Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet (23 page)

"But how far do they go the other way? Can they expand the other direction without feeling hemmed in? Is there anything or anyone else in their way?" Gordon asked.

"It's sixty some light years back to our last big find. We could negotiate some of that away if we need too. But the more we yield the better their chances of stumbling on a brown dwarf system as the spread out away from this point. The line or arch may cross over into their area," Lee guessed.

"Well we have a bargaining chip," Thor said. "We can agree not to expand past them here. We just need to define the orientation of the plane we'll agree not to cross. We need to see if we can get the Third Mother and the spoxfrom Fargone to understand what is at stake and see the need to negotiate a deal. It's really not our place as traders."

A trio of Badgers passed them in the corridor going the other way. They knew their expressions well enough already to tell they were surprised. Gordon remembered not to smile.

"I guess we better just stay one night and beg off to return to our ships for consultations," Lee said. She sounded disappointed.

"How long were you thinking we'd stay?" Gordon asked, surprised.

"I was hoping we'd get to go down to the world at least briefly," she admitted.

"Maybe we will. Before we go home at least," Thor said. "I entertained similar hopes myself. Which reminds me, you notice something else different about this group of races?"

"What?" Lee asked.

"We weren't quarantined and scrubbed and tested to death before coming on their station."

"You're right. I was thinking entirely of other issues. Either they have no history of problems from alien biospheres, or they are so advanced biologically they are confident they can deal with them." Gordon suggested. "I'm not sure I want to be the one to suggest it might be a problem to them."

"We may not be so lucky. We really need to isolate and spend some time making sure we are clear when we go back to the
High Hopes
," Thor said. "We aren't really set up for isolation, but we should make
some
effort until we see it is safe. I think the
High Hopes
shouldn't dock or exchange shuttle traffic with the other ships. Let's say two weeks before we trade any people or supplies."

"Has there ever
been
a serious disease transmitted from a new world?" Lee asked.

"No," Thor admitted after a reluctant pause. "There is a sort of fungal infection from Thorn that is nasty to treat and several insect analogues on Thorn and Harmony they don't want on any new worlds, but I've always agreed it is too great a risk. If one ever is found you could wipe out a world without any immunity.

"I agree," Gordon said. "Who wants that as their legacy?"

"Crud," Lee muttered.

* * *

The bar was loud. The music was mostly percussive. There were two Badgers at the door they took to be bouncers. They looked hard at Lee and Ha-bob-bob-brie in front, frowning that subtle little back corner of the mouth curl they'd come to know on Badgers. But Thor and Gordon were right behind, shoulders touching to squeeze through the door together. Thor put a possessive true hand on Lee's shoulder and Gordon smiled at them. They were hard core and didn't flinch at Gordon's smile, but they were smart enough not to step in front of them.

They stopped inside the door, let their eyes adjust to the dim lighting, and looked the place over. A Badger, with of all things a plain old apron, hurried up to them. Gordon had his pad out and asked it for a translation for table. Miraculously it had one, complete with a graphic and he showed it to the host. He made an unmistakable come along gesture and led them to a back corner.

As they approached the table, staff was scurrying to remove odd chairs and they placed a single upholstered chair for Lee that was oversize, but likely everything was. They placed cushioned pads for the Derf and a sort of padded roll on which to lean. It was pretty impressive improvisation and quickly done too. Ha-bob-bob-brie was easiest of all, he was happy standing.

"What kind of money you want? Silver, gold or platinum?" Gordon asked. He displayed the translation screen and the three sorts of coins on his palm.

"These are good," the host said, touching the silver. But he didn't take it, apparently you paid at the end here too.

Gordon showed a screen with a water molecule and the translation. That got a yes. Then a screen with ethyl alcohol and the translation. He then showed the same word they were pretty sure was 'clear'.
Look same as water
, he wrote.

"Yes, yes," the host supplied a new word. Gordon tentatively entered it as vodka.

The bottle when it came was smaller than the human bottles they were used to, maybe three hundred milliliters. It was decorated though, printed directly on the glass the same as the water jugs. However where the water jugs looked like lab reagent containers the liqueur bottles were bright and had images, in this case a picture of a Badger holding a glass. Whatever it was supposed to evoke was beyond their reading yet. The glasses were plain however and impossibly delicate looking.

"Even vodka might give you an allergic reaction if potatoes made you sick," Lee worried.

"I'll just touch a single drop to my tongue. If it gets irritated or if I feel any ill effects I'll stop." He promised.

Ha-bob-bob-brie volunteered, "I have a
very
good nose. If I may smell it I can warn if it has anything toxic. I smell taint in food long before the cooks declare something is spoiled."

"Nothing," he declared after putting it right by his nostrils. "Not much flavor either."

"This is like when you took aspirin with my folks." Lee said, disapproving.

"I haven't heard that story," Thor said, interested.

"They made their first good claim and all got so drunk together they had to declare a full day shut-down to recover. Everybody was hung over and they took aspirin, so Gordon took the bottle chugged a handful down guesstimated on his larger mass. It didn't kill him, but he had no idea."

"This was after you were old enough to witness and remember it?"

"Oh no, long before me. He admitted it to Gwen, the vet they called in when he got shot in the head on the moon."

"Well that explains a lot," Thor said, looking at Gordon askance.

"It was a silly antique .38," Gordon said, frowning. "It didn't even give me a concussion, just a headache. It certainly didn't affect my mentality or judgment."

"It sounds like there wasn't anything to impair..."

"It worked. And this booze has no effect on my tongue. I'll try a little more. I wonder if they have ice if you want it?" He poured maybe ten milliliters in the glass and smelled it.

"Down the hatch," he announced and threw it back. "Good stuff. I can't taste any hint of what it was distilled from. Probably run through the still at least three times."

The waiter came back and asked if they were happy with the alcohol. After a little back and forth they assured him it was fine but they were proceeding cautiously. He agreed that solid cold water was available and hurried off to get it.

"I imagine in a couple years you'll be able to come in here and order a ham sandwich and a beer," Gordon said, wistfully. He was ready tonight.

"Look, look," Lee said. "One of the cat analogs. I don't want to point." They got a better look at it than any of the videos. The nose was more pointed than a real cat, the ears the best match and the whiskers actually thicker, almost like a moustache, but it was sleek and it moved beautifully.

"I got that on my spex," Thor said. "Luke will be happy to see it."

Badgers drank from a glass, like they'd been given, Sasquatch used a straw and Bills tipped a footed tube that looked like a piece of laboratory ware. While they were inspecting the others the others were inspecting them. It seemed pretty certain a lot of them had not heard of Humans and Derf, or seen any video of them from the interest level. This was Ha-bob-bob-brie's first time on station so he had to be a novelty.

Several people looked over their shoulder gawking, abruptly turning their backs. The noise level went down. They couldn't see the entrance from their table, but someone had apparently made a grand entry and there wasn't anybody waving them over or happy to see them.

Two Biters stomped into the bar. Stopping in the middle they looked around. The host didn't greet them or offer to seat them. When the first Biter saw Gordon and Thor seated behind the table with Lee between them he nudged the other one, then turned and addressed them.

"I don't want to drink with you," the translator rendered it.

"I wasn't going to invite you," Gordon answered, amused.

This required a pause to analyze.

"Ah, to say differently. We do not want to drink in the same place."

"That's fine with us. Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out." Thor suggested.

"We propose
you
leave."

"We were here first," Lee pointed out.

"It speaks. I thought anything so small a pet," the Biter said.

"Wow, I can't believe they have pet in the data base already," Thor said.

"Perhaps you need
removed
," the Biter said, actually taking a step toward them. He had some sort of weapon at shoulder, not his waist, being built low and front heavy like a Bulldog. He touched it, but mercifully refrained from drawing it.

Ha-bob-bob-brie's hand went up with almost disinterested slowness to the sword handle over his shoulder, and he bent his knees a little. Lee made a palm down 'hold' gesture under the edge of the table where the Biter wouldn't see, hoping he understood it. He seemed to, hand stopping, but not dropping. He just twitched one eye and was very still.

Gordon stood up. He made a process of it, slowly, so they tracked his face up until it was near the overhead and their heads were tilted back. He looked a lot smaller sitting on the deck behind the table, leaning over on a cushion. Thor didn't bother to get up. Gordon didn't really need any backup. He had a pistol he ignored and his heavier middle hand with the claws went to the ax handle just behind the head. The double bit ax was not simply ceremonial, it was fifteen kilograms sharpened to a shaving edge, on a two-thirds meter composite shank. The cutting edge was an arc as long as Lee's forearm and had a little hook on the bottom like a can opener, for peeling open armor. It should work just as well on the sort of hard carapace covering the Biters, who didn't step any closer.

"Please, honored customers, allow me to show you to a
private
room," the host begged. It was interesting, he gave a little bow. They hadn't seen that before, but Lee noticed he
didn't
get between them. "No need to be served in the common public room."

"Very well, lead on," the Biter commanded. He didn't look at Gordon again, just dismissed him from his mind to all appearances, but Lee bet he'd remember.

Gordon made himself comfortable again and tossed back a third sample of the local vodka, about fifty milliliter this time. It didn't seem to have anything toxic to Derf. Lee wasn't so bold and noticed Thor refrained from trying it too. But Ha-bob-bob-brie  pushed his glass over and took it without any hesitation. They should have brought some of their own brandy or bourbon. It might even be something they could offer for trade goods.

Lee looked across Thor and just mouthed 'thank you' at Ha-bob-bob-brie. He did the little scrunchy thing again with his eyes and nodded. That was definitely amusement. 

"Is everything satisfactory?" Their host was back with more ice.

"Entirely. I'm sorry we aren't enjoying the food and other drinks. We just have to wait for some testing to make sure nothing will make us ill. Your patience with us not spending much this visit is appreciated. We'll be back I'm sure."

"You are smart to be cautious. The Badgers can drink the spirits the Sasquatch make, but not the reverse. And the Bills have their own sort that nobody else can stand, although it doesn't make them sick. It just tastes bad to others. Will your races be trading distilled spirits eventually?"

"We were just discussing that. We wish we'd have thought to bring our own and we'd have been happy to pay you to serve them. I'm sure they will be a trade item. All three of our races have ethyl alcohol based drinks. Some just fermented and some distilled. I'll bring a couple by next time we go to our ship. Lee here prefers a drink called Bourbon from the Human home world and we Derf like a sweet brandy, our own or Human's. The Hinth make these bitter spirits that set my teeth on edge, but Humans like to mix a small amount in drinks to cut the sweet. That didn't translate well did it?" Gordon said looking at the screen.

"Set your teeth on the edge of what?" their host asked, baffled.

"A colloquial expression, not literal. It seems an unpleasant feeling, sort of like meeting Biters," he said, getting a little dig in.

"The bitters are strong," Ha-bob-bob-brie allowed, "But it wakes you up in the morning!"

"I thank you so much for not letting things keep going the direction they were," the host said to Gordon. He gave Ha-bob-bob-brie however a very wary look.

"Seems to me you are the one who defused things and very skillfully I'd add." That took some work from the translators, to convey what a fuse was, but it was well worth adding to the database.

"We'll go back to our hotel now. I hope we do more business on a bigger scale soon. Take whatever you feel proper," Gordon offered, holding a large hand with Fargone silver coins out to their host.

He waved it away with a gesture Human or Derf found normal and needed no translation.

"Lots of time to make money later. It was worth seeing the Biter freeze in his tracks to host you. Take the rest of the bottle back to your hotel please. Perhaps show it to your shipmates."

"Thank you. We'll be back soon."

"How is it that the barkeeper speaks better English than Talker or Trader? Lee asked.

"It's the translation program," Gordon explained. "I was watching and it updated three times even while we were speaking with Talker and Trader. They seemed to speak better when we left them than when we first met. They do have a lot of people and expert systems working away at it full time."