Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods) (42 page)

Lefty laughed.
"They didn't want to let Oscar and Bran out of their sight, once they got them back from their three day world tour with Art."

"Oh, and next time, steal a bigger building, won't you?" Benri grinned
from a corner table and waved an invitation for him to sit down. "My simple little pre-retirement assignment seems to have grown in size and is still going strong after seven and a half years."

"D
idn't steal it. I bought it. What's going on out there?"

"Other than the best calf scramble ever? They pulled the Ambassador for a day, then sent him back, but every hour the poor man gets new orders and has to pretend that was what he meant all along.

"First they tried to assert ownership of the entire continent, and I asked if they really wanted it, what with the incoming comet and all, and what were they offering to pay us for it?

"They asserted ownership by right of arms, and I had to remind them
who won the battle in the canyon.

"Then they suggested that they would be delighted to rescue us and split us up among their various mining Worlds, which are in need of labor.

"I suggested that moving half a billion people might be difficult, but that some villages might consider their offer, and what pay, benefits, guarantees and human rights were standard for that sort of thing?

"They pointed out that slave labor was preferable to death. I asked if that was a widely held opinion where they were from, and what percentage of their own population was enslaved.

"Their Ambassador barely managed to not imply that slavery was for other people. They should be back again in a few minutes."

"They didn't say anything about the Comet?" the Auld Wulf asked.

"Not a thing. Didn't even reply to my sally about it."

Rustle walked in. "The gate's opened and closed again. Three big gyps, shiny black with polished metal bits all over, very posh, every one deferring to one fellow called Mister Secretary and Mister Downey and Secretary Downey. Armed body guards looking ready to take down anyone, up to and including the soldiers."

"Excellent. They've sent in The Government Official." Benri smirked. "Standard ploy."

"Mister is a title of respect for an adult male. Secretary is an appointed government post, anything from completely unimportant to Privy Council Member," the Auld Wulf put in.

"They're trying something new!" Oscar yelled from the front door.

They looked out at billowing clouds of smoke.

The Auld Wulf chuckled. "Looking for invisible spies. Can the mages have a bit of fun with it, Benri?"

"Oh certainly. Mock their efforts."

Bran, Gre and Selano walked up behind him.

"Hmm, dancers, I think." Selano smirked. "But not an orgy, wouldn't want to shock them."

The smoke promptly swirled into a row of dancing smoke maidens, joining arms and high kicking their way off to the left as they slowly dissipated.

"Ah, there's Ambassador Johnson. Looking a bit put out." Benri pondered for a moment. "Well, I think I'll stroll down alone, to show that I understand that he's no longer the Big Fish in the Little Pond."

Oscar cupped his hands and they could hear the Ambassador's shoes swish through the short grass. "Good morning, Oklahoma. I see they've inflicted an government official on you."

"And I see you're still watching us, Benri."

"Of course. You are, after all, an invading army. We're not foolish enough to believe that a single rout has convinced you to terrorize elsewhere." Benri looked irritated, and no wonder. The Earthers, with their constant presumption of rightness, were getting on everyone's nerves. "So, is this a gallivanting face trying to look important, or does this one have actual authority?"

"Straight from the President."

"Oh my, I'm so flattered!" Benri smirked. "I really must see about getting some of our allies' representatives out here. Well, if I wanted to muddy the water, at any rate. Scoone has a President, the current one is a woman by the name of Hetso Biny."

"What sort of influence would her representative have?"

"Very little. They are an actual democracy, they vote on
everything
. Bringing them in is guaranteed to increase the time required by an order of magnitude." Benri studied the men walking up behind the Ambassador.

"Where you merely need consult with your king?"

"Unless they pray to their gods." The leader of the new men stopped and eyed Benri.

Benri noted the man's fine wool pants and matching jacket, white shirt and lack of frills and lace. "I don't think we use the term god in quite the same way you do. Our gods aren't the creators of the Universe and mankind. 'Gods' as we usually use the term are simply very, very powerful 'Magic Tech' users."

"Like those two spies of yours?" the man sneered.

"Which two? The women who studied your system for a few weeks, sixteen years ago? One witch, one wizard. The two men that studied your camp sixteen years ago? Both wizards. Or, if you mean the two chaps from a couple of days ago, that was Dydit, one of the aforementioned wizards, giving a tour to one of the gods."

The Secretary snorted. "I'd like to meet a god."

Benri raised an eyebrow, then looked back at the bank. The Auld Wulf sauntered out on cue. His hair was still damp from an undoubtedly fast shower and he'd changed into a suit of cloth not unlike Benri's.
Damn fast shower, how'd he do that?

"Secretary Downey, I'm Wolfgang Oldham. In the local terminology, I'm a god. Don't take it too seriously, I certainly don't."

Downey looked him up and down. "We don't allow genetic engineering, after a disastrous war thousands of years ago."

"Yes, well, welcome to the dumping ground. We've made a home of it. Now, we came by to see if you had any detailed information you'd sell, or if you were completely ignorant of the problem, to warn you about the impending impact so you could remove your people." He nodded politely and stepped away. "
It's been almost eight years, with no indication you are willing to assist us in any way. While no doubt diplomatic contact is overdue between our people, we are a bit busy, so I'll leave the diplomacy to an expert and get on with our crisis."

"If you were on Earth, you could be shot on sight as a non-human." Downey said.

The Auld Wulf turned back. "One of the things the genetic engineers tried to accomplish was life span extension. They succeeded very well. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the year two thousand eighty-eight. I know all about the striping of rights from the engineered. I have brain damage from being physically wired into Trans World Travel's gates. As if I were nothing more than a piece of machinery." He stepped up into the Secretary's personal space. "And I know that some things are worth risking one's life for.

"All through human history groups of people have been dehumanized before being
slaughtered
. Your attempts to dehumanize us are going to be taken as an act of war if they persist. Take
that
message back to your leaders."

Benri looked at the bodyguards. They were frozen in place, sweating.

The Auld Wulf eyed the Earth Secretary with disfavor. "Go away. Sorry about that Benri. There's a reason the King sent you to do the talking."

The man and his body guards disappeared. The Auld Wulf disappeared.

The Secretary and his guards reappeared beside their vehicles. The Auld Wulf didn't.

Benri sighed, and looked at his opposite. "I'll bet you don't have to contend with people so powerful that they are constrained by their own consciences, and not much else."

Oklahoma suppressed a smile. "You haven't met my president."

"Well, that's true. And I suppose we'd both better go communicate with our masters. Nice seeing you, Oklahoma."

"Later, Benri."

Benri took a long look down the hill, to where the Secretary was being stuffed into his gyp by his bodyguards who were hampered by the guns they were wav
ing around at the soldiers. That President was no doubt going to get an earful.

But whatever is said, they will not help us. We're on our own.

1375
Late Summer

The New Lands

"So, we all talked it over, and we volunteer to be the first.
The test case." Havi looked at her inquiringly.

Rustle looked over the Summer Camp. And wished the Auld Wulf were somewhere where she could keep an eye on him.
"Okay. So, what I need to do is figure out how large an area, or rather, how much space, I can scoop up in a bubble, and find out if that will let me move something bigger than one of my gates, through one of my gates."

"If you can't scoop
our homes and orchards up, then we'll just pick up and move." Ras shrugged. "We'll be set back about four years, no big deal, if the soil is better."

"
The soil is much better. All right. I'll start with some fruit trees. They're young, I think I can guide the bubble deep enough to get all the roots. I'll start with one, and perhaps a garden patch. If it's a flop, I'll stop. If it works, I'll just keep on going." Rustle turned Phantom and headed down to the south. A bunch of people followed.

Ask waved her over as she passed her house. "Are you going to do it right now?"

"I'm going to try. I don't know if I can even open a gate without Wolf."

Ask grinned. "
What
did I just hear a witch say?"

Rustle laughed. The beauty of riding Phantom was that she didn't need to find any of the clumsy stone gates, they just jumped the fence. A small herd of bison shifted away. They hadn't been hunted enough to be truly afraid of people.
I'll have to take some of them through as well, start building up a good selection of wildlife.
She dismounted and wiggled her toes into the gritty soil.

She closed her eyes and looked for bubbles, and then hunted through them for the spinning tops. Grabbed one and slowed it. Stuck it onto that strange World that had no animals. Then she caught another and twisted them together, and pulled the flat top toward her.

"There's the gate. Now who's going to volunteer a tree?" She turned around and raised her eyebrows as the size of her audience sank in.

Nil looked disgusted. "I can't see what she's doing."

Romeau frowned. "I can't duplicate it. I think this may take the Wizard X with the Witch X."

Richie nodded. "We need to find more people with that combo."

"Do you think you could do it in pairs?" Rustle waved at the people coming and going through the gate. "All the Goat Boys have the Wizard genes. In fact Havi's got the Wizard X and the Mage Y. Where is he?"
Oh crap. Now I'm in trouble.

"On the other side laughing his head off."
Dydit's gaze was unfocused. "Once she had that spinning thing, I could see it. But I can't see well enough to spot any more."

Justice was cross-legged on
the ground. "I can't either. I tried to follow the gate, but all I got was a head ache."

"How about catching bubbles and scooping up houses and trees and so forth?" Rustle looked around hopefully.

Dydit, Justi
ce . . . Old Gods! Lots of them. Gisele and Logic, as well as Harry, Richie and Romeau. The goat boys all joined in, and the mage boys. The witches and the farmer girls pointed out the trees to use for the first test, and no one commented on the unexpected powers of the formerly unpowered.
Answer is going to find out! Maybe I'll just avoid Ash for the rest of my life.

The first trees had no problem crossing the gate. The houses followed quickly. Hell and the Auld Wulf showed up
. A complete stranger—who looked a bit like her father—came a sat with an absent expression for a long time.