Versions of Diplomacy

The rest of the trip to Swerthia was fairly uneventful, for the Ark.  Sabreur was frustrated by the gunners inability to inflict any significant damage on the pirate skimmer and spent most of his time either inspecting the guns or in his lab trying to think up new, better, armor-piercing ammo.  Something that could blow up chunks of a bigger and heavily armored skimmer.

"It's not the ammo," Langley told him one day, "It's the guns.  We need better guns, some that can hurl armor-piercing rounds harder so they do more than just dent the enemy's hull."

"So I need to reinvent the guns?"

"The Ark isn't built heavy enough to support stronger guns.  Recoil will tear it apart."

"So I need to reinvent the ammo."

Langley rolled her eyes.

"No – we can't-"

"One of those needs to be upgraded!" he said, flailing his hands a bit.

"Fine.  Reinvent the ammo.  That'll cause the least damage in the long-run."

And Sabreur vanished into his lab until they reached their destination.  Ajiin kept to his cabin and concentrated on reading the books lent to him by Langley.  She was a bit confused at first as to why he was asking for them.

"Crystal makes me nervous," he said.

"Really?  Well, the avatars make me more nervous.  But then again, you didn't go through the Academy and hear stories about what happened to people who tried to mess with them…"

Thankfully, she was used to him being cagey about subjects and didn't press any further but simply lent him the books.  Crystal appeared to have no recollection of anything that had occurred and greeted him as she always did while on the Ark, although a couple times she wound up forgetting his name entirely and called him everything from Steven to Mervus.  This wasn't too far from ordinary, however.

Ajiin mostly skimmed the books, trying to find anything that would explain the avatar's dealings with mortals.  However, most of the books failed to draw a conclusion and just provided examples, some of which were contradictory, others which were riddled with the author's personal political and social beliefs, and some which were merely reasons why no one should tangle with an avatar if they could possibly avoid it.  None of the books addressed what should be done if the "don't mess with them" clause was an "oops, too late" situation.  The only point of agreement Ajiin could find between the various texts was that ‘mancers in general couldn't figure out much about the avatars because they were reluctant to explain anything and even seemed to throw in contradictions on the rare occasions they did give out information about themselves.

"I think they do it on purpose," Ajiin said when he returned the books to Langley, the day before they reached the harbor, "Just to keep people confused as to how and what they are."

"You know," Langley said thoughtfully, "I would have disagreed with you at first.  But now that we've actually met Mihos, I can see him doing something like that.  Just to poke the anthill of the academic community."

The night before reaching the harbor had the twins in the hold, planning how they were going to avoid getting caught smuggling illegal goods into the city.  There was a good chance that the contacts they were to meet up with and deliver the cargo to had already worked out an arrangement with the port authorities, most likely involving bribes to be elsewhere, but Langley didn't like to take any chances.  Not when word of her getting caught was certain to reach her family and she really didn't want to endure her Grandmother's scowls of disapproval (for being caught, not necessarily for smuggling) or her cousin's teasing.  So her and Sabreur were in the hold, discussing strategy.

"So," Langley said, surveying the crates, "If they board we let the ‘mancy we've got worked over this place do its job.  They get confused as to why they're onboard in the first place and leave with an impression that they checked all the cargo and it was fine."

"And we hope they don't have a ‘mancer with them."

A deep breath from Langley.

"If they have a ‘mancer with them we sic Crystal on them as a distraction to separate the ‘mancer long enough to drop a hefty bribe in his pocket."

"And if he isn't prone to being bribed?"

"We deny everything."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Agreed."

The twins had built in a quite complicated piece of ‘mancy around the entrance to the hold, carving the lines directly into the wood and then covering it up with another panel so that anyone who entered wouldn't see the rather large ‘mancy circle scrawled across the wall.  It technically wasn't illegal to have – the Cadre didn't outlaw anything they were quite fond of using themselves – but it was definitely illegal to use on an official of any kind.  But sometimes, a rather strong suggestion of "go away, nothing is wrong here" was quite useful when illegal cargo was involved, so long as they didn't get caught.  There had been some talk about putting a similar setup in Crystal's room but Langley had nixed that idea on account of fear that Crystal would somehow screw it up on her own.

The Ark entered harbor at mid-morning.  Swerthia ships met them as they came in, two sweeping up on either side.  They were light and unarmed, as most Swerthian ships were.  They had managed to create a skimmer drive with a bit of Alannian help but when relations went sour between the two nations the Swerthians were left in the dust of progress.  As a result their skimmers were still confined to gentler waters and rarely ventured into the open ocean.  It worked so nicely, keeping the Swerthians dependent – as so many nations were – on Alannian skimmers that there was little doubt that Alannis would never let Swerthia onto the secrets of modern skimmer drives.

And anyone that tried to help Swerthia would meet an untimely demise at the hands of the Cadre.  The anti-Alannian factions were saying that this had already happened – repeatedly.

It made for a very unstable and potentially explosive political situation.  Langley felt like she was heading straight into a powder keg of trouble but then again, her gut always said that when she made dock.  Especially when Crystal was on-deck and looking eagerly at the city.

"They want to board," Ajiin said quietly and Langley nodded.  A ladder was thrown down and two Swerthians climbed up onto the deck.

One of them was a ‘mancer.  Langley frowned and rolled the opal ring around on her finger so that the stone was against her palm.  Generic ‘mancy, just enough to get a feel of his strength and talent.  She could feel him doing the same to her and Sabreur, a little prickle along the spine like someone had just run their finger up the vertebrae.  He wasn't that good.  Little talent, probably even less training.  She doubted he'd even notice the circle they had in the hold unless the false wall fell off and hit him in the face.

"Come to inspect the cargo?" she asked of the official.  He was a stocky man, like most Swerthians, and dark-skinned from far too much time in the sun.  His hair had been bleached out in contrast, fading to a gray-red-brown.

"Neh, don't need to," the official said, his accent thick, "Langley's Ark?  Your contact already cleared you."

Wink wink, nudge nudge.  Someone had been bribed.

"Then…?" Langley asked, trying to prompt him for the reason he boarded.

"Just need to check for Alannian citizenship of those onboard.  New laws.  We've too many problems with Swerthian property slipping off onto Alannian skimmers."

Langley frowned.  New laws indeed, new laws that probably favored the slavers that permeated Swerthia.

"Then if you give me a moment I can fetch the books from my cabin… I have records of employment for all my crew."

"No need, faster way…"

He waved his hand airily at the ‘mancer who slipped a piece of glass out of his pocket and cradled it in his hand.  Langley recognized the ‘mancy even though she didn't recognize the words he used to trigger it, as they were in the Swerthian language.  A finding of sorts, often used to figure out where you last left your keys.  After a moment he finished and pointed directly at Ajiin, who blinked and stared in mute befuddlement as to what was going on.

"Hah," Langley said, "Right.  Nice.  You pick the one person on board that looks native Swerthian.  Sorry, but he's Alannian-born."

"Oh?"

And the ‘mancer walked over and before anyone could react grabbed hold of Ajiin's shirt, yanked it off his right shoulder to expose the portion of skin just below the collarbone, and with a tap of the glass a black mark swam to the surface of the skin, a line of bars of varying lengths.  He turned and started to say something but Ajiin's fist connected with his jaw before anything could make it out.

"He's Alannian!" Langley roared, grabbing hold of the official by the back of his jacket and shoving him towards the edge of the Ark, "Been on this skimmer plenty long to count as a citizen, slave-mark or no, and we pay our taxes, we count as Alannian soil.  So get offa here, you slaver-dogs!"

And she heaved him bodily over the side and into the water.  His ‘mancer companion followed shortly after, courtesy of Sabreur.

"Slave-mark?" Ajiin said weakly, trying to get a look at the black lines and finding the angle rather difficult, "But I'm Alannian-born…"

"Something to write home to mom and dad about then," Langley growled, "But for now, let's get moving.  I want us docked and this cargo unloaded before the official manages to haul himself into his superior's office to whine and get even more officials leaping down our throats.  Sabreur, see if you can get into contact with any Stormriders.  We might need family.  Crystal, get below deck and stay there.  Ajiin, same with you.  The rest of you – get to your stations!  We're bringing her in."

And the Ark started to glide into the harbor while the crew of the two Swerthian skimmers hauled two rather wet and irate officials back onboard.

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