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Ondry hissed and cast his gaze about the room. He needed to do something, but the room lacked any enemy to fight. With the exception of the eldest Grandmother sitting hunched on the largest couch, there was nothing other than furniture sized for Rownt much larger than him.
“Sit,” the Grandmother ordered. Her eyes were half closed, but she projected distress. Lines drew the corners of her eyes back and her skin was pale enough to match Liam’s.
Ondry turned his back to the Grandmother to avoid showing her a tooth, but he could not sit.
She gave a sharp hiss, and Ondry whirled back around. She had opened her eyes, and now she showed him a pair of long, white fangs. “Youngling, my palteia is injured and Grandmothers twice your size have fled the room to avoid my temper. Yet you loom over me showing your teeth. Sit, or I may neglect my rank in favor of my aggravation.”
Caution warred with distress, but Ondry chose a seat on the far side of the room. He didn’t need to get in a physical fight he was doomed to lose. He needed to remain healthy and alert so that he could kill whoever had caused Liam such damage. The Grandmother returned to stroking the animal. Apparently it did not have the ability to recognize the danger in an angry elder, because the dog leaned into the Grandmother’s leg. They sat in silence, and each passing moment was another weight added to the burden Ondry already carried.
The Grandmother glanced down at her computer, and Ondry shot to his feet in a heartbeat. She narrowed her eyes and nose before showing him a bit of tooth. Ondry sank back down. Right now he wished he had undergone the rotilac only so that he would be large enough to hold his own against her. Given the way she stared at him, Ondry felt like a child who had spilled food in his parent’s nest.
At least Ondry could intimidate the animal. It gave Ondry a suspicious look and headed toward the corridor that led to the medical unit, its toenails clicking against the deck. Ondry took a step in that direction, and the Grandmother gave such a dark hiss that Ondry jerked back. When a Grandmother sounded like that, a wise Rownt kept his attention on her and the nearest exit. After a second, the Grandmother turned her attention back to the computer. “The Grandmother says that both palteia suffer from low oxygen levels. Both will be fine,” she said, relaying the information she read on her computer
Relief washed away the darkest of Ondry’s thoughts. But he still wanted to rip a bone out of someone’s body. “What prevented them from getting oxygen?”
“You are pale.”
“I am angry.” Ondry expected that to earn him some censure—a narrowed nose at the very least. Instead, the Grandmother watched him impassively for several minutes. If anything, her signs of distress eased and the color returned to her features.
“My palteia also suffers,” the Grandmother said, and Ondry had to admit she had as much reason to be pale with anger. However, she appeared calm now that the Grandmother with the medical training had given her reassurance. Ondry assumed that meant the other Grandmother had superior skills. The Grandmother continued. “However, you carry the additional burden of youth.”
Ondry narrowed his nose at one more reminder that he was too young. “If I undergo the rotilac, I will remain angry that something hurt Liam.” Ondry would not have anyone pressure him—not Liam and not this Grandmother. And as much as Ondry would’ve liked the additional size, he would not have Liam uncomfortable. He would also not risk dying earlier at the exact time that Liam’s life could be extended.
The Grandmother set the computer next to her, the display side down. “The rotilac would make you larger. It would have only a limited impact on your reasoning or logic. However, I will not discuss the medical condition of our palteia unless you demonstrate more control over your actions than a Rownt of five hundred is likely to show.”
Rage flowed through Ondry’s veins as he understood what the Grandmother was not saying. She hoped to protect trade, and as far as Ondry was concerned, she was no better than an ututeh for caring about trade when Liam’s and Mora’s lives had been endangered. “The Imshee hurt Liam,” Ondry said in a dark tone.
Her nostrils narrowed and then flared open again before she answered. “They had no intent.”
Ondry had to take a moment to control his emotions, because his rage against the Imshee threatened to spill over onto the Grandmother who defended them. “The result matters to me more than the intent.”
The Grandmother tilted her head in agreement. “I agree. But one must look at the results in all directions and not be blinded by the sun when it hangs low.”
Now was not the time for platitudes, and Ondry was not a child to listen at a Grandmother’s knee. “What purpose could they have?”
Twin pale spots appeared on her cheeks. “They dislike that Rownt require levels of oxygen they find dangerous. Oxygen is volatile, and the Imshee fear the flammable nature of the element. Since the Rownt anatomy appeared to tolerate lower oxygen levels than we first communicated as part of our environmental requirement, they had lowered oxygen levels. Had we complained, they were prepared to increase the levels of the gas in the trading chamber.”
Ondry hated that he recognized the reason in the Imshee’s actions, because he wanted to grab one of those long legs and rip it out of the Imshee’s body. He still might. “The Imshee saw that we had two members of a much smaller species. Their fear does not justify their lack of caution with the health of our palteia.”
“They had no way of judging the human need for oxygen.”
“They should have asked,” Ondry said with a hiss.
Silence followed that. Perhaps the Grandmother hoped to show respect by contemplating Ondry’s words and perhaps she used his lack of patience against him, but Ondry disliked the feeling of helplessness and ignorance that trapped him.
She said, “It is not the Imshee way. They are highly competitive and secretive.”
Given that they had changed the environments without consulting the Grandmothers, Ondry had another opinion. “They are illogical.”
The Grandmother answered him with a huff. The silence returned, and Ondry fidgeted. Without either a physical outlet or the isil, his body ached from the excessive fear.
The Grandmother might have felt the same because she hauled herself upright before saying, “I am displeased with them. Even their eagerness to make amends cannot ease my displeasure.”
“They cannot make amends for this.” Ondry could not control another hiss from escaping. He had never wished to harm others. As a child, he would read storyscrolls of great battles or towns battling over land and he could not imagine himself ever engaging in such actions. Now he could. If the Grandmother declared a battle against the Imshee, Ondry would happily fight until he killed every one or died trying. He knew his reaction was illogical, and he still could not calm himself.
“Had one of the palteia been seriously injured, I would agree. However, we still require the assistance of Imshee genetic engineers.”
Ondry’s nose closed so fast that he still tried to breathe in through a completely closed nose and ended up sneezing.
The Grandmother gave him an amused look. “One who has earned a tuk rank cannot trade for vegetables while ignoring the profit in meat,” she said.
“Some days I resent the burden of rank.”
“Spoken like a true tuk-ranked individual. The older one becomes, the more one realizes that fruit which appears ripe may still remain inedible.”
“The older one becomes, the less likely one is to chase the kawt that hunts one’s herds,” Ondry countered. The Grandmother was not the only one who knew platitudes, and right now Ondry would not trust this Grandmother to protect his herds or his palteia.
She didn’t react to his insult, even though she would have been within her rights to exile Ondry from the ship, or backhand him. Instead, she spoke in a soft voice that reminded Ondry of his mother on those days when Ondry had challenged Asdria the most. “Our palteia are not herds and Imshee are not kawt. The Imshee are no more to blame for the weakness our palteia suffered than we are.”
Ondry hissed.
The Grandmother twitched her tail. “You are not proving your wisdom with such emotion.”
“I am proving my dedication to Liam,” Ondry argued. He cared for little else.
“No one doubts that. But you and I injured our palteia.” She followed that with an unhappy trill. Hearing a Grandmother so distressed pulled at a primitive instinct that made Ondry wish to stand at her side and offer to fight her enemy for her. Ondry had lost control of his emotional balance because he could not hope to defend her and resent her at the same time. It was not logical.
She continued. “The Grandmother who has studied human anatomy says we caused damage by holding tightly to our palteia. We restricted their breathing. That is why neither passed out until we tried to rush them back to the Calti.”
Ondry stared at the Grandmother, the horror overcoming his anger. He wanted to deny that he would ever hurt Liam, but her explanation made sense.
“We meant no harm just as the Imshee meant no harm. This has not changed our trading goals.” The Grandmother picked up her computer from the couch. “The Imshee do not understand our alarm, but they wish to make amends. This will improve our position.”
For the first time in his life, Ondry resented trading and profits. He didn’t care for either if they threatened Liam’s life. However, if the Grandmother was right, then Ondry himself had threatened Liam. Human anatomy was terrifyingly fragile. Ondry still wasn’t sure how such a frail species could have achieved as much as they had. So many thoughts tumbled through his mind that he could not focus.
The Grandmother gave a derisive whistle. “You may have been born with the mind of a Grandmother, Tuk-Ondry, but you still have the glands of a youngling. You cannot deny biology, but focus on the task here. We both wish to extend the lives of our palteia.”
Ondry shook his head and forced himself to focus on the present. Liam was fine, and Ondry had not done any permanent harm. The Imshee had not done permanent harm. If Ondry did not work with the Imshee, he would see his palteia die within fifty years. “I know you will trade with the Imshee. However, I will not have Liam on their ship again.”
The Grandmother’s eyes grew wide. “Do you not wish for Liam to have a normal lifespan?”
“Yes.” Ondry worked to keep his teeth covered. “But they can provide the information to the Calti.”
“They do not wish for any other humans to have extended lives. That suggests they will not provide the technical information required to complete the alterations ourselves. The Imshee will treat the humans.”
Ondry clenched his fists. “They were careless with the health of the humans.”
“And that is partially the fault of the Calti’s Grandmothers,” she said. The confession derailed most of Ondry’s anger. He was unused to hearing Grandmothers, particularly ones who were so old, admitting to such a grievous error. “We discussed sending human requirements ahead of the trade, but humans and Rownt are so biologically similar that we felt the danger was minimal, especially since humans are particularly skilled at sensing dangerous compounds in the environment.”
“In food,” Ondry corrected her. “This was not a matter of tasting a food and recognizing excessive bitterness.”
“True. But they are far more perceptive than Rownt. You recognized something in Liam’s reactions that led you to raise the alarm.”
“He was reacting oddly, like when he has had too little sleep and I have woken him.”
Ondry had the feeling she was cataloguing that information so she could tend her own human. “The fault is ours for trying to maintain the advantage in any trade when information is likely to be a currency of interest to the Imshee. Now I recognize the unacceptable danger,” the Grandmother said. “Before I will allow Zach to enter the Imshee ship, I will make sure to transmit all medical and genetic information to them. But the Imshee will insist on making the alterations themselves. They distrust the Rownt ability to reverse engineer any scientific process they give us access to, and they know the cost of teaching us such skill is far more than the Calti can afford to pay.”
Ondry narrowed his nose at the thought of the Imshee touching Liam; however, he had little choice. While the Grandmother had explained Calti politics far more than he had a right to expect, she had not pointed out the obvious. He either agreed to include Liam in this trade or he watched his palteia die. Both options horrified him.
Since he could not find an answer that did not make his fangs itch, Ondry remained silent. He would speak to Liam when the Grandmother in charge of medical care allowed him to leave. After enough time had passed to make it clear that Ondry would not answer her tacit question, he asked a question of his own. “What price would you claim for including Liam in the cost of the healing?” It was a child’s question. Adults made offers; they did not ask the value of a trade. However, Ondry was far too young to engage this Grandmother as an equal, so his only hope of making a trade was to take the child’s gambit. His pride would recover... eventually.
The skin around her eyes tightened in approval. “Liam is a palteia. I do not trade for that which secures the health of a palteia.”
“If that were true, you would feel obligated to secure the health of every palteia on human-held worlds.”
She huffed. “In truth, I wish I could. But I would not neglect the palteia who lives within my village because I do not have the power to help the others.”
“A Grandmother does not take a step unless there are three profits in that direction.” Ondry watched her, silently daring her to argue. She sought some profit, even if she would not reveal her thoughts. Ondry could see one profit. Zach Mora had not committed to staying on the Calti beyond five years. Liam could show him the path to living with the Rownt. Perhaps that was profit enough for a Grandmother, but Ondry doubted it. And he disliked his ignorance of her motives. However, he would not allow his discomfort to harm Liam.
This time it was the Grandmother who did not answer. She turned and headed into the medical suite. Ondry followed.