Cecelia Holland - Floating Worlds

“These people have been yapping at me since I got here,” he said. He found the spring catch and opened it. “And they keep jumping my men.” He raised the lid of the box.

His hands paused. Paula moved around the desk to stand by the window, so she could watch his expression. He took the dagger out of the white lining and drew the knife from the sheath.

“What is this?” he said.

“It was made in Damascus for a Seljuk prince. When there were still princes on the Earth.”

He turned it over in his hands, admiring it, and held it so that the emeralds glittered. Abruptly he rammed it back into the sheath, stuck it into the box, and pushed the box away.

“I have nothing for you.”

“I don’t care.”

“Take it back.”

“If you want.”

She made no move to pick it up. He pulled on his mustaches. “I guess you are a woman. A man wouldn’t give me a present without getting something in return.”

“Why not?”

“Because all systems equalize.” He got out of the chair and pulled the curtains closed across the window. A gloom fell. It was dark in Uranus, cold and dark. She was comfortable enough in the light dress but he was sweating.

“If it bothers you so much that I’m a woman, why did you pick me?” she said. “There’s a man in the case.”

“Very little of this was my idea.” He pulled his chair around and sat down. “There is only one thing we have to say to you. Styth will rule everything, sooner or later. We have a saying: ‘One Sun, one law, one Empire.’ We are your natural masters. If you submit to us, we will rule you justly. If you don’t, then you’ll have to suffer the consequences.”

Paula sat down on the floor. “That’s amazing. Did you make that up?” she said, and he flared.

“I don’t make things up. Do you think I’m a child? I know how the Universe works. Are you calling me a liar?”

“No,” she said.

“You are a liar.”

“When have I lied to you?”

He slapped his hand flat on the desk. “The other watch, when I was in your place. You said there’s no government in the Earth.”

“There isn’t. Why don’t you think people can take care of themselves?”

“Because it’s not human nature.”

He was sweating heavily, and the chair was too small for him, pinching him between its round arms. “Nobody does anything he doesn’t have to do. Who takes care of the city, for instance? People don’t see that large—all most people see is the tunnel of their own little lives.”

“The dome is owned by a private company. When you pay for your heat and water, you subscribe to the dome maintenance.”

His round black eyes were unblinking. He made a disbelieving noise in his chest. Picking up the case on the desk, he took the dagger out of it again. “This is a beautiful thing.”

“Yes.”

“What if it was yours, and someone stole it?”

“I’d do what I could.”

“What about credit? Who issues your money? Do you use money?”

“Yes. Those are private companies, too. Like the Committee.”

“You mean anybody can go down there and make any amount of money?”

“Nobody would use money unless they knew it was worth something. Moneying is a very conservative profession. There’s only twenty-four companies on the whole Planet and they have big conventions about the future of credit-mongering and they all wear the same clothes. Very dull.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No. I’m sorry. I was making fun of us.”

He drew the dagger and turned it and laid the flat of the knife against his cheek. They stared at each other awhile. His head turned toward the door.

“Ketac!”

The brush-headed boy came in: his son. The Akellar said to her, “He’ll take you back. I’ll send for you when I want to talk to you again.”

She got to her feet, pulling the skirts of the black dress straight with her hands. In their own language he was telling the young man to escort her back as if her room were a million miles away. She started toward the door, and the big man said, “And when I call, you come. You understand?”

She took hold of her temper, enough not to say anything, and gave him a long look down the room. He flicked the dagger back into its sheath. She went out after his son.

In the corridor, Ketac watched her the whole way back to her room. She avoided meeting his stare. He made her uneasy. At her door, she stopped and pressed her thumb into the key patch and the door slid open.

“Thank you.”

He put his hand on the doorjamb, so that his arm blocked her way. “I want—” He swallowed. With a jerk of his head he indicated the room beyond. “Go in. I go in.”

“No.” She backed into the middle of the corridor. “Get out of my way.”

“I hear—anarkisto—”

“Ketac, get out of my way.”

He moved aside. She went past him into the safety of her suite and pulled the door closed.

“It doesn’t sound promising,” Jefferson said.

“I don’t know. He’s that curious.” Paula touched the frame of the videone. “They’re tearing the place apart.”

“What? Who? The Styths?”

“Not deliberately. They don’t get along with the Martians. Mr. Black here bribed the security, so nobody is putting the arm on them.”

“Are you all right?”

“So far.”

Sybil wiped the corner of her eye with her forefinger. “I have an idea. Two ideas. He’s throwing money around as if he believes in it, maybe we can throw some at him. Not ours, naturally. I’m sending you a book on interplanetary trade relations.”

“I don’t know anything about economics.”

“This is politics, dear girl. Your weapon of choice.”

“I don’t think you know me very well.”

Jefferson cackled. Someone knocked on the door. Paula went to answer it. Outside was the short Styth with the gold wire in his nose. He gave her a heavy object wrapped in a piece of black cloth. “Paulo Mendoz’,” he said. “With the—the compliment of the Matuko Akellar.” He nodded down at her and went away.

Inside the soft black cloth was a clear crystal the size of a peach. When she put it on the screen for Jefferson to see, the old woman grunted. The crystal was cut in perfect octagonal facets and caught light like a diamond.

“Balancing an equation,” Paula said. “I guess he’s keeping the dagger.” She picked up the crystal and measured it in her hand.

“That belongs to the Committee,” Jefferson said swiftly.

“He gave it to me.” The crystal weighed at least a pound.

“We paid for the knife. That thing is worth a fortune.”

Paula wrapped the crystal back up in the black cloth. A thousand dollars an ounce, on the Earth; how much would it cost in Uranus? She began to see a way to use Jefferson’s trade paper.

“What else?”

“Hmmm?”

“You said you had two suggestions.”

“Oh.” Jefferson fingered the flabby skin of her throat. “Bring him to the Earth.”

Paula opened a drawer and put the piece of crystal inside. That would be easy, with his curiosity already hot. “If you want, Sybil.”

She sat on the couch watching the fish zigzag back and forth through the wall aquarium. The big Styth’s arrogance tempted her. He had weaknesses; he could be had. She switched off the lights and went to the bedroom. Just into the darkened room, she caught a whiff of a coppery odor.

Her nerves tingled with warning. She backed up into the front room again. The little pocket torch she had bought was in the bar, and she took it in her left hand and went into the bedroom again.

Halfway across the room to the bed, she was engulfed in the coppery reek. She whirled around. A hand closed on her right wrist. She switched on the hand torch and shot the bright beam straight up into his eyes.