At The Edge Of Space (Hanan Rebellion) (51 page)

“
Prha,
” said Chaikhe to that person, “
vaikka/tomes-melakhiasa, ekutikkase.
”

“We did not so much want revenge,” Daniel responded to the comment, for he had caught the gist of it through Isande, “as we wanted justice, our own land back. Now the amaut have come looking for us, even across the Belt. They’re murdering my people.”

“Why?” asked Chimele.

The sudden harshness of her tone panicked the human; his own murder flashed to mind—the easy, gentle manner of the others’ questions some game they played with him.
No!
Isande sent him.
Stay absolutely still. Don’t move. Answer her.

“I don’t know why. They came—they came. Unprovoked.”

“Human ships had not crossed to the Esliph?”

“No,” he said quickly, surprised by the accusation. “No.”

“How do you know this?”

He did not. He was no one. He had no perfect knowledge of his people’s actions. Aiela sent him an urging to keep still, for Chimele frowned.

“
M’metane,
” said Chimele, “disputing another’s experience is most difficult. Yet there remains the possibility that the amaut responded to a human intrusion into Esliph space. They are not prone to act recklessly where there is an absence of threat to their own territory, and they are not prone to aggression without the certainty of profit. When there is either motivation, then they move most suddenly and decisively. Our acquaintance with the amaut is long, but I am not satisfied that you know them as well as you believe. Consider every detail of your acquaintance with these uncommon amaut, from the beginning. Let Isande have these thoughts.”

He did so, the image of a ship, of amaut faces, another ship, a city, fire—he flashed backward, seeking the origin, the first intimation of danger to human worlds. Merchant ship, military ship—vanished, only gaseous clouds to mark their passing. Ships grounded. Another vessel. Alien. A human war fleet, drawn from worlds to the interior of human space: this the real defense of their perimeters, large, ships technologically not far from par with the
metrosi.
Demolished, traceless. Mindless panic among human colonies, wild rumors of landings in the system. A second, local fleet gone, thirty ships at once.

Daniel still sent, but Isande had glanced sharply at Chimele, and Aiela did not need her interpretation to understand. Amaut
karshatu
maintained weapons on their merchantmen, but they were not capable of disposing of whole warfleets: the
karshatu
never combined. In that respect they were as solitary as the iduve.

Amaut,
Daniel insisted, and there were amautish ships in his mind, such as he had seen onworld, great hulking transports, hardly capable of fighting: carriers of equipment and indentured personnel; smaller ships, trade ships that plied the high-speed supply runs, taking back the only export these raw new worlds would supply as yet, not to make an empty run on either direction: human cargo, profitably removed from a place where their numbers made them a threat to places where they were a commodity. But these amaut were not fighters either. Daniel, confused, searched into dimmer memories.

Darkness, images on a viewing screen, a silver shape in hazy resolution, last to view almost instantly, pursued in vain. Isande caught at the memory eagerly, drawing more and more detail from Daniel, making him hold the image, concentrate upon it, focus it.

“He has seen an
akites,
” Isande’s soft voice translated. “Distant, his ship pursued, lacked speed, lost it. He thinks it was amaut, knows—this was what arrived—disorganized the entire human defense. They resisted—mistook it for several ships, not knowing its speed—perhaps—perhaps more than one, I can’t tell—they provoked—they provoked, not knowing what—Daniel, please!”

“Was it yours?” Daniel cried, on his feet, closing screens with abrupt violence. Iduve moved, and Aiela, hardly slower, sprang up to put himself between Daniel and Chimele.

“Sit down,” Aiela exclaimed. “Sit down, Daniel.”

Contempt came across: it was in Daniel’s eyes and burning in his mind.
Theirs. Not your kind either, but you crawl at their feet. You come apart inside when they look at you—I’m sorry—
He felt Aiela’s pain, and tears came to his eyes.
What are you doing to us? Not human. Aiela!

Aiela seized, held to him, shamed by the emotion, shamed to feel when their observers could not. Isande—she, apart, despising, angry. He gained control of himself and forced the dazed human into a chair, stood over him, his fingers clenched into the man’s shoulder.

Calm, be calm,
he kept sending. After a moment Daniel’s muscles relaxed and his mind assumed a quieter level, questioning, terrified.

Why are they asking these things?
he kept thinking.
Aiela, Aiela, help me—tell me the truth if you know it.
And then at the angry touch of Isande’s mind:
Who is Tejef?

Terror. She flung herself back, screened so violently Daniel cried out.

And the iduve were utterly still, every eye upon them, the
nasithi
gathered close about Chimele, with such a look of menace that they seemed to have grown and the room to have shrunk. Indeed more had come, dark faces frowning with anger, unasking and unasked. Still they came, and the concourse began to be crowded with them. None spoke. There was only the sound of steps and the rustling of thousands of bodies.

“Is this aberrance under control?” Chimele wondered quietly, her eyes on Aiela.

It is not aberrance,
he wanted to cry at her.
Can’t you perceive it?
But the iduve could not comprehend. He bowed deeply. “He was alarmed. He perceived a threat to his species.”

Chimele considered that. Iduve faces, whose eyes were almost incapable of moving from side to side, had always a direct, invading stare, communicating little of what processes of thought. went on behind them, At last she lifted her hand and the tension in the room ebbed perceptibly.

“This being is capable of a certain
elethia,
” she said. “But he is not wise to think that
Ashanome
could not deal with his species more efficiently if their destruction were our purpose. How long ago,
o m’metane,
did your worlds realize the presence of such ships?”

“I’ve lost count,” Daniel replied: truth. “A year, perhaps—maybe a little less. It seems forever.”

“Do you reckon in human time?”

“Yes.” An impulse rose in him, defiant, suicidal. “Who is Tejef?”

The effect was like a weapon drawn. But this time Chimele refused to be provoked. Interest was in her expression, and she held her
nasithi
motionless with a quick lift of her fingers.

“Chimele,” said Isande miserably, “he took it from me, when I thought of ships.”

“Are you sure it was only then?”

“I am sure,” she said, but an iduve from the
Melakhis
stepped into the
paredre
area: a tall woman, handsome, in black as stark and close-fitting as iduve men usually affected.

“Chimele-Orithain,” said that one. “I have questions I would ask him.”

“Mejakh
sra
-Narach,
sra
-Khasif, you are out of order, though I understand your
m’melakhia
in this matter.
Hold, Mejakh!
” Chimele’s voice, soft, snapped like a blow to the face in the stillness, and the woman stopped a second time, facing her.

“This human is not kameth,” said Mejakh, “and I consider that he is out of order, Chimele, and probably in possession of more truth than he is telling.”

“More than he knows how to tell, perhaps,” said Chimele. “But he is mine, o mate of Chaxal. Honor to your
m’melakhia.
It is well known. Have patience. I am aware of you.”

“Honor to you,” said Khasif softly, drawing that woman to his side. “Honor always,
sra
-of-mine. But do not notice this ignorant being. He is harmless and only ignorant. Be still. Be still.”

The room grew quiet again. Chimele looked at last upon Daniel and Aiela. “Estimate a human year in Kej-time. Ashakh, assist them.”

It needed some small delay. Daniel inwardly recoiled from Ashakh’s close presence, but with quiet, precise questions, the iduve obtained the comparisons he wanted. In a moment more the computer had the data from the
paredre
desk console and began to construct a projection. A considerable portion of the hall went to starry space, where moving colored dots haltingly coincided.

“From the records of Kartos Station,” said Ashakh, “we have traced the recent movements of the ships in all zones of the Esliph. This new information seems to be in agreement. See, the movements of amaut commerce, the recent expansion of the lines of this
karsh
”—the image shifted, a wash of red light at the edge of the Esliph nearest human space—“by violent absorption of a minor
karsh
and its lanes; and the sudden shift of commerce here”—another flurry of lights—“indicate a probable direction of origin for that
akites
our instruments indicate over by Telshanu, directly out of human space. Now, if this being Daniel’s memory is accurate, the time coincides admirably for the intrusion of that
akites;
again, it falls well into agreement with this person’s account.”

“In all points?” asked Chimele, and when Ashakh agreed: “Indeed.” The image of Esliph space winked into the dim-lighted normalcy of the
paredre.
“Then we are bound for Telshanu. Advise
Chaganokh
to await our coming.”

“Chimele!” cried Mejakh. “Chimele, we cannot afford more time. This persistence of yours in—”

“It has thus far preserved
Ashanome
from disaster. You are not noticed, Mejakh. Ashakh, set our course. We are dismissed, my
nasithi.
”

As silently as they had assembled, the
nasul
dispersed, the
Melakhis
and the
nasithi-katasakke
too; and Chimele leaned back in her chair and stared thoughtfully at Daniel.

“Your species,” she said, “seems to have begun
vaikka
against one of the
nasuli,
most probably the
vra-nasul Chaganokh.
The amaut are a secondary problem, inconsequential by comparison. If you have been wholly truthful, I may perhaps remove the greater danger from human space. But be advised,
m’metane,
you came near to great harm. You are indeed kameth to
Ashanome,
although not all the
nasithi
seem to acknowledge that fact. Yet for reasons of my own I shall not yet permit you the
idoikkhe
—and you must therefore govern your own behavior most carefully. I shall not again count you ignorant.”

“You deny you’re responsible for what is happening to Konig?”

“
Tekasuphre.
” Chimele arose and plainly ignored Daniel, looking instead at Isande. “I think it may be well if you make clear to this person and to Aiela my necessities—and theirs.”

 

Isande’s quarters, a suite of jewel-like colors and glittering light-panels, had been the place of Daniel’s instruction before the interview; it was their refuge after, Isande curled into her favorite chair, Aiela in the other, Daniel sprawled disconsolate on the couch. Their minds touched. It was Daniel they tried to comfort, but he ignored them, solitary and suicidal in his depression. Regarding the impulse to self-destruction, Aiela was not greatly concerned: it was not consistent with the human’s other attitudes. Daniel was more likely to turn his destructive urges on someone else, but it would not be his asuthi. That was part of his misery. He had no reachable enemies.

“You have done nothing wrong,” said Isande. “You have not hurt your people.”

Silence.

Daniel,
Aiela sent,
I could not lie to you; you would know it.

I hate the sight of you,
Daniel’s subconscious fired out at him; but his upper mind suppressed that behind a confused feeling of shame. “That is not really true,” he said aloud, and again, forcefully: “That is not true. I’m sorry.”

Aiela cast him a feeling of total sympathy, for proximity still triggered a scream of alarm over his nerves and unsettled his stomach; but the reaction was already becoming less and less. Someday he would shudder no longer, and they would have become one monstrous hybrid, neither kalliran nor human. And now it was Isande who recoiled, having caught that thought. She rejected it in horror.

“I don’t blame you,” Daniel answered: somehow it did not seem unnatural that he should respond instead, so deeply was he in link with Aiela. He dropped the contact then, grieving, knowing Isande’s loathing for him.

“We have not used you,” Isande protested.

Daniel touched Aiela’s mind again, reading to a depth Aiela did not like. “And haven’t we all done a little of that?” Daniel wondered bitterly. “And isn’t it only natural, after all?” Was this the beaten, uneducated creature about whose sentience they had wondered? Aiela looked upon him in uncomfortable surmise, all three minds suddenly touching again. From Daniel came a bitter mirth.

You’ve taught me worlds of things I didn’t know. I don’t even remember learning most of it; I just touch your minds and I know. And I suppose you could pass for humans if it weren’t for your looks. But what use do they have for me on
Ashanome?
Teach me that if you can.

“Our life is a pleasant one,” said Isande.

“With the iduve?” Daniel swung his legs off the couch to sit upright. “They aren’t human, they aren’t even as human as you are, and I believe you when you say they don’t have feelings like we do. It agrees with what I saw in there tonight.”

“They have feelings,” said Isande, letting pass his remark about the humanity of kallia. “Daniel, Chimele wishes you no harm.”

“Prove it.”

She met his challenge with an opening of the mind, from which he retreated in sudden apprehension. Strange, iduve things lay beyond that gate. She remained intent upon it even while she rose and poured them each a glass of
marithe,
pressing it at both of them. She was seated again, and stared at Daniel.