Part 38 (2/2)
”I am, thank you.” Ka.s.squit touched one of her arms. ”I am certainly better now that I am not being immunized. That was a distinctly unpleasant process.”
”Falling ill and possibly dying would have been even more unpleasant,” Ttomalss pointed out. ”You were vulnerable to illnesses the visiting Yeagers might have brought with them.”
”I understand that. Understanding it and liking it are not the same.” Ka.s.squit had become a far more sardonic adult than Ttomalss would have expected. She went on, ”And the Yeagers appear to have brought no illness with them, for I have not fallen sick since their visit.”
”But you do not know whether you would have fallen sick had you not been immunized,” Ttomalss said.
He gave Ka.s.squit credit; after a moment's thought, his Tosevite ward used the affirmative gesture. She said, ”No doubt you are right, superior sir. Still, now that I have proved I can safely meet them, would it be possible for them to come up here again?”
”Possible? Certainly, though we would have to make arrangements for their transport with the American Tosevites.”
”I know that.” Ka.s.squit used the affirmative gesture again. ”I hope you will begin making those arrangements, whatever they are.”
”Very well,” Ttomalss said, not without a certain pang. ”May I ask why you are so eager for me to do this?” He tried not to show the worry he could hardly help feeling. Did blood call to blood more strongly than he had imagined possible? Did Ka.s.squit wish she were an ordinary Big Ugly? On the face of it, the notion was absurd. But judging anything pertaining to Tosevites by first appearances could be deadly dangerous. The Race had learned that time and again.
Ka.s.squit said, ”Their visit will be something out of the ordinary. One day here is very much like another. This will give me something new to remember, something new to think about.”
”I see,” Ttomalss said, and Ka.s.squit's explanation was sensible enough. It also relieved his mind. ”All right, I will see what I can do. You understand, of course, that I cannot do this without approval from my superiors.”
”Oh, yes, superior sir, that goes without saying,” Ka.s.squit agreed. ”And perhaps, if this second meeting proves a success, I might eventually visit these Big Uglies down on the surface of Tosev 3. That would truly be an adventure for me.”
”Would you like to do that?” Now Ka.s.squit knew he sounded alarmed. He couldn't help himself. Day by day, Ka.s.squit became a more autonomous individual. Ttomalss supposed that was inevitable; it happened with hatchlings of the Race, too. But watching it happen was acutely disconcerting.
”I would,” Ka.s.squit said with an emphatic cough. ”I have been thinking about this. How can I be a bridge between the Empire and the independent Big Uglies if I do not reach to them as they reach to me?”
”Up until now, they have done the accommodating,” Ttomalss reminded her. ”If you went down there, you would have to do some of your own. They would probably require you to wear cloth wrappings, for instance, to conform to their customs.”
”That would also be something new for me,” Ka.s.squit said, sounding as enamored of novelty as any American Big Ugly. She added, ”And wrappings would help keep me warm, would they not? The surface of Tosev 3 is supposed to be a chilly place.”
”You have all the answers, I see,” Ttomalss said wryly. ”Let us discover how a second meeting goes before planning a third, if that suits you.” To his relief, Ka.s.squit didn't argue.
Nesseref was very pleased with how smoothly she'd brought her shuttlecraft out of its suborbital trajectory; it took much less atmospheric buffeting than usual on the way down toward the port outside Cairo. As the braking rockets ignited, she was thinking about how she could enjoy the layover at the Race's administrative center. From what she remembered of the transient barracks, she might have trouble enjoying it at all.
Her pa.s.senger, a regional subadministrator from China named Ppevel, was looking forward to the arrival. ”By the spirits of Emperors past,” he said, ”it will be good to come to a place where the climate is close to decent. I have been cold for what seems like forever.”
”So have I, superior sir,” Nesseref replied. ”Poland in winter reminds me of nothing so much as an enormous open-air freezer.”
Ppevel started insisting China had to be colder. Before Nesseref could argue with him-and she intended to, because she had trouble imagining any place colder than Poland-a puff of black smoke and a loud bang outside the shuttlecraft distracted her. Another puff and bang, closer, were followed by metallic clatters as sh.e.l.l fragments struck the shuttlecraft. A warning light on the instrument panel came on.
”What is that noise?” Ppevel asked.
Ignoring him, Nesseref shouted into the radio microphone: ”Cairo base! Cairo base! We are under attack, Cairo base!” She felt like a perfect target hanging up there, too; she couldn't interrupt the computer-controlled descent sequence, not unless she wanted to try to land manually, by eye turret and by guess. She wondered if she ought to. She might pilot the shuttlecraft right into the ground. But she might also make it harder to shoot down.
Before she could hit the override switch, a voice came out of the radio speaker: ”Shuttlecraft Pilot, we have the Tosevite terrorists under a.s.sault. Maintain your present trajectory.”
”It shall be done,” Nesseref said as another sh.e.l.l burst all too close to the shuttlecraft. More fragments struck the machine. Another hit like that and I disobey orders, Another hit like that and I disobey orders, she thought. she thought.
But only one more antiaircraft sh.e.l.l exploded, this one farther away. The descent after that went as well as if no one had been shooting at her. She spied helicopters racing toward the spot from which, she presumed, the antiaircraft gun was firing.
Ppevel said, ”I have also been under fire in China. The more often one endures it, the easier it is to bear.”
”I have been under fire, too,” Nesseref answered. ”I do not think I will ever come to enjoy it.”
She-and the computer-put the shuttlecraft down in the middle of the landing port. A vehicle hurried across the wide concrete expanse to meet the shuttlecraft. It was not the usual motorcar, but a mechanized combat vehicle. ”The Big Uglies will have to work hard to destroy that machine,” Ppevel observed.
”Truth,” Nesseref said. But seeing the combat vehicle did not rea.s.sure her. If the Race sent it out to bring Ppevel-and, incidentally, herself-into Cairo, that meant there was some risk to them both.
”I thank you for a job well done,” the regional subadministrator told her.
”You are welcome, superior sir.” Nesseref didn't say the computer had done the work, with her along as little more than an organic emergency backup. She'd almost had to take over the controls of the shuttlecraft-this was as close as she'd ever come to doing just that. Had her luck been a little worse... but she didn't care to think about that. ”If you like, I will go first, and attract whatever gunfire may be waiting for us.”
”That will not be necessary, though I do appreciate the thought behind it,” Ppevel said. He unstrapped himself and went down the ladder with easy haste that showed he'd flown in a good many shuttlecraft before. No one shot at him; the helicopters now buzzing around the port must have suppressed that Tosevite gun.
Nesseref followed him out of the shuttlecraft. A male in helmet and body armor said, ”Into the vehicle! Do not waste time.”
”I was not wasting time,” Nesseref said indignantly. ”Make sure this shuttlecraft is well repaired. It took damage from the sh.e.l.ls that exploded nearby. Had they cut a fuel or oxygen line, the craft-and my pa.s.senger, and I-would be scattered all over this port.”
”It shall be done, superior female?” The trooper lowered his voice as he went on, ”Would you like a taste of ginger? That would make you feel better.”
”No!” Nesseref used an emphatic cough. ”If I had a taste of ginger, you would feel better, which is what you have in mind.”
”Pheromones are in the air,” the male admitted, ”but I did not mean it like that.”
”Of course you did,” Nesseref told him. ”If you do not mention the herb again, I will not have to learn your name and report you.” She pushed past the male and into the mechanized combat vehicle. Glumly, he followed. She repeated her warning about the damage the shuttlecraft had taken to the driver, who relayed it by radio to the ground crew males and females at the shuttlecraft port. Nesseref relaxed a little after hearing him do that.
A couple of-rocks and a gla.s.s bottle hit the combat vehicle as it rolled through the insanely crowded streets of Cairo. Ppevel took that in stride. ”The same thing happens in China.”
”Well, it does not happen in cities in Poland,” Nesseref said. ”The Big Uglies there are much better behaved. Why, I even invited one of them and his hatchling to supper at my apartment, and the evening proved quite pleasant.”
”I have heard about Poland,” Ppevel answered. ”I must say I believe it to be a special case. The Big Uglies in that subregion find their Tosevite neighbors more unpleasant than they find us, and so look to us to protect them against those neighbors. That does not hold true either in China or here. I wish it did. It would make our rule much easier.”
Remembering conversations with veteran administrators in Poland, Nesseref realized she had to yield the point, and did: ”You are probably right, superior sir.”
Right or wrong, Ppevel got better accommodations than she did. The mechanized combat vehicle took him to the Race's administrative center, which had been a luxurious Tosevite hotel before the conquest fleet arrived and had since been thoroughly modernized. After he went inside, the vehicle took Nesseref to the barracks for visiting males and females, some little distance away.
”You will be quartered in the hall to the left, the females' hall,” the officer in charge of the barracks said, pointing with his tongue.
”Barracks separated by s.e.x?” Nesseref exclaimed. ”I never heard of such a thing.”
”You will hear more of it in the future, superior female,” the officer said. ”Because of the Tosevite herb, we have had enough unfortunate incidents to reckon such segregation the wiser policy.”
Nesseref thought about that. If a female who tasted ginger was liable to come into season at any time, and if a male inflamed by some other female's pheromones was liable to give a female ginger to provoke mating behavior in her... Nesseref made the affirmative gesture. ”I see the need.”
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