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said, in the same tone he had used at the sapience trial-the first time Jack
had ever heard him speak Lingua Terra within the range of human hearing.
He picked Little Fuzzy up and hoisted him onto his own shoulder*
Ben Rainsford jammed his pipe in his jacket pocket and thumped the arm of his
chair. "Concur!" he said. "So log it."
There was a few seconds' pause.
"Concur!" Victor Grego said. Christiana squeezed his arm warmly. (Grego had
refused to attend the briefing if Christiana wasn 't included.) Diamond
abandoned his chair in the front row, rushed back to Grego's seat, leaped on
his lap and began to pummel his stomach playfully. When he got his breath
back, Grego said, "So log it."
From then on, the concurrences had to be taken in order by show of hands by
the recording yeoman. The military all abstained, according to regulation.
Frederic Pendarvis abstained, according to the oath of his office.
Chapter 47
"Well, I certainly have no objection to Napier's suggestions."
"The meeting after the briefing seemed to go all right as far as I was
concerned."
"Actually, he's got a pretty good idea, there-an interim government, by the
common consent of all involved-with a three-way authority involving the Navy,
the CZC, and the Colonial Government."
"Sure will put a stop to all this jockeying for power that's been going on in
the Constitutional Convention."
"What'd he mean with 'troika,' anyway?"
"Oh, that's some kind of three-headed animal from Old Terran mythology."
"It certainly cuts down on my paperwork. We won't know what's really happening
until the whole thing has run through the courts, anyway. . ."
"That's going to take years, you bet."
"Besides, there's commonality of assets-and the Terran Federation Navy has
sols to burn."
"For a case with no precedents in Colonial Law, they do, you bet."
Gus Brannhard was standing with Jack Holloway as they listened to the
conversations swirling around them on the terrace. Gus rumbled quietly as he
quaffed a rather large belt of brandy. "Damned fools," he muttered in Jack's
ear. "There's nothing that has no precedent in Colonial Law. Well, Nifflheim
with it-it's certainly going to be the most interesting case I was ever a
noble pleader for."
Holloway took a small sip of his highball. He was still so full of chemicals
from surgery that he didn't want to try anything too chancy. "So, Gus,"hesaid,
"you want to stick to the limit?"
"Are you kidding?" Brannhard asked incredulously. "Jack, this suit that's
coming up is a lawyer's dream. I don't even know for sure which side I 'm
going to be on-and won't until I spend about four months poring over the body
of case law. Does the Charterless Zarathustra Company get back its charter?
Can it be demonstrated that sapient beings, to wit, Fuzzies who are not native
to Zarathustra, but who have been living here for a thousand years-with de
facto proof thereof-can be said to be natives dejure. Oh, Jack; young lawyers
lay awake at night dreaming of a case like this one is going to be-and praying
that they never get into it until they are old, experienced, cynical, and
sodden appropriately." He laughed a great, phlegmy laugh that seemed to shake
the windows.
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"I take it," Holloway said, "that you plan to be on the winning side."
"You bet your sweet-" Gus chopped the sentence short as Liana Bell came
hurrying up to them.
She had a 'writer in her hand. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and she
appeared to be short of breath. "I just heard, Mr. Commissioner-"
Holloway cut her off. "Jack," he corrected.
"I'm sorry," she said. "Jack. I just heard how you got your arm hurt, and I
want to know if you would mind if I signed my name on your cast." She suddenly
put her hands behind her and twisted nervously, swiveling at the ankles.
Holloway smiled. The points of his mustache turned up and creases appeared at
the corners of his eyes. "Why, no, Miss Bell-"
She cut him off. "Liana," she said. She looked him dead in the eye when she
said it.
"Yes," he replied, "Liana. I think that would be very nice, and I appreciate
the thought."
She slowly inscribed something in Latin on the upper part of his spray-web
cast, and then very elaborately signed her name in a flourishing hand.
He couldn't quite read it, because he was looking at it upside down. And the
Latin would have made no sense to him, anyway. But, no matter; he could get
Ben Rainsford or Gus Brannhard to translate it for him later. They both made
their living from Latin.
She began to speak while she was still doing her signature. "You know that
project with Fuzzy sociology we were talking about?" she asked.
"I recall we mentioned something like that at the van Riebeek's that night,"
Jack said.
"Well," she said,"I 've got approval from Dr. Mallin and Juan. Science Center
is going to loan me out to Fuzzy Institute for a year to do a complete rundown
on the system differences between Upland Fuzzies and Woods Fuzzies." She
finished and looked at him directly, again. '"That means I'll be moving in
with Lynne Andrews next week."
Holloway smiled, again, holding her direct-gaze with his. "I'm very pleased to
hear that, Liana," he said.
She tapped his cast with the 'writer. "And I'm going to keep an eye on you and
take care of you till this comes off-you poor old bear. You got yourself hurt
doing something very fine, and I'm going to see that you get well."
Gus had been reading the inscription. He turned suddenly, rumbling into his
beard as quietly as he could, and wandered off toward the bar.
Nearby, Little Fuzzy, Diamond, and Starwatcher were seated in a circle on a
table.
Little Fuzzy leaned toward Diamond. "What Pappy Jack make do?" he said. "Have
fun?"
Diamond leaned closer. He said "Dishta," then whispered something in Lingua
Fuzzy. By this time, Starwatcher had leaned into the conversation to hear what
was being said.
A certain amount of giggling and shoulder-slapping followed the whispered
conversation.
Then Starwatcher leaned back upright and tilted his khaki barracks cover onto
the back of his head. Then he shook his head slowly. "So many things for
Fuzzies to learn," he said.
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