Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode 9: Asha-Tanga #16

Zeta was a bundle of nerves the day of big festival. Might be my last time as one of the bigwigs. She tried to console herself with Jack's words—Arneshi had stood up for her before. But would he do it again?

The crowds were huge as she made her way toward the coliseum where the festivities would take place. But most of the crowd, the common people who didn't have inside seats reserved, were making for the parade route. They would catch a quick glimpse of the princess and the parade before retiring to a bar or restaurant to watch the rest on a video screen.

As she entered the archway into the coliseum, the system read her bio-ident and directed her to her seat. She'd been to the surface once with Jack, to see a movie, but mostly to see what the surface was like. It had been odd, paying paper cash for tickets, which were also on paper, and then having to show them again at the entrance.

Her seat was front row, literally. Arneshi greeted her with a slight bow. His face was unreadable, as always, and she wondered if he knew about the fiasco at her speech. Surely he'd been briefed if he hadn't watch part of it himself. But he gave no indication. Her seat was at the far edge of their team's seating, and she had no chance to speak to him directly.

The American diplomats were their guests, and Zeta's consolation was that Jack was seated in the last spot for his team, next to her. They couldn't be a couple here, but he could be near, and that was something.

Barry, Jack's partner, arrived late and flopped into a seat next to him.

"Where have you been?" Jack asked. It was an ongoing joke between the two of them that Barry was Jack's partner and had an office next to him, but was never there. And it was mostly true.

"Gah," Barry growled. "Pluto. Just got in an hour ago. Missed the whole party."

"Not the big festival, though," Jack pointed out. "Pluto?"

"Some scientist touring a Consortium research facility there. Midlife crisis, pretty girl, too much booze. Next thing you know, there's a diplomatic issue, and I've got to spend Asha-Tanga on the smallest, coldest rock in the solar system," he groused.

"What did you do?" Zeta asked.

Barry made a noise. "I told him to suck it up. 'Think of the bright side,' I said. 'Now you get to tour their terraforming facilities as well, stay a few months.'" Zeta gave him a hard look. "What's the State Department supposed to do? He broke the law, ours and yours. I'm not bailing his ass out."

Zeta wondered just what had happened with the pretty girl and the booze. It wasn't her business.

Trumpets blared, interrupting their conversation. Zeta forgot about Barry's story and her own troubles for a while, feeling like a little kid again with the excitement of the procession. The Princess Sarasvat looked resplendent, riding on the top of a wooly mammoth. The beast circled the coliseum, passing only a couple of feet from where they sat. Jack and Barry eyed it warily, but Zeta reached out one hand and let its long fur brush her hand as it passed. "Magnificent beasts, no?" she said to Jack. The look on his face nearly made her laugh.

Sarasvat dismounted after the mammoth had done one circle and bowed to it. It bowed back and then departed. She took a seat on a low dais in the middle of the wide coliseum while the rest of the parade circled her, intending to depart through a designated exit.

Davas, too, dismounted and stayed in the ring, kneeling near to where Sarasvat sat, to one side of her bodyguard.

The others that passed by were varied and entertaining. Mammoths followed by elephants. Followed by people on foot, humans, Bonichi, C'thon, Chapati, and many others. Drummers and musicians, hundreds of dancers. They represented many of the subcultures of humanity as well. There were Turiks, of course. Lavara—tall, thin, and pale. A Kurgara battalion marched as well—Sarasvat had earned the order's devotion in her years in the diplomatic service. A large group of Sathanas monks, devoted to studying the divine language, marched behind them.