.

Magdalena gazed around her, ignoring Alexis and Bhelan, who were

oblivious to the silence as they cheerfully discussed his sister's first daughter, who played
djiris
--something like baseball or maybe soccer, Magdalena didn't know which. She came back to the moment With a start as the interrelator said something about second-class citizens. "If you can believe it," Alexis continued, "females of my own species were once thought too fragile to play games, and not that far in our own

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past. It's nice to hear that your young females actually play sports that were once reserved for your males."

"Ah... our females ... ah, well, of course. Such things ... well, they go without saying, don't they? After all, only look at my niece...." The pilot suddenly had that harassed look to his whiskers once more, and he was almost

stammering. The tips of his whiskers flicked constantly, a nervous tic that reminded Magdalena of her own habit of drumming her nails on the nearest hard surface. Alexis didn't seem to notice.

Of course not,
she reminded herself.
Alexis is a professional at this kind of
thing, she knows when not to show surprise. She has two years on you, and
she's been off StarBridge before now. Unlike you.
Besides, Magdalena knew from all those sessions with Dr. Rob that she tended to read more into small things than was necessary. It could be that Bhelan had a problem with his sister, or his niece, some simple family matter like that.

Still... she'd ask Alexis later.
Remember what you both say: You aren't
paranoid if they're really after you.
Meantime, she'd let Alexis handle Bhelan.

Look around, inhale, pay attention. The tapes the school had, everything
Khyriz told you-- there's still a lot of information to sort out, and only some of
it visual.

The bags stacked nearby, for instance: She knew by the label the product they contained was
zhoris,
the wheat-like grain used for flat bread and breakfast cakes. But the off-planet hydroponics--here and on both moon stations--couldn't grow it, and the chemists had never been able to duplicate the grain, the flour, or the seed. So,
zhoris
was brought up from the vast fields in central Akkherif, largely from Duke Zhenu's lands. Back on StarBridge, she'd eaten fruit-smeared zhoris-cakes and an elaborately braided loaf full of dried fruit and nuts and enjoyed it; she hadn't realized then that the strong citrusy smell was the grain itself.

And down that way, a long, narrow space between warehouses--was that actually a prehover vehicle? She narrowed her eyes. Wheels!
That's an
antique for certain!
The Arekkhi hadn't used wheels on-planet in more than a hundred years, not since they'd discovered a method for cheaply run 74

air-cushioned vehicles. Of course, the station was old, but that old? Or were wheels somehow more practical here...?

Her eyes shifted from the wheeled cart to movement beyond it, and she caught her breath in a gasp.
What kind of being is that?
''What...? Alex, do you see what I see?''

Alexis came back to join her, gazed where the translator pointed. "I think--

wait, yes. Bhelan, those aren't like any Arekkhi I've ever seen!" But the pilot, after one brief glance between the buildings, had turned away, coughing and fumbling in his sleeve for a nose-cloth.

"Too small,'' Magdalena murmured."But--the distance--''

"No," Alexis said firmly. "It's not that far--maybe a tenth of a mile--sorry, a fifth of a kilometer. They're definitely not--good Lord," she added in English; Magdalena's jaw dropped. "Those are
tails]"

''I see that. Maybe young...?"

"Not young Arekkhi," Alexis said firmly. "Bhelan, what...?" She glanced back toward the pilot; he was still coughing, rubbing at his nose. His ears were utterly flat to his skull.

They aren't young Arekkhi,
Magdalena thought filled with curiosity. These creatures had the wrong-shaped ears and profiles. And...no spots. Even infant Arekkhi bore some spots. The long, thickly furred tails bounced in counterpoint to their steps. But, as she turned to say something to Alexis, one of the two creatures suddenly looked their way. Startled-looking, wide-eyes met Magdalena's across the distance; the smaller creature urgently pressed against its companion, who also looked. The hover-cart shifted awkwardly as the two leaned into it, then vanished behind the next building.

Magdalena realized she was holding her breath, and she let it out quietly; the whole event couldn't have taken more than a few seconds.

"What was
that?"
Alexis demanded breathlessly; she and the translator turned as one to eye Bhelan, who spread his hands in an Arekkhi shrug.

"Those--the two little beings we just saw, the ones pushing that cart, Bhelan.

What are they?"

"They ... ? Apologies, I didn't see. The dust made my eyes water." Bhelan emitted a growling little sound: Arekkhi

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laughter, though he sounded distressed. Alexis gave Magdalena another sidelong look, which the translator interpreted as
Let me deal with this.
The interrelator smiled at their pilot.

"Well, they were moving quickly, after all. Still, I got a good enough look,"

she added, and neatly described them.

Bhelan's ears flicked, and Magdalena, who was now watching him from the corner of her eyes, wondered as his whiskers and ears came back to normal--she'd have sworn he was still scared.
Why?
she wondered. "Oh, those," he said. "I wasn't certain what you--um, they're ... they are Asha."

Magdalena started. Khyriz had been kidding her about something not long before he left StarBridge, something silly. And he'd said that, out of the blue: Asha.
But when I asked what it meant, his whiskers touched, he was
laughing that little purrlike laugh of his, and he said, "Asha? You mean, you
don't know about Asha?"

Odd. Thinking back on that evening, she had a sense of something that had upset or frightened him about the word. She'd never actually gotten a straight answer from him, either. Somehow she'd received an impression of

something like knights-errant. Maybe Hobbits. Possibly the wandering samurai from some of Dr. Rob's better old movies.

"Asha!" Alexis exclaimed in surprise. "I heard about them from the first Heeyoons who came here--and Shiksara said something about them. But I thought--aren't they smaller?" She moved her hands apart, indicating something the size of a large house-cat. "And aren't they pets?"

Bhelan's ears flicked, then remained still. "Pets--well, of course, they're pets.

Their ancient ancestors were similar to ours, they say--but that was when even the Arekkhi ran on four feet and ate raw kill. The Prince explained it to me: It is like you humans and your--ah, your
monkeys."
The English word, even accented, sounded very strange at the moment. "The Asha--they vary.

So some are little and they become pets; while others--well, they can be trained to perform repetitive tasks."

"More like dogs," Alexis murmured to herself. "All right, I understand." I
think,
the glance she sent Magdalena said.

"They must have seen you and taken fright; it is mostly

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because of the Asha that we keep the Heeyoons away from this part of the station, since the creatures do so much work in this area. They are easily terrified by anything new." Bhelan eyed her anxiously. "The master of station would be very angry if he thought I deliberately showed you Asha; if he thought I caused them to be frightened."

"Why?" Magdalena asked. "I mean, why use them here?"

The pilot's eyes flicked toward her, away, back again. "Because of the size of this station: Resources are limited. Food, water, and air--we waste nothing. One day, perhaps, we will adapt this place to your outsider tech, but for now, we use Asha whenever we can. They are smaller than we, they are housed in ... in kennels, and they eat less. What food they do eat needs less preparation, and they do not bathe as Arekkhi do, so less water is wasted."

"Sensible," Alexis murmured. "Well, then. Perhaps we'd better get moving again. No need to get you into trouble, Bhelan."

"My thanks," the pilot said, his ears twitching as he turned and started walking the way they'd been going.

Behind his back, Alexis and Magdalena exchanged glances.
Too pat,
Magdalena decided.
Sure, he could know all that-- but his delivery sounded
as if he'd practiced it.
Alexis's look held a warning; she nodded briefly. I
won't call him on that--I wouldn't anyway. But why couldn't things have
waited to get complicated until after we landed on the planet?

As she walked beside the translator, Alexis shifted her gaze to the back of their shuttle pilot's black jumpsuit.
Glib. And Asha, are they?
They'd appeared clever enough--apparently clever enough to manage the task of delivering that cart of goods without supervision. Still, she'd helped her father train their sheep-herding dogs for years. And she'd been part of the precollege Ukrainian group that had tracked the sign-language-trained gorilla in Kiev.