An Accidental Alliance (20 page)

     
“Marisea, what are you doing in here?” Park asked. “I thought I locked the adjoining door.”

    
 
“You did, spoilsport,” Marisea laughed. “Oh, I’m just teasing you, Park. You take this so seriously, it’s hard to resist, and I really did want a kiss good night. On the cheek would have been sufficient. Anyway, Iris asked me to wake you up. You have to admit it worked.” She jumped back off the bed. “The council is meeting today and they want you there.”

     
Marisea hopped back out of the room and was nowhere to be seen by the time Park was up and dressed. “We have got to find her a boyfriend in her own species,” he told his wife.

     
Iris laughed, “That is not going to be a problem. We had a little chat while you were sleeping this morning.”

     
“And then she climbed into bed with me,” Park told her.

     
To his surprise Iris laughed again. “You shouldn’t lead her on so, then,” she teased. “Relax. She told me what she planned. Mer teens play around like that all the time I’m told. I asked several adults about it last night. It rarely goes beyond hugging and kissing, not with a young lady of Marisea’s social status. Besides, I think she has several young men her age dying to date her after last night. Merely by being your second date, she suddenly became very desirable to her male peers. I understand that giving her my necklace helped there as well. In any case, if you missed it, she had a swarm of young men around her by the time the evening was over.

     
“She’ll be far more circumspect with them, I’m told,” Iris continued. “Kissing and cuddling with one’s first formal date is just practice, evidently. She may want to do it again in the future before she finds a more serious relationship. And some ladies continue to greet their firsts with hugs and kisses all their lives. It’s interesting behavior and it’s a shame we don’t have a full-time anthropologist back at the base. A study of the Mer culture would be interesting.”

     
“You can always do it as a hobby, or seek out some Mer culturologists as they call them,” Park suggested. Iris nodded and made a mental note to do so.

     
Over the course of the next week, Park, Arn and Iris managed to convince the Mer Council that launching the human’s satellites was worth the risk of angering the Galactics. The desire to strike back at the Galactics among the Mer was actually fairly strong and the real debates were along the lines of how much assistance the Mer government could give the humans and still be able to honestly call it a human project.

     
Park, in turn, was impressed by the fact the Mers wanted to be honest about that. Human governments, in his experience, cared little for honesty, often redefining the word to suit their own purposes.

     
In the end the Mer government promised to build a spaceship for the humans and deliver it to Van Winkle base before the actual launch of the satellites some two months hence. Park, however, surprised everyone by proposing that the crew on any mission flown in that ship would be a mix of human and Mer.

     
Arn had just passed Park a note asking if his brains had been left behind in a jar, when Prime Terius magnanimously extended a similar proposal for flights by ships owned by the Mer. “There is, in fact, a maintenance flight scheduled for next month,” Terius told them. “It would be a good idea for your people to get some real flight experience before trying out on your own. Simulators, I am told can only teach you so much.”

     
The spaceship would not be free, of course. If it had been simply a gift, the Galactics could claim any mission flown in it was still being conducted by the Mer, using the humans as a cover. Park pointed out the Galactics could claim that anyway, but the Mers were satisfied so long as they knew they would be able to tell the truth. And access to human records and technology was a priceless resource to the Mer. That they would have unlimited access to the oldest Earthly records known would, they felt, raise their own status in the eyes of the Galactics.

     
Priceless that knowledge may have been, but they set prices anyway, but even so it would leave the Mer in debt for a long time to come. Since they agreed there would be no interest charged on such a debt nor a short term deadline for payment, everyone was satisfied they had gotten the best deal possible.

     
Taodore also accepted an appointment from the Mer Government to serve as “Ambassador to the ‘Human Nation.’” Park thought calling forty-eight hundred men and women, counting those few who had wandered off and had not been seen since, a nation was somewhat ostentatious, but Taodore assured him that assigning the people of Project Van Winkle nation status was the correct and proper diplomatic thing to do.

     
“I’ll have to take your word for that,” Park laughed. “I’ve always tried to steer clear of governments and diplomats.”

     
“Ha!” Taodore laughed, “So have I, and yet here we both are. Well, if I had to finally bow to convention and join my government, I couldn’t ask for a more interesting and delightful posting.”

     
“Given your basic anatomy, I would have thought you would prefer a more watery locale,” Park commented.

 
    
“Most Mers would,” Taodore chuckled, “but I always have been one of the eccentrics. I must say, old boy, I owe you a debt of thanks for how you treated Marisea back in Ghelati.”

     
“It wasn’t so much,” Park shrugged, wondering how much Taodore really knew of what had happened the first couple of days.

     
“Oh, but it was,” Taodore replied. “I had been dreading how I would see her introduced to society and in fact I probably should have seen to it months ago. I realize it is customary to throw a large party to commemorate the occasion, although some of the young ladies see that as old fashioned these days. I never would have expected it to be dinner with the Prime, but still, one’s first official occasion is special.”

     
“So Marisea told me when she asked to be my second… is that the term?” Park asked.

     
“It’s actually short for second wife,” Taodore laughed, but on seeing Park’s startled reaction, he held up his hands. “No, no, you haven’t suddenly gotten married for the second time in as many months. But it is the term used when a man escorts two ladies to an official event.”

     
“Official,” Park echoed. “Don’t you mean formal?”

     
“It is pretty much the same thing,” Taodore explained. “You already know that I am one of the privileged class, right?”

     
“You never actually said, but I figured it out,” Park admitted. “Marisea going on about the formal dinner was a bit of the capper.”

     
“Yes,” Taodore nodded. “As it happens, you solved a lot of problems for me. I’ve been wandering around the globe for the last few years, taking Marisea with me when she was on school break, so neither of us has had much to do with the so-called polite society, but Marisea did deserve to enter that society in style. The problem was finding the opportunity and there weren’t many such among the Atackack or in the Eastern Hills of Australis. And then I would have needed to find the appropriate people to do the honors.” He sighed.

     
“The honors?” Park asked.

     
“Iris was wonderful,” Taodore told him. “One of the key… uh rituals? Maybe… Well one of the things that is supposed to happen is that a young lady is given her first piece of jewelry. When she took off her necklace and placed it around Marisea’s neck… Well, I was overcome. It was only later that I realized she gave Marisea the piece out of generosity and in a way that was even better. The act is supposed to symbolize how the recipient must be generous all her life and what is better than true generosity? And since Marisea lost her mother before she ever got to know her, it was perfect that Iris should play the part a young lady’s mother normally would.

     
“Having you act as Marisea’s
tamovir
was just as moving, Park.” Taodore continued.

     
“
Tamovir
?” Park echoed. “What’s that?”

     
“The
tamovir
is the gentleman who escorts a lady to her first official formal outing,” Taodore explained.

     
“I was never part of that sort of thing,” Park remarked, “but it doesn’t sound all that different from a coming-out ceremony, although there weren’t any ostentatious announcements, ceremonies or presentations.”

     
“Most do have that sort of thing,” Taodore nodded. “Many parents want their daughters to have a truly unique experience. My daughter and I have never been into that sort of ostentation. I have asked her many times what she wanted, but her answer was that it be something simple and wonderful. You gave her that.”

     
Park chuckled. “She pretty much set it up for herself. Iris giving her the necklace was a spontaneous gesture, but it was Marisea who asked me to escort her to the dinner.”

     
“Not at all out of the ordinary,” Taodore assured him. “You did kiss her goodnight at the end of the evening, didn’t you?”

     
“That was part of the tradition, was it?” Park asked.

     
“Oh yes, definitely,” Taodore replied.

     
“I sure wish I’d known that from the start,” Park muttered. “Where I come from, teen-aged girls do not generally throw themselves at men over twice their age.”

     
“Well, I imagine it was only a kiss or two and a few hugs, wasn’t it?” Taodore asked unconcernedly.

     
“Pretty much,” Park admitted.

     
“Marisea is actually a very well-brought up and traditional young lady at heart,” Taodore told him. “Some of the girls these days go entirely too far, if you follow me.”

     
“Well, I’m sure our anatomy would have been incompatible even if she weren’t,” Park commented.

     
“Not according to your biologists, old boy,” Taodore laughed. “Although I am glad to know you didn’t have the opportunity to find out.”

     
“You could have just asked,” Park told him, equally relieved.

     
“Much too blunt, old boy,” Taodore told him. “Just not the way I was brought up. However do not be shocked if she occasionally cuddles up with you in the future. Most ladies become quite fond of their
tamovir
s and frequently behave in a familiar manner with them. They say a girl never forgets her
tamovir
, so I’m glad you could make that evening truly special for her.”

     
Then Taodore changed the subject. “So, how long before that rocket of yours is ready for a systems test? I know there are several Mer scientists who are begging for a chance to come observe.”

     
“We can start those anytime I suppose,” Park told him. “Our excavators are still opening up the top of the silo and carving exhaust vents out of the bottom, but there’s no reason we can’t start the systems tests. We need to get mission control into order too.”

     
“So I should tell them to come here then?” Taodore asked.

     
“I should think so,” Park told him. “On the day of launch we’re going to have to have tracking stations all over Pangaea to monitor the launch and deployment of the satellites anyway. Do the Mer have any bases out in the middle of the Ocean?”

     
“There are a few stray archipelagos out there,” Taodore replied, “but nothing of interest save to a few scientists. Why?”

     
“Because we may want a tracking station or two out there too,” Park explained. “What about ships? Are there any out there?”

     
“Cargo ships sail the ocean regularly,” Taodore replied. “We have a military, but it’s mostly ceremonial, you know. We have not had an enemy to war with in millennia. There have been a few incidents with the Atackack, but those were mostly Kogack raids and easily repulsed.”

     
“Well, maybe we can place a tracking station temporarily on a cargo carrier or two that plans to be in the right place on launch day,” Park replied. If possible I want to be in constant contact with our bird.”

     
“Bird?” Taodore asked. “Why do you call it a bird?”

     
“In my day most birds were known for their ability to fly,” Park explained. “You have mostly other things in that ecosphere now, but… you have brought up another concern, though. The military. Has anyone thought to put them on alert? If they haven’t had a war in millennia, it’s probable no one is taking the possibility of trouble seriously enough now.”

     
“I shall look into that,” Taodore replied, “although to be perfectly brutal, if the Galactics choose to chastise us, we haven’t got a chance you know.”

     
“That remains to be seen,” Park replied grimly.

     
The Mer-built spaceship arrived at Van Winkle Base three weeks ahead of schedule to Park’s intense delight. The ship was larger than he had expected. When he honestly thought about it, he was not sure what he expected. The craft stretched out over three hundred feet of the runway and stood some sixty feet tall. It was shaped like a long isosceles triangle that was about seventy feet across at the base and he was assured could take off and land without the use of booster rockets. Half of its volume was actually a cargo bay, but the crew quarters seemed vast to Park as well.