Things Fall Apart: Chapter 50

Newer York, 6-7 Tammuz 2541 AS

Wayra Cadotte was not really much for social occasions, and current events had required them to spend a lot more time around people and not doing their job than they were comfortable with. They were fairly itching for time alone that was not also time asleep.

At the same time, they had not been fibbing when they said they were looking forward to seeing one side of Espinoza's clearly eclectic upbringing. Newer York was a leveling culture without moguls or billionaires or yachts. Espinoza had clearly walked out of that to join his paternal family in the TCTO at some point, starting with the Academy and his stealth stint as an officer under an alias. Or so Cadotte assumed. They had not gotten to know the engineer well enough yet to ask the questions that would get the timeline straight.

Then there was the other company joining them for this dinner. How often did a science officer get to dine with a head of government? The fact that this was even possible without absurd layers of security spoke to something unique about the Republic's culture that Cadotte had not yet untangled.

The head of government, herself, was also intriguing. Whenever Cadotte transferred to a new ship, or merely visited a TCTF facility or ship that was not their current one, there was an odd sensation of knowing everyone while actually knowing no-one. Fleet attracted certain personalities, which meant you were likely to encounter a similar range of people. Cadotte was having that feeling with President Robina, knowing that they had never met her before, yet feeling like they had.

Their little traveling party were all pretty subdued on the rides back to the embassy. The silence—not uncomfortable, just a bit weary—between them was almost as good as alone time for someone with implants to connect to the network directly. They were particularly curious what the statistics were for Revi'ini coming upwell and leaving the system. There was a stereotype of insularity that went beyond that of the rest of the Republic, but there were certainly no rules against emigration. Even immigration to Revi'i was not technically illegal, although Cadotte imagined that it was pretty rare, even before doing the data search.

It turned out about fifteen percent of Revi'ini at least traveled off-world. Of that number, only about a quarter also went out-system, which was only slightly lower than the percentage for the DSR as a whole. It amounted to about seventy-five thousand Revi'ini per local year, and then maybe ten thousand actually stayed out-system. It was a tiny number, ultimately, of Revi'i's roughly twenty million inhabitants, but it was not nothing, and most of them apparently wound up in those Tau Ceti Treaty systems that were more technologically adventurous, like Tau Ceti proper. What was more, those numbers were fairly evenly distributed across Revi'ini "templates".

In short, even allowing for space being big, it was entirely possible that Cadotte had encountered another Robina at some point.

Cadotte then went reading up on relative numbers of the other cities of the DSR, some of the history of migration in and out, and other such things. Having gotten lost down the rabbit hole, Cadotte found they were out of time to do the next obvious search. Surely, the archives had pictures of the "original" Robina that might help Cadotte match things up, even allowing for the ways Revi'ini liked to physically distinguish themselves. But the ride down the spoke was over, and as fun as it was to have network access right there in their head, they were still human and could not multitask walking and consuming the results of searches.

Back at the embassy, of course, there was a need to catch up with the message queue, which included the news that Zephyr was already on its way downwell. Singer must have sent the command from her own tablet on the ride while Cadotte was dissociating into the local network. Briefly, Cadotte worried they'd missed a comment about it and that Singer might be upset about their absence, but reviewing their parting conversation at the doors to their quarters at the embassy, there was no indication of that. Singer knew Cadotte well enough not to be subtle about such things, so Cadotte was able to relax, at least about that.

The ambassador had told them, as they all went to their rooms, how long they had, which was just enough time for a quick shower. Cadotte did not feel particularly grubby but decided they could use the pick-me-up before changing into undress. They set their conundrum aside. Hoping to get into a better mood for being social, they brought up their favorite "no-thinking" music play list to fill their ears and brain for a while.

They all met in the parlor with time to spare. The ambassador and O'Halloran were dressed much as they had for the first briefing, here at the embassy—not quite formal, not quite casual. Like herself, Singer and Espinoza were in their ordinary uniforms. Possibly, they could have all gotten away with civilian dress, for this, but they were not really on leave, at the moment, no matter how much this dinner was not supposed to include "work".

Espinoza seemed genuinely a little nervous. Singer had seen it, and said, "Something wrong, Ari?"

He looked at her, unaware that he'd been fidgeting openly, then smiled wryly, trying to relax. "It's only just occurred to me that I'm engaging in an experiment in social alchemy, and I am not a social engineer, if you get my drift."

Singer grinned openly at that. "It's a bold mix of people, to be sure, and that's even not knowing your own mishpachah enough to know how the personalities will mix."

Ellison was also smiling, one of the few genuine smiles Cadotte had seen on her face since they'd arrived. "Oh, you're in for a treat, Commander. There's not a wallflower in the bunch, except Ariel's current partner, Hassan, who's only got opinions about growing things, and maybe our lieutenant, here," she gestured at Cadotte.

"Oh, I've got plenty of opinions," Cadotte said, recognizing good-natured ribbing but still needing to set the record straight. "I just haven't had much to contribute to our discussions beyond the technical."

"Excellent. Don't feel a need to keep quiet, tonight, unless it veers too much into business. The line is fuzzy, and having the Revi'ini there is likely to make it fuzzier still, but we really should try to avoid talking shop too much."

They headed for the lift to go down to street level and walk to the station. "Do the Revi'ini have different ideas of where the line should be?" Cadotte asked.

"Oh, no, not much," Ellison responded. "There's some drift between the two cultures, as you'd expect given how long they self-isolated, but they have similar ideas about Shabbat. No, it's just that it's hard to leave the big questions alone when you've got a head of state in the room."

Then they were out in the street and Ellison was back "on stage", so meaningful talk was largely precluded. Small-talk, however, continued, and Cadotte decided they should at least pay some attention rather than tuning out entirely, which precluded any further research. They did queue up the search for the original template for Robina Thirteen, however, to look at after dinner.

They arrived at the Queens Ring, and the quarters of Espinoza's mishpachah—or, as Cadotte now understood, really, Espinoza's mother's and aunt's mishpachah—a few minutes late, due to the vagaries of commuting, but nobody seemed fussed about it. Robina Thirteen and Seth Twenty-Five were there ahead of them by enough time that they were lounging comfortably with drinks on a couch, looking well dressed but not remotely like Important Government Officials.

Espinoza quickly introduced them around, so they met, in rapid succession, his mother Ariel, her current partner Hassan, Gary, Elaine, and, over in the kitchen area finishing up dinner, aunt Alexis and her partner Jeanne. Gary and Elaine were not partnered, either with each other or anyone else here, apparently, but were simply part of the mishpachah. Cadotte still didn't quite have a handle on the mix of blood and chosen family involved in this system, but everyone seemed "at home" and that's what mattered, they supposed.

The common space was an open floor plan, with parlor, dining area, and kitchen all really one large room. There were doors off in three directions, which presumably led to bedrooms and bathrooms and so on. Much like the embassy's parlor, the common room had windows facing an inner garden for the building, with a veranda. There were just enough differences to keep it from being monotonous, but then, Cadotte was used to shipboard life, and while Zephyr was definitely different from Bellerophon, everything aboard each of those ships had looked more or less the same as everything else.

The space was, overall, quite large, and Cadotte found themselves commenting on it before they had a chance to think whether it might be rude or not. It was Ariel who responded, "A lot of people say that when they see our places for the first time. Keep in mind, in addition to the six of us—well, not always these same six, but this group's usually been six adults—we had kids to raise. A lot of the quarters in Newer York are designed around that idea. We've actually all been talking about volunteering for something a little cozier, now that we're all past raising kids, but, well, Alexis and I have been sharing this flat since we put our original mishpachah together, with Elaine and Gary, right out of Ellis. That's forty years or so now. If Station Admin came to us and said they really needed the space for a family with kids, we wouldn't push back, but otherwise, honestly, inertia is sort of winning."

Singer said, "I was a little worried we'd be overcrowding you, all of us coming to dinner at once."

Espinoza's mom grinned. "I appreciate the thoughtfulness—Ari said you were a thoughtful one! But no, we had eight kids of all different ages in this space with us at one point. Seven more grown-ups is no strain, and hopefully less raucous!"

Robina Thirteen quipped, "Give us time. And more of this wine!" She looked at Singer and said, "Your arrival in-system was really well timed. I've only really been in office about three weeks. My predecessor was a right bore, even more than Richards usually are."

Cadotte did not often envy Singer's empathic gift, but right now, they'd have given a lot to know if their impression of the president was correct, now that all the business was done. The woman seemed to be going out of her way to look relaxed. Nonchalant. Cadotte was positive, however, that the woman had at least one nerve rubbing her raw right now.

If Cadotte could deduce that, it must be almost painfully obvious for Singer.

Ariel grinned at the remark, taking it at face value, and moving right along. "At any rate, everyone please start finding places at table. Don't worry about where. Dinner's about ready!"

Cadotte found themself sitting across from Singer, while President Robina made a point of sitting to Singer's right. Espinoza found a spot to Cadotte's left, while his mother took the next spot over, clearly not intending to miss time near her son. Cadotte saw an opportunity to ask Espinoza, "How long since you've been back here, anyway?" They avoided saying "been home", having gleaned that the engineer was conflicted as to where "home" was.

"About six years. I came back for the last Sabbatical Cruise I told you about. I hadn't actually been here for it since going off to school and becoming an engineer. I wanted to see the process through those eyes. It coincided with a wedding of one of my sibs—one of the other kids I grew up with here," he gestured to the room, "so it worked out well for everyone. I never really intended to be away so long since, but..."

Aunt Alexis remarked, "If it weren't for Seth here assuring me otherwise, I might start to think my cooking was slipping!"

Judging from the portion Seth had heaped on his plate as the dishes passed around, there was no danger there. Cadotte was no epicure, but it all smelled great, and they made sure to take a sample from everything that passed by.

Cadotte could not avoid the obvious question next. "What was Ari like growing up here?" There was hardly any point in getting to have dinner with a colleague's family if you didn't get to ask question like that.

"Tinkering," said Jeanne. "Always tinkering. By the time he was three we knew he was taking after his father, and his grandfather for that matter. There was one afternoon, everyone else was out at various jobs or errands, and I was busy on supper. I turned my back for fifteen minutes and our boy here had one of the touch panels off the walls and was poking around the circuitry. Age of ten, he and my daughter Joanne had gotten permission to do a propulsion project for class. Nothing ground-breaking, but a lot more advanced than most of the kids were doing for that science fair."

Espinoza contrived to look slightly embarrassed, and said, "At least it wasn't lasers."

There were chuckles around the table, suggesting an in-joke, but the story was not forthcoming. Instead, Alexis gave a slightly wistful smile, and said "Yosef was always a rough fit, here in Newer York. He and I met on Cherryh's World, when I was posted there as an envoy to the planet itself, rather than the TCTO. The mishpachah system is strong enough that DSR diplomats tend to travel with about half their group as an entourage when they go out, and who that is rotates a bit. By the time I was ready to go home for a while, Yosef had met the whole pack. When I asked him to come back with me, he jumped at it."

"Trouble is, engineering culture here is...conservative. I believe Ari here actually called it 'stifling' at one point."

Singer nodded as she finished swallowing a bite, saying, "The admiral mentioned that the DSR was only just now building time-compression ships."

"Exactly. Nobody's in much of a hurry, you see. We go out, find new places to build colonies, then send one-way colony ships out. It's important as a big picture, but there's no urgency to it. Our ancestors—and yours, really—came out here all that time ago with no choice but to be self-sufficient. Many of our daughters have rediscovered interdependence, but we really haven't. As long as we have data links to keep up on the news and gossip and learning and, of course, entertainment feeds that others create, we don't need to go anywhere."

Cadotte ventured, "It sounds like you actually agreed more with Yosef, and Ari, than with the DSR."

Ariel rewarded them with a smile. "Ari warned me you're a clever one. You're right, of course. I do. But as much as I did love Yosef, too much of my heart is here, in the end. Yosef went back to Tau Ceti to work with his father. Ari went incognito to go to your academy, came back for a while, but then also went out where his work could be more appreciated. But my work was also here. I'm not a traveling diplomat, any more, but an analyst and sometimes negotiator for the DSR."

Ambassador Ellison had been subdued and silent through all this. Also, Cadotte noticed, she'd been sticking to water, not wine. Now, she looked a little sourly at her Alexis. "You're not making my own decision easier."

"I thought you'd already made it."

"I had, but...what if I'm wrong?"

"I mean, that's a problem for any decision. And the answer is always the same: you decide again, and figure it out."

This had the sound of a conversation they'd had before, and indeed, Ellison shook herself like she was trying to physically shake her mood. "Ah, I'm sorry, Alexis. It's just hard not to be gloomy, even in such company."

There was a brief period of silence, a little awkward, but not terribly so. It was broken by Robina, who turned to look at Singer and started, "So, Commander Singer—"

"Elyah, please, at least tonight!"

"Of course, Shabbat, my manners! Forgive me. Tell me about your ship, if you can do so without it being too much like work?"

Singer lit up. "One of my favorite subjects, right now!"

The conversation settled into a sort of verbal tour of Zephyr's many qualities. When the subject came around to the arboretum-in-progress, Hassan's eyes lit, and he said, "If your PO bat Avi wants any tips, please feel free to direct her to me. Indeed, if your crew is coming ashore, please have her come visit me in my office! Ari can get you the address. My work for the city is exactly this! I am part of the team that designs the many public green spaces here, both their appearance and their infrastructure, to ensure they'll grow well!"

"I believe some guidance would be welcome. The space was set aside, and some effort put in to make sure it would work, but..."

"...but you were rushed out of dock, of course! It's understood. We can help!"

Singer thanked him, then another question came up, and the conversation turned to other things. Cadotte drifted a bit, content and well fed and finding the company of Espinoza's family a much needed balm.

At some point, though, Robina Thirteen turned again to ask Singer another question. Something about the tableau, the relative position of their faces, the...shape...rang a bell so loudly that Cadotte had to control themselves to avoid sitting bolt upright and causing a scene.

When the conversation about Zephyr wound down a bit, and dessert was being served, Cadotte ventured a question. It was a long way away from what they wanted to ask, but they suspected it would lead there. "Robina, can I ask something about Revi'ini culture? I realize I could just look it up, but, well, we're here, and..."

"Of course!"

"Does Revi'i practice the same mishpachah system? I know that Dream of Spring was already doing it on the long trip."

"Oh, yes we do. It's all a little different, you understand, because of our nature, but the benefits of the small-scale communal life were not a part of what our founders were rejecting when they rebelled."

She said this part matter-of-factly, but Cadotte knew enough to know there were still some tensions around that long-ago event.

"And, of course, it's part of how we raise children. Just because they're grown in tubes doesn't mean they don't need to be raised. We've found no acceptable short-cut for that. Of course, there are no parents, per se. Infants are nursed and cared for in creches, but then, they get assigned out to mishpachot. There's no attempt to assign or avoid assigning children from the same lineage, so we often wind up raising our own mirror images. You begin to see why we go to such lengths," she flourished around her still elaborately made-up face, "to look distinctive. Our apples never fall that far from the tree, even in my lineage!"

Cadotte had learned the signs of Singer catching an empathic wave, as it were. They were subtle, but they tended to make her look inward, for a moment, before looking outward again for the source.

Singer apparently decided to pick up that conversational thread to find what was behind whatever she had felt. Keeping it light, she smiled and said, "You're going to have to unpack that for me."

"Oh! It's no secret. The originator of the lineage was so gender-fluid it was joked by their peers that they might be better off being carried around in a mug. In the course of an eighty-year lifetime, they changed their name, pronouns, and outward presentation at least fourteen times. The result is that our entire lineage is the most chameleon-like, the least likely to settle. Most of the One Hundred—the originators—were more conventional, but they carried with them the same ethos of acceptance as the Cousins Above."

Cadotte said, "So you're Robina Thirteen, but number Fourteen..."

"...is a Robert. Number Fifteen is a Roberta, and so on. I chose Robina as a teen and stuck with it as something a little different. And at first, so did the ward who came to my mishpachah. The child came to us as Roberta Sixty dor One-oh-Two, but she—at the time, mind you—bonded with me so closely that she took my name for quite some time. As a teen, though, ze began to drift away from that identity and...I'm afraid, away from me. I'm a professional politician, after all, and while the mishpachah gave zir everything we give anyone, I, personally, was frequently away."

There was a sigh, then. "Eventually, ze left, like Ari here did, for the Tau Ceti Treaty Fleet academy. Some of the reasons were similar, even—ze wanted a more innovative technical culture, and Revi'i is even more conservative, being focused tightly on terraforming."

Robina seemed to run out of words, at this point, and her anxiety was plain on her face. But something else was, too. Cadotte saw it, now, and if Cadotte, who was often faceblind, could see it, they were certain Singer could.

And in fact, Singer was trying very hard to ask her next question very carefully. "So, your child is in Fleet?"

The other woman sighed. "Yes. Or was. I hope still is, but...I don't even know where ze was assigned...it's been so long...

"Tell me," Singer said, her voice still almost painfully conversational, "what name did ze take for zirself when ze stopped being Robina?"

The president of Revi'i did not know Singer well enough to read anything deep into the question, and responded almost off-handedly, "Oh, ze just dropped the 'a'."

"So...Robin Sixty."

Absently, Robina nodded. "I suspect ze'd have found a name surname so as to stand out less. I know ze did a lot of research into that kind of thing before going off. Very thorough, my child." There was a brittle pride there.

"I'm sure," said Singer. "Is there any tradition of using roman numerals when writing your names?"

Robina was, if nothing else, distracted from her melancholy by the seeming non sequitur. Cadotte knew where this was going, though.

It was Seth who answered, "Sometimes, there's a fad for it. Comes and goes, generationally. You know how that is!"

Cadotte was aware that Singer was profoundly irked by the penny that had just dropped a few moments back in the conversation. Despite this, she smiled assurance at Seth. "Oh, yes. I have had the good fortune to be on many ground teams, meeting many people from many divergent human cultures, and also their children. Everything old is new again, until it's old again and something else is new again."

This said, she turned back to Robina and asked, "One more irrelevant-seeming question: what was the surname of the original?"

Robina had to think for a moment, then said, "Anders."

Espinoza, to Cadotte's left, finally saw it, enacting a double-face palm. Everyone else at the table looked mystified.

Singer, looking for the silver lining and wanting to end on a positive note, said, "Madame President, may I offer you, when it arrives, a tour of my ship? I'm certain my executive officer would be happy to show you around. You have a lot to catch up on."

Five different emotions crossed the president's face in rapid succession. Cadotte could not quite identify any of them before Robina's face was entirely hidden in Singer's hair as she failed to keep herself from embracing Singer, sobbing in pure relief.

Zephyr, on approach to Newer York parking orbit

Fate is sometimes funny, although those affected by it are not always amused until later.

As fate would have it, Lieutenant Commander Robin Alexander was winding down a bit in zir office, reviewing reports. Finally, it occurred to zir that ze really ought to catch up on current events. Ze had mostly ignored zir homeworld out of a weird residuum of teenage rebellion and resentment that was not really becoming in an adult officer. The briefing ze had done before arrival had included the state of politics as ze'd known it then. Ze had assumed that Richard Eighty-Three dor One Hundred would win yet another re-election, and anyway, the network being down had meant ze couldn't check.

Thus it was that ze only now came to realize that, in fact, Richard had lost. Richards had a natural advantage, the leader of the original rebellion being the original Richard. This particular Richard had held the office five straight terms, and had been popular. Boring, but popular.

The winner had, in fact, been one of zir parents—zir namesake, in fact. Who was right now, if ze had the time conversions right, having dinner with zir unwarned commanding officer, who hated surprises.

The funny, fateful part—well, it would be funny later—was that this occurred at about the same moment that said commanding officer herself put it all together.

For now, though, ze put zir head in zir hands, uncertain whether to laugh or weep. Ze wound up sort of doing a bit of both.

Then, ze began composing a very apologetic letter to zir captain.

And then, upon reflection, another to zir parent.

So, now, here's the retcon I mentioned last week. When I actually wrote Chapter 18, I had a different origin in mind for Alexander, and it comes out in zir musing on the briefing ze was going to have to give.

Chapter 18 has been updated to better align with where I went with this.

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.