To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [16]
It was as Udar Kishrit had promised. The fourth group of children was the last body of Ne’elatians to participate in the formal rites of welcome. As soon as they were gone, he spoke a few words to officially conclude the ceremony, then offered Ambassador Lelys his arm and personally escorted her into the nearby palace of government. The others followed.
The palace of government seemed to have been made of air and light rather than stone. Shining pink pillars of elfin slenderness soared to support ceilings that had been painted to resemble spring skies. Tiled floors offered up scenes of unknown gods casting golden nets out into the depths of space to snare a dazzling catch of comets and suns and planets, with here and there the silvery sliver of a starship like a minnow tangled in the strands.
They passed many Ne’elatians in the palace halls, some hefting scrolls and books and papers, some carrying piles of thin, inflexible tablets that clattered together, and others still speaking into hand-held communication devices. In short, they saw all stripes and breeds of bureaucrats, hard at work or at least trying to give that impression. Udar Kishrit and the other members of the Masra’et paused now and then to detain one of the scurriers. Always their interview began with the proud and joyous presentation of Ambassador Lelys as “she who has given us back the stars.” At last they reached a private room where a long, low table made of transparent crystal gleamed like a sheet of ice. Backless chairs with high armrests and overstuffed cushions stood waiting. Udar Kishrit seated the Orakisan ambassador at what had to be the place of honor, a gracefully curved indentation on one of the table’s longer sides. Then he and the other council members took seats facing her. There seemed to be no formalities now, though as head of the Masra’et, Udar Kishrit’s place was directly opposite the ambassador’s. The representatives of Starfleet were allowed to choose their own places.
Either they have called off all ceremony or they have decided that we are no longer important, Troi mused.
And yet when Udar Kishrit first invited us to the planetg surface—insisted on it, in fact—he was almost too deferential. I’ve seen this kind of behavior before. This man has a face for every occasion. She glanced sidelong at Captain Picard. To judge by his bearing he had reached the same conclusion as she concerning Udar Kishrit, and was wary.
Udar Kishrit himself was seemingly oblivious to the scrutiny of his character. He leaned across the table, all goodwill, his whole body transformed into one giant, ongoing embrace to enfold the ambassador.
“I thank you, gracious lady, for your patience with our rites,” he told her. “I realize that our welcome must have been tedious for you, but we had no other choice. All guests are sacred, their coming to be hailed and honored, and such a guest as yourselfl But now that we have served the teachings, we can speak freely.
How we have dreamed of this day! It has been too long in coming. Take no offense, but you come to us like a creature out of the old legends, a wonderful impossibility. Until your arrival, we did not know that such a world as Orakisa existed, seed of our common mother.” “And we did not know of Ne’elat’s existence either,” Lelys replied. “Not at all.” A dark look crossed her face like a passing cloud.
“You are troubled,” Udar Kishrit said in a most ingratiating tone. “How can I ease this?” “Udar Kishrit, I will not dissemble. We did not come here seeking our sisterworld for its own sake. If circumstances had been otherwise, we would have put off reestablishing contact with you for years yet.” In as few words