Reclamation

The membrane housing slid back. Perivar looked through the threshold to see the slightly wobbly scene of Kiv and his family. All five of the kids were in evidence, swarming up and down the poles, working on the control pads, delving under the map table. Kiv held all his eyes and hands open.

"We need to…" began Kiv.

"Go over the…" Dene scuttled out from under the map table and vanished under the communications counter.

"Shipment of packet 73—1511." Ere took her place of pride on her parent's shoulders, hands out and ready to work.

"Now!" added Ka, as she slithered halfway up her parent's back. Ka hated to be left out.

Perivar nodded, understanding what he saw as a mark of trust. Kiv had nothing precious hidden. Nothing more needed to be said. Perivar leaned over his map table and touched the slave key to synch the two tables together. Ri slid into the capsule and shot across the cables to dangle above him as his map lit up.

The map showed a representation of one-tenth of the Quarter Galaxy from a communicator's point of view. Suns shone as pinpricks of gold; inhabited stations were green and drone stations were blue. The chaos of the communications networks stretched between them as a series of glowing white line segments. Solid lines showed the beam connections. Dotted lines showed the places only a ship could reach. A red grid overlay the entire arrangement, measuring everything out in hundred-light-year squares.

The network had no organization. It was several million shifting threads, made up of everything from cavernous, public databases, to hard-wired private lines, to rented AIs like Brain.

Perivar accessed packet 73-1511 's shipment plan. The map displayed the work in progress by turning a series of the white lines orange.

Calling what they were organizing a "packet" was a convenient shorthand. 73-1511 was actually a data transfer from a research station to a third stage colony. A library's worth of specialized manufacturing information needed to be copied across ten thousand light-years' worth of network. It was a complicated process, especially since "simultaneous transmission" was a meaningless concept across the distances the map represented. Even quantum transfers took time. Without careful planning, the channels, even if they were reserved with solid credit, shifted and blurred. The pathway, and all the information, could be lost in a heartbeat.

That much-disliked fact gave Perivar and Kiv their living. They found clients who needed a specific kind of information, found a source for that information, and then, most importantly, found a way to get the information from the source to the client. Each shipment took hours of planning and sometimes more insurance than their combined accounts could afford.

"The K-12 band is going to be open for a station to groundside datadump. That'll take us from Averand to Cole's Spot." Perivar traced a new path on the map table with his finger. The sensors on the surface responded by marking a new orange line on the display.

"Could we piggyback in on a Vitae download from there to Haron?" Kiv dotted in another segment.

"What're they charging?" Ri whistled from the capsule.

"For pickup and delivery through there?" Ere got in belatedly.

Perivar considered the idea. "We can get the rates off Brain. Save that as plan B, though; I don't want to have to depend on the Vitae right now."

"Whee." Kiv's whistle did not translate so the disk simply transmitted the syllable. "That is a thought."

Brain's chime sounded over their heads. "Sar Eric Born and Sar Aria Stone are waiting in the lobby."

Perivar glanced across at Kiv. "Brain. Open the doors and let them up."

"Do you want us to close the housing?" asked Kiv, his secondary hands reaching toward the membrane.

"Only if you want to."

Kiv's whole body rippled. "I think we would rather see what is coming. Ri, come back here."

Perivar caught the heightened pitch and speed of the whistle under the translator's flat voice. Ri obeyed without comment.

As soon as the capsule was safely on Kiv's side, Perivar got to his feet and swung the door to the outer hallway open. Leaving a door closed when a guest was on the way was an insult where Perivar came from, and Eric knew that. Perivar blinked a bit in the hallway light, which was supposed to simulate a sunny day. The lift door opened. Perivar watched as Eric and his…companion stepped off.

She looked a lot like Eric had when Perivar first saw him, handmade clothes, hair hidden under a twist of cloth, and hands covered with tattoos, except that hers were stark white lines, as opposed to Eric's colorful swirls. She shared Eric's warm skin tones and black eyes. For a brief moment, Perivar wondered if they were related.

"Thanks for the open door, Perivar." Eric, Perivar knew, expended his small stock of Eshhii words on the greeting.

"Your accent is going." Perivar stood back to let them inside.