Fiction River: Moonscapes (25 page)

Gomez nodded.

Uzven continued its translation. “The supervision included monitoring the materials they brought to Epriccom, transporting them to their location, and overseeing their building. They have a dome, although they do not need one because our atmosphere suits humans, but we appreciate the dome nonetheless.”

She expected Uzven to continue, but it didn’t. She glanced at it, then at the Eaufasse. Apparently that was all it had said.

“Why do you appreciate the dome?” she asked.

“Because the humans have landing ships. Those ships go into and out of their dome, and do not do anything except transverse our airspace.”

Uzven started to explain all the words it changed, but she didn’t care.

“You don’t mind the ships?” she asked, feeling cold.

“They are small. They must be scanned for weaponry. They have none. We see no threat.”

“Weaponry?” She turned toward Uzven. “Does the ambassador mean external or internal weapons?”

Uzven asked and received a quick answer. “The ships are weaponless. The interior scans, done in a cursory manner, do not show weapons either. But you know that part means nothing—”

“Was that ‘means nothing’ thing your editorial or the ambassador’s?” she asked.

“Mine, of course,” Uzven said.

Of course. She didn’t like this. She knew more about weaponry than any Peyti translator could, and she knew that weapons could be built onsite of components that many governments thought harmless.

Once again, she was at a disadvantage. She didn’t know enough about Eaufasse culture to know what they considered harmless.

“Do you use Earth Alliance protocols for ships that land on Epriccom?” she asked.

“For Earth Alliance ships, yes,” the ambassador said. “As best we understand the protocols.”

“Do you consider all human ships to be Earth Alliance ships?” she asked.

“Are they not?” the ambassador responded.

She wasn’t going to answer him directly. He was fishing for more information on humans, and she wasn’t about to provide it. Sometimes, the Earth Alliance did not tell Frontier members that humans were scattered all over the sectors, and were not always members of the Alliance.

Some, in fact, were enemies of the Alliance.

It was better for the Frontier members to remain in the dark about such matters and to call the Earth Alliance when they had a human problem.

Like the Eaufasse had.

“Your ship protocol is correct,” she said. “Thank you.”

The Eaufasse moved one arm outward. Uzven did not comment on the gesture, either as a translation or as an opinion.

“Mr. Ambassador,” she said, “these attacks the humans performed on each other. Is this the first time such a thing has happened?”

“We do not monitor the dome,” the ambassador said.

“Again, sir,” she said. “The information I am asking for is to allow me to deal with the enclave. If we need diplomats to discuss human-Eaufasse relations, I am happy to provide them. But my job here is strictly judicial, and concerns the humans in that enclave only.”

Uzven translated that. Then the ambassador spoke, and Uzven answered.

She felt left out, which she most definitely did not want to be.

“I want you to translate everything,” she snapped at Uzven. It put out an arm toward her, its branchlike fingers tilted upwards at a 90-degree angle. Finally, a gesture she understood. It was a Peyti gesture for
shush
combined with
wait.

After a moment, Uzven said, “The Ambassador wanted to know why the Multicultural Tribunal was involved. I assured him it was not. I told him that we have a law enforcement branch designed to take care of recalcitrant individuals. Apparently, the Eaufasse do not use the word ‘judicial’ the way that our two cultures do.”

It was Gomez’s turn to be sarcastic. “Good to know.”

“I am not entirely sure it understands the concept of law enforcement, so I might have to do extra explaining,” Uzven said. “I will inform you when I am doing so.”

“Thank you,” she said as dismissively as she could. “Mr. Ambassador, is this the first time, to your knowledge, that the enclave has attacked its own members?”

“We do not know about life inside the dome,” the ambassador said. “We have only seen a few of the humans outside of the dome, and then only on rare occasions. Generally, they walk to the clearing, look around, and then return to the dome.”

“In a group,” she said, for clarification.

“Always in a group.”

“Were they in a group on this trip?”

“No and yes,” the ambassador said.

Great
, she thought. More nitpicking.

“Four emerged,” the ambassador said. “They moved quickly. A dozen more emerged. They moved even more quickly. They carried weapons.”

Gomez remained still, but a tension filled her.

“I asked him what kind of weapons,” Uzven added. “He did not know. Long ones, he said.”

“Thank you, Uzven,” Gomez said. “So, Mr. Ambassador, for my edification then. Four left the enclave, followed by twelve. The twelve had weapons and chased the four.”

“Not quite,” the ambassador said. “The four left some time before the dozen. The dozen tracked them, found them, and killed them.”

“But we only found three bodies,” Gomez said.

“Yes, that is correct,” the ambassador said. “The fourth is with us.”

She let out a small breath, mostly to keep herself calm. “Humans are particular about their death rituals. We will have to request that the body be returned.”

The ambassador peeped, like the Eaufasse in the clearing had. It was an odd and noticeable sound. Then the ambassador spoke.

“The ambassador says he’s sorry,” Uzven said. “He was not clear.”

“Word for word, Uzven,” Gomez said tiredly. She hoped that the diplomats ended up with a better translator than Uzven, although she suspected they wouldn’t.

“The ambassador said,” Uzven said with emphasis, “‘I am sorry. I have spoken unclearly. The fourth human is with us. It lives and asks for asylum. That is why we contacted you.’”

It would have been good to know the entire translation. Gomez bit back her irritation, and concentrated. So the reason the Eaufasse had contacted the Earth Alliance had been because of the fourth human, not because of the dead bodies in the clearing.

She had not expected this. “My understanding is that the Emir contacted us to remove the enclave.”

“The Emir did that, yes,” the ambassador said. “Our politicians believe that the enclave will now be a problem and want it gone. But we contacted you before the Emir. We do not know how to proceed with an asylum request while we are under consideration for membership in the Earth Alliance.”

Neither did she. She had never heard of such a thing.

“And you are…separate…from the politicians?” she asked carefully. Then she remembered to couch the terms more carefully. “Forgive me for my failure to understand your culture. I was the Earth Alliance representative closest to Epriccom when you requested Alliance presence. They chose me for my proximity, not for my understanding of your culture.”

“That’s all right,” the ambassador said. “We do not have a deep understanding of your culture either. This is why we are confused about the asylum request. We did not know that one member of a culture can become alienated from that culture. It is not our way.”

Oh, but it’s ours
, she thought, but did not say.

“My clan are the functionaries,” the ambassador was saying. “We maintain the systems of government. The Emir and his clan direct the government. In other words, we do not make policy. They do. But we enforce it.”

“Ah,” she said. “Our jobs are similar then.”

“No,” Uzven said. “They’re more like—”

“Let me, Uzven,” Gomez said. “Just translate.”

Or she’d grab its scrawny little arm and snap it in half, just to hear if it sounded like the twig it resembled.

All right
, she acknowledged to herself, her level of frustration was higher than it needed to be. At least she was directing her aggression toward the Peyti, and not toward the Eaufasse.

“I do believe our jobs are similar,” the ambassador said and tossed its other arm outward. Then its eyes flared gold. She hoped that was a good thing.

“Well,” Gomez said, “I will work with you to make sure we make things easier for our politicians. The less they have to do, the better.”

The ambassador wheezed. She glanced at Uzven in panic. Uzven was leaning back slightly, then it tapped the bottom of its breathing mask, as if it were trying to improve the flow of whatever it was that they breathed.

“Do not worry,” Uzven said to her. “That is the sound of an Eaufasse laughing.”

“Forgive me,” the ambassador said when it quit wheezing. “If your politicians are like ours, they do less anyway.”

She smiled. “They are similar, then.”

The ambassador wheezed again. “We shall do what we can together. What do you need from my clan?”

She let out a small sigh, hoping it was inaudible. “If you have surveillance material of the dome, I would like to see it, particularly of the incident itself. You will not offend us if you do have such material. We expect it. Also, if I might meet the fourth person, the one who wants asylum. You may continue to protect him, but I would like to talk with him about the incident.”

The ambassador’s arms dropped to its side. “You do not offend with your requests,” it said, “although I am surprised that you approve of the surveillance. It heartens me, like our mutual jobs do.”

She smiled. “It heartens me as well.”

“We shall send you the materials within the hour,” the ambassador said. “As for the fourth, we shall talk with it. We shall encourage it to talk with you. But that is all we can do.”

“I understand,” she said. “I do have one last request, however. Even if the fourth human won’t speak with me, I would like his name, his gender, and his place of origin, so that I might forward the information to the Earth Alliance. It will expedite his asylum proceedings.”

“Will it?” Uzven asked.

Damn translator. “Just translate,” Gomez said, just for him.

Uzven did. Or at least, she hoped it did.

“I shall have that information to you along with the surveillance materials,” the ambassador said. “And now, if you do not mind, I would like to ask you a personal question.”

“I don’t mind,” she said. She had learned over the years such questions were often the most interesting of any conversation in a first-, second-, or third-contact.

“This is my first time working with humans,” the ambassador said. “Usually such matters are for a different clan.”

“Yes,” she said, mostly so that it would continue.

“I would like to ask if you are a separate gender than those in the enclave. Or are you in a different clan? Your appearance is quite different. I am told by my assistant that you all look quite different from what we expect.”

“Humans are a diverse species,” she said. “I can better answer you after I have seen the person asking for asylum. Do you mind the wait?”

“Not at all,” the ambassador said. “And forgive the personal nature of the question.”

“It’s quite all right,” she said. “I suspect I shall be asking difficult questions as well over the course of the next few days. Thank you for your candor and your assistance, Mr. Ambassador.”

“Thank you,” the ambassador said, and severed the link.

Uzven started to speak, but she held up a hand. Then she disassembled the screen so that it couldn’t be activated from the other side. She didn’t want the Eaufasse to listen in.

“You acquitted yourself well for someone who is unfamiliar with the culture,” Uzven said.

She hadn’t expected the compliment. “We’ll see,” she said. “This is only the first step. There’s a lot more ahead of us, and if experience is any guide, most of that will be filled with surprises.”

She hoped the surprises would be pleasant ones, but experience also told her that such hopes were idle ones. She was in for a bumpy few days. The best she could do was avoid making an already strange situation worse.

***

As Gomez turned away from the screen, Lashante Simiaar poked her head out of a sealed-up corner of the large forensic area.

“Suit up,” she said, “and come in here.”

Gomez raised her eyebrows but didn’t express her surprise. In all the years they’d worked together, Simiaar had never ordered Gomez into the autopsy area. Gomez had often gone of her own accord, but she hadn’t been required to go in.

She could do what so many others in her job did, and watch the holographic recording of the autopsy. All the mess without the smell. And sometimes she did that, particularly when Simiaar was pulling apart some alien to determine if it got killed by an Earth Alliance weapon.

But usually she watched. As Simiaar once told her, the smells told as much as the body itself. Besides, if she had it to do all over again, Gomez probably would have gone into forensic pathology inside the FSS. A lot of alien contact, a lot of travel to distant worlds, and none of the difficult conversations with a species she didn’t understand.