Page 38 of Defiance
“Aye, except I’m an expert in something that doesn’t exist there. It’s not like they’re farming Atlantic salmon or trout. I suppose I could go and work in aquaculture again, but I like that I can follow my curiosities instead of a paycheck now. I’m old enough that I don’t feel the need to chase a career anymore.”
Sath smiled, watching me eat. “So you were a farmer?”
I tilted my hand this way and that. “I managed artificial spawning channels for large fish farming operations.”
“Spawning…?”
Did the tips of Sath’s crest turn a burnt shade of cinnamon? I tapped the corners of my mouth to make sure no zesty roe was peeking out of my lips, and took a sip of water, buying time. I’d really put my foot in it. Sath was so easy to talk to that I’d forgotten it might be a sensitive topic. Maybe I’d just casually mentioned being a dominatrix. At least I hadn’t started talking about eggs and milt.
Would my linguitor translate hjarna jip as milt?
“Oh!” I cleared my throat, ears going pink. “Well, ah… Yes.” I grimaced good naturedly.
Sath blinked, brushing his long fingers on the table. “If it interests you, I could invite you to mine.”
I stared at him, bident halfway to my mouth. “Your… spawning channel?”
“The La?we channels are very well maintained.” He sat up a little straighter. “And HIXBS has an aquatic xeno-ecology lab here in Hja Qiyua that I’ve heard is quite remarkable. Perhaps I can replace the outings I’d planned for Imani Renatex, hm, with these. If you’re amenable, of course.”
“Okay,” I decided with a slow nod. “If it’s really alright. I don’t want to intrude on something so personal.”
“I’d be honored to give you a tour, Charlie. No trouble at all.”
We stood, Sath paid, and I took the rest of my salad to go, wondering exactly how excited was too excited to see the spawning channel of a man I’d just met.
17
Hja Qiyua was an incredible relic. The city was millenia old, the only piece of early hjarna history that still existed above ground. It had been buried for centuries before being restored, and raw printer drones were still busy everywhere. They repaired crumbling columns and reconstructed ancient temples from the remnants of their foundations. Some worked in cramped quarries between buildings like a colony of bees, printing stacks of mud bricks for biognostic and uid contractors to carry off for their projects. I found myself constantly checking under my feet around steps, since they tended to skitter around where foot traffic was heaviest. Like mice that whirred instead of squeaked.
Hjarna were apparently very committed to progress, and had lost a significant amount of their own history because of it. Rather than keep something for its sentimentality and legacy, they were cutthroat about making space for the next generation. They demolished as much as they built and regulated growth with painstaking care. If they didn’t, Piaoguo itself could run out of life-sustaining resources within a generation.
So sure, they might have looked a teensy bit like “little green men” with their long fingers and big black eyes—nevermind that they were tall with vibrant personalities—but that urge to colonize the galaxy was understandable. They needed a back-up plan, observed other species making their wayon other planets, and thought,maybe we can be each other’s safety nets.
They hadn’t had much to share, but threw themselves into a whirlwind of building anyway. A sort of trust fall, perhaps. They sacrificed a lot of their own resources, building up an infrastructure of education and research and trade that could withstand world-ending disasters.What ifwas a mantra to the hjarna. Not just what could go wrong, but also what could spark innovation.
In order to do it, though, they’d destroyed a part of themselves. Dismantled their cities, turned over their metal jewelry and dishes, and rationed food. They’d drained spawning channels for water to cool nuclear reactors, and started farming sacred beetles to replace animal proteins in their diet. They modified their own genome to increase drought tolerance and slow down the adverse effects of micro-gravity to build the Union’s fleet.
That had been centuries ago, but the effects still scarred the hjarna culture. Their famous stutter—saying hm or yes in the middle of sentences—was a symptom of those modifications, and their gene pool was dangerously homogenous. They were proud of their sacrifices, though, and saw an age of rebuilding ahead of them. An archeological boom had taken over Piaoguo in the last decade as people became more fascinated with history and self-expression.
“Maybe a privilege of stability,” Sath mused, leading Agent Gaul and I through the striped stone halls of the riad we’d be staying in. The hallways were open to the dark blue sky with white cloth shades hung from painted arches every few meters. The arches were so tall that they were visible from the market streets, and if I hugged the left side of the path, I could see the walls of the Medial Palace on the hill at the riad’s back.
“Is there a security room?” Gaul asked.
“Ah, yes.”
Sath pulled up his holotab and sent a packet of files to Agent Gaul. He scrolled through them as Sath unlocked a door with his palm, revealing a suite down three steps just like the restaurant. It had a domed ceiling and was painted lavender with white stripes. The bedding was thin, balanced on what looked like a wicker frame with sheer white curtains.
I appreciated the room as Sath unloaded my personal bag from his shoulder and set it on a window ledge beside everything else Ambassador Zufi had packed for me. The window was a box with a single thin sheet of shale carved into an intricate lattice pattern that kept the room cool.
“Every room has a biolock, and the gate requires authentication from the Palace Guard,” he said, standing with Agent Gaul while I shucked my boots with a moan.
My bodyguard’s eyes snapped to me, though he kept talking to Sath. Lord, he couldn’t smell my socks, could he? I picked my boots up and moved them to the window nook just to be sure.
“Who has access?”
Sath nodded to Gaul’s holotab. “You have the access list and the authority to view vid feeds throughout the estate. It is small, yes. Three private rooms, a bath, and a bay station for any printing needs. It includes a pantry for food storage. The courtyard, of course.”
“Aerial defense?”
