Sliding Scales (24 page)

Takuuna smiled inwardly. “I knew, of coursse, that you would both ssee it that way. There iss no other way to ssee it.”

Yerelka continued to confront the administrator. “It iss
difficult to believe that anything could rousse thesse creaturess to ssuch violent action. The one we sseek musst be a very active Vssey indeed.”

Rising from his seat, the administrator moved forward to position himself behind and between the troopers. Beyond the transparent dome of the aircar, the countryside had become familiar. Recent unpleasant memories returned to him, unbidden and insistent.

“The individual we sseek iss not a Vssey, but a human.”

“A ssoftsskin!” Craaxu looked back sharply, eyes wide, both eyelids retracted, nostrils flared. “There iss a ssoftsskin on Jasst, agitating the Vssey?”

Takuuna gestured third-degree confirmation. “Why sshould you find that ssurprissing?”

“It iss jusst,” the trooper hesitated, unsure, “I did not know there were any repressentativess of the Commonwealth government on Jasst.”

“We do not know that thiss individual directly repressentss hiss government. Only that he iss a troublemaker who hass been ssowing uncertainty and disscontent among the Vssey.” The administrator hissed softly. “When we get him back to Sskokossass, we will find out who ssponssorss him.”

“Truly.” Trooper Yerelka had grown dark. “I had friendss in Morotuuver. Perhapss I might be permitted to offer my sservicess in aid of the official interrogation?”

“All thingss are possible,” Takuuna replied paternally. He would have no trouble with these two, he saw. Whether he would with the eccentric talents among whom his quarry was sheltering, that still remained to be seen.

As the aircar banked gently to the northeast, he knew that the commendably eager trooper would not be given the opportunity to help in questioning the prisoner. Because the prisoner might decide, during interrogation or
even before, to tell his side of a story involving a certain administrator, a canyon, and a near-fatal confrontation. That could not be allowed to happen.

As before, the softskin would “resist.” And when he did so this time, Takuuna reflected grimly, no one would be left wondering as to the nature of his fate.

For an isolated experiment in living and working on a non-Imperial world, the compound that was home to the Tier of Ssaiinn proved to be greater in extent than he expected. As hints of more and more semi-subterranean structures manifested themselves beside the decelerating aircar, the administrator was impressed in spite of himself. He had come expecting to find a bunch of addled artisans scribbling abstract designs in the sand while scrabbling for food among the native fauna. What he found instead was a sophisticated, modern multiplex that, save for its alien surroundings, would not have been out of place on any developed Imperial world.

That was all to the good, truly. It meant he would be able to put his claws on the softskin Flinx all the more quickly.

Having called ahead to announce his coming, he was not surprised when the arriving aircar was met as it touched down at the designated arrival site. The female who greeted him was austerely clad in the favored style of her Tier. An additional bonus, Takuuna thought as he let his eyes rove over her from tail-tip to shimmering snout. If she was as talented as she was lissome, she would make a fine candidate for mating with a future noble like himself.

Throats were exposed, claws retracted as she acknowledged the arrivals. “I am Chraluuc. I will bring you to the Ssemilionn. They are curiouss as to your purposse in coming.”

Takuuna fell into step beside her as the two troopers brought up the rear. Off toward the east, a large flock of moulops drifted steadily southward, their massed peeping a distant, high-pitched din. Looking like ballooning teeth, several more maneuverable gholomps ranged outside the flock, searching for stragglers. The active predators dared not dip into the flock itself. The moulops' effective defensive strategy consisted of surrounding an attacker with their bodies and slowly enveloping it with strands of mucus until the shrouded attacker, impossibly weighed down and unable to clean itself, fell harmlessly to earth. But stragglers outside the flock were easy prey. The gholomps dipped and rose, biding their time.

Takuuna made a gesture indicative of third-degree bemusement. “Why sshould they be curiouss? I communicated my intent more than an hour ago.” He moved closer to the female. In response, she edged ostentatiously away, preserving the minimum formal distance between them. Oh well,
bissank
, he thought. Perhaps he had moved too soon. There was plenty of time before he needed to depart.

“Possibly they require clarification.” She was polite, but reserved. A few well-placed tail slaps would loosen her up, the administrator decided.

“Clarification?” As they entered the nearest structure, he simultaneously hissed and gestured amusement. “I come sseeking an illegal human renegade. I sshould think that ssufficiently sstraightforward as to brook little in the way of confussion.” Descending a gentle ramp, they turned into a wide, skylit corridor. As they walked, the two troopers murmured among themselves, admiring the spectacular swirls and colors of the elegant skylights.

“You will have to assk that of the Ssemilionn. I am only a member of the Tier, not one of itss honored Elders.”

“Truly yess. Your Tier.” He studied her quite beautiful
face; the arch of eye, the shine of scale, the fine, white, sharp teeth that could equally well nibble playfully as shear through bone. “How do you find it, living out here in the emptiness of an alien world whosse backwardss inhabitantss are ssometimess openly unfriendly to nye?”

“Being an artisst, I thrive in issolation.” Her sandaled feet slap-slapped rhythmically on the decorated pavement underfoot. “We have no conflict with the Vssey, as few of them pass thiss way. What ssuppliess we need we bring in as required from Bouibouw, the nearesst town. The Vssey there, at leasst, are ussed to uss and give uss no trouble.”

Takuuna hissed mild condescension. “At leasst they undersstand commerce.” Changing tack, he asked abruptly, “The illicit ssoftsskin I sseek: have you sseen him?”

“Yess, I have sseen him. And talked with him.”

Takuuna repressed his excitement. “I know that he sspeakss the civilized tongue remarkably well. What do you sspeak of?”

“Art, naturally,” she replied. “Many things. As much as he can manage, ssince he came to uss devoid of memory.”

The administrator kept his tone carefully neutral. “Devoid of memory, you ssay?”

“Truly. He wass found near here and near death. When he recovered, he wass without memory of himsself. It iss returning to him, but very sslowly.”

“Remarkable. Hass he mentioned how he came to be in the sstate in which he wass found?”

“No.” Her pink tongue flashed out to lick one eye before recoiling, snake-like, back into her mouth. “Of that he hass no remembrance.”

Yet, Takuuna thought. This was even better than he had hoped. The human still had no memory of the administrator knocking him over the edge of Saudaunn Chasm. If all went well, the softskin might not even recognize Takuuna, in which event he was unlikely to offer any kind
of resistance. Furthermore, in the absence of conclusive recollection, he would be hard-pressed to raise objections to the accusations Takuuna was now thinking of leveling against him. By employing sufficient effective sophistry, he might even be persuaded to think himself guilty! The only thing better would be for the softskin to actually admit to inspiring the acts of violence that had taken place against the AAnn. The more he thought about it, the more the administrator inclined toward taking the human back alive instead of simply shooting him while he was in the process of trying to “escape.”

Takuuna could not have found things more to his liking had he programmed them himself.

They paused before a double door fashioned of sculpted sand that had been made permanent by the application of a glossy endurizer. To the touch, it felt like warm sand. But nothing less than a rifle would dent it. Following a brief verbal exchange between his sinuous escort and a wall communicator, they were admitted.

The Ssemilionn of the Ssaiinn were an impressive triune. Doubtless he would have enjoyed conversing with them at length, if he'd had the time. But he was impatient to collect what he had come for and to return to Skokosas. Following a brief and courteous exchange of pleasantries, he made the request. The response shocked him to his core. His request was perfunctory, forthright, and devoid of convolution.

The last thing he expected was for it to be denied.

In the silence that followed the downbeat declamation of the female member of the Ssaiinn, he struggled to collect his thoughts.

“Truly,” he finally stammered in indignation, “you are ssaying that you
have
the ssoftsskin but that you refusse to turn him over to my recognized authority?”

“Truly,” murmured Naalakot with apparent regret.
Standing before the male Elder and his two companions, a quietly fuming Takuuna wondered at the genuineness of the sentiment.

Unable to think of anything else to say, the mystified administrator inquired icily, “May I assk why?”

Viinpou responded. “Firsstly, you have not shown any reasson why we sshould feel the need to do sso.”

Takuuna felt as if the solid surface beneath his sandals had suddenly turned to pottage, and that he was sinking, sinking downward into a vat of suffocating incomprehension. What was going on here? Was this a dream, a nightmare? But the air in his lungs was pungent with room scent, and when he blinked flagrantly, he felt the pressure against his eyes.

“ ‘Reasson’? ‘Need to do sso’? I am not required to do either of thosse thingss—or anything elsse, for that matter. I am Senior Secondary Administrator Takuuna VBXLLW, commander of a sspecial ssecurity unit of the Imperial pressence on Jasst, and in that capacity I am not required to jusstify my actionss to you or to anyone elsse other than my immediate ssuperiorss! Are you really refussing to turn over to my cusstody an alien—a human, no less—who iss ssuspected of helping to foment anti-Imperial ssentiment on thiss world?”

“Truly,” confirmed Xeerelu quietly.

Takuuna suppressed the fury he was feeling. “You ssaid ‘firsstly.’ Am I to infer that you have more than one ‘reasson’ for thiss blatant dissregard of authority?” While his voice stayed steady, his tail whipped back and forth in an uncontrollable display of anger.

“Yess.” In the coda to a crescendo of surprises, it was his guide who stepped forward. “The Tier of Ssaiinn doess not matter-of-factly agree to the arresst of one of itss memberss without proof of wrongdoing.”

“Proof of …” Takuuna gaped at her. Even the two
troopers looked disorientated. “Wait. ‘One of itss memberss,’ you ssaid?”

Chraluuc glanced briefly at the Ssemilionn. When Naalakot gestured imperceptibly, it was enough for her. “That iss right. The ssoftsskin iss a member of the Tier. He iss one of uss.”

“But that iss, truly that iss inssane!” Takuuna was beside himself. “The Tier iss of The Kind. Ssince when doess it admit hosstile alienss, and a human at that, into itss membersship?”

Chraluuc walked around him to stand before and to one side of the silent, assembled Ssemilionn. “Ssince thiss particular one came among uss. Hiss kind may be hosstile to uss. That I do not know much of. I am, and all of uss of the Tier are, artissans, not politicianss. We do know that thiss one hass exhibited toward uss nothing in the way of the hosstility of which you sspeak, and that ssince coming among uss he hass comported himsself with the kind of decency and grace that would bring credit to any Tier or organization, regardless of sspeciess.”

Takuuna's hissing fell so low that it became difficult to understand his words. “I will ssay thiss only once. The human iss an enemy alien. If you choosse to sshelter him, there will be conssequencess. That you will ssuffer.”

From behind Chraluuc, Naalakot spoke up. “We of the Tier are ussed to dealing with adversse ‘conssequencess.’ Unless you can produce hard evidence identifying thiss individual ssoftsskin as a real and pressent danger to uss and to our kind, he will remain here, under our protection.”

Takuuna would have been excused for flying into a rage—but he did not. Uncontrolled fury was the province of the inept. So he contained, barely, his anger within him.

“You have given me your reassons for defying Imperial
authority. Now I want to hear what possible, conceivable rationale you could have for
wanting
to do sso.”

Anticipating the question even before the administrator's arrival, Chraluuc had prepared a response. “The Tier of Ssaiinn iss about art, not about politicss. Above all elsse, we value individual creativity. Thiss ssoftsskin hass demonsstrated that he possessess that quality. He wass deemed desserving of becoming one of uss.

“He hass now dwelt among uss long enough for uss to determine that he posess no threat, either to uss or to anyone elsse. In that time he hass not left the confiness of the Tier or been in communication with anyone on the outsside. Therefore, truly, he cannot in any way be ressponssible for the atrocitiess againsst our kind that have taken place during hiss ssojourn here.”

Takuuna stared at her, all thoughts of possible mating forgotten. It took an effort for him to keep from lashing the furniture, much less this impertinent female. “Humanss are noted for their cleverness. Are you then sso ssure the one you harbor iss as harmless as you inssisst? You admit to your own ignorance. What do you, artisst, know of humanss?”

“What do you know of them, Adminisstrator?” she shot back. “Truly, we of the Tier know little of humanss. But we do know
thiss
one.” She refused to back down, either verbally or physically. Nearby, the trio that comprised the Ssemilionn backed her up with stares and gestures.

Takuuna calmed himself. “There iss more to thiss than what you have ssaid. I ssensse that you sseek more here than defiance of authority.” Behind him, the armed troopers shifted uneasily. Their heavy weapons rode awkwardly on their backs, ready to be drawn should the unit leader give the order. But shooting tentacular, headless Vssey or pale, soft-bodied humans was one thing. There
was nothing appealing about the prospect of having to pull guns on their own kind.