Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

"Joanne Nicole, a composition birthed in the blood covering Amadeen would be false unless it carried the sentiments of the Front as well as the Mavedah. Your composer, Tchaikovsky, did much the same for his composition on war. He used the themes of both his nation and that of the enemy."

"What… what do you know of human music?"

There was a silence, then she heard the tidna being placed non too gently upon the stone floor. "That human, Mitzak, spoke to me something that seems to be truth. After my parent’s game, Mitzak asked me what the difference is between ignorance and stupidity. Mitzak answered his own question by telling me that ignorance is self-inflicted stupidity. I had the feeling that Mitzak was talking about all of us. Both humans and Dracs."

"Your parent’s game? Kia, you knew it to be a game? Your performance was a part you played?"

"Of course."

"Why? Why did you cooperate?"

"We live by talma-games. That, and Tora Soam is my parent. It needed my hate for the game."

"But you knew it to be a game."

"It is all games, Joanne Nicole. Everything that exists. Did you not absorb anything from listening to The Talma when you were in the Chirn Kovah?" Nicole heard the tidna being picked up then came a series of rapid scales, and combinations of scales. As abruptly as the playing began, it stopped. "I know of Tchaikovsky for the same reason that my parent knows of human behavior and the behaviors of other races. All have been studied in detail. My study was music. My parent studied life. Humans studied us before the war; did they not?"

"Yes."

"Our means of information processing, because of the outgrowths of talma, are considerably superior to yours." The strange song birthed in Kia’s experience upon Amadeen filled the room. "My parent commands all that can be known about humans; what the humans know, and more."

"The USEF Intelligence Corps-"

"A joke. You see parts of surfaces. We see depths and beyond depths."

"But still you cannot avoid war."

"We cannot avoid it, Joanne Nicole: we cannot avoid it." She listened as Kia’s Amadeen song continued, the notes becoming almost visible in her mind. And there were gaps; places where notes should have been-would have been except for the musician’s missing arm. "And that is how I shall leave it." The tidna was replaced on the floor. "Could you hear where the missing hand should have played?"

"Yes."

"The composition would be untrue to Amadeen if all of the notes were there. This song is crippled, as it must be."

Kia played for a moment, then paused. "It is strange, Joanne Nicole. In the dark like this, you are not… not a human. With the darkness of your eyes, do you see the same?"

"Yes. I see us as… beings?"

"I heard you cry out. I came to investigate."

"It was only a dream, Tora Kia. I am all right."

It was silent, then Nicole heard Kia stand and move toward her. "I too have dreams, Joanne Nicole." Tora Kia struggled with its thoughts and words. "I need… there are things… things I wish to talk about."

"Talk to your parent."

Tora Kia hissed a strangled laugh and she heard its boots moving toward the door. "Make your rest, Joanne Nicole."

"Wait." She sat up. "Why me? Why do you want to talk to me?"

The Drac spoke its words as though it were admitting to the greatest sin. "I cannot speak to them-not about war. Not about my war. My parent is always the gentle scholar. Baadek has never seen battle. You are a soldier."

"I am a human. "

"You are a human soldier." The boots moved in front of her, then she felt Tora Kia seat itself on the couch to her left. Do you not see that I have more in common with you than I have with my own race?"

The silence hung heavily in the room. "I will listen."

"It is perverse that you are the one I come to talk to. But this war is perverse." The sharp smell of happy paste assaulted her nostrils.

Tora Kia remained silent so long that she thought it might have fallen asleep. But then it spoke. "Joanne Nicole, I have moments… times when it seems that I am back in battle… smell, the noise, the screams-it is all so real!… And then… I am back in the security of my parent’s home. I fear for my mind."

Tora Kia laughed. "At the Chirn Kovah, the masters say that I cannot give birth because of my mind. That what I believe will not allow conception to take place. Soon I will be too old; the act of conception would kill me. This will end the Tora line." Then a sigh. "The paste loosens the words-and thoughts-as it dulls perception."

Just the fumes from the drug made her slightly giddy. She reached out a hand and placed it upon Kia’s arm, then moved it until her fingers felt Kia’s hand holding the tiny container of the sharp-smelling drug. Nicole touched a fingertip to it, then brought the fingertip to her tongue. It stung for an instant, then all sensation of the drug was replaced by a relaxed warmness-

-Flashes of light and metal splinters; blood, bone, and scraps of flesh; a face made out of pink goo; everything covered with mud-

In the dark, Tora Kia was a voice; a voice in pain; a voice that wanted her to understand; that might understand her. "I still see the war, Kia. Awake… and in my dreams." She was dizzy, and she gently leaned her head against Kia’s shoulder, the drug making her head swim. "I wish… I wish there was something… something we-"

The shoulder moved as Kia laughed. "There are times when I believe that Aakva still plays cruelly with its creatures."

…As though he-it-he were off in the distance, Kia began to talk about Amadeen; the horror of it.-but she saw the horror of Storm Mountain, and cried out. An arm went around her shoulders… and she buried her face in Mallik’s chest as his hand stroked her face. Strange hand; strange face.

"Joanne. You are safe, now, Joanne."

…she seemed to fall endless distances, then a softness engulfed her face. Boots walking rapidly away…

"Joanne Nicole? Joanne Nicole?"

She opened her eyes, sat up upon the couch, then let her eyes close. "Baadek?"

"Yes, it is Baadek. I have with me the human, Mitzak. Why do you sleep here?"

Nicole pressed her fingers against her temples as icepicks began stirring the syrup between her lobes. "What do you two want?"

"I came to bring you to the morning repast. Since I could not find you, I enlisted Mitzak’s help. The morning repast, and Tora Soam, still wait upon you."

She lowered her hands to her lap. "I am not very hungry. I would like to return to my apartments."

Mitzak spoke: "Major, the morning repast includes a beverage with much the same properties, if not the flavor, of coffee."

"You’re pretty smug today." Receiving no reply, she stood up and allowed the pair to bring her, first, to her apartments, and then to the dining hall. There she, Mitzak, and Zigh Caida were introduced to the host, Tora Soam. After she had been seated and had sipped from the bowl of hot liquid that had been placed in her hands, Tora Soam’s voice came from across the table.

"Joanne Nicole, what is the attraction of this medication Kia uses?"

The throbbing in her head diminishing only slightly, she answered: "I’m sure I don’t know."

"As I have, in the past, smelled the substance upon my child, I can now smell it upon you."

"I am not a habitual user, Tora Soam. Its use for me was to cause relaxation, to lower inhibition."

"For what purpose?" She ignored the question and returned her attention to the hot liquid in her bowl. "For what purpose, Joanne Nicole?" The direction of Tora Soam’s voice changed. "Mitzak, explain."

"There are different purposes. I cannot read her mind."

An edge crept into the Drac’s voice. "The crust beneath your feet is crumbling, human."