“And we to get the paidhiin off the station.”
“I may remain,” Bren said, “if we can get Jase down.”
“No.” That was Banichi, Jago, and Tano, all at one word.
“Jase cantranslate, Nadiin-ji.”
“Not well enough,” Jago said. “ Melons.”
“That was three years ago.”
“Flying fish.”
“Such were said to exist, on the Earth of humans.”
“Nevertheless,” Banichi said. “Jasi-ji, as highly as we regard him, cannot do your work, he cannot deal with the aiji, he cannot deal as effectively with Mospheira, and we are instructed, besides all this, paidhi-ma, not to return without you, so if you stay, we stay.”
“Good fortune attend our getting Jase onto the shuttle if we do nothing for Ramirez.”
“Many days hence,” Banichi said. “By then things may well be different. If we see an opportunity, we may act. But not otherwise.”
“The crew is forcing the captains’ action. The captains fear to alienate the crew. They attempted to blame Ramirez’ misfortune on Jase; that didn’t work. But they dared not have Ramirez on the planet broadcasting messages to the station. If we might assure his safety, here, I think he might rouse the crew to action.”
“He has not roused them to action where he is,” Nojana said.
“Not as an ateva would,” Bren said. “But he has roused them to action of a sort. Someone is hiding him. No few, likely, are participant in hiding him. These are obedient people, lawful and cautious, and having very few among them who actually know how to repair and run the machinery on which their lives depend. They fearto remove any person who has that knowledge. If he were the most reprehensible of men, they might protect him for the sake of that knowledge, and by all I know from Jase, he is not the most reprehensible of the captains. I think Ogun-aiji, too, the dark one of the captains, was not consulted in the overthrow of Ramirez. I think he rather well fears he may be next, and if he cares for his people, he may fear the consequences of a general bloodletting in the ranks of the captains. He can do good by moderating Tamun’s influence, as I think he did in insisting they stand by agreements. I think Kroger also stood by them; I think Tamun thought he could deal with her to our detriment, and couldn’t. I owe this woman a profound apology for all my suspicions: I think she’s thrown him back to Ramirez’s agreements with us, and between Kroger and Ogun he’s had to moderate his position.”
“Ogun did not look at Tamun, throughout,” Jago observed.
“A fault line in the association of the captains. And I think one might even suspect Sabin might have been against dealing with us, and for dealing with the Mospheirans, but even she may be doubtful now, seeing Tamun’s kin as the fourth captain. This cannotplease Ogun or Sabin, who now may find they have something in common simply by not being Tamun’s.”
“They are notincomprehensible,” Tano murmured.
“In some regards, more like the aiji’s court than the Mospheirans are,” Bren said. “Obscure connections, subterranean agreements—so to speak—placing the interest of their own small association of birth and convenience as paramount within a very large kinship. Threaten the kindred as a whole and that might unify them; but the planet and its offers are a potent force for change in their community; and where change happens—” He gave a shrug.
“Gold among thieves?” Jago suggested wickedly. It was a proverb: the impetus first to unite, then to dissociate bloodily in self-interest.
“Something of the sort. Although one might think… perhaps a slight bit more noble.”
“Indeed” Jago said grimly. ”Yet another angry faction—the just and noble.”
He gave a rueful laugh. “True, I very much fear. Jase’s faction, the very ones Tamun is sending into exile and the very ones the crew can least afford to lose. One wonders what they lost when they colonized the station, and what manner of folk died when it perished.”
“Ramirez created Jase,” Banichi said thoughtfully. “Created Jase as a man without man’chi, except to the ship. Ramirez created Yolanda. Now Tamun exiles them both. What does this mean to the crew?”
“Nothing good,” Bren said. “Nothing good for them at all.”
“We could shoot this Tamun-aiji,” Algini suggested.
“It’s very tempting,” Bren said. It was even counted virtuous, among atevi, that leaders, and not the followers, should die in conflicts. “But to satisfy them and to have an agreement later, we have to deal with their law. We have to hope for other means.”
Barb is showing improvement. Paul showed up and signed the necessary papers. He had very little to say. I haven’t heard from Toby. Do you know where he is? I’m concerned about him and Jill, and I suspect Louise isn’t telling me the whole story.
The security people are making a fuss about my being here. Ever since the news said you’d gone up to the station, they haven’t let me answer my own phone. I hate this. They have guards on this floor, guards watching Barb’s room. It’s just crazy.
I phoned Shawn and phoned your office on the mainland and told them to tell Tabini you hadn’t been in touch.
Barb is going to have another operation tomorrow.
This is the third, but this time they have the bleeding stopped, and this one is to take out some of the tubes and such. She says thank you for the flowers. You could at least send her a hello. It’s only polite.
He didn’t react with temper. He composed a polite, concerned reply, wrote to Tabini:
We have Jase in our keeping, aiji-ma. An opposing association surrounding the fourth captain has seized enough power to insist on his banishment to the planet but not sufficient power to do him harm. The senior of the four has been the target of an assassination attempt.
To Shawn Tyers he wrote, in Ragi, via his office:
As best I can determine, the head of your operation here has valiantly resisted attempts to divide our interests. She persists through hardship, and we support her as best we can. I have not yet drawn her within our protection because having more than one vantage within the station affords us a certain operational flexibility. I urge you to consult with the mainland for more details.
More than that, he dared not write. There was too much chance of having communication cut off again, if it was in fact going through… and he had no proof of that until someone answered him with direct evidence of having read his letters.
“Put me through to Kroger,” he asked Cl.
“ Kroger has given notice she is not receiving messages,” Cl answered. “This is a sleep period.”
“Cl, put me through, or I go there.”
“ Let me consult,” Cl answered him, and put him through, all the same.
Thatwas interesting, he thought as Kroger answered.
“Bren Cameron,” he identified himself. “We have Jase, we have Mercheson, we have the families, as best we can guess. Jase is moving slowly, but everyone seems in good health. Want to join us for supper?”
Jase roused himself out of bed, sore, upset, and in bad temper. At a certain point, Bren thought, one just let the anger slide off. He didn’t blame Jase.
“You’re not getting out of here,” he said to Jase in Ragi. As Jase stood, in a bathrobe, it was not imminent, but Jase was pushing himself to ignore the pain. “That’s exactly what they want you to do, and you’re not going to do it.”
“It doesn’t mean—” Jase began.
He finished it: “You’re out of the game, Jase. Figure it out. Pridebe damned. Throwing yourself away and helping them find the man you don’t want them to find isn’t sensible. Shut up and sit down.”