The Haxadissi hissed in surprise, then a viewscreen against an interior bulkhead flashed to life. A dark-eyed Qian female, petite and serene, appeared and bowed her head. She began to speak in Haxadissi. The ambassador hissed angrily, then slithered out, followed by her consort and the aide.
The viewscreen went blank before Claire could ask what had happened, but this did not discomfort her. She had been destined to travel to the station on a pod, and one was as good as another. She had long since packed her personal belongings and had stowed them in a cargo pod. Aside from one small bag still in her cabin, she was ready to quit the ship.
Returning to her cabin, she did catch a hint of the cinnamon scent of angry Haxadissi.
She’d actually smelled it fairly often, and caught herself remembering warm toasted cinnamon-raisin bread at breakfast with her family. She did her best to banish that memory ruthlessly, because homesickness so far from Terra would be impossible to cure.
The journey had taken her two months and she was truly ready for it to end. She had spent most of the time alone, which she didn’t mind. Being a cleric meant folks didn’t always invite her to join them for pleasurable pursuits, which was just as well because her refusal of same always seemed to suggest a moral superiority on her part. She didn’t feel morally superior, just more focused on the spiritual than the physical, and few were the contemplative and spiritual distractions on starships.
She gathered her leather attachh and frowned at the designer label. Owning such a thing went against her sense of propriety, and buying it would have run counter to her vow of poverty. Her parents had given it to her as a going away present, so she allowed herself to value it for being a gift. This far from Terra, the label will be meaningless anyway.
Claire made her way down and forward, then through a hatchway and into one of Purgatory Station’s large landing bays. Above and to the right she saw a gangway extended from an upper level and the Haxadissi making their serpentine passage across it, to be greeted by several Qian officials and other dignitaries. I can hear the outraged hissing from here.
“Father Yamashita.”
Claire’s head came around, and she couldn’t hide the surprise on her face. The man addressing her had managed to say her name correctly, mashing together the latter half of it. He stood nearly as tall as she did, his hair as white as hers was black and his bright eyes as blue as hers were brown. His voice came with a faint Irish accent that she found very warm and rich.
She nodded and extended a hand to him. “I am pleased to meet you. You are Father Flynn.”
He shook her hand heartily, enfolding it in a strong grip. The strength of it surprised her, as she guessed he must have had thirty or perhaps forty years on her. “Please, you’ll be calling me Dennis or Flynn, that’s customary between peers here.”
His steady gaze invited a similar offer of familiarity, but she held back. Flynn’s genial greeting had blasted through the shell of serene isolation she’d formed around herself.
Claire suddenly realized that she was finally at her new parish, and that she would have to begin to deal with people, all manner of them. The enormity of that hit her and hit hard, shaking her.
She withdrew her hand from his grasp. “Thank you, Father Flynn. You didn’t have to come greet me.”
“No? Sure and the Church has not suggested we’re unmannerly out this far. Truth is, I almost missed you, since I was down to the bay where your original pod was coming in.
Advantage here is that coming in on the diplomatic level, you can take care of the entry forms later.”
The man glanced back toward the broad tunnel leading into the station interior, then raised a hand. “Ah, here he is. Someone you’ll be wanting to meet. Meresin, over here.”
Claire recognized the name immediately and followed the line of Flynn’s gaze even though she had no desire to do so. There, dressed in black, came the Unvorite chaplain of the Mephist faith. Tall and strongly built, he strode forward with the gait of a conqueror. Long, unbound black hair streamed back past his shoulders. At his hands, throat, and face she could see his blood-red skin, and as he smiled, he flashed black teeth. Seven black thorns jutted up through his hair, the largest sprouting from just above his hairline at his forehead, aligned with his strong, narrow nose. And his eyes, his red eyes, burned with a light she could only describe as infernal.
The Unvorite paused and executed a flawless bow. “Komban-wa Yamash’ta Claire-san.”
If Flynn’s familiarity had shaken her, Meresin’s greeting in Japanese shattered her. By dint of habit she bowed in return, then looked at Flynn. “If you will forgive me, Father, it has been a long journey. Our arrival interrupted my daily devotion. I… I need to pray and rest. Please forgive me.”
“Understandable, Father Yamashita, right this way.”
Claire held a hand up. “I’ve studied the station. I can find my rooms. Thank you. And thank you for meeting me. Again, I apologize.” She slipped past the Unvorite and insulated herself with the anonymous press of the crowd leaving the docking bay.
II
Flynn frowned as he watched her go. “Well now, I wasn’t thinking that was how this would start.”
The Unvorite nodded, his black brows arrowing down beneath the large horn. “I didn’t say anything incorrect, did I?”
“Oh, no, no, your greeting was perfect.” Flynn smiled at his friend. The Mephist faith was one that had been decried and dismissed by the Catholic Church as being wantonly hedonistic, but Meresin had always sought to do that which comfortably brought others pleasure or showed them respect. “Like as not, it’s as she said, it’s been a long journey. I don’t know but what she’s not met any Mephists before, so that might have come as a shock.”
The Mephist priest laughed. “And if she spoke with your previous aide’s wife, I am certain her image of me is something beyond diabolical.”
The human priest nodded. “I’m thinking that could be another piece of it.” There is more, though, lots more, I’m sure.
Meresin looked up toward where the Haxadissi were hissing loudly. “Then again, traveling in that pod would be enough to put anyone on edge.”
“Not speaking any Haxadissi, I’m not understanding what they’re going on about, but they don’t sound pleased.”
“It’s that this is an unscheduled stop. They were on their way home, but the Ghoqomak lost a seal on its jumpdrive. Standard procedure is to get pods to port, then send a crew out to fix it. Problem is that the station doesn’t have the right seals to fix the ship immediately, so it will be at least a week before they head out again.”
Flynn raised an eyebrow. “I know the worlds of Haxad and Unvoreas are relatively close to each other, but I was not aware you spoke Haxadissi.”
“I don’t, my friend.” Meresin pointed back along the way he had come. “The kind soul who directed me up here told me about the damaged seal and the delay. I have merely intuited the rest. The Haxadissi are not known for their patience, and a pregnant noble would seem to gain in fury as well as girth.”
As Flynn watched, the ambassador shoved a smaller Haxadis aside and began hissing angrily at the Qian official before her. As the sibilant complaints grew louder, Flynn caught a flash of fangs. At that point the other large Haxadis intervened, interposing himself between the ambassador and the Qian. The ambassador pounded her fists against his broad back, while the smaller aide again moved to the fore and drew the Qian aside for more consultation.
The human shivered. “We didn’t have any snakes in Ireland when I grew up. In light of what I’ve seen in my time on the station here, I’d not be thinking I’d react to them that way, but it’s visceral.”
“Well, the serpent in the Garden, after all.”
“A bit of that, I’ll warrant, and more.” Flynn smiled as he looked back at the Unvorite.
“The Haxadissi call their faith Lyshara, if I’m remembering right. We’ve no one here affiliated with it or a sister sect, do we?”
Meresin pressed his black-taloned fingertips together. “No, I am afraid we don’t. The Void, of course, embraces all, but the Haxadissi had been hostile to Mephisti ever since a malignant sect of ours slaughtered a
