Wine of the Gods 4: Explorers (24 page)

"I wonder if they'll remember enough
to open a gate themselves?"

"Now
that
would be interesting."

15 June
3477

Karista, Capital of the Kingdom of the West

Roxy was glad of her position, behind Jerry, as the Veronan Ambassador steepled his fingers and looked them over.

"That was easily the most insultingly stupid speech I've ever heard. The superiority inherent in the attitude makes me suspect that what you consider a good relationship between states is very different than my definition. If you wish, I will forward a letter to the Emperor. I suggest you apply your intelligence to not insulting him. Or perhaps you should apply someone else's intelligence. Yours doesn't seem to be up to the task."

Roxy cleared her throat, and stepped up beside Jerry. "Quite apart from the government's attempts at diplomacy, I represent a company that searches for mineral deposits and mines them. The situation, with no one claiming the opposite hemisphere, leaves us a bit uncertain as to whom we should be negotiating
with for mining rights. King Leano mentioned the possibility of a joint committee of all five polities to negotiate with us. I have a letter explaining our usual contracting policies, if you would be so kind as to send this to the appropriate persons. I have included a copy for your own information."
Thank you Lon, for sending so many alternate sorts of letters!

"Thank you. Miss Seabaugh, was it?" He accepted the sealed envelope and the copy with a faint nod of his head. "Mr. Hastings, Mr. Kolnavik, perhaps you should take lessons in how to sound intelligent from her. Thank you for coming by, it has been most enlightening."

Roxy headed for the door.

Jerry gave it one more try. "We might trade for horseless carriages."

"Noisy, smelly, ugly. Go away."

The DONA Agents reluctantly joined the general exodus.

Outside he scowled at Roxy. "It's not a good idea to undermine each other like that."

Dr. Galina snorted. "Jerry, you are your own worst enemy. You are talking do
wn to these people as if they are little children. Find some common sense and talk to them as if they were honest to god human beings, some of them considerably smarter than you are."

"They are
primitives." Jerry snapped, and sat in the rear passenger seat, no doubt trying to emphasize that Roxy was a mere company driver. Rae took the front seat, leaving Ivan to join Jerry in the back.
Like a child.

Once they were moving, Rae happily removed sticky spots from her hands and sealed them in plastic envelops, carefully filling out labels. "DNA samples," she said. "Every time I touch someone, I collect cells. I should have thousands, by the time we head home. I just wish I had my equipment here, so I could analyze them."

Ivan snorted. "Where's everyone else, today?"

"Farnsworth is at the bank. He used
opening an account as an opening to find out all about their monetary system. Anne Jenkins is back at the farmer's market. I doubt we'll see much of her. Meyers and Prescott are walking around listening to people, jaws dropped in amazement or something." Roxy glanced back over her shoulder. "Are you understanding everything they say? I can translate if you need me to. You should have said something." She turned up their alley and swung into the 'stables'.

Jerry waved that irritably away. "We're both experienced at picking up new dialects. These guys are easier than most
English derived cultures." He thumped into the house, taking his ire out in stomping around. "That wasn't worth waiting almost two weeks for."

Ivan sighed. "He was right about that speech, though. Let's see if we can fix it, before we talk to the Auralians, next week."

"We're not allowed to fix the speeches."

Julianne stuck her head over the balcony railings. "Either Scott or I had better go with you. Their language is a hodgepodge of
English, Spanish and Arabic."

Roxy nodded. "Yes, Please. Do you think they'll have a problem with a letter in Merican?"

"I expect they'll get the gist of it. After all, they deal with the Kingdom all the time."

The Auralian Ambassador got to his feet and walked around the group, looking them all over. Finally he shook his head. "After that bombastic tripe, I was tempted to punish your presumption in so addressing the direct representative of the Amma by keeping one of your women, but they are too old. I wouldn't insult my gardener by sending one on to him." He stopped and stepped into Jerry's personal space. "But one can always use another eunuch. So mind your tongue."

Roxy repeated her Company spiel, and sat the letter and copy on the Ambassador's desk.

He sniffed. "A woman, doing business? How unimpressive." He sat back and spoke to the group, using as many foreign words as he could. The gist seemed to be that he thanked them for the forewarning of what sort of people the Earthers were, judging by the representatives they sent. He expressed considerable lack of interest in either diplomatic relations or mining agreements.

He bared perfectly straight white teeth. "Unless, of course, you are offering me weapons."

"Weapons?" Jerry recoiled.

"I understand that you want a single government to negotiate with. Let's not be naive. The proven method is though warfare. If you want a single ruler, let's talk about what weapons you have, how many you will be 'selling' us and how many men you will send to train the Amma's army
in the new methods."

"We do not arm
natives! Not ever!"

The Ambassador grinned ferally. "Really? I think that's enough. Leave me."

Jerold glumly rewatched the vid of the meeting. It hadn't been pretty.

Scott and Julianne were shaking their heads over it.

Scott was explaining. "He was using Arabic and Spanish words to insult you. All the
English was unobjectionable. There he called you stupid. There that you were born a Eunuch. There a whore. That phrase implied your mother was into bestiality."

Julianne was frowning at the vid. "His whole attitude was amused, arrogant and knowing."

Jerry nodded. "At least the Veronans were merely skeptical. But I couldn't even interest them in the gyps. 'Noisy and smelly' they said."

Ivan knocked and walked in. "Some possible good news. We've all been invited to the Cove Islands Embassy for a party. The anniversary of their current king's ascension to the throne. Maybe we can actually talk to people, instead of playing these games, one upping each other."

They stared at him. Jerry shook his slowly. "Ivan, haven't you ever been to an Embassy party? It's
all
one-upmanship. And you Ladies had better beware. Trying to compromise your reputations is fair game."

"Worse than that would be a reputation of being unfashionable. Frumpy." Julianne frowned. "How are we doing for funds? We are all going to need clothes. Let me talk to Mrs. Groiter about styles and who to see for a really top quality gown."

Jerold gritted his teeth. "Are you going to use embassy or company funds? Oh, never mind. We're all in this together, and the amount of work the four of you are doing for DONA is enormous."

Roxy sniffed. He'd have no idea how often he was being insulted without Scott and Julianne.  Anne Jerkins was spending her time down in the Native market, learning about farming and middle to low class tradesmen's culture. Farnsworth had gotten an introduction to a banker and broker who dealt with financing large projects, insuring them and underwriting ones they weren't directly involved with. He was very impressed with their financial system. Jerold had to know his report home, however disappointing diplomatically, was going to be an excellent in-depth look at this society. The main holes, in fact, were the upper class, religion and the teleporting. The "magic" that those four "gods" could do. Rae was tearing her hair out, with all the samples she'd collected, and her laboratory half a world
away. She was certain that the "magic" had to be genetically conferred. Roxy was keeping what she considered a healthy skepticism. There could be a high tech explanation, and these people either didn't know it, having lost the ability to build it, or perhaps they kept their position at the top of this society by pretending they did magic. She rather leaned toward the later, it would explain a lot.

Jerry cleared his throat. "Right. Well, this party may give us some contacts in the upper class, which would be useful. Right now, I think I'll take a
drive down to that 'Temple of Ba'al.' It's that place the Romeo guy teleported to, here in the City. We really ought to find out what happened. Everyone swears by these 'Old Gods' but that ruin is the only church I've ever seen." He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "More than half our time is gone and we've spoken to only three of the five governments on the planet."

The front door slammed and Rae came in grinning. "I just saw Never and Question. They're here on business, and I invited them to come see the embassy when they're done, which should be in about three hours."

Jerry nodded. "Maybe they know something about Ba'al." He stomped out.

Roxy hesitated, unsure of the wisdom of letting him go out alone. Lon would have a fit.
Especially since they'd all been ignoring that rule, once they got used to the city. But those ruins . . . She sighed and headed for the door. She flagged down a cabby with a light weight trap pulled by a single horse. Once one got used to the overall horsey smell of the place, it was quite a nice city.

The cabby dropped her off at the front gates of the ruined church and left immediately. Roxy wondered if she wasn't breaking one of Lon's rules herself, coming here alone, but Jerry's gyp was parked in the shade of a big tree to one side of the main building. She trotted up the steps and peeked through the open doorway.

The building was one huge room. Circular, with tiers leading down perhaps ten meters to the central floor. Toward the back of the circular floor, four steps enclosed a raised square platform, and at the back of the platform, a thick square column of black rock rose until she was looking slightly up, from where she stood, at an ornate golden throne. Jerry was looking at something on the steps up to the square platform. He looked around at her footfalls.

"Yeah, I know. Never go out alone. But look at this weird thing."

It was a statue. It lolled on the steps, naked, a bit more than life size.

"Looks like someone needs to go on a diet." She tapped the bronze arm, but didn't raise a sound. "And perhaps surgery. Although I suppose the over abundance of testicles is probably symbolic of fertility or virility."

"It's an incredible work of art. Look at the detailing of the musculature. He's strong, as well as a bit fat. And as you say, symbolic."

"The Great God Ba'al is not a symbol. He is the god himself, made metal, to serve his worshippers through the ages."

They both turned and eyed the woman, up on one of many hanging balconies above ground level.

"What happened?" Roxy waved at the charred ceiling, the partial collapse had obviously been long enough ago for the floor to have been cleared.

"Two witches ensorcelled the god, and goaded him into a rampage through his followers. They were evil women, the Black Goat of Scoone served them, fought with them. Finally the god broke free and stopped himself from harming any more people."

"By turning back into a statue?"

"Yes. We moved him back here, and he is slowly reforming into his usual self." The woman smiled thinly. "I see you doubt me, but come every week and see for yourself if the god does not move."

Roxy edged nervously toward the door.

Jerry eyed the woman. "We're here to establish diplomatic relations. I'd like to talk to your religious leaders."

"I am the Divine Bride of the God, General of his Armies. Speak."

"Erm, I assume you mean army of faithful followers, not fighters."

"All the faithful are trained to defend the church. The King has dismantled our Army, but when the God calls them, they will return, trained soldiers and officer
s alike."

"You seem to be the only religion on the
world. My government is a strong supporter of religious freedom. We like working with religious leaders, who can carry our words to the populous."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I will deliver my people to you? Convince me that your government would be better for the god than the King and his Council."

Jerry 's shoulders relaxed, and he beamed at the woman. "It is our policy, in taxing our subject worlds to first give ten percent to the Church."

"Ah. Taxes. You speak as a conqueror, rather than a trading partner. The God bows to no one, and admits no superior power. I will wait and see what you and your government actually do, and consult with the god before speaking further. You should go now."

Roxy headed for the door, and glanced back at the lagging Jerry. The lolling statue seemed to be frowning in their direction.
Larger than life size, or should I say, about the size of the Auld Wulf, who also claimed to be a god?

Back at the 'embassy', Roxy followed the high pitched voices.