“Please close the door,” I said to Hickory, who was the closest to it. It did.
“Thank you,” I said, and threw up all over my shoes. Dickory was over to me immediately and caught me before I could fall completely.
“You are ill,” Hickory said.
“I’m fine,” I said, and then threw up all over Dickory. “Oh, God, Dickory,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”
Hickory came over, took me from Dickory and guided me toward the strange plumbing. It turned on a tap and water came bubbling out.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It is a sink,” Hickory said.
“You’re sure?” I asked. Hickory nodded. I leaned over and washed my face and rinsed my mouth out.
“How do you feel?” Hickory said, after I had cleaned myself off as best I could.
“I don’t think I’m going to throw up anymore, if that’s what you mean,” I said. “Even if I wanted to, there’s nothing left.”
“You vomited because you are sick,” Hickory said.
“I vomited because I just treated one of your leaders like it was my cabin boy,” I said. “That’s a new one for me, Hickory. It really is.” I looked over at Dickory, who was covered in my upchuck. “And I hope it works. Because I think if I have to do that again, my stomach might just flop right out on the table.” My insides did a flip-flop after I said that. Note to self: After having vomited, watch the overly colorful comments.
“Did you mean it?” Hickory said. “What you said to Dock?”
“Every word,” I said, and then motioned at myself. “Come on, Hickory. Look at me. You think I’d put myself through all of this if I wasn’t serious?”
“I wanted to be sure,” Hickory said.
“You can be sure,” I said.
“Zo?, we will be with you,” Hickory said. “Me and Dickory. No matter what the council decides. If you choose to stay behind after you speak to General Gau, we will stay with you.”
“Thank you, Hickory,” I said. “But you don’t have to do that.”
“We do,” Hickory said. “We would not leave you, Zo?. We have been with you for most of your life. And for all the life that we have spent conscious. With you and with your family. You have called us part of your family. You are away from that family now. You may not see them again. We would not have you be alone. We belong with you.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I said.
“Say you will let us stay with you,” Hickory said.
“Yes,” I said. “Do stay. And thank you. Thank you both.”
“You are welcome,” Hickory said.
“And now as your first official duties, find me something new to wear,” I said. “I’m starting to get really ripe. And then tell me which of those things over there is the toilet. Because now I really need to know.”
TWENTY-THREE
Something was nudging me awake. I swatted at it. “Die,” I said.
“Zo?,” Hickory said. “You have a visitor.”
I blinked up at Hickory, who was framed as a silhouette by the light coming from the corridor. “What are you talking about?” I said.
“General Gau,” Hickory said. “He is here. Now. And wishes to speak to you.”
I sat up. “You have got to be kidding me,” I said. I picked up my PDA and looked at the time.
We had arrived in Conclave space fourteen hours earlier, popping into existence a thousand klicks out from the space station that General Gau had made the administrative headquarters of the Conclave. He said he hadn’t wanted to favor one planet over another. The space station was ringed with hundreds of ships from all over Conclave space, and even more shuttles and cargo transports, going between ships and back and forth from the station. Phoenix Station, the largest human space station and so big I’ve heard that it actually affected tides on the planet Phoenix (by amounts measurable only by sensitive instruments, but still), would have fit into a corner of the Conclave HQ.
We had arrived and announced ourselves and sent an encrypted message to General Gau requesting an audience. We had been given parking coordinates and then willfully ignored. After ten hours of that, I finally went to sleep.
“You know I do not kid,” Hickory said. It walked back to the doorway and turned up the lights in my stateroom. I winced. “Now, please,” Hickory said. “Come to meet him.”
Five minutes later I was dressed in something I hoped would be presentable and walking somewhat unsteadily down the corridor. After a minute of walking I said, “Oh, crap,” and ran back to my stateroom, leaving Hickory standing in the corridor. A minute later I was back, bearing a shirt with something wrapped in it.
“What is that?” Hickory asked.
“A gift,” I said. We continued our trip through the corridor.
A minute later I was standing in a hastily arranged conference room with General Gau. He stood to one side of a table surrounded by Obin-style seats, which were not really well designed either for his physiology or mine. I stood on the other, shirt in my hand.