After a second, the ambassador’s eyestalks relaxed, but she still kept all her eyes focused on Ingray. “Not a breach of the treaty, but near it,” she whistled. “I know the treaty well.”
And a message blinked into Ingray’s view to tell her the car was again waiting out front. “I recall you saying that. Maybe you should go back to your ship?” How she was supposed to do that without anyone finding out that she’d been here, Ingray had no idea. But the ambassador had managed to come all the way here, apparently without being discovered. Ingray thought of the gelatinous way Captain Uisine’s mechs changed their shape, or sprouted extra limbs, and shivered.
“I will go back to my ship after you show me Tic Uisine,” insisted the ambassador.
“Ambassador,” replied Ingray, trying to keep her voice calm and reasonable, “Captain Uisine is a citizen of Tyr. You don’t have any authority over him, and if he wanted to talk to you he’d have done it back at Tyr Siilas.”
At that moment Danach stepped quickly up behind the mech and dropped his jacket over its eyestalks. “Oops,” he said. “I was trying to throw it to you, Ingray, just like you asked.”
She couldn’t thank him, or stop to think, but dashed out of the reception room, the servant in the doorway jumping, startled, out of her path, and Ingray ran through the entrance hall and out the door to the waiting groundcar. “Take me to Mama’s office!” she cried as she got in, as though she were a child again and didn’t have the implants that would let her control the car without speaking. “And tell Nuncle Lak I need to talk to em right away.”
Lak Aughskold was actually with Netano’s staff in the capital—several hours away by flier. But e kept an office here in the Arsamol District seat. It was a small room, the only vestige an entry card for the first Netano Aughskold’s first session as an Assembly representative in a plain, narrow-bordered case that hung on otherwise undecorated dark brown walls. But there was no mistaking the plainness for austerity—the two low chairs that faced the display wall were cushioned in gold brocade, and the table between them had been cut from a single block of green-and-white-veined stone.
“Wait,” said Lak Aughskold’s image on the display wall, though Ingray had asked em not to interrupt until she had given em the whole catalog of the day’s events. Nuncle Lak was short and stocky, and eir size and quiet calm often led new acquaintances to underestimate em, though not for long. To all appearances e was just a few meters from Ingray, sitting in one of two low gold chairs facing her, with another polished green stone table between them. But she knew e was thousands of kilometers away, and the wall behind em, and the colors and to some extent the shapes of those chairs and table, were custom generated to match the room where Ingray sat. Nuncle Lak continued. “You went to Planetary Safety and asked to speak to Pahlad Budrakim? It’s bad enough you brought em into the system to begin with. With a false identity that …” E sighed. “What was that for, Ingray? I expect this sort of thing from Danach, but you …” Partway through eir last few words the door to the office where Ingray sat opened and her nuncle fell silent, the expression on eir round, dark face suddenly blandly cheerful. A servant came in with a cup of serbat and set it on the glassy green-and-white surface of the table beside Ingray. When the servant had gone again, Lak said, “I don’t think this is one of the rare occasions when you and your brother are working together.”
“No, Nuncle,” Ingray admitted.
“I never expected trouble from you, Ingray.” Withering disapproval in eir voice.
“I’m not done!” Ingray protested, though she really wanted to flee, out the door of the office, out of the building, into the street … but then, where after that? There was nowhere to go. “Pahlad asked me to be there when eir father came to talk to em. E was very sure Ethiat Budrakim would come, eir father, not eir sister. And I agreed. And then …”
“Oh, that might be helpful.” Finally, cautious approval in Lak’s voice. E took off eir peach silk jacket, laid it on the back of the chair e sat on. Pushed a stray braid out of eir face, and picked up eir own cup of serbat from the table beside em. “Maybe this isn’t all bad, then. Go on.”
“And then I went home,” Ingray continued, the sensation that she was in freefall suddenly overtaking her, “and the Omkem consul was there …”
“Yes. Your mother has already heard from the consul. At length.”
“The consul was very concerned about getting Hevom off the planet. I know he’s family to Excellency Zat, and she’s—she was—very influential, but it seems odd, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not like Hevom is under arrest, he’s staying at the house, and the staff has orders to make him as comfortable as possible.”
“Mmm,” said Lak, and took a drink of serbat. “Indeed. Go on.”
“So anyway, I told the consul I’d gone to Planetary Safety to talk about Hevom. Which was a lie, I went there to talk to Pahlad.” No change of expression on Lak’s face when she said that. “And the consul said she was unhappy that Netano wasn’t here, and then she went up to see Hevom. And then.” Just the plain fact of what came next was enough to stop her speech for a moment. “And then the Geck ambassador came into the house.”
“So it really isn’t as bad as I thought it was at first,” observed Nuncle Lak, after the briefest silence. “It’s worse.”
“Yes,” agreed Ingray. “The ship Pahlad and I came home on was a little cargo carrier owned and captained by a Tyr citizen called Tic Uisine. And while we were at Tyr Siilas, the Geck arrived and saw his ship and thought it was one that had been stolen from them. Captain Uisine had all the documents to prove he’s the legal owner of the ship, but the ambassador didn’t want to believe that. And I guess they followed us here. The ambassador kept asking me where Captain Uisine was. But I don’t know! And I don’t know how she got as far as the house without anyone knowing she was here, either. I mean, she’s just a mech. Or, the ambassador herself is somewhere in orbit, because there’s a delay, talking to the mech. Anyway, she kept asking me where the captain was, and I don’t know! And then she asked me where Pahlad was, or Garal, that’s the name e was using at the time. And then …” She thought for a moment what would be the best way to explain what happened next. “I asked Danach for his jacket, he was in the room …”
“Ah, I knew Danach would be in it somewhere.”
“I asked Danach for his jacket, and he tossed it to me but it landed on the ambassador’s eyes—she’s got nearly a dozen of them. And I ran out of the room before she could take it off and see where I’d gone, and I went right to the groundcar and came here.”
After a moment Nuncle Lak set down eir cup of serbat and sighed. “I remember when you first came to Netano’s house. You were such a quiet little child. At last, I thought, my sister has brought someone sensible into the family.”