Which Ingray thought sounded like a nice idea, but they began the process of choosing one—something light, something funny, something new—which turned somehow into a conversation. About Taucris’s work, about Ingray’s uncertainties in her own job, about parents and siblings, and each other, and hours later, the entertainment unchosen, Ingray and Taucris still sitting close up against each other, an empty tray on the bed with a scattering of seeds and bits of cheese, the aide came back into the room and told them that Tic and Garal had come.
“We didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” said Tic, with a barely noticeable glance at the bed they were sitting on. “I’d have sent a message but apparently I won’t get access to system messaging unless I take a job with Hwae System Defense.”
“You’re not going to take it?” Ingray asked, gesturing Tic and Garal an invitation to sit on the bed.
He sat, and Garal beside him. “What, and sign away my mechs? That’s what they want, you know.”
“You were there,” said Ingray. “You followed Garal and Ambassador Tibanvori and got back in. You put the vestiges in the mech somehow, without anyone seeing you.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” said Tic, seriously.
“Don’t look at me,” said Garal. “I certainly wouldn’t know anything about it.”
“And I’d have had to figure out how to hide from the mechs that spotted me the first time,” added Tic.
“Over Captain Utury said you were the best mech-pilot she’d ever met,” Ingray said, and with a blink sent a request for more food and serbat.
“Of course she did,” agreed Garal. “Because he is.”
“Are you safe?” asked Taucris. “I mean, I know the Geck have acknowledged you as Geck, but that doesn’t mean everything’s forgotten. Are you actually allowed to leave the Geck ship?”
“I wouldn’t say forgotten,” said Garal, with a very small smile. “But considering the ambassador herself is clearly able to come and go as she pleases, permission or not, and considering how much System Defense would like to convince the Geck to maybe sell them some mechs …” E shrugged. “Yes, I have permission to be here, and unless I do something very foolish no one will bother me.”
“So …” Tic hesitated then. “I promised I wouldn’t talk about this.” He glanced at Taucris. “The whole point of my getting involved was to avoid Ingray getting killed. Well, and doing what I could to prevent the Omkem from getting one step closer to being able to threaten Tyr. But someone did almost get killed.”
Someone did get killed, Ingray thought, and it was my fault. But Tic obviously meant Nicale. She wondered what Tic had been doing in those few seconds when the light had gone out, when she’d heard gunshots. When Nicale had been shot. “She’s going to be all right.”
“Yes,” agreed Tic. “I’m relieved. But people getting killed—that’s basically what the military is about. And I don’t want to do that. And besides, it’s the mechs that they really want. I have them locked up right now, and I’m keeping a close eye on them. I’m sure the over captain is as honest as it’s possible for an over captain to be, but I’m not taking any chances. I paid good money for my Tyr citizenship, and I’m still enjoying my shipping route. I might change my mind someday, but …” He waved away that future uncertainty.
“And the Geck?” asked Taucris. “Do you think they’re really going to leave you alone now?”
“They will,” said Garal. E pulled a cushion over from the other end of the bed and leaned eir elbow on it. “Certainly for however long the Conclave takes, and I’m sure they’re going right home after that.” Tic leaned his own elbow companionably on the same cushion.
“I read the Geck ambassador’s message,” said Tic. “And I’m … I haven’t replied. I don’t think I’m going to. I think it’s better if I don’t.” Calm and serious, as though the contents of that message had not upset him at all, which Ingray was sure had not been the case. “I’m … I almost wish she hadn’t sent it. But then again …” He hesitated. “I think it’s going to be a while before I quite know how to think about it.”
“She did send over some sea worms, though,” said Garal.
“I almost sent them back,” acknowledged Tic. “But damn, I miss sea worms.”
Ingray imagined Tic eating worms, cold and wriggling, and managed not to grimace. And was struck by the thought that when Tic wanted that feeling of being home and safe, he doubtless thought of live sea worms and room-temperature algae paste, and lukewarm, salty poick rather than fruit and cheese and serbat. “Did the ambassador send some poick, too?” she asked.
Tic gave a laugh that somehow seemed both genuine and strained. “She did. Don’t tell me you have a taste for it? I’m sure Garal can get you some if you want it.”
“I tried it.” She made a face.
“I’ve already said it’s an acquired taste,” said Garal. Tic laughed again, much less tense this time. Garal continued. “I was thinking about going to the Conclave, but I’ve decided I want some quiet and routine for a while.”
“Are you going with Captain Uisine, then?” asked Taucris. She had evinced no surprise at Tic and Garal arriving together, or sitting so close.
“With the ambassador’s permission, yes. Though I am under orders to memorize the treaty by the time the Geck ship returns to Tyr Siilas, and I have a list of restrictions I have to observe. Most of them obvious things like not breaking laws in the systems I visit. Which I wouldn’t want to anyway. And some that didn’t make much sense to me when I read them, so I assume they’re based on Geck biology.”
“They are,” Tic confirmed. “And fortunately culturing sea worms won’t break the treaty, unless we dump some in a non-Geck ocean. Which I know enough not to do to begin with.”
“You can have them all,” said Garal, equably. “Ingray, you could probably go to the Conclave if you asked. You’d have to ask very soon, but I’m sure the ambassador would let you come along.”
Go along to the Conclave! There would be aliens there—the Rrrrrr, the Presger. And, chilling thought, the artificial intelligences that had broken away from the Radch and demanded recognition as a Significant species in their own right. No matter the actual result of that conclave, it would be a historic occasion. She might well be the only Hwaean to go. She was fairly sure no Hwaeans had been at any of the others.
It would be an adventure, that was certain. And sitting here, safe, snuggled up against Taucris, she realized that, like Garal, she didn’t want any more adventures. Not for a while. “No,” she said. “I just want to go home. I want to go down to the planet, back to the house in Arsamol.” And do her job in Nuncle Lak’s office, have everything back to normal for a while. Except, having Taucris here wasn’t normal, not just yet, but that was more than all right. “It’ll be years, won’t it? I heard it will be years just for everyone to get there, and this is a complicated issue, they might be more years debating it.”