“The Diplomatic Service wanted Katie to help prevent that war.”
Still no answer.
“Elsbet?”
She set her jaw. “I’m not going back.”
“You don’t have to, I’m not saying that—”
“I am not going back!”
“That’s fine—”
She flung her dessert aside and burst out of bed.
“You can’t send me back. I’ve done my mission!”
“I understand—”
She grabbed me by the jacket. Not threatening but pleading.
“Do you know what they’ll do to me? They will kill me. As a traitor. Because of what she did!”
“Elsbet—”
“I’m not going back! To that — hole!” The tears were coming now. “You can’t send me back. I won’t go.”
I pulled her close and held her. She let go of my jacket and sobbed into my shoulder.
“I’m not going back there… I don’t want to live like that…”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You can stay here. We won’t make you do anything.”
I held onto her, smelling the sweet sugar of the syrup as she clung to me.
12. Liss
Liss’s request to have a meeting with a Quillian consular official had been considered by the Diplomatic Service, and approved with minor restrictions. The duty of care and anonymity limited the choice of venues, and the availability of the consular official in question reduced them still further. So it took place in the Diplomatic Service General Negotiation Complex, where the most stringent precautions could be observed on ground that was absolutely guaranteed to be neutral.
Quite why it needed to look like an ancient temple garden was another question entirely, but the structure of marble pillars, lintels, arches and fountains did produce a calming effect. The individual ‘meeting rooms’ were the spaces around fountains in the temple complex, apparently open to the elements but only because the ceilings showed pictures of the sky on a sunny day with friendly clouds and never a hint of rain to trouble the negotiations. The rooms could have tables and chairs if the parties wished, but most people were encouraged to sit by a fountain, usually with a refreshment tray by their side.
Liss waited in one of these rooms, looking around. She ran a finger across the marble to feel the texture (very accurate), put a hand in the fountain to see if the water was real (definitely), and examined the flowering vines (not real at all, though it was hard to tell).
She was distracted by a chime from the entrance to the ‘room’, and the air rippled as a Mediator emerged from the corridor beyond. The illusion of being alone in an empty garden was nothing more than that: an illusion.
“I’m sorry about the wait,” said the Mediator, a man with a charming smile and an apology for every occasion. “The other party says he was delayed and conveys his apologies. I understand the present situation on Ardëe is the cause.”
Liss smiled her understanding. “I suppose he’s a busy man, huh?”
The Mediator nodded. “He should be here in just a few minutes. Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No. I’m fine.”
The Mediator withdrew through the rippling air. Liss checked the control pad for the room. She found a setting to change the time of day, thought about it for a moment, and slid it over to ‘night’. The sun faded and dimpled until it turned into the moon. The sky darkened to indigo. Stars revealed themselves and even the wash of the Milky Way became visible. Oil lamps flickered into life on the columns around the fountain.
The entrance rippled again, and the Mediator returned. He blinked a little as his eyes adjusted to the darker setting, then said: “The other party has arrived. Are you ready for the meeting, Ms. Li’Oul?”
She stood up from the side of the fountain and nodded.
“You may wish to anonymise yourself.”
“Okay. Got it.” She fiddled with a pad and a blur mask jumped up in front of her face, contouring a couple of centimetres around her features.
“I shall refer to you as Ms. Doe, to further preserve your anonymity.”
“Uh, okay.”
The Mediator nodded, satisfied. “Very well. I’ll call him in.” Whatever signal he sent, Liss did not see it. A few seconds later, the Quillian consular official entered: a short man whose manner was older than he looked. His smile as he saw her was polite, warm, but well practiced. Something worn professionally.
“Mr. Vawlin, may I present Ms. Doe, who is under the care of the Refugee Service.” Vawlin bowed. “Madame, this is Mr. Telliniad Vawlin of the Quillian Embassy to the Interversal Union.” Liss did her best to copy Vawlin’s bow, looking a little embarrassed.
“It is a condition of this meeting that I remain present.” said the Mediator. I’d insisted that someone be there for security reasons, along with guards who could be summoned at a moment’s notice. As much as I wanted to give Liss this chance, I couldn’t leave her unsupervised in this kind of situation. “However, I am not required to act as a mediator unless either of you wish it.”
“If Ms. Doe consents?” asked Vawlin.
“I’m fine,” shrugged Liss.
“Then I shall refrain from further comment,” said the Mediator. “Please, begin.”
Liss took a deep breath. “Hi!”
“Hello,” said Vawlin. “Shall we sit?”
“Yeah. Sure.” They sat by the fountain, while the Mediator went to a chair on the far side of the room and let them get on with it.
“Firstly, please accept my apologies for my lateness. We’ve been extraordinarily busy in the last few days…”
“Oh, sure, it’s been kinda crazy everywhere, huh?”
“Yes, yes it has. We’re loaning a number of spacecraft to the IU to help with the evacuation, and anything else we can find that might help.”
“That’s kinda cool.”
“We do what we can. So I understand you believe you may be a member of my species?”
“Uh. Yeah, I guess.”
“Can I ask how you came to that conclusion?”
“Oh, they said I could have a test to see if I was, you know, compatible for, uh, having kids with other species, and it came back Quillian.”
“Something of a surprise, I take it?”
“You can say that again. Does this happen a lot?”
“It does come up occasionally. We’re a very well travelled species.”
“So you go to other universes all the time?”
“Yes, I suppose you could say that.”
“I mean, I heard about that Ilfenard thing…”
His face fell into regret. “Yes. A terrible crime. We had a major social collapse a couple of thousand years ago, and when we rediscovered how to travel to other universes, we found our ancestors had committed monstrous crimes on many worlds. We’ve been trying to put them right ever since. It’s another reason why we’re doing everything we can to help with the evacuation. But there was nothing we could do for Ilfenard, except warn others not to take the same path.”
There was something rehearsed about his speech; he’d said this before, many times. But that was probably only to be expected.
“Uh-huh. So how do people get stuck on different worlds?”
“Well, we undertake a good many scientific surveys, often on worlds too undeveloped to contact directly. We have teams on the surface, disguised as priests, or surveyors, or telemarketers, or whatever’s appropriate. But things can go wrong, I’m afraid. People sometimes get left behind.”
“Do you take your kids along as well?”
“For major surveys, yes. It’s not fair on either the children or the parents to have them separated.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Can I ask you a little about your world?”