They had to dodge between two long, narrow islands to avoid an extra half-day of sailing to go around and come back to the natural harbor on southern Nadul Island. The Captain and his crew seemed to think it a minor task, but Fortis was pretty sure he could have speared any number of trees on either side had he tried with his lance. It was one of those rare places where a strong current had carved out a channel where once was probably a narrow sandy shoal. The trees grew out to the edge of land which dropped suddenly; not much from above the water level, but deeply below the surface.
As he watched from a forward facing railing, he turned to George. “What if the sheik doesn’t like us having armed bodyguards. What protocol prevents him making trouble for us?”
George hardly hesitated. “If the twins don’t come, fully armed, we stay on the boat and keep sailing.”
Fortis absorbed this. “And if they don’t get any students in the academy, they lose leverage for trade concessions?”
“Obviously. But it also means explaining why they reneged on a Council agreement. Worst of all, it means the suspicion falls to them for all this troublesome espionage.”
“Humor me a bit more. What if the boys actually decide there’s a threat and injure or kill someone?” Fortis was not thrilled with the idea of bloodshed on his behalf.
“There are established procedures for inquiry. The boys aren’t that eager to kill anything they can’t eat or skin. They’ll do their jobs, but they stand to become famous, crossing the entire planet with their swords and white belts. They’ll get more marriage offers than you will.”
“As well they should.” Fortis genuinely liked them. For all their reticence, they made dashing figures.
“Which reminds me,” George rounded on him like a schoolmaster. “I’ll wager you’ve been slack in your training. We’ll have to arrange some sparring with Nadul’s troops.”
Fortis groaned, more dramatically than he felt.
The welcome on Nadul was mostly the same routine. The only difference was the most obvious one: The sheik and all his people were varying shades brown, most had almond shaped eyes, and few of them had any whiskers at all, much less significant beards. He spotted one harbor worker who was even darker, and noted mentally the planet was more genetically diverse than he first thought.
They were welcomed, fed and housed, but this time traveled by wagons pulled by coursers. The ride was very nice, and Fortis noticed the suspension was fairly complex. In just tree days they reached the capital city, and received the normal welcome. They were hosted in their own grand tent. Fortis decided just once to play on a whim and requested a hammock. It appeared within the hour, and was strung from a sturdy frame built just for the purpose. He felt guilty until George told him he was hardly the first to ask for such a thing. It was just highly unusual.
So was the conversation he overheard the next morning. George was standing halfway in the tent door talking to another elder. The same brown and gray, but with patches and trim sporting the blue and tan of Clan Nadul. They were gazing down at an image displayed on a pocket computer.
“I didn’t hear about that,” George said.
“What do you make of it?” the other asked.
“My first instinct is to say it’s something artificial, very expensive to make. But it’s not simple wood like anything we know about. Instead of mere hollow piping, which I could understand, it has closed cells. I can’t imagine why, nor what it would do to production costs for that.” George shook his head.
Fortis approached, and asked to see. “Oh, some sort of reed.”
The other two stared at him. “We’ve never seen them on Misty,” George explained in all seriousness. Turning back to the image, “So that’s what a reed looks like.”
“Well, somebody is growing them. That, or someone has access to off-planet resources.” Fortis wondered what it was all about.
George looked up again. “What I got regarding our ranger captain’s glider was merely an initial report. The next report bypassed us on our voyage via messenger bird, and arrived a couple of days ago. Elder Nassi here was showing me his copy, which included this image. The glider had a unique frame built from these reeds,” pointing to the image. “It explains how he managed it so well, because they are lighter than wood, but have been enhanced the same way. Being thin and hollow, very sturdy and yet flexible, he could have easily flown much farther than anything we know about, with far less effort.”
Something clicked in Fortis’ mind. “So that’s how he got away so quickly from the roof of the academy. He didn’t have to wait for the wind to fill the fabric cells; they were already spread by reeds.”
George turned to Nassi. “Take our suggestion to your academy. With the next bird flight propagate a request about reeds. If these are enhanced by processing, someone has to have at least a substantial workshop with heat and water. Everything else is available on the market. Except maybe those tiny hydrogen cylinders. They would have no other use, so that means a kiln.”
Fortis and George stared as the elder first walked fast, then began running down the street.
Later that day came the first marriage proposal for Fortis. He declined. Something inside him knew this was not the time, so he made sure this was understood. He also promised to return on their way back after their tour, though without any commitment to do more than reconsider.
George seemed familiar with the city, and took Fortis on a guided tour. “Why do I see more than the usual number of fixed buildings?”
“Nadul specializes in designing and producing these small devices.” George produced his pocket computer, unrolled it. “It can’t be done in a tent.”
Fortis had seen personal communication devices which rolled, but was puzzled by something. “You don’t have plastics here, so how do you get one that rolls?”
“I’m no technologist, but I am told it’s basically fine threads of glass attached to a swatch of the fabric which stiffens when unrolled. We use microorganisms to coat the glass with nano-circuitry. I don’t really know too much about it, but the whole thing hinges a great deal on the natural silica found on just about every planet in the galaxy. Here it’s a major resource.”
“So silica mining is a big thing here,” Fortis guessed.
“Yes. My home clan is involved in processing it. The major restriction we suffer is impurities. We are constantly exploring parts of the desert we can reach for better sources, and so is every clan bordering it. Raw silica of good quality is worth quite a bit. The impurities affect the entire process, because we use micro-optics to control the growth of the microbes.”
Fortis stood admiring the devices stacked in a stall. “Protocol requires we don’t carry our personal communication devices when we visit a planet; only the equipment they issue from the university when we do a study. I suppose most of them are touchy about controlling radio wave frequencies.”
“Pick one. The Sheik will be embarrassed if he discovers you don’t have one already.” George showed something on his unrolled device to the woman working the stall.
Eventually Fortis chose a flat device small enough to hide in his hand, but folded out to palm size for use. During the ensuing conversation, the woman commented they were having trouble with a declining quality of glass.
His head cocked to one side, George asked, “Where did you get the glass before?”
“Clan Manley,” she replied. George didn’t say anything, but it was obvious to Fortis his mind was very busy for awhile as they strolled farther through the city.
The following day they appeared before Sheik Nadul. He introduced twelve prospects he selected for the new ambassadorial academy. George and Fortis had developed a battery of tests during the voyage north from Johnston. Over long discussions on the rear deck, they hashed out the basic personality traits Fortis felt necessary for dealing with the broad array of human cultures, interlaced with George’s emphasis on mysticism and faith.
“Our founders had a long history of living with a foot in both worlds. It was the primary reason they were able to stay so long on Terra. It requires parallel thinking, a constant awareness of things on two levels,” George explained.
“And I am certainly acquainted with the lower level,” Fortis noted. “I found the faculty at Johnston were very adept at getting across a great deal of meaning with a fairly dramatic telling of the Book. I’ll be trying my hand at that technique, since I find it considerably better than the dry, factual rendering required for spooling. Facts are easy, but it’s hard to replace the sense of being transported to the time and place of event.”
Fortis thought for a moment. “But they are going to need all the faith they can muster to deal with the jolting difference between the meteoric pace of life out there compared to the glacial pace here.”
Sheik Nadul presented his dozen candidates. Fortis estimated they were all under thirty years of age, but clearly adults. After a couple of days interviewing, George and Fortis whittled it down to three. The key was how quickly they absorbed things which made little sense initially, and were able to formulate a response which exhibited transparency and empathy, without entanglement.
“Mysticism is fundamental to our culture and education, but most people under thirty aren’t quite ready to operate on that level. Still, the basic tendencies which can’t be trained should be visible fairly early,” George had said during their planning sessions.
