The Unscheduled Mission (2 page)

“The
Alliance doesn’t use missiles,” Arn pointed out.

“They haven’t so far,” Park agreed, “but having seen us use them so efficiently, do you really think they can’t figure out how to make some of their own?”

“Good point,” Arn admitted. “So who should we be taking up?”

“Normally I’d say the usual suspects,” Park replied, “but this mission is hardly usual. You and I will go, of course. I’m assuming you’ll leave Max in charge down here?”

“I will,” Arn confirmed. “It will free up Patty Zinco to act as my adjutant.”

Park nodded, but thought to himself that Arn would really be taking Patricia up as his de facto wife. “I’ll take Iris, naturally. If anything goes wrong, I want her at the weapons console. Taodore should be there as well.”

“What about his daughter, Marisea?” Arn asked.

“She’s needed more right here,” Park told him. “I think she’s getting pretty serious with her latest boyfriend, but she’s also been running the classes for our Atackack students.”

“The ants,” Arn snorted.

“They only look like giant ants, Arn,” Park told him. “They are very intelligent and capable of independent thought, you know.”

“They’re savages,” Arn retorted.

“No,” Park shook his head. “They are barbarians. Very intelligent barbarians, just not very well-educated, but by the time we’re done with them here they’ll all have college degrees.”

“And will they be speaking proper English?” Arn asked.

“The Atackack are no more physically capable of speaking our languages than we are of theirs,” Park explained, “but they do understand English and Mermish. I can understand some of what they say to each other as well, you know.”

”No, I didn’t know that,” Arn told him. “Since when?”

“Not very much, but some. I’ve been sitting in on as many of their classes as I could and the Mer have some instructional programs on the language I’ve studied while traveling. It seemed only fair that if we were requiring them to speak our language that we should learn theirs as well. Besides, understanding their language gives me a slightly better understanding of them as well. Of course this is the language of their shamans, not the general Atackack population.”

“The shamans have their own language?” Arn asked.

“Pretty much,” Park nodded. “Actually, I think it might classify more as a dialect. They pronounce their nouns a bit differently and their verbs are all conjugated in a different manner, but that’s because each class of Atackack has their own conjugation, and they have a whole lexicon of words only a shaman would even have a use for. I suppose I could, with effort, understand a common Atackack worker, but all our male students are shamans.”

“They are?” Arn asked, obviously shocked. “They’re all mystics like that Okacktack bug?”

“Stop calling them bugs, Arn,” Park admonished him. “Okay, sure they are insects, but slurs like that just warp your thinking about them. Anyway, not all shaman are mystics. Damned few of them are, in fact. The Shaman Class is made up of those male Atackack who are too intelligent and independent to do more than just service their queens. Tack’s a mystic, he has visions, but most become military leaders and some have other specialized jobs like Tellers a class of professional bards or storytellers, and they have their own class of scientists of sorts, Inventors, they are called. Most of our students are either Leaders or Inventors, although some may be Tellers or even some other more obscure class of Shaman. At the moment they have not yet been formally assigned to their proper classification. It could well be we are creating a new class of Scholars.”

“Interesting,” Arn admitted, “but none of them are going up, are they?”

“Not this trip,” Park shook his head, “although I think we’ll want some representative Atackack signatures on the eventual treaty.”

“Huh? Why?” Arn asked.

“Because this is their world too,” Park pointed out and anything we decide is going to affect them as well. Let’s not forget what happened to the Native Americans when the Europeans decided to colonize
North America. Right now the Atackack outnumber us, but they accept us, probably because we’re friends with the Mer, but in the long run were another land-based species. The Mer aren’t. So while the Mer and the Atackack are not likely to be competing species, humans and Atackack might be. It think it would be best to treat them as equals from the start.”

“We’re not likely to live long enough for human settlements to encroach on theirs, are we?” Arn asked pointedly.

“Not even a little,” Park laughed, “but there’s no reason to start off on the wrong foot, is there? Now I also want to bring Dannet and any of his people he thinks ought to be there. Part of this negotiation involve the repatriation of prisoners of war, and Dannet is also willing to advise us. He’s already warned me that the new negotiator, when he shows up, is going to try a few dirty tricks. Having Dannet to point them out when they occur will be helpful.”

“Can we really trust him?” Arn asked. “I mean he is a member of the
Alliance, isn’t he?”

“The
Alliance is evidently not as solid as their name makes them sound,” Park advised. “Their worlds are empowered to make treaties above and beyond those made in the name of the
Alliance, so long as they do not actually conflict with official
Alliance agreements, and Dannet is certain his father will want a private agreement of that sort with us.”

“How important is his father in the Alliance of Confedertated Worlds?” Arn asked.

“Hard to say from here,” Park admitted. “His title is Lord of Dennsee and he is effectively the king there. He also represents his world in the Diet of Confederated Worlds, I think it’s called or would be called in English. I imagine he is part of a faction within that political body.”

“Diet?” Arn asked.

“Like the Diet of Worms,” Park explained. “It’s so named because they are required to meet one day each year.”

“Nice work if you can get it,” Arn remarked.

“Well in actuality they meet nearly every day in one form or another,” Park shrugged. “A lot of that is private meetings and caucusing. The main sessions go on for weeks, but usually it’s the small stuff, or so Dannet tells me.”

“Does their Diet have factions?” Arn asked.

“It’s made up of politicians,” Park laughed. “What do you think? Anyway, Dannet makes his Dad sound pretty important, but he might be prejudiced on that account. I guess we’ll just have to see.”

Docking multiple ships to one another was old hat to the spacefarers of the Alliance of Confederated Worlds and one of their ships, in fact, carried a large module for just that. The module was a large sphere, nearly one hundred feet in diameter, with six standard docking bays. Park was amazed that the Mer used the same sized docking attachments as the Alliance, but Dannet explained that the docks on the spherical module were flexible enough to accommodate almost any round docking port known to the worlds of the futuristic suprahumans.

Trenisi
was the last of the four ships to dock with the sphere. Once secured, airlock-to-airlock, Tina Linea, the pilot, began shutting down the ship’s engines.

“Don’t completely shut them down,” Park advised. “We may need to make a quick getaway.”

“I can’t leave them running, sir,” Tina replied. “There would be thrust.”

“Park,” Arn told him, “You’re being paranoid.”

“I’m being cautious,” Park replied. “Tina, keep us in pre-launch stand-by mode.”

“I can’t do that for more than a few hours at a time, sir,” Tina replied.

“See?” Arn told him. “You’re being unrealistic. These are diplomatic negotiations. We are not going to have to leave in a hurry.”

“Tina,” Iris Fain cut in, “will prep time be shortened if we rotate the ship’s batteries so that half of them are constantly ready?”

“Well, sure,” Tina replied easily. “
Trenisi’s
engines can be initiated on half power in an emergency. I’d prefer not to try it, though.”

“Neither would I,” Iris admitted, “and we probably won’t have to, but this way we can if we need to. You men,” she laughed at both Park and Arn. “You ought to learn to get the facts before you start giving orders.”

“I knew we could leave on half power,” Park replied defensively.

“But you ordered that we remain on full stand-by,” Iris pointed out.

“I, uh,” Park began, and then started laughing. “I made a mistake. I should have done it your way.”

Iris smiled tightly, but not smugly, and turned toward Arn and raised an eyebrow. “Well, let’s go then,” Arn decided and headed toward the airlock with Patty on his arm.

Taodore Waisau, the Mer ambassador to Van Winkle Town, stood up and balanced briefly on his dolphin-like tail and adjusted the controls on his belt. Strictly speaking he could hop-step around in the cabin’s light gravity, but the belt allowed him to be graceful about it. He held his arm out toward Sartena, the orange woman who had become such a close friend to his daughter Marisea and smiled.

“Why, thank you, sir,” Sartena grinned in response and accepted the arm and together they stepped through the hatch.

“I suppose I should have arranged a date for you,” Park grinned at Dennet Nrenth.

“No need,” the green-skinned Dannet grinned back. “I have a fiancée.”

“You do?” Iris asked. “What’s she like?”

“I don’t know,” Dannet admitted. “I haven’t seen her since we were children.”

“What?” Iris asked.

“She lives on Gallsee,” Dannet replied. “Her father is Lord there.”

“An arranged marriage?” Iris did not really ask.

“Of course,” Dannet replied. “Gallsee was originally a colony of Dennsee and we are of the same species, so we are encouraged to find spouses on each other’s worlds. As the future lord of Dennsee it is my responsibility to set the example.”

“But if the children of the lords of the two worlds keep marrying, won’t you get rather inbred?” Park asked.

“Oh, I didn’t have to be engaged to the Lord’s daughter,” Dannet laughed. “My parents would have been pleased with any young lady of a respectable family. There were thousands of possible matches for me, or so I’m told, but since we got along so well as children, and since it had been five generations since our families last intermarried it was a good match for our worlds as well.”

“But you haven’t even spoken in years?” Iris asked, disbelievingly.

“It is our custom,” Dannet shrugged. “At least I know who I will marry, but Melise doesn’t. That’s another part of the custom. She knows she has an arranged husband but will not be allowed to know who I am until our wedding day. It’s to encourage humility.” Dannet sighed heavily. “I hope she is happy to learn she is to marry her childhood playmate.”

Iris gave him an encouraging smile and took his arm and led him through the airlock.

“Well, sir,” Tina chuckled. “If you want to be ready to leave, I’m going to have to nurse the batteries.”

“Yeah, I’m on my own,” Park smiled. He looked toward the airlock and remarked, “She’s quite a woman, isn’t she?”

“I heard that,” Iris remarked from just beyond the hatch.

“With excellent hearing, sir,” Tina laughed. “Go on, sir, you two were made for each other.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” Park grinned and headed for the hatchway.

Park had been expecting the sphere to be hollow and even though the ships all had artificial gravity, he had imagined the conference would be held while floating somewhere in the middle. Instead, he found himself in a long circular access corridor about fifteen feet or so inside the outer shell of the multi-ship docking module. Along the outer curve of that hallway were doors that each lead to private cabins. There were hallways leading inward to a fair-sized open space, but even this, like all the ships, had the artificial gravity, the people of this time took for granted. There were, he learned later, elevators that ran up and down to the two unused docking bays, but because only four ships were present they were all docked on the central level.

The spherical modules had several levels within it that Park and the others never saw, but were assured held the usual machinery for gravity, life support, a kitchen, storage for long-term use and so forth, “We’ll be expected to stay in the outer cabins,” Terius informed them when they met up with the Mers who had come up on the other Earthly ship.

“Not sure I like that,” Park admitted and explained the precautions he had taken, leaving Tina on board
Trenisi
.

“You’re definitely not a diplomat, are you?” Terius countered, with some amusement. “I’m fairly certain our Galactic counterparts will be mortally insulted by that, but just between you and me, I can live with that.”

“Park,” Arn cut in. “We still haven’t had a chance to rig up private cabins inside
Trenisi
. You can sleep on board if you want, but the rest of us will appreciate our comfort.”

“Fine, you sleep in your hotel rooms here,” Iris told him. “Park and I will stay on the ship with Tina.”

Arn shrugged and turned to Terius, “Do we have assigned rooms?”

“No, just pick ones nearest your ship,” Terius replied. “We will not be meeting the official negotiator for another two hours yet. Something about a religious observance they said, and if you try to hop or walk around the periphery of this module, you’ll find half of it has been walled off from us.”

“Or else our half has been walled off from them?” Park asked.

“Could be,” Terius smiled. “Remember they think we have cooties.”

“Where did you hear that phrase?” Park asked, amused and curious.

“From you and on several occasions,” Terius replied. “Once I managed to get a reasonable translation out of my torq,” he indicated the open circular device he and all the humans were wearing around their necks, “it seemed apt.”

The torqs were the single most useful item Park had discovered among the Mer’s many advanced devices. While they looked like ancient Celtic adornments, they were actually marvels of high technology; the ultimate personal digital assistant, combining computer terminal, encyclopedia, translators and much more. Park had even managed to get his to interface with the personalized computer pad he had brought with him in stasis from the Twenty-first Century. Most of his colleagues had laughed at the way he would program the torq from his pad or display data from the torq on the pad’s screen, rather than just letting the torq’s holographic display do it for him on a convenient surface, but after trying it that way for themselves, there was suddenly a great demand for the computer pads in Van Winkle Base’s storage. Many visiting Mers had picked up the habit as well and there was a factory trying to produce similar pads for general usage.