Cat and Company (13 page)

“He lied to everyone!” Bedivere said, his voice rising. “I thought he was a hero!”

“He
is
a hero,” Brant said shortly. “He’s survived the scrutiny of the known worlds and the best digital tracking the Varkan could put him through and come out with his honor intact. Who are you to expose this one secret?”

Bedivere stared at Brant, shocked. “You don’t care that he’s been lying to you all along?”

“Frankly? No. He’s proved over and over again that all he cares about is peace between humans and Varkan, and good old-fashioned prosperity. Everyone has at least one secret, even you. Leave him alone, Bedivere. This isn’t a fight for which you want to step onto the pad.”

“The Varkan will care, when I tell them,” Bedivere muttered. He reached for the door handle, but Brant gripped his wrist.

“Wait,” Brant said.

Bedivere looked down at Brant’s hand. His fingers were white from the pressure he was exerting to keep Bedivere from opening the door.

“Just wait for a second, will you?” Brant said. He pulled Bedivere away from the door. “I know why you’re doing this, why it bothers you so much. Just don’t mistake your guilt about pushing Catherine toward him for some sort of holy quest to expose the guy.”

Bedivere sucked in a breath. “That’s what you think this is?”

“I do,” Brant said calmly. “Before you pick up your shield and head into the fray, think it through. You want to take on the hero of the known worlds because he’s made you feel foolish. Okay, fine, great. That’s your choice. Only, when you
do
expose him, Catherine is going to be standing right next to him and how do you think she is going to feel about having been fooled by him in that way?”

Bedivere swallowed. Finally,
finally
, he was beginning to understand Brant’s concern.

“You know Catherine better than I do,” Brant said. “Although, I know her pretty well, and I know that the last thing she’ll do is fall in your arms and thank you for saving her from him.”

Bedivere let his arm drop and Brant let his wrist go. “Besides, you’re not entirely sure he is Varkan,” Brant added. “What if you claim he’s Varkan out there for the world and Catherine to hear, then find out you’re wrong?”

Bedivere drew in a shaky breath. “She’ll hate me.”

“Like I said, you know her better than me,” Brant said gently. He unsealed the door and closed it behind him, leaving Bedivere alone with his unhappy thoughts.

* * * * *

Lilly sat back in the chair and pushed at her hair with a tired gesture. “There have been nearly three thousand immigration applications in the six weeks since Kashya became news. Most of them are humans, too.”

“It doesn’t matter what they are,” Devlin said shortly. “I presume most of them are from the worlds in the same sector as Kashya?”

“To begin with, yes,” Lilly said. “The more time that elapses before the aliens emerge from the gates, the farther the distance they will have travelled. Now the more distant worlds have begun to panic, too. No one wants to live dirtside anymore.”

“I’m guessing that these are just the official applications you’re counting,” Catherine said from her seat beside Devlin. “Has Yennifer estimated how many people are smuggling themselves onto Charlton?”

“About twice that, at least,” Yennifer said softly. She was sitting quietly at the corner of the table, subdued as she had been since her argument with Connell had blown out. Nichol sat beside her, leaning on the table in a way that blocked Yennifer from the view of almost everyone there. Bedivere would have to stand up and lean over to spot her.

“It’s causing all sorts of unanticipated system pressures,” Lilly continued. “Charlton
can
expand as the population rises. We built it that way deliberately. It can’t expand fast enough when the numbers explode overnight the way they have, though. There’s fighting in the streets over food, prices for accommodation are skyrocketing and the scams…well, don’t get me started. I nearly strangled a dodger the other day. He was selling non-existent quarters in something called the ‘Cassius village’.”

Bedivere gave a short laugh.

“What’s the joke?” Devlin asked him.

“‘Cassius’ means ‘empty’. He’s at least an educated scam artist.”

“You have to let the system sort itself out,” Catherine told Lilly. “There’s always short-term pain when a city adjusts like this. If you give it time, it will settle down.”

“No, I don’t think it will,” Lilly told her. “I understand the economic principles you’re using, but this isn’t a natural market place. There are forces at work that a normal system can’t adjust to fast enough.”

“I don’t know much about economics,” Devlin said, “However, I agree with Lilly that something must be done, simply to help people survive. If the conditions deteriorate too much, you open the city up to disease and violence.”

Catherine frowned. “It’s not like we can just expand the borders of the city to make room, Devlin. There’s simply nowhere for these people to go.”

“They came in ships, didn’t they?” he asked with a reasonable tone. “And there’s at least one big docking bay that hasn’t been used since the freighters stopped using the gates. Cannibalize the ships that aren’t going anywhere and use their parts for living quarters. Set up quarters in the docking bays.”

Lilly gave him a stiff smile. “A solution, yes. Although, every single village reeve will scream in protest that you’re removing their means of revenue by taking over the docking bays.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Devlin told her.

“All fourteen of them?”

“Absolutely. They all have to see that they’re each giving up equal amounts of space and revenue. I’m sure they’ll be amenable after that.”

Bedivere almost laughed again. He’d sat in on meetings Lilly had held with the reeves and mayors. They were a pack of hyenas, intent on grabbing only what would further their village’s and their own profits. Even Nichol August was tarred with that brush.

Nichol cleared his throat. “I’m not sure I like the idea of a flood of unknown humans being given resident rights in my village. We thrive because we all know each other and trust each other. We don’t know these new people at all.”

Bedivere did smile. Nichol was almost completely predictable in his self-interest.

Devlin gave Nichol a warm smile. “The immigrants will all be checked and passed. There are enough Varkan on Charlton that running checks will take but a moment and I’m sure your own Varkan will be happy to help with that task, yes?”

Nichol considered that. “Yes, that would help,” he admitted reluctantly. “Every village gets the same number of immigrants?”

“You’ll be compensated for whatever docks we use for them, which will help stem your reducing revenue. The economic brunt of these emergency measures will be evenly spread across the city and we’ll minimize the costs where we can, too.” Devlin’s expression grew grave. “We can’t refuse to take these people in while we can find room for them, Nichol. They’re scared and they’re homeless. In the long term, the extra population will help improve your economy.”

Nichol nodded. “It will,” he agreed. He wasn’t a fool, after all.

Bedivere watched Devlin, reluctant admiration stirring in him. Damn…the man had just sold this to the first village mayor inside two minutes. He would talk to every village the same way and the immigrants would find their homes, no matter how temporary and humble they may be.

It was hard to dislike him, although Bedivere had been trying to do just that. Devlin had smoothed out most of the bumps and issues that had surfaced in the last few weeks when Lilly had been close to losing it. This was just one in a long line of challenges they had all faced, as Lilly had roped everyone into active duty, to help her with the increasing amount of work and decisions that needed to be made.

Devlin had made a lot of that work easier and less of a challenge. It wasn’t the first time Bedivere had worked with him yet he had forgotten—or had chosen to forget—just how formidable Devlin could be when dealing with people in emotional crisis. It was what he was made for. Soothing upsets was how he had wrangled rights and freedoms for Varkans out of a galaxy determined to pack them all back into their electronic boxes.

For the first time, Bedivere asked himself if exposing Devlin really was a good idea. Everyone loved him. Lilly was almost blubbering in his arms with gratitude and Varkan everywhere tended to bow and scrape whenever he came into their presence.

Who was he to question Devlin? No one else wanted to.

Charlton Space City, New Cathay (Ji Xiu Prime), Ji Xiu System, Perseus Arm. FY 10.187

Catherine singled out Yennifer when the meeting broke up and drew her to one side. Yennifer looked pale. She had been listless for weeks, since she had blown the datacore for a few short, vital seconds. She was taking the consequences hard despite everyone assuring her it was not an issue.

Every Varkan had to go through this emotional maturing. It was part of the process of growing up for them. Emotional crises most often were the way they learned how to access Interspace, too.

It didn’t help that Yennifer was a citymind. Her emotional crises tended to affect the entire city, although she had managed to keep the datacore failure contained within the old city core. But then, even shipminds in overload often put the entire ship in danger.

It was one of the joys and adventures of living among Varkan. It made life interesting, although Yennifer didn’t need to hear right now that her angst was amusing.

Catherine gave her as warm a smile as she could manage. “You need to stop beating up on yourself for the datacore failure,” she said gently.

Yennifer actually flinched. “Excuse me?”

“You’re still holding yourself accountable for the datacore failure and what happened after that. You really shouldn’t. Look, Connell is back on his feet, healthy and whole. Everyone’s cuts and bruises are healed.”

Yennifer’s gaze flickered around the room. She didn’t quite hunch over but it felt as though she had mentally crouched into a defensive position.

“Besides,” Catherine added and leaned forward so she could drop her voice a little. “I think most of the egos in this room benefited from being knocked down a peg or two. It does them good to be reminded that they’re not completely invulnerable. I only wish it was a lesson that humans could be reminded of on a regular basis.”

Yennifer’s eyes widened. Her shock was almost comical. Then she remembered her professional role and her shoulders straightened. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Yes. I don’t want to bother Lilly or Bedivere with this. There are some things I left behind when I started working with Devlin. I wanted to go through them and take some of them with me.” She glanced over her shoulder. Bedivere was talking to Devlin, standing with his head down as he concentrated. The dark golden color of his hair glimmered richly under the low lights in the room. He was frowning, as if he didn’t like what he was hearing.

That was one more unsettling change. Bedivere rarely spoke his mind anymore. Like Yennifer, he was hunched in on himself, keeping everything contained and private.

There was nothing she could do about that, so Catherine turned back to Yennifer. “I just need access to my old room, so I can go through the chest. It won’t take a moment and you can watch me to make sure I don’t abscond with the family silver.”

The ancient joke barely lifted the corner of Yennifer’s mouth. She started to speak, then shook her head. “Very well,” she said stiffly. “This way.” They moved around the crowd in the room. These admin meetings were getting bigger and bigger as more experts and consultants and assistants were brought into them to deal with the overflow and the unique crises and challenges Charlton was facing. The politicking and networking that happened before and after them was growing, too. No one seemed to be in a hurry to leave.

That would work in her favor now. No one would notice her and Yennifer going into her old room. Catherine didn’t know why she wanted to avoid questions about why she suddenly wanted to collect items she had abandoned nearly ten years ago and clearly hadn’t missed until now. She wasn’t sure she could answer that sort of question, anyway.

Yennifer pushed the left-hand door of the double doors open just enough for Catherine to pass through, then she stepped in herself.

Catherine found her steps slowing as she took in the bare room. The wall of ceiling to floor windows looking out onto the public park was still there although the plants that had been growing on this side of the windows were gone. So was the ancient wood floor.

There had been a fireplace between the bedroom area and the sitting room area in front of the windows, that had flickered cheerfully nearly all year round. The bed….

She swallowed. The bed had sat over there, a big thing with a padded headboard and lots of pillows, a thick white carpet underneath it for bare feet to rest upon. She could recall the feel of the sheets, silky and warm under her fingers. Even the heat of Bedivere’s body next to her.

Catherine turned, facing away from where the bed had been, to look at the windows and the park beyond. There had been a tiny rivulet of water that had trickled over rocks, almost hidden by leaves and ferns. It hadn’t been loud, that sound of running water, but it had always been there, punctuating every conversation, every quiet moment…

Now, the room was bare. The plasteel floor and walls were back to their original industrial gray. Not even a coat of paint remained. There were only two pieces of furniture in the room. The bed was narrow and the plainest a bed could be—merely a frame holding up a thin mattress.

The small shelves next to the bed held a few databoards and some garments, sort-of folded. Most of the garments were dark-colored. That was all there was to the room. Even the closet had gone.

It was cold in the room. The chill came from the windows, the walls and the lack of anything resembling a life, here. She gripped her upper arms, rubbing them for warmth and looked at Yennifer. “You did this deliberately. You knew my things were not in here anymore.”