Read Online Visitor: A Foreigner Novel by C. J. Cherryh - Free Book Online
Authors: C. J. Cherryh
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but rely on Lord Geigi. He wished to invite you to dinner when you arrived, and now he can. So enjoy your stay. Help your parents. And
stay here
. Above all else, do not go about in the tunnels again. We expect to deal with this incoming ship, and for it to go away, and then we shall expect to find you a good situation.”
“Nandi,” Irene said, and Gene said it, and Artur, all with solemn nods. Bjorn looked not to have understood half of it, but he said, “Yes, sir.”
“Good,” Bren said in ship-speak; and to the parents: “I just reminded them Lord Geigi has wanted to invite all of you to dinner. He happens to be the most powerful man in theaishidi’tat next to the aiji himself, so if you ask him something, understand who it is you’re asking. If it’s reasonable, if it’s possible, he can make it happen. He’s very pleased to have you here.”
And to the children, still in ship-speak: “There’s every likelihood that you’ll get to show your parents trees and weather someday soon. Not on the mainland. But on Mospheira.”
That created a little shock.
“Your children,” he said, setting aside the cup of tea, “have an opportunity. A very great opportunity. Consider carefully the advice you give them. But remember it is
their
choice.”
He left it at that, rose, bowed to Cajeiri, bowed to the gathering, and left, having promised as much as he could, committed as little as he could, and not said a thing about how or when or how long the interval would be. No one could predict that.
Cajeiri, wise in court ways, would not venture to amplify the promise he’d just made. Cajeiri might have his own intentions, some of them stretching well into the unpredictable future. Right now, and Cajeiri well knew it, his father made the rules, and the paidhi-aiji had already made all the promises it was possible to make, and made the warning to Andressen as plain as need be.
The boy was growing. The paidhi-aiji made, this time, an important bet on it.
4
“J ase-aiji,” Banichi said as they walked the corridor of the residency, bound for their own door, “proposes to visit us. He is at the crossover now.”
Jase was at the point where he had met Gin, less than an hour ago. Gin had gone up to ship-folk territory to talk to Ogun and now Jase had come down bent on talking to him. The two movements might not be unrelated. For a certain amount of time now, Ogun would be safely occupied listening to Gin, and Jase, closely allied to second-senior Captain Sabin, had left ship-folk territory and come down to the interface to find out whether it was a good time.
“Tell him come,” Bren said, and that happened.
Jase
, being third-senior captain
and
the ship-paidhi, had a certain protected status—being the
only
way Senior Captain Ogun could translate what the atevi half of the station was doing. But on his last shift, Jase had taken high and wide action getting the children and their parents out of the quarantined Reunioner section—not consulting the senior captain, who had been off watch and presumably asleep. So Jase had presumably spent the last several hours debriefing on the action with a senior captain not entirely pleased to have the third-senior conducting a raid on an area of the station the senior captain’s orders had sealed.
The fact that they had simultaneously extracted the former Reunioner stationmaster, Louis Baynes Braddock, before he could take possession of the children and their parents andmake his own demands in negotiations with the kyo—that had solved a major problem for Senior Captain Jules Ogun.
A very large problem, a problem that might have been avoided, had Ogun dealt with the lit fuse, otherwise known as Mikas Tillington, a long time ago.
Ogun had been reasonably content in Tillington’s long stint as the human-side stationmaster: Tillington had taken care of business in which Ogun had little or no interest, while Ogun had technical emergencies on his hands. Ogun had trusted
stay here
. Above all else, do not go about in the tunnels again. We expect to deal with this incoming ship, and for it to go away, and then we shall expect to find you a good situation.”
“Nandi,” Irene said, and Gene said it, and Artur, all with solemn nods. Bjorn looked not to have understood half of it, but he said, “Yes, sir.”
“Good,” Bren said in ship-speak; and to the parents: “I just reminded them Lord Geigi has wanted to invite all of you to dinner. He happens to be the most powerful man in theaishidi’tat next to the aiji himself, so if you ask him something, understand who it is you’re asking. If it’s reasonable, if it’s possible, he can make it happen. He’s very pleased to have you here.”
And to the children, still in ship-speak: “There’s every likelihood that you’ll get to show your parents trees and weather someday soon. Not on the mainland. But on Mospheira.”
That created a little shock.
“Your children,” he said, setting aside the cup of tea, “have an opportunity. A very great opportunity. Consider carefully the advice you give them. But remember it is
their
choice.”
He left it at that, rose, bowed to Cajeiri, bowed to the gathering, and left, having promised as much as he could, committed as little as he could, and not said a thing about how or when or how long the interval would be. No one could predict that.
Cajeiri, wise in court ways, would not venture to amplify the promise he’d just made. Cajeiri might have his own intentions, some of them stretching well into the unpredictable future. Right now, and Cajeiri well knew it, his father made the rules, and the paidhi-aiji had already made all the promises it was possible to make, and made the warning to Andressen as plain as need be.
The boy was growing. The paidhi-aiji made, this time, an important bet on it.
4
“J ase-aiji,” Banichi said as they walked the corridor of the residency, bound for their own door, “proposes to visit us. He is at the crossover now.”
Jase was at the point where he had met Gin, less than an hour ago. Gin had gone up to ship-folk territory to talk to Ogun and now Jase had come down bent on talking to him. The two movements might not be unrelated. For a certain amount of time now, Ogun would be safely occupied listening to Gin, and Jase, closely allied to second-senior Captain Sabin, had left ship-folk territory and come down to the interface to find out whether it was a good time.
“Tell him come,” Bren said, and that happened.
Jase
, being third-senior captain
and
the ship-paidhi, had a certain protected status—being the
only
way Senior Captain Ogun could translate what the atevi half of the station was doing. But on his last shift, Jase had taken high and wide action getting the children and their parents out of the quarantined Reunioner section—not consulting the senior captain, who had been off watch and presumably asleep. So Jase had presumably spent the last several hours debriefing on the action with a senior captain not entirely pleased to have the third-senior conducting a raid on an area of the station the senior captain’s orders had sealed.
The fact that they had simultaneously extracted the former Reunioner stationmaster, Louis Baynes Braddock, before he could take possession of the children and their parents andmake his own demands in negotiations with the kyo—that had solved a major problem for Senior Captain Jules Ogun.
A very large problem, a problem that might have been avoided, had Ogun dealt with the lit fuse, otherwise known as Mikas Tillington, a long time ago.
Ogun had been reasonably content in Tillington’s long stint as the human-side stationmaster: Tillington had taken care of business in which Ogun had little or no interest, while Ogun had technical emergencies on his hands. Ogun had trusted
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