The mech did not move. “I listen,” it whispered. “Garal Ket is not a citizen of Hwae. Garal Ket is not Garal Ket. Garal Ket is a person who is dead, and if that person is dead e does not exist anymore. Humans exist. A person who does not exist is not human.”
Deputy Chief Veret frowned. “But e very obviously does exist. And it’s not always the case here, Ambassador, that someone who is dead doesn’t exist anymore.”
“But it’s the case for Garal,” said Ingray. “Or for Pahlad, I mean. Isn’t it? E didn’t get anyone’s name but eirs, and didn’t give eir name to anyone.” And even if e had, eir going to Compassionate Removal would have made that irrelevant.
Nuncle Lak gave Ingray a calculating look. “But e’s not actually dead, Ingray. And even so, whoever e is now e came into Hwaean space on false pretenses and is breaking the law just by being here.”
“The Geck will apologize for this,” whispered the spider mech. “And pay a fine. At Tyr Siilas we were told that payment resolves all such difficulties.”
“That was Tyr, Ambassador,” said Deputy Chief Veret. “Our legal system doesn’t work that way.”
“And there is still the matter of the Omkem Federacy,” Nuncle Lak put in, “who are also demanding custody of Garal Ket, so that they can try em for the murder of Excellency Zat. We’ve given them the same answer. The Deputy Chief of Serious Crimes can’t just let prisoners go to anyone who asks for them. You’ll have to pursue litigation, Ambassador.”
The spider mech knocked a claw on the pale yellow tiled floor. “You hold a person who belongs to the Geck. This is a violation of the treaty. Do not argue with me about the treaty. This Garal Ket is a person who belongs nowhere human. I now declare that e belongs to the Geck. If you give Garal Ket to these Omkem you will violate the treaty. Do not argue with me about the treaty. You do not know its contents better than I.”
“I’m not sure it works that way,” said Nuncle Lak.
The spider mech raised its body up several centimeters and pointed one claw at the image of Nuncle Lak on the wall. “Do. Not. Argue. With me. About. The treaty.”
A soft tone sounded, and another person appeared on the display wall, standing beside Nuncle Lak, a person wearing all white: white coat, somewhat rumpled, as though it had been folded for a very long time and only recently taken out; white trousers, white shoes. White gloves. Their dark hair was short enough to stick up, haphazard, all over their head. Her head—those gloves meant Radchaai, and at least in Bantia, Radchaai were conventionally called she. This person seemed disconcertingly uncategorizable, not a man or a woman or a neman. “Hello?” she said, in heavily accented Yiir. “Oh, there you are, I couldn’t see you at first. Hello. I am Tibanvori Nevol.” She sighed, weirdly incongruous with the Radchaai accent that made her sound like a villain in a melodramatic entertainment. “I am the human ambassador to the Geck.” She sounded unconvinced of that. No, she sounded as though she were reading out something she didn’t entirely understand. She probably didn’t speak Yiir very well and was using some sort of translation device.
“Thank you for joining us, Ambassador Nevol,” said Deputy Chief Veret.
The ambassador sighed again. “Tibanvori. And I’m not an ambassador, I’m an ambassa … oh, this thing is hopeless. And I can’t help you. I’ve tried to explain but no one is listening to me. I don’t have any control over this situation. I don’t know why the Geck ambassador is so … so fixated on this runaway mech-pilot.” She sighed again. “I can’t blame her for running away; if it were me I’d put as much distance between me and the Geck homeworld as I could.”
“Her?” asked Ingray.
“Her. Him. Em.” The emissary made an exasperated noise. “Whatever. And when we were at Tyr Siilas, we learned that Pilot Uisine had claimed Tyr citizenship. Which was entirely within …” She winced. “His? Rights, under the treaty. The Geck no longer have any authority over … him. The pilot. The captain now, I suppose. Though actually she … he did steal that ship. More than one. It caused quite a lot of inconvenience, actually.” Ambassador Tibanvori smiled, just a bit, as though the memory of it was amusing to her. “But the Geck ambassador knows this. She knows the treaty as well as anyone does, and she must know she has no legal grounds for pursuing this pilot. She might be able to file a petition for compensation for the stolen ships with the Tyr Executory, which has been suggested to the ambassador, by people she ordinarily will listen to.” Ambassador Tibanvori made an odd, shoving-away gesture with one gloved hand, as though she were pushing the entire matter away from her. “I myself am not one of those people. So there’s really no point to my being here.”
“It’s kind of you to take the time, in any case,” said Nuncle Lak. “Perhaps since you’re here, you could answer some questions for us. You must know the treaty fairly well, yourself, I think.” Ambassador Tibanvori made a gesture that Nuncle Lak took for assent. “Her Excellency the Geck ambassador to the Presger is making the claim that a particular Hwaean citizen actually falls under Geck authority.”
Ambassador Tibanvori rolled her eyes and made an exasperated noise. “I don’t know what the ambassador is playing at. No Hwaean could possibly be a Geck citizen.”
“This is an unusual case, Ambassador,” Ingray said. “The person was a Hwaean citizen, but e’s been declared legally dead. E wasn’t supposed to ever be able to come back to Hwae, but e has, with an illegally obtained false identity.”
The emissary frowned. “So e holds no citizenship anywhere? E has no legal existence as a human?”
“Basically,” agreed Ingray, ignoring Nuncle Lak’s sharp look in her direction.
Ambassador Tibanvori’s frown deepened. She was silent for a moment. Then she said, “Huh. Well. In that case, it seems to me that if this person declares emself Geck, and the Geck will have em, e can probably be Geck. Why e would ever want to is beyond me, though.”
“But there’s more to it,” said Deputy Chief Veret. “This person is currently under arrest on suspicion of murder. Of the murder of a citizen of the Omkem Federacy, in fact, and the Omkem are demanding e be turned over to them.”
“E didn’t do it!” protested Ingray. She looked at the deputy chief. “You know e didn’t do it.”
“Well that’s a relief,” said Ambassador Tibanvori. “Because if e had, and e’s Geck, that would have been a violation of the treaty. I honestly don’t see what your problem is here. Give the actual murderer to the, who are they, the Omkem? And give this other person to the Geck. Simple enough.”
“Thank you, Ambassador,” said Nuncle Lak. “You’ve been very helpful.”