Voices of Chaos (6 page)

The image flickered, then froze as Rob keyed a pause. Magdalena

transferred her astonished gaze from the suddenly stilled Khyriz to the psychologist. "Well?" he asked.

"Well?" she echoed blankly, then shook herself. "You mean, the School might actually let me go there?"

"Perhaps something like that," Rob allowed. "You'd like to go?" Magdalena nodded enthusiastically; her eyes sparkled. "Well, then. You heard, just now: Khyriz lobbied pretty hard to get you named translator. And it would've been a good choice, except that you're third year."

She nodded once more. "I know. I didn't even let myself think about it."
Not
seriously, anyway,
the wry thought intruded. "But a visit--I don't see how I could take the time, with my classload and tests, and--''

Rob leaned back, made a steeple of his fingers, and eyed her across it.

"Say--say that we could work around all that."

"Well"--she drew a deep breath and let it out in a gust-- "of
course
I'd love to go! I'd be mad to say no! But--"

"Even if it wasn't just a short visit?"

She considered this, finally sat back in the chair and folded her hands in her lap. "It's what you said earlier, isn't it? Me

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being 'gone the next day'--something like that." Rob grinned faintly and shrugged. "I
thought
there was something, I could just tell you hadn't said that by accident!"

"Your sixth sense is working just fine," he assured her.

Magdalena snorted inelegantly. ''Of course it is--it always does--"

"Except with David, last night," Rob said. She rolled her eyes ceilingward.

"Honestly, I begin to think I handled that pretty darned well, Rob. I mean, I didn't freeze or panic or anything, not when he started getting mushy on me, and not even when he kissed me. Not until his tongue got too active and his grip too tight, and even then, I just pulled myself away from him and told him to cut it out."

"You did at that," he agreed. "All right. I know you know a lot about the Arekkhi--your classwork, language study, and, of course, a lot of time with Khyriz and Shiksara. So you're probably aware of some of the ongoing political situation."

"Some," she admitted.

"Such as, the Arekkhi aren't at all pleased they weren't immediately given full CLS status."

Magdalena got to her feet and carried her cup over to the food selector, pressing buttons for another cup of tea. Her eyes strayed toward the holo-tank as the cup filled. 'I know. Plus, Khyriz told me some of the Council is extremely displeased about learning they aren't the sole sentient race.

Particularly the Prelate and the more ... hidebound religious types."

"Well, you can't blame them--"

"And I don't, of course." Magdalena retrieved her cup and got settled once more. "They probably see it as the beginning of the end of their religion, which would put them out of a job."

"Good point," Rob said, though privately--given her background in that awful, hidebound, New Am cult--he wondered if she actually felt that way. Of course, three years of living among such widely diverse cultures tended to make students extremely accepting of other religions--and those who came here in the first place were those who showed a willingness to deal with differences of all kinds. He shifted his legs, one hand

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steadying Bast. "So when the Emperor and Council finally agreed to accept an interrelator--mostly because we made it clear that was the only way they'd get outside trade going-- we moved as quickly as we could to set up the team."

Magdalena laughed briefly. "Two human
women,
because the Council assured you they have no problem with females in roles of authority. I roomed with Shiksara last year, remember? She wasn't supposed to admit that Arekkhi females aren't really treated equally, you know--but these things happen."

"We plan on that up here." Rob grinned. "And, of course, the Heeyoons who've spent time on the station have eyes and ears--the Arekkhi couldn't have really hoped to keep it a secret for long. So we decided to call their bluff. And when they took that challenge, we decided that having two females as the entire CLS team will get the Arekkhi used to dealing with all kinds. And, of course, Alexis Ortovsky is tough-minded enough to deal with any macho types she's thrown against. And Ladessa is..." He sighed. "Well, that's our problem right now. Ladessa is not going to be able to make that ship three weeks from now; she won't be out of regen for at least twice that long. But after all the fuss and negotiations and hassle back and forth, we absolutely
have
to deliver a team to the Arekkhi. And deliver what and when we promised."

Magdalena's mouth was suddenly dry once more; her eyes flickered toward the image of Khyriz, back to the desk just in front of her. "Um--all right. You're asking--if I can take her place, aren't you?"

Rob nodded. "Exactly that. Wait." He held up a hand as she set her cup aside, the steaming beverage untasted. "Let me give you the pros and cons, then you get a turn. Fair? Number one: You're very qualified." He turned down a finger. "You are good friends with a ranked Prince who has some influence. And this would not need to be a permanent placement, if you found yourself uncomfortable: Ladessa won't be in regen that long, and she could replace you, if necessary."

He paused. She nodded, her face suddenly rather pale. "On the other hand,"

he went on, "you'd be half of the CLS team; the Heeyoons have had a small trading company on the space station for some time, and there have been Heeyoons on the

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royal island--but so far no off-worlders have gotten any farther than the island, and that was just for one brief reception. So all we know is what we've seen in vid, and what we've been told." He shrugged. Magdalena licked her lips.

"You don't suspect there's anything--"

"Anything wrong? There's no hint of it. We wouldn't be sending two of our brightest and best there if we thought there was any chance of trouble. My gut feeling is the Arekkhi government is simply doing what it says: protecting its simpler and less sophisticated populations from contact with alien races."

But Khyriz says lying is a political art form,
Magdalena thought suddenly.

And that few things are what they seem.
She took a sip of hot tea, letting the warmth loosen her throat. If Rob thought she was afraid, he might not let her go.
And I'm not afraid--just a little nervous. Surprised, because he just
sprang this on me. Anyone would be.
Besides, if there was anything wrong on Arekkhi, Khyriz would have said so, a long time ago. Shiksara would have.

Rob was probably right. And probably the Emperor and his Council didn't want the outsiders to see how low-tech the farming communities were; Khyriz said hardly any labor-saving inventions made it outside the major cities, and that most villages had one communication center for everyone--

phone, vid screen, and news channel. Aldwin Cho said his China of three hundred years ago had been similar, and that government had had very tight rules about what outsiders got into the country at all, let alone where they went.

The Council might believe the CLS would consider such unequal tech a bar to membership.
Maybe if you stay calm, or at least look it, you'll get the
chance to find out,
she told herself and eased back in the chair. Suddenly, with the opportunity within her grasp, she wanted it more than she would have thought possible.

"If you go as translator," Rob went on, "you'll undoubtedly have to be able to work with members of the Council, talk to the Prelate or other high-ranking religious leaders. Think you could do that?"

"I..." she considered this briefly, then nodded. "I don't 39

think it would remind me of New Am. I'm older, after all, and the language is different. I'm not--I wouldn't be one of
them,
or under their thumbs. That ought to make a big difference."

"Mmmm." He was gazing at her thoughtfully, over steepled fingers once more, a finger tapping at the opposite thumb. Nervous energy: Magdalena could feel her nerves buzzing with the same stuff, but she wasn't going to show it if she could help it.
Bless all those weeks and months of dance, I can
keep absolutely stil without thinking about it.
"Of course," he said, "Alexis will be the one primarily involved with the governing bodies, but often the translator winds up assuming any duties the interrelator doesn't have time for."

"I know. As long as someone tells me what I'm supposed to be doing, I should be okay," she replied with a faint smile.

"You'd be a long way from the School," Rob added.

"Well, but we all expect that," she said, and took another sip of tea.

"True. And, of course, there's the construction and tech crew out working on the jump-point station; they're only a couple of days' travel from the planet.

And there are Heeyoons on the inner-system space station--I knew there was something else." He snapped his fingers; Bast made a low, grumbling noise, then subsided again. "You remember Silvermuzzle?"

Magdalena nodded. "Graduated last year, went back to Arrrouhl, his homeworld, to write up Professor Grey shine's notes on that dig here."

"Well, he's finished that project and his family's sending him to Arekkhi; in another month or so, he'll be on the station, working on trade agreements."

"And there's always Dana," she reminded him. "You know: Dana Marshall, pilot and tech expert. She's two years older than I but we get on great; I heard from her just before the CLS sent her to the jump point station to get the communications network up."

"I'd forgotten about that."

"She'll be there a while, if I need more human company. But I bet I won't have time to feel lonely. I like Alexis, after all. And I won't feel out of place.

There's Khyriz, and

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Shiksara's told me so much about her family that I already feel I know them."

"Mmmmm." Rob stared off into the middle distance, over her head; Magdalena found she was holding her breath.
If he decides not to let me
go ...!
When the psychologist cleared his throat, she jumped. "Tell you what,"

he said finally. "I made a couple of FTL calls to Shassiszss Station before you got here--because of the unusual circumstances--and they told me that it's my decision, to send you or not." Another silence.

She slid forward, onto the edge of the chair. "Do you want my input?" I
can't
believe I'm talking like this! Like--like I could convince him if he's already
wavering, or something!
But her voice sounded just fine--neither scared nor excited. "My feelings?"

"Sure," he replied, his voice noncommittal, but his eyebrows went up as she drew herself straight and began ticking off points with the fingers of her right hand, the way he had. It wasn't lost on him; he eyed her fingers, then winked.

Magdalena grinned, briefly relaxed. "Well, then. You can send Alexis by herself for the time being, but since it's a new post, that would be an awful lot of extra pressure on her. You could ask the Arekkhi to wait for their team until Ladessa's well enough to travel, maybe let her finish her physical therapy on the ship, but it sounds to me as if the Council would see the delay as an insult, another indication that they're a second-class world. And that would make
more
problems for the interrelator when she finally arrives."

Rob's eyebrows went up. "Good point," he conceded.

"You could find someone else to send as translator, but there are only so many beings here who speak Arekkhi with fair fluency, and only a handful of us who are fluent in language, gesture, intonation, and movement--dance.

Silvermuzzle was good before he left, but he's been away from it awhile, he'd be rusty. And he's got two left feet, unfortunately. And"--she shrugged--"I suppose you could send someone with a lot of skill at diplomacy
and
a voder, but a voder isn't good for movement, which is a whole major part of their language. Voders aren't great at the subtler bits of intonation shift, 41

either, not with the Arekkhi language." She considered this; fought the urge to say something else that would probably sound rambling and disorganized at best, and desperate to go at worse.
Rob is in charge of a very serious
decision here; he won't let you go just because you really want to and Khyriz
wants you there.

"Good points," he said finally. "And, of course, we do have Ladessa to send in after her regen, if you feel uncomfortable, or in over your head. At the very worst, it would be a six-month hiatus from classes. Including ballet," he added with a wicked smile. "And David...."

Magdalena cast her eyes up. "Sure, tempt me," she mumbled.

"You're aware Madame intends to send vid of last night's performances to several of the touring dance companies?"

"I--knew that. She told us at the pre-dress rehearsal. I-- understand, I'd be very flattered to be asked to join a dance troupe. But I know I haven't had enough years to be
that
level of good." She smiled faintly. "I know about Rudolf Nureyev, I've seen Madame's vid of his
Romeo,
and I know he didn't even start ballet classes until he was fifteen, but he was an exception. A prodigy."

"You might be, Magdalena."

She shook her head firmly. "No--much as I'd like to think so, I know I'd wind up doing the third-act solos: Dancing the Bluebird or the Sugar Plum Fairy and getting paid for it would be nice, but..." She sighed. "Remember how I decided to take the StarBridge tests, back on New Am? The Heeyoons had just discovered the Arekkhi, and there was a piece of vid of a high lord from their council. I--think I fell in love with the idea of the Arekkhi right then. The sound of the language, the way he moved. And after all New Am did for me, getting me here; after all the school's done for me ..."

"Don't base a decision on gratitude, Magdalena," Rob said as she hesitated.

"I'm not. Dance has been ... wonderful. I'll keep doing all that I can with it. But the chance to go to Arekkhi as a translator, even if it's only for six months--it's been my dream for at least four years, Rob, and I've worked hard to see that I 42