(69) Talking with Mary
The Misha Campaign (059-1122 to 062-1122)
It is late evening, after dinner with Mike. Nightshade's
crew is back in their guest quarters at Cormor Home. Even though
they've been discussing a treaty, Misha Ravanos' main object has been
to get information out of Mike. As he says, though, they've
actually got more information out of Lap'da than him. Also,
Mike's offers
have been far too restrictive to take seriously.
The idea of kidnapping Mike is still attractive,
although his interrogation would be less effective now that Grand
Admiral Baron
Bridgehead's babble juice has run out. No doubt the
Doc would at some point like to return to Faldor
to get a new
supply, and he'd have to find the local herbalist again and then
probably
impregnate her again as payment. There are other drugs he could
use, of course, but he's found nothing that is as effective. The
only person it didn't really work on properly was Jill, and she was
just plain odd.
The plan of action right now is simple: wait for
Mike to make the next move.
Early in the morning, Bridgehead calls them from Nightshade.
He says he'd finished going through Baba Yaga's bugging device
logs. There is nothing interesting, he reports -- everything is
completely consistent with what they said they were.
Soon after that, the telephone rings. The
operator has a message from Mike -- he said he's been recalled, and his
replacement will be arriving tomorrow morning.
This is met by incredulity. Kalida Siena
wonders what Lap'da said to him. Helia Sarina wonders if he's
still alive.
Apparently he left about an hour ago -- the operator
says he saw him leave on the train, but doesn't know whether Mike
actually spoke with Lap'da or not.
Helia insists he must have done something he
shouldn't have, or vice versa. Clearly he's in trouble for
something.
Misha says that they need to get in touch with
Lap'da. The only way they know to do that is to go outside and
find him, since he is presumably still around. Helia volunteers
to go out and find the elusive jann.
Misha leaves a message for Mike's replacement, that
when he arrives he's to get in contact with them. He then says
he'd like to speak to the Sheriff some time later today -- the operator
promises to leave a message.
Robert Morris says that at this point he could
probably do more if he were back on the ship. The catch, of
course, is that there is only one train a day -- it arrives in the
morning and leaves in the morning, taking a full day to complete the
journey one way.
Outside, Helia immediately finds Lap'da sitting
outside on the grass. She flies over to him and says, "I was just
going to fly around and meditate and see if I could find you.
Your timing's perfect. Could you please come in and speak to the
Captain?"
Lap'da says that he'll be right here.
Helia calls the Captain on the commdot and relays
the jann's message. Misha says he'll be there shortly.
Helia exchanges small talk with Lap'da for a short while, then the
larian flies up to the canopy and drifts around, relaxing with glides
and slow flights.
Misha, Kalida, Robert, Mich Saginaw, and Teri Cralla
go down to see Lap'da. Edward "Shark" Teeth stays in the guest
quarters to continue to question the Baron about the bugging device
logs to see if there was something there after all.
When they get into the forest, Lap'da is sitting on
the ground. Helia is lazily drifting through the air near the
canopy, apparently with her eyes closed, in a much more relaxed manner
than her usual flitting around.
Misha gets right to the point. He says, "Did
Mike come and talk to you?"
"Yes, he did," replies Lap'da.
"What did you talk about?"
"We talked briefly. It was useful. We
talked about... him, and us, and you."
"And what did you say?"
"We... clarified some points."
Kalida asks, "Did you discuss the treaty?"
"Yes. I will of course be willing to act as
arbiter of a treaty. I will even help make sure it says what you
think it says, if I can."
Misha says, "Are you aware that Mike left this
morning?"
"No. I am now."
"He message says he was recalled. Was there
anything in your conversation that might have caused him to leave, or
be recalled?"
"I don't know."
"In our earlier conversation we talked about the
three that became five, speculating perhaps that Mike represented or
was part of one of those groups. In your conversation, is there
further evidence that he is?"
"Yes. The ones who stayed behind."
"At one point in our conversation you implied that
Mike might not actually be allowed to be on this planet?"
"It is a difficult... definition."
"Did you discuss that with him?"
"Yes."
"And did he have an opinion?"
"Yes."
"Can you share that opinion with me?"
"Not quite. But we agreed he is permitted to
be here, provided he does not interfere here."
"Interfere with who or what?"
"Interfere... garga?"
"Garga?"
"Hoo'dollah. Cory... callacthlan deh."
Misha shakes his head and laughs to himself.
He continues, "Had he interfered? Has he interfered?"
"Hallakeh." Lap'da says something to Robert in
script language, something long and complicated.
As it is in scryptese, since Robert doesn't quite
get the meaning he doesn't get it at all. He can however
recognize that it's a comprehensive explanation and discussion,
summarizing what went on between Lap'da and Mike. It's way beyond
Robert's language skills.
Misha says, "Did you learn anything about the
current
nature of the ones who stayed behind?"
"Yes," says Lap'da, "And I learned that the other
war has been over for a
long time."
"The war between the native groups? Do the two
groups continue to exist as separate groups?"
"Only the one that won remains."
"The other group ceased to exist?"
"He kept very careful count and killed them all."
"Who's he?"
"The one who won."
"There was only one member of one of the factions?"
"Yes."
"One remaining?"
"No, one."
"There was always just one member of that faction."
"Yes."
"I assume this individual continues to live?"
"Probably. It is unlikely he does not."
"I take it he's not human."
"No."
"What is he? Do humans have a name for him?"
"I don't know. If you are asking, I presume
not."
Kalida says, "There are things that some humans know
that other humans do not. So some humans could have a name for
him that we don't know."
Misha says, "Do you know of any names for him that
we might know?"
"No," says Lap'da. "I do not know where he
is. He was... helped to hide. By those who went on."
"Why did he hide?"
"He wanted to."
"Did he come out of hiding to do the killing, or...?"
"He was not in hiding. He went into hiding
after the war was over."
Kalida says, "After he won, he went off and hid."
"I know very little more than that. We did not
discuss it beyond a symbol."
Misha observes that Mike was apparently a lot more
open with Lap'da than he was with them. He asks the jann, "Do you
believe he was open, or are you simply perceptive?"
Lap'da says, "When you communicate properly, it is
not possible to be not open."
"Mike communicates properly?"
"Yes."
"Ah!"
At this, Helia glides down to them and perches on a
sturdy bush.
Robert muses that this strongly suggests that Mike
came on Baba Yaga. There wasn't any sign of black
technology on that ship, but that still doesn't mean Mike didn't arrive
that way. That makes sense if this is a group that doesn't want
it to be known that black technology even exists. They could have
done some judicious upgrades to the ship, such as the security system
which gave Robert so much trouble when he hacked into it. They
may even have a stealth system and (from their threats) upgraded
weaponry. They may have a conventional jump drive and so on
just
so the energy signatures look normal -- the stealth system and
weaponry would of course need a black power source. To have
someone fill out by hand the registry forms on Digitis --
that
is very unusual.
Misha says to Lap'da, "I would like to communicate
properly."
"Absolutely," says Helia.
"How does one learn?" asks Misha.
The jann replies, "One... thinks properly.
Then one can... learn."
"How does one learn to think properly?"
"All limitations are self-imposed." Lap'da
continues, "Conceive of a whole thought. You can clear your mind
and start again."
Kalida smiles, "Just erase you and start from
scratch."
Misha laughs, "That sounds drastic."
Lap'da says seriously, "No, because the background
and the concept are separate. You do not lose the background when
you erase the concept. But it does take time."
"Mike learned to do it."
"It does help to be born that way. When you
think differently, you make physical changes. To your...
brain. Mike was born with those changes. They were not
changes, they are the... natural form."
Helia says, 'If I keep taking doses of fish oil,
will I get the changes?"
"I... do not know."
"Robert's starting to understand." She turns
to Robert. "Aren't you?"
Kalida points out that if she took that path, she
could cease to understand galanglic.
She adds, "However, Mike
doesn't have any trouble understanding both."
"No," says Lap'da slowly. "You can study...
linear thought."
Misha asks, "How does one study linear thought?"
"As one studies... anything. As you would
study the language of... birds."
Misha continues, "When you spoke to Mike, did he
speak jannish or script?"
"He spoke script. What else would he
speak? Neither of us are children."
"I was not aware that he was not a child," says
Misha calmly.
"No, he is... much older than a child."
"Is the Sheriff a child?"
"In some ways. He speaks jannish. And he
speaks galanglic. We do not... teach people script unless they
live here."
"Who is 'we'?"
"We... the janns."
"Where is here? This forest, or this world?"
Lap'da says to Robert <<reference>>.
They've already talked about the concept of here,
and Robert understands it perfectly, although explaining to these
primitives is hard for him.
Lap'da continues in jannish, "So Mike has left?"
"So we are told," replies Misha. "Apparently a
replacement is coming."
"Then you are not... the threat they feared you to
be."
"Why?" asks Helia.
"Mike was... expendable. They considered him
expendable."
Misha says, "What makes you think they won't send
another expendable?"
"He was chosen because he was the most expendable."
Kalida says brightly, "So we're moving up the chain."
Misha finishes for her, "...to less expendable
people. Because we're not dangerous." He laughs loudly and
says, "We should kill the next one just out of spite!"
Helia says, "We're not dangerous, and yet we're
important for some reason."
"Well, we're not dangerous to the representative,
that's all it says."
"Will the next person be more dangerous to us?"
Helia asks Lap'da.
"I don't know," replies the jann.
Misha asks, "Why is Mike the most expendable?"
"He's... old, and his skills... others have more
important skills."
"Like?"
"He has nothing unusual that... you do not have."
"He speaks script."
"Yes, but he is not... an engineer, he is not... a
coldada."
"Neither are we."
"Mich is an engineer."
"But he's not what you'd call a coldada."
"Shark is."
"Aha!" exclaims Misha.
Kalida laughs, "I don't know that we want to meet
with a coldada!"
Lap'da continues, "Mike will be glad to get back to
his job... his office."
Misha shrugs. He says, "Was Mike afraid that
he would be expended?"
"Of course."
"Despite the treaty?"
"He did not know that you could be trusted."
Misha nods. He says, "How old is Mike?"
"I don't know. He is older than you. He
is not as old as I am."
Misha laughs. That doesn't exactly narrow it
down much. He says, "Mike was born... without certain
limitations, to enable him to think properly. Are all those who
remained behind born without these limitations?"
"Of course. It is in the... c'callah."
"That which you pass on to your children?"
"Taurilie."
Yet again, Lap'da has refused to answer a simple yes
or no. Misha changes the subject, "So why do those who remain
behind wish to hide what we call black technology?"
"They have... differences. We have
differences."
"Who's we?"
"Mike and I. Our background and concepts are
different."
Robert points out that means they're not speaking
the same. He explains to Misha, "In a language full of
references, if you don't have
the same reference base, how do you talk?"
Misha doesn't understand how that answers his
question. He says, "Why do the ones who remain behind want to
keep hidden black technology. And the answer is...?"
Kalida says, "Because we're different." She
pauses, then continues to Lap'da, "So you do not wish to hide black
technology?"
"We do not have it," replies Lap'da.
Mich asks, "Do you want it?"
"No."
Misha says, "What difference causes them to want to
hide it?"
"They wish to be in control, and yet they are...
afraid. They do not understand, and when there is not
understanding, concepts are different and backgrounds are uncertain."
Kalida asks, "Are you saying they don't completely
understand black technology?"
"No. But no-one completely understands
anything."
Helia takes off into the air again, but stays close
enough to keep listening.
Misha starts trying harder to get the answer he
wants out of Lap'da. He says, "Perhaps what you should have asked
is whether it is black technology that Mike doesn't understand.
What I meant to ask was more like, is the thing that Mike doesn't
understand, black technology? Is the lack of understanding that
causes him to be afraid, is that a lack of understanding of black
technology?"
"No," says Lap'da.
"Is it a lack of understanding of the purpose of
black technology?"
"No. He is afraid he does understand."
"But he doesn't."
"We have different concepts and background."
Kalida says, "Our concepts and background are even
more different."
Misha laughs, "Oh yes. That's clear. Not
much else is as clear as that!" He then continues, "Does Mike
know about the treaty?"
Lap'da says, "The Treaty of Versailles? Yes."
"Is Mike's understanding of the treaty relatively
close to yours?"
"Our understandings have converged somewhat, after
our conversation."
"Was Mike's understanding of the treaty fairly close
to your understanding of... This is too complicated!" Misha
laughs, then continues, "The Treaty of Versailles, was it written down?"
"Yes."
"But it was probably written in script, or something
similar."
"Yes."
"Did all parties to the Treaty of Versailles think
'properly'?"
"No, but we could teach them. To understand
the language."
"Can you teach us to understand the language?"
"I don't know."
"What information do you lack?"
"I do not... know what will happen."
Robert idly wonders if he should drink more klatrin,
and then after he forgets galanglic he could learn to speak it again
afterwards...
It's pretty clear there is nothing more they can get
from Lap'da at this time. They all -- including Helia -- return
to the guest quarters to wait.
Later that afternoon, as requested, the Sheriff
visits them. They exchange pleasantries, and then Misha comes to
the point. He asks what the Sheriff gets out of these meetings.
Erwin Hedaker, Sheriff of Cormor, replies,
"Nothing. I don't want to know anything about them."
"Why did you agree to host them?" asks Nightshade's
captain.
"It seemed like it would be a good neutral ground...
and you are my friends."
"And your relationship with the other party...?"
"I have a business relationship with them."
Helia interjects, "But we're your friends?"
"Yes. I consider you my friends -- I hope that
is not too presumptuous."
Misha assures him it is not. He continues,
"Could you tell me the nature of your business with them?"
"We have a fairly open business relationship.
They buy some goods from me. I get some things from them."
Misha nods and asks him if he could be more
specific. The Sheriff declines. Misha continues, "Are you
aware that Mike, the previous representative of the other party, has
left?"
"Yes. I was surprised. I had expected
that you all would come to some conclusion, and make some announcement
or have some celebration or something. I have noticed you tend to
celebrate things. It seemed like you didn't expect him to
leave."
Misha confirms that.
Robert adds, "We were still in negotiations."
"I sure he has his reasons," says the Sheriff.
Misha asks if he was aware that a replacement is
coming.
"No, I wasn't, but that's probably a good
thing." Erwin adds, "The replacement will still be bound by the
same rules."
Misha smiles, "That was the next thing I wanted to
clarify. Well, I thank you again for your information,
hospitality, and friendship."
"You're welcome. Glad I could help. If
there is anything I can do, do not hesitate."
"Oh, wait, one more thing. How did you learn
jannish?"
"It's the language we speak here."
"The only language you speak here?"
"A lot of people speak galanglic, but everybody
speaks jannish."
Helia asks, "So how would we learn it?"
"You could go to school, or learn it from
books. You could probably get private lessons in Center."
"Could somebody come out here to work with us?"
"Certainly, if you want. Is the translator not
working properly?"
"It's not a translation problem, a knowledge
issue. Just learning, you know." The larian smiles sweetly.
The Sheriff leaves.
As the sun rises over the forest canopy, Mike's
replacement arrives on the train from Center. She sends a message
that she'd like to visit them in about an hour.
An hour later, a middle-aged woman shows up at their
guest quarters. She's wearing nondescript grey sweat clothes.
Misha introduces himself. The woman introduces
herself as Mary, and accepts Misha's offer of a drink. Kalida
busies herself at the lounge bar making the martini Mary requests --
and actually does a fine job of it, including the obligatory
olive. Helia also gets one of Kalida's martinis. Mary
doesn't react to Helia's young appearance.
Misha starts, "When Mike arrived -- your predecessor
-- he had a list of demands."
"Yes," replies Mary pleasantly. "That seemed
reasonable at the time. I'd say that over the course of the
negotiations, the picture's changed a bit, wouldn't you?"
"The picture has indeed changed. So are you
aware of the negotiations?"
"Yes, I've been following it."
"So, do you have more to offer than Mike?"
"Things seem to have changed a lot. We didn't
know who you were, obviously. So, you're willing to go into a
contract?"
"We're willing to discuss going into a contract."
"OK, good. When he talked to Mike, Lap'da said
he'll help arbitrate it and set it up. That works for you?"
Helia says, "Mike was rather forceful."
"In what way?"
"He said he was going to kill us."
"Well, yes, we were."
"Past tense," observes Helia.
"Possibly," says Mary, "We can't guarantee that just
yet. I mean, the order's still there that if you leave orbit, we
blow you up. But I'm confident we can come to an agreement which
results in that not happening."
Misha says, "So, you know us better now?"
"Yeah, I'd say so. You don't seem like a bunch
of yahoos."
"You don't know us very well," smiles Misha.
"But that aside, we don't know you very well."
"That's intentional. You're not supposed
to. It would be a bit upsetting if you did at this point."
"But you see how that... restricts our ability to
negotiate."
"Yes, absolutely! I quite understand.
But I hope you also understand that there's very little point in a
secret organization if you tell everybody about it. Wouldn't be
much of a secret then, would it?"
"I think it's one of the best kept secrets," says
Misha mysteriously.
"So," continues Mary, "You have the ship."
"Yes, we have a ship. What do you have?"
"We have a few ships."
"Why?"
"In case we need them."
"Who created this 'in case'? Who decided there
might be a need for these ships?"
"Well, duh, you know, we might need the ships.
Like, to come here, for example."
Mich says, "But you can come here without one of
those ships."
"Only recently. Relatively recently."
MIsha says, "Recent in my frame of reference, or
Lap'da's?"
"Oh, no. Lap'da's frame of reference."
Mich says, "So you don't need them anymore, then."
"We do. For one thing, they're an awful lot
more comfortable than anything else, and they're really..."
"They're black," says Misha.
"Well, yes. But we didn't actually decide
that." Mary pauses, then says, "We don't actually use the ships
very much."
Mich asks, "Did you use one to come here?"
"Yes," says Mary. "Of course. We didn't
know quite what we'd be facing, except it was likely you had one of the
ships. Either that, or one of the enemy's ships, because you
detected the relay station out in far orbit."
"Is the relay station one of the enemy's ships?"
"No. We set that up."
"But Mike's already said that your ships can be
detected without one of these or the enemy's."
"Well, probably. We don't know. But it's
most likely that for something out in space, you detected it with a
ship."
"On some of the agreements we were discussing with
Mike, there were concerns about taking the ship anywhere -- even under
stealth -- because it could be detected. Now you've already
stated that it couldn't be detected."
"That's not strictly true," says Mary. "The
ways of detecting it don't have to be mounted on a ship, but if you're
detecting a relay station out there, and actually visited the thing,
you probably had a ship."
"We haven't confirmed or denied that we visited the
relay station."
"Well, you said you were on Nightshade, come
find you. Oddly enough, that's the ship you've registered in
port. There was also a record of Nightshade visiting
couple of other places too, corresponding with reasonable travel times
-- it wasn't that much of a stretch."
Misha says, "So you believe that the ship we call Nightshade
is either one of your ships..."
"No, we know it's one of our ships," Mary
interrupts, "But before we came here, we weren't certain."
Helia asks, "What do you mean, it's your ship?
Are you saying that you own our ship?"
"No, I'm saying that I came here in a ship that from
the outside looks very much like yours."
"Oh, so you're saying we own a ship like yours."
"Yes."
"You do not own it or make any claim to it."
"I wouldn't say we didn't make any claim to it, but
it's pretty clear that at the moment you own it, by any definition of
law. I presume you didn't steal it from somebody."
"Thank you," says Helia, "And no, we didn't steal
it. We salvaged it."
"Well there you go," says Mary pleasantly.
"Salvage law is pretty clear."
"So we can leave orbit in our rightfully
possessed..."
Mary interrupts her quickly, "No, I didn't say that
we wouldn't try to take it by force, that's a different matter, but
it's clearly your ship."
"Why would you want to take our ship?"
"If you're going to go around spreading technology
everywhere, we really don't want that."
Helia seems quite offended at the thought. She
says, "We don't spread technology, we just use the ship as a
ship. It's what it's supposed to be."
"Yes, but I'd like a solid agreement that you don't
spread the technology. Don't do it. We need that to make us
comfortable."
Helia says loudly, "So if we agree that we're only
going to fly around the ship, and not going to give the stuff from
inside to anybody, then we can go."
"We need to do it in writing. I need some
conditions, and I'm sure you do too."
"What extra conditions do you need, other than
allowing us to fly around?"
"It's more a matter of definitions: what constitutes
'you,' what constitutes..."
Kalida says, "So to make sure we're using the same
backgrounds and concepts."
"Yes, exactly."
Helia continues, "So there'll be no restriction of
trade, restriction of places we can go, or anything like that?
I'm guessing you already have something written down, or close to it."
"Actually, it's fairly simple, but..."
"Why don't you go and get your stuff together, and
we'll have a late lunch, and you can give us a preliminary version?"
"Well, I think we need to talk a bit first, before
we get into too much detail. Let's at least make sure we're not
going to waste our time."
"Can I be the only pilot allowed to fly it?" adds
Helia.
"If you want that -- if for some reason you want
that as part of your conditions, I don't see why not. I mean, you
adding conditions that restrict yourselves -- go ahead, be my
guest!" Mary laughs loudly.
Helia smiles brightly, "No, I was just kind of
teasing you then."
"OK." Mary pauses to look around the assembled
faces, then says, "How much history do you know?"
The crew respond with a torrent of snappy come-backs.
"No," says Mary, "I need to know what you know."
Robert is actually fairly helpful. He says,
"There were five parties who entered into an agreement. There
were three, and then they became four, and then five..."
Helia asks, "What history are you looking for?
History of what?"
"Of the ship, say, and the various people... what
this gentleman was talking about." Mary indicates Robert.
Misha says, "What was this gentleman talking about?"
Mary snaps, "Don't play me like I'm Mike!"
"After all, Mike was expendable," says Misha.
"Mike is a pencil pusher. He sits behind a
desk."
"And what are you?"
"I'm capable of making decisions around here."
"Are you expendable?"
"No, not really. At least I would really be
upset about it, and probably so would everybody else."
Helia asks, "If Mike is a pencil pusher, then why
did he come threatening our death?"
"Because those were the initial conditions that
seemed reasonable."
"You send pencil pushers? Not trained
assassins?" The larian sounds incredulous.
"He's the oldest guy we've got, OK? We went by
age."
"How old is he?"
"Old enough. Older than I am."
"How old are you?"
"Never ask a lady her age."
"OK. So you're a girl. How old are you?"
Mary laughs. She says, "No, no. I'm not
answering that. How old do I look? OK, you don't have to
answer that either." She continues, "So I'm not here to play
games and mess about. I'm hoping to come out of this with a nice
agreement that lets you fly around and at the same time protects us."
"From?"
"From you spreading the technology -- I know, you
said you wouldn't do that. And... it would be really nice if we
could cooperate some, too. For example, you've come across places
that know about these ships. We'd really like to take those leads
and maybe follow them up."
"What would happen to the people on those planets?"
"What planets?"
"The ones that might know about the technology."
"We'll... see what we can do. We certainly
don't intend to go around blowing everything up."
Mich says, "Like you did on Pimane, or
on..."
"We didn't hurt anybody on Pimane. We
did blow things up."
Helia nods, "They were already gone."
Mich persists, "And everybody on the Navy ship."
Mary explains, "Oh, no, they're fine. We have
the Navy ship, the one with Anastasia on board."
Helia says, "Oh, that Navy ship. I don't care
about no Anastasia."
"Well, you're welcome to visit her sometime if you
want, assuming we get all this worked out."
Mich says, "Did you say you didn't want
to go around blowing things up and hurting people?"
"In general. Like any secret organization
there are a few specific exceptions, but we don't go around..."
"Professor Farol?"
Mary concedes the point grudgingly. "Yeah,
Farol, Fostriades..."
Helia says, "I want to know who was killed when you
blew up the Professor."
"Those at the base, and those in orbit."
"I want names, exactly."
"I don't know. I don't know who was
there. It was a research base that was implementing elements of
black technology."
"Isn't that OK as long as they're discovering it on
their own?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Well, there's a couple of points. The first
is that we want to be in control, and we sure as heck don't trust, say,
the Imperium
with that technology."
"There was a ten year old child on that base."
"I'm sorry, I really am."
Kalida says, "You realize that the cat never really
goes back into the bag."
"Right. However, at the moment the Imperium is
just looking at a rather degraded photo of a bag. They're not
even sure it's a bag yet, even, probably, so if at this point it turns
out not to be a photo of a bag as far as they're concerned, then that's
all fine."
Misha asks, "What do you call black technology?"
"It depends what it is."
Robert says, "We've been calling it black technology
because there's an Imperium file that we found that gave it that name."
"That's a reasonable name," says Mary. "We
don't have a name for our technology, you know?"
Helia says, "Is it your technology that you
invented, or is it your technology that you seem to have inherited or
otherwise found?"
"Our people invented it."
"When was the last time anybody knew how it really
worked?"
"We've got people who know how it really
works. You've met Jane. Jane knows how it works."
Kalida asks, "Has it been advanced appreciably in
recent memory?"
Misha interrupts before Mary can answer. He
says, "Is Jane one of your people?"
"Yes," says Mary, "Jane is one of our people."
"Jane?" asks Helia, "The one from Anastasia?"
Mary looks puzzled. "No, Jane that Mich met
here."
Mich tells Helia she's thinking of Jill, not Jane.
Misha continues, "How old is Jane? Is she
older than you?"
Mary still declines to answer any age-related
questions. She does however admit that Jane is younger than she
is, but tells them to stop asking her how old everybody is. She
returns to a previous subject: "So, yes, we understand the
technology. We know how it works. We know how to build
it. Of course you have to have the technology to build it in the
first place."
Kalida says, "So you regularly build new ones?"
"No, we don't. We don't need to."
Helia says, "But you could?"
"Yes, we could. We are restricted by our
charter to operating three ships -- three specific ships. We can
replace one with one of the same if it's destroyed, but that's it."
Misha asks, "Does the enemy still exist."
"We haven't have the slightest idea. They went
that way." Mary gestures to space.
Helia asks, "So what's the history of this
ship? Ours."
"It's probably one that was left around this area."
Misha says, "What else do you know about the enemy?"
"Not much. We caught up with them here, fought
a big battle -- a series of running battles -- they got mixed up in the
war that was going on here. We both took losses, they went on,
and we chased them again. That is, most of us went on."
"Do you remember that time?"
"Gosh, no, I'm not that old. Lap'da isn't that
old. This was ages ago."
Helia asks, "How many Digitis years ago?"
"1200." Mary's answer matches with what Lap'da
told them.
Misha asks, "What do you know about the other two
warring factions?"
"One of them won. The other one lost."
"What happened to the one that won?"
"He hid somewhere."
Helia says slowly, "The winner gets to go and hide?"
"He had his own reasons. I don't pretend to
understand them. He wasn't human, you know?"
Misha asks, "What do you call yourselves?"
Mary says, 'We call ourselves The Society. I
believe Mike already said that."
"Did The Society help the winner of the local war?"
"No, we were neutral. That was part of what we
were doing -- staying out of their war. We were the lesser of
evils. Once the enemy had wasted the locals' homeworld it was
clear they weren't friendly. We didn't blow up other people's
homeworlds just because we got caught in a small crossfire."
"Why do you want to keep things secret?"
"First of all, we don't know if anyone from the
enemy is still hanging around here too. We don't know if they're
going to send off a message to come back and get us. That's why
we're worried about your ship flying around everywhere -- what if
there's an agent of the enemy out there who sees it and calls in a
fleet to destroy it?"
Kalida says, "On the other hand, if you disseminated
that knowledge and everyone had it, then it wouldn't really matter."
"Then they might come back and destroy us all."
"The entire... everybody."
"I wouldn't count it out."
Misha asks, "What happened to those who went on?"
"I haven't the slightest idea."
"You don't know what happened to the enemy, you
don't know what happened to the friendlies."
"No. We have had no contact. Now, you
talked about some place that recognized a black ship. Somebody
may have come back and visited briefly, and for reasons unknown to us
not talked to us." She laughs, "Perhaps we're too secret and they
couldn't find us!"
Helia says, "They were expecting visitors."
Mary continues, "Or maybe there's rogue agents out
there."
Misha says, "Rogue agents of the The Society?
So what's The Society's relationship to Lap'da and his...?"
"We started out the same. Now we don't have
anything to do with them. They're a bunch of peace loving
hippies. They go off, live in the woods, living off nuts and
berries, you know...? I mean, they don't contribute anything."
"So, what conditions would you need to impose?"
"That you, your crew, anyone who comes aboard,
anyone who learns the technology, anyone you bring in as a member of
your group, doesn't tell anyone anything about technology, the history,
or about us."
"All right. With some clarification, that
doesn't sound too awful. What else?"
"There's the problem of... hm. Now, Lap'da
presented the point of view that since the enemy hasn't come back, the
chances are there isn't anybody here who's going to call them
back. Our position is better safe than sorry. Somewhere in
the middle there we can probably find something... I'm ready to yield
on some of that."
"To what degree?"
"Can you convince me?"
"Of what?"
"Not even convince me, just..."
Robert breaks in, "Would you like to know whether
the enemy is out there?"
"I'd love it."
"So if we would be your advance scout, to attract
the enemy, by us just flying around -- we'd be the ones who'd be in
danger."
"That's not necessarily true. They may not
just come after you, they may just keep destroying things until they
find what they're after."
Misha continues, "So what other conditions?"
"Work with us, not against us?"
"How are we working against you now? We didn't
know you exist."
"Now you know of us, it'd be really nice to be on
the same side."
"It's tough to be on the side of somebody you don't
know."
"You'll know enough at that point to work with us."
"So what else?"
"Of course, you can't interfere here. Hurt
anything here."
Helia says, "Have we ever? Why would you
expect us to?"
"No, I wouldn't expect it in the slightest."
Misha says, "Where's 'here'?"
"'Here' as in the treaty."
Helia says, "How about we add a clause that you
don't interfere with any of our homeworlds?"
"That'll have to be slightly complicated, but we can
work on it."
"Why complicated? Any of the homeworlds of
anyone that is on the team now."
"What if some opposing organization sets up there?"
"Then you'd contact us and we'd work with you to
make any alternative arrangements before that would even be considered."
"How about this: we won't interfere with any of your
homeworlds -- and you'll pick specific ones -- if they're not major
Imperial worlds. If you're from Mora, for
example, we can't not
operate there."
Helia says, "I'd like to make this agreement without
naming my homeworld."
Kalida says, "Kind of hard to ask them not to
interfere with something they don't know."
"Let's just put it this way," continues the larian,
"It would be very obvious it would be my homeworld."
"Doesn't matter." says Mary, "We need to know."
"I can't give you coordinates."
Robert corrects her, "You won't give her
coordinates."
Helia insists, "No. Can't give her
coordinates."
Mary says, "You can tell us what the world's called,
where it is. Otherwise we can't do it."
"No." Helia will not budge on this point.
Misha suggests, "Just make the contract that you
don't interfere on any world which has a population like Helia."
Helia agrees. "The indigenous population would
look like me. It would be extraordinarily obvious, and only a
true idiot -- which none of your people are -- would fail to know that."
Misha laughs, "Mike is."
"Even Mike would be able to recognize a planet where
the indigenous people were a meter tall with wings."
Mary says, "There's only one place? If there's
only one place where you're indigenous, we can work on that."
Helia says, 'I'll give you one phrase. If you
use it on the planet, then you'll be taken to the leadership."
Mary nods. "We can work on that," she
says. "We're the good guys, you know?"
Helia says sarcastically, "The good guys threaten to
kill us, and then say they're the good guys."
Kalida says, "Usually the ones who threaten us are
the bad guys."
"So how do we know for sure you're the good
guys? Except Lap'da likes you guys."
Mary says, "Well, there you go."
Kalida adds, "Lap'da's frame of reference is a
little different from ours."
Misha says, "So what would we get from cooperation?"
Mich laughs, "We don't die."
Mary smiles, "Well, that, yes. But also we'd
be working with you instead of against you. That would work both
ways."
Helia says, "Have you been working against us?
Aside from trying to kill us."
Mich reminds them that Jane sabotaged their ship,
thus trying to kill them all. He then adds that the business of
the TNS
report of their deaths was someone else's doing, so "There are
two groups trying to kill us."
"At least two groups," says Kalida.
Mary says, "We'd really like to know who these
others are."
Kalida says, "So if we came out of this with this
agreement, we'd be allies, you'd help us track them down."
"Yes. If you give us good solid leads and
investigation, given that... there's obviously not a whole lot of us,
but we're willing to go to quite some lengths to get things done.
We'll follow up on them. If you can find out who's trying to kill
you..."
Helia turns to Misha and says, "I'm confused.
The people who gave us the box, they're the ones we want them to go
after?" Misha nods, and Helia says to Mary, "The people who gave
us
the box, they're the ones who wanted us dead."
Robert says, "We had thought from the evidence we'd
already gathered, as we told Mike, it was Wonstar. But you have
no knowledge of Wonstar."
Helia says, "You should do business with them.
It might be the quickest way to get in touch with them -- use their
front. They may not be the big enemy, but they're certainly a
local one."
Mary says, "Any layers, any names, any things you
can point us towards..."
Misha says, "So, we want our lives taken off the
negotiating table."
"In what way?"
"You said that one of the things we would get out of
such an agreement would be our lives. We don't want that involved
at all. We want our lives no matter what."
"It's hard in our position to do that without an
agreement first..."
"But you understand how hard it is for us to
negotiate in good faith given that our lives are on the line."
"Yes, but you understand that if I say, 'Yes we
won't kill you,' and you walk off right now and show everybody the ship
and how it works...?"
Helia suggests, "Why don't we just make a good faith
agreement here that we will bargain in good faith, and that won't be a
problem. A handshake agreement on that point."
"Yes," says Mary.
"No," says Misha, "I want the offing to be off the
table. If we have to negotiate under the threat of death, we're
not going to negotiate."
Mich agrees, "Basically you're saying that if we
don't reach an agreement we will be killed, therefore..."
"Right," says Misha. "And I can drive it home
even clearer:
if it's not taken off the table, and if we manage to survive, we will
tell everybody."
Mary says, "Now that's a threat the other way.
But you're counting very heavily there on surviving, which is unlikely."
"And you're counting very heavily on our ability not
to tell anybody."
"No. We're hoping we can get you before you
did, if you were going to. I think you probably could get the
word out if you were lucky -- and already I know you're devious."
She
ponders for a moment, then says, "Our goal is that you should not be
our enemies."
Helia says, "Then in a move of good faith..."
"I can't promise that we aren't going to kill you,
because I don't know what you're going to do."
"That's where the trust comes in."
Misha says, "I'm not asking at this point for a
promise you won't kill us, I'm asking that our lives be taken off the
negotiating table."
Mary asks, "What's the difference?"
"Right now we're under the threat of death if we
don't complete negotiations. You have to be willing to let us
live even if negotiations broke down."
Robert laughs, "They already said that. We can
live here."
"We have to be able to leave the planet," says
Misha, "Even if negotiations break down."
Mich says, "We can leave the planet if we never tell
anybody about the technology."
"Yes!" says Helia. "At the very least we will
never tell anybody."
Misha says, "Even if we come to no agreement, our
lives aren't at stake. We each go home with what we had when we
came to this."
Mary says, "And then we decide that you're... I
mean, this makes no sense."
"It makes as much sense as requiring that we reach
an agreement."
"If you don't try to spread the technology, we have
no reason to kill you. And we have no intention of doing so."
Helia says, "So we could leave here today, fly off,
and as long as we happily keep our mouths shut and say we salvaged the
ship, we don't know how it works, everybody's happy."
"...and no, you can't come on board, that's fine."
"And if anybody joins our crew we make sure they're
sworn to secrecy as well."
"OK. So if we agree to those conditions, and
you agree not to kill us, we could leave here now and no other
agreement needs to be made. And while we would not necessarily be
allies, we would not be enemies." She turns to Misha, "Sir, is
that what you're looking for?"
"No!" shouts Misha. "All we get out of this is
our lives!"
"No, we get the freedom to fly around and... yeah,
you're right."
Misha asks Mary, "What do we get for keeping
quiet?" Everyone nods their support for their captain.
Mary pauses, then says, "You get some enhancements
to your ship's systems."
Helia says, "Last time somebody wanted to enhance
our ship's systems they put a bomb on it."
"No, these will not be harmful, they will be exactly
the same enhancements as on ours. Not everything -- you'll get
improved
stealth mode and ability to detect it; improved sensors; improved
communications. They are just refinements -- the ship is already
really
close to physical limits. What we won't do on just that basis is
anything to improve your offensive or defensive systems."
Helia asks, "Do you understand the language that the
ship wants to use?"
"Well, duh."
"I want all of us to have quick training in the
language."
"There is no quick training. We could do some
artificial brainwiping and memory placement -- we could artificially
implant the knowledge, maybe, but it wouldn't last and there'd be side
effects."
"Your technology is not up to that."
"No. I'm afraid there really is no solution
other than hard work."
Misha says, "I think that's something we can work
on. We agree to keep quiet, in exchange for some improvements to
our ship."
Mary agrees, "You agree to keep the technology a
secret, and we enhance your ship."
"That's a start."
"If you want to get our two ships together, we can
have Jane come over and start making the modifications whenever you
want. We can't do everything here, but we can do a lot of it."
"Let's agree to meet back here in a month, and do
that."
Mary nods, "OK. Some modifications would have
to be done at our facilities, which are not here."
Mich says, "Should we meet there instead?"
"No," says Misha, "My intent is that we meet back
here, we sign the agreement, and then we do whatever needs to be done
to make the modifications. You understand my intent is to leave
here for a month?"
"Yes," says Mary. "In that month, in good
faith, you aren't going to spread the technology, and we in good faith
are going to set up things to improve your ship, and to negotiate with
you."
"That's good," says Misha.
"So we'll specify an exact date, in Imperial dating."
Helia says, "Let's make it 31-32 days from
now." She doesn't mention that she plans to spend the time at
some resort for a vacation.
Mary says, "OK. Let's say meet here, at Cormor
Home, on 094-1122. We'll park our ship in First City, and you do
the same."
All agree.
Robert adds, "Do you know anything about the Baba
Yaga?"
Mary smiles, "Do we get something from you if I tell
you?"
"Sure," says Misha.
"OK. Baba Yaga is ours. It's a
field operative ship. The crew are our employees, but only the
captain of the ship is actually a Member."
Helia says, "I think the Admiral would be more than
happy to meet with one of the crew members again."
Misha says, "So the purported owner is just a front?"
"Yes," says Mary. "His job is to have fun,
wherever the ship takes him."
"Can I get a job like that?" says Helia.
Misha replies, "Don't you already have a job like
that? I thought I paid you well!" He then turns to Mary and
says, "What do you want in return?"
Mary says, "What actually happened when Third Eye
was supposed to be destroyed, when you were supposed to have all died?"
Mich says, "We were given something to protect our
zuchai crystal
array from radiation that a star was giving off as we
were jumping into a Red
Zone."
"That would be Zett, as
reported?"
Mich nods. He says, "Yes. We were doing
research for this
group. We came out of jump successfully, and the very next day
the device that was supposed to protect our zuchai array
exploded. We came out of jump after six days instead of seven,
and it was a fraction of a second before we would have come out of jump
that the bomb went off. We were able to land and repair
everything. When we came back after repairing it, to report what
had happened to us, we were attacked by a Navy ship."
"Imperial Navy?"
"Yes."
"Wonder what it was doing there. Where was
that?"
"Ferle."
"Thank you. So you didn't actually fake your
death deliberately, but it worked out that way."
"We thought it would be best that we remained dead,
so that they didn't try again."
Helia adds, "Let's just say that in defending
ourselves we destroyed one ship, and we thought it best to look like we
were all on it."
Mary says, "Hang on... you were attacked by an
Imperial Navy ship. What happened?"
Misha says, "We won that battle."
Mich says, "Although the Third Eye was
damaged beyond repair."
Helia looks Mary directly in the eye and says,
"Superior firepower. And reflexes."
Mary accepts that. "Well, well done.
Thank you." She sighs. "I guess I'll get back to my ship
now -- well, tomorrow morning -- and meet you back here on 094."
Helia says brightly, "Hot tub party? Suit's in
there... or not, if you prefer."
Kalida adds, "And whisky!"
Mary accepts their invitation. She turns out
to
be quite the life of the party, and -- socially anyway -- fits right in
with Nightshade's
crew. Perhaps they aren't quite so different after all...
After Mary has finally left, well into the
afternoon, the conversation turns once again to the Wonstar Development
Corporation and Professor Farol. Mich starts it off out of the
blue by saying, "Farol didn't know about Wonstar."
Helia says, "I think Wonstar got in under their
radar, because Wonstar isn't the enemy they're looking for. I
think these guys are very focussed, there's one enemy. They
weren't considering the fact that there might be somebody who's at a
much, much lower level of technology -- in other words, an Imperial
level group -- that has seen and lusted after black technology.
It didn't cross their mind that those people could be dangerous.
It only crossed their mind that the enemy could be dangerous, because I
think they're a little bit arrogant that way."
Misha says, "I was just marveling that they found
out about Farol and dealt with him, but they didn't know about
Wonstar. But if even Farol didn't know about Wonstar, then..."
Mich nods, "Farol didn't know about Wonstar."
Helia says, "I think they just sniff out the
technology. I think the whole intrigue thing doesn't bother them
unless somebody puts it in their face like we did. I think
Wonstar is in a lot of trouble right now, because it's not hard to
track it down."
Mich reminisces, "Because Farol had designed it, and
put Anastasia together thirty years ago, and they didn't go
after him then. Now it was only flying for a year or so before a
software problem killed off all the crew."
Misha says, "So the overlapping technology was not
active until recently."
"...and Farol thought that technology was a dead
end, because that ship had disappeared. It wasn't until the last
five years or so..."
"He didn't work on it after Anastasia
disappeared."
"No. Well, after Anastasia was
recovered, he started working on it again."
"So even though it was twenty-five years ago, it
really wasn't twenty-five years, it was a few years and then nothing."
"But now it's interesting that the other ship that
Farol put together, that someone -- Jill -- tried to sabotage both, and
succeeded in the case of that other ship."
"What was the other ship?"
"Hm. Wonder if Jill...? Well, that's
interesting. There's a link between these people, jannish, and
Jill. As I remember when we picked them up..."
Misha interrupts, "As I remember, the people from
The Society never called themselves jannish."
"Well, the people themselves are long lived, right?"
"Right. They're all the same race of people,
just not..."
"When we picked up Jack and Jill, who we thought we
were picking up should have been much older than the people we did pick
up. That was never quite explained, why they were as young as
they were. It wasn't inconceivable, but it was unusual."
Misha smiles and nods knowingly.
Perhaps the whisky has clouded Mich's mind -- he
doesn't mention that
they later found out from Jack the Younger that Jill had to have been
an impostor.