Star Trek: The Empty Chair (31 page)

“My employer,” Arrhae said, and smiled gently. “Well. You are, I think, now to tell me that their fear of my employer grows less, or that the protection he is able to offer me grows less, or both together.”

“That is exactly what I would tell you,” Ffairrl said.

“It falls to me, then, to ask you how do you come by such information?” Arrhae looked at Ffairrl, trying not to have the look be friendly rather than intimidating.

Ffairrl merely looked at her.

“You’re thinking,” Arrhae said, “that I would be far simpler than you initially thought had I not long since suspected that you were an agent planted on me by one or another of the Intelligence communities working in
Gorget.
Well, I had that thought, and put it by; for good or ill, I never had any proof. What possible good would denouncing you have done? Besides, who knows if the next spy along would have made herbdraft as well as you do? And that soup you used to make in the evenings!”

For just a moment that shadow on Ffairrl’s face vanished, and his eyes crinkled with amusement. “Most would expect you to have had that suspicion, lady, but none expected you to react as you did, as if all your life you were used to being spied on, and took it as blithely as if it were just a fact of life like sun or rain. It was taken in some quarters as evidence of wiliness beyond belief, and in others as evidence of incredible stupidity.”

Arrhae had to smile at that. “That you are here suggests some other opinion. I suppose I should be glad.”

“Lady,” Ffairrl said, “I come to tell you this: you must take measures to protect yourself.”

“And what would those be?” She got up and went over to the window, looking out at the trees and the velvety lawn. “Life is sweet to me, Ffairrl; I have no desire to leave it. So I take your warning kindly.” She turned, and let him, just for a moment, see the look on her face that told him she really meant what she said. “But what would you have me do? If I do indeed flee, that would be proof that I had cause to. The pursuit would shortly be after me, and I have nowhere to run from them, nowhere to hide. Yet if I sit still, you seem to be saying, they will come for me regardless. Against this, I must balance the fact that my ‘employer’ yet has use for me; and I like to think, for my own part, that I have some useful part to play in the world as it stands. So I think I must stay here, and work in the spot where the Elements have put me. For this little while, my protection must be that, should I suddenly go missing, the noble Praetor would take notice.” She looked at Ffairrl. “Nonetheless, I thank you for your warning. And now, what I must ask you is, how shall we cover your presence here? Should I, perhaps, hire you into the household? Or would that cause as many questions, in its own way, as your appearance on my doorstep in the first place?”

Ffairrl chuckled. “Lady, it was always a pleasure serving you, and it would be a pleasure now. But I think I’ve today done you as much service as I can. Though I will have been watched, I am not under suspicion—not yet. Those who watch, know no more about me but that I served aboard
Gorget
as a steward. My history—or at least that part of it to which they have access—” He smiled gently. “—will suggest nothing more. But should you hire me, that would be found unusual. Those who watch know your personal finances, and that House Khellian is not overly wealthy. When you turn me from your door, that will be no less than they expect.”

He stood up. Arrhae rose as well. But she offered him her hand, and surprised, Ffairrl took it and held it in the manner of one who had been intimate with its holder in ways superior to the merely physical. “I know that you’ve risked much to do this,” she said. “You’ve done me a great courtesy. And I thank you for the warning; at least now I have some data to back up the paranoia that’s been my bedfellow, these last nights.”

Ffairrl bowed at the compliment, then straightened. “I’m glad to serve you in that much, at least. I should go. With the noble
deihu’
s permission.” He turned toward the door.

“Ffairrl,” she said.

He paused, looked over his shoulder.

“Why?”
Arrhae said.

He looked at her. “Because you did not treat me like a servant. Because you treated me with the kind of courtesy one reserves for one’s equals.” He paused. “And because you gave me recipes.”

Her eyes widened. “I gave you—”

“You have forgotten the recipe for the mulled ale with
elstekt,”
he said. “Or the ‘burnt bread.’ There were several others. You passed them from your little reader to the desktop machine for me. They were very good recipes; I will not soon forget them. Or the context in which they were offered.”

She glanced down and found herself blushing.

“And also,” Ffairrl said, “because you sing in your sleep.”

Arrhae held very, very still.

“It is a sign of an unusually open heart, I find,” Ffairrl said. “Of a soul sunk deep in its own certainties, and its own kind of peace, though the circumstances through which that soul moves may be difficult in the extreme. Such people are too few in the world. It would sort ill with any man’s
mnhei’sahe
to allow such a person to be extinguished by the political imperatives of the moment. You do, indeed, have work to do where you are.”

He bowed again, and straightened. “I wish that you may
do it well. No, do not; I saw the way out. I bid you farewell, noble
deihu.”

He opened the door and was gone.

Arrhae stood there, and now her hands twisted together in the way that they would have liked to do while he was still there.

And now what?
she thought.
Only a few possibilities. Do as I have done; stay as I have stayed.

Or act as if the letter I was describing has dropped on my own front doormat. ‘Flee! All is revealed!’ But what would happen is exactly as I described it to him. It would neither help my situation, nor leave me free to continue doing the work I need to be doing.

She let out a long breath.

Or…

Arrhae sat down again in that comfortable chair.
It is perhaps time,
she thought,
to start acting like a senator. If I have one of the great Three as my patron, then perhaps it is time to start being a little proactive. He has reposed great trust in me. Now it will be seen if the same can be done with him. If not
…

Arrhae began to consider the finer details of the visit she was about to make.

The space around 553 Tri was an undistinguished place. The little yellow sun itself had nothing of any interest around it, just an asteroid belt in the system’s far outer reaches that was too sparse to be of any concern. But there was another band of bright bodies closer in, catching the star’s golden light and glittering it back at any newcomer. The local space was full of ships.

Ael looked out on the vista her viewscreen showed her with considerable trepidation.
So many.
Then she was tempted to laugh at herself.
I would have been as upset had there been too few. Why am I complaining?

She turned to Hvaid. “How many now?”

“There are at least a hundred,
khre’Riov,”
she said. “The massed armament is impressive. And already we will have exceeded the abilities of the command-and-control structures that Uhura and Sulu and Khiy have been designing.”

Ael sighed, leaning on the back of her command chair. “It seems ungrateful of me to look at all this and feel that things are going too well. I am sure that such an appraisal would be erroneous. I feel some stroke hanging in the air over us, something that we will not expect.”

“But if you expect it,
khre’Riov,”
Hvaid said, “then surely it is no threat.”

Ael leaned lower over the back of the chair, looking at the reflection of ships and stars in the blade of the Sword. Then she laughed and pushed herself away from the chair, straightening. “Would it were so simple,” she said. “But the question is
where
to expect it.” She stood up straight, and stretched, and rubbed her eyes. “Which brings us to the matter at hand. When will they be expecting
me?”

“Quite shortly,
khre’Riov.
They are gathering now.”

“Well,” Ael said, “best I should get going, then. Do you run another set of diagnostics on the C&C protocols while I am gone. I am not yet comfortable with how they interweave with our systems. I much fear that in the middle of a battle, we are likely to have the systems crash.”

Hvaid opened her eyes wide. “
Khre’Riov,
Khiy would never permit anything so commonplace. For our systems to fail, it would be for some much far more exotic reason.”

Ael laughed. “You’re right, of course. Mind the bridge for me. I will be back within the hour.”

She stepped into the lift, and as the doors closed on her, she thought,
Therein, of course, lies the constant danger. Expect the exotic steadfastly, and without doubt it is the commonplace that will be the end of you.
She rubbed her eyes, and sagged against the wall of the lift. It was something she
dared not do anywhere her crew could see her.
Would that there were someone to be strong for me,
she thought,
someone
I
could collapse on. But I seem to have cast myself in too harsh a role for that.

The lift doors opened. Ael came out on the level where the ship’s transporters lay, and as she walked down that narrow little corridor, her friend tr’Hrienteh came out of the transporter room’s door, turned toward her, and seemed a little surprised to see her. “Did you need me for anything,
khre’Riov?
I am just now going back to the sickbay.”

“No, cousin,” Ael said. “All is well enough with me. What brings you down here?”

“Technician Gioufv’s head aches him,” tr’Hrienteh said. “I brought him a pain-relief gel.”

Ael smiled a little wanly, and massaged her own brow. “I’d wager there’s no one aboard who either has not had one of those in very recent time, or shortly will have one.”

Tr’Hrienteh looked at Ael sympathetically. “It has been hard for you,
khre’Riov.
Harder, I think, than anyone aboard knows.”

“But it would not be their job to know,” Ael said. “If they did, I would not be doing my job well as their commander. My work is to bear the burden, and not burden them with it.” She looked narrowly at tr’Hrienteh, seeing the circles under her eyes. “But how does it go with you, cousin? You, too, have felt the burden of late—”

“No worse than with many others,” the surgeon said. “But for you,
khre’Riov,
I do have some concerns. I have some new stress-relief and biorhythm managers down in my offices. They are adaptations of some equipment McCoy has given us, which I have altered to suit our physiology. Come down, if you have time, and try one of them out. It may give you some relief.”

“Had I a moment now,” Ael said, “I would do that. But they are expecting me over on
Tyrava.
Remind me of that
again in a day or two; I will certainly come.” She smiled, and rubbed her head again. “Any relief would be welcome, especially now, when I can take it without feeling too guilty. Closer to the battle—” She shook her head. “—I would be too concerned that I might somehow impair my function.”

“As you say,
khre’Riov,”
tr’Hrienteh said. She patted Ael on the shoulder and headed for the lift.

Ael made her way into the transporter chamber. There one of her antecenturions was standing, and to her shock she actually had to feel about in her mind for his name, though tr’Hrienteh had said it to her only a moment ago.
Indeed,
she thought,
the stress is becoming a problem. I think as soon as I have time, I must take tr’Hrienteh’s advice.
“So,” she said, “they require my company on
Tyrava,
Gioufv. Would you do the honors?”

“At once,
khre’Riov,”
the antecenturion said.

Ael stepped up onto the pad, and turned. “And are you feeling better now?”

“Much better,
khre’Riov,”
he said, and smiled back at her. “The surgeon’s remedies are sometimes rather a shock to the system, but they do the job.”

Ael nodded. “I agree. Meanwhile, I should go. I will call you shortly for pickup from
Tyrava’
s pad; just scan for my presence there in a while.”

The antecenturion nodded. “Ready,
khre’Riov?”

She nodded, composing herself for the transport.

When
Tyrava
shimmered into view around her, she looked out from its huge receiving pad and then had to exert great control to keep from standing there openmouthed in astonishment. A hundred ships’ captains, give or take a few—that she had expected. A hundred ships’ crews—that took Ael by surprise. But it occurred to her, then, that they were coming as much to prove to themselves that it was actually
she
who was leading them as for any other reason.
Perhaps the caution is wise.
The Empire had often enough used ruses
and hoaxes to trick disaffected individuals into places or situations where they could be easily trapped or taken.

Ael walked off the pad toward where they all stood. There to one side, Veilt tr’Tyrava stood, watching her calm, watching the reactions of those who saw her approach. The look on his face was unusual. He was reacting to his guests’ expressions, of course. Many of them looked like people who had not truly believed in the prospect of the fight before them until they saw the slight little woman with the braided dark hair coming toward them. Others looked almost belligerent, though toward whom was difficult to tell at this remove. Others looked astounded, as if they had believed this was going to be a trick all along, and were now put out of composure by her presence.

“So, my associates,” she said. The word was one of the more neutral ones in Rihannsu.
Ally
required a commitment she thought was about to be made, but had not been quite yet. “I must apologize for not being here with you sooner. I dislike making people wait for me. And some few—” She glanced around at them. “—would, I guess, have been waiting a long while.”