Tally Road Original Story- Chapter 19

"Thank you for travelling with Linder Spaceways," said the stewardess, pouring a glass of a rare and acrid Tompar apertif, "please honor us with your custom again."

"Beg me." said Siertes happily, drinking and ignoring the stewardess, who padded off with tactful politeness. Dene, sitting beside her, tried to ignore it.

"Why does she keep saying that? It's a funny thing to say." asked Boodins.

Dene shrugged. "It's a script, Boodins. She has to say it. She's probably being recorded. And you shouldn't be rude to them, Siertes, they can't help it."

"Oh, bite me. I'm playing Carra, don't spoil it for me, pretty wolfess."

"What's that?" asked Boodins.

"My betters." said Siertes. "I might never get the chance to act like them again, so don't spoil it for me."

"You're drinking heavily." said Rairate in a disapproving tone.

"Yeah." said Siertes happily. "Don't they have bigger glasses?"

"You asked for their biggest glass."

"It can't be. It's tiny. I ought to smash it on the ground." said Siertes cheerfully.

"Please, don't!" protested Dene, who was impressed at the size of the tankard, herself.

"Oh, all right, sweety, I won't. Anyway I'm enjoying this too much to want to smash anything, really."

"But why are you getting drunk?" said Dene. "We're going on a ship with Finn and we've got to work with the Aintar police to apprehend him. Voustrets said so."

Siertes chortled. "He's crazy. It'll never work- and Aintar places are such creampuffs that you won't be needing me. It's not like the bottom levels of a Runge city. Look, if they mob you, cover your eyes. Don't kick out unless you mean to hurt them. Aintar are pretty fragile. Can you picture those catching a fleeing Runge male?"

"Um- now that you mention it, it does seem strange. Will they shoot him with some sort of tranquilizer dart?" asked Dene.

Siertes chortled again. "How are they going to hold a gun? In their beaks? You're gonna love the doors they have, hon. How can you not know about Aintar?"

"Um, computer tech demands a lot of your attention..."

"And anyhow, that's not why I'm getting drunk. Most likely when I get there they will bind my mouth. They might even insist on me being tied up. I'm going to get ripped on Quentrose until I don't care," said Siertes. "Couldn't stand it otherwise."

"They'll do what?"

"Very likely true." said Rairate. "Siertes could breathe hard on an Aintar and cause it to be sick, if there's any venom around her mouth. I'm a little concerned about her choice of drink- Quentrose is expensive, but it breaks down their inhibitions..."

Siertes chortled. "Not your problem, kitty."

"Indeed not." said Rairate with iron politeness.

The cabin looked more spacious than it was- artfully contoured partitions marked off nearly-private areas, through which stewardesses moved with well-trained graciousness. Dene tried to figure out if Siertes was dismaying them, and saw little to suggest it. They seemed to take a drunken Tompar Mued in stride- though in fairness, she wasn't acting like a killer, more like a self-absorbed nobleman, or perhaps a parody of one.

"When are we going to get there?" asked Boodins.

"Only a couple days." said Dene. "This is a pretty fast ship. Maybe we should, um, practice helping the Aintar catch Finn or something?"

"Aren't you listening?" said Siertes. "They're not going to catch him. There's nothing they can do. They don't even have weapons!"

"Oh, come on, they must have something!" protested Dene. "Everybody has weapons!"

"You don't, do you?" said Siertes. She took another deep draught of Quentrose and added, "Unless you want to count the tilt of your hips." Dene bristled with embarrassment and looked down, causing Rai to say, "Stop teasing Denenke, please, Siertes, 'aons? You're being affected by that drink and might regret it later. I ask as someone who has fought by your side."

"That and a half-fico will get you half a fico." suggested Siertes. "I'm having fun."

"Denenke is not." said Rairate primly.

"That's part of the reason why I am." said Siertes. "Oh, all right. I'm telling you, though, they don't have weapons. Don't you know about the Aintar?"

Rairate was silent. To him, the Aintar were just another strange, Ki-Nerre race that furthermore weren't expected to be a danger in any circumstance he could imagine, and he tended not to know about Ki-Nerre, or want to. Boodins looked curious but knew virtually nothing but what he'd seen in lurid movies, and Dene knew her computers amazingly well but had apparently not concerned herself with other things. It seemed to Rairate that perhaps Siertes did know about the Aintar- and perhaps this was important. At least, it had become important to their plans to apprehend Finn.

He gave in. "It appears we do not. Please tell us about the Aintar, vraonse?"

Siertes finished off her tankard. "They don't have weapons." She accepted another from the attentive stewardess, immediately drank half of it and merrily flung the empty one at the opposite wall of the cabin, provoking a flurry of expostulation from an Estrai unfortunate enough to be within tankard-flinging range. Another stewardess immediately began talking to the irate vulpine, trying to soothe him in an earnest undertone.

"Besides that." said Rairate patiently.

"Ummmmm, there's nothing they can do?" added Siertes, yawning.

"Perhaps you'd like to take a little nap?" suggested the stewardess.

"What a stupid idea." said Siertes, and yawned again. The stewardess cringed gently at the sight of the Tompar's fangs, and glanced nervously at her watch.

"Quantrose shouldn't be making her drowsy." said Rairate suspiciously.

"We really must apologize for the inconvenience..." said the stewardess, as Siertes quietly toppled over into Dene's lap.

Rairate was on his feet instantly, and the stewardess backed up several paces in alarm. "What did you do?" cried Dene.

"It's in our customer interaction conduct agreement, please settle down, sir... when we have a passenger who is posing a danger to herself or others..."

"You drugged her!" cried Dene.

"And not a moment too soon!" snapped the Estrai business traveller who'd nearly been beaned by Siertes' mug. Dene glared at him.

Rairate instinctively flexed his claws, but made himself keep calm. "What did you use?"

"Pardon?"

"Chos! You will please tell me now what drug you administered. Vraonse. Quickly!"

"I, I, I'm not sure. I know it was the right one, they're color coded... I'll go find out be right back!" stammered the stewardess, and she turned and fled, leaving Rairate standing in the aisle.

"Rai!" cried Dene, holding the limp Tompar assassin in her arms.

"Be calm, vraonse!" said Rairate, his ears well back in alarm. He muttered bitterly, "'I'm not sure, I know it was the right one'. Chos! Let it be tele..."

"What?"

"Be calm, please!" said Rairate, as the flustered stewardess hurried back.

"It says it's, uh, trech-tele-leu-tellte..."

Rairate visibly relaxed. "We will write a formal complaint. You've caused us unforseen harm."

"We're very sorry." said the stewardess, and backed hastily away.

"Rai!" cried Dene.

"It's all right, it's all right!" said Rairate. "Trechteleleutellte doesn't harm Tompar. She's only sleeping. There are other drugs for the purpose that aren't as safe..."

"We're just going to let them do it?"

"They already have, Denenke. Keep her comfortable. I'm curious to see how they propose to explain it to her when she wakes, as trechteleleutellte's effects only last a couple hours. I'm guessing they'll have some sort of security force come by to have a few words with us."

Dene subsided in angry muttering, and Rai returned to his seat as Boodins asked, "What did you say? What on you?"

Dene barked a quick laugh. "Nobody messes with somebody who's hitting on me. Even if it is the wrong place, gender and even species. I'm going to have to think of some sort of karmic justice- later. You know they depend on their computers..."

Rairate chided her, "You shouldn't try to get vengeance over this. We would have been wiser to try and control Siertes ourselves."

"She really was hitting on you, wasn't she?" asked Boodins, fascinated.

"Boodins, behave, 'aons." said Rai.

"Well, she was! At least I think she was, wasn't she?"

"That's not your concern. We need to think about what she was trying to tell us." said Rairate. "She seemed very certain that Voustrets' intentions were foolish, and he didn't seem to me to be foolish."

Dene ventured, "They don't have weapons?"

One of Rairate's ears flicked. He closed his eyes briefly. "Apart from that." he said.

"She didn't get any farther than that."

"But, think about it, 'aons! That is very unusual! How can they not have weapons? Don't we know anything else about them?"

"I've seen them in movies," said Dene, blinking, "but I'm not sure that really helps. They were played for laughs, and they talked all naive."

"Well, Siertes was very sure..."

"Sure of what?" asked Dene.

"...that, that Voustrets was asking us to do something ridiculous. She spoke as if she understood Aintar culture well enough to know why it was ridiculous. I wish we could just ask her... Boodins, do you know anything?"

"Boodins?" repeated Rairate, uneasily. The young whelp responded with a snore.

"Chos!" cursed Rairate, and knocked his cup of tea across the cabin.

"No, Rai! Maybe, maybe he just took a nap, calm down!" said Dene.

Rai thought, breathing hard, trying to appraise his mind and alertness and feeling uncertain of either. "Denenke. What are the chances of that, in your honest opinion?" He shook his head as if to clear it.

Dene considered this, and at length rendered her opinion. "...nah." she said peacefully, and toppled over against Siertes.

Rai tried to leap to his feet, but reeled over sideways. He made a faint mewling noise as he tried fiercely to cling to awareness, but the world was fading. Finally, it was too much- his silent struggle in vain, the other passengers placidly accepting the spectacle perhaps in the belief that it, too, had to do with the customer interaction conduct agreement. Rairate Tais passed out, and sagged against Boodins, and before long, even his fur ceased to bristle.

When the stewardess came with four neatly labelled hypodermics, she hesitated, and then reached out and petted Rairate's head and scratched him behind the ear. The Estrai businessman looked a question at her, and she bristled in embarrassment and muttered, "Always wanted to do that." She then stood up, looked him in the eye, and said, "In accordance with the, uh, customer interaction agreement, we're going to keep them out until they're picked up at the spaceport."

The Estrai businessman favored her with a look of great worldliness and skepticism, and just when she was about to launch into further explanations, he returned his gaze ostentatiously to his laptop.

"No concern of mine."