"They've seen bald women before," Esmay said. "Besides, I can get a wig. If you think it's best . . ."
"If you're willing, it would certainly please the older members of the Landsmen's Guild."
What Barin would think of a bald wife, if she saw him again before her hair grew out, she didn't know. But the ache below her breastbone told her this was the right thing to do.
"According to my researches," the docent said, "they did not shave their heads—merely cut their hair as short as they could. Then they went into exile from their former lands until it grew long enough to touch the shoulders." A very practical way, Esmay thought, to ensure that the new Landbride had time to gain control without interference from the former Landbride.
"I expect I'll be away longer than that," Esmay said.
"It'll be easier if we braid it," Brun said. "Here, sit down."
"Good grief, it's fluffy," she said, as she tried to coax the first strands into a braid.
"I just washed it," Esmay said. "You know that."
"Well, we'll have to wet it again, or we'll have wisps instead of braids. Kate, bring me a bowl of water."
Docent Faiza was disposed to be solemn about it, but even his solemnity was no match for the cheerfully irreverent banter of Brun and Kate as they struggled with Esmay's recalcitrant hair. "I know I told you to get a layered cut next time," Brun said, "but this is ridiculous. Nothing's the same length as anything else . . ."
When they were done, Esmay had little tufts standing up where the braids had been, and even her father and the docent couldn't keep a straight face.
"You should be glad we're your friends, Esmay," Brun said. "If we wanted to blackmail you—"
"I've been teased about my hair all my life," Esmay said. "You can't embarrass me that way. And now that I know what a good hairdresser can do—"
"Now," the docent said, getting formal again, "I wish you the best of luck in your military career, Esmay Suiza. You have brought honor to Altiplano, and I'm sure you will bring more." He rolled up the document, tied a black ribbon around it, and handed it to Esmay's father.
"You'll join us for some refreshment?" General Suiza said.
"Forgive me, General, but I cannot at this time. Later perhaps?"
"Of course. I expect to be here several days."
The planetside headquarters of the Regular Space Service comprised a warren of buildings that radiated from the back of the Ministry of Defense, tunneling under and bridging over streets and tramways and throwing out subsidiary departments into odd corners of other governmental offices. Esmay, her father, Brun, and the docent of Altiplano began at the front end, at the Ministry of Defense, where a harrassed staff immediately announced they were in the wrong place. "Try recruiting," one receptionist said. "It's in the Michet Building."
"It's a personnel matter, not a recruiting matter," General Suiza said.
"Oh—that would be the Corvey Building, but you have to go through security first. That way—" She pointed.
"That way" led down a long hall that wound to the right, then back to the left, and finally led them up a ramp to an elevated walkway along one side of a courtyard; down below, two people were talking, leaning on some kind of ornamental column. At the far end of the walkway, they came to the first set of guards.
"We're looking for the Corvey Building," General Suiza said. "They said it was this way."
"You don't have any ID tags," the guard said.
"Do we need ID tags?"
"Visitors are supposed to get ID tags at the kiosk by the entrance."
"There wasn't one," Brun said.
"Right by the State Street entrance—"
"We didn't come in the State Street entrance; we came in the Lowe Street entrance."
The guard frowned. "You're supposed to have ID tags to come in that entrance at all. Wait here." He stepped back and spoke into his comunit; they couldn't hear what he said; his eyes never left them. Then he stepped forward again. "Which sept are you?"
"Barraclough," Brun said without hesitation. "Why?"
The guard changed expression. "You're—you're the old speaker's daughter . . . .you're Brun Meager!"
"Yes," Brun said. She sounded slightly truculent.
He beamed at her as if she'd just handed him a fortune. "I never thought I'd get to meet you. You look different in that suit; I'm sorry I didn't recognize you right away. And these are friends of yours?"
"Yes," Brun said.
"Oh, well, then, I'm sure it's all right. If I could just see your ID, to have it on the records . . ."
Brun handed it over; Esmay was appalled. If they called this security—! She was glad Kate had decided not to come with them.
"That's fine, sera . . . milady?"
"Thank you," Brun said, without clarifying her status. "Are you sure it's all right? We don't want to get you in any trouble."
"No, sera, that's quite all right. It's an honor to be of service. If your friends don't mind, I'd like to put their names on the roster . . . will they need independent access? If so, we should get them some tags made up."
"Certainly," Brun said. "This is General Suiza, from Altiplano—his daughter Esmay Suiza—you may remember that she saved my life—"
The guard's gaze rested briefly on Esmay, then slid quickly back to Brun. "Yes—of course—the hero of Xavier."
"And the Docent of Altiplano, Ser Faiza."
"Docent?"
"Diplomatic status," Brun said, as if she'd always known it.
"Ah . . . yes, thank you, sers and seras. Sera Meager, I know it's an imposition, but if you wouldn't mind—my wife's a big fan—" He fumbled in his pockets and pulled out a crumpled shopping list. "Would you sign it?"
"Of course," Brun said, and scrawled her name with the stylus he offered.
The man said, clearly as an afterthought, "And you, Sera Suiza? My wife bought a cube of Sera Meager's rescue—"
Esmay fitted in her signature under Brun's—she couldn't think of a gracious way to refuse—and wondered if the 2 p. crts. on the list under her name was crates, carrots, or something illegal.
The guard waved them through double doors into another corridor—a bridge over a street—and at the far end another guard opened the matching doors for them. "Sera Meager? It's an honor—I'm calling ahead so you shouldn't be stopped again, just go down this ramp, turn left, take the first corridor to the right and keep going . . ."
Brun, in what Esmay considered an excess of honesty, said, "But weren't we supposed to go through security?"
"Oh, you don't want to bother with them," the man said. "They're backed up at least three hours processing recruit clearances from that new intake that came in overnight. My wife works in catalog over there; she called to tell me she had to work overtime tonight. You'd be sitting on a bench until dark, most likely, and besides—they're just not very helpful."
Esmay closed her mouth on the comment that security was not supposed to be helpful, but thorough. She had no more desire to sit on a bench for hours than anyone else.
"What you do," the man said, "is just go along here, and then out the door at the end, and straight across the Sif Memorial Garden to the side door of Corvey. Don't go in the front; they'll make you go back through security. Go in that side door; I'm calling Bev, and she'll be expecting you."
"Thank you," Brun said.
The Sif Memorial Garden was only a small courtyard with a plinth in the middle, two straggly trees, four flowerbeds, and two benches. Straight across—with a detour around the plinth—brought them to the side door of the Corvey Building, where a woman let them in.
"Sera Meager! I'm so glad to meet you! And you, of course, Sera Suiza. Although I should know your rank; I just don't remember—"
"Sera's fine," Esmay said. She could see, in the corridor ahead, figures moving about in the familiar uniform.
"I have temporary tags for all of you," the woman said. She pulled out four violently pink tags, with little clips attached. "These are only day passes; I believe your permanent passes will be ready this evening or tomorrow."
After all this confusion, Esmay was prepared for almost anything, she thought. Except for the discovery that her discharge hadn't yet been transmitted to Headquarters and therefore they couldn't reinstate her.
"Why not?" she asked. "Can't you at least take my application, and the proof that I'm no longer a Landbride, so when it comes in—"
"Well, we
could
, if it weren't for the mutiny. See, we have to run everything like that past the Judge Advocate General's office, and right now they're having some kind of snitfit because the admiral in charge disappeared, and they think he's part of the mutiny."
"And that means—?"
"It means they won't take anything from us without a complete file. For the complete file, we'd need a copy of the discharge order, with the file number an' everything, and your PR-S-87, your personnel file—"
"Isn't there a copy of that here?"
"Yes, of course. But it may not be complete, because your most recent evaluations may not have been forwarded yet. I can't think why the discharge wasn't, unless it was cancelled—"
"Cancelled?"
"Well—if someone overruled whoever signed it, when they got it, then they might have sat on it until you showed up and they could tell you. Let's see, where were you discharged?"
"Trinidad Station," Esmay said.
"Oh, dear."
"What?"
"You haven't heard? Trinidad was sacked by the mutineers several weeks ago. We can't get any records out of
them
. Do you have a discharge order?"
"Yes . . ." Esmay took it out and handed it over.
"Umph. Some people can't even sign their names legibly . . . I'll call up your file, and we'll see how out-of-date it is . . ."
Her file was up-to-date only as far as the ill-fated leave to visit Barin and his family. "Nothing here about a discharge," the clerk said. "The emergency orders that sent you from there to your next ship are here, but no more." He paused, looked thoughtful, then said. "If the discharge hasn't gone through, Lieutenant, you may actually be down as AWOL. You'd better go check with Personnel Assignment; I can't access their server from this station. That's in 2345. In the meantime, I'll ask what we'd better do about clearing this discharge up when we don't actually have it. Our CO's in a meeting, but he'll be back in the office any time now."
Trailed by her support group, Esmay headed off for 2345—up a lift and down another long corridor. Once in Personnel Assignment, she gave her name to the clerk and explained briefly that she was trying to straighten out her records. He called up her name, and let out a long whistle.
"You're in trouble, Lieutenant. You overstayed your leave, and we have you listed as a deserter. I'm going to have to call this in to the Judge Advocate General's office; please do not try to leave. Here—you were notified twice—" He turned the screen so she could read it. First there was a message addressed to her on the transport
Rosa Gloria
, pointing out that she had not reported for duty as ordered at Harrican and warning that she would be considered AWOL if she did not report in within 24 hours and a deserter if she had not reported within seven (7) days. A second message to the same address informed her that she was now considered a deserter and should turn herself in to the nearest Fleet facility or face pursuit and arrest. Both time limits had long since expired.
"Great," Esmay muttered as she read it. "Now I can be prosecuted for desertion after being thrown out on my ear . . ." Then, to the clerk, "I never got those notices; I wasn't on that ship because I'd been discharged."
"Do you have proof of discharge that predates this notice?" the clerk asked, as if he were sure she did not. "We should have had any such discharge in our records, which would have automatically cancelled this notice."
"Good thing we made those certified copies of your discharge certificate," Brun said. "Maybe we should have made more."
Esmay handed over one of the copies, and the clerk compared the dates and consulted a graphic of relative dates. Sure enough, she had been discharged at Trinidad well before she was supposed to have reported at Harrican. The clerk nodded. "Well, then, you're cleared of these charges presumptively, but I'll have to get it signed off . . . just wait right here. If you leave, I'll have to assume you're deserting again." He disappeared with all the documentation.
"I didn't desert the first time," Esmay muttered to the floor.
"This is stupid!" Brun said.
"No, it's the military," General Suiza said. "I hate to admit it, but even in Altiplano, we have mixups like this. Of course, there I can usually cut through it in less time, but even generals—and admirals, obviously—are at the mercy of clerks at times." He looked around the office. "I'm going to get us some chairs; we may be here awhile." He left before Esmay could say anything.