Chameleon Ch 37

“I couldn’t eat a thing,” Rianya muttered when Tom and the two girls were heading out to breakfast. “But could you bring me a cup of that purple tea?”

“Of course. I’ll see if I can find the vendor. I got the feeling she was closing for the rest of the festival when she gave me the box. Come on, girls, let’s take a walk.”

The short journey to the edge of the city brought them to the vendor’s beverage stand, but as Tom had suspected, the shack was deserted.

“I’m hungry,” Zalara announced. Her hair fluttered in the breeze; Honey nodded in agreement, hugging herself in the dewy, coastal air.

“I’m sure there’s someone here serving breakfast and tea. Keep your eyes open.” He scanned for a place that might have his favorite ground bean brew, but it was Honey that spotted the gold.

“Look, Jake!”

“Go catch up with him, Honey.”

“I’m not eating bugs again.”

“Of course not; go, we’ll catch up.” Honey danced off toward the young man.

“Who’s that?”

“He’s the boy we met at the radio station. He might know where we can find your Mamá’s tea and we can stop wasting time.” The two of them followed Honey who’d caught up with Jake. As they approached Jake raised his hand in greeting.

“I didn’t know you were still here. Who’s this?” he asked of Zalara.

“My daughter, Zalara. Nice to run into you,” Tom said in his broken Cetian. “Sorry to stop you.”

“I’m on my way home; not late for anyone.”

“We’re looking for a morning meal. Join us? I want to talk to you about your radio more.”

“Join me; my house is just ten minutes that way. All, come.”

“I need to take some tea to my wife, at the lodging,” Tom explained.

“Then you want to see Polaab, up the street, the red tent. He makes good morning drinks.”

“Walk with us? I still want to ask you about the containers in orbit.” The man walked with them, more leading them to the tent than following them.

“Why are you out looking for food? The Big Blue House serves food.”

“They don’t have the tea my wife wants,” he said.

“They don’t have tea?”

“The tea my wife likes, it’s purple, like fruit, I got it at the shack at the edge of the city.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you tell Katida to go get it?”

“Katida? You know Katida?”

“You have a wife; you know Katida.”

“You have a wife?”

“No! I’m not old enough to have a wife,” the boy laughed, shaking his dark hair with drama.

“Then how you know Katida?”

“Everyone know Katida, Jackson. She looks for a home.”

“I thought she worked at the lodging house.”

“Work? I forget, you don’t live here. There’s the tent,” he said. “Most married men have a Pegasi woman.”

“That’s new,” the captain muttered.

“Cetian women, some like it, some not, but men can’t have their wives if the wives are having babies, you know,” he said with a laugh. “My parents weren’t like that. I don’t have siblings. And Pegasi women only been here the last nine or ten years.”

“That’s a huge culture change,” Jackson said, remembering the city and people before the Pegasi came with their promise of electricity and the Kiians helped them with the promise of jobs and wealth.

“Why do you say? Before Pegasi women, Cetian women do the same.

“I never knew that,” Jackson admitted. Earthlings hadn’t routinely kept mistresses, or practiced polygamy, for centuries. It was a distasteful arrangement to him, but he had no business judging other cultures’ morals.

They stopped at the tent and Jackson ordered the tea, learning its name was afreesia, made from the leaves of a berry found only in the warmest parts of the world, imported from Iota Pegasi. He bought hot ciders for the girls, and c ground black bean brew for Jake and himself. Still puzzled about currency, he let the merchant select the coins from his palm, for which Polaab returned a great smile.

“Your wife likes the Pegasi tea?” Jake sported a wide grin on his gingerbread face.

“I didn’t know anything about it. She just loved it; I wanted to get her some.”

“You’re kind to her.” They turned and headed back toward the omnibus rails that Jackson could follow back to the Big Blue House. “You wanted to ask me about the radio?”

“Yes, if I may?” Jackson looked down the knoll. “Girls, stay within my sight!” He turned back to the young man. “You said you were tracking the containers of nuclear waste.” Jake nodded. “How many are there up there?”

“A dozen.”

“When was the last time you counted?” Jake squinted and shook his head. “Two of them hit my ship.”

“No! When?”

“Yesterday. Killed two of my crew. Disabled my ship.”

“How dreadful,” Jake whispered. “I haven’t checked for a couple days. I had no idea.”

“Where is your radar aimed?”

“I couldn’t tell you right now. I’d have to see the telemetry.”

“Those things have to go. They could be more murderous than even what they’ve already done. I took Maria Mitchell to a damn high orbit to get away after the second one got us.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, how did you hit one?”

“It hit us. My pilot avoided it, but they’re attracted to the hull. I suppose they’re magnetic opposites. In orbit my ship is generally positively charged, the containers--”

“Are negative,” Jake said, finishing his sentence. The young man placed a hand on Jackson’s arm, his face turning to a pale peach color. “Can I help in some way?”

“If I can think of a way, I’ll let you know. But I should get this to my wife and we’re going to leave orbit as soon as the ship’s integrity is restored for space flight.”

“What should they do with it?”

“Shoot it into Tau Ceti. They’re already doing the dangerous part: getting it off the planet.”

“It would cost a lot to send them to the sun.”

“It cost me two men, an airlock, and my mess hall, not to mention the mental trauma of the crew that survived. If others, not just humans, come into orbit and those things hit someone else, it will be the end of the economy related to that thing,” Jackson said, glancing over his shoulder at the ever-present tower.

“Maybe I should talk to someone at the plant,” Jake mused.

“They know about it now. The Earth Space Agency will be opening an investigation and demand reimbursement for the time and materials, plus punishable damages for my men.”

“Would you like me to wait for you?” Jake asked as the girls ran up the steps and into the boarding house.

“Thank you, yes. You can come in, I’m sure.”

“Katida.”

“The green ones are not your cup of tea?” Jake laughed. Jackson nodded and took the tea inside.

“What took so long?” Rianya griped.

“Sorry, Love, the lady from yesterday wasn’t there, and we ran into Jake.” She tasted the tea, then took several swallows without stopping. “It’s called afreesia, the Pegasi women brought it from their home world.”

“I need to get out of this room,” she declared, standing up and stretching.

“We can go back to the ship today. I do want to talk to Jake about the LLW.”

“When?”

“We’ll be on the last transport. I want to be sure everyone else is up first.” He took her hand to help her balance. “Maybe you should go up to Maria Mitchell this morning, take the girls, and I’ll take care of things here and you won’t be so bored.”

“Nothing doing. This is my last day on a real world, not sealed inside a starship for months on end caring for a baby.”

Jackson could hear the anxiety in her voice, a sharp tone that escaped despite her contrived smile. He pulled on cashmere gloves.

“Do you want me to help or get out of your hair for the day?” Rianya squeezed his hand and took as deep a breath as she could.

“I think I just need a little time alone in the sunshine. Can you watch the girls and come find me when it’s time to go?”

“Whatever you want to do. Where should I look for you? It’ll be around dinner time. We might as well eat here. The mess hall is the last thing on the ship’s to-do list.”

“I’m going to stay by the beach. It’s peaceful, there. Maybe I will shop a little.”

“Come on, girls. We’re going back to town. Mamá wants to rest by the sea.”

“Tell me where you found the tea, first, though.”

Jackson hadn’t realized the genuine difficulty of keeping his eyes on two dancing children at the same time he was working on a problem until the situation arose. He shooed them ahead, which made it easier to keep them in his line of sight as opposed to behind him.

“Come to my home, and we can talk more, and the little ones can dance in the yard behind the house.”

“I was thinking maybe the radio station,” Jackson said.

“It’s a long walk. I ended my work shift just half an hour ago.”

“Of course, I forgot.”

“It’s not far, I’m at the north part of the town, outside the hamlet.”

As they traveled farther from the sights, smells, and sounds of the festival fun, Jackson had time to shuffle through his brain and assess his priorities. Birds sang, oblivious to the people below, and the breeze rustled the summer leaves under their tiny feet. Jackson would have appreciated a brief interlude to listen, but he’d have to wait until he got back to Novissimus for that kind of peaceful walk.

“This is the last night of the festival,” Jake said.

“Looking forward to the power?”

“Yes and no. It’s my livelihood, but it’s not natural. I finally had the house connected after my mother died. She didn’t trust it.”

“There were some difficult issues in the beginning. I was here.”

“I was just a baby, then. It’s always been here, my whole life it seems. But my mother never had the house powered.” They turned off a gravel street and onto a hardpan road. Tom’s heart jumped into his throat when he recognized the curious home a few doors away.

“Jake, do you know the woman who lives in that house, Quinaal? She’s an alchemist, I believe.”

Jake stopped, tilted his head at the captain and smiled, squinting.

“How do you know her?”

“We met, probably twenty years back.” The smile on Jake’s face vanished and his eyes focused hard, the amber flecks almost dancing like an open fire.

“I know you!” the man said, poking his finger against Jackson’s chest twice. “You’re Captain Tom!”