The Sea is Full of Stars

Um, yeah, he responded, uncomfortable at the idea. So what do you want to blow this lavish fortune on?

Who knows what it will or won’t buy? Not much, but let’s see!

As it turned out, it bought a couple of feel-good patches, the Kalindan equivalent of social drinking, which induced a mild but manageable high for a time, and admission to a couple of low-life theaters that gave them both a bit of an education in underwater sex and titillation. There were things you could do here that would require a million credits plus to simulate back in the Realm, not counting the zero gravity chamber or flight to attain it.

That was what this boiled down to, though. A life where gravity was something you counted on for water density but not something that restricted you. A kind of zero gravity floating lifestyle.

By the time they got back to the hostel and collapsed, they were flat broke again and dead tired as well. Someone, however, a complete stranger, was waiting for them when they arrived.

“Who the hell are you?” Ari demanded.

“My name isn’t important,” the stranger, a female with expensive jewelry responded. “I just need to pass along a few things to you.”

“You know who I am?”

She nodded. “I know who both of you are. I hope you didn’t have too much fun in the dives. There’s a rampant parasite that’s transmitted sexually and which reproduces by making you reproduce, whether you want to or not. Hard to detect, harder to kill off.”

“We didn’t. Not with the money we had.”

She chuckled. “Well, you’re also fortunate you didn’t get seduced by one of them. That happens, too. Seductions and rapes. Ugly business.” She sighed. “Well, enough of that. Tomorrow you’ll be going into Government Center and they’ll fill you full of confident lies and invite you along on their big meeting in Zone next week. They’ll keep you on a tight leash like with the money, only this time you’ll not have a translator, so you’ll be able to speak to everybody and be understood, but you’ll understand nothing not directed at you. You’ll hear the speeches and listen to the proposals and realize that these idiots don’t know the first thing about wars, revolutions, and mass violence. The geography of the hexes has always prevented anything really major. Oh, a hex here and there went to war, but even then it was usually quick and dirty. Most of them, including this one, are ripe for easy plunder. They won’t even have to fire a shot to take and hold Kalinda, at least not within the boundaries. It’s already begun, and the fools don’t even realize it. You might, if you had things to compare, but even though it’s staring them in the face, they won’t see it until it is too late.”

“I see. And where do you come in?”

“I represent—pragmatists. Families of means who know that the only way to protect the nation is not to fight. There are far more of us than anyone knows, in all positions of power.”

“And when the magic moment comes and we are invaded, you make sure that they aren’t opposed?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“So why are you telling us this? And why are you here at all?”

“Because you are going to that conference and I am not. Some of us will be there, but not a decisive number. You come from the same place in the universe as those now waging war. You are from a more violent race and can cope with a violent universe. You understand what is coming. These fools do not. All we are asking is that you think of reality when various proposals are bandied about, and that you also think of your own long-term futures.”

“Yes? Meaning what?”

“Ari, your uncle was one not unlike the Empress. Even more impressive, since she had been born to wealth and power, and your uncle came up from a very low level. You functioned well in your uncle’s empire, you could function well here. You have skills that are unique here, and you do not have to learn how to deal with different races and cultures. Ming, you would have more of a problem with this, I know, but consider what they did to you back where you came from. Consider how fragile your existence was when it hit true power, and how death is not necessarily an option in such cases. All we are saying is that there is a place for you in the coming order. Just do not cause us additional pain and expense reaching the inevitable goal. That’s all you have to do. Just observe.”

“Maybe not,” Ari responded. “Maybe it is hopeless. Still, you’re as naive as those politicians and military leaders you say are deluding each other and themselves. Josich destroyed whole planets. Billions of people. Total, complete genocide. And he did it without any second thoughts at all. If Kalinda isn’t a good slave labor state, and it really isn’t— too educated, too spoiled by technology, and requiring massive imports of food—then it’s a liability. Josich simply erases liabilities and goes on. He’ll erase us, and you, too.”

“The alternative is also certain genocide. You will see. Just think about it. That’s all.”

And with that, and before they could do anything else, she flipped her tail and shot out of the doorway. They followed, looking around, but she was already lost in the city.

Wow! What do you think that was really all about? Ming asked him.

I’m not sure. It may have been the real thing, or it may have been a warning. In either case, somebody’s a little scared of us. I wonder why?

They’re not too scared, she responded. They didn’t just plant a bomb in here and blow us to even more pieces than we’re already in.

Yeah, he agreed. On the other hand, that’s an option they can exercise pretty much anytime they think they really need it, isn’t it?

Inspector Shissik arrived at his appointed time to find them fast asleep. He woke them, and Ming, who always was a light sleeper, sat up with a start and then relaxed when she saw him. This sort of thing happened sometimes. One would still be asleep, the other awake. It was the only private existence they had left.

Shissik held up two objects. The backpack he tossed over to one side; the watch he held out to her. “You may well need these.”

She didn’t feel the least bit embarrassed, putting on the watch and checking it. “How much did she soak you for them?”

“She tried to gouge, but I got them back for probably the pittance you were paid. Twenty-five credits total.”

She gave a sour laugh. “Why that little crook!” Then she remembered what he had to know first of all. “We had a visitor last night…”

As precisely as she could, she recounted the conversation and gave as good a description as she could manage.

“Well, the jewelry sounds upper class but not to the point where hundreds of wealthy women don’t have similar,” he noted when she’d finished. “The physical description could fit half the population. Still, it doesn’t surprise me. It only surprises me that they would be this bold right here, in this very room, across from the seat of government. I would have expected them to accost you on the street or in one of those clubs. Much easier to control.”

“C’mon, Inspector! I’m—I was a cop, too. I know you have people in those clubs spotting for the tourists. Otherwise any government courier in from out of town would be fresh meat. This is the perfect place, particularly if you know it isn’t bugged or you know where the bugs are and how to defeat them, which I assume is the case here.”

“Well, it’s not attended, but there were no flags on the recording, at least none that anybody reported to me,” he admitted.

“See? Blank out the record, get in before we do, get out quickly, and that’s that. The point is, was she correct? Is this place really indefensible?”

“I would hate to think so,” he told her honestly. “However, events so far have shown a remarkable lack of ability to defend against things in other hexes. We shall see, I suppose.”

“What do you think she meant by saying we’d be taken without a shot being fired, and we’d see it now if we weren’t so new to normal society?”

“I don’t know the answer to that, either. Perhaps it is just empty threats, but…”

“Well, let’s think of it while we have breakfast. Ari, it seems, is still nicely asleep inside, and I have a liking