Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

Kia was silent. Then it spoke. "It is true. But a child is different than a gift, a letter, or a memory. It has a life of its own. The pain of the parent is the price to achieve the child."

Joanne Nicole pushed herself to her feet. "I don’t even call it-think of it-as my child, Kia. That part of my life is history-dead!"

She felt her way toward the door of the compartment, but Kia’s words made her pause. "You wish that it were dead, Joanne. But it is not so. Your child lives."

Nicole moved into the corridor and felt her way to her compartment.

As the ship approached Amadeen, Joanne Nicole sat and stared with her sightless eyes at the forward wardroom’s unshielded viewport. She reached out her right hand and placed it upon Leonid Mitzak’s arm.

"Describe it to me, Mitzak."

He remained silent for a moment. "Joanne Nicole, it should not be so, but… I find it strange."

"What do you find strange?"

"At a certain distance Amadeen looks like Earth, Akkujah, Draco-deep blue oceans mantled with wisps and whorls of white clouds. Only now have the images of the land formations become distinct enough to tell the difference. We are facing the full light, and I can see most of the Dorado and Shorda continents. They are enormous, the Dorado filling most of the upper left quadrant and the Shorda filling most of the lower right. Between them, the Iron Channel is under clear skies."

"The strangeness?"

"It… it still seems familiar. Almost as though the land masses of the planets we know had been rearranged to fool us."

"Mitzak, can you make out the demilitarized zone?"

"No. But I can see large areas of both continents that look like deserts."

"Amadeen has no deserts."

"It does now."

Nicole removed her hand from Mitzak’s arm and, rubbed her eyes. "Have you noticed a change in Tora Soam since we learned of Heliot Vant’s death?"

"Yes. As you know from your work with the computer, the autopsy showed that Heliot had ingested a large quantity of poison-pronide. It is a human way of killing. And the poison is widely distributed among USEF soldiers."

Nicole lowered her hand to her chair’s armrest. "Tora Soam must realize that those facts point equally toward a human murderer or a Drac murderer’s frame."

"Tora Soam, I fear, needs to see no such thing." Mitzak paused for a moment. "The joining between Heliot Vant and Tora Soam obscures many things."

"Mitzak, I know, you know, Kia knows, and more than anyone else in the universe, Tora Soam knows." Nicole sighed. "More and more I feel that Lita is out there netting us with its rules-"

"-And Tora Soam is now in Lita’s net?"

"Exactly. Perhaps all of us. Which makes our positions-yours and mine-rather precarious. We are traitors to the humans, and are humans to the Dracs."

"Including Tora Soam, our only protection?"

Nicole nodded. "Yes-"

Familiar footsteps entered the compartment as the door hissed shut. It was Tora Soam. "I have been in communication with Indeva Bejuda, the acting Jetah of the Dracon Chamber’s mission to the negotiations. I have been appointed the mission’s representative to meet with a similar representative from the United States of Earth’s mission. Joanne Nicole?"

"Yes?"

"You will assist me. We are to discuss with the humans the particulars for opening again full negotiations. Leonid Mitzak?"

"Yes, Ovjetah?"

"I want you and Kia to meet with Fourth Officer Hajjis Da. Hajjis is the officer in charge of the Drac security unit on the orbiter. Hajjis has the information regarding Heliot’s death. I have already made the arrangements. You will all be issued Blades of Aydan to badge you as members of the Dracon Diplomatic Mission. Mitzak?"

"Our task, Ovjetah?"

"Find out what Hajjis knows about Heliot Vant’s murder. You must learn, as well, everything that can be known about the orbiter and every being that inhabits it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ov-"

Tora Soam abruptly turned and left the wardroom. There was a silence in the compartment until Nicole heard Mitzak turning the control that governed the wardroom’s viewscreen. "We are almost ready to dock at the orbiter."

She heard Mitzak lean forward in his chair. "What is it, Mitzak?"

"I am not certain." He leaned back. "It is a feeling."

"Describe it."

"I can see the orbiter looming out there-looking like some huge, abandoned, malevolent thing. Something asleep, but with jaws. I think I am frightened."

"Of what?"

"That the stakes in this game are higher than we imagine, and that Lita has already said, I win. "

Scant hours later, Nicole sat before a table, nervously fingering the hilt of the ceremonial dagger thrust into her waist wrap, and listened as Tora Soam introduced itself and her to the two humans negotiators. When the Ovjetah had finished, one of the humans coughed. "I compliment you on your English, Ovjetah. My name is Nikos Eklissia. The man sitting next to me is my assistant, Colonel Richard Moore.

Nicole heard Tora Soam lean back in its chair. "And, Nikos Eklissia. I also compliment you upon your command of English."

Embarrassed silence followed. Eklissia coughed, then spoke. "Our purpose here, Ovjetah-"

"All of us know our collective and individual purposes, Nikos Eklissia, state your government’s position."

Again Eklissia coughed. Nicole heard Tora Soam lean forward. "Eklissia, are you diseased?"

"No."

"Then I would ask you to stop blowing wind and saliva about the compartment and to proceed with stating your position."

"Look, Drac-"

Hurried whispering came from the human side of the table then the human spoke again. "I apologize for my nervous habit. However, Tora Soam, I can see no advantage to either of us, or our governments, in exchanging insults."

"Nikos Eklissia, our races, our worlds, our universes are in the process of preparing to continue murdering each other. Your injured sensibilities compared to the billions of dead and the future billions that will die if we do not reach an accord on the negotiations, do not interest me. State your government’s position."

"Very well. My government wants the negotiations limited to discussing the signing and implementation of the treaty accords already agreed to by Ambassador Rafiki and Ovjetah Heliot."

"No."

Another cough. "No?"

"Nikos Eklissia, circumstances have changed since that document was written. Many have died, and my friend Heliot Vant has been murdered. There will be no limits upon the subject matter of the negotiations."

"That is impossible, Tora Soam."

"You do not have the power to change your position?"

I must consult With Ambassador Rafiki, and our gov-"

Nicole heard Tora Soam stand. "Then we have nothing more to discuss. My assistant will remain to arrange a meeting for when, there is something to discuss."

Tora Soam’s footsteps marched away from the table and out of the compartment. There was a long pause, then one of the humans stood. I’ll be damned if… talk to her, Colonel, and make the arrangements."

Nicole heard Nikos Eklissia’s footsteps march from the compartment; and after a long moment, Colonel Moore’s chuckle came from the other side of the table. "Your boss likes to hang tough, Nicole."