Paula Robinson: The Gift

Illustration by William R. Warren, Jr.

“Yecch,” the captain said.

Diplomat Max Douglas had to chuckle, but his laugh quickly dissolved into a fit of coughing. The captain was right: the Segoori were definitely unattractive by human standards. The image displayed on the computer screen resembled a squid or snail with a scaly rash.

“What’s that crud?” the captain asked.

Max sneezed. “Dead skin, basically. Their home environment is very rainy. Keeps them moist.” He mopped at his nose with a tissue.

The captain looked from the computer screen to Max. “How long will you have that, uh… what’s it called?”

“Cold. I have a cold.” Max blinked irritably. Everyone he’d seen in the past three days had asked about it, so he volunteered, “You know how the med staff circulates genetically defused viruses to keep our immune systems healthy? Well, I just happened to get the one that mutated back to its original form.”

“Will I get it?”

“No. As soon as I got sick, they fed a vaccine to everyone else.” Max blew into a tissue, hard. “ You’ll be fine.”

The captain nodded and turned to leave.

Gee, thanks for the sympathy, Max thought sourly. He was particularly annoyed that he had to be sick while dealing with the Segoori. They were known to be petulant—probably because of their own discomfort, what with their skin peeling. It seemed their interdimensional drive couldn’t operate unless the entire ship maintained certain temperature and humidity levels. The Segoori were forced to trade physical comfort for speed. This made them characteristically cranky, and that didn’t make Max any too glad. The drugs the med staff had given him made him dopey and still didn’t knock out the cold symptoms. How he was supposed to negotiate rights to four planets with all the distractions, he couldn’t say.

But negotiate he would. The Segoori ambassador, Seven Tentacles With Spots, would come on board in three hours. Tension had developed between mankind and the Segoori over a small string of habitable worlds in the third sector. The Segoori had colonized two before the human population filtered into the area, but the remaining four were claimed by both sides.

Max had been ordered to procure at least three of those worlds, but unfortunately the Segoori didn’t seem interested in sharing.

“Excuse me? Mister Douglas?”

“Mm?” He glanced at the vidphone, preoccupied.

The image of a young technician fourth class, a.k.a. janitor, appeared. “Sir, I was told to contact you for instructions. Are there any special conditions the Segoori ambassador will need? Temperature, humidity…?”

Max sniffled as he reached for the folder. “I’ll leave instructions in the computer.”

The young man nodded and disappeared.

Squinting at the folder through his bleary eyes, Max put hand to keyboard and typed. He quickly entered the data and cleared the field without so much as a glance, not seeing the typographical error in the temperature column.

“Ah- choo ,” he said.

Seven Tentacles With Spots waited impatiently in the meeting room. He wondered if the humans were seriously interested in the contested planets. Although the moisture in the room was welcome, the temperature was far too low, making his damp, dead skin hang in chilly clumps. He was tempted to refuse to negotiate at all until the climate was properly adjusted, which might never happen since asking outright was against protocol. Only the realization that the longer he delayed, the longer he would have to stay made him tolerate the discomfort.

The fact that his own ship environment was even less pleasant was irrelevant. The humans were not constrained by the requirements of an interdimensional drive. If they couldn’t be bothered with making him comfortable, then maybe he, Seven Tentacles With Spots, wouldn’t bother to please them, either.

He scratched his soggy, flaking skin and hissed. Where was this Max Douglas? Did he habitually keep his fellow diplomats waiting? Seven Tentacles With Spots had been in this unpleasant room for over seven of the humans’ minutes. He vowed to make the human diplomat sorry if he had to wait much longer. Not that he was surprised by the humans’ incompetence. What other beings would want him to grant rights to four planets without so much as a pre-negotiative gift? One did not accept something in return for nothing. If they wanted their precious planets, fine, but they’d have to come up with a particularly clever offering first.

Seven Tentacles With Spots was about to complain into the intercom when the door opened and Max Douglas appeared, holding a box of tissues.

“I beg your pardon, ” Max begged, trying—unsuccessfully—to appear dignified as he blotted his nose.

The Segoori ambassador didn’t look happy. Max wasn’t sure he could read the Segoori’s face and body language yet, but the wet patches of dead skin looked terribly uncomfortable.

Clearing his sore throat, Max concluded that the negotiations weren’t likely to be easy. “I’m—ahh,” he stammered, and had a sneezing fit.

The Segoori ambassador blinked, eye stalks rigid, and hissed.

No, Max thought, this doesn’t look good.

In the middle of the third day, Seven Tentacles With Spots demanded a recess. Max hated to grant it—he had gotten the ambassador to cede rights to only one planet—but he didn’t argue. After all, his cold was worse than ever. The low temperature in the briefing room wasn’t doing him any good. He just hoped the ambassador appreciated the adjusted climate.

He went to the nearby lavatory. The face in the mirror looked years older, with puffy eyes and a red nose. Max moaned, snatching a tissue.

He was confused that his briefing hadn’t mentioned a pre-negotiative gift. Seven Tentacles With Spots seemed offended that he hadn’t received one. Small wonder the Segoori ambassador was in such a foul mood. In addition to being physically uncomfortable, he also believed he’d been insulted.

Max went to a bench across from the faucet. Rubbing his face, he wondered what he and his fellow humans had that the Segoori would value. Seven Tentacles With Spots wasn’t apt to be easily impressed. The Segoori were well ahead of man technologically. What they didn’t have, they could synthesize, and they found mankind’s most sophisticated equipment laughable.

“Mister Douglas?”

Max looked up. The young janitor was peering in the door.

“It’s the ambassador, sir,” he stammered. “He, um… left. ”

Max groaned and rested his stuffy head in his hands.

Attempts to speak with the Segoori were met with icy silence. Exhausted, Max asked the captain to call him if anything changed, and went to his quarters to rest.

The buzz that woke him an hour later seemed to come from the ache deep in his head. Max sat up on the bed, his tongue dry from mouth-breathing, and activated the vidphone. “Yeah?”

The captain’s face appeared. “The Segoori are threatening to fire on us,” he said tersely. “Meet me in the briefing room.”

Max entered the room coughing. The captain glared disapprovingly, his gaze quickly returning to the ship-to-ship vid, where the image of Seven Tentacles With Spots loomed.

“…Obvious deliberate act of provocation,” the ambassador was saying. “I do not understand your motive for infecting me with your virus, but—”

“Infecting him?” Max blurted. He turned to the captain, eyes wide. “I thought the med staff said non-hu-mans couldn’t get our viruses!”