Mark Tiedemann - Mirage

"What are you doing tomorrow?" she asked.

Jonis started. "Hmm? Oh, sorry, I drifted… um, I have a meeting with the Euro Sector Bilateral Commission on Manufactures and Distribution." He gave her a sour grin. "Thrilling stuff. I can't wait to write my memoirs and take up the challenge of making this all sound romantic." He shrugged. "But absolutely necessary. They need to be reassured that the talks are going ahead. Oh, I should warn you-Senator Covidry is going to propose a delay of five days."

"Why?"

"I'm not entirely in disagreement with him-it would give us time to reorganize where necessary and give the police a chance to find the perpetrators. This has been a hell of a shock, to put it mildly. But Clar wouldn't delay, he'd push right ahead. So I'm honorbound to fight a delay. Expect it to pass, though."

"You really admired him, didn't you?"

"Clar? yes. He wasn't a fake. His convictions meant something. He couldn't always say what they were, but you could tell they were there, supporting him. A rare man." Jonis glanced at his wrist. "Damn, it's after midnight. I better get out of here and let you get some sleep."

Ariel relaxed. A consummate politician, Jonis, always correctly gauging his public, and knowing exactly when to make an exit. She got to her feet wearily and let him embrace her. His lips brushed her ear briefly.

"I'll call," he said.

"You get some sleep, too."

"Absolutely."

She walked him to the door. R. Jennie waited with his jacket. Jonis cocked an eyebrow at the robot. "Goodnight, Jennie."

"Good evening, sir. I trust you had a pleasant visit?"

"Too brief, but very pleasant." He winked at Ariel.

"Later."

When the door closed after him, Ariel sighed heavily. "I'm going to have to make a decision about him some day, Jennie."

"May I be of assistance?"

"No, I don't think you can help with this one." She took another drink.

Jonis was the first person she had become intimate with since she and Derec had parted. At first it had been convenient-their schedules and duties guaranteed that they saw each other only for short times at odd intervals-but Jonis had become more and more insistent on a formal arrangement. She was uncertain that she wanted-had ever wanted-quite that much companionship.

"It is late, Ariel," R. Jennie said. "You have an early appointment in the morning."

"Are you telling me I'm up past my bedtime, Jennie?"

"You do usually retire before eleven in the evening if you do not have guests staying over."

Ariel looked at the robot. R. Jennie wore her humaniform mask tonight, a pleasant, beige-colored face with bluish eyes and the suggestion of a smile. The features did not move, giving it an antique flavor, but it was better than the medieval machine mask Ariel had it wear when Earthers came to visit. The revulsion of Earthers to humaniform robots struck her as their most perverse trait, but she accepted it as part of life here and did her best not to aggravate the problem.

Which made it all the more irritating when Spacer vendors circumvented the rules and sold humaniforms anyway, like that fool Udal. Imports were controlled, so how had he even gotten them? And then to have the gall to come to her and demand action against the vandals… she needed to inspect his warehouses, squeeze him a little to see if she could find the leak. Just now the last thing any of them needed was a black market import scandal.

Ariel shook her head. "Can't sleep, Jennie. Too much on my mind."

"Would you like a soporific?"

"No. Why don't you shut down for the night, Jennie? I'll go to bed soon."

"Very well, Ariel. Good night."

She barely heard R. Jennie pad away to her niche.

Ariel yawned and stretched. She went to the window, glass in hand. Somewhere out there was the ocean, the Atlantic. Aurora had nothing like it, just a series of big lakes and artesian springs, underground rivers. Of all the features of Earth only the oceans disturbed her, the only natural force that seemed to match the lemming irrationality of Earth's people.

She did not tell Jonis the rest of her conversation with Guviya, grand matron of Auroran business. She wondered if she ever would, even though it bore directly on her decision to be alone tonight. It had been a brief exchange. After Guviya's pronouncement on Earth's sickness, Ariel had said, "Perhaps. But when your brother or sister falls ill, you help them. You don't turn your back on them or throw them away."

"Of course not," Guviya had replied, "but we don't allow them to become ill in the first place."

Ariel had wanted to reach through the link and slap her for hypocrisy. No, heaven forbid a Spacer become ill, what might that say about the culture? Perhaps Ariel expected too much to hope that Guviya would understand her point. Guviya did not know that turned backs and disposal had been precisely the treatment Ariel had received from her fellow Aurorans, many years ago and a lifetime away. Or did she?

Her com chimed and she moaned.

"I said no more calls."

Another chime. She took her drink and crossed the room to the panel.

"Accept, voice only."

"My apologies, Ariel," came Hofton's voice over the com. "I didn't wake you?"

"No, but I wish you had. That would mean I'd gotten some sleep tonight."

"I thought this couldn't wait. The surviving members of the Auroran legation are demanding immediate transport back up to Kopernik Station."

"Survivors… how many are there?"

"Four. I'll forward their bios."

"Wait, Hofton, I don't understand. What am I supposed to do? Shouldn't Lys handle-oh." Ariel felt foolish. Lys was dead. Who else had gone down from the embassy? They had been fortunate that Setaris had refrained from attending, but the rest of her key staff had gone. "Sony, that's a silly question. But this isn't really my job."

"It seems to be now-they were all forwarded to this office. I'm sure it's only temporary, Ariel. Besides, I thought perhaps you might regard their departure as something of a problem in light of all the damage control we did today. The legation itself leaving…?"

"Of course, but hasn't Setaris talked to them?"

"I would assume so, but…"

"I can't blame them for wanting out. No one we talked to today had been shot at." Ariel turned her glass, letting the ice rattle. "Maybe one of them could stay… All right, I'll make one more call. Who's in authority now?"

"I'm not exactly clear on that," Hofton replied. "Either Benen Yarick or Tro Aspil, but I gather there's an internal dispute of some kind."

"Fine, I'll talk to-" Ariel's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Tro Aspil?"

"Do you know him?"

"Slightly. I didn't realize he'd risen to this level. He was just an intern at the Institute last time we spoke. I'll call him first. Thank you, Hofton."

"I'll try not to disturb you for the rest of the evening."

"Thanks," Ariel said wryly. Her buffer indicated receipt of Hofton's profiles. The connection ended and she accessed the files, then placed her first call.

Tro Aspil did not answer. Benen Yarick accepted her call promptly.

"This is Ariel Burgess, commerce liaison, from the embassy. I hope this isn't an inconvenient time."

"No, not at all. No more inconvenient than anything else since we've been here," Yarick said, her voice uneven and strained.

"I understand that you've all requested immediate transport back to Kopernick-"

"Oh, yes. And from there directly back to Aurora on the first available ship, yes. We are all… overwhelmed. Well, most of us are. We can't function in our present condition. Perhaps another legation will come later, after…"

"I understand your state of mind, believe me," Ariel said. "But… please understand, normally I'm not the one you need to talk to about this-Ambassador Setaris should be the one-but I'm grateful for a chance to talk to you about it and I'll do what I can to help. I deal with those Aurorans who come here to live, do business, have interests on Earth. That ends up with me acting as a very complex kind of interpreter between Terran and Auroran-"