"In that case," Coren said, "I should do the diplomatic thing and eat something."
Taprin smiled. "Stay away from the mauve buttons with the yellow cream sauce. They sneak up on you at the most inconvenient times."
Coren glanced back when he reached the long table filled with Spacer delicacies. Taprin and Chassik faced each other, talking intently. He searched the crowd and spotted Ariel and Setaris, near the edge of the patio, also talking intently.
He surveyed the food arrayed down the length of the long table and saw almost nothing he recognized. He located the buttons Taprin had warned him about and, perversely, took one. It possessed a faintly musty taste beneath a cinnamon-sweet tang. The sauce reminded him of buttered scallops. Nothing unfamiliar.
"Drink, sir?"
He glimpsed a tray to his left containing several tall glasses. He took one.
"Thanks. "
The servor rolled away, then, and Coren watched it, a robot shaped like a mobile table, moving deftly among the partiers. He caught a glimpse of a few more spaced throughout the gathering.
The liquid in the glass shimmered golden and he wondered where it put him in the order of importance. He sipped: tea with almond liqueur. He popped the rest of the button in his mouth and washed it down.
"I trust this isn't going to become complicated." Taprin stood beside him. "Complicated, Senator?"
"You understand me, Mr. Lanra."
"I do. I'm sure both of us understand the risks of unmanaged implication."
Taprin winced. "Just so we do." He was not finished, though. He fidgeted, sipped at his drink, and finally asked, "Have you and Ariel known each other long?"
"We met last year. "
Taprin blinked, startled. "I wasn't aware she'd been seeing anyone…"
"Should you?"
Taprin frowned.
"I'm sure, Senator, whatever else gets discussed here tonight, Ariel Burgess's personal relationships won't be part of it."
Taprin nodded. "Excuse me."
Coren watched him walk away, toward the house. So much for being nonconfrontational…
"Do you think he can defeat your Mr. Looms?"
Ambassador Chassik stood beside him, also watching Taprin retreat to the interior of Setaris's residence.
"The election is still six weeks off," Coren said. "Anything can happen between now and then. "
"I know. That's always surprised me about you Terrans. Given your temperament, one would think you'd find a less volatile way to choose your leaders."
"For example?"
Chassik shrugged. "For example, on Solaria the process is accomplished by a combination of appointment and annual assessment. A vote of confidence keeps the appointed official in office. Too low a vote…" Chassik drew a finger sharply across his own throat. He grinned quickly. "Politically speaking, of course."
"Who does the appointing?"
"There is a college of electors. We never know who they are."
"I see. I think we'll keep our volatility."
Chassik laughed.
"My question," he continued, "is not academic, Mr. Lanra. Should your employer defeat Senator Taprin, new arrangements must be made. I would consider it a favor if you let Mr. Looms know that Solaria is open to a dialogue. "
"You do know Rega's position on Earth-Spacer relations."
Chassik nodded. "In spite of his public pronouncements, I'm sure he's at base a reasonable man."
"Is Senator Taprin a reasonable man?"
"More than others, less than some. "
"When the time comes, I'll pass that on," Coren said.
"Thank you, Mr. Lanra."
"I would think, though, that you would tell him yourself. You used to know him personally, didn't you?"
Chassik's eyes narrowed briefly. "I won't insult your no doubt substantiated intelligence by denying it. That was, however, a long time ago."
"Before you were ambassador, wasn't it?"
"I was newly arrived on Earth. He was one of the few Terrans who took any time to show me around."
"I suppose it helped to be in business together. I found that interesting. It's not very common these days, is it?"
"We were never 'in business' together, Mr. Lama. You're mistaken. "
"Oh. I apologize-perhaps I misunderstood. You both owned shares in some of the same companies. "
Chassik shook his head. "Even then, Rega was not sanguine about mixing with Spacers. If we did have common investments, it was quite by accident. "
Coren nodded. "Ah. Forgive me. I was under the impression that he brought you in on a project."
"What project might that have been?"
"Something to do with prostheses, I believed. I forget the name of the company. "
Chassik shrugged. "Rega showed some interest in our medical technologies along those lines, but nothing ever came of it. He found our procedures too invasive. Later on, his discomfort turned to fanaticism. We haven't spoken since he became head of that church of his. "
"Which is why you'd like me to take your offer to him."
"Exactly, Mr. Lama. I-oh, Ariel. I was just discussing political systems with your friend. The merits of Terran populist mandates, as opposed to good old-fashioned autocracy."
"No meddling, Gale," Ariel said, stopping before them.
"Never!" Chassik proclaimed with mock severity. "I'm so pleased to see you, Ariel. It's about time Setaris got over her snit and remembered your existence."
"Was it a snit? I thought it was a well-deserved vacation. Now I find I have to start working again."
"If there's anything I can do…"
"I think Sen would be displeased if you helped me get another vacation."
"You should come to work for us, Ariel, " Chassik said. "We have a much more beneficent attitude toward sacrifice and service."
"Mmm. The only problem with that would be the travel. "
Coren studied Ariel while she sparred with Chassik. He noticed then how different she seemed compared to the Spacers gathered here. His first thought was that she looked younger, but that was wrong. They all, for the most part, looked young, at least in that their skin was smooth, their eyes were clear, their hair thick and shimmering. But that could be purchased at any competent rejuve clinic. Earthers managed cosmetic youth up till their eighties and nineties, when the repairs failed for lack of anything dependable to repair.
No, Spacer youth was qualitatively different, something rejuve could never achieve. Instead, it was a static perfection, isolated in time, unchanging and unchanged. They looked like icons of health instead of people, archetypes of agelessness. Instead of perpetually young they were perpetually the same.
But not Ariel Burgess. For one thing, she was not young. Fine lines rayed from the comers of her eyes, and her laughlines were deep and permanent. A single chiselled dash deepened between her eyebrows when she concentrated and her skin, rather than the smooth porcelain austerity of her fellow Spacers, showed the reticulations of virgin, unrejuvenated or rehabbed derma.
She was not stuck in time.
Coren surveyed the crowd, checking his newfound perception to see how it held up. He saw exceptions, of course, and the Earthers were distinct by virtue of their evident age and the use of makeup where nature let them down. But for the most part observation confirmed expectation.
"-curious why you haven't challenged the blockade," Ariel was saying.
Coren's attention snapped back to Ariel and Chassik.
Chassik looked puzzled. "What business would it be of Solaria's to get in between a dispute between Earth and one of its unacknowledged offspring?"
"None, usually," Ariel said. "Except that Solaria holds title to Nova Levis. I assume, since you haven't deeded it to the colony, you still have some interest in it."
Chassik frowned. "I was unaware of any holdings by that name. Are you sure you have your facts correct?"
"It's possible the record is just incomplete. These things do get overlooked. Solaria owned the place outright about thirty-five years ago."