Crystal Heat

4

Pleasantly tired, Shadith eased her way through the crowd to the bar in the corner of the room. The party had migrated to Aslan’s apartment after dinner at The Eager Seagull and was still going strong though the noise level had begun to abate a bit. She searched through the empty bottles, boxes, and more esoteric containers, found a bottle with an inch of Carta Blue in it and refilled her glass.

“Any of the gartienta left?” Aslan caught her by the shoulder; leaned rather heavily against her, breathing a sweetish fog of alcohol past her ear. “Whoo! I’m going to hate myself tomorrow, but it feels good now.”

“What’s it look like?”

“Dumpy black jug thing. Smells like apricots.”

“This?”

“Mm bin.”

Shadith shook it gently. “Something left. Hold your glass out.”

They moved around the edge of the room, found a futon rolled up and pushed against the wall, and eased themselves down on it. “I was wondering…” Shadith said after a moment.

“Why I’m not still on Beluchad? Funding dried up. Yaraka thought we were teaching the locals a bit too much instead of studying how to manage them.”

“You don’t sound unhappy about being kicked offworld.”

Aslan grinned. “I’m not. Left a lot of local students behind and University sprung for a couple splitcoms; the Meruu of Medon Vale are enthusiastic scholars and they like the idea of setting down their history. The Yaraka are going to find that the Keteng and the Fior are rather more than a match for them, I think. Do I ask about you? Got a letter full of restrained enthusiasm from Mum. Well, you know her.”

“I’m in the middle of something. Can’t talk about it now.” The milling groups of talkers split a moment and she saw Mirik melting against Sarmaylen, his battered fingers moving absently along the elegant bones of her shoulder, a sculptor’s appreciation in the delicate touch. “Mirik and Sarmaylen. She understand what she’s getting into?”

“Does anybody ever?” Alsan sipped at the gartienta. After a minute, she sighed. “He doesn’t mean to act like a merd, you know. He just gets so interested in what he’s working on he forgets you’re there, and you can get pissed at him and leave and he doesn’t even notice for months maybe. And there’s always another sighing femme waiting in the wings. She’ll enjoy these first weeks, Shadow. He can play symphonies on a woman’s body.” She smiled fondly at memories that Shadith couldn’t see, but she certainly could feel them through the reactions of Alsan’s body.

Aslan got to her feet and ambled off, heading toward a tall, lean man with a gleaming bald head and a gray-streaked brown beard that reached halfway down his chest. Shadith watched her smooth her fingers along the line of his jaw, saw him smile down at her.

Abruptly she didn’t feel like partying any longer; she looked down at her glass, sighed, and set it by the end of the futon roll where it wasn’t likely someone would kick it over, got unsteadily to her feet,-and edged along the wall till she reached the door.

The air outside was crisp and cold. She took a deep breath and the wine hit her, turning her knees to rubber and churning in her stomach… She dropped onto the edge of a granite planter, lowered her head to her knees, and fought the urge to upchuck everything she’d eaten. What a stupid thing… less sense than Mirik showed when she loped off with that scamjack… gods, I’m horny and hopeless… I want… I want more than I’ve got… why can’t I just pick something and stick with it… sleepy… I’d better get home before I end spending the night on the steps here…, call a jit… I’m in no shape to chain it or to walk…

Cautiously she sat up. She was still a bit dizzy and wine tears blurred her eyes, but at least she could navigate now without embarrassing herself. She hunted till she found the jit pole, then thumbed back the slide and touched the sensor. She leaned on the pole and waited for her transport to arrive, weeping with loneliness and too much wine.

The messager woke her again.

Notice from University to come pick up her printouts, message from Digby informing her that Harmon was on his way to Sauva Kutets, a world in the Sakuta System, one of several newly settled planets in a miniature cluster close to the Saber Arm. “Mouse, it’s called,” he said. “Because of its size and a tail of dust curling off one side.”

Sauva Kutets was a colony in the throes of a savage revolt against the mother world, a planet called Agregossa in a system way out at the tip of the Saber Arm.

… because the Agregossans haven’t fought a war in a long time, depending upon coercion and indoctrination to keep the peace rather than crude and visible force, they’re not very adept at it though they have been learning rapidly. The most recent reports have the Agregossans making an attempt at an embargo of the system, most inept and futile unless you’re unlucky enough to surface in front of their outer patrols. Most of the hostile attention is focused on Sauva’s surface, so keep away from there if you can. Otherwise you shouldn’t have much trouble getting in and out again. Oblique attacks and ingenuity, Shadow. Shouldn’t be hard for you to manage.