Second Contact (Okal Rel Saga #1)

Chapter 17.3 - The Ayrium Alternative

Von was so sure the Ayrium alternative was obsolete that it gave him a bad start when her voice intruded.

"Hi, Von," she said, sounding cheerful. "Sorry about the long silence there. Took me a while to convince your hosts to quit jamming me, but a buzz around their station made them friendlier. You see, they aren't at all convinced we know how to conduct ourselves honorably."

"Pardon?" Von echoed, bewildered.

"You know your Demish poetry?" asked Ayrium.

Poetry? Von thought. But one did not argue with a client's eccentricities.

"Some," he said cautiously, not wanting to sound boastful. He had memorized every line he had ever been exposed to.

"What did Liander tell Prince Farsil about the virtues of potential misbehavior, act one, scene three, in Larthin's Comedy of Desires?" asked Ayrium.

Oh-kay, Von thought, whatever else she is, she really is Demish.

He mustered the quotation readily. "Liander says: 'To commit an act that is okal'a'ni? Indeed, that is quite fatal both to lady's love and thine own, manly honor, but seeming—'"

"Whoa! Stop there," said Ayrium. "You're hired."

Von was taken aback, the rest of the quote stalled on the tip of his tongue: — but seeming can fetch those results that doing might preclude enjoying.

"You're going to engage your rel drive in dock," Ayrium instructed him.

"I'm what?" Von spluttered.

"Or would you rather stay put until you expire?" asked Ayrium. "This way, if they won't let you go, at least you'll take them with you!"

Von was horrified. Only an unspeakable, okal'a'ni maniac would do something so terrible! It would be soul-death for a Sevolite. He wasn't sure what the rules were for commoners but that hardly mattered. There were so many people on Second Contact Station and so many more yet to live on it!

He twitched his head away from a drifting string of blood gems as the quote played through his head again, then it struck him — bluff! That's what Ayrium was telling him!

"Let me go!" he declared in Reetion. "Or I'll engage my rel-drive. Right here. In dock. I'm warning you!"

"Really?" Lurol answered him with chilly skepticism. "You want me to believe you would destroy this station after bringing Ann here for treatment?" She added more compassionately, "You wouldn't even kill me, and you've got better motivation for it."

Von gasped, and was suddenly a child again in the baiting ring with leering faces slashing past him. He regained the present with the sound of Lurol's voice, cajoling. "—didn't extend human rights to you. It should never have allowed me to do what I did. I stand by my decisions but I meant you no harm. I will do all I can to correct the damage."

Von slammed the heels of his hands to his temples, teeth gritted. He did not want Lurol in his head again. The idea made him shake all over.

"I will, too!" he cried. "I'll skim out of here! I don't care if it kills everybody!"

Reetion voices babbled in a collage of emotion interspersed with the calm voice of an arbiter.

"That boy," Lurol's voice cut through, "will not destroy a populated station. There is no way. It's just not in his psych profile. He's making threats because he's frightened."

Von thought about the sword in the back of the chair again.

"I'd be more worried about suicide," said Lurol. "If he had some means to do it painlessly."