“We’re here to study that,” Lund said.
“Tom, agreementsare on the table. I’m here to make firm commitments. And I know my responsibility to the aiji; I know he’ll honor agreements I make with you. I’m proposing them.”
“We’re not empowered to negotiate with the Guild, let alone with you.”
“What’s this, ‘Let alone with me’? We’ve beennegotiating for two hundred years. That’s what I do. That’s what my office is. We collectively, in this room, arethe planet. What’s more, I know the State Department, I know Tyers on a personal basis; you take notes back to him; you talk to the President, personally; you just handthe government a workable agreement and trust they’ll get it through the committees with their recommendation.”
“Mr. Cameron,” Kroger said shortly, “you can omit to tell us our business.”
“Bren,” he said with a fixed smile.
“ Mr. Cameron,—we have instructions fromthe Secretary. We can manage.”
“I’d be damn surprised if he knew I was coming up here, since I didn’t know it, although who knows? He’s very sharp. He might have guessed. Didhe give you instructions regarding cooperation with me?”
“Damn you, Mr. Cameron!—No, he didn’t.”
He smiled his smallest, gentlest smile. “Take it from me that I regard him as a friend… that word, which I don’t use on the mainland.”
“I’m gratified you still recognize it,” Kroger said, not pleasantly.
“I do. Believe me. You’re from Science. Tom, from Commerce. You’re not Tyers’ personal picks. I think youmight be someone the President relies on.” This with a look at Tom Lund, who didn’t immediately deny it. “But you’reout of Science.” A glance directly at Kroger, who sat thin-lipped and furious. Then he cast a deliberate sop to pride and party. “The scientificpoint of view. I don’t expect decisions until there’s proof.”
“Exactly, Mr. Cameron.”
“I respect that, Ms. Kroger. A fair mind-set, sharp judgment, objective examination of the facts. The Mospheiran point of view… you’re nota friend of Shawn Tyers; not of the President, either—and a damned good thing,” he added, as Kroger opened her mouth. It was not what she expected. “I think it’s very well if multiple points of view on the island have their independent fact gathering. But I also know that a distinguished member of the Department of Science and Technology, with your background isn’t going to be gathering anything butfact, no matter who appointed you, and anyone who thinks to the contrary isn’t going to find damned much political value in you. You’re no one’s fools, I very much think you’re no one’s fools; certainly notGaylord Hanks’ fools, no matter what the source of the university’s grants and funding.”
Kroger’s face actually colored. But she stared eye to eye and leaned forward, herelbows on the table. “Mr. Cameron, you have more gall than any human being I’ve ever encountered. Does that attitude come from the mainland or did you get thatout of the University on some grant?”
“Ms. Kroger, how doyou feel about atevi?”
That brought a slight twitch, a flare of the nostrils, a widening and narrowing of the pupils.
“How do youfeel about them, Mr. Cameron? Damned fond, so I hear.”
If he didn’t react, it was a miracle. But there was no implication she knew more than the rumor mills said.
“Entirely. As I have a naive affection for the human species, one I was born with. I’m not going to destroy my species, and I’m not a fool.”
There was a prolonged staring match—him, and Kroger.
“Ms. Kroger, I wantto deal with your committee. Give me some cooperation.”
“We haven’tthe authority. We weren’t grantedthe authority, Mr. Cameron.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s takenit. Call me Bren. And let’s deal sensibly with the hand we’ve been dealt here. Let’s get this settled. Whether there are aliens out there who give a damn about us one way or the other, we’ve got two halves of the human species in renewed contact, we’ve got the atevi who have their first ticket into space, and at this start of everything all of us have a prospect of control over our own destinies if we don’t hand this over to some damn Mospheiran committee for political wrangling. Paralysis follows.—Ginny Kroger, you knowthat. Represent your view, but for God’s sake, lay it out on the table.“
The steady, angry gaze shattered like a mirror, became an expression of outright fear.
“I’m nobody’sfool, Mr. Cameron.”
“Bren.”
“Mr. Cameron, sir. You have an island-wide reputation for fast and shady dealing.”
“Fast dealing. Never other than honest. I intend to maintain that record.”
“Damn your attitudes, Mr. Cameron!”
“You’re in charge, aren’t you? Mospheiran committees are always committees, but if they’re ever going to work, they tilt. It’s always understood which way they tilt. Tom, here, won’t be listened to, except by the President and the Secretary of State, who’ll hear him. You have legislative backing. I know damned well where, and you won’t be listened to by the other side. But youstill rate yourself independent-minded.”
“I’m Dr. Ginny Kroger, Mr. Cameron, and I damned well amindependent-minded. As you’ll discover!”
“You’re going to fight. Good. About damned time. So do you take my deal?”
“God!”
“It’s a fair deal,” Lund interjected, “if we could rely on it.”
“I’ll assure you the last thing Tabini-aiji wants is the SunDrink concession on this space station. Mospheira and its economy, on the other hand, its whole lifestyle, are set up to use that opportunity and to innovate in its own directions, which is exactly the difference between humans and atevi. You leave our section to us, to the atevi, and you handle trade with the ship, for whatever coin you can get out of them. We’re not going to charge for building the gross structures of the station, or for building the second starship.”
“You can’t do that! We’re not about to—”
“We charge, however, for shuttle space. We charge you not in coin, necessarily, but various things which we hope you’ll supply, and those supplies are the matters I hope to start working out with you at least in gross detail before we even return to the planet. Mospheira understands the way to trade with the aishidi’tat. Mospheira knows we’re a very, very different system. We didn’t go bankrupt building the first shuttle; you won’t lose by paying us for seats and cargo room, especially if you deliver contracts to SunDrink and Harbor Tea. We’ll make sure the Mospheiran economy doesn’t run short of grain or fruit. If we’re waiting for an alien invasion, we might as well be comfortable and progressive about it.”