Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

"Damn!"

She withdrew her hand and sucked on her right forefinger, tasting blood. Carefully reaching back, her fingers felt that the plastic work surface was nicked and scratched. She found the sharp edge of the nick that had scratched her finger, felt around it, and placed her hand upon the control to the link.

She paused as an uneasy feeling swept across her mind. It was as though the last ingredient for a complicated recipe had been acquired-the final piece of an unassembled puzzle had appeared.

What recipe? What puzzle?

She pushed the feeling from her mind as she keyed the link. "Dracon Mission communications," the link answered. "How may I serve you?"

"I wish to speak with the USE Mission communications operator."

A pause. "And your name?"

"Joanne Nicole. I belong to Ovjetah Tora Soam’s party." As long as you’re going to drop a name-

"USE operator," answered a human voice.

"I would like to speak with Colonel Richard Moore. Can you tell me if he is accepting calls?"

"Wait one."

The click of a connection, a hum. then a voice. "Moore."

"Colonel, this is Joanne Nicole."

There was a brief, involuntary laugh. "What can I do for you, Major?"

Major?

"I see you’ve been doing a little research, Colonel."

"If the war should end, Major, there’ll be a wad of bad papers waiting for you. You can count on it. What can I do for you?"

"Tora Soam has instructed me to inform you that there are two additional requirements before your boss and mine can meet to discuss reopening the negotiations."

"They are?"

"First, information regarding Heliot Vanes death must be freely exchanged between Hajjis Da and the commander of USE orbiter security."

"That would be Major Haridashi. And the second requirement?"

"Ambassador Rafiki’s recall order must be rescinded."

"Hmmm. I will convey your information to Mister Eklissia. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Colonel, would it be possible for me to talk to Major Haridashi?"

"The only authorized line open between the two missions at the present is ours. What did you want to ask him."

"After Heliot’s death, why was Kroag transferred planetside?"

A pause. "I suppose I can answer that. We were advised, that keeping Kroag on the orbiter would only heighten the animosity of the Drac contingent. It was for the same reason that Ambassador Rafiki was recalled. We are trying to keep things as cool as possible up here."

Nicole sat back from the link. "Colonel, you said you were advised."

"Yes."

"By whom?" Nicole sucked the cut on her finger.

"By indirect means, the advice came from the Ninth Quadrant observation team. The advice sounded good, so we took it."

The Cut! She withdrew the finger from her mouth and imagined the webs of talman paths leading to and from the cut-a net that…

"Thank you, Colonel." Nicole keyed off the communications link, sat still for a moment, then energized her terminal, programmed it for voice response, and listened to Mitzak’s orbiter information.

The orbiter was a functional ore-receiving facility operated by a Timan crew. Neither Dracs nor humans from Amadeen had ever been there. The quarters for the negotiating teams had to be specially prepared-or had been prepared when the orbiter was originally constructed.

Nicole raced through the missions of the Dracon Chamber, USE, Amadeen Front, Mavedah, and their respective security and support units, until she reached the listing for the Ninth Quadrant Federation Observation Team.

Boatoam Ru Seagadu of planet Moag

Cherrisin He Taam, representative of planet Aluram

Darlass Ita, representative of planet Aus

Hissied 'do Timan, representative of planet Timan

Jerriyat-a-do’Timan of planet Timan, assistant to Hissied 'do

She halted the recording. Timan. The ore receiving orbiter belonged to Timan Nisak. And the "specially prepared quarters" were old, used.

-Mitzak in the Chirn Kovah on Draco.

"This is strange."

"What’s strange, Mitzak?"

The Ninth Quadrant study committee voted down the invitations-"

"Just as you said they would."

"-but the vote was very close. Much closer than I expected. And Hissied 'do Timan-delegate from Timan-was the only abstention." Mitzak was silent for a long time.

"What are you thinking about?"

A pause, then the sounds of Mitzak rearranging himself in his chair. "I don’t understand the reason for this abstention."

"Who can figure a Timan, Mitzak? Most of them are so wrapped up in wheeling and dealing…"

…They were one of three intelligent races that had evolved upon the planet Timan. They were called Timans because the other two races-although more numerous and physically more powerful-had been eliminated…

…completely disproportionate to their numbers, the Timans were an economic and political power in the Ninth Quadrant Assembly…

The Timans were completely non-violent; however, the Timans knew how to use rules…

Rules.

Nicole reached out her hand and felt the work surface around her terminal. It was nicked, scratched, old. Before the negotiations, neither humans nor Dracs had reason to be housed in the orbiter. Only the Timan crew had quarters there. But the compartment was constructed and appointed in the Drac manner. The compartment had been waiting for her for a long time.

She looked up at the darkness surrounding her.

Are we that predictable?

She rubbed her eyes. The compartment had been waiting for a long time, but a Drac should be staying there, not a human. She smiled. And not a human who had been groomed to think like neither human nor Drac. It was a fine net of cause and effect; but Tora Soam had ripped it by bringing a human instead of a Drac.

But there was another rip in the net. Somehow Heliot’s death was a mistake-perhaps an accident.

What advantage does the Ninth Quadrant have in making a failure of the peace negotiations? War is similar to a contagious disease. And no one in the Ninth Quadrant wants to catch it. The entire purpose of the Ninth Quadrant, and of the United Quadrants, is peace.

"But peace is a word, and never trust a word." The Ninth Quadrant would like to have peace. But more important, the Ninth Quadrant would like to have the United States of Earth and the Dracon Chamber as members…

But when it had come to a vote, the study committee had voted down the membership invitations. Hissied 'do Timan had abstained. And now Hissied 'do Timan was a member of the Ninth Quadrant observation team. And there was another Timan member: Jerriyat-a-do’Timan. Two out of five committee members…

Nicole sat back as the dark outlines of an all-encircling talma formed in her mind.

The size of it; its cruel sense of purpose; the meaninglessness of so much death and destruction; the horror-

Nicole rejected the thought. It was too bizarre; the tortured, terror-driven shrieks from the mental snake pits of a paranoia ward-And from its perspective of almost ninety-five hundred years, the secret Talman Master, Ayden of the War of Ages, spoke to her mind:

"If talma points toward an answer, the horror of which causes you to reject the answer, then blindness is both your tool and your goal. Greatness of any kind-be it theory, plan, or horror-is not comprehensible to the mind of limits. To understand all, one must be able to accept all."

Nicole touched the hilt of her Blade of Aydan and thought of the ancient Talman Master who had made war into science. She keyed the communications link and placed a call to Tora Soam. Aal Thaya, Tora Soam’s servant, answered. "The Ovjetah is in meditation, Joanne Nicole."