“Well, to each their own,” the professor said. “I tried it twice, and the second time was no better than the first. Don’t let me spoil your optimism, though.”
“It’s his second marriage, Professor,” said Gairad, with the long-suffering tone of an eighteen-year-old who is more intelligent than everyone around them. “I told you. He’s our treaty representative.”
“I’m afraid I’m not up to date on politics,” the professor said to Jainan. “It’s been very helpful to have Gairad around. So much of this seems to be politics. Maybe you two know the same people?”
Gairad was looking at him. Jainan could tell. He was tense even before she opened her mouth and said, “Know the same people? Professor, we’re related.”
Cold dread went through Jainan. “Are we?” he said, trying to make it as neutral as possible.
“My aunt’s cousin is Lady Ressid’s oath-sister,” Gairad said. Now the accusation in her voice was unconcealed. “I started at Bita Point University four years after you left. Lady Ressid came to my farewell ceremony on Thea when I switched to study here.”
And that meant—though the connection was distant—Jainan had clan duties to her he hadn’t fulfilled. Another name on the list of people he had let down. “I,” he said, then stopped. He couldn’t explain to her why he hadn’t been in contact. He’d had issues with his security clearance; his current Iskat obligations and his old Thean ties had proved difficult to balance. He didn’t like to think about it. Those were the sacrifices you had to make as a diplomat.
“Aha,” said Professor Audel, who had been rummaging in her desk drawer and clearly not paying attention. “Here’s our own model. Is that enough small talk? I think it is. Jainan, take a look at this.”
Jainan turned away from Gairad with relief that felt like a breath of air. Professor Audel placed an abacus cube on the desk, each side about the length of her thumb. It lit up with a soft glow and started projecting its built-in programs: models and lines glowed in three dimensions in the air above it. Jainan recognized the outlines with a pang. He no longer remembered all the details of his own field.
“How much of the current thinking have you followed since your thesis?” Professor Audel asked. “None at all? Oh. Well then, you may not be following Operation Kingfisher and how it’s been going. Or not going, I should say.”
“He should know,” Gairad said. “He was married to the man who ran it! Prince Taam, Professor, I told you.”
“Oh, you’re that one,” the professor said. She regarded him for a second longer than was comfortable. “I did wonder how they got a new representative in so quickly. So you do know about Kingfisher, then.”
Jainan shook his head, his throat suddenly tight. “Prince Taam didn’t discuss his work,” he said. “I wasn’t following it.” His related field had been part of the reason he’d been put forward for the marriage, but that had led nowhere. Taam had never taken interference well, especially early on, when Jainan hadn’t realized his own academic explanations came across as patronizing. “I only had an idea it wasn’t going as well as it could.”
“Beset with problems,” the professor said. “One might say riddled with them. Equipment failures, poor planning, workforce problems, supplies going missing—and two rogue solar flare incidents, which were the only things nobody can be blamed for. Heaven knows how the military organizes its operations; it’s a miracle they managed to conquer anywhere.”
The two Theans in the room winced. Jainan saw Gairad scowl and suddenly wished he hadn’t shown any reaction himself; he was supposed to be a diplomat. He distracted himself by staring at the colorful projection. If he was honest, he felt a vague prickle of disloyalty to Taam at even listening to criticism of his operation. “Deep-space mining has always had disasters.”
“Oh, I’m not casting aspersions,” Professor Audel said, without batting an eyelid at this blatant lie. “I did a stint as a military engineer myself; it’s not a walk in the park. But this points to some spectacular incompetence.”
“And you’ve developed … a new extraction method?” Jainan said, pulling the conversation into a safer channel. “To mine trace elements?”
“Yes,” Professor Audel said. “You see, planning failures aside, we—my students and I—think all the Thean sector extraction could be done at half the cost. We’ve started to reach out to the military, but you know what they’re like. The only way to get them to listen is to beat them over the head with something. So we need a regolith expert, and then here you came—ah!” She pushed herself up from her desk. “I just remembered where your thesis abacus might be.”
She disappeared into the inner room. Jainan opened his mouth to disclaim any expertise, but she was gone before he could get it out. He was suddenly very aware of Gairad’s eyes on him.
“So,” Gairad said conversationally. “Are you going to skip out on this like you’ve apparently skipped out on everything else?”
Jainan placed his hands very carefully on his knees and said nothing.
“I only ask,” Gairad said, “because I should probably warn Professor Audel. I told her you’ve flaked out on everything you started since you came here, but you saw her. She doesn’t listen to anything that doesn’t involve pressure equations or reptiles.”
Jainan only realized then how much the nausea in his stomach had faded in the last few days, because it was coming back now. Limit the damage. Kiem had trusted him with this and wouldn’t be pleased if he fell at the first hurdle. “Where did you get that from?”
“It’s common knowledge in the expat circle,” Gairad said. “Which you’d know if you didn’t treat all Theans like we were radioactive.”
Jainan swallowed. “It’s not that.”
“Isn’t it? What is it, then? You’re too good for us since you became an Iskaner?” Gairad crossed her arms. “I thought you just didn’t have time for clan ties to a student, but everyone says you cut them off. Even Lady Ressid. She’s been pissed with you for three years now, by the way.”
Jainan fought the urge to flinch. “I’m sorry,” he said. “There have been diplomatic considerations.”
“The Ambassador didn’t believe you’d see Professor Audel either,” Gairad said. “He’ll be shocked.”
“I’m sorry,” Jainan said again.
Miraculously, that seemed to take some wind out of her sails. “You should tell Lady Ressid that.”
Jainan just shook his head. He felt his hands were perilously close to shaking; he gripped the edge of the crate to stop them.
“I don’t see why you’re so attached to the Iskaners,” Gairad said. “They’re technically our enemies. Were our enemies.”
“We’ve been unified for decades now,” Jainan said. He knew the lines. He’d had this conversation before, mainly with friends of Taam who didn’t seem to understand the difference between unify and assimilate and why that might matter to Thea. “It was peaceful.”