Chapter Nineteen
O nce the gravity eased, Dante sat up, his limbs shaking. He had to appreciate the slavers had kept him unconscious while they left Earth because taking off from the planet was not pleasant. At least the Kowri ship was gentle enough that he could lie on a padded bed without needing any other support, but his hips still ached. If he'd been on an Earth ship where Mars colonists had to be strapped into a gel bed for take-off, he would have lost his mind.
"Are you well?" the Kowri tech asked Dante.
"I'm not well," Ter snapped. "There are very specific cradles that are supposed to be used for my people during any gravitational force above two-point-seven, and that take-off felt very close to three. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to take a member of my species through high-gravity take-off without the appropriate accommodations?" Despite his complaining, Ter sat up without assistance.
"No, but as I am supervising your health, I know that none of your joints have been compromised and all of your physical responses are within ten percent of standard. I assume that means you are fine."
"The huuman is less fragile than most believe," Ter groused. "Meanwhile, I am susceptible to gravity."
The Kowri had a certain tightness around his eyes Dante associated with annoyance. "I am concerned for the huuman because I was not told to expect any other aliens besides you, so I do not have a second monitoring station set up. That means I have more concern for him as I have not monitored him."
"I am too valuable for such mishandling," Ter shouted.
"Ter, enough," Dante said firmly.
Ter considered Dante with the same sort of expression he sometimes aimed at a junior engineer he was about to make cry.
"I am Dante a'Divashi," Dante introduced himself. "My people touch hands to greet one another, but I don't know if you would be more comfortable touching hands or having me touch my temples. Some people act like I am mocking Kowri when I do that, and I am simply trying to be respectful of your culture." Dante kept his voice even and low, even while his gut churned. He had no allies on this ship other than Ter, and he doubted that Ter would prove much help.
"I am Alana a'Waquil," the Kowri said. Despite the feminine-sounding name, Alana was a da-male with broad shoulders and huge hands. He continued, "I've not heard of outsiders who wish to avoid offense before."
"It would help if you people didn't constantly shoot outsiders down every time they tried to approach your borders. It's hard to be friendly when you're dead." Ter looked like he might say more, but he glanced in Dante's direction and closed his mouth.
Alana pressed his lips together until the fur at the corners stuck out.
Dante sighed. "Ter is rude to everyone. Please don't take offense."
Ter shifted to face off against the Kowri. "I demand to be returned to my ship."
Alana held his palms toward the floor in a gesture Dante recognized as an attempt at reassurance. "As I understand it, this ship is currently designated your home ship. You are safe and will be afforded temple rights, which is a great honor for an outsider. Only one other outsider has ever been given temple rights." Alana looked at Dante.
"Is there any chance you could give us some privacy so that we can talk?" he asked Alana.
"You are an exalted. Of course I will listen to your requests and honor them. If either of you need my assistance, please let me know. I can provide a variety of medical interventions if they are necessary."
"Thank you. We'll call you if we need anything," Dante said.
Alana touched his thumbs to his temples before he excused himself from the room.
At least Dante had retained his temple status. As an exalted he should be able to protect them, even if he couldn't free them. For some reason, the thought of having to regain his freedom was the tipping point where his panic started to claw through his chest and his face grew warm with fear.
Peaches waddled up to his shoulder and chittered to reassure him Divashi was watching. Between her and Regi, Dante would escape. After all, the Kowri said that opportunity was the gods' second blessing, and it usually came on the heels of disaster. This situation had a high potential for disaster, so he hoped to find a little bit of opportunity.
"Ter, we need to talk about how you are speaking to the Kowri. You are reinforcing their view that you are a child who needs to be taught to be respectful."
Ter's elbows jutted out even farther and if there had been anything within reach, Dante was certain he would've picked it up and flung it at his head. "Do not speak to me about disrespect. My culture values honesty, and under Coalition guidelines, I am entitled to share my honest opinion of these morons. No one has a right to demand that I compromise something as culturally fundamental to me as truth."
Dante gritted his teeth. "I'm not suggesting that you stop speaking the truth. I'm suggesting that you stop insulting these people."
"These people are contemptible and deserving of insult—that is my truth," Ter insisted. "I will not compromise."
Dante scrubbed his hand over his eyes and counted to ten before getting control of his temper.
"Here's another truth you need to understand," Dante said. "The Kowri consider words to be as offensive as actions. If you tell someone that they are so stupid that they act like they've been kicked in the head too many times, that is nearly as offensive as kicking them in the head." Dante willed Ter to understand.
Ter's elbows jutted out farther. "It is not my obligation to make allowances for an illogical species. If Kowri want to act as if words and behavior are morally equivalent, then I can explain the illogical conclusions that would lead to. However, I will not silence myself."
"Ter..." Dante stopped, not sure how to get the truth through the wall of Ter's stubbornness.
"I acknowledge that you are hampered by a lack of experience with species outside your own," Ter said, which seemed like a kind way of saying stupid. Before Dante could respond, Ter continued. "Words are attempts to define the truth, and every sapient creature is entitled to their truth."
Dante ran his fingers through his hair and searched for the right words. "Ter, my people have a saying. They say sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me."
"Excellent." The angles of Ter's elbows eased. "It appears that huumans possess at least a seed of logic, which is a vast improvement over large parts of the universe. Perhaps you can explain this to the Kowri so that they will stop attempting to censor my truth-telling."
Dante sighed. "However, we can create truths instead of simply describing them."
Ter narrowed his eyes. "I retract my earlier words. Huumans are stupid."
Dante searched for a new way to explain this. "If you tell a human long enough that they are worthless, then they will start acting as if they have no worth. Words can create truths instead of describing them."
"That's stupid. What sort of fool would allow someone else's truth to redefine their own interpretation?"
Dante took a deep breath and reminded himself that his fate was now tied to Ter's, and he needed to get the man to understand that the situation had changed. Although Dante was insanely jealous Ter's species possessed so much self-confidence other people could never tear that away from them.
"I was not the only person taken from my planet. There were others." Dante didn't want to share this part of himself, but he had to get through to Ter.
"I have assumed so. It would be highly illogical to visit some underdeveloped out-of-the-way planets only to remove one individual to work as a slave." Ter got off his bed and started exploring the corners of the room. He poked a control panel, but nothing happened. "That would be a terrible waste of fuel," he finished.
Dante gritted his teeth even though Ter had reduced the greatest pain of his life to a logistical problem involving rocket fuel. "Sophie was eighteen, the age at which a person is first considered an adult. And Carlos loved the dops." Dante took a deep breath as the pain washed through him. "Richard used to tell us stories from history. He knew so much; he actually made it interesting."
Ter abandoned the dark control panel and turned to study Dante. "I understand these people were killed by the slavers. I regret their passing. I am sure that the Coalition will conduct an appropriate search to find those responsible and incarcerate them for an appropriate amount of time."
"Sophie wanted to be a doctor. She broke into a radioactive area."
Ter took a step closer. "That was foolish. Radioactive zones are inimical to life."
"She knew that. And Carlos loved the dops, but he intentionally poked one over and over and over until it hit him with his quills." Dante swallowed his pain. "His whole arm swelled up before the poison reached his heart." He pushed the heels of his hands against his eyes and tried to repress the memory. Peaches chittered as though trying to comfort him. He picked her up from the small shelf next to the bed where she had settled during take-off and stroked her quills.
"Why would he do that?" Ter seemed willing to listen. Instead of filling the silence with his own arguments, he stared at Dante.
Dante whispered, "Over and over again the slavers told us that we would never escape... that we were worthless. And they said these things so often those words became truth. My friends chose to die because someone else's words had changed their reality until they couldn't see any other alternative."
Ter's mouth opened but he didn't say anything.
Dante stood taller. "If I had stayed with the slavers, I would've done the same. I had already decided that I would use Peaches. Her poison is powerful because she's older, and I was going to hold her close to my neck before I poked her until she slapped me with her tail. That much poison so close to my head would have killed me fast." Dante's voice shook.
When Ter spoke, his words came slowly. "But their words were not truth. We found the slavers' ship. We freed you. That demonstrates the inability of words to define truths. They can only describe their perspective." Despite his words, Ter didn't sound as sure.
"Untrue," Dante said. "Carlos is gone. Richard is gone. David and Sophie and that weird little guy who would never give us his name—they are all gone. Words changed them until they couldn't live."
Ter blinked so fast his eyelids fluttered, and he tucked his elbows in. "The Coalition charter guarantees that every species has a right to practice its own cultural traditions."
"When we are in Coalition space, I can see where that might make sense. No one on the ship took your words seriously, so honestly I found them amusing. But this isn't a Coalition ship, and I suspect that the Kowri are much closer to humans than anyone in your Coalition. I am asking you to stop sharing so much truth. They will consider it an attack, and it will put us in a more difficult situation."
"‘More difficult'," Ter said with an amused trill in his voice. "We have been kidnapped by a species that is known for murdering outsiders. I will not abandon the truth to placate violent individuals who are likely to kill us anyway."
"They will not kill us." Dante refused to consider any other outcome because his fear was too close to the surface. "We both have temple status, and they will not offend their gods by killing us."
"Now you sound like a Kowri, calling on the gods to fix things."
"I don't think Kowri gods fix anything. I think they cause problems by shoving their followers toward whatever problem they see. I feel a bit like Divashi's favorite sheepdog, kept on a leash and sent out to guard the flock when the coyotes get too close. But I think the Kowri might have the same opinion."
"None of that translated." Ter stared at him with wide eyes.
"It's probably for the best," Dante admitted. He had revealed too much of himself with that analogy. "However, you know that the gods exist; the Kowri can scan for them. Kowri will avoid offending them, and we need to keep ourselves safe until Divashi can show us an escape or Regi can catch up. That might mean that you need to give up one or two of your cultural traditions the way I had to give up mine when I was captured by slavers. Are we agreed?"
Ter shivered. "I will not stop speaking truth, but I will temper it with the understanding that some species are so weak or damaged that exposure to my truth could harm them." Ter gave a jerky nod as though he were quite satisfied with this conclusion.
Dante assumed he wouldn't get a better compromise. "Come on, let's go see if this ship has a temple and if we can figure out who's in charge and start making them miserable."
That cheered Ter. "That is an excellent plan." He headed for the exit.
Maybe Ter was resolved to be friendlier, but Dante needed to run interference between Ter and the Kowri empire because he wasn't sure which of them would take more damage if they kept fighting. Lifting Peaches to his shoulder, he hurried after him.