But it was a familiar idiocy.
How many of grandfather’s retainers went the same way? Wasting away, living on less and less, refusing to admit their sons and daughters needed to learn useful skills-would it be so terrible to master a craft? To… to sell goods in the marketplace?
That Kosho’s grandmother had steered her into a military career-the one paying profession which remained honorable for her caste, though the subject of intense competition-seemed now the most natural thing in the world. An admirable and direct answer to the nagging question that plagued all of the old nobility: How does one pay the rent, when there are no koku of land remaining to till, leasehold, or sell? Changes in Nisei tax law under a succession of canny Diet prime ministers, and the constant pressure of the mercantile classes, had eroded the vast estates of the old families. Susan was sure the Tai-Sho was quite pleased with the outcome. No one can raise and arm men from houses filled with antiques. And the merchants pay their taxes.
Susan’s pace slowed, eyes drawn to the huge transit board filling the far wall of the lounge. Hundreds of ships were listed, heading in every direction. One of them was hers-a Fleet personnel liner bound for the home system, to Anahuac, and the massive Akbal yards off Jupiter.
My first command. My own ship… the dream of every junior officer in the Fleet. For a moment, she felt uneasy, aware of an incipient loneliness, and part of her devoutly wished Hadeishi had accepted her service. I will miss him, but I do not need him to guide my hand.
Then a half-familiar shape glimpsed from the corner of one eye drew her head around. The general ill-feeling of anger, resentment, and thwarted intent endemic to the passages of the base suddenly had a singular, unmistakably clear focus.
“Green Hummingbird!” she hissed. Kosho turned on her heel and plunged through a squad of enlisted ratings sprawled on transit couches, the floor around them littered with Mayahuel bottles and patolli gaming mats sprinkled with money and dice sticks, to fetch up before two men-no, one human and one alien-sitting in a quiet corner of the huge, bustling room.
“What are you doing here?” Susan’s voice was cold.
The human was holding a package in his hands, something rectangular wrapped in twine and brown paper. He looked up, catching Kosho’s gaze with a pair of green eyes deep as Tuxpan jade, and his polished old mahogany face, etched with tiny scars and sharp wrinkles, expressed nothing more than the most polite interest. “ Chu-sa Kosho, a pleasure.”
“What are you doing here?” A horrible suspicion had formed in her mind the instant she’d set eyes on the old Mexica. He was well known to her-an Imperial nauallis or Judge, of the sort who traveled the backwaters of the Rim, poking and prying into all sorts of dangerous business, showing up at odd places and times, commandeering the Cornuelle or any other Imperial ship on hand as he pleased-he and Hadeishi had some kind of history, for the captain had always been generous, bending rules and regulations with aplomb to accommodate the Judge and his “business.” An Imperial agent, a spy, an assassin, a sorcerer… a walking career disaster.
“I am waiting for my ship, like everyone else,” Hummingbird said, showing the ghost of a smile, “and catching up with a recent friend.”
His scarred hand-now empty, the package having disappeared into one of the medium-sized travel cases at his feet-indicated the alien in the opposite chair. Susan spared a glance for the creature-a slight shape with a vaguely humanoid face. Thin, ancient-seeming fingers covered with a close-napped blue-black fur held a chain of beads. Much like Hummingbird, the alien was wearing a hooded mantle over tunic and trousers, this one a faded, mottled green with a dull-colored red cross quartering its chest.
“Holy one, this is Captain Susan Kosho. Chu-sa, the honored Sra Osa.”
Kosho bowed politely. “My pleasure, Osa -tzin.”
Then her whole attention was on Hummingbird again, her face tight with barely repressed anger. “Did you have anything to do with this? With the Tribunal’s compromise? With what happened to us on Jagan?”
“I had nothing,” the old Mexica said carefully, “to do with the astounding success of the xochiyaotinime in providing Fleet and Army with such a vigorous martial test. And I am very pleased Captain Hadeishi was not forced to satisfy his honor, or that of the Emperor, in some… final way.”
“Are you?” Kosho managed to keep from curling her lip, all in deference to the old priest watching the two of them with bright, inquisitive eyes. “Then why have you done nothing to help him, when he has always rendered you aid-even in defiance of his ordered duty? Is this how the nauallis repay their allies?”
Hummingbird’s chiseled face tightened. He was rarely challenged by anyone, much less a Fleet officer whose career he could destroy with a comm call. Susan knew this and failed to care. She had never found him intimidating-dangerous, yes, like a redwood viper loose on your command deck-but not a source of fear. Though she would be loath to admit such a thing, the Judge did not exist high enough on the slopes of the Heavenly Mountain to impress her.
“I have done what I can,” he snapped. “He lives, does he not? He will have a command again, when enough time has passed to dim the memory of his enemies.”
“He only has such enemies,” Kosho allowed a faint exhalation of disgust, “because of his association with you.”
The old nauallis became quite still, eyes narrowing, and he seemed to settle into the lounge chair like a mountain finding its footing in the earth. “What would you have of me, child, that Hadeishi would not ask himself? For he has not asked me for aid, though I have offered.”
Have you? How many visitors has my captain entertained in his empty rooms? How many well-meaning friends has he turned away?
The admission stilled her angry rush, letting unexpected venom drain from her thoughts.
“He has to be saved,” she said, controlled once more. “Before he simply fades away.”
Hummingbird shrugged. “Perhaps you should let him tread his own path?”
“No.” Kosho fixed him with a steady, considering eye. “He will languish and die if left without purpose. Find him a ship. Put a g-deck under his feet. Give him what he deserves.”
Hummingbird rubbed the top of his head, which was brown and smooth as a betel-nut. He cast a sideways glance at Sra Osa, whose attention seemed far away, politely ignoring the argument playing out before him, rosary beads clicking one by one through pelted fingers.
“Arrangements could be made,” the old Mexica allowed with a grimace.
“Good.” Kosho offered the most minimal bow, glanced up to check the transit board, cursed at the time, and then left in haste.
The nauallis watched her go, his expression pensive. Hummingbird rubbed the back of his head again, glancing sideways at his wizened companion. “Ah, if only she had a gram of Hadeishi’s native circumspection! He will be hard to replace… but what is done is done. Once the arrow has flown…”
Sra Osa said nothing, ancient face impassive beneath the woolen hood.
Hummingbird nodded to himself, some internal judgment weighed and accepted, checked his bag for the twine-wrapped package, then lifted both cases and moved away.
In the kuub antispinward of Mexica space, beyond the rim
The navigator of the IMN DD-217 Calexico frowned at her console, tapping her throatmike to life: “ Chu-sa Rae? We’re at barely thirty-percent see-through in this… combat reaction range is down to less than a light-minute.”
At the other end of the narrow twenty-meter-long bridge, Captain Rae’s grimace matched the navigator’s wary expression. His destroyer had an upgraded sensor suite to match the two Deep Range scouts for which he was flying gunsight, but in this protostellar murk nothing was working quite to Engineering Board specifications.