It was a complete right turn from the information he’d gotten from Geigi, even in prolonged exchanges. But—dealing with atevi—sometimes silence was another kind of information. Atevi completely avoided problematic humans, rather than collapse a useful situation. Humans didn’t always figure that out.
They’d gone to war, humans and atevi, as an outgrowth of such a situation.
“I’m listening,” he said.
“He doesn’t like Reunioners,” Jase said. “And yes, the shortages and the crowding are a problem, but it wasn’t the personal choice of the Reunioners. He complains to his subordinates and crew chiefs, sympathizes with their problems, blames the Reunioners for all of it. He was massively upset about the kids’ visit, called it special privilege for the Reunioners, didn’t want it to happen, said they were short of supplies and the kids’ visit was taking up a shuttle flight—an exaggeration. We used the smallest passenger module and we’ll carry cargo both ways. Ogun wasn’t in favor of it—he was siding with Tillington’s view until the aiji’s request came through. But that wasn’t the end of it. He said Tabini’s government was still unstable, he said the children would be in danger and if anything happened the Reunioners would riot. Well, Sabin fixed that. She proposed I go down as interpreter and run security. So that happened, and we came down. But when we called up to the station to advise the kids were going to stay through another shuttle rotation—Tillington started saying he had information that the kids were a setup, that they’d always been a setup, and that Sabin had arranged their meeting the young gentleman on the ship.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It gets better. According to Tillington, Sabin’s plan was to get Reunioner kids linked to the young gentleman, to get in tight with the atevi, to get an agreement with Braddock and the Reunioners, that she was going to be their ally. That it was all cooked up on the voyage back.”
Bren’s pulse ticked up a notch. Two notches. “He actually said that.”
“That’s as Sabin reported the statement to me, which she had from Ogun—who usually doesn’t restructure information. Ogun asked her what the truth was. She naturally said hell, no, it was entirely atevi business what the young gentleman did. She didn’t stop it, because atevi security was watching over the situation. She said she’d as soon space Braddock, given a choice; she’d done everything she’d promised Ogun she’d do, and she’d handled a refugee situation they hadn’t planned for. And she’d brought the ship back, what more proof than that could he want?”
“Saying the aiji-dowager might have an ulterior motive is like saying the sea has tides. But involving her as your captain’s ally in a special deal, as putting emotional pressure on the aiji’s son, in her care—at his age—and to take—” Neither ship-speak nor Mosphei’ had a word for it. He changed to Ragi. “—to institute a new aijinate aboard that ship, far from the aishidi’tat, to involve herself and the aiji’s son in foreign politics and foreign ambition— No.” He dropped back into ship-speak, for another logic. “First, you and I know it didn’t in fact happen. The aiji-dowager deals from her own hand. No one else’s. And certainly she wouldn’t use her great-grandson as anybody’s ally in some human power game. No. First, it’s false. She allowed the association with the Reunioner children for her great-grandson’s sake—a boy who’d scarcely seen another child—of any sort. And secondly, if word of this accusation reached her, she might well File Intent on Tillington. Mind, she does have Guild personnel on the station. He’d better not repeat this theory, anywhere outside Ogun’s office.”
“We have no way to stop him. It’s not mutiny. It’s opinion, and, all said, he’s your official. In the Mospheiran sense.”
“No question he’s Mospheiran,” Bren said. “But he’s not on Mospheira.”
“He’s opened a wide gulf with Sabin. I don’t know how he can retreat from this.”
“I don’t know how he can retreat from it either, given the situation. I’m serious about the dowager’s position. She will be serious, if she takes notice of it. If Geigi hears it, Geigi won’t work with him.”
“Geigi already won’t work with him. I know Geigi can speak a little Mosphei’. It doesn’t happen.”
True. Basically true, during all their absence from the solar system and all the troubles, with all the building, Geigi had been communicating using the supply system codes they’d developed for that interface in the space program, in shuttle guidance, in all the places where numbers and codes could carry a meaning.
“So he’s become a liability. A serious liability, driving a program that’s going to divert materials for years. And the Reunioners remain a problem driving every decision we make. If we propose moving the Reunioners down, that process is going to take time, and new construction, with politics all the way. If we remove Tillington now, he’ll have an opinion. If it’s political power he’s courting, I can foresee which party will back him. Damn. Is nothing ever simple?”
“We’ve got Tillington on one side, Braddock on the other, up there, and theoretically we’re not in charge of Braddock, Tillington is. Tell the President this: when you chose the crews to come up to the station, you screened people you sent. They’re all certified sane. The Reunioners were all born on Reunion. They’ve been through hell in the last ten years. And we took all the survivors. There was nothing like screening. There still hasn’t been. We’ve got theft we never had to deal with. We have a shadow market we never had to deal with. You wouldn’t believe what you can turn into alcohol. We’ve likely got some seriously confused head cases in that population. And we’ve got Braddock, who thinks the Pilots’ Guild is in charge of the universe. We’re one psych problem short of a security nightmare. And we’re fragile. Phoenix is. Tillington’s politicking between Sabin and Ogun is bringing live our old issues. My people still haven’t answered all the questions about why Ramirez pulled us away from Reunion and stranded those people out there in the first place. It’s not a dead issue with the crew or with the Reunioners. It may never be. Damned sure nobody in the crew is on the side of the old Pilots’ Guild, and Braddock’s claims to speak for that ancient organization get no handhold with us. But now Tillington’s shooting sparks into a volatile atmosphere. I don’t think he understands how what he’s saying translates to us or to atevi. But he’s the wrong man in the wrong place right now.”
He’d been busy since he’d gotten back. He’d been fighting for Tabini’s return, fighting to keep Tabini in office, fighting to defuse issues that had nearly taken the aishidi’tat apart. Tillington had been a name to him, and he’d trusted Geigi to tell him if there were things that needed attention. Of course there were disputes. There were issues. Those had seemed distant, someone else’s problem.