Choices | Page 4

face. "Not someone you'd want to get involved with," he added pointedly.
"You speak from experience?" I asked, knowing that he didn't. At the official level relations between Tradurians and offworlders were severely constrained--one might even have gone so far as to suggest they were virtually non-existent. Not for lack of effort on the part of offworlders, however; it was the choice of the Tradurians to remain essentially isolated. Even on matters of trade the dealings were brief and to the point. Not that we'd anticipated much else when we'd begun this delicate process of bringing the worlds of Unity back into the fold of the Federation following the long harsh decades of war.
Burrye regarded me levelly. "I'm here to advise you, Captain."
"Advise, yes," agreed. "But I make the decisions, Mister Burrye."
"You're not on a ship anymore," he said bluntly. "There's none of that full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes business here."
"Thank you for reminding me," I drawled, none too sarcastically. "And yes, I'm not on a ship anymore. Haven't been for years. So you might be advised to be cautious when referring to me as Captain. I'm sure the Reds wouldn't be particularly enamored of the fact that the Federation embassy is headed by someone who once fought on the front lines against them."
"Aye,aye!" he said, snapping off a mock salute.
I shot him a dark look of disapproval, but knew it wouldn't change anything. Burrye was a career diplomat, a man genengineered for the foreign service. He knew no other line of work; and his life had been devoted to this one cause. So it was understandable that he might feel somewhat resentful of a spacer being given an essentially diplomatic assignment. He was undoubtedly convinced I'd been awarded this posting as something of a sop for years of service in a war for which we'd all paid a high price. It was unlikely I could disabuse him of that notion--though if he'd looked around, he'd have discovered that most of the ambassadorial positions that had opened up in the defeated Unity were occupied by former Fleet officers. And for good reason. The Federation didn't trust the Unity--or what remained of it. Unfortunately, one of the compromises that had brought about the peace had been to include a clause in the Terms of Surrender that had prohibited the placement of military attaches in any of the new embassies. To get around that, the Admiralty, which was handling the administration of peace for the Federation, had merely assigned former Fleet officers as heads of the various missions they'd opened throughout the Unity. We were here to make sure that the Unity couldn't re-establish itself militarily. So for now men and women like myself had assumed a different sort of command: One that was no less challenging and no less important than when we'd skippered those floating arsenals of democracy for which Fleet was better known.
But I was first and foremost a spacer. I'd been genengineered for it. From the moment of my conception my fate had been determined. Determined by the choices of my parents. I wasn't a diplomat, and Burrye knew it. As far as he was concerned, that meant I was a risk to the success of this mission. Maybe he was right.
"No offense," Burrye said, continuing in his earlier vein, "but it's a bit of a stretch from commanding a warship to heading a mission like this, don't you think?"
"Not at all," I assured him. "Being the captain of a ship can be the supreme test of diplomacy. When you're dealing with the lives of nearly a thousand men and women, not to mention the frequent confrontations with all manner of ships and worlds, you soon acquire quite a feel for this sort of thing. However, I trust that you'll keep me in line, should I make a misstep." I looked at him forcefully, making it clear that he had better work with me and not against me. If it were the latter, then he'd soon find himself catching the next ship out from Tradur. Not that I was sure he'd mind being chased from this world.
Burrye put down his drink and made a stiff bow. Then he straightened, as though coming to attention. "You can rest assured, Captain, that I'll serve to the best of my abilities."
That was what I was afraid of.

4.
If you imagine a tropical paradise on Earth, then you have a good impression of what an outsider sees upon arriving at the central shuttle port on Tradur. It's perhaps one of the most beautiful worlds in all the Earth Empire. Certainly among the prettiest I've ever had the good fortune to see.
From space one is immediately struck by the lack of continents. There are only islands girding the equator, strung like a necklace