Not to mention those pillars of atevi and human civilization please, thank you , and have a nice day . By the way Prakuyo took to the dowager’s society, that element was present in yet another species.
The ship whined and flexed elements of its gut it hadn’t used this energetically in all his time aboard. It had traveled empty. Now it drank down the survivors of this place, this situation, those desperate families and individuals that wanted most of all to live, who had very little concept where they were going or whether it was going to be better or not—but trusting even the appearance of aliens among them, in what amounted to a rush for the lifeboat. That augured well for their ability to fit in where they were going.
Didn’t cure the fact that Braddock was still loose, but the outflux gave Braddock less and less to work with, and Braddock now had very little control over anything mechanical. The wisest among his aides had to be gathering the family silver and running for the exit.
He let his eyes shut. Didn’t trust himself and kept a steady count in his head, which if it began to falter, he had to open them at once and stay awake.
One minute, two, three.
Com went off and he yelped as if he’d been shot, grabbed it out of his pocket and thumbed it on, his heart creeping down from a frantic beat. Had he slept?
“ Bren ?” It was Jase. Agitated. “ Bren, do you read ?”
God, what time was it? An hour. Damn !
“Listening, listening, Jasi-ji. Go ahead.”
“ There’s fuel. There is fuel, Bren, do you hear ”?
His heart leapt up again.
“ And that ship’s still moving in, and we’re still pinned here with refugees coming aboard. Senior captain wants me to put out a security contingent and bar the cold zones to the refugees so we can move the ship in .”
To keep people out of the cold areas and reorient the whole procedure to a stable, locked-down docking configuration. A lot safer for the passengers.
“ Which doesn’t let us mate up with the alien ship ,” Jase said further. “ And which is going to create questions on their side if we shift position… and is going to bring Sabin back aboard to do it herself if I don’t take her request. She’s not informed what we’re doing. I’m going to have to tell her .”
“Better now than after she’s come back. I don’t like not having a secure com-line. Braddock’s still out there.”
“ I can send a courier. I can tell her I’m sending one to explain a situation .”
That would take time.
“ What progress down there ?” Jase asked.
“An hour’s unintended rest. But our guest had to be frayed, too. I’m going back at it now. We’ll be ready, Jase.”
“ Sleep is progress ,” Jase said charitably. “ In short supply up here, I’ll tell you. But our ETA for that ship is about three hours and docking shortly after. If you’re going to put any presentation together, just give us raw sketches and C2 can render them in the same form we’ve used all along with them .”
“Good idea.”
“ Got to go .”
“Do it. Thanks. I’m back at work.”
Feet on the floor. Body upright. Quick pass of a wet cloth to bring the wits back awake.
Sleep was progress, and he hoped Banichi and Jago were making that kind.
He had to go wake Prakuyo up, and hope he could establish a safe mode of communication that had taken his predecessors in Shejidan centuries of careful work.
Three hours. Three very short hours.
He needed more than skill. He needed someone very bright on the other end of the telescope; and he hoped to God that Prakuyo, who’d survived six years of stubborn non-communication, was able to meet him at least halfway.
Chapter 20
Prakuyo had been sleeping, so Narani said—small wonder, sleeping, Bren thought, having been catch as catch could with bed for what seemed a very long time, now.
It was court dress, no question, with the ship drawing close.
“Advise the dowager’s staff,” he said to Narani, “that the foreign ship is three hours away. One might add on a little time to establish a link of some sort, nadi-ji, one has no idea. But by no means wake Banichi or Jago. Jeladi can do that duty in the interim.”
“Certainly, nandi,” Narani said—with Bindanda, helping with the cuffs.
He would not have chosen formal dress at the moment, except that time came in such unpredictable parcels, and one could hardly go visiting in one’s bathrobe.
Speaking of which—“One hesitates even to mention it, but what progress with clothes for our guest to wear?”
“Jeladi is assisting him, nandi,” Bindanda said. “Our guest indicated a preference for a blue and mauve brocade—we had three materials in sufficient supply. The green seemed an alternate choice. The gray and black he did emphatically reject for the coat. For the trousers, we used a medium weight blue wool. With a cream silk shirt that seems, by Jeladi’s report, to please him.”
Three choices. Trust his staff to have had the resources, and the sensitivity to offer a choice and report the outcome.
“Excellent,” he said. His staff finished their hasty preparation and he stood ready, immaculate as they could make him.
Not, immediately, for a foray onto the ship. He had a critical job to do before that, and hoped meanwhile that Jase kept Sabin at arm’s length.
“Jeladi reports our guest ready, nandi,” Narani said, one of those snippets of staff intelligence that let coincidences happen so smoothly.
“Excellent, Rani-ji.”
He secured a notebook and pen from the bedside and strolled out into the corridor. Indeed, Jeladi was just bringing their guest out in—Bindanda should be proud—a very elegant coat, with abundant lace on the shirt. For the feet—unatevi and broad—in that essential detail, Bindanda had worked a wonder, an ankle-high boot with lacings that even looked comfortable. Nothing like good footwear to convince a man he was in good hands.
And Prakuyo, seeing him in his court splendor, looked, well—judging any expression on that broad face was difficult—excited, at least. Prakuyo made a nice little bow. He reciprocated with good grace.
“Come,” he said, “nadi-ji. Come sit.”
Prakuyo seemed amenable, though a little disappointed. Ah, Bren thought: Prakuyo had hoped they were going straight to the ship. And still the working of hydraulics went on, the lift system racing to deliver cars to the airlock and passengers to four-deck, just over their heads… crew had to be scrambling, too, on last-moment needs and adjustments.
All of which might persuade an anxious guest that those sounds might include a docking in progress.