Quiet Invasion (49 page)

Only D’seun came immediately to hover beside the perches T’sha had left behind.

The translator, activated by his presence, read the words that appeared on the New People’s screen along with the familiar image of Engineer Vee. Now though, instead of shades of red, she was many colors—cream and pink and gold in coverings of pale blue and green. The New People’s engineers had been busy.

“Ambassador D’seun?” The translator’s clear voice cut through the swirl of exclamation. “Good luck to you and to everyone who has accompanied you.”

The words touched the circulating crowd of ambassadors and reminded them that the formations in front of them were not just some growth on this strange crust. The ambassadors arrayed themselves in a politely interested tier, all facing the transports. Ambassador Z’eth came to hover directly beside D’seun.

Lest I forget who is senior here,
thought D’seun.
I forget nothing, Ambassador. You will understand what I am doing, soon.

“With me is the Law Meet of New Home,” said D’seun to the translator. “They wished to hear you speak on matters pertaining to this world on which we find ourselves. Is this you to whom I wish good luck, Vee?”
Let it be seen that I am civilized and polite. That I am a whole person.

There was a pause while the translator displayed the words for the New People and they formulated their response.

“Vee is here, but does not speak. I am Helen Failia. I am the ambassador for Venera Base.” The image of the New Person on the screen shifted slightly and became smaller, rounder, more wrinkled, and a little darker, with a more abbreviated gray crest. This image too raised both its hands in greeting.

Finally they see fit to send someone we can truly speak to.
“Good luck to you, Ambassador Helen.”

“Ambassador Helen,” spoke up Ambassador Z’eth. “Forgive me if I do not observe necessary ceremony, but the Law Meet is assembled here to seek an understanding of your claim to this world.” D’seun reformulated her words into the translator’s command language.

Words appeared under the New Person’s, Ambassador Helen’s, feet. The translator read the words out.

“Our claim to this world is that we live here. Before we came there was no life at all on Venus. Now, there are ten thousand of us in Venera Base. Four thousand of those were born in that base and have no other home. Our work is the study of this world. That study gives us both individual reward and our means of exchange with others of our kind. Without it, we have no home and no purpose to our lives.”

Behind and above, D’seun heard the rustle of wings and skin. “Now, there,” said K’ptai, “is an answer that is neither greedy nor insane.”

“Such a difference to deal with an ambassador,” said D’seun, his voice carefully neutral. He spoke to the translator. “Then why is there no life beyond your habitat? Why have your people not expanded in the last eighty years?”

A pause. “You have been watching us for that long?”

“We have been working with New Home that long. We needed to see what your claim to this world is.”

“And because you do not recognize our claim, you will throw us off this world?”

K’pta froze. “Is that what they think? That
we’re
insane?”

Ambassador Z’eth swooped a little closer to the translator. “We make no claim on anything used to support and maintain your life or the lives of the other New People on this world. These things are yours and are acknowledged as such without question.”

New words appeared on the screen. “I understand you wish to make this world your home?” read the translator. “How will you do that?”

D’seun looked to Z’eth for permission to speak, but it was P’eath, Ambassador for Ba’detad in the Far Southerns, who came forward to answer, swelling her aging body as she did. “We have already established that this world is capable of supporting the life that supports us. If, and only if, no one else has a valid claim to this world, then we will attempt to establish a biosystem.” She waited while D’seun translated between her and the tools. “If the biosystem takes hold, then we will birth settlements for our people and we will live here while the changes on our home rebalance themselves and we can again live there. When we are gone, this world will be left as fallow to rebalance itself.” P’eath had proposed the original idea of New Home. She carried her pride of that accomplishment like an extra tattoo on her wings. But her vision extended no further than finding a new world. She did not see the wider implications of allowing the New People to remain here.

“What about the rest of the planets that orbit this sun?” asked the translator for Ambassador Helen.

“We do not need them,” said Z’eth without hesitation. “They will not help us spread life.”

“What about us?” The image gestured toward the clouds. “The humans here on Venera? While you are…spreading life, what will you do with us?”

“Ambassador,” murmured D’seun to Z’eth, keeping his words light as pollen. “Do not answer. Make no promises. There are consequences here….”

But if Z’eth heard him, she gave no sign. She kept her gaze fixed on the communicator.

“Community is a resource,” said Z’eth. “One which we hope you will provide for us. You have studied this world for a long time and we hope you will share your knowledge with us.”

No, no. There can be no community here. This world must be ours alone. They cannot be controlled, cannot be predicted. I hold your promise!

“In return,” said Z’eth, spreading her wings to show their scope and the canopy of her tattoos to the New People waiting in their shelters, “we hope we can help you.” No one questioned her right to speak or her words. D’seun’s gaze swept the assembled ambassadors, and he wondered how many of them owed promises to Z’eth.

The image of Ambassador Helen bobbed its face several times. “This all sounds very good, but what assurance can you give us that you will not change your position later, when there are more of you here?”

That was a tricky question. It raised implications of sanity. If the People were insane, they’d lie. But there was no way to prove sanity in advance. After a moment, Ambassador P’tkei descended to within the translator’s range and spoke. “What assurance would you accept?”

There was a long pause, even after the words had been fed to the translator. “Good question.”

D’seun fluttered, inflating and deflating rapidly, angry at this show of understanding and aware his anger was absurd. They would betray themselves soon enough. This was a thin shell. It would crack. “This world was declared New Home by the High Law Meet. Since then, miles had passed under us both and we have done nothing but debate your status and save your lives. If we were insane, as you fear, and meant to destroy you, would we not have done so already?”

Another pause. Were they debating over there? Or were they just trying to understand?

At last, the answer came. “I can accept this.”

“Then we have our understanding?” said Z’eth. “You agree this world is ours to make our new Home?”

“Yes,” said the translator. “To you, this is New Home, and together we have community. You will help us if we need it, as you helped the others in the scarab that crashed?”

“Life helps life,” said Z’eth. “We will do what we can.”

“Our situation here is not easy.” The image of the ambassador seemed to shrink a bit. “There are those with whom we disagree about our rights to this world, and consequently yours. They might attempt to cut off our supply routes from the other worlds. We may be forced to ask for a great deal of assistance in maintaining ourselves here.”

Hope and fear burned together inside D’seun. There was clear acknowledgment that this was New Home. That would relax many of the ambassadors at his back. But there were words in this delectation that would raise the questions he needed openly debated. Here was the first crack in the New People’s shell.

D’seun opened his muzzle to speak, but Z’eth spoke first. “This is our world, together. We will of course help you.”

Ambassador Helen’s image raised its hands again. “Thank you, Ambassadors all. We will talk more in the future. Hopefully our engineers can find a way to make this easier.”

“I am certain they can.” Pride swelled Z’eth. She hadn’t heard it, then. That was all right. He would make her hear.

“Good-bye, then,” said the words beneath Ambassador Helen.

“Good luck in your life.”

Z’eth a apparently resisted the urge to trumpet her triumph, but she did spread her wings to the assembled ambassadors. “We have them. We have this world. Clean and clear, it is ours.”

“But we still have a problem,” said D’seun, deflating humbly.

“Ambassador?” Z’eth shrank to something close to her normal size.

“The other New People. Their distant family on their other world.” He swelled and lifted his muzzle, making sure his words touched all the Law Meet of New Home. “Did you not hear the ambassador? They are willing to dispute the clear and legitimate claims to this world, when they have no counterclaims in place. They are insane.”

Vee watched D’seun and the other ambassadors spread their wings and rise gracefully into the sky like a dream of golden birds.

“I cannot believe you did that,” she whispered harshly to the command board. “Holy God and Mother Creation, I cannot
believe
you did that!”

I can’t believe I let you do that.
Vee looked down at her own hands on the command board. Helen Failia once again sat in the pilot’s seat

“I didn’t do anything,” said Helen, firmly. “I just made sure we had backup in case the C.A.C. tries to force us to do things their way.”

“Didn’t do anything?” Vee stared at her in complete disbelief. “You just got an alien race involved in a pissant bid for revolution that they can’t possibly understand. You called yourself an
ambassador
, for God’s sake. Do you know what that means to them? It means you speak for a whole city, that you have the right to make decisions for an entire population!”

“I do speak for a whole city,” replied Helen.

“Did Michael and Ben know what you were going to say?” asked Josh from his position in the back of the cabin. They’d rigged up a monitoring station in the Discovery so that he wouldn’t have to leave the scarab to keep an eye on the equipment.

“They knew.” Helen nodded once. But she did not, Vee noticed, look at either of them.

“Did they approve?” inquired Josh.

Helen turned and gave him an icy glare. “That is none of your business.”

“The U.N. could be doing anything,” said Vee hoarsely. “They could be planning an embargo. They could be sending in soldiers!”

“Maybe.” Helen’s voice was flat and practical, just like the expression on her face. “That’s their problem.”

Vee got slowly to her feet, her hands shaking with rage. Josh scraped his chair back a little, and she saw his expression urging her to caution. She didn’t care. He didn’t get it. None of them got it.

“You idiot!” she rasped at Failia. “You stupid, bloody-minded, idiot! If we get them involved with this, they may decide the Terrans are greedy or crazy. Do you know what that means to them?”

“No.” Helen regarded her calmly. “And neither do you. Sit down, Dr. Hatch.”

“And remember who I’m talking to?” shot back Vee. She swept out her hand. “How could I forget? I’m talking to a woman who is willing to get an entire alien race involved in her stupid little pissing games!”

Helen’s face flushed a dark purple, even though her voice remained soft and calm. Her gnarled hands clenched the seat’s arms.

“Dr. Hatch, thank you for your help in facilitating communication with the People. I think, however, you had better be aboard the shuttle which will be returning your colleagues to Earth.”

Josh laid a hand on Vee’s shoulder. He opened his mouth to start to say something.

“No, Josh,” said Vee, coldly. “I think you’d better distance yourself from me.” She met Dr. Failia’s gaze without blinking. “I think I’m a very bad person to be near right now.”

But if you think I’m going to let this happen, Dr. Failia, think again. Think hard.

They held their ground, staring each other down. There was no way for her to win here, Vee knew, and her only exit options lacked dignity.
But a display of petulant vulnerability now might be beneficial later on.

God Almighty, Vee you have been doing this for too long.

“They shipped all the dissenters out of Bradbury too.” She whirled around and stormed down the central corridor and into her cabin. The door swished shut behind her. She wished it would slam.

Vee dropped onto the edge of her couch and pressed her fingers against her temples.
Think, think. This has to handled. You can’t let them do this to T’sha. To the world. To everything.
A sad realization came over her.
Nobody even asked about T’sha. We don’t know what’s happening to her.

She stayed like that until she heard the door swish open again. She unfolded herself. Josh stepped over the threshold and let the door close behind him.

“How’s life outside?” she asked lightly.

He sat on the edge of the couch facing her. “Helen’s calling up to the base to say mission accomplished. Adrian is going a little nuts checking and rechecking the soundness of the scarab.” He glanced at the door. “I think he really does not want to be here.”

Vee laughed, once. “That makes two of us.” She looked down at her fingertips. “What are you going to do?”

Josh sighed and looked around the cabin, a little bleak, a little annoyed. Vee sympathized. This was a lousy place to be having this discussion. Neither one of them could stand up straight. The crash-couches weren’t comfortable to sit up in. Her shoulders ached and she bet his did too, and who knew when Helen was going to come walking through the door to see what they were conspiring about. The whole situation stank.

“You know what’s the worst?” Josh asked suddenly, as if reading her thoughts. Vee shook her head. “That I can’t win. If I go home, I’m turning my back on what might be the most important thing that’s ever happened to humanity. On the other hand, if the Venerans start anything, you know the propaganda machine on Mother Earth’s going to paint Venera as a bunch of mindless Fullerite rebels. So, if I stay, it’ll look like I’d rather be with traitors and aliens than my friends and family.” He glanced at Vee and shook his head again. “It’ll look like I’m a traitor.”