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Marla had spent some time deciding on what type of clothing to wear. According to Master Savastan it was an informal gathering, which meant she shouldn’t be wearing the apprentice’s sash and formal dress. But on the other hand, shea trader and she didn’t want to risk someone not realizing that…she thought. As usual the tunic was long-sleeved. Marla checked by reflex to make certain it covered her wrists. The locals seemed to have an oddly confused attitude at what was proper dress for females— even most of the uniformed women wore dresses which looked to be rather inconvenient. Many other women wore shoes that had to have beento break ankles.Marla would simply wear her normal sandals. They were comfortable… Finally, she picked up the silver emblem that marked her as an apprentice trader and fastened it to her tunic, right below her right collarbone. Understated, but even so it made her allegiance plain.Dressed, she walked out of her room into the common room the American’s had granted them, looking over at the modified door to Savastan’s larger than normal quarters. He hadn’t come back from negotiating with the Secretary of State.Marla suppressed a pang of worry about that. She was his apprentice andshould be there to support him…“So, preparing to brave the mysteries of Earth?” Tomson’s voice came from behind her.Marla turned and saw the mage, calmly puffing on his pipe.“I’m going to ah, meet with the Colonel and his family. Savastan cannot be there, and so I’ll have to give a report.”“How about: ‘I had fun?’ I’d say that’s the kind of report that Savastan would like to hear.”“I—” Marla paused and thought for a moment, “need to focus on my work.”“Terrified of falling short, are we?” Tomson said, pointing the stem of his pipe at her. “Don’t be. But knowing when to have fun andis as much a part of your job as anything else, and I think you’ve never really been able to learn that.”“I never had a chance,” Marla said, unable to meet Tomson’s eyes.“And for tonight, you do. I’m not suggesting you set the base on fire in a night of insane debauchery, but relax, enjoy yourself and get to know these people.” The mage looked at her and grinned. “Take it from someone older, if not wiser than you are, the opportunities for things like this diminish as you age.”“I’ll try,” Marla said.“Good.” Tomson turned to leave, and then paused. “But if youchoose to set the base on fire in a night of insane debauchery, leavename out of it.”Marla’s surprised laugh echoed in the room as Tomson left.Thomas thought as he drove Marla to their home. Margaret had been rather annoyed in her understated British manner about Marla’s evident terror during the drive to the base. Since then, she’d had more practice and if she didn’t look happy, she didn’t look terrified, either.“Thank you, Colonel Brennan,” Marla said.“No need to be so formal,” Thomas told her. “And this is just a little family dinner, with no men in white lab coats dissecting everything you have to say.”Thomas didn’t like that, but it was. Not that he was about to tell David and Cindy that.“Here we are,” he said as he pulled into the driveway of the house. It was typical base housing, of the sort that Thomas had long been used too.Thomas remembered when he and Margaret had been ensconced in a quonset hut that leaked in the rain and creaked in the heat.On the other hand, given that Margaret’s first home had been reduced to charred rubble by Nazi bombs, as had so many other homes, a leaking quonset hut hadn’t been the worst thing they’d ever endured.“David’s eager to meet you,” Thomas paused. “That is, at an informal dinner and Cindy-well, she’ll be a little tornado, just to warn you.”Thomas thought.“I’m happy to meet them,” Marla said, her voice reminding Thomas of a new lieutenant who had just been called to the general’s office., he thought. It made sense why, which is why he’d told both Cindy and David that if they did see her scars—don’t ask. He doubted they would, but it never hurt to make certain.David quickly came out, dressed in his best, and quickly opened Marla’s door.Thomas tried not to smile. David had almost decided to wear a suit, until Margaret had pointed out that suits and “informal” didn’t tend to go together very well.andWhich probably explained why Dhad been jittering around all day.“Hello,” David said as he offered Marla his hand. Marla blinked and took it, looking slightly confused as he helped her out of the car. “I, well, we met when you first came here, but you didn’t speak English and well-”“I was looking like I might try to escape from your vehicle, screaming in panic?” Marla asked. “Our ground transport generally doesn’t tend to be quite so energetic.” She felt her face color, “I should probably apologize to your mother.”“That isn’t necessary, my dear,” Margaret said as she came out of the door. “There are some people who have lived here all their lives who might react in the same way, although they would do it because a woman was at the wheel. However, dinner’s ready and I don’t think we want it to get cold.” With that, Margaret herded the others into the house.Marla noticed that the house seemed rather bare as she entered.There were a few pictures. An infant who appeared to be David, held by an unfamiliar man standing next to a younger Margaret. His uniform was also unfamiliar.Marla mentally shook her head. If they brought it up, she would find out, but if not, it wasn’t her place to ask.could probably work the conversation around to it, but Marla was not he.Inside, already sitting at the table in a chair with several cushions on it was the younger child, Cindy, looked annoyed. Once again Marla avoided staring at the heavy braces on her legs and the crutches that leaned up against the side of the chair.The books they’d been granted had mentioned polio, but to be honest, Marla hadn’t been able to read them as quickly as Savastan had, but if she had suffered from Polio, she was likely crippled for the rest of her life.“Hi!” Cindy said with a wave. “Mother said you can sit here, next to me.”Marla nodded, and when David pulled the chair out for her, sat down.The meal was pleasant, although Marla had never tasted quite that flavor of tea before. She did notice that most of the meal was based on what they’d been provided from the base.“So, you um work for Savastan?” David asked.“I’m his apprentice,” Marla said. “It’s a… closer relationship than merely working for him. At some point, if I do well enough, I’ll become a trader in my own right.”“He’s a master trader, right?” Cindy asked. “Is that like a king?”David looked annoyed at his sister’s comment, but said nothing.“No— in fact, Master Savastan is more powerful than many kings,” Marla told the girl. “A master trader must have a certain amount of experience, and then be able to demonstrate assets that he, she or it earned via trading actions. It’s not something that you can be born tomerely purchase with inherited money. I may never become a master trader, though…” she smiled. “I hope I will, one day.”“It sounds difficult,” Margaret said. “I take it, that is a long-term goal.”“Oh yes,” Marla said. “I’m not even really a senior apprentice, not yet. When Master Savastan found me…” her voice trailed off for a moment, but Marla forged on, “I was illiterate and I still have much to learn.”“I’ll be starting school here in a few weeks,” David said. “I guess it’s different for an apprentice trader.”Marla laughed. “I wouldn’t know. Master Savastan and the tutors he employed have been my only teachers.”“How long do you go to school?” Cindy asked. “I mean, when I go to school…” she glanced down at her braces. “It seems to last forever.”“Well, I usually get up a little before the first bell,” Marla said. “Have breakfast and then check Master Savastan’s itinerary. Then I have my reading materials until…lunch. He quizzes me, then we go the second part of the day where I take notes for his meetings. Then there’s dinner, and after that, he quizzes me on what I understood about the meeting…” she shrugged. “But each day can be different. I remember…” she took a sip of water, “There was one time when a family of Tzian ended up stranded and about to give birth. I and Master Savastan had to arrange a park for their offspring.”“So they could play?” Cindy asked. “But they were babies!”“Ah-”Carla thought. “Well, it’s not so much of a park, but the Tzian-you have spiders, correct?”“Yes,” David said.“They’re like spiders, only somewhat larger than humans. They mostly keep to themselves, but ah, their children…they’re not born sentient. They eventually become sentient, but in their first stage they’re… um, hungry, very hungry. And about the size of a large dog.” She paused. “But they need to be put in a place where there is danger— the Tzian lifecycle demands that, the stress of a dangerous environment. Without that, the adults are less intelligent than they should be. So we had to find the property, put wards around it, stock it with predators…”Cindy looked shocked. So did David. Marla couldn’t tell about the adults, but she had a feeling they didn’t see the point.“It’s… there are so many different species,” she finally said. “Not all of them are able to conform to our type of morality, so in those cases, its best to let them conform to their biologically-imposed morality, so long as they don’t try to impose it on you.” She shrugged. “The Tzian are good traders and I’m told that they have a unique philosophical view point,” Marla laughed. “But there are so many species, you could spend your entire life studying them and still fall short.”“Are all of them as…” David looked like he was thinking hard, trying to choose his words. “Str—unusual as the Tzian?”“Master Savastan would say they’re not unusual at all,” Marla said. “They can breath our air. Some of the silver lanes go to worlds were lifeforms exist that are based on silicon or other really exotic things. We don’t tend to work with them that much, because they don’t have a lot that we need or want— and we don’t have a lot that they need. Some traders do specialize in that, but it’s a very specialized field,” Marla nodded at Thomas. “When you greeted us, Colonel Brennan, it took us a while to communicate.”“That it did,” Thomas agreed.“And that was with us being the same species, with the exception of Master Savastan. Imagine trying to talk to organisms that don’t see like we do, and who would consider a refreshing breeze a spray of the most corrosive and deadly poison imaginable.”Thomas thought. The story about the Tzian’s offspring would be fodder for any one of a dozen bad science fiction movies, likely with the hero using a flamethrower to save the town from the terrible monsters. Written science fiction was better, but even there, many stories assumed that it wasthat would be setting the moral standard, or at least that the great and powerful ancient race were like mankind, only better.And here was a 16-year-old who hadn’t even considered that a species whose life cycle required them to provide carnivores to hunt their offspring was unusual.Thomas took a sip of his coffee while he watched David start talking about space ships to Marla.Thomas shook his head. Lot’s of people liked to quote “the right to swing your fist ends where the other guy’s nose begins”. He wondered how happy they’d be to live up to that in a world where giant spiders might ask to borrow your park for their kids…