The landings building was large, starkly undecorated, and totally without air-conditioning of any sort, a reminder that Kabras supposedly believed in living the austere life. I’d been vaguely impressed by the lacks on my first visit to Alderan, but had soon discovered that the vast majority of the Kabras paid more lip service than attention to the custom of austerity. Their own homes were luxurious to the point of decadence, a sure sign of how far they had come in the last three or four generations. Austerity was no longer necessary, and they’d grown mature enough to realize it.
I detached myself from the group of new arrivals I’d been walking with and went toward the pre-reservations desk, knowing arrangements would already have been made for me. I stopped in front of the young woman behind the desk, cleared my throat to get her attention, then suddenly discovered that her attention was unnecessary.
“Terrillian Reya,” came a deep voice from behind my left shoulder. “Welcome back to Alderan.”
I turned in the direction of the deep voice, already knowing whom I would see. Garth R’Hem Solohr stood there, tall and unselfconscious in the short Kabran kilt of officer blue, Ms long dark hair tied back with a small blue band, his chest bare beneath the regulation straps of office, his feet thonged into sturdy sandals. I had once told him how amusing it was to see a grown man’s bare knees, trying to insult him out of his usual air of extreme superiority, but all he’d done was laugh and tell me he didn’t mind seeing my knees at all. I felt the usual stab of annoyance at the way he looked at me, his mind full of sharp desire, his gray eyes filled with amusement, and found impatience coloring my tone.
“One of these days I’ll be considered important enough to be met by someone of standing,” I said into his grin, then turned to the girl behind the desk. “Has a visitor registration been made in the name of Terrillian Reya, Prime Xenomediator on assignment from Central?”
“But—but of course it has!” the girl protested, shocked out of her own air of superiority. “Colonel Solohr is here to see to your every need and desire and the Colonel’s family is one of the oldest and most respected on Alderan! How can you say . . .?”
“Now, now,” Garth interrupted her. “The Prime is already aware of my exalted status and abilities. She merely feels it necessary to protest our acquaintanceship in the hopes of insulting me. The rudeness is simply her usual manner of behavior.”
“Rudeness is not rudeness when truth is involved,” I shot back, immediately feeling the girl’s indignation. “Family position has nothing at all to do with individual actions. Have you arranged accommodations for me, or am I to be forced to sleep in the streets?”
“Never the streets, my dear Prime,” Garth laughed, folding his arms across his chest. “If no other alternative presents itself, you can always share my accommodations.”
“I would prefer the streets,” I told him. “Would it be too much to ask you to see to my luggage?”
“The matter has already been taken care of,” he informed me with a bow edged with sarcasm. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to the transportation I’ve arranged.”
“Certainly,” I agreed with a pleasant nod. “I’d rather have you in front of me than behind me any day. Lead away.”
The girl behind the desk was close to spluttering by then, something Garth was well aware of as he took my arm and led the way to the street. His amusement left me close to the teeth-grinding point myself. What would I have to say to him to dent that obnoxious air of superiority?
“This vehicle is ours,” Garth said, leading the way across the crowded strollwalk to the sled at the curb. “If you find it unacceptable, I’ll have it destroyed at once.”
“And then make me walk,” I nodded, climbing into the sled by the door held open for me by a uniformed Kabra of lower rank. “Or would you find it necessary to carry me?”
“Oh, carry you, of course,” Garth laughed, settling himself beside me on the white fur cushion. “An opportunity wasted is an opportunity regretted.”
The Kabra closed the door behind Garth, cutting off all outside noise, then climbed up to the front of the sled and guided it into the stream of sled traffic moving past us. Slidewalks were disapproved of on Alderan, having been considered too effeminate by generations gone by. I wondered what they would have thought of the force-field enclosed, decro-powered sleds their descendants used to take themselves everywhere.
“You really shouldn’t have embarrassed that girl like that,” Garth said, leaning back to put his arm across the seat top behind me. “Whether or not you care for the idea, I do happen to be an important man on this planet. My ferrying you around is a greater compliment than you realize.”
“The girl wasn’t embarrassed,” I murmured, looking out at the crowded streets and wondering why the emotional ocean wasn’t as strong as it had been on my last visit. “She was awed at seeing you and scandalized over my lack of appreciation of the honor bestowed upon me. Her reaction was too generalized to be personal.”
“But, of course,” be said, his tone still humorous. “How could I have thought to describe an emotional reaction to you? Please forgive my stupidity.”
“What, again?” I drawled, evoking a chuckle from him, but not really paying attention to the conversation. I was studying the people on the streets, those riding, those walking, those going in and out of the large, square-cut stone buildings rising all around. There was something like a mental curtain of sorts between me and them, one that could be pushed aside easily enough when I thought about it, but which fell into place again as soon as I turned my attention to something other than wanting to know what they were feeling. My gift had never worked that way before, and I didn’t know why it had changed. Was it possible I disliked Kabran pretensions of superiority so much that I was beginning to block them out?
“I do seem to be something of a burden to you,” Garth commented, his body relaxing in enjoyment of the cool air suddenly beginning to fill the sled. “A pity you’ll be forced to put up with me again during your visit.”
I turned my head to look at the self-satisfied smile on his face, knowing he also felt self-satisfied, and then my mind seemed to center on his, so to speak. I became aware of something behind the self-satisfaction, something that wasn’t quite as flippant and free-swinging as he wanted me to believe.
“It’s strange you should use the word, ‘burden,’” I said, feeling my mind probe at him. “Bore, scatterbrain, obnoxious pain in the rump, yes. But, ‘burden’?”
“Possibly I was trying to help you with your cataloguing of my virtues,” he chuckled, unaffected by what I’d said. “If you feel the word inappropriate, by all means remove it from the list.”
“The word wasn’t my choice to begin with,” I pursued. “Why would the famous Colonel Solohr consider himself in conjunction with the concept of burden, even to me? It seems an unconscious attempt at self-rebuke, possibly even the hint of resentment at your current assignment. Where would it be more fitting for you to be? Where would you prefer to be?”
“Don’t you think you ought to save that for tomorrow’s mediating?” he asked, the smile gone from his broad, handsome face, a stiffness entering his thoughts. “I’d never forgive myself if you became overtired.”
“For some of us, thinking is nearly effortless,” I commented, moving around to face him. “You were off-planet on campaign for a while, weren’t you? What made you come back so soon? And why the dissatisfaction?”
“Terry, it really is unwise of you to continue with this,” he said, the stiffness having reached his voice and eyes. “Insulting me isn’t as impossible as you seem to think it is, and I doubt if you’d care for the consequences.”