Captain MacDonald told some amusing stories about farming and tractor repair on some of the planets where he visited, and Becker chimed in with a couple of tales of his own, as well as relating a thrilling account of the battle against the Khleevi. He was hoping this might stimulate a war story or two from Kando. And that might also open the door for Nadhari to talk about what was bugging her.
Instead, Kando said simply, "Thank you, Captain Becker, for reminding us how fortunate we are that the Federation shields us from these truly terrible threats. The Federation, that is, and heroes like you and my cousin. Most of my people are unaware that such dangers exist, but my friendship with Dsu and my own experience while training for the Corps have given me different insights. It is because of this other reality that I differ from my predecessors, who considered constant war a way to keep the economy lively and the power in balance. I have come to feel strongly that these wars divide us against each other to no good purpose. They weaken our planet's voice in the Federation. They retard the progress of our civilization, destroy valuable individuals, and drain our resources, both natural and cultural.
"We don't need to be at war constantly, fighting over the same thing. We need roads and bridges both physical and cultural that will connect us, not divide us. Better schools. Better medical care. And we won't get those things until Makahomia is united. Only then can we hope for more than our present impoverished level of existence."
Becker wasn't sure whether he was supposed to applaud or head right out to the polls and place an illegal (since he was not Makahomian) but enthusiastic vote for Kando for Mulzar.
The speech did stimulate Nadhari. She smiled one of her slow and dangerous smiles and said, "And who do you suppose could unite our planet and how, Edu, hmmmm?"
Kando reached over and took her hand, his voice practically throbbing with sincerity as he said, "I was hoping you might help me answer that question, Nadhari, now that you are home again."
Then the Mulzar started in on a narrative about Nadhari's childhood. She kept protesting what he was saying, and he lapsed into one of the Makahomian dialects, one that Macostut apparently understood, too. Occasionally one of them tried to translate the conversation, but this seemed to be an in-joke kind of session and the Mulzar's Standard wasn't up to it, especially as his wine goblet emptied more and more often while he joked.
Becker and MacDonald looked at each other and shrugged. Then MacDonald sat back in his chair and patted his uniform tunic with satisfaction. "So, Jonas," he said, "that young lady you're with, the one with the horn. I heard about someone like her back on Rushima, last time I stopped over there to repair some of their tractors and give their people a few lessons. They were telling me about a tall young girl with a horn in the middle of her forehead who brought them a special tool that cleaned up their mucky water in no time flat. I looked that tool over and I couldn't find anything but a little slice of something that looks a little like this girl's horn."
Becker was nodding, grinning, as if he knew all about it, and thinking fast. If he knew Acorna, it was a slice of her horn. Since he and Aari were practically blood brothers, and Acorna sort of a blood sister-in-law, that made him practically Linyaari himself, he figured, and he had to protect their secrets.
"Oh, yeah," he said, broadening his grin and going into a riff that was very much like his spiel at the nano-bug markets where he sold some of his salvage cargo. "Aren't those slick? Linyaari nano-technology is something else. I can't believe what those people can fit into one of their little devices. The thing you saw is really just a kind of trigger for the machine. That coating on it is to make it look like the horn is their trademark. They have this whole class of people who take things other people invented and refine them and give them a style that's all Linyaari."
"Do tell!" MacDonald said. "Well, those folks are okay with the people on Rushima, I can tell you."
"Oh, yeah, they're wonderful people. And Acorna is probably the best of them all. She'll probably have all those guardian pussycats healed and eating out of her hand by the time we get there."
Kando suddenly tuned into him and dropped the Makahomian to ask in Standard, "Then she really can do as she claims, the ambassador?"
"Of course she can. Your pussycats got nothing to worry about," Becker told him.
"Oh, yes," Nadhari said, also in Standard. "Ambassador Acorna is a wonderful physician." Now it was her turn to elaborate. "Her healing techniques are being taught to the more gifted children on Maganos Moonbase. You may have heard of it, Lieutenant Commander?" The inference in her tone was that Kando, being in the Makahomian backwater, was unlikely to have heard of it. "My former employer, Mr. Li, helped Acorna rid Kezdet of child slavery."
"Why would he do such a thing?" Kando asked.
Nadhari smiled innocently at her cousin. "I forgot. Do you still practice slavery here, Edu? It's considered a very primitive practice elsewhere. I'm surprised the Federation allows it. On Kezdet it was only because the leaders of the slave industry had many low friends in high places."
Macostut sputtered and hurried to defend himself. "We try not to be ethnocentric when dealing with the inhabitants of our member worlds, Lady Nadhari."
Lady Nadhari? Becker looked from the official to his former girlfriend with surprise. Well, she was from the ruling family, after all. Maybe this gave her a rank she didn't claim or hadn't been aware of. From the look on her face it was also one that didn't impress her much.
The man continued. "We try to respect their customs, religion, and cultural mores."
"Cultural mores change in a healthy culture," Nadhari told him.
"Yes," Kando said, "they do. And should. That has been my position since I became Mulzar. If our ways do not change with the times, the culture becomes stagnant. So does a faith when it is not renewed so that the trappings no longer necessary drop away while the essence remains."
"I take it when you say 'trappings' you're not referring to the priesthood, Edu?" Nadhari said, pretending to tease. "Or to your own position?"
Becker turned to MacDonald and drew a number 1 in the air with his forefinger. "Chalk one up for Nadhari," he mouthed. MacDonald nodded sagely.
"You're joking with me now, aren't you, cousin? You always did like to keep me off balance," Kando replied. To Becker he said, "She is such a tease."
Becker began at that point to wonder if this man had any insight into Nadhari's psyche after all.
Six
What could that possibly have been?"
RK stopped purring, laid his ears back, and opened his eyes to annoyed slits. His paws kept kneading in time to the low grumbling noise, which was now barely audible to Acorna.
(Were we going somewhere or did you just want to stand here to find out if cats can really see in the dark?) RK asked in a quite normal thought pattern.
(Yes,) Acorna said. (Let's go. You can explain what that was all about when we're out of here.)
Whoever or whatever was within the wall, it continued its noise on a very low level but no longer sent emotional messages. Acorna felt like rapping on the wall and asking, "Excuse me, is everything all right in there? We couldn't help noticing you roared."
However, RK squirmed out of her arms and dropped to the ground, then scratched impatiently at something just ahead of them.
She would question both the cat and Miw-Sher more thoroughly later. She walked two more steps and caught up with RK, touching his flank with her foot.
He did not have to thought-speak to tell her he was at the door she was supposed to open. Standard cat/biped nonverbal communication was eloquent enough. She had to give the door a hard shove that nearly spilled her into a dark space where dust tickled her nose and cobwebs brushed her face, snagged on her horn, and dangled before her eyes to further confuse what little vision she retained in the dark surroundings.