“She wishes a meeting with the captains,” Bren said to Sato, and Sato relayed that.
“Tomorrow,” Sato relayed back. “At—”
“At oh-one-hundred,” Bren supplied.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that a local proverb for cold day in hell?”
“Sir, I don’t—don’t understand.”
“ Cold day in hell, Ms. Sato, as in at no damn time! This appointment is made, it is firm, and if you want cooperation, you will damned well make that meeting happen!”
“Is there a difficulty, paidhi-ji?” Ilisidi asked as the car went through a set of jolting intersections amongst the tubes, swaying all of them.
“One expresses determination the captains be punctual,” Bren said. “Will tomorrow suit?”
“No,” Ilisidi said. “The day after. My bones hurt. I wish to rest.”
“Yes, aiji-ma.” He turned a bland look on Sato. “Relay to them that she will meet with them on the following day.”
“However!” Ilisidi said. “I shall see Ramirez-aiji in my quarters immediately.”
“She says she will speak to Ramirez tonight.”
Sato’s eyes went wide, behind the lense she wore. “Captain, she says—” She broke that off. “You can’t do that.”
“She favors Ramirez. You’d better produce him.”
“Sir,—sir, I’m to tell you that that’s impossible. He’s dead.”
“No, he isn’t. You produced Jase Graham, after trying to pin Ramirez’s death on him, which was a lie. I happen to know he’s alive, and he’d damned well better stay that way. Are you talking to Tamun?”
“To Captain Tamun, sir.”
“Well, well, tell him that. Tell him whether Ramirez has retired from the post or whatever he’s done, he’s valuable as a mediator, and his health matters. Put me through to Captain Ogun.”
“I can’t do that, sir.”
“Can’t? What does Ogun have to say about it?”
“I mean, sir, I don’t have that control. Phoenixcommdoes it.”
“Well, then Phoenixcommcan damned well find all the captains. Let’s not play favorites. The aiji dowager wants to talk to the lot of them; she’ll do farbetter if there are five captains instead of four. Atevi detest the number four. And two. They find all sorts of offense in it. Five, Ms. Sato. And I suggest you relay that quite seriously.—Banichi, nand’ Cenedi, we’ll be going to our own quarters. I trust you’ll be pleased to sit there until we can secure more comfortable arrangements. Because the station is in such bad condition, not all of it is accessible.”
“She will wish to sleep, Bren-nadi.”
“Ah. Mattresses! That’s the other point.—Ms. Sato, mattresses, in sufficient number. Atevi-sized mattresses, and beds. Or the makings of them. This is a very ingenious crew.”
“Sir.” Sato looked as if she were living the worst day of her year, and dutifully relayed to someone who seemed to be overhearing quite efficiently, as was. “The captain says this is outrageous and he won’t put up with it.”
“Who is this strange creature?” Ilisidi demanded, freeing her cane to take a poke at Sato, who looked horrified, and flinched, jammed in as they were, shoulder to shoulder, atevi and humans.
“This is a young woman, aiji-ma.”
“A woman, is it? She looks like a television with limbs! Is this the fashion here?”
“The aiji remarks on your equipment and says you resemble a television, which she detests.—Aiji-ma, she is a dutiful member of the ship. She is speaking with her aijiin, who instruct her.”
“Does she! A very odd arrangement. Are the captains afraid, and send this young girl?”
“She asks if the captains are hiding in fear.”
Sato half-relayed that, in modified form, winced at the reply. “The captain says she has no business coming here without arrangements.”
“I won’t translate that. You’ll have days straightening it out, and maybe a lifelong enemy. The atevi didn’t arrange this. Your captainsdid, when the captains sent down an agreement. Atevi have acceptedit, in the dowager’s coming here. You’ll get your station built; you’ll get your ship; or you get the nastiest damned war on this front you can conceive of. Phoenixcan choose which it would rather have.”
There was a lengthy silence while Sato listened to something else from the captains.
She was still listening when the lift arrived at its destination and opened onto a corridor… not a deserted corridor, not a corridor with an official welcoming committee, but a corridor crowded with about twenty or so crew in blue coveralls, men and women and a scattering of young folk, all of whom stared at the strangeness that had arrived in their midst.
“Look at the floor!” Bren said, feelingthe impropriety of the stares, and crew, accustomed to orders, did that, at least for a split second.
It prevented drawn guns.
“ Thankyou very much,” Bren said, and in that unplanned-for, crew-level curiosity, he found brazen opportunity. “The aiji dowager, Ilisidi, grandmother of Tabini-aiji, ruler of nine tenths of the planet. She intends to meet with all the captains, and build you a working station and a second ship! She’s as curious about you as you are about her; and if you value the comfort and ease of our future relationship, be polite, don’t alarm her security, and smile, if you please!”
Ilisidi exited the car to survey this crowd, leaning on her cane, flanked by tall, armed security. She clearly found interest in the unprecedented encounter with curious humans, and diverted her gaze to a young boy who wriggled through the adult ranks to see. For a moment she stared as frankly, as curiously, then stamped the heel of the cane fiercely on the deck, prompting a startled intake of breath from the crowd. The child ducked back in fright.
“Well!” she said. “This is a village, is it not? And where arethose in authority? Are they hiding?”
“She asks if the captains are hiding,” Bren said, and in Ragi: “I think we must move along, nandi. They are all restricted in their society. These people have come without their aijiin ordering it, out of their own curiosity about this new association, but they have no authority except that of all people.”
“Ah.” Ilisidi drew basic sense out of that shorthand comparison to atevi affairs, instantly grasped the situation, and reached out a hand to touch the arm of a startled young girl, to caress a wide-eyed early-teener face. “Pretty child.”
“She thinks you pretty,” Bren said, and the girl broke into a nervous, very human giggle, blushing and ducking.
“Not a captain to be had,” Lund said. “What’s going on, Chindi?”
“Mr. Lund,” a man said, from the side, and looked abashed.
“So what do they want?” someone called out. “What are they here for?”
“To build you a station,” Bren said, and by now the second lift had arrived, bringing human security and about fifteen more of the dowager’s security, uneasy package that thatcar must have been. It spilled out both sorts of passengers, armed, and confused at what they met.
“You all better break it up!” Sato lifted her voice. “We’ve got to get them to their quarters. You’ve all got jobs to do! You’re to get back to work!”