They finally extricated themselves from all these hangers-on and reached an official purple door with a bored-looking guard standing nearby. Joelle straightened her uniform, approached the guard and presented her credentials. He waved her toward the door.
She attempted to open it with her pass, but it simply made a bonking noise and remained sealed.
“Excuse me,” she said to the guard.
“Yes Miss?”
“Why is this door locked?”
“It’s ninth-day,” he said, as if this information conveyed every possible nuance of meaning.
“So? I’m a Nexus official, and I require access to the command center.”
The guard looked her up and down bemusedly. “You aren’t serious, are you Lieutenant? Like I said, its ninth-day. Those doors won’t open to anyone until one-day. Come back then, ten a. m. sharp. You might think about showing up early, there is generally a line at opening on one-day.”
“Are you telling me there is no one inside the headquarters?” Aldo asked, stepping forward.
The guard shrugged. “There is the AI, I suppose. A few mechs, doing clean-up.”
“What if there were an emergency?”
“You mean, like a fire? The doors would open automatically in that case.”
“No, like an invasion.”
The guard blinked at them. He shook his head. “A what? Here in Lavender City?” He began a rumbling laugh. His belly, which spilled out beneath the lower edge of his uniform and overflowed his utility belt, bounced. “Don’t worry about that. Those mechs will never get within a hundred leagues of this town. We aren’t some cut-off hick fief in the wilds. We’ve been fire-walling our perrupters, too.”
Having no idea what he was talking about, Joelle and Aldo retreated away from him. They exchanged concerned glances.
“They don’t seem to be taking the alien threat seriously,” she said.
“They are barely aware of it. Odd, isn’t it? How humanity is so masterful at self-delusion?”
“What delusion are you talking about in this specific case?”
“The delusion that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday, if only because it always has been. Complacency has destroyed countless populations historically, you know.”
“I had no idea you were such a scholar.”
Aldo turned her a sour eye. “You are not being helpful. May I ask as to the source of your irritation?”
“It’s you, Aldo.”
Aldo took several steps toward the street exit, attempting to digest Joelle’s odd mood. “Was it the attention I paid to various females today? I am a diplomat, after all Joelle. Such things are to be expected.”
“Polite talk and graceful conduct, I expected that. But not your eyes, crawling over every half-attractive woman in sight. You’re the same old Aldo, aren’t you?”
“Bitterness does not become you.”
They barely spoke on the cab ride to Gloaming Splendor. The cab itself was an odd contrivance. Shaped in the general configuration of a wheeled egg with an open-air top, it glided over the cobbled streets smoothly. Both Aldo and Joelle were entranced by the streets themselves. Every shop and building was unique in its shape and configuration, but similar in materials used. Cut sandstone formed brick walls and every doorway and window was arched at the top. The hotel was no less ornate and enchanting than the rest of the city structures. An elaborate fountain in the center lobby spat an endless stream of cobalt water and was thronged by buzzing creatures called humming-birds. Strange fish swam and sang quietly in the bowl of the fountain, while the birds themselves did not chirp.
“Where did that skald go?” Joelle asked as they admired their surroundings.
Aldo glanced behind himself in surprise. “He did not join us for the cab ride. He was so quiet, I forgot about him. At some point, he must have slipped away.”
“Can he care for himself?”
Aldo shrugged disinterestedly. “Probably better than most of the inhabitants of this pompous world.”
Joelle and Aldo separated in the lobby with little more than icy nods for one another. Aldo took a room and immediately bathed. He took the next hour to locate suitable clothing.
He liked some elements of Ignis Glace’s society already. They liked to dress-up, which he found enjoyable. They also did not stigmatize a man for wearing a power-sword on his belt. Most of theirs, however, were longer, thinner blades with ornate, bejeweled pommels and scabbards covered in colored velvet. His was plain and functional, with a black, rook-hide sheath and only one jewel on the pommel, which doubled as a selector stud to power the weapon.
As he ate dinner alone in the guest ballroom, Aldo began to appreciate the colony even more. The food was delicate in flavor, and yet inspiring. He had a flavorful meal the waiter assured him provided a mix of local tastes. He’d reached the third course, which was an oddly flavored blood-pudding, when a familiar face appeared. It took him a moment to recognize the girl. She was no longer wearing military garb, but instead a green chiffon gown that trailed to her ankles.
“Nina Droad?” he asked. “Won’t you join me?”
She did so, and he found her company pleasant, but slightly disturbing. She was pretty, young and vivacious. She was so like her father-but with an extra spice of fire added into the mix. It was the similarities to her sire that he found most disturbing. Lucas Droad had become a friend after sharing years adventures together. Droad had gained Aldo’s respect as few others had in his lifetime.
This made for an awkward situation, because upon his very first meeting with Nina Droad, he’d immediately determined he wanted to bed her. Normally, he’d ignore any qualms or perhaps ask the father’s permission. Neither of these were easily done, however, as Droad had earned his respect and loyalty, and he wasn’t on hand to discuss the matter. Even if Aldo took the step of transmitting the question on the deep-link to Neu Schweitz, it would take years to reach the distant planet and further years for the response to come back.
In the end, Aldo took his usual course in such matters: he shrugged his shoulders and stopped worrying about it. One could only fuss and worry about such niceties for so long, life was stunningly short and may be artificially shortened further at any moment. And so after the third hour and the third glass of wine, he no longer cared that Nina had her father’s thoughtful eyes and an identical shade of brown hair. Her intense personality wasn’t quite the same, and he found it magnetic.
He relayed to her in detail all the horrors of the coming war with the aliens. Nina explained to him in turn that the Nexus people had presented to the populace that they had the alien situation well in hand-that the warning they’d been given had provided sufficient time to exterminate the enemy in their vulnerable cargo vessel long before they could reach Ignis Glace. Mostly, the local news stories concerned themselves with who among the government was going to accept responsibility for destroying Gladius, as the ship was of incalculable value.
Aldo chuckled at their naivete and smug self-confidence. “I’d also hazard the Nexus people are more worried than they are letting on. But someone in charge fears a panic and isn’t allowing all the news out. That’s the wrong choice. Panic has a way of getting people to cooperate if it goes on long enough.”
Nina stared at him. Aldo found her gaze piercing and felt as if she knew more of his thoughts than he normally allowed others to divine.
“I like you, Aldo,” she declared suddenly. “And I will allow you to proceed with your intentions.”
Aldo’s eyebrows shot high, and he laughed. “So direct! I’m impressed, and burning with curiosity.”
That was it-the seduction, in its entirety. He marveled at her self-confidence, rare in one of such a young age. She had simply called his bluff and said yes to his non-verbal request. Other men might have been frightened by such a woman, but not Aldo. He was rarely frightened by anyone-at least not anyone human.
He followed her up creaking steps to a fine bed of alien-smelling feathers. There, he indulged his curiosity, and he did not find himself disappointed.
Seventeen
The single person everyone soon forgot about after Aareschlucht’s landing was Garth, the skald. In a society
