Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [51]
‘You!’ Mira declared with enough accusation in her tone for a lawmon demanding a life sentence for a killer.
* * * *
TRIN
Trin could not sleep. He see-sawed between shame and elation. Djeserit was a part-ginko and not quite an adult, yet he grew hard at the thought of her. Had her strangeness cured him of his need for bravura? He would know when he saw her again—and how he longed for that. Anticipation kept fatigue at bay: he should have been exhausted but still the energy flowed in him.
He dressed and went into the office where Nathaniel Montforte dozed over the desk.
Trin startled him awake. ‘You had a visitor from Pell earlier. He grew tired of waiting and said that he must return to the mountains. He left you this.’ Nathaniel yawned and pointed to a capsule on his desk.
Trin picked it up and turned it over in his hands. His data sponge was inside. He knew it. Joe Scali had been. ‘Bene, Montforte. Have you had a meal?’ he asked casually.
The young man shook his head.
‘I shall watch the shortcast for you.’
‘But the Capitano . ..’
‘I will log it as my request. See.’ Trin tapped an entry into the deskfilm’s diary. ‘It is hardly reasonable for both of us to be here when I am unable to sleep. Come back in a while when you have filled your belly.’
Nathaniel hesitated, then nodded his appreciation. Grazi, Don Pellegrini. The Capitano called me off my break cycle. I did not have time for food.’
Trin forced himself to smile: Nathaniel, at least, treated him with respect. ‘Take your time, Montforte. My card is empty.’
When he had left, Trin attached the sponge to his deskfilm and searched for the file from Lotte Perrone’s office. To his surprise the contents of the file were an audio-only record. He secured the coldlock to both doors before activating it.
Clearance level: tau.
Meeting between visiting dignitary (name available at clearance level: psi , hereafter referred to in this recording as SUPPRESSED ) and ambassadress for Araldis, Marchella Pellegrini.
Recorded and sealed 20/14/4006.
‘My apologies for any offence, Ambassadress Pellegrini: the sight of your beautiful planet excites my physiology. On my planet it is not a thing we hide. It prevents much deception when you can see what excites a person.’
‘SUPPRESSED, please call me Marchella. I have arranged a tour of the main equatorial mines for you. Our transport will depart shortly after breakfast.’
‘Will you be accompanying me…Marchella?’
‘That would please mia fratella, SUPPRESSED.’
‘But will it please me?’
(pause)
‘The variety of minerals on Araldis is due in part to its unusual geography. As you may be aware, Araldis has no definitive polar land mass like most other inhabited planets. Large subduction plates collide at each pole, creating the maze of islands that sprinkle the breadth of each hemisphere, ending in the ranges that fringe the belted land mass on which we live and which we mine. Araldis’s climate is extreme. While the polar waters are warm, due to the underwater volcanic activity, the islands are cool and wet. The Equatorial Belt, in the rain shadow of the ranges, is hot and arid.’
‘I have familiarised myself with Araldisian geography, Marchella Pellegrini. It is part of what makes its minerals so . . . special. Please join me for a meal.’
‘Thank you, SUPPRESSED, but I have eaten already.’
‘Then I will be offended. I need a guide through your foods. Please sit, Marchella. I may wear less clothing than you are used to, but I am quite harmless.’
‘This is kranse bread. It is our most successful crop and is very high in protein. The eggs are quark, and have an unusually dry texture—again, high in protein. The sea cucumbers are crisp. The roe is from the Tourmaline Islands and may be saltier than you are used to. I recommend that you drink it with wine. Araldisian Reds are our most famous export, after our minerals, SUPPRESSED. We have numerous varieties. Though the grapes are grown in climate control, the Araldisian soil that nourishes