Second Contact (Okal Rel Saga #1)

Chapter 1.5 - The Politics Were the Hardest to Figure Out

Ann and Ranar picked up refreshments from a self-serve bar on Second Contact's promenade and sat down together at a table with morph seating that conformed to their respective preferences. Ranar talked about Gelackology's unfortunate tendency to be dramatized in shoddy synthdramas. He blamed romanticized ideas about Sevolites, in particular, for the dismissal of his work by serious-minded Reetions.

"Whereas real, ordinary, human Gelacks," he insisted, "must be what's left of Earth's population. A beta colony that explored in another direction after our jump to Earth collapsed a thousand years ago."

"I thought Earth got trashed in the collapse," Ann said, hoping to sound knowledgeable.

"We don't really know for sure," said Ranar. "In the absence of reliable observations it is impossible to know which maths apply, let alone compute the range of the space-time disturbance on the other side." He went on about the difficulties while Ann listened with her chin propped in her palms.

"I thought you were an anthropologist," she said, during a pause. "You sound more like you study space science."

"I did." He smiled, self-consciously. "When I was a boy."

Ann's chair adjusted as she straightened. "If you are saying we should be leery of poking around in Killing Reach because there might be something nasty in it — "

"No," he said with force. "I am saying it would be foolish not to make formal, diplomatic contact before informal interactions get out of hand."

"You lost me," said Ann, spreading her hands.

"Thomas is not the only one trading in Gelack artifacts," Ranar explained with the air of someone forced to explain the obvious in words of one syllable. "I authenticated other examples at commercial-economy ports outside arbiter jurisdiction, artifacts Thomas denies ever seeing before."

"Maybe he can't remember," suggested Ann. "He must have a few blank spots between the ears from flying as much as he has."

"The point is," said Ranar, "that the Killing Reach Jump is being used again. Probably by Gelacks. In fact I think Thomas may have learned about it from a Gelack. Someone like his Trinket Ring contact."

"What?"

"Have you read any of my work at all?" he asked.

"Some stuff about embroidery," she said lamely.

Ranar sighed. "The significance of the embroidery is that the work is done by hand, which is typically Gelack."

"How do you know they're not fakes someone manufactured?"

"It can be deduced with a fairly simple analysis. Do you really want the details from me, here, now?"

She scowled. "If you are so smart, how come you took up a subject as obscure as Gelackology?"

"Ah." He sat back, loosening up for the first time since she had met him, as if he was laughing at himself now. "If you really must know, I think I had a crush on Ameron, the Gelack's Ava."

"Ameron?" cried Ann. "But he's a man!"

"Is something wrong?" asked Ranar.

"No! No, I, uh — are you homosexual?" Ann asked.

"Is that a problem?" Ranar asked, puzzled.

"No. I, uh, no! Of course not." She scowled. "Do you think I'm some sort of retro nut case or something?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "You just seemed..." he lifted a hand in a gesture of uncertainty, "upset," he concluded.

"You're the genius," she told him narrowly. "You figure it out."

He did, but it took a moment. Then he said, blandly, "Oh. I'm sorry. I hope a, uh, romantic interest in me wasn't a factor in your acceptance of the mission."

"Hell, no! You think meeting sword-wielding Sevolites isn't more exciting than doing time in a group home?" Ann would have claimed a passion for embroidery to change the topic.

"Sevolites?" Ranar inquired, in a dry tone.

"Ah, well, Gelacks at least," Ann amended, slightly flustered. "With or without swords."

"Shall we continue then?" Ranar inquired, coolly.

"Yeah. Sure."

He quizzed her on the mission details for an hour. The politics were the hardest to figure out. Foreign and Alien Council was the mission initiator but Ranar, as its champion, enjoyed uneven support and neither of the mission's other two triumvirs had much clout. Lurol was on the first expansion of Human Ethics but not even Voting Citizen, and the mission's third triumvir, Jon, was a Space Service executive who happened to serve on the third expansion of the powerful Assembly of Sibling Worlds.

Ranar was anxious to connect with Liege Monitum fast, before his mandate to do so got revoked.

"The more clearly I state the obvious concerning the Killing War," Ranar complained to Ann, "the more hotly I am accused of fantasizing threats out of a synthdrama. It did not help at all that Thomas insisted on talking about swords."

"Do they really use those?" asked Ann, perking up.

Ranar closed his eyes. When he opened them, his tone was flat. "We know Gelack politics are neo-feudal," said Ranar. "Fencing might be an elite sport, or swords may be religious symbols. There are ample explanations that fall well short of dueling from horseback in hard vacuum!"

Ann blinked at his vehemence.

He exhaled with force. "I am sorry. But I am sick of people fixating on the damned swords. If the Gelacks are a threat to us, it won't be because of the swords."

"What then?"

"I don't know!" Ranar lost his temper, which upset him more than it did Ann. "If I knew," Ranar told her stiffly, "I could write it up for the record and go home." He excused himself.