"It is very important. I am told to say it concerns your mis- sion."
"What mission?" Kethrommon asked miserably. "I have 108 Brad Ferguson none-oh, never mind. All right. I will take the delivery." As he rose from his chair, the lights went on. He crossed the room in three steps and opened the door to find a delivery ro- bot standing there, a small package set atop its flat head.
"This is the thing?" Kethrommon asked.
"Yes, m"lord. Your thumbprint, please, on the gla.s.s plate next to the tray ... thank you. Good night, m"lord."
"Good night," Kethrommon said as he closed the door. He looked at the package. It was a not very large box sealed in plastic, and the only thing written on it was his own name-in an ornate hand, to be sure. It was moderately heavy. He held the package up to his ear and rattled it, and something inside thumped.
"Well, I wonder," Kethrommon muttered. He picked at the easy-open tab with a fingernail, and the plastic promptly fell apart along its pre-stressed seams. He opened the box and stopped for a moment, shocked and speechless. Then he smiled for the first time in many hours.
Things in Chaylaifa"s suite were getting busy.
"That was Sir Kethrommon, via the net," Trudy said. "He sends his personal regards to us, and he says he will be pleased to attend an early-moming meeting of the princ.i.p.als, as long as it is over before the time of his ship"s scheduled departure. He will not change that."
"I didn"t expect him to," Jacobs said, pleased. "I knew Kethrommon would give us some wiggle room if we gave him any excuse at all. Good boy!"
"You saw something in the files I didn"t notice," Trudy said.
"Just a detail. Kethrommon could not lake Chaylaifa"s life in payment for the insult to him-not in the context of negotiations with a foreign government, anyhow. However, Chaylaifa could offer his life-which he did by sending Kethrommon his very own blaster. It"s the same weapon he pulled on him at the meeting yesterday. Fraught with symbolism."
"I see," Lieutenant Hrock-Leff said. "So, at the meeting this morning, Kethrommon will fire into Chaylaifa"s already dead body, honor will be served, and that will be the end of it."
"Oh, heaven forbid," Jacobs said. "That would cause more RHUUM SERVICE 109.
problems later. I can"t have the Bloxx trade rep appear to kill the Rhuum amba.s.sador-and I still want the two sides to strike a deal."
"A deal? With one of the parties dead?"
"You bet. Lieutenant. C"mon. I want to see how they"re doing with Chaylaifa." They walked into the main bedroom.
"Hi, fellas."
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Jacobs," said the chief cosmetologist, his ro- dent teeth chattering. The others nodded to Jacobs and contin- ued to scurry around Chaylaifa"s bulky form, combing and cleaning and straightening. "How d"you think he"s looking?"
"Pretty good, Osroqui, pretty good. I knew your team could do it if anybody could."
"Thanks, Mr. Jacobs. Hey, this fur of his is a real problem, what with the blood and all. Kinks and gunk alt over the place. h.e.l.l, he was still leaking when we got here. How cov- ered up is the old kark going to be?"
"He"ll have a ceremonial robe on, like that one over on the chair. He can also wear a big hat, if you need him to. His face is going to be the important thing. How about his eyes?"
"I can"t do much about those, even if I replaced them with gla.s.s," Osroqui said. "He can"t blink anymore, and that kind of thing always gives a stiff away. I don"t think we need a hat.
Hey, does his kind wear veils?"
"No, they don"t." Jacobs thought a moment. "Gla.s.s, you said. Hmmm. Gla.s.ses."
"Gla.s.ses?" Osroqui asked.
"Something you see in old Terran movies. Humans used to wear gla.s.s lenses in frames over their eyes to correct vision problems. We could make ones with really thick lenses; then you couldn"t see if Chaytaifa was blinking or not. We could tell Kethrommon it was some Rhuum thing. Measure his head for me, will you, Osroqui? I"ll make a call."
The time for the meeting arrived. The rest of the Rhuum party was only slightly surprised to find Chaylaifa, Nasu, and Fehlorah already in place at the conference table, but they took their seats in the gallery without incident.
Kethrommon entered to find things much the same as the day before, except that Jacobs and Trudy were standing by 110 Brad Ferguson Chaylaifa"s side, and that the Rhuum amba.s.sador was wearing ... something ... over his eyes.
"Mr. Jacobs?" the Bloxx began, somewhat puzzled. "Why are you sitting over there today? Do you propose to speak for the Rhuum?"
"With your indulgence, m"lord," Jacobs began, "I do, in a way. The amba.s.sador has asked me to translate his native tongue into Anglish for him in order to spare us farther, ah, difficulties."
"I see." Kethrommon reached into his cloak and dropped Chaylaifa"s blaster onto the table. It clattered. There was something like a gasp from the gallery. "I received this last night," he said. "Did the amba.s.sador grasp the import?"
Jacobs put his head very near Chaylaifa"s lips, waited a moment, and then straightened. "He did, m"lord. He begs a moment while he very carefully phrases what he wishes to say next, realizing that you need not grant him this boon."
Kethrommon paused, then nodded. "Very well. What is it?"
Jacobs bent, paused, and straightened again. "He wishes to ask again the question which he so poorly and insultingly put to you yesterday because of his clumsiness with the language.
He begs to know if he may ask this question again, here and now, or do you wish to kill him right away? He humbly awaits your answer."
Kethrommon was silent for a long minute. "He may ask the question," the Bloxx representative finally said, his jaw set.
Jacobs put his head next to Chaylaifa"s mouth. "The am- ba.s.sador wished to know, Sir Kethrommon, which of your warrior G.o.ds acted through your father to sire you. You ex- hibit the most honorable traits of many of them, and the am- ba.s.sador would like to know so he, too, may honor him."
Kethrommon blinked. "Is that what he-never mind.
Please tell the amba.s.sador that I have the honor to have as my patron the G.o.d Anox-MaIeth, the warrior spirit of the northern provinces; my father"s family is of those lands. Please thank the amba.s.sador for his interest." The Bloxx picked up the blaster and rather casually put it into the pocket in his cloak.
"I think we should begin the meeting now."
"The amba.s.sador is eager as ever to begin," Jacobs said.
RHUUM SERVICE.
m Jacobs and Trudy were standing at the viewport in the de- parture lounge, hand in hand. They watched as the Rhuum yacht sprang away from the side of the hotel and, on thrust- ers, maneuvered into proper position for its sprint for home.
"Ahem," said Lieutenant Hrock-Leff. "I thought I might join you for the departure. All is well?"
Jacobs nodded to him. "All is very well. Lieutenant. And you?"
"A bit more prosperous than I was, as are certain members of my squad. We thank you."
"You"re all entirely welcome." Jacobs turned back to the viewport as the lieutenant came to stand with him and Trudy.
"They are satisfied?" Hrock-Leff asked. "I still cannot be- lieve it has worked."
"Everything"s fine," Jacobs answered. "Chaylaifa went aboard on a medical stretcher. The poor sha is completely ex- hausted. He will have a fatal heart attack on the way home-a regrettable consequence of his strenuous efforts to bring about the first trade treaty with the Bloxx. The ship"s doctor is a family confidant; he"ll keep silent and no one else will know.
Chaylaifa will be buried in s.p.a.ce, according to tradition. Nasu and Fehlorah will inherit Chaylaifa"s import business. They"ll be well taken care of."
Trudy nodded. "They ought to be. Rhuum has struck the first major agreement with a race that"s sure to be a major player in this part of the galaxy."
"And we nailed it for them," Jacobs said, with great satis- faction. "Despite everything."
"I hope Nasu and Fehlorah will be all right," Trudy said.
"They"ve been through quite an ordeal."
"They"re the widowed spouses of a hero of the Rhuum In- dustrial Organization," said Jacobs. "They"ll be treated right, don"t worry. They won"t be single for long, either-not with that bankroll. They"ll find a new sha, or Nasu will take Fehtorah if she turns out to be sha herself."
"I wonder how we managed to fool Sir Kethrommon, though?" Lieutenant Hrock-Leff wondered. "He is not stu- pid."
"He isn"t," Jacobs said with a grin, "and we didn"t.
Kethrommon realized that Chaylaifa was dead the moment he saw him. However, he decided to trust me-or, more accurately, 112 Brad Ferguson he decided to trust Tmdy, who was standing right there, after all, and so had to be privy to what was going on. Kethronunon played along and quickly realized that we were showing a way-the only way-out of the jungle. He took it. bless his heart."
"You were sure of him?" Hrock-Leff asked.
"Reasonably sure. I figured Kethronunon wouldn"t expose us, as long as we didn"t implicate him in our cover-up or deal unfairly with him in the talks-that is, as long as we didn"t put his personal honor into question, and we never did. No, the whole charade with Chaylaifa"s body was for the benefit of the Rhuum party. They"ll go home now and tell everyone how wonderful the regrettably departed Chaylaifa was at the talks. His finest moment coming right at the end, and ail that."
The Rhuum yacht was nothing more than a pinpoint of winking light in the far distance. Suddenly, it vanished.
"There they go," Trudy said. "Safe home, Nasu and Fehlorah."
"Indeed," Hrock-Leff said, nodding. "Well, I feel a bit let down, to tell you the truth. This case provided more excite- ment than I usually see in my work. Actually, I found it rather exhilarating."
"Really?" Jacobs asked, as the three turned and left the lounge. "Well, stick around. Lieutenant. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship."
SOFT IN THE WORLD,.
AND BRIGHT.
M. Shayne Bell
This is how it began: I stumbled. But it wasn"t just a stum- ble. I knew that. My right leg "felt" tingly-no, "felt" as if tiny pinp.r.i.c.ks of my mind"s awareness about my knee were disappearing, as if the knee itself were disappearing atom by atom in a sudden rush.
Mary! I shouted the thought in my mind, but she didn"t an- swer, and I could not access her virtual reality in my mind to find her. I was shut out of it. But she could stop this-she was the artificial intelligence networked through my nerves and my brain to give me my body. I thought maybe that"s why she didn"t answer me. Maybe she was trying to stop my body from disintegrating from my consciousness and she couldn"t answer me because it took all of her efforts.
I had stopped walking and was standing in the middle of a broad flight of stairs leading down to breakfast, and people were staring. I looked across at the handrail against the wall and took a step toward it with my left leg. I could walk with 113.
114 M. Shayne Bell it. My left leg worked. I dragged my right leg along and got to the handrail and the bottom of the stairs and a table, where I sat and rubbed my knee. My hands could feel my knee, but my knee couldn"t feel my hands on it.
Mary. I thought. What"s happening?
But she didn"t answer, and a golden robot with its ruby, multifaceted eyes stood next to my table to take my order and I couldn"t think what to tell it.
"Are you all right, Mr. Addison?" it asked.
It knew me because it was linked to the hotel"s central in- telligence, which knew all about me: that I was actually no more than a brain in a body that wouldn"t work without the AI they put inside me after I broke my neck and we found out that I was allergic to the neural-regeneration drugs, that I couldn"t actually feel anything, it was the AI giving my mind the illusion of feeling, that I couldn"t breathe on my own, or speak, or control my urination, or be a man among other men who can walk and breathe and hold their urine, and that every eight years I had to have the AI replaced because me pro- grams would become corrupted, and it was Mary"s eighth year and they would erase her out of my mind and I didn"t want her to go because I loved her.
I put my hands on the table. "I"m fine," I said to the robot.
"Might I suggest the buffet this morning?"
I couldn"t walk to a buffet. "Please bring me some coffee,"
I said, "and fruit."
"Grapefruit?"
I nodded.
It left, and I still couldn"t feel my knee, and I wouldn"t put my hands on it. Mary, I thought. Talk to me, Mary. Are you all right?
But she didn"t send a word to my mind. I was sitting in Swan Court, next to the hotel"s artificial lagoon by its artifi- cial sea, and the artificial breeze off the water smelled like the sea, and I knew the sea smelled like this because Mary and I had run along a beach once in the early morning and I had felt the sand on my feet, and the spray from the waves on my skin, and I knew Mary was making me feel all of that, but I didn"t care because Mary was with me in my mind and we were happy with the sun coming up over the sea.
"Your coffee, sir."
SOFT IN THE WORLD, AND BRIGHT.
115.
The robot put it down in front of me.
"Your grapefruil, sir."
"Thank you."
"Would you like anything else?"
"No."
"Shall I call the swans for you?"
I looked up at the robot and wanted it to go and leave me alone. "The swans?" I said.
The robot looked out over the water, and three swans swam toward us. I wondered how the robot had called them, and then I thought they were probably not real swans, but robots, and it had called them through the central intelligence with a thought. They were graceful and lovely, and the robot left but the swans didn"t.
I spooned sugar into the coffee and stirred it and lifted the cup and took a drink-and the coffee burned my lips, but my hands hadn"t felt the heat of it in the cup though they had felt the cup, and 1 put the cup down but my hand started shaking and made coffee spill onto the white tablecloth and I touched my lips but only my lips could feel the touch now, and my hands wouldn"t stop shaking.
I put them in my lap.
And knew then what would happen. I didn"t want to go through it, not again, not a third time. I didn"t want to be in my mind when they killed another AI that I had lived with and loved-when they killed Mary this time. Mary, I thought, we"ll try to fix whatever"s wrong. We fixed the last set of prob- lems you had two weeks ago. We "II fix this. I don"t know if you can hear my thoughts, but I won"t let them erase you.