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Colemenoport

Wayfarer


“Good evening, Priscilla.”

Smiling, she looked up from the desk in the window. He felt her regard sweep over him even as she pushed back her chair and rose.

“Sit down,” she said. “I’ll pour the wine.”

Shan raised his eyebrows.

“As dire as that?”

She moved across the room to the refreshment stand.

“Only half as dire,” she said. “Sit down, love.”

“Since you ask so nicely.”

He put his case on the chair near the door, slipped off his jacket and hung it on the back before crossing to the U-shaped half-sofa that had become their preferred meeting spot.

He sat with a sigh.

“Truly, Priscilla, I don’t mean to disturb your work.”

“It’s scarcely work, and well worth interrupting. Portmaster krogerSlyte sent me a list of lectures on the topic of the mosaic depicting the Landing at Colemeno that we had all admired on our arrival, and professes herself at my service as an escort to any I might care to attend.”

She came to the sofa, handed him a glass of the red, keeping a glass of mint tea for herself, and sank down next to him.

“Ought the portmaster’s attention concern me?” Shan inquired.

“I’ll try not to break her heart,” she answered dryly.

“You are always so nice in these affairs, Priscilla,” he said earnestly, and raised his glass.

“To work worth interrupting.”

Priscilla tipped her head, though she raised her glass and touched it to his just hard enough to waken a ring.

“Hardly the most auspicious of toasts,” she murmured.

“Well. I fear I may be instructed by my daughter, who expressed her wish that the master trader would allow her father some rest this evening.”

“Not so ill a wish. Do you think the master trader will grant it?”

“In some measure, I believe he may. There are documents to review, but I believe most may wait upon tomorrow.” He sipped his wine and sighed. “Indeed, ought to wait until we have toured the facilities, and know for ourselves what is in hand and in what condition. This whole venture being sky-pie, there’s surely no need to make more.”

“Not entirely pie in the sky,” Priscilla said. “Unless the Dust hasn’t actually receded?”

“Oh, no, that seems to be a certainty. Whether Colemeno wants to open itself and boldly rejoin the rest of the universe—that remains at question.”

He sipped his wine, and leaned forward to put the glass on the table.

“On that topic, you may be gratified to learn that the Council has assigned one of its number as the liaison to the trade mission.”

“That is news. When will we meet her?”

“Padi and I met him briefly this evening. The entire team will meet him at nuncheon tomorrow, after the tour.”

He moved his shoulders.

“His name is Majel ziaGorn, and his honor is Chair of the Citizens Coalition. Portmaster krogerSlyte places great confidence in him, and brought him herself to make his bow. We have exchanged contact information, by which I find that he also owns a casino.”

Priscilla lifted her eyebrows.

“A casino?”

“You don’t approve of casinos?”

She did not dignify that with an answer, and nor, Shan thought, reaching again for his glass, should she have.

“It only seems very odd that there would be casinos in a place where everyone is Talented.”

“Yes, but do you know? Majel ziaGorn isn’t Talented. He is quite refreshingly normal.”

Priscilla’s brows knit; she sipped her tea, and put the glass aside.

“And the Council of the Civilized assigned him to us,” she said. “That’s interesting.”

“Isn’t it? And a casino argues that he is not alone in lacking a Talent.”

“So it does. I’ll be pleased to meet him tomorrow.”

“Excellent. Speaking of tomorrow, Padi will be meeting us at the market. She is tonight promised to Tekelia.”

Priscilla tipped her head.

“And that distresses you?”

He half-laughed.

“I would put it no higher than concern, but that would merely be a quibble,” he said.

“Yet Tekelia stood as a staunch ally, and assisted you, and Padi, when there was need.”

“And in addition seems a person of honor, if quite appallingly strong for even a dramliza.” Shan moved his hand. “Forgive me, Priscilla; I fear I am coming the parent.”

She laughed gently.

“As a parent, my love, you must trust your work. You have raised a strong, sensible woman, who is both generous and fierce.”

He sighed.

“She is all of that,” he allowed.

“So,” Priscilla said, after a moment. “Padi will not be joining us for the meal. Dyoli and Mar Tyn have already said that they will dine in their rooms. Grad, Karna, and Tima are reviewing a new training module that came down from the ship today. Tima told me that they would order some cold trays and browse.”

“Which leaves us alone for the meal,” Shan said.

“So it would appear.”

“Then I have a proposition for you, Priscilla. Allow the master trader an hour to read the documents necessary to tomorrow’s tour. We may then follow the excellent examples before us, and retire to our room to dine tête-à-tête and take whatever recreation may seem good to us.”

“I accept your proposition, sir, and note that the captain still needs to read that same documentation.”

“We might read it together, then,” Shan said.

“So we might. Let me refresh our glasses while you get your case.”


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